Red Ring of Death - Redux

Un-fucking-believable.

I’ll have pics up shortly, but I imagine you know by now what they look like.

If you recall, I already went through this fun last year, when my system failed the first time.  You can read that saga here, here, and here.  My repaired system lasted more than an entire year without taking a dive once again.  I first noticed issues while playing Braid on my birthday, after an hour or two of playing, the system would chirp and freeze.  This happened a few times, and I had hoped it was just a bad copy, so I re-downloaded it.

Apparently not.  I got about 30 seconds into Call of Duty this morning before beginning some project work, and now my system is keeled out like an overdosed junkie.

I’d really like to not make this an annual event.

Changing Countries on Xbox Live

You can’t.

I work for XBox Live, and I can’t do it either. For most people, this is not really an issue: On the whole, most people never stop living in the same country. Nevertheless, the experience is horrendous for those of us who do. For moves across the ocean, this will always be a painful process because of region restrictions on the DVDs that Xbox 360 games come on. There are a plethora of reasons, it turns out, why it’s also tricky to do it on the digital content side. The best you can presently do is the following:

1. Use the Content License Transfer Tool to move all the content associated with your account from Country 1 to the Xbox 360 you’re moving with (or onto your new one, if you’re selling the old and buying a new one when you get there).
2. Create a new account, with a new Billing Address, and a new Passport - all of which should be in Country 2.

Pros:

• You still have access to all the content you bought initially. You don’t need to repurchase anything.

Cons:

• Any time remaining on your Gold subscription is lost.
• You lose your gamerscore and all your achievements.

This is not really a solution, but at least with the content transfer tool you keep anything you paid for. If in the future a work-around becomes possible, I’ll be sure to post it.

Until then, my new American Gamertag is:

Changed from the Canadian:

XNA 2.0 Beta Released

Read the press release here.

Exciting things:

• Convert between Windows and Xbox 360 projects
• Build content separately from game code
• Networking Support on Xbox and Windows using Live
• Improved Integration
• Other stuff!

Download it here. Go make games. Dream Build Play is happening again! Go sign-up.

My name is Angus, and I’m an Achievement Whore

1. Achievement Points
2. ???
3. Profits!!! 

Apparently the EEDAR has figured out that acheivements points are good.  This has been apparent to basically anyone who owns a 360 since the dawn of time, but it’s nice to see in an official looking report.  The report says that Metacritic scores go way up on titles which have a large number of achievement points, as well as a larger variety.  Games which have online achievement points generate 50% more income than those who do not.  Furthermore, a user will prefer to buy a title on platform which as acheivement points (I know I do, if it’s on the 360, I get it on the 360).  A more interesting finding is that if you have achievement points which include a viral marketing component, or some type of content creation, profit is on average 50% higher.

An acheivement is a very powerful reward scheme, because unlike gameplay mechanisms, you can only unlock it once, and that’s it, forever.  Each point is also unique, they are not generic rewards such as extra lives.  What this means is you remember rewards you get, especially if the mechanism in which you got it was particularly offbeat and unique (e.g. hitting the guard with the can he tells you to pick up in Half-Life 2, or taking a picture of Spencer Cohen’s body in Bioshock).  Furthermore the points themselves extent their reach in the other direction as well, by demonstrating your glorious victories to your friends through Xbox live (which cleverly has badges which sync to the system available for facebook and blogs).

Update: A clever assertion by Raph Koster:

Well, yeah. I’m one of the people who went out there and said, “Single-player gaming is doomed,” and I actually used that phrase. An Xbox Live Achievement is a soul-bound item, and Gamerpoints are experience points, and BioShock is a one-man instance dungeon in the Xbox Live MMO. That is the direction that single-player gaming is going, frankly.

Having a larger variety of interactive tasks therefore incentivizes your players to keep exploriIng the world you’ve crafted.  Strategic use of an achievement can introduce a player to an entirely new area of exploration that they may not have considered.  A player will start by picking the low hanging fruit when they try your game, and indeed it’s good to have some early hand-outs, but the fruit is sweet, and as long as you don’t make it impossible to get more of them (I’m looking at you Burnout), they will keep coming back for more.  Eventually they turn into freakish, bizarre creatures like myself, who will stay up to all hours of the morning, killing peasants over and over again because I need more Minions to squeeze 10 more little fetid GP out of your game with my clammy, blistered hands, cackling to the moonlight as I go.  By the way, as a general rule, do not make achievement points which require hours of repetitive action, it isn’t fun, and actually detracts from an otherwise highly entertaining game.

