360voice Dev Blog

First Auto Challenge begins tomorrow!

If you have been wanting to join an Old Spice Experience Challenge, but haven't been able to get an invite or do not feel like creating your own, go into your profile settings and turn on your Auto-Challenge setting. Today is the last day to do that to get in on the first challenge. The rules are:

1. All normal challenge rules apply.
2. If you eligible for prizes, you will be put in a prizing challenge.
3. If you are not eligible for prizes, you will be put in a bragging rights challenge.
4. If you are not eligible for the tier/prize in the auto-challenge, you will be assigned to a bragging rights challenge.
5. We will attempt to group people with similar gamerscores in challenges.
6. We cannot guarantee similar gamerscores though, as it is dependent on the number of gamers available.
7. With auto-challenges turned on, you can still manually join challenges.
8. You will not be assigned to an auto-challenge if you are in an active challenge.

So go click the auto-challenge button and get in there!

Also remember that February begins Challenge month! Make sure you are in an active challenge at all times to win some rad prizes.

Member of the moment: Davem3 TF

(posted on behalf of Syndelin and Mr. Achievement)

Using our super-secret-devices-of-randomness, Davem3 TF grabbed this installment of Member of the Moment from the hands of many great choices and now wears the crown. Dave is a hard-working family man that hails from Massachusetts. He has been a very active part of the Forum Community since joining back on April 24th 2007 and is an all-round nice guy. So take a minute to sit back and enjoy his awesomeness!

How long have you been gaming?
Since the mid 1970's… My first systems were the Magnavox Odyssey and the Atari Pong. Although back then most gaming was done at video arcades and bowling alleys since that was the only way to gain bragging rights and high scores....

What was the first game that you played and what drew you into gaming in general?
Pong, believe it or not, we would spend hours trying to trap the ball so we could put down the controllers and watch the game "loop"! 

What brought you to 360voice, and what do you think is the best feature of the site?
I came here because my best friend (acidicwolverine) showed me the site and we were both cracking up over the blog feature with our Xboxes talking smack about us. i love that feature :-) It was months later when I met fshguy and the community and activated a Full-Membership, started leaving comments on the blogs, watching people and actively posting on the forums.I still love the Watchers List the best to see who is doing
what :-)

Is there anything that you would like to see on 3v that isn't already here?
I am not sure, the site really is awesome.  I love the fact that the Owners are very active here to the point that when you have a question, you usually get a response within minutes not hours or even days later like some sites and the Moderators are cool, down to earth people. The gamers I have met on here are the most helpful, coolest people I have ever met and I have learned a lot about gaming styles, competitions, and what games stink and to avoid.  :-)  LOL

When did you sign up for live?
In 2002 (on the original Xbox), My Boss and Cousin were on LIVE and I jumped in so we could all play Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six together. Shortly after, my Best Friend jumped in and away we all went...

Why are 50% of your most played games are shooters?
Hmmm… I love FPS and I am seriously hooked on the Tom Clancy Series. I have bought every single one dating back to the original Xbox. Rainbow Six Vegas was an absolute blast online. The only one I didn’t beat was Rainbow Six Lockdown.

What is your game setup?
I have Two Sony Grand Wega's CRT 34" TV's (one for me, one for the boys) (2) Xbox 360's with 120G HD's and a Camera on both. There is an HD-DVD player on mine, (3) Messenger Kits, (5) Controllers, MS racing wheel, Rock Band Kit and Wireless Les Paul Guitar for GH II and III.

When do you most often game?
Usually when I get home from work, shower and eat. Most of the time from 5pm EST until 9pm EST weekdays and usually all-night Friday and Saturday night if I am not working on a Saturday.

What's your favorite feature on Xbox LIVE?
Comparing Gamercards. I can find the easy K's to play and meet new people. Stallion83 has the ultimate card… but it can be deceiving as well, his level of playing is far superior to mine!

You have 84 played games in your 3v list, what games that you have played in this last year really stand out for you, and why?
Well, I have to thank Gamefly,Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, my best friend who now has moved to Texas (bummer)  and my cousin, Todd who helps me by borrowing or renting a lot of my games. I only own 36 to 38 games for the 360. My favorites last year were PGR3, Rainbow Six Vegas, GRAW2 and COD4.

