360voice Dev Blog

Xbox Live outage tonight 2am-5am PT

Xbox.com is planning an outage tomorrow. Luckily (hopefully) this outage starts well after we finish our nightly pull, therefore your data should be ok. We will be pausing the jobs until we wake up in the morning... just to look everything over and make sure we didn't miss anything... so your content will be delayed, but it should be captured. We will update more if anything super-funky happens... but at this point, we don't anticipate problems...

...but we have said that before. :)

Fatty Chubs is a "super MVP"

To know him... is to love him... Our very own Fatty Chubs has been mentioned on Xbox.com as a Super MVP!

Lurking at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina is another of our Super MVPs, Fatty Chubs. His coworkers know him as Stephen Sopp, but what they don't know is that, after his job as a web developer, he moonlights as a Super MVP. This includes the power to create and run 360voice.com, and to set up great tournaments like the 360voice challenges and their Old Spice Rewards contest.

Read about the other super MVPs!

If you are wondering to yourself, "What is this MVP madness?" you can find out more information in the Xbox.com forum FAQ.

Content Creation Challenge Changes

Remember that Xbox 360 Content Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia? they have been making steady enhancements to the site throughout the contest. Most recently you can now filter by affiliate! That means you can jump directly to all the great 360voice affiliated themes that people are submitting making it easier to find them and vote!

Some of my favorites submitted by 360voice users include:

360 Freedom by morton819

Xbox Buttons by FuzzyBear

Tree by destruktive87

Go vote them up today!

Some people have raised the issue that just voting for your community site isn't in the spirit of the competition. Disruptive Publishing has ensured that it isn't about the "best" theme... sure the votes will pick a winner, but the overwhelming response to this contest will bring other opportunities. In their words:

We want to officially let everyone know that while there will only be one “winner” in terms of overall highest score/votes received, the reality is that we have been overwhelmed by the huge number of extremely high quality submissions across the board. Any user who is submitting quality content (and is getting reasonable interest in terms of voting) will stand a good chance of being contacted by DP for future publishing opportunities, regardless of whether or not they top out the overall leaderboard. At the end of the day, this program is about you guys telling us what you want to see, and clearly that’s not limited to just one item! So, while there will only be one grand prize winner, there are a lot of people watching this contest and opportunities *will* emerge! Keep the quality material coming!

So even if you don't win... or don't get a TON of votes, put your content up there! Who knows where it might lead! So upload and vote VOTE VOTE!

More API Changes on Code Night

In addition to the new watchlist features that we just put online we also snuck in two small API Requests that were requested in the forum.

1. Favorite Games List now has another sort option, allowing you to sort by completion percentage.
2. Get-Entries now has the ability to filter multiple types, meaning you can now return only microblogs AND weekly recaps if you choose, and the played flag will only be used against daily blog entries.

As always for examples and the most up to date documentation on the APIs - check out the API Documentation.

Code night watchlist madness

Squidpunch has been pulling his weight around here... reading the forum and putting together a massive watch list update. Here are the new features:

1. You can now have up to 100 people on your watchlist.
2. The watchlist gadget on your blog shows the top 20 people you are watching.
3. If you go to any blog, you will see a "Watch this Xbox" link if you are logged in. Click it to start watching someone.
4. Your watchlist now comes up in a sweet pop-up with all sorts of options!
5. You can rank your watch list. If you don't rank, it goes by gamertag alpha.
6. You can sort your watch list in the pop-up all sorts of ways.
7. You can also access the pop-up from your blog settings page. (login required)

So go give it a try. Let us know what you think! I think it is pretty sweet and makes "watching" a little easier to do and manage... and we opened the flood gates on the number of people you can watch... although we don't really know how big this will be... so depending on how it all performs... we might have to scale it accordingly.

(Have a comment? Let us know by clicking the title of this post to leave one.)

