XBox Live Problems

Yeah, duh - XBox has been having issues.  First, just a quick recap: around Christmas time, XBL got hammered big time as new owners gained control of presents and promptly setup accounts.  This is a GOOD THING - I'm happy to have the company.  I also believe quite a number of copies of COD4 made their ways into shooter hands.  Now, almost immediately, there were some serious issues - you guys are already aware of them.

Major Nelson is an employee of Microsoft who writes a blog - on 12/29, he posted an article:

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/12/29/xbox-live-status-12-29.aspx

Microsoft did eventually own up to the issues and wrote a release that also promises an unnamed FREE XBox Live Arcade game for all gold and silver members sometime soon (unknown when).  Yippee.  I can barely contain my excitement.  Another game that won't get played while I try to enjoy COD4 - yeah, that makes up for 3 weeks of inconsistent play.  Thanks.  I'll link to another article that contains Microsoft's statement:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/04/microsoft-hooks-up-xbox-live-subs-with-free-arcade-title/

And Major Nelson's say on it:

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2008/01/03/xbox-live-holiday-performance.aspx

OK, so yesterday 1/9/08 after "normal" work hours, XBL just goes to hell for me when playing COD4.  Yeah, I can play other games, but it's COD4 that continues to cough up.  What's worth noting for me though is this:  COD4 was pretty buggy even before XBL had issues.  I know Infinity Ward loves to blame Microsoft, but it's hard to defend IW on this.  First, anybody remember the debacle that was COD2 when it first came out?  It was completely unplayable.  COD3 wasn't played by enough people to see if any lessons had been learned, but with COD4 we have enough people to see the glaring issues.  Prior to the December crash (Christmas Crash 2007, anyone?), we got accustomed to seeing "Host Ended Game", "Draw", "Unable to Connect to Host", Dirty Disk errors and random dump outs to the lobby (or worse, disbanding of parties altogether).  We dealt with Host Advantage and with parties ending when the party leader had to go make dinner.  Why?  Because this game is so darn good, we're willing to overlook it.  We'd have crucified Bungie for these issues, but we wanted COD4 so badly, we shrugged and played anyway.  We even trudged along with the continuing bug of "Oh, so-and-so didn't make it - back out" - easily one of the most annoying bugs yet.

But, IW's poor online code coupled with XBL capacity issues brings us evening after evening of "The party is no longer active" and other nonsense making the game mostly unplayable.  Now, tonight, I've been playing for a few minutes with just a few issues.  At least it's been playable with a dose of patience.  I just don't get it - the lack of information from IW and Microsoft make it frustrating - if they just came clean and said what the problems are with all honesty, it'd make a world of difference to me.  The fact that it took days for Microsoft to acknowledge there even was an issue, then to actually have the gall to state that XBL was never down, just that people had intermittent problems was a slap in the face to a loyal customer (I was a beta tester for XBL, so I have quite a history with the product).  To give us a freaking Arcade game as repayment is just ridiculous.  Really and truly. 

With the truth, I'd request a more stringent approval process by Microsoft - a game should not only meet minimum specifications for multiplayer to be approved, but also a minimum play experience.  I'd like to see more games emulate Halo 3's online components - I'm not talking the gameplay, just all the multiplayer aspects that make this franchise great.  Imagine COD4 with Halo 3's multiplayer components....

At the end of the day, though - I just want the truth!  But, maybe I can't handle the truth...  :-)