Any must-have titles for 2008?
End War , GTA IV, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and hoping for a new Ghost Recon soon.

I see you have the HTTK badge.  What do you feel is the best part of the challenges?
I like challenging myself against other gamers who, in my mind, are better than me to push me to do better. I think more wisely and rack up the points. The first Old Spice Challenge I did, I think I racked up like 7,500 points to finish it. This year I have racked up I think like 12K and no sign of slowing down. Although, I am taking a slight break right now.

When you aren't in a challenge, do you play for points... or fun?
Both, but mostly fun… Guitar Hero II and III are fun, but playing them has my Gamerscore flat-lined.

What is the Achievement are most proud of?
Elite in Rainbow Six Vegas and Reward Card Hustler/Beat an Ea Moderator (in need for speed carbon).

Is there a feature you would like to see in the next Xbox 360 System Update?
I would like to be able to sub-categorize my buddy list. Such as my FPS friends, Racing friends, 360V friends and so on.

If MS moved all online games to PC/360 Cross-platform… Would you continue to play on a 360?
Yes. I like it better and I do not have to upgrade my PC every month to keep up. I did love PC gaming but between defragging every morning and upgrades… I was happy to jump over to consoles and not worry about it anymore.

Is there anything that you would like to add, or that you would like the community to know about you?
I love to game and play MP and learn new things constantly. If anyone needs help on a game online and if i have it, I will jump and help out the best I can. I try to have fun, be friendly and have a few chuckles in the process :-) and I am always trying to get tricks and tips to help me through games. Please… advice is always needed over here.

Last Words?
Let's all have fun and learn from one another. We should have a good time pushing each other to get to the next "level" of gaming greatness… and of course, do unto others as you wish done to you… or something like that. We have a awesome community and fantastic people here willing to help out all the time, jump in with us and have some fun :-)

Thank you Davem3 TF so much for your time and your contributions here at 360voice. Community members like you are what make this place so great!

Updates are delayed

Hey everyone... challenge updates, blog updates, etc are delayed today. We are looking into the issue and will post updates as soon as we know what the deal is.

Update 7:22am CT

As of right now, streaks will be turned off. For some reason our data pull failed, and our secondary pull AND our backup pull. One could call it the perfect non-awesome storm. We are running a data pull now and will be manually inserting it to ensure the data is correct.

If you have a challenge that ends today, it will be a moment until we process it. So please be patient.

Update 3:25pm CT

Things are pretty much back on track. If you have any issues, please send them to mail@360voice.com. Remember, we disabled streaks, so if your entry is wrong, you should worry about your streak. A special thanks to Steve for talking this in the morning. I was swamped with meetings all morning and couldn't even take a peek at the updates until around 1pm... so yay Steve!

February is challenge month!

We are officially declaring February at 360voice, Old Spice Experience Challenge Month! We will be giving away special prizes every day for the ENTIRE month of February!

You have to be a FULL Member to participate, so register/upgrade today!

These prizes are available to both US and International 360voice gamers! Check it out:

Daily Microsoft Point Giveaways
Each day in February we will give away 1,000 points to a random person in an active challenge. This is available to both reward challenges AND bragging rights challenges. So if you are international and can't compete for prizes, just BE IN A CHALLENGE and you get a shot at 1,000 points every single day in Feb. That is a total of 29,000 points! (you can win only once)

Weekly Customized Zune (80 Gig) giveaways
Each Friday in February (starting Feb 8 2008), we will give way a Zune (80 Gig) customized with the winner's gamertag.  This is available to both reward challenges AND bragging rights challenges. If you are international (and the Zune is not available in your country), you will receive an equal value gift card. (you can win only once)

T-Shirt Giveaways
In Addition to our random drawings each week we will feature a gamer in a challenge to spotlight, and in turn they will win a customized 360voice.com T-shirt. Winners will be hand picked by 360voice.com admins, and qualifications will vary week to week.  Good sportsmanship and friendly banter always help!

So there go! February is the month of challenges! Tell your friends! Let's kick it up a notch!

Join Challenges Easier: Auto-Challenges!