MS dealing damage against cheaters

Many have asked us, "Why don't you do something about the cheaters on your leaderboards?" and our answer has always been "We are waiting for Microsoft to do something about it." It looks like the waiting is over. Major Nelson posted about it... but his site is down... so here is 360sync's quote:

1. Resetting the entire Gamerscore for an account to zero
2. The account will be unable to regain all previously obtained achievements and Gamerscore, however, the players will have the ability to gain future Achievements by earning them fairly, like the majority of the Xbox LIVE community does.
3. The account will be clearly labeled as a cheater for the community to view on xbox.com. You can see an example here. In dash, the personal view of the gamercard will be labeled as well.

Read more

Eye-balling it this moment, it looks like 7 out of the top 20 on our Gamerscore leaderboard are going to drop off... so this will have an impact going forward. Because there will be new scenarios where completely valid tags could have their score zeroed out... we aren't 100% positive that this won't break certain things around the site. If you see something funny, please send a support msg so we can look into it.

While I am sure there will be questions about the judge/jury/executioner process, I think this is a great day for gamerscore enthusiasts everywhere. It will bring much more rigor to the system and hopefully recognize those that earn their points the good old-fashion way... by playing the game.

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

Old Spice prize claim reminder!

If you won any Old Spice Gamerscore Challenges at 360voice, your last day to submit a prize claim is fast approaching. From the official rules:

HERE’S HOW TO CLAIM A REWARD:  If you are the winner of a challenge, you will receive an email notification containing your reward claim code within approximately 12 hours of completion of the challenge.  To claim your reward, click on the link contained in the email and follow the onscreen instructions to input your reward claim code and complete the online claim form.  All reward claims must be  received by 2:00:00 PM PST on 3/28/08.   Certain rewards may be fulfilled via email.  Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery of your reward.

So please, if you have not received a claim code, email support and we can resend it! Get your prizes claimed!

Content Creation Challenge Update!

If you haven't heard, 360voice is participating in the Xbox 360 Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia. Have you submitted a theme? Have you voted on any themes? If not, GET UP ON IT!

You don't have to submit themes to help 360voice on the community leaderboard, you just have to register, affiliate yourself with the site, and vote vote vote!

Just as a reminder, if you submit the winning theme you get:

(1) Prizes – Blu-Ray DVD player, (1) 42’ LCD 1080p TV, 5.1 Digital Surround Sound Home Theater, Nokia N81 Phone (5) XBOX 360 Video Games (ARV: $2499.99)
(1) Prize - Winning theme will get published by DP
(1) Prize - Winner will receive a royalty payment contract from DP for future content

There are some pretty great themes up there though... go check them out!

Link dump... DELETED!

So I was right in the middle of a huge post of all the people linking to us for the last month... and then my daughter walks over and pushes the button on the computer... nuking the whole thing! Ahhh kids... :) I can't even recreate it because I store them all in my Google Reader (with a star) and as I put them in the blog entry, I take off the star so I know which ones I have blogged about... so I guess this post is lost to the ether!

A special thanks to everyone who linked us! Sorry I can't return the favor this month!

Kitchen Sink Wednesday

Tuesday is normally code night... but we didn't really get anything done because we were fighting a few fires.

1. Sending out all the Feb challenge month prizes
   This is turning out to be a bigger project than we thought... for one, the electronic point system that MS had online was taken down, so we had to fulfill all the prizes for MS points through amazon instead. PAIN! Also, we are having a hard time getting people to send us their addresses so the process keeps dragging. If you won something in Feb for challenge month (from a random drawing, not a challenge) please check your spam folder!
2. Encoding in microblogs
   We are having a problem where some game titles with special characters (At World's End, NCAA, etc) have characters that, when submitted through a microblog, it is breaking people's blogs causing them to appear blank. So for now, please do not microblog a game with a funny character in the title. This includes anything with a registration symbol, trademark symbol, etc. Squidpunch and I spend about 4 hours trying to fix this last night (with help from Syndelin playing At World's End so we could test) and we haven't figured it out... so the battle continues.

In other news, The Xbox 360 Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia is going strong. Voting has not been activated yet... but get your themes up there! There are lots of great ones from the 360voice crowd. Head over, check em out... and plan your voting attack!

On the community front, go check out a fun interview that we did for dieselv2 did for his XBLCommunity site.

1) When did you start getting into gaming and what was your first game?

