BenPaddon.co.uk

Just had this most riveting conversation with Microsoft Xbox Customer Support in the UK:

Support Rep: How can I help you?

Me: Um, my account is set to auto-renew on, I think, July 21st. Except the card details you have, the card has expired. I’d give you my new card details only I actually live in the United States now and I’m quite sure you guys won’t take a card with a US address. So the best thing for you to do is to remove that card, those card details, and I will get a 1-year membership card thingy. I’ll order it from Amazon UK and have it shipped over or something.

Support Rep: Pardon? You’ll be using the renewal card? Or Another Credit Card?

Me: I would love more than anything to be able to be able to use my current debit card, but you guys won’t accept it because it’s an Xbox Live UK account and I now live in the US, with a US bank account and a US address…

Support Rep: Yeah.

Me: …and you guys won’t accept that. The card details you guys have at the moment are for a card that has expired, so I just thought I’d let you know so you can drop those card details off of the account. Then I will renew my membership another way, probably with a Membership Card.

Support Rep: Okay, no worries, you can just enter your new credit card details on your Xbox.

Me: (Too tired to continue this stupid cycle) Okay. Lovely. Not to worry, thanks for your help.

Support Rep: You’re more than welcome. Thanks for calling the Xbox Customer Support.

You’ve got to hand it to Microsoft’s Customer Support team - they really listen to you and do everything they can to accomodate you.

I love videogames, and I can’t think of a single person who doesn’t (unless we’re including Jack Thompson, but whether or not he qualifies as a person is another matter entirely). That said, I can’t help but spot glaring problems with the way the games industry works at the moment. I can’t imagine why people haven’t spotted these flaws and corrected them already, so here they are in all their splendour. There’s some unsavory language ahead, mind. You have been warned.

Let the good times roll.

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When my own Xbox Live issue went global, I started to receive emails from various people experiencing problems with their own account, ranging from people suffering the same strife as myself to entirely unrelated but equally irritating stuff. I’ve decided I’m going to start documenting these issues on Xbox Strife, a website I have just now set up.

It appears I jumped the gun with regards to my contention with Game Partisan.

DeViney has told me that when he wrote “suggested”, he was in fact trying to be Political and “very, very dry”. It appears he was a bit too dry - I interpreted it literally (as have others, incidentally), which is the entire reason I exploded in the manner I did. He’s assured me he’ll write a follow-up to the follow-up, and has also said lots of other nice things to me, and he even bought me flowers and took me to a Talkie, so I’m all appeased now.

GP’s stuck with me as Editor in Chief, then. I’m not budging. I told DeViney that at the moment, through no fault of his own, the site is a mess. That hurt him, as I expected it probably would - if he had a baby and I told him that offspring had a fat nose and also smelt like camel dung, he’d probably feel much the same - but I’ve also said to him that I believe I can fix that. I have ideas, and I want to implement them. Looks like I’ll be sticking around to set them in motion.

I have apologised to DeViney for making assumptions and accusations, and now I shall apologise to you lot, the twenty-or-so people who regularly read my blog. Sorry, kids, didn’t mean to get you all rattled up over nothing.

I was wondering when DeViney was going to see my recent blog post about his article. He’s been trying to call me all day, he’s sent a couple of text messages, and I’m not particularly in the mood for a conversation today - partially because I’ve spent a lot of this weekend being ill, but also because… well, why should I talk to the guy?  He wants me to be Editor in Chief of GamePartisan. That’s nice. Do I want to be the Editor in Chief of GamePartisan? Ooh, I’m not so sure I do.

I guess it’s just one of those things we’ll have to wait out, isn’t it?

I’m going to start off this entry by addressing something that pissed me off when I discovered it. Every time I’ve gone to write about it it’s left me red in the face and just… angry. Here’s an excerpt from DeViney’s follow-up to my Microsoft article on GP (bold emphasis mine):

Then the whip came down: it became clear that in order for me to proceed in my efforts to finally capitalize on being one of Microsoft’s biggest supporters in the video game industry for over five years, Ben Paddon was going to have to hit the road. I was advised by a friend at Microsoft to “remove any potential sources of contention” and that would allow me to resume my efforts to bring about a Microsoft sponsorship of GamePartisan.