We have been hearing that joining Old Spice Experience Challenges can be hard if you are new to the site or if you don't have a ton of friends with which you can create your own... so we are going to try something out... Introducing, auto-challenges:

What are Auto-Challenges?
Every week we will put everyone who has elected to be in an auto-challenge automatically into a tier 1 challenge to compete! You won't have to do anything but click a button.

How Does it Work?
Go to your blog settings and select "Auto-Challenge" from the Gamerscore Challenge section. Click the button to turn it on and that is all you have to do. Information about the next auto-challenge will be available on that page.

So go check it out... the first auto-challenge launches this week!

Winter-Een-Mas time... get your celebration on!

So I wasn't really aware of it until TODAY but it appears the holiday of Winter-Een-Mas is upon us! A special shout-out to Lobo BiZARro 3D for the heads-up!

Winter-een-mas is a holiday of sorts. More specifically, it is a celebration of video games and the people that play them. Video games allow us to do things, go places, see stuff, that we couldn't do in real life. They can be an escape from reality, a release after a long day, a fun activity with friends, or just an enjoyable way to pass time. They give us a lot of entertainment. So why shouldn't they be celebrated?

Read more

So now that YOU know about Winter-Een-Mas (try typing that 10 times fast), what are you planning to do?

I decided to spontaneously pick up a Sony PSP... see... I am not a total Xbox 360 Fan boy. ;)

(click the title of this post to leave a comment)

Have you been in a challenge? We want your feedback!

We recently asked for feedback from people who haven't been in a challenge... well now we are flipping it the other direction. A survey company has been hired to gather information about the 360voice/Old Spice partnership. If you have participated in any challenge at any time, please take a moment to help us out:

SURVEY COMPLETE - thanks for participating

To sweeten the deal, if you complete the survey you will be asked for your gametag and email at the end. Provide those, and we will do a random drawing from all participants and award 4,000 microsoft points to a lucky gamer.

Thanks in advance for helping us out... it is really important that we get as many people as possible to fill out this survey. We will be using the feedback from this as well as all the great discussion in our forum to  help us decide where to go next. If you can please take the time,

Update 1/26/2008

Hi everyone, we were not aware that the survey blocked non-US and Female members. So we will do a SPECIAL drawing for the same prize (4,000 points) for anyone NOT ELIGIBLE for the survey. Leave this comment in any blog with your gamertag as the name on the comment:

I couldn't take the survey

We will validate that you were unable to take it due to the country and gender settings on your account when we draw for the prize. We will do this drawing after the survey numbers are complete. Email us if you have questions about this parallel contest.

Update 1/26/2008 8:42pm CT

Thank you everyone for participating. The survey is now closed. If you have competed in a challenge at anytime, please put the above text in a blog comment and you will be eligible to win the 4,000 points! Any country, gender, age is welcome! The only restriction for the drawing is that you have competed in a challenge at anytime!

Why haven't you joined an Old Spice Experience Challenge?

Since launching the Old Spice Experience Challenge back in December, we have seen our registration and site traffic shoot through the roof... however many of those people are never making it into active gamerscore challenges. If you are one of these people, we are greatly interested in hearing why. Head over to the forum and make yourself heard!

Why haven't you joined a challenge?

We are beginning to look at another round of enhancements and while we have some short term things planned in the coming week, we just want to get some good feedback from people not in challenges.

So click over to the forum and let us know!

The Carolina Games Summit

This weekend, Steve and I will be at the Carolina Games Summit... hanging out... visiting the sessions... and doing what people do at those sort of things. If you are going to be there yourself, please send us an email and maybe we can meet up.

There will be tournaments going on... keynotes... speakers... exhibitors... my personal plan is to talk with some people there about gaming communities and their evolution towards closer relationships with game publishers and developers.

So it should be a good time... it will be one of those rare instances where Steve and I will be meeting up and a code weekend will not be involved. I have to say, I am looking forward to doing something besides 48 hours of nonstop coding every time Steve and I are in the same town.

If our support response seems a little slow this weekend, just wanted to let you all know why.

Link dump action

Check out these sites checking out us. It is our way of linking back in thanks for the in coming linkage.

About.com Xbox Games
"Not only does your Xbox 360 "blog" and tell the world everything you played and how angry it is when you don't play, but it keeps track of consecutive days played streaks, day-to-day gamerscore changes, and rankings against other members among many other things."