Fatty Chubs: As long as I can remember, Odyssey 2 was my first console, and I have owned pretty much every console since. My first great gaming obsessions were playing Oregon Trail on the Apple IIe (which is still a good game), and making levels for K.C.’s Krazy Chase on Odyssey 2 (a bizarre clone of both Pac Man and Centipede together).

Squidpunch: I used to play quite a bit on my Atari 2600, Colecovision, as well as some computer games on my TRS-80 that ran from cassette tape, so probably a bit over 20 years or so.

ChangeAgent: I started gaming as soon as I encountered technology. My real first memory of gaming was playing ET for the Atari 2600. I remember thinking it was a beta movie but it was an Atari cartridge instead. After that I jumped from PC to console, online and offline, back and forth through the rest of my life.

Read more

And finally, HeNanigenz 510 is trying to win the world record for biggest gamerscore challenge. If you want to be a part of history (and possible break the challenge feature!) join up! Here is the info:

Come one come all for the first of many Big Fracking Challenges or BFC. 30 days of over a 100 gamers is looking to build the biggest gamer challenge ever. Currently the challenge is the biggest to date on 360voice and they hope pass over the 200 mark before the start time.

ETA launch: March 21st 11:55pm Pacific standard time.

If you would like to join this huge challenge and possible world record (6 comments down) please click here.

Rules: Just log on your 360 on March 20th and please no game saving. All gamer scores are welcome. Any questions or comments check out the forum thread here.

So there you have it... the kitchen sink... drink water from it... and be merry!

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

Xbox 360 Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia.

360voice is proud to be be a partner with Disruptive Publishers in the Xbox 360 Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia!

If you have been saying, "Wow... I can create a better dashboard theme than that!" well, here is your chance! Create your theme... the community will vote on the best one. The winner gets all sorts of great stuff! (prizes, fame, fortune, etc.)

The official press release (PDF)

Here is how it will work. Read this!

1. Visit www.my360theme.com to participate in the Xbox 360 Content Creation Challenge presented by Nokia.
2. Register to submit themes as well as to vote (registration is free). Make sure you affiliate your self with 360voice!!
3. Upon registration, you will find detailed instructions and a content template.
4. Once material has been created to the proper specs, upload it!
5. After review, the content will appear in the community gallery.
6. The community votes to determine top content.
7. At the end of the contest period, the winning entries will be published to Xbox LIVE Marketplace, with the top overall theme (based on # of votes) receiving a grand prize package (HDTV home theater, games) plus a publishing contract with DP!
8. In addition, the community (360voice!) with the highest score will receive additional prizes that we can give away to you all!

So head over there... sign up... create themes... start voting! Not only are you all individually competing to have your theme posted to Xbox Live, but we are up against some other great communities to see who can bring home the trophy of most active community! Here are the other partners:

1. 360style.net
2. 360sync
3. Evil Avatar
4. Hawty McBloggy
5. Platform Nation
6. The10k.com
7. Unscripted 360
8. Xbox Addict

This should be a lot of fun. Make sure you check out the Community Showcase forum. I have stickied a thread for people to post about the themes they have created. So go make some themes!

Member of the moment: SoupyC

(posted on behalf of Syndelin and Mr. Achievement)

I'm not sure what these postcard nominations are all about, but this one came in with a picture of the Queen on it, or is it a potato?  Well, either way, it had SoupyC scrawled along the back of it!

Congratulations, SoupyC, you are our Member of the Moment!   We know a little about SoupyC, since he's been hanging around posting like crazy in our forums for quite awhile now.  He seems to split his time between the UK and Ireland, so we know he probably owns an umbrella!   We know he's a handsome bloke, thanks to our recent "faces" thread.  We all know that he is an amazingly nice guy, and we love having him around.  We also know that he likes to put up side challenges with other members of our community.   Will SoupyC or dieselv2 get 10 completed retail games first?!   The world may never know...   so we decided to ask a few questions that we can get some answers to for certain.

How long have you been gaming?
I'm now 20, and have been gaming for about 16 years! It seems scary when I think I've been gaming over three quarters of my life but it also makes sense given the amount I game now, lol!