What this means is that the rewards structure of achievement points, while in a sense existing ‘outside the magic circle’, in effect has impact on the game itself, and should therefore be considered as part of the design, not merely an afterthought (as it seems to be in many titles).  So to all you developers out there, do a good job, hire Tim Schaefer to plan your Achievement strategy if you must, but give it serious consideration.  If anyone needs me, I’ll be trying to nail the rest of the gold medals on Portal.

Red Ring of Death T-Shirt

I just saw this shirt on Split Reason and thought I’d share it with you all… because it’s amazing.  Do yourself a favor all ye who have felt the burn, and pre-order one of these puppies before they start flying out the door like an unwanted child on their 18th birthday.

Oh what a weekend…

Still bogged down in the midst of exams, but my final one is tomorrow (Computer Security!) and maybe I’ll have a chance to post more in the near future.

In the meantime, why are there so many phenomenal games coming out for Xbox 360, and only a handful for any other system (including PC)?

According to Metacritic (speaking of which, I promise to post the results of my data mining soon) We have on the Wii two games that are rated above 90% (Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4), leaving Super Paper Mario in 3rd place, and after that there isn’t a single game that I have a huge urge to go and play. Now I know that we have Metroid 3 coming out in a few weeks, and Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. Brawl coming out before Christmas, but that only brings the total of must-have games to six for the Wii (IMHO of course). Nintendo needs to step this up.

The Playstation 3 has a SINGLE game rated above 90% on Metacritic: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The next couple down from there are Ninja Gaiden Sigma (which is a remake) and Resistance: Fall of Man (which is awesome). The only title that I would consider to be must have between now and Christmas is Assassin’s Creed, which would bring us up to four, one of which is a remake of an Xbox game.

Come on guys.

Microsoft though, those guys are just feeding me dessert all the way to the bank (Remember, Bias, I work for them).

The 360 has 7 titles rated above 90%, Including Oblivion as on PS3, we have of course Gears of War, and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. A little further down the list we have Burnout Revenge (a dark, dark addiction of mine). I would also suggest that there have been some innovative if not perfectly designed games which are 360 Exclusives including Dead Rising and Overlord.

What to me is absolutely shocking is the volume of titles being released in the near future which I feel I must have:

Fable 2

Release Date: TBA 2008

Platforms: Xbox 360

Website

Now, I know there were issues with the first Fable game, and it certainly didn’t meet all the hype that was generated for it. But that said, I really enjoyed it, I like Molyneux’s preoccupation with allowing you to play different sides of the story, and I think Fable 2 (set in a more Steampunk setting too) will raise the bar a little higher.

Assassin’s Creed

Release Date: November 2007

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Windows

Website

Now this game I’ve been waiting for for a very long time. I understand that it’s being released on PS3 as well, but Hitman meets Prince of Persia is all you have to say to get me to fork over 60 bucks. Beyond that the storyline to this game is being kept under strict secret, and that tells me there’s more to this game than meets the eye.

Mass Effect

Release Date: November 2007

Platforms: Xbox 360

Website

An action RPG Space-Opera from the creators of Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur’s Gate, etc. Again, that’s all you need to say to me. “The most non-linear game we’ve ever made” helps to. From the glimpses I’ve seen so far, this game looks to deliver in spades everything Advent Rising never was, and a whole lot more.

Too Human (Well, maybe)

Release Date: TBA 2008 (Bets, anyone?)

Platforms: Xbox 360

Website

Any game that attempts to blend Norse Mythology into a sci-fi setting and quotes Nietzsche is okay in my books. I’ve actually had the privilege of watching this game being demoed when Denis Dyack and crew showed up for an information session for recruiting at the University of Waterloo (and unfortunately didn’t give me a call!). The game looks slick. It wasn’t done by a stretch yet when I saw it, and it was clear that they were having some issues, but if this game ever comes out (which gets uglied up when you sue your game engine developer and try to build your own version of Unreal 3 Engine while simultaneously doing game development), I’m sure it’ll be a hit.

Bioshock

Release Date: August 21, 2007

Platforms: Xbox 360, Windows

Website

Bioshock is heralded as the spiritual successor to System Shock 2, a game which you should surf your ass over to eBay and land yourself a copy of if you’ve never had the delight of playing. The game has been designed for Emergent Gameplay, meaning that much of what you’re supposed to be able to do in the game is by emergence of the simple game mechanics which were built in, instead of being guided by the hand of the developer. If it’s anywhere close to on the same level as System Shock, this one should be on everyone’s bookshelf.

GTA IV

Release Date: Feb-Apr 2008

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Website

The latest in the Grand Theft Auto series, and from the trailers, sure to be a cut above anything we’ve seen so far (Multiplayer!). Need I say more?