That sentence left me feeling really, really pissed off. I had been told by DeViney, and by another GP writer, that Microsoft had pretty much demanded it or else no dice. Instead it appears DeViney was “advised by a friend,” which is something entirely different. I’m not happy. I feel like I’ve been manipulated by DeViney, used by him to further his agenda with GP.

He called me on Tuesday to let me know he was stepping down as Editor in Chief for 90 days and offered me the position. At the time I accepted because when he called I was on my way home from work having been sick, but the more I think about it the more utterly repugnant an idea it sounds.

It’s a two-sided coin. On one hand, it gives me the opportunity to do something really good with GP. I feel that GP’s weaknesses are its lack of internal structure (meetings are called that never happen) and the fact that a lot of the news posts are just directly copied and pasted from Press Releases. That’s just lazy, in my opinion. These days I find myself more and more turning to Kotaku for my gaming news, and I really like the editorial manner they relay gaming news. I’d be inclined to lean towards reporting news in that manner, but with perhaps a bit more of an Amiga Power style humour slant to it. At the same time though, the idea of deepening my involvement in the site leaves me feeling cold. Following this revelation, I really don’t have any strong feelings one way or the other about the continued existence of GP, or my involvement in it.

The issue that started the entire Microsoft problem - my immigration - is being handled by Larry Hryb, better known to the gaming public as Major Nelson. We’ve been emailing each other back and forth this week and he’s assured me that he will at least try to resolve the problem within the next few days. Fingers crossed it gets sorted.

With that out of the way, how do I feel about life in general? Well, no sodding clue. Mostly, right now, I feel il. But you don’t want to hear about that. I’ve been paid today, so I have a very strong urge to buy something nice for myself. A family friend, Patrick, once suggested that I might have a shopping addiction and I’m starting to think he might be right. I’ve been going up and down my Amazon Wishlists thinking to myself, “Yeah, I’d quite like to buy that.” I’ve been looking through Steam to see if there are any games I particularly want. I’ve been looking at inexpensive laptops for writing on. I’ve been… well, I’ve been window shopping so far.

I think I’m going to try and chill out this evening, maybe throw a DVD on and go to bed a little earlier. I really feel out of sorts…

It’s getting late and my brain is shutting down, but I want to share a few things before I crash:

• Houston was fantastic. I went to visit a friend I’ve known for years but have never actually met face to face, so finally getting to visit her was incredible. I had a great time and her family is awesome.
• Major Nelson from Microsoft has been emailing me this evening and it looks like my problem will hopefully be fixed in the next few days.
• Aquent, the agency I’m with for my temp job at Disney, don’t appear to have sent me a pay cheque. Huh. I’ll call them tomorrow and find out what’s going on.

Jonathan DeViney at GamePartisan has followed up my article about Microsoft with one of his own. It actually went up on Friday, but I’ve been in Houston this weekend and I’ve not long got back in. I’ll post something more detailed later. For now, read the follow-up. Names are mentioned. It’s pretty big stuff.

Bloody Hell. People have really latched on to this Microsoft problem of mine, haven’t they? I’ve had a few comments here, but the comments on Digg are just insane. It seems to be a healthy balance of People Who Are Supportive and People Who Think I’m Lying Through My Teeth. I have been asked a few questions about this problem, so I’ve decided to compile an FAQ. The questions are in No Particular Order™. Most of them are, in fact, already answered by the article on GamePartisan, but not everyone has read it and Digg points here, not there.

How did Microsoft find out you worked at GamePartisan?
GamPartisan and Microsoft have been partners for a while now. Back in the days of the “classic” Xbox, GP were providing content for Xbox.com. In Autumn of ‘07 GP relaunched with a new design, and DeViney (the Editor in Chief) set about making sure that the ties with the existing partners remained strong.

In late November/early December I brought my problem to DeViney’s attention, and he told me he’d speak to the Microsoft rep and see what he can do. He mentioned a name at this time but I can’t remember it off-hand. That is how Microsoft’s PR/Marketing department first found out I work for GP. Microsoft asking DeViney to let me go was one of their provisos for a deal DeViney was trying to forge with the company. Suffice to say, Microsoft is no longer a partner of GamePartisan.
Your article is clearly a load of bollocks. You show a clear bias towards Sony and Nintendo. How come you’re so dumb?
How can I show bias towards these companies in the article? The only other company I mention is Apple, and that’s only because switching my iTunes account was a relatively simple affair and I was citing an example of a company getting it right.