What was the first game that you played and what drew you into gaming in general?
Woah that's a long time ago... Ummm, I think it was a game I had for an Amstrad CPC 464. Check here to see what that is! The thing is, I don't remember the name of the game, just that the object was to run across bridges, from one corner of the screen to the opposite, and the bridges raised and lowered...was fun when I was 4, lol! What really drew me into gaming was my Amiga A1200. I had LOADS of games for it (all legit of course *cough*) and I would spend every free minute of the day before and after school playing on it. I played SWOS a lot on it, and was pleased to see it recently released as an XBLA game! Other favourite games of mine were Lemmings, Wings of Fury and Super Cars II. Ohhh...what a system it was! =D

What brought you to 360voice, and what do you think is the best feature of the site?
I was told about it by a friend (Bill00) in university and thought it sounded decent. Checked it out, signed up for the blog...all was good. Then I met the forums, which he never did, and I've been here since, sometimes more frequently than others!

The challenges are a GREAT feature, and they're actually what made me come back after a period of absence. It was the e-mail that let me know I got to be in the beta (Red Rabbit FTW!!) that attracted me back and but getting back into the community has kept me here, and it is definitely the best feature on the site. The people are friendly, helpful, witty and insane...but so is every family, right? It's the family atmosphere that makes it great!

I see you had a 100 day streak, what ended it?  What were some of the efforts that you made to keep it going?
Arrghh...don't remind me, lol! I was going on vacation for a week in Spain and up until 2 nights before leaving I was planning on taking the 360 with me. My girlfriend decided that wasn't happening, so I raced to find another solution. My answer was her brother...I told him he could borrow my 360 as long as he kept my streak going, I walked him through it, even made him do it for me, I was confident it was secure. I checked my blog after a few days and almost cried! =( Confused I phoned him and asked what happened. He thought he'd done everything right and was confused himself. It was only when I returned that I discovered he had forgot to turn the router on, and when it said I'd been signed in (not to Live) he thought he had done his part.

I don't mind though, 100 days was my ultimate aim...and now my aim is to beat the previous highest, every time I break it. We'll see how that goes! ;)

Is there anything that you would like to see on 3v that isn't already here?
Not really to be honest! Everything is pretty sweet as is. I would like to see some form of LiveEye-esque data now that squidpunch is part of the dev team, but I understand why the concept of LiveEye is hard to achieve with the Microsoft data, so I'm not too bothered. And apart from that I'm just awaiting the arrival of Badges 2.0...that'll be sweet! =D

When did you sign up for live?
I signed up for it when I had my original Xbox. I think it would've been October 2004 but can't be sure. I think at the time the 360 wasn't released, yet I also know that I didn't get a 360 at launch. I transferred my live account from my xbox to my 360 when I did get one.

What is your game setup?
I actually have 2 setups. One, is a 32" Hannspree XV (cheap HDTV flat screen with GREAT quality!) with a 360 Core system through component cables and the other a 20" Goodmans HDTV with a 360 Premium system through component. I also have 2 wireless controllers, one wired controller, a chatpad, 3 headsets, 20Gb Hard Drive (which I share depending which setup I am using), Live Vision camera and a media remote. Not exactly 'top notch' but it does for me! Plus, next year I'm hoping to make my room more 'gaming' orientated. That means new furniture and sound system! =)

What other systems, if any, do you own?
I have ownED a lot of systems in the past but currently I own 2 Xbox 360's, a PlayStation 1&2 and a Nintendo DS. I never play the PlayStations anymore, they're just accumulate space at the moment. I play the DS quite regularly but mainly that's because it's quite new. I bought it when I was in Spain and I missed gaming, lol! That's what 100 days solid will do to you, lol!

What's your favorite feature on Xbox LIVE?
I guess Friends Management (I say management because it includes a lot of things!) I like having a list of Friends that I can quickly see what they're all doing, or what they were last doing, and I like the new Friends of Friends facility.

