Now's your chance! Hit up Billy G. and friends with all of your gripes.
We hear it all the time; these days everyone is quick to say what they dislike about Microsoft's services, often comparing them to competitor's services or products. These complaints kind of float around the internet, really going nowhere. Now, Major Nelson invites you and I to say our piece, and he intends to bring some of these comments and concerns back to the bigwigs at MS.
From Major Nelson's post:
If you had ten minutes with the CTO of Microsoft, what kind of advice would you offer? What questions would you ask? During the two day meeting, I'll be sharing some of the comments here with the attendees to let them know what the community thinks of the companies offerings and strategy. So go ahead and be honest, I’m listening and I’ll share it with the right people next week.
He goes on to explain that the invite extends past comments on just Xbox or the LIVE service, although those comments are still welcome. If you have something to say, my advice would be to jump in now. You concerns could very easily get lost in the shuffle, seeing as there is already 500+ comments to the post.
[thanks, Mr. Donut]
Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site
Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools.
Meet the rest of the team
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Contest:
12:24 PM on 10.05.2007
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No piece of game hardware has ever frozen and/or crashed on me as often as my 360. Completely unacceptable.
...is that enough for me to win the Halos?
Basically, us canucks now pay 10$ more for no reason whatsoever.
Games are 69.99$ on the shelves. Add tax to that and we are paying 80$ per title.
Your products are too safe because your giant marketshare dictates that you follow market trends rather than setting trends. And trends are so short-lived now that even when you rush products, by the time they appear, they're outdated AND hastily produced.
One of my computers has Vista installed and whenever I try to open or save a file in any program, said program instantly crashes, usually without opening the Report Error prompt. This doesn't affect programs with a non-standard filepicker, such as Office.
I've been a Live (Gold) subscriber for a couple years now, and though I really like how the service expanded with the move to the 360, I still question what exactly it is that I'm paying for. I'm not against paying for a console to have its own online experience, but $50 seems a bit much just to have my box turned into the host for a game, or my data routed to another box so I can play online.
I'm not saying to get rid of the cost for Live Gold (I know how the business market works--if it makes money you won't get rid of it), but I feel you folks need to do a MUCH better job in justifying it.
Xbox 360 : Making More of your Next-Gen Systems.
HD Video : * You Know What I Am Thinking *
* Major Nelson said to bring it! I brought 2¢. *
I would like Live to be free. That's what most people are probably saying, but there is a narrowing difference between yours and Sony's online service.
I've had to deal with being a Silver member and the only difference I was able to see, was that I couldn't play online. And that was it. I could still download demos, watch your ads, and download stuff. What am I paying for?
Those ads, aren't they paying for anything? I don't mind ads unless they're obstructive, and when I heard there was going to more of them I thought, "sweet." You know, more ads will probably come back to me. The consumer. It hasn't in any way.
You could of at least given one game servers. I know it's huge, but with your ads, and me paying you about $7 a month, I'd at least like to have a consistent Halo 3 online battle. Do you feel me, Major? People are dropping from games and making me wait while the system searches for another host. It's bull. Common. We pay, we bare through your Old Spice ads, and we still have the same Live experience we had prior Spring (update.)
Another thing; why are you charging me for tiny pictures? I'm talking about gamer pictures? What the f***?! Those should be free. Listen, if Sony can give their gamers a social networking game (Home), I'm pretty sure you can give us small a** pictures to place as our avatars. And you corner us with this BS. I can't place my own picture as an avatar.
I know, there'd be a problem with people putting their dongs up, but could ya' at least let me place my own as a "friends only" picture. It'd be really easy to ban people who have their picture as something bad. Have some of your people over in India who work your telephones look at their profile, and bam! You're done.I mean, Just take a look at social networking sites. They've all done a good job of keeping that stuff out.
I've seen people having sex via Uno and I'm not joking. People were having sex in a game of Uno, but you guys don't care much about that. If you could charge for the amount of time your camera would be on, it'd be, "well, you see. Here at Microsoft -- we feel that to keep people from doing 'bad' things, we need to limit their camera time."
It's like, really? You're charging me for a 100x100 picture of Master Chie that isn't visible on a standard definition TV because it's too damn gray and brown!?
I really enjoy your service, but I sometimes feel like a sheep when I'm playing Halo with my buddies and it cuts off. Then I realize, "wait. I'm paying for this inconsistency?"