Some people have chosen to interpret my article as a person who hates Microsoft writing about how Microsoft suck. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, alright, I didn’t like the original Xbox console. It has four good “exclusive” games on it, three of which are available on the PC. None of those games are Halo. But when I first played on an Xbox 360, I loved it. I loved the user interface, the controller was much nicer, and the online service was (I believed at the time) perfect. The 360 won me over to the Xbox brand, and it was enough for me to buy a Gold Membership for use on a 360 console that wasn’t even mine(I never owned my own 360 while I lived in the UK). Certainly I enjoyed the 360 enough to not just buy my own console upon arrival in the US, but to buy a bucket-load of accessories and a couple of games.

I’ve probably given Microsoft’s Xbox Division somewhere in the region of $1,800. Doesn’t sound like the sort of person who hates the console to me. At least, at the time I didn’t hate them…
Why don’t you just switch to a PS3/Wii? They have free online services.
I already own both of these consoles. I really like the way the Wii handles online play, but the PS3 doesn’t seem to have quite gotten there yet. I like the PSN Store and the fact everything is priced in dollars, but Sony still appear to be suffering hangover from the way things were done with the PlayStation 2 online services. Primarily, the PS3 is used to watch Blu-ray discs and to play Oblivion: Game of the Year edition, although I have to say I do also enjoy playing Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Lemmings, and Super Stardust HD.
Why don’t you just cut your losses and set up a new US account?
I already have a US-based account - Deadly Robots. It’s a Silver Account which I use to check out the American Live Marketplace. Until yesterday I was quite prepared to use it to make purchases, too. Not so much now.

If I decide to abandon my UK account, I have to re-purchase all of the Live games I bought while I lived in the UK. This means Microsoft effectively take another $600-800 of my money, and it also means they’ve won. I’m not having that.
Why haven’t you named any names?
I’ve been asked by DeViney at GamePartisan not to - he’ll be writing a follow-up article which should go up later tonight, and he’s assured me that he will be naming names.

That’s it for now. Odds are I will add to this later.

The article I wrote for GamePartisan can now be found here.

UPDATE, JAN 14TH @ 8:33PM: I just got back from Houston. Major Nelson at Microsoft has been in touch this evening, and we’ve had a lovely conversation via email. He seems keen to help, which bodes well for me. I also got an email from “Steve” in Xbox Escalations.

UPDATE: The article I wrote for GamePartisan concerning my ongoing Microsoft issue can now be found here. Thank you to everyone who has Dugg this, and thank you to Mike at work for putting it on Digg in the first place. I definitely owe you something from Starbucks at the least.

I’ve been given the go-ahead to discuss what has happened concerning my Microsoft issue. It’s a particularly big thing, so you may want to sit down.

I write for a couple of gaming websites at the moment - RealVG, which I helped found in 2006, and GamePartisan, which I’ve been writing for on and off since 2003. My relationship with GP has seen its ups and downs, but right now it’s at a high point and I can only see good things going for that site in the future. So, apparently, do Microsoft.

Yesterday, A Microsoft rep spoke with Jonny DeViney, the Editor in Chief of GamePartisan. While I can’t discuss the ins and outs of what the phone call involved, I can tell you that Microsoft asked DeViney to drop me from the Editorial team - to “remove any potential sources of contention” between the site and Microsoft. I’m not sure what DeViney’s answer was exactly, but the general jist of it from what I’ve heard is that he told them to take their hand and go fuck themselves.

Not content with denying me my request to be able to, y’know, pay for my Xbox Live services, they’ve now taken to flat-out attacking me by trying to lose me a writing job. Well, no. I’m very thankful that DeViney has decided to back me on this one - it would have been so easy for him to shove me out the door, and he would have valid reason to given I haven’t written anything for GP in weeks. I’ll be writing an article about this which will be going up on GP tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest.

The gloves are off now.

Digg This

I’ve just spoken to one of my colleagues at Game Partisan, and apparently there has been a monumental development in this situation. I need to speak to Jonathan DeViney, the Editor in Chief of GP, before I share any specific details, but in short it’s not good, and it doesn’t exactly show the good side of Microsoft.

Further details as and when I can share them. For the time being I’m grouping all of the posts concerning this issue under a “Microsoft” category on the blog, and I’m also looking into setting up a separate website for this issue so that other people can come forward and share their experiences. Stay tuned.