Blogster McTavish
"I've been signed up for 360voice for some time and that site gives my 360 it's own 'blog' so to speak. It also reports my most frequently played games, topped by Guitar Hero ][, Bejeweled and Rainbow Six: Vegas."

Blend Games
"The formation of challenges this time around has been updated to make it accessible to the casual gamer just as much as the hardcore. There will be four tiers involved, and all you have to do to get involved is find enough friends to compete against. You can have your own little challenges with those you know, trust and love."

Life in the Valley
""What on Earth would your Xbox blog about?" you ask? Simple. It talks about the games I play!"

Unofficial Xbox 360 News Blog
"As long as your Xbox 360 is connected to the internet under the corresponding Gamertag, the site will moniter everything you do each day and 'write' about it!"

Chronic Gamer Chronicles
"I am a very competitive gamer, and this challenge is right up my alley. I am pulling every imaginary rabbit out of my proverbial hat to win, and I have no hesitation stabbing my friends in the back to do so."

Crystal Perceptions
"What's up with web 2.0 anyway? Some of it is cool, like Blogs and Wiki's, but much of it is silly, like Twitter? I mean who really cares what you are doing at "this second" in two lines or less? And why would i want it on my cell phone? *shrug* Too old school I guess. :) But 2.0 does do one thing cool, who ever thought you game system could blog for you."

Blades of 360
"It seems that rwgriersr  has developed a gamerscore graph for his iPhone app and now you too can get your own personalized graph."

Vegetable Soup
"In further proof that machines are taking over the planet and will one day rule over us in a tyranical mecha-droidal type way, my Xbox360 has now developed the capacity to produce its own blog."

Tunnels of Doom
"I signed up for one of those Old Spice Gamerscore Challenges run through the 360 Voice site. In this case it was instituted by some folks on Goozex’s forums and the reward is a $100 Best Buy gift card, which isn’t shabby."

PastePotPete
"Sure, it has little, if anything to do with comic books.  But it’s true! And that rapscallion of a 360 is blogging faithfully..."

GameZone
"Old Spice and 360voice.com have announced their collaboration on the Old Spice Experience Challenge (www.oldspiceexperiencechallenge.com)."

Rakkoon
"I didn’t loose my streak after all. Sweet!"

Thank you everyone, big and small, for the mentions!

360LOL

I am a pretty big fan of icanhazcheezburger.com... I am subscribed to their daily pictures and it is always good for a chuckle.  So this generator that converts your website made me laugh:

360voice.com LOL

PMS Clan battling it out in an Old Spice Challenge

Looking for a fun challenge to watch? Check out PMS Clan - Pandora's Mighty Challenge. Created by PMS Achievement for 30 days and a Game Fly subscription.

Wondering who the PMS Clan is?

PMS is a diverse population of women gamers from all over the world, playing multiple platforms. We are hard-core gamers, sisters, mothers, wives, and daughters and vary from ages, ethnicity and social backgrounds. Only one common factor can be found among us and that is our addiction to gaming!

Read more

The first code night in a long time...

For the first time in a long time, both Fatty Chubs and I (ChangeAgent) have been able to work on the site at the same time! That means: Fun stuff for you!

But first... a quick word about STREAKS. People seem to be losing them all over the place for reasons that seem beyond their control. I really thought today was going to be a streak-fix night, not a code night... so I post here for everyone the "tricks" to keeping your streak:

1. ALWAYS play more than one game.
   This is just a necessity. Your game data is most regularly updated when you STOP playing a game. Playing at least TWO games a day ensures that you stop playing one of them... and leads to many more captures.
2. ALWAYS be signed in to Xbox Live.
   Even if you are playing single player games, please, please, please be signed in at all times or your data might be missed.
3. ALWAYS quit to the dashboard before powering down.
   This is much more important than people think. Because the capture is more accurate when you STOP playing, if you just power off your Xbox in the game, it often never updates that you even played the game at xbox.com. So please do this.
4. ALWAYS play 360 retail titles and XBLA full version titles.
   In the past, XBLA trials worked, they no longer do all the time due to changes to the gamercard in the last dashboard update. Also, sometimes we capture the occasional demo or Original Xbox title, but rarely these days due to feed performance. So please follow this advice.