Oh, and have better Microsoft point packs. There are times when all I need is a 100 MS points. If you're going to try and tell me that you can't do regular money (Sony does it), at least have ways to buy less points. No, I'm not going to blow my extra points on your stupid themes and pictures.
Holy crap! Themes! Let me customize each individual blade. I'm fine with the Marketplace theme being it's own theme, but what the hell? It's not that hard, guys. It's not that hard.
And let me tell you. Your excused for not using real money is so insane. We can't because Europe doesn't use dollars? Or any other country? So convert the damn money over to theirs!! How hard is that? You practically use different Live services there, anyways. We get different demos, so why can't you have different currencies! I'm not a moron. Micro-transactions is another bull way to milk me of my money.
Listen, I'll gladly buy the Forza car pack, but when I have to pay for more than it's worth (cost 400 MS POINTS -- packs start at 500 MS POINTS), only to have change that I can't use on anything (again, I refuse to buy GP and themes), what gives?
Thank you. I expect to have no answer, or another PR half a**ed answer that we've all heard billions of times. This is ultimately pointless, Major. We've all given a complaint here and there and you haven't answered them truthfully or fixed them. This is no difference, but I had to let out what pissed me off about your services.
<3 Topher
The web browser would induce spyware on your 360.
Slowing it slowly into a Y2RROD Pandemic!
Good point, and if anyone ever went to the pop up site from aqua teen (www.yzzerdd.com) it would probably catch on fire.
My first question is about gaming and south america. I live in south america (uruguay), and i follow the videogame industry as well. But the lack of everything console related (xbox 360 related), such as no console sales at a official price, no games, etc. It all makes it very difficult for the average person to get a 360 (for example in the case of microsoft). Is south america in your business plan? Does Microsoft have a strategie in bussiness and pricing for it?
The xbox 360 has allready won a fame of beign hardware unreliable. From the customer point of view (an even a well informed customer), all its hardware issues look overwhelming and even with a repair support it cant be good for Microsoft image as hardware maker. Microsoft is not saying how many console are failing, neither what is the problem or the range of problem), in those consoles. Are we going to know what is/was wrong with the console? And are we, at any time of the 360 cycle, going to get a working xbox 360 without all the current issues?
I, in a personal note, would appreciate an outspoken Microsoft saying what is wrong and what is doing to fix it.
Why do none of your products really work, your os is broken, and your consoles break. The zune is a joke. Everything you make is not innovative or exciting, you play safe, and go off quotas and make a unreliable boring limited and super controlled experience. midi timing on the pc was a joke, its why i jumped ship form windows to osx, it has great timing and uses the same intel hardware. what a joke. i hate the input latency on the pc as well, mouse, controllers, all the gets messed up by usb sloppy windows bs..
no web browser, gotta pay for net access and you still don't put up real severs so games are fair like on the ps3 network. about the only thing i can give your company kudos for are your mouses. thats it. you bought out the competition, did unfair trade by blackmailing retailers into getting rid of other operating systems like BEOS and that is why BEOS failed. you never complied in separating your web browser from your os, you never complied with taking the media play our too. you unfairly dominate a market with bully tactics and hype. you are the worst company in existence right now in the electronic world. Fix all of that, pay back the people you robbed, re design your broken os, fix your damn consoles with a redesign, and stop making us pay for online gaming, put up some servers please, and off us a real hd dvd solution all in one unit. then maybe i could take you seriously... just maybe..
The Zune is a joke? How so, pal? I thought, for last gen MP3 players, it was better than the iPod video. Then again, a lot of things are better than iPods. Really, I don't understand how it's a joke. What's wrong with it?
I thought Live Arcade and Achievements were innovative since other systems are trying to copy it. I thought a feature rich (minus paying for it) online system on a console was innovative.
To the "web browser" complaint; buy a fucking computer. Why the fuck would I want to turn on my 360 to log on to the internet when my computer is on and running?
Redesign the console? Right, because we all need another SKU, dumb ass. In case you haven't noticed, there are newer consoles that promise to be more sturdy. So, in that you're asking for too much to a problem that's being fixed.
Get off your fanboy bullshit and ask for real solutions to real problems.
Apart from the hardware woes, I still think the 360 is one of the best consoles ever released in terms of features and library. It reminds me of the dreamcast when that was released.
