Why it's Good to have Friends.

I experienced a frustrating situation yesterday. I noticed a crack in my Halo 3 Disc. It was from the inside rim out to about 1/4 inch into the writable surface. Not good. As I suspected, unplayable disc error.

So, the PS2 games I was planning on selling to Gamestop in order to purchase either COD4 or Ace Combat 6 were going to be reallocated for a new Halo 3 disc. I know, some of you are saying exchange. I did think about it. But, my CE disc was slightly scratched. Not enough to effect gamepla all that much but enough to be annoying. I could have (probably should have) sent it in to M$ for a direct exchange. But, delayed gratification not being one of my strong suits, I didn't. Nope, like an idiot I polished it myself. Did a pretty good job, didn't even leave hairline scratches, and the disc played well.

When I first got the disc and was playing I also noticed a sound that I now recognized as an imbalanced disc. I was getting contact marks on my game-disc in the same general area. Again, I should have sent it in. But, again, I didn't. Cleaned up the disc, all was well. Afterall, I didn't need a perfect disc I just wanted to be able to play. Then, the crack was noticed and it was then that I recognized my folly. If I had just sent the game in initially I would have it back by now. The crack probably wouldn't have been an issue either since I'm certain it was an existing blemish or a stress crack from being unballanced (that disc was in two places, the case and the 360. Not handeled by anyone else).

So, there I was bemoaning that it most likely could not be traded in at this point and rightfully so. How could I prove that the disc was faulty from transport versus mishandling> Easy answer, couldn't. I wrote Xbox customer support but have yet to hear back from them.

Luckily, I have many friends through Xbox Live. Some of them are flesh-and-blood friends that I work with. A few of the others are good friends of my flesh-and-blood ones. One of them contacted me and offered me a very generous consideration. He had bought an extra game disc just in case his was screwed up. His wasn't so he had a spare. he has offered to ship me his extra standard version for the cost of shipping.

That is generous folks.

But, that wasn't the end of it. Obviously, until this gets straightened out, I'm out of the H3 community for a while. So, I've been playing Rainbow 6: Vegas again. THe core group that I normally play with (Sparky87, kwkouki, thehaugen, topcop63 and my benefactor Amos) have been playing R6V with me forsaking some prime H3 play in the process.

It's this kind of loyalty that I respect in a friend. It's this, not the Timmies, that should be the focus of the Xbox Live experience.

Update: M$ sent me an email telling me to give the disc replacement a try. I have also heard from other 360 friends that M4 WILL replace the disc for damn near ANY reason until 02/08. Here goes nothin'.