You have 123 played games in your 3v list. What games that you have played in this last year really stand out for you, and why?
I had a lot of time for the Guitar Hero series and Mass Effect this year. I had played friend's copies of Guitar Hero 1 & 2 on the PS2 before and loved the idea of it, so when 360 versions were released I knew I had to have it! Great fun to play at any time and one of those games you can just pick up, play, and set down again. Will be a firm favourite of mine until Rock Band is released for me! Mass Effect was interesting to me as I wasn't previously into RPG games but this one sucked me in. The only reason I got out of it was challenges and the fact that I wasn't earning very many points for it, but I want to go back and finish some more playthroughs sometime soon!

Do you own or rent games for the most part?
Own the most, but starting to rent more recently. I subscribe to LoveFilm (UK based online rental company) and they started to offer 360 games not so long ago. I've had a few from them but most of the games I've played I've owned. Not really a fan of trading games until recently either, but the amount of new games and lack of money to spend on them has led me down that path!

Any must-have titles for 2008, or ones that you have played already this year that you think will take the title of "game of the year" for you?
I think GTA IV will take game of 2008 for me simply because I love the series. I've played every one since the original on the PS1 and can't get enough of them. They developed my love for sandbox games and with each new one I look forward to it more and more. Now, that they're releasing the next one on my favourite console (360 of course!) I'm over the moon! Bring on April 29th...

I see you have participated in quite a few challenges, and even won a few! What do you feel is the best part of the challenges feature?
Seeing the progression daily is great fun. The LiveScore feature that was added has really helped improve the experience but checking in each day to see what gain the others are putting up is fun. I always check it out and think "Hmmm...what could I play to help me overtake him" etc. They really bring a whole new perspective to gaming and deciding what to play!

When you aren't in a challenge, do you play for points... or fun?
I play a lot for points I'm ashamed to admit...but to me, points=fun! I love the feeling when you unlock an achievement that you've been aiming for and what's more fun is unlocking an achievement that you weren't expecting...always great! I do play a lot for fun, especially when playing with friends online. I don't care much for online achievements to be honest.

What is the Achievement are most proud of?
Probably finding the agility and hidden orbs in Crackdown. It's probably my favourite 360 title to date and the fact that I actually found all but 7 of the agility orbs WITHOUT a map makes me proud. For the hidden I think I found over 240 before a map but I can't really remember!

Is there a feature you would like to see in the next Xbox 360 System Update?
Group Private Chat! That's all...if that was the only feature in the next update I'd be over the moon! =D I don't understand why they haven't got it already but they better get it sorted soon, lol! They actually put my second favourite request in last time with DivX support. Boy that saved me a lot of encoding, lol!

Is there anything else that you would like to add, or that you would like the community to know about you?
I live in Northern Ireland. It's an awesome wee country! Come visit sometime, lol! Apart from that I don't think I should talk anymore...I might have said a tad too much already, lol! Just keep being the awesome people you all are! =D

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!

Super have code night Tuesday action time!

The three-voice boys jumped on Skype... and worked on stuff... the list of stuff is here:

1. Watcher List detail added
   Remember that sweet detail table for your watchlist? Squid applied it to your watchers as well.
2. Your tag added to watchers and watchlist detail
   As requested from the forums, the watch list and watcher list detail pages now include the blog owners tag to compare - its colored green. This is pretty cool because you can sort the table all sorts of ways and see where you fall against your watchlist.
3. 360voice.challenge.details supports tag!
   You can now pass a gamertag into the challenge details web service and it will return you back details on the most recent completed or currently active challenge.
4. Mutual Watch List comments changed to ALL WATCHERS
   Unlock the spam flood gates people... you can now leave a watcher comment for everyone who is watching you. We use to restrict it to only mutual watchers, but now you can blast anyone who is pointing one of their limited watcher spots in your direction! Don't spam too much or you may find yourself losing watchers!
5. # of comments displayed on forum card is unique only!
   We didn't want the number of watcher comments you send to skew how many actual comments you have left... so we are now only displaying the number of unique comments. So you might see your number shattered if you are the kind of person who used CTRL-V comments in the past, or lots of mutual watcher comments.
6. Added a "RESPOND" link on the comments of your blog
   Anyone that leaves you a comment on your blog, will get a little respond link so you can quickly jump to their comment form and leave your own comment. It takes out the number of clicks to do this.
7. Stat for % of 360voice members who play a game added
   A new stat was added to every game page... it will now tell you what percentage of 360voice members have played that title. Check out COD4 for an example... it shows over 56% of 360V members have played that.
8. Fixed the gamerscore distribution charts to be accurate!
   For all the games, if you view the gamerscore distribution chart it will now properly reflect downloadable content. Check out Oblivion as an example.