So that is it. 4 easy steps! Now on to code night results:

1. Added an "About the Gamer" tab on blog page.
   If you go to anyone's xbox blog they now have a new tab that will display the Location, Motto, and Bio from the gamercard, as well as your Forum signature if you have one. My idea with adding the forum sig is that it gives people a place to put links and information to share with others... now not just in the forum, but on their blog page. So let me know what you think of that idea.
2. Location/Motto/Bio added to gamertag-profile API service.
   If you are someone who uses our API, the fields we use for the About the gamer page were added to the gamertag-profile service, moving that to version 1.8. So have fun.
3. Added new Retail and Arcade complete badge levels.
   The badges for this have been made (and sitting in the list!) but the logic wasn't complete to populate them. So, you will now get an upgraded badge for 60,70,80,90, and 100+ completed retail and arcade titles if you qualify... to be considered completed you have to have 100% of the possible gamerscore with DLC included.
4. Added a new Badge: The In Crowd
   Starting tomorrow, if you were one of the people who played the #1 game at 360voice for that day, you get the In Crowd badge. Lately it has been COD4, but it isn't always that... sometimes when big arcade titles are released or new DLC is available, another game shoots to the top of the list. If this happens and you didn't play it, the badge is gone. It is a new badge idea... so leave us feedback.

So that is it for tonight! A pretty good little evening... in addition to this we worked on some stuff with presence encoding... misc business issues... repaired a lot of streaks, changed a lot of tags, deleted some members... the usual churn.

I am not sure there will be a code night next week as I have family coming in from out of town... but anything can happen. Keep the suggestions coming.

(to leave a comment, click the title of this blog post)

Experiment: 360voice Community Podcast - Episode 01

You all were asking for it, so we hooked up with EA Sargonas and threw a 360voice podcast together. Give it a listen and let us know what you think! Maybe we will do more. It was out first attempt... so there is some funkiness and all around inexperience going on... but hey... we are podcast n00bs :) A special thanks to Sargonas for stepping up to record, edit, and do all the hard work.

(click the title of this post to leave a comment!)

Download/Listen to the show:

MP3 File

Subscribe:

http://360voice.hipcast.com/rss/360voicecast.xml

Show notes:

What are we playing currently? (aside from the obvious global answer of Rock Band!)

What is 360 voice working on currently?

1. Keeping things running (relatively) smooth though the LIVE outages.
2. The new challenge system (surely by now you have heard of it!)
3. Making Game Data corrections more painless and efficient
4. Badges 2.0
5. Just rolled out Comment Entire Watch List / One RSS feed for entire watch list
6. Working on implementing XBL Bios and Mottos into your profile.

Community news:

1. 360voice has a Facebook group, go join now! (link below)
2. Custom content! Tons of great 360v custom in-game content out there, check it out in our forums, and the Flickr group to share all the in game content! (link below)
3. We have our own myminicity! check out our minicity.com bustling metropolis we're building! (link below)
4. Challenge scout beta by Squidpunch (link below)

360voice 101:
That gamerscore in your blog has a few secrets up its sleeve. Fatty Chubs explains how so.

T-shirt Giveaway:
Yes thats right, we are giving away a free t-shirt with your name on it to a listener! How? Well, you'll have to listen to the podcast to find out!

Link Dump:
360voice Facebook group :: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6684875969
Community Flickr group :: http://www.flickr.com/groups/630320@N21/
Community myminicity :: http://360voice.myminicity.com/
Challenge Scout Beta :: http://www.squidpunch.com/challengescout/

Member of the Moment: Firecracker92

We at 360voice are happy to introduce a new feature this week. It was suggested in the forums and will be managed by Syndelin and Mr. Achievement. A special to thanks for them diving in and making it happen.

So without further delay, our first Member of the Moment, Firecracker92.

Firecracker92 was picked by our secret cadre of world leaders, political influentials, community special-forces, and Area 51 aliens hostages. As complete luck would have it, Firecracker92 actually thought up the whole idea of this Member of the Moment craziness. In addition he is known for many other suggestions rather active in the support threads and the forum in general. We like seeing people get involved and that is practicallyFirecracker92's middle name.

