Major Nelson asks gamers, 'Sup?
by Dan Dormer 
{ Oct 5th 2007 at 2:24PM }
Over at the house that Major built, Larry Hryb has alerted gamers to a Microsoft pow-pow taking place early next week. Those in attendance include Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect, and David Vaskevitch, Chief Technical Officer, just to name a few. Hryb wanted to know, "What would you say to the leaders of services at Microsoft?" So far, the post has received over 400 user comments, with a variety of topics being broached by readers.The discussion has focused on such lively topics as the "shafting [of] Canadians," general "price of Xbox Live," and ever-so-broad buzzword "innovation." However, some folks appear so damned excited that they're unable to issue coherent suggestions -- tried spell checker? Case in point: Tobe (USA) writes, "u should say that, in the next dashborad update, trails and full games should be seperated in the catagory section of XBLA games." Maybe someone should suggest that Microsoft get up on some educational games, eh?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DeadCode @ Oct 5th 2007 2:29PM
Wow looking at that picture the first thing I thought to myself is: Wow that's what Bart Simpson would like like if we was real and a lot older.
LOL
DemonGSides @ Oct 5th 2007 3:36PM
Reminds more of Ralph wiggum in that one episode where its the future and lisa is president.
samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 5th 2007 2:29PM
I hope Tobe ended his post with a "NARF!"
Zertoss @ Oct 5th 2007 2:30PM
But if we're paddling down the street in a rowboat and the wheels fall off, how many pancakes will it take to shingle the doghouse, Brain?
quickshade @ Oct 5th 2007 2:31PM
Like the worst picture you could use of him....LOL.
But props to larry. He's going to print a 10 page paper and start reading it off in front of the big guys at MS. Some of which are ideas that should be commonly talked about in Xbox meetings. So props to larry for having no fear.
Soda @ Oct 12th 2007 2:44PM
I'd like to ask him how much it hurt when Bungie shoved the stick up his bum.
Zertoss @ Oct 5th 2007 2:33PM
I echo the "Xbox Live should be free!" comments.
But I would put it in the form of a question: "If online gaming on a Windows PC is free, then why can't online gaming on an Xbox/360 also be free?"
Maybe I'll post it later, can't be arsed right now.
Dave @ Oct 5th 2007 2:48PM
It's because MS doesn't want the windows on-line gaming to be free either. It is just much harder to do because not everyone has to use their stuff if they want to provide online gaming.
Tetranitrocubane @ Oct 5th 2007 2:53PM
I understand not wanting to pay money for a feature that is, in many other cases, free.
But have you seen the alternatives on consoles currently? Regardless of what the future may hold, right now Live is the best thing out there, and well worth the price of admission. Later on, this may not be the case, though.
Mr. P @ Oct 5th 2007 3:02PM
Live isn't free because MS needs to get its money from somewhere. These guys are losing money left and right, whether they're bribing developers or fixing the red rings. It has nothing to do with bandwidth costs or superior features or whatever it is you're thinking.
Zertoss @ Oct 5th 2007 3:06PM
Online gaming is just plain great on the PC, so I still have that, and it's free. More people per server too. I'd call it better than XBL by leaps and bounds.
I hear I can play online for free on PSN too.
Sean @ Oct 5th 2007 3:08PM
Like previously mentioned, XBL is the best online service for consoles, so I really don't mind paying the 50 bones a year.
Farseer (GDI) @ Oct 5th 2007 3:34PM
Yeah, I ususally complain about extra costs too (esp. GHII DLC... grrrrr), but I have been nothing but pleased with XBL for years.
When the product actually delivers for a fair price, then I can't complain.
Zertoss @ Oct 5th 2007 3:44PM
Sure, XBL is great, but I really don't want to be paying for a service that I've been getting for over a decade for free.
I mean it just doesn't seem to be worth $50 a year when I look at it like that.
vinny @ Oct 5th 2007 2:43PM
stop releasing so many good games, you're driving me broke!
WiNG @ Oct 5th 2007 2:57PM
Answer: nm u?
Mr. P @ Oct 5th 2007 2:58PM
Maybe it's just me, but whenever someone mentions the word "innovation" or "epic" in a game-related topic, I can't help but lol.
Mike @ Oct 5th 2007 3:00PM
um I believe you meant "pow-wow"
Sean @ Oct 5th 2007 3:09PM
or pew-pew.
Andy S. @ Oct 5th 2007 3:37PM
Or "poo-poo". We are talking about MS here, after all.
MV @ Oct 5th 2007 5:26PM
Or "pow-pow... power wheels!" ... or maybe not.
skunkworks @ Oct 5th 2007 3:02PM
hopefully "add compatibility for the worlds most common video format." is on his list.
I'm really tired of jumping through hoops to watch divx avi in the mce.
Farseer (GDI) @ Oct 5th 2007 3:35PM
Totally. I would really, really love to stream Divx to the 360 without converting it first.
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Oct 5th 2007 3:36PM
That was my request.
skunkworks @ Oct 5th 2007 5:45PM
farseer you can do it with out coverting it first with transcode360 or tversity but it is sluggish to start and makes rew and ff nearly impossible.
Sean @ Oct 5th 2007 3:03PM
How you doin', Major?
Michael C. Sherrin @ Oct 5th 2007 3:08PM
Xbox Live needs to be free. Have a variety of game price points (no Tetris game should be $60). And get rid of the damn Xbox points to buy stuff. I just want dollars to dollars.
*******
Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/
Warlord @ Oct 5th 2007 3:09PM
Why are we (well, not me, I got Silver) paying for live? We used to have to, because they hosted the servers. That's not true anymore, we host it now. Are we paying for storage of files, such as patches, content, and demos? No, because anyone without a paying live account can still download all the same free files that paying members can get. Do paying members get free games/content? No, such content is still charged, full price, for paying members as well.
You can't honestly say that in order to access something, that costs them NOTHING, you must pay them because they have non-profitable departments? What happens if we don't pay for that? Are we going to be charged for having a gamertag?
David @ Oct 9th 2007 10:41AM
You don't host all games. There are some (XBLA, Gears of War) that you host. Others (Halo 2,3) are hosted on servers that are hosted by MS or other studio (EA hosts their own servers). I would like XBL to be free too but I understand that these people have bills to pay too.
How about you stop paying $12 a month/$144 a year for WoW and pay for XBL for two years.
honkyjesusownsu @ Oct 5th 2007 3:27PM
Why would they listen to us now? This is the company that stuck by it's RROD what(?) view for a year after the console launched.
Give me a break.
Get rid of the Halo 3 ads for starters, still trying to let everyone know there is a game called "Halo 3" out there.
Mr Slavio @ Oct 5th 2007 3:20PM
I'd like to see a way to filter the free content. It's too troublesome to go through looking for what gamer pictures, themes, shows, game content, etc are free.
honkyjesusownsu @ Oct 6th 2007 1:27PM
Best post I have seen here, not profitable for them, though.
What I do, say, for TV shows is look at the "most DL'ed" or whatever the terms is and check those first for possible free episodes first.
MS listening to us is a joke.
tcc3 @ Oct 5th 2007 3:23PM
Yeah and ice cream should be free! Why? Because I like it.
Free Live and icecream! Gimme Gimme!
Sean @ Oct 5th 2007 3:49PM
And blood of the innocent!
Freeze @ Oct 5th 2007 3:23PM
I wonder if:
1) we will see Zune integreted into XBLM, &
2) if we will see an community chatroom similar to what Yahoo has for theirs.
Pixelantes Anonymous @ Oct 5th 2007 4:06PM
Better friends list FTW!
I know you can do it, Microsoft!