Fatty Chubs also squeaked in some genre badge updates. We know how you love (hate) those!!

RPG - Added Lost Odyssey
Social - Added Chessmaster Live
Puzzle - Added Poker Smash
Family - Added Spiderwick Chronicles
Strategy - Added Commanders: Attack
Retro - Added Discs of Tron

There are also assorted performance tweaks... code clean up... support emails, etc. But these are the big things!

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

More Detailed Watching

In addition to the two watchlist community tools (watchlist history tool, and watchlist latest blog entries) that we mentioned on Podcast Episode #3, we had one of our own in the works!  One that is online and available to you all.  If you notice in the watchlist gadget (on the right of your blog) you now should see a little entry at the bottom that says "check out [your tag]'s detailed watch list".  We might find a better place for the link or change the wording, but for now thats how you access this new feature.  This is a link that all users can now look a nice little table of all your watchers, and some various stats on those gamertags you have chosen to watch.  I should alos mention that on this table each of the headers (except gamertile) can be clicked and sorted.

3 w00ts for random Sunday feature releases!  As always click the title to leave a comment, and enjoy!

360voice Community Podcast - Episode 03

Episode number three is here. Sargonas couldn't join us this week, so it is just the 360voice admins. I am getting a better hang of the audio quality I think... each week is a learning experience. But we are all having fun with it. I hope you are too. Enjoy!


MP3 File

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

Show Notes:

Introductions

What is everyone playing. (Tabula Rasa much?)

What are we working on?

1. Microblogging announced.
2. Watchlist enhancements coming soon.
3. Challenge Month concludes.

From the community:

1. iphone360voice - Forum Thread

2. Syndelin History of Watch List

3. TX Eegras Challenge Image - Forum Thread

4. Thehypogecko watch list latest entries - Forum Thread

5. GCDesigner - Make your own gamercards! Check out the 360voice ones!
   (Correction from podcast, discovered by HeNaniGenz 510)

360voice 101 (Everything you didn't know about the games page!)

If you have anything you want covered in a future podcast... like a 360voice 101 suggestion or maybe a new feature idea, email us at mail@360voice.com. You can also click the title of this post to leave a comment.

Encoding issues

The feed that we are using for the microblogging, the same one that shows your online status, is giving us some encoding issues...meaning that some parts of the game titles are coming through corrupted. This causes the blogs to break. We are working on it... but encoding is the most difficult problem to track down... so you might see some funky things in your blog. Just wanted to warn you.

Your Xbox can Microblog

We are rolling out a new feature today... one you might have seen some people beta-testing for us... it is called microblogging. You can go to your Xbox blog while playing any retail title, arcade title, or demo/beta and submit a real-time comment that will be pushed immediately to your blog. It looks like:

This really comes from a desire to make the blogs a little more active than once per day. The idea was stimulated when I was playing Guitar Hero III and I completed a song on Hard that I had been trying to beat and I wanted to tell the 360voice world about it and I had to wait until my blog entry the next day to do it... now you can do it in real time!

With the launch of this feature, there is another added benefit, you can lock in a streak!

Are you obsessed with your streak badge? Do you want to do everything you can to keep it? Well now you can put in a game or demo, submit a microblog entry, and your streak will be saved! This next part is very important:

With the launch of microblogs we will no longer be reseting streaks for any reason.

With the microblogging you have the ability to lock in a game manually! We are putting the power to keep your streak directly in your hands!! Take the power! Learn it! Love it! Use it!

(As always we are open to feedback, click the title of this post to leave a comment!)