How long have you been gaming?
Well, let's just say some people here have been gaming longer than I've even lived. Being 14 years old and all, my "classic" game system is the Nintendo 64. I'd say I've been gaming for about 9 years now.

What was the first game that you played and what drew you into gaming in general?
The first game I have ever played was Super Mario 64, and I was hooked to it for the longest time. What drew me into gaming was definitely the original Xbox. Sure, I loved the Nintendo 64, but I didn't play it all the time. For the Xbox, I played much more during the day, but still not as much as I play the Xbox 360 now!

What brought you to 360voice, and what do you think is the best feature of the site?
I think I was actually brought here by one of my good friends on Xbox Live, Ten Stitches. He told me about how great this place was, and I must say I completely agree. There are a lot of great features on this site, but it's not the features that keep me coming here, it's the community. There are so many friendly people here that I think my Xbox Live friends list went from about 30 friends to 80 friends.

Is there anything that you would like to see on 3v that isn't already here?
Well since this suggestion worked for me, maybe I can throw another one out there! The only thing I can think of that I want to see is everyone's blog popularity. Maybe a leaderboard or a spot under the "bragging rights" section. I think it would be pretty cool.

What is your game setup?
Nothing special...at all. Standard 22" Toshiba, and yeah, nothing else worth saying! I get extremely jealous after looking at some setups of other people here.

When do you most often game?
On school days, I usually play around 3:00 PM ET. You could see me on around 7:00 PM ET when my homework is done too lol. On weekends and vacation days you'll see me online at random times, whenever I feel like playing. Those are days when I just feel like relaxing and taking a break from school.

It looks like you have a pretty good variety in your played games list, what games that you have played in this last year really stand out for you, and why?
Haha yeah I have to thank Gamefly for that, I don't own too many games. In this last year, games that stood out for me most would have to be Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, DiRT, Rock Band, Guitar Hero III, Madden 08, skate., Assassin's Creed, and finally, GRAW 2. I don't have much of a reason why, but all of them are just great games. 2007 was definitely an awesome year of gaming!

I see you have the HTTK badge.  What do you feel is the best part of the challenges?
The best part of challenges is that they push you to earn achievements. People always say that you should get awards from achievements, and by joining a challenge, you have a chance at doing just that.

What other systems, if any, do you own?
I own the original Xbox and a PS2. I don't play either of them anymore.

Is there anything that you would like to add, or that you would like the community to know about you?
I would like the community to know that even though I'm only 14, you shouldn't be afraid to play online with me. I'm nothing like those immature kids that you come across in a game of Halo 3, so feel free to send me a friend request anytime!

Thank you so much for your time and your contributions here at 360voice. Community members like you are what make this place one of the most amazing things to be a part of.

In addition to the interview, the Member of the Moment is featured on the homepage (left column) until the next interview is posted.

(click the title of this post to leave a comment about Member of the Moment)

Community Night = Awesomeness Had

A huge thanks to everyone who showed up for community night for either chat or gaming.  That's the most people we have ever had in either.  I apologize if network issues caused you not to get in, but we ended up getting almost everyone online in, and the games were great.  I have never played so many large CoD4 matches that came down to the last few seconds.  I also found out, our community is really good at CoD4.

I also have to give everyone props on the very productive chat, you guys always give us such great ideas, and I am working through the log to compile notes on everything.  What we learned so far is people REALLY like genre badges, want more genres, and want more games added to genres.  But on top of that we really got some good feedback on moving forward with some ideas to revamp them.  I'll post on the dev blog when we are ready to start rolling out changes or schedule the next chat.  Good job everyone for staying on topic as well!

Finally we said we would hand out some prizes, so here are the winners which we selected randomly from the CoD4 matches.  Soxfan13 wins a 360voice T-shirt (although I am thinking about not giving it to him since he completely dominated me one match).  Also admiringworm and GotEmRunnin both win 1000 Microsoft points each.

Thanks again folks, you have proved once again what a valuable and friendly community we have here! 

You know it is a good community night when...

You know this site has grown when the tag that we use for a community night finds itself on the top 10 tags of the week:

1. YOUSTINK2 
2. Major Nelson 
3. Notwen 
4. trixie360 
5. Souljaboytellem 
6. DGgeoff 
7. www360voicecom 
8. jamzy813 
9. agent arenas 
10. steve519

Source: TriXie

Steve will be doing a write up of the event to announce all the winners, the prizes, and a recap... but I just came across this before bed and thought it was fun.