Burnout: Paradise

Release Date: Q1 2008

Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3

Website

The newest Burnout game is supposed to be a complete reinvention of the series. I’m not sure how I feel about this, as the series is pretty sweet as it is, and I really don’t want Burnout to turn into one of the other many racing games that are around. Nevertheless, I’m sure it will at least be worth a look at this Winter, and if it’s anywhere near as addictive as it’s predecessor, I’ll have scurvy by the time the Spring comes.

Halo 3

Release Date: Sept 25, 2007

Platforms: Xbox 360

Website
In 2001 Halo put the original Xbox on the map, and six years later Halo 3 will close the Saga of Master Chief. Although I’m sure this won’t be the last we see of the Halo games in years to come, it”ll be the end of a story arc that’s been with us for most of the decade, and has been a defining example of the FPS genre. I’m sure Halo 3 will be the best yet in the series, and I’m also fairly sure that It’ll be a few days before I see the sun again after it comes out.

Anyway, We all have that to look forward to in the coming months, and I’m highly pleased. I’ll be getting a Wii in the next few weeks as well, so here’s hoping Nintendo once again pulls a completely new genre out of thin air and creates an entire ecosystem of games that will quake the earth once more.

As for Sony, well, you guys are on your own for now. Maybe when God of War comes to the PS3 I’ll think about coming up with $17,000 or whatever it costs to buy a PS3 when you’re in Canada, but for now, I don’t think the titles are worth the cash.

Then again, when Playstation Home comes out, I might rethink that decision. That guy looks sweet.

Red-Ring of Death Followup

Peter Moore yesterday released an open letter to the Xbox 360 community announcing a new three year warranty extension that covers systems that fail due to the red ring of death.

Although Microsoft has not announced the official cause of the red ring of death issue, unofficial reports seem to indicate the problem is related to the proximity of the DVD drive to the board, and the lack of airflow through that region causes the board to warp, breaking contacts and additionally causing the solder to reflow. Some have reported that Microsoft has begun to add additional heat piping on repaired systems to fix this problem.

I’ve previously written about my experiences with the Red Ring of Death. I should like to comment that after calling for support, Microsoft shipped me the packaging box (”Dubbed ‘The Coffin’”) several days later, and after a couple of weeks, I received my system back. I’ve had not a single issue with it since the joyful return of my system almost two months ago. Overall I didn’t have to pay a dime, and Microsoft gave me a free month of Xbox Live Gold access for the inconvienence of losing my system for a couple of weeks. All in all, a generally positive customer experience.

If this is indeed the problem, one would not expect Microsoft to own up to it specficially, because the onslaught of ‘Heating upgrade requests’ would be financially damaging, and in many cases unnecessary. For those systems that require the upgrade, this should become obvious well before the three year deadline arrives. This certainly bolsters my spirits and hopes that we’ll all be able to enjoy the 360 in years and decades to come. I congratulate Peter Moore, Microsoft, and the Xbox 360 team for owning up to the fact that there is a problem, and stepping up to the plate to ensure the customers and community remain satisfied with the 360 Experience.

Kudos.

Update: So much for that.

More on the causes of Red Ring of Death

After my Xbox 360 died earlier this week, I finally called Tech support. As suspected, there is nothing I can do about the issue, and Microsoft will be shipping me a box in which to ship them the console for repair (and for free, as my console is under warranty). The tech support line was a bit hard to hear, and one has to navigate through an automatic tech support drone (although not a bad one) to get to a real person, but I suppose that’s good as it filters out the people who forgot to plug their system in.

I’ve been trying to discern what might have happened to cause this error. I’ve found a nifty little guide which allows you to get some more in-depth information about the dreaded three blinking red lights. I won’t go through the entire procedure here, but if you have this issue, I encourage you to do so.

The particular error code I get is 0102. This code is an unknown error, an error not handled by any other of the escape conditions. Essentially my Xbox 360 has no idea what’s wrong with itself. The guide suggests that it can occur if components have lost contact with the main-board, due to a cold solder or a short, or possibly a broken contact.

As I have not physically relocated my Xbox 360 since this occurred, the only conceivable explanation is that my console has been overheating, and the heat has caused warping significant enough to damage the component connections on the system board. As my system IS under warranty, I’m not willing to open it up and poke around, nor try to repair it using heat reflow or other techniques.