Member of the Moment: ZeroDesolation

(posted on behalf of Syndelin and Mr. Achievement)

This selection of Member of the Moment was not made by Area-51 Alien Hostages or World Leaders. This one came down from the Highest of all places... Mount Everest. We still can't figure out who mailed the Postcard, but we rolled with it anyways!

Congratulations, ZeroDesolation! (Who has also been known to go by the name Jeffrey Klepper.) He is a 30-year old proud Father (of 2 daughters) and Husband. He currently is employed as an IT Specialist for Boeing. He is from South Carolina and enjoys watching Panther Games and NASCAR Races when he has a chance. He has been a loyal and Active User here at 360voice since January 27, 2007... although his 360 has been blogging here for about 6 weeks longer. Zero has found ways to make many friends and even mounted an effort of Activity last Month that pushed him into the Top 5 on the "Most Popular Blogs" for last month. Congrats on that accomplishment too, Zero!

...on to the questions!

How long have you been gaming?
I'm guessing a little over 20 years now.

What was the first game that you played and what drew you into gaming in general?
Well the first game I remember playing was Contra over at a cousin's house.  I was so wrapped up in playing that game that I didn't want to leave when it was time to go home.  I don't own a NES anymore but I still own that game.

What brought you to 360voice, and what do you think is the best feature of the site?
Xbox.com brought me here believe it or not.  There was a link on the site to here about making your 360 blog and I wanted to see what it was all about. Comments are the best feature on this site to me.  I talk and leave so many comments right now to friends, new people, random people I pick out of the air, etc...  If it didn't show my total in the forum for my comments made (over 5000), I wouldn't believe it myself.

I see you had a 136 day streak, what ended it? What was the first thing you thought when you realized it was over?
Yeah, I lost my streak because I had to move and the cable company really messed up my transfer.  They cut off my service at both locations and not just at one.  I really hated to lose it but the fact I made it that long is an accomplishment. My first thought was how to get the cable company to refund me my money since they made me lose my streak.  They wouldn't budge on owing me 136 days of cable service to make up my lost time.  8(

Is there anything that you would like to see on 3v that isn't already here?
It has been discussed already in the forums but I would love to see team challenges with the new challenge system in place.  That would just be so much fun and open so many more possibilities.

When did you sign up for live?
About 4 months after I bought my Xbox 360, so Sept 2006 I believe is right.

What is your game setup? When do you most often game?
I own a Samsung 55in HDTV using the HD cables running at 1080i.  I'm hoping to upgrade to a flat panel with 1080p by the end of the year if things work out. I mainly game at night after I spend time with my wife and 2 daughters.

What other systems, if any, do you own?
I own a Wii (Wife's console) and the 3 Nintendo DS's.  Which a 4th will come along with the baby is old enough to play.  8)

What's your favorite feature on Xbox LIVE?
The core of it.  Being online with friends playing games without having to be in the same room as each other to play.

You have 88 played games in your 3v list. What games that you have played in this last year really stand out for you, and why?
COD4 of course, it's game of the year.  GRAW2 is still one of my favorite games, it is just a fun game to play with your friends whether co-op or deathmatch.  I really enjoy playing Carcassonne from the arcade games and just helping people get 200 points in it.  Scene-It! is my friends and family game.  It's so much fun when company comes over.  If that would have been over LIVE, I probably would have played it every day.

So do you have a big collection of games?
I own around 15-20 games but I'm not big into collecting them anymore like I use too in the past.  I'm becoming more focused on buying games I know I will play over and over again that I would want to keep.  Games should hold their value more and not drop in price 2 months after it comes out.  So I either rent games now or trade the ones I buy back in with in 1-2 months of owning them so they have a high trade in value to get some of my money back to put towards the next game I plan to purchase.  That way I don't lose out too much if the game isn't really that good or worth keeping.

Any must-have titles for 2008?
Army of Two has caught my eye so far.  I usually play it month by month for new releases though.

I see you have the HTTK badge.  What do you feel is the best part of the challenges?
The competition is by far the best thing ever.  One word of smack and someone might lay the smack down back on you making you think, "Why did I make that comment".  It's so much fun trying to win whether it's first or just to do beat another person in the challenge for a personal win.