Community Night Chat and Gaming!

Hey folks it's time for the first community event of the year, this Thursday (Jan 10th).  Details below, all times in EST.

9:00PM EST: Community Chat

Join us for a community roundtable on Badges.  If you got an opinion on badges, we want to hear it.  It will be an open discussion on all things badges as we work to enhance our current system.  There will be no badges or contests for attending this part of the event.  Chat will last for about 1 hour and will be held in our chat room.

10:00PM EST: Gaming - Call of Duty 4

Join us for 2 solid hours of Call of Duty 4 action.  Anyone is welcome regardless of skill or level, and participation earns you the Plays well with other badge.  We will also have at least one prize to give away, details will be given during the event.  To participate send a friends request to the gamertag, www360voicecom.  Depending on demand, we will work to cycle people in, so if you can't get in at first be patient, and we will send you an invite when room is available.

UPDATE:  Record number of people signed up for the gaming section, should be a good time, and good way to meet some new folks.  Well send out invites, so if you get a party full message, will try to make room every couple games, so thanks in advance for waiting and making room for others.  If a good amount of folks turn up and things go well, it will definitely encourage us to do these more often. 

UPDATE:  Okay we filled up all 100 spots on the friends list, so if you didn't make it in you will have to try next time, see you all Thursday. 

Xbox Live, current status, streaks still off.

Just to be safe, we went ahead and left streaks turned off again for today. I was trying to play live last night and was experiencing issues... and I didn't feel like getting a million support emails asking for streak resets!...call me selfish. :)

Also, the presence notification in the upper right of the blog has been turned off... this is due to performance against that data being poor and dragging down the site. I will keep monitoring it for improvements and turn it back on when appropriate. Because of the poor performance you will also see the LiveScore for challenges taking a long time as well... let me know if it gets excruciating.

Mutual watch list comments, and the directory

I have been playing around with a few things...

The first is some mild enhancements to the Directory. You can click a link to see all of the new users... and actually you can just put any date in the address bar and check out who registered on that day. When you search the directory you also get more information about the person. I was going to put the gamer pic in there but man... with live being so beat up lately it slows the page down too much to have that on there.

The second is called "Mutual Watch List Comments" (login/Full membership required) and allows you to post a comment to the most recent blog entry for everyone on your watch list who is also watching you. This should allow for easier communication across your friends... let me know what you think. Thanks to HeNaniGenz 510 for the great idea!

(click the title of this post to leave a comment about these little enhancements)

Xbox Live issues... again...

As many of you have witnessed or have reported to us... Xbox Live is wonky again... wonktastic even... If Xbox Live was a pizza it would have wonkysauce all over it.

In all seriousness though, many of you have emailed in saying that you have been trying to connect and that your streak is in jeopardy... so just to be safe, tomorrow will be streak-free. So don't worry... if you Xbox says you didn't play, don't believe it.

ChangeAgent interviewed by Speak Xbox

Hey all, check out my interview by DarkSteelKiller over at Speak Xbox! I reveal a few things about myself that you might not know... please don't use it against me:

I was able to arrange an interview with Trapper Markelz aka ChangeAgent. ChangeAgent is the owner of 360voice who has made a superior site that is extremely popular for the Xbox 360 community. 360voice is an excellent site to be apart and has some cool new features being added all the time.

Read the interview

(promotional graphic taken from Speak Xbox to promote their interview)

Genre Updates

So much needed genre updates have been made, here is the rundown.

RPG: Mass Effect Added
Racing: NFS Prostreet and Flatout Added
Sandbox: Assasin's Creed Added
Sports: College Hoops 2k8 Added
SHMUP: Crystal Quest Added
Music: Rock Band Added
Family: Lego Star Wars TCS
Fighting: SmackDown vs RAW 2008

Special thanks to Fshguy for helping compile these and continuing to run his awesome site.   Keep an eye out for an announcement of an upcoming chat night and game night.  We will be holding a chat on badges, and then playing some games next week.  Once I lock down the date and time I will post it here, so if you want to share your thoughts on badges or kill me over Xbox Live for not updating badges, keep an eye out for the announcement.