As for the Zune, I hear sound quality and features are great. The main thing stopping me buying one is the stupid restrictive file formats, DRM, and the rest of the garbage that we have come to expect from Apple.
I will stick with Creative and some of the more no name brands out there. I like being able to drag and drop mp3s from windows explorer without the bull, thankyou.
Make consoles that work.
Cheaper XBL plz.
Make the Zune suck less.
The end.
2. Gamer pictures...don't charge for that come on. Let us use our own. You could even set up a approval system where they have to be validated first by MS for anything obscene. If the 360 is all about customizability with faceplates, skins and themes let us have some options that don't cost us.
3. LISTEN to your customers before you make big program changes. I've heard a lot of dissent regarding the new Hotmail/Windows Live format as well as the "Ribbons" Office 2007. A lot of people aren't fans of the non-intuitive programs they've become. Focus groups, even surveys could help you avoid missteps like this.
4. Most people are happy to pay for XBox Live. Gold works fine, but why not up the access of Silver a little? How about 10 hours a month online play or something? The service has been excellent. Why not throw some free content our way for our loyalty? How about free MS points based on how long you've been a subscriber? With regards to Windows Live games, when you pay for a game that should be the final cost, (unless you buy an expansion pack). Don't charge us for monthly access to play a game online. Games such as Unreal Tournament, StarCraft and countless others offer free servers online to play on. Hook up with Google I'm sure you can partner up to offer free online gaming. Your bread and butter has been and will always be OS, hardware and software sales. You don't need to microcharge your loyal customers to death.
5. The Zune is a good first step. You did well with the XBox and the 360, but it's time to devote a whole new department of Microsoft to being innovative. Microsoft has always had the stigma of being professional, business-oriented and "playing it safe" with their programs and new additions. I think it's beyond time for you guys to take some risks, branch out and try new software/hardware. Your gaming ventures have become a huge success. Just think what else you could achieve!
6. Windows Vista...is not the second coming like it was hyped up and promised to be. I say this after a great great deal of thought and debate, but I think you should really begin again and design a new OS from scratch. From what I understand Vista won't be incorporating "Service Packs" rather small updates. With the state it's in now it's usable but not preferrable. I know many people, even complete companies which had updated to Vista (even after half a year of release) and had to go back to XP. XP was finally hitting some good things but it's time to start taking a critical look at your OS. Incorporating other peoples' ideas is NOT a bad thing. Apple does a lot right with their OSX, so take what's worked for you and what works for them and put it all together. People want it simple, intuitive and easy to pick up.
7. Stop releasing multiple versions of your OS. I'm not an Apple fanboy but I have to admire how they release their operating systems. It speaks VOLUMES when I can walk into an Apple store and see only one copy of OS X on the shelf. You did not need to release 8 versions of Vista. I understand Windows has a huge install base within corporations, however at most there should be 3 versions of any OS release from you maximum. Home version, a Business version and an Enterprise. I, as well as millions of others, do not appreciate being forced to either not upgrade to Vista or have to purchase the most expensive "Ultimate" edition. I would love to use remote desktop but only Vista Business had that. It also didn't have Media Center which I wanted. To get the features I wanted I'd have to buy the bloated Ultimate package to get 2 I did want, and about 8 I didn't with no option to NOT install those extra components. Add to all this the fact that you only upgrade from certain versions of previous Windows installs (such as needing Ultimate to upgrade FROM XP Professional) it really comes off as a money-grubbing mentality. Limit the versions of your OS's, and make upgrades possible from all previous versions of your legacy OS. Cut versions down to home and Enterprise if possible, or Home, Business and Enterprise with an option to select what extra business components you want in that install. We will pay a little bit more for a FULL install/upgrade version but making "affordable" upgrade options isn't a good business strategy.
8. Released polished products. When you're a huge corporation like Microsoft you have the luxury of being able to set your own pace and deadlines. Vista felt rushed to market and the lack of driver support only confirms this. We don't care WHEN you release it as long as it's a decent release and functional. Take that extra half a year if it's going to make the launch and initial offering that much more worth it.
9. Don't be afraid to keep asking us what we think. Most big corporations get a bad rap for not listening to their consumers. It's true the larger you get the harder it is to please everyone, but the most successful companies out there are those that listen and listen well. Why not ask this question every year? You're getting valuable answers from REAL people, all pretty much for free. Market analysts will never give you as accurate answers as to what we think as WE CAN OURSELVES.