When you aren't in a challenge, do you play for points... or fun?
Well right now I've made a side challenge to Davem3 TF to see who can get to 85% first.  So I'm all about points right now but I still play for fun as well.  I will however stop at anytime to help someone out if they need help in a game as well.

What is the Achievement are most proud of?
I don't have a specific achievement but every ding I hear, I'm happy.

If MS moved all online games to PC/360 Cross-platform... Would you continue to play on a 360?
Without a doubt.  I like having a console that doesn't need upgrading each time a new game comes out.

Is there a feature you would like to see in the next Xbox 360 System Update?
I really wish they would expand the 100 names list because 100 isn't enough anymore.  I keep having to delete people off now.  That or fix the private chats so that you can talk to a group of people and not just one person at a time.

Is there anything that you would like to add, or that you would like the community to know about you?
I'm a family man so my family always comes first.  Which is why I always get on and play late at night.  I love getting comments on my 360's blog from gamers and I always leave a return comment back on there blogs as well.  In which I make even more great friends through this site every day.

Last Words?
This is one of the best sites I have ever been on.  I've never been so wrapped up in a web site this much my entire life.  I check this site any free chance I get in between family and work.  I can't wait to see what they come up with next.  GO 360V!

That's some good stuff. Thanks for your time, ZeroDesolation. You are one of the many reasons that 360voice is such a great place to be a part of.

Most Popular Blogs for February 2008

Man... I totally forgot to post this! Thanks to Slim Pizza Boy for reminding me! Here it is... the most popular blogs from Feb 2008:

(* means their blog comments are enabled)

1. jcnet *
2. Major Nelson
3. the dren *
4. ZeroDesolation *
5. StripClubDj
6. GameSpotting *
7. Mr Achievement *
8. Fshguy *
9. Stallion83 *
10. Davem3 TF *
11. ChangeAgent *
12. porschephiliac *
13. Mightymango *
14. PSonic *
15. Jack Burton 78 *
16. SheNaniGenz 510 *
17. General Tynstar *
18. FragEmAndSmile *
19. Disbron *
20. housemdfan *

Not a ton of new faces... a few... Bring on the battle of March!

Final Challenge Month Winners

Challenge month is now over, and we have the last week of winners to announce.

Lets run down the daily point winners,

2/22: AquaRed
2/23: ShamefulFungus
2/24: Mental Politics
2/25: DempSee
2/26: juggalo1987
2/27: PrincessOats
2/28: DeadAim 007
2/29: smrmom

Each of those folks will be netting a cool 1000 Microsoft points for just being in challenges!  Next up is our personal pick, this week we picked the very last person to make it into a challenge in February.

skullz8 - In The Sub 10,000 Challenge

He was the last person to join a challenge before february was over, we thought that would be a fun little stat for the Tshirt this week.

Finally the big winner of the week... we randomly picked one name out of everyone that participated in a challenge this week to take home a customized Zune 80!  And that person is...

rice md!
(w00t!  CONGRATS!!!)

Thanks for participating everyone!  If you won a prize you will receive an e-mail from us in the next 48 hours for claim information.

Challenge Month has come to a close!

As you may or may not have known, February was Challenge Month... we launched the auto-challenges, we gave away tons of MS points, Zune Music players, T-shirts... and much fun was had by all. We will be posting a big recap of all the winners and everything as soon as we work through everything.

A special thanks to everyone for making gamerscore challenges a success. We know the system isn't perfect (we do the best with the data we get), and there have been some emotions running high, but largely we see people having a good time, duking it out with their friends for fun and prizes.

As you might also notice, the available prizes are slowly dissapearing from the system. At this time there are no plans to extend the prizes... so soon all the challenges will be for bragging rights only... this is not a total loss because you can still have fun with your friends and earn Challenge Score in the leaderboard and for the challenge badges!

So thanks again everyone. It has been a busy February. I hope everyone that won is happy and even if you didn't win, I hope you at least had a good time. As always, we listen to all your feedback, so feel free to leave it!