The Old Spice Experience Challenge Strategy Guide

We asked the community for their top strategies in competing in the Old Spice Experience Challenges. Check out this fabulous set of pointers... whether you are a n00b or 7337, there is something in here for everyone:

1. Play with people you know!
   By playing with friends or people you at least know, the amount of hostile trash talk, cheating, dishonorable play, etc. will greatly decrease, leading to a more enjoyable challenge! - Fshguy
2. Only score as much as you need.
   Gamerscore challenges are like auctions... you only need enough points to keep the lead. Don't over score, as the points you spend in one challenge can't be used for future challenges. - ChangeAgent
3. Only use easy games when you have to.
   Save the easy games for last. Only use it when there is no other way out. - Donny NL
4. Plan your strategy in advance!
   Games wisely! For example play halo 3 until the final level and stop! When you really need it finish the fight and get a easy 375.....yep already used it up. - Davem3 TF
5. The lower gamerscore the higher the advantage.
   If you have a lower gamerscore you are more likely to have more games at your disposal - joining a challenge with higher gamerscore owners could be a great benefit to you. - squidpunch
6. Know your competition!
   Be wary of challenges with many members with a number of the "easy" achievements not yet gained. It is likely one or more will throw them into the mix. You must decide if you are willing to also use your easy achievements, or save it for another challenge in which nobody can counter your attack. - squidpunch
7. Leverage the power of the rentals!
   Have a Blockbuster Game Pass! Have a Gamefly Membership! - NaiLSONS
8. Leverage the power of the almighty dollar! (if you are loaded)
   Buy all arcade games and get every single easy achievement in each! - Nuffzx
9. Revisit old games to get points you forgot.
   Some of those old achievements which you might of found impossible back then may have become really easy as your "leet" skillz grow, or maybe they got patched and are no longer bugged? - T360UK SMILEY
10. Don't bother with online achievements.
    Online achievements are often much more time consuming to get. Aim for single player ones where you can control the timetable. - WolfWood37
11. Know the easy genres.
    Sports and Movie games = easy points.- ymiris
    Family games as a rule are usually easy... - Davem3 TF
12. Be true to yourself as a gamer. Integrity above all!
    Play games you love. Find or create challenges that are in your range. If you're a casual gamer, find a challenge for casual gamers and try not to break the rules set down by the administrator of the challenge. - housemdfan

If you have some strategies you would like to add, click the title of this post to leave a comment!

360voice wins Gamertag Radio's community site of 2007

Gamertag Radio has posted the winners of their annual Community Awards. Thanks to the votes of all of you, 360voice has been awarded community site of the year. Last year we were nominated, this year we took home the crown!

We were honored to be nominated this year with such a great group of sites, and it shows how healthy and vibrant the 360 community truly is. Oh, and thanks to JVB for announcing the category.

So head over and check out the show. Godfree and team put a ton of work into it with special guests and besides, you can hear Steve and I's acceptance speech where we spread around the thanks. If you want to jump to our acceptance speech, the community site of the year starts around the [30:00] mark of the MP3.

Top 20 Most Popular Blogs for December 2007

It was the last month of the year. There were a lot of familiar faces in the top 20 most popular Xbox blogs:

1. Major Nelson
2. jcnet *
3. the dren *
4. cc99999 x3h *
5. StripClubDj
6. GameSpotting *
7. Stallion83 *
8. ChangeAgent *
9. Fshguy *
10. Mightymango *
11. ZeroDesolation *
12. Von Dozier *
13. PSonic *
14. Misha LinGhan *
15. Davem3 TF *
16. HeNaniGenz 510 *
17. Mr Achievement *
18. Gary Leeds *
19. Cold Justice *
20. syndelin *

What will 2008 hold? More of the same or will some new community members rise in the ranks? I will say that when we started tracking this monthly back in April we have seen some good churn in the names. Do you have what it takes to crack the top 20 this year?

Save our streaks on the New Year!

Just a quick note, today is officially a "save the streaks" day. Things are looking MUCH better for Xbox Live, but there are still some places where people are missing data so for safety reasons, you will not lose your streak today for a non-play day. So consider it a Happy New Year gift from Steve and I :)

Tomorrow things should be back to normal though... so play those games today!