Top Myths About the 360 and its Owners

Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 06:17PM

‘You Lie’ suddenly rang out in the chamber hall, who had dared to yell such a thing?  Why none other than the Congressman Joe Wilson, from South Carolina.  What was the President to do?.......What does this have to do with the Top Myths About the Xbox 360 and its Owners?  I am not really sure, other than the fact that there are numerous lies, myths if you will, floating around out there.  Let’s get to the bottom of them.

Myth: The Xbox 360 is Doomed Post PS3 Slim

I think a lot of gamers don’t realize that Microsoft actually never believed they could win this generation, not at all.  Microsoft intended to get an early jump on the competition and make up on their gap in sales from last generation.  Achievement unlocked.  The 360 became a household name, associated with gaming across the World (except Japan) and the next console brought out by Microsoft will be a huge player.

Myth: 33%, 54.2%, 1,000,000%

There is no doubt that the 360 has hardware problems, I have been through 3 myself.  What does this prove?  Nothing.  None of surveys or studies done by game magazines or game stores has been done scientifically or with any regards to how statistic gathering is done.  For example the Game Informer article claiming 54.2% only sampled Game Informer readers.  This is not a broad sample across all the population, and is worth nothing.  The only way we will know the actual failure rate is for Microsoft to release this information.  I would bet on that happening. 

Myth: You Must be 13 and Racist to be on Xbox Live

This is exactly like Xbox Live

We have all come across the occasional assholes online, truth be told they are everywhere.  This is not just endemic to Xbox Live.  Why then did XBL get stuck with this tag?  Live just happens to be where the majority of people began ‘talking’ to each other online.  Outside of Socom for the PS2, and the PC where did this happen in such a large scale before?  I have also heard these same type of punks on the PSN, it is just hard to tell as for whatever reason I have a hard time understanding people over their cheap Bluetooth headsets.

Myth: Microsoft Customer Service Sucks

I must speak from anecdotal evidence here.  As mentioned above I have had to deal with Microsoft’s customer service two different times and both times the service representative was professional, courteous and somewhat knowledgably.  None of my friends that had to get a ‘coffin’ can complain either.  I am sure like at every job, there are a few bad apples, but not a trend does that make my friend.

Myth: 360 is Nothing But ‘Gaylo’ 3

Note my 360 fanboys that I use the term Gaylo in jest, I am not actually dissing your darling.  The point is made that all Xbox fans have is the Halo series, and nothing more.  On top of that most games are not exclusive, since they are on PC as well.  Firstly (I am not going to list them all, that is a fanboy tactic.) anyone with a 360 can attest to the overall high quality of games available.  Some of my personal favorite games are on the 360.  (Left 4 Dead anyone?!?!)  The games also being on the PC still mean exclusive away from other consoles.  Besides I happen to prefer playing in my living room, as opposed to sitting at my computer desk.  That is probably why console gaming is more popular then PC gaming anyway.  Also I promise you with the PS3 architecture was more like the PC, you would be seeing cheaply made ports to the PC.  This actually makes complete sense by the game developers.

Myth: Microsoft is an Evil Corporation and the 360 Will Rape Your Mom

Ok, so this is actually true.  But stay with me for a second here.  ALL corporations, if they are publicly traded, are out to make as much profit as possible.  Sony is just as guilty as Microsoft at wanting to be a monopoly and hoping their competitors die a slow death.  That is just the way our current consumer culture is structured.  It is hard to blame just one company for all of this, when it is everyone’s fault.

Myth: The 360 has as Many Good Exclusives as the PS3 this Fall

I am sorry to bring this up, but I keep seeing this myth perpetrated all over forums.  Well it is an outright lie.  (Feel free to post your stupid list of upcoming games below fanboys.)  I recognize that Halo ODST will sell well, but it seems to be the same recycled game.  Forza 3, while I am sure is awesome, faces some tough competition from Need For Speed Shift and Gran Turismo 5.  The other console happens to have a much larger mix of different genre types and a higher number of quality games.  But fear not, don’t despair Xbox fans, I am sure next year will be much brighter.

I was going to do a final myth regarding the pricing structure of Xbox Live, and it’s ‘value’.  But then I realized I had enough material for a whole article, which I coincidentally will be posting tomorrow.  I also want to point out the ads below here.  For those of you that read my PS3 Myths, at the bottom of the page was an ad for the PS3 Slim.  I wanted to post something similar here for the Xbox, but guess what?  NONE of Amazons banners have just a picture of the Xbox.  They clearly hate it.  =)

……..President Obama suddenly stood up, and quickly shape shifted.  As quickly as you can say WTF, The President was a 50 foot tall lizard.  Geckobama began shooting fires of lava from his eyes, catching all the Republicans on fire and burning down the Capital.  At least this is what I saw on Fox News last night.

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