My system was purchased in the summer of 2006, not exactly among the ‘first batch of 360s’. Additionally, the system is sitting on my wooden desk, upright, and has plenty of space surrounding it. In fact, there is not a single device within three feet of the console which emits heat (and even at that, an LCD monitor doesn’t emit much). If heat was the culprit, this points to a systemic problem with the 360, although Microsoft has denied this. Either the solder work in the pick-and-place machines used in fabrication are flawed somewhere (a problem which would be relatively trivial to diagnose and fix given large quantities of 360s suffering the same problems), or there is simply too much heat and not enough airflow within the 360 chassis. If this is the case, it will continue to be a major problem unless the physical case is redesigned (fat chance) or the system uses a lower-voltage chipset which will reduce the amount of heat being generated (would require another model of 360 to emerge). As both of these solutions seem to be unlikely to be implemented, my hopes of having my (repaired) 360 last as long as my SNES has are foundering rapidly.

The Red Ring of Death

I’ve had an Xbox 360 for about 9 months now. In general I feel that of the three next-gen consoles, the 360 has, at the moment, the best selection of quality games, and I certainly wouldn’t wish for one of the other two instead (although definitely as well). The only problems I’ve had with it are a propensity to occasionally throw an error stating that “The disc cannot be read, please clean it and start again”. While this is annoying when it occurs, rebooting the system fixes the problem, and it didn’t happen that often.

Today, I have a bigger problem. My system was working fine last night, but today, booting up would cause the system to freeze right away, sometimes overlaying the Microsoft start-up logo wherever it happened to freeze with a blue checkboard pattern. The situation has since devolved to the point where turning the system on causes nothing to happen but three blinking red lights on the ring of light.

Much has been made of this problem in the last few months, and while Microsoft claims that this problem occurs far below the consumer electronics average of 3-5% failures, the noise in the community would suggest that the problem is much more prevalent than they claim.

Certainly regardless of what the stats say, the number of hardware failures are much, much too high. When Wikipedia has an entire page devoted to the problems that happen with your system, your product has issues. When people have come up with a nickname for an error, calling it “The Ring of Death” or 3RL (Three Red Lights), and error which indicates that the system has suffered an irrecoverable hardware error that requires manufacturer repair, your product has serious issues. When the BBC publishes a consumer report citing the fact that your product is known for having total hardware failure issues, usually around the time the warranty is running out, you have a crisis on your hands.

There are three things that peeve me about this problem. Firstly, that it’s so common, and not only on a first 360, but many have to return their systems multiple times. If car manufacturers did that, they would flat out go out business. Haven’t you guys ever heard of Quality Assurance? Secondly, that the customer support is reportedly terrible. This is a major PR issue which could have serious repercussions on your future ability to move product. This will especially be true in the future when the offerings for the Wii and PS3 catch up. Your customer support staff should be bending over backwards to do damage control, not pissing off the people who forked over half a grand to play games on your system. Lastly, as someone who’s lived in the computer industry for some time, the general rule is that hardware usually dies after a long time, when it’s lived out it’s useful life, or within a month of purchasing it (Infant Fatality Syndrome). Much of the electronics warranty structure revolves around this assumption: The purpose of the warranty is to catch the ones which die quickly due to the product being faulty. What we have going on here though are Xbox units dying months or nearly a year after purchase. These units are not being mishandled, they simply stop working one day, and the reasons for that are poor construction on Microsoft’s behalf. This is exactly the scenario in which the warranty is intended to apply, but because the failures are often so close to the expiration date on the warranty, many consumers are getting screwed by the support staff into paying for the repair.

I own an NES and Super NES, these systems still play just as well as the day I bought them (and in the case of the NES, even better, although I did have to change out the connection pins, for a mere $10). I have no doubt that if I wake up one morning and want to play Chronotrigger, or Earthbound, Secret of Evermore or Mario RPG, I can march downstairs and flip on my system, and all will be well in the world. This is 15 years after the system was purchased, certainly beyond the expected lifetime of most other consumer electronics. With my 360, I now have to question whether it will work on any given day, during the active life cycle of the system. Will I still be able to play Gears of War in 15 years?

Video game systems should not be lumped in with other consumer electronics. A Sony Walkman may not work two decades later, but any of the media you might have wanted to use it for are still available in some format. A television of 2007 can play any signal a television of 1991 could. This is not the case for video games.

So Microsoft, I’m fully aware you have a lot of really smart people in your organization. I’m sure this issue has been floating around the engineering team for a while, but you’ve had a year to your advantage. The solutions to hardware issues like this are not always simple, but in this case, they are necessary. If you don’t get this under control, people will stop buying 360s, and they will not trust you in the future to build a system they’re willing to pay for.

Fix your shit, or suffer the consequences in the market.