360voice Dev Blog

Jobs Delayed

UPDATE 3:40PM EST:  Things are somewhat back on track.  Comments and stuff should be caught up and appearing in real time.  Blogs are starting to show up now as well.  Rivalries should be cleaned up, other then showing multiple blog entries which needs fixed.  If you see anything else off let us know.  Badges will not run today.

Jobs are delayed today.  Had a small error, so fixing and rerunning everything.  Comments on blogs may not appear for a while as things are getting caught up.  Will let folks know when things are back on track.

Top 20 Most Popular Blogs - June 2009

Here they are... your Top 20 most popular 360voice blogs for June 2009. Oh snap!

* means comments enabled. Go say congrats!

1. dakisbac x360a *
2. the dren *
3. PSonic *
4. Kornfan2007 *
5. Vader XXX
6. Stallion83 *
7. xxx TAMMY xxx
8. Fshguy *
9. Velocity Exe
10. Major Nelson
11. Dog of Thunder *
12. t4nd4r *
13. XxSexy Ag3ntxX
14. ZOIG
15. Mightymango *
16. sekes
17. CaptainKicker *
18. Jon CJG
19. SPEEDY G60
20. Cheevo Hunter *

Oh snap! Some new faces!

Site Updates on Track

We have been running updates on the DB and site, to get in additional data on games to work through out the site.  We haven't been able to do this in the past due to the shear size of several years worth of data that needed updated.

However with some additional servers and helping hands, we are working on updating all our tables to include the new information.  When finalized we will have additional resolution on what version of a game you are playing, so Fallout 3 PC versus Xbox, or different regions of games with the same title.  It will also fix any duplicate game name problems or game name changes like "Call of Duty: World at War".  It should help us in a lot of areas of the site as well.

Also working with some 3VCE's and finishing up some tools for rapid badge updating.  It has to happen after the updates, so it is actually a few more weeks out, but we can maybe do some stuff in the meantime to keep things moving on that front.

Hopefully once we are through the big changes, we can respond a lot quicker to site needs, so it should be a lot of fun!

No Blogs Today and Some Downtime

UPDATE 7:08PM EST - Site is back up and running, let me know if you run into anything strange.

UPDATE 6:22PM EST - Site is coming down, should be less then an hour.  Will post when we are back up. 

Because of the 24 hour outage of Xbox Live Yesterday, there will be no blogs published today. Everyone's streak will be fine as yesterday will not be counted. Blogs will resume tomorrow as normally scheduled.

Sometime today we are going to have to take the site down completely for the maintenance. I can't say when exactly and how long. We are running some scripts and changes to get things in order, and they need to run a bit longer to get a sense of how long we will need to shut down. When I know more I will update this entry.

Let us know if you have any questions on effects of the live outage, or the outage here. I am hoping to get some gaming in tonight, hopefully a little Sacred 2, Magic the Gathering or 1 vs 100.

Xbox Live Downtime - June 16th

Xbox Live is going down for some scheduled maintenance on June 16th at 12:01AM PST, for around 24 hours.  This will effect 360voice in a few ways. First on Monday June 15th, we might miss your gameplay if you are playing a game after 10:30PM PST. Second, we will record no gameplay on the 16th because of the outage, so you will not get a blog or updates for your gameplay (or lack there of) on the 16th.  You will get a free streak day on the 16th.

If the outage is more then 24 hours, we will account for that as well, so we will update as we know more.  Additional we may schedule some DB maintenance for the site.  If this is the case we will let you know about any potential downtime.

For those following the Xbox Live update, it will not bring any new features, but is preparing for all the fun stuff coming this fall, like Twitter and On Demand HD movies.  I am looking forward to this personally, so I wish the Xbox team luck!

Badges off today, updates inbound.

Badges are not going to run in full today. We are doing a bit of table maintenance in the DB, and I need to test a small change to the badge code.

We are taking this opportunity to roll out a new collection and a new genre. The collection is "The Great Outdoors" and the genre is "Top Gun". What won't be included in this update, is any updates to current genres. There are some steps into streamlining that, so expect a possible update to that in about 3 weeks.

Thanks for everyone's patience on the badge updates, discussion/feedback as always is recommended.

Update 06-10-2009 08:40AM EST: Sorry for the delay in the blogs yesterday, didn't realize table maintenance would slow them down so much.  On track to get badges back up and running today.

Member of the moment: Dog of Thunder

Posted on behalf of t4nd4r

One night, when Dog of Thunder (also sometimes known as Jonathon Klotz) went to sleep, he forgot to turn his Xbox360 off.  I immediately took the once in a lifetime opportunity to invite it into a party chat and speak directly to the device to find out every little secret about DoT (Dog of Thunder).  The super secret mission was a success, and I am now able to submit all my findings back to headquarters.  Being dormant for so long, with no one to talk to besides Hitomi figurines, it had A LOT to say.

It has come to my attention that not many people know you, could you give us some interesting facts about you that could help enlighten others? Do you have a nickname, and if you don't, what would it be?
I know him kid, better then he knows himself. I know him because I’m his 360. Every now and then he pops into my office, spins up something exotic, and then leaves me high and dry, but that’s alright, closer you get to people, more likely you are to be hurt. I should know. Happened to me. 

He talks around me like I’m a fly on the wall, that’s how I get my information. Word on the street, mutterings of sad broken men disillusioned with the city life, tell me that Dog came from Boston. He’s a mick. Great. That information went through me like a loaded locomotive on its way to destination nowhere. This poor sap used to be the Senior Patrol Leader of his Boy Scout troop when he grew up in a two story home, with a cocker spaniel and a younger brother. Makes me sick how perfect it was. Life ain’t perfect. It’s unforgiving, harsh, just like women but not like my best friend, Jack. Been through a lot of things, me and Jack, and if the rest of your questions are like this, then Jack and me are gonna have a fun time tonight. 

Do you currently have a job? Or are you a full-time 360Voice member (*cough* Community Expert*cough*)?
Oh Dog’s got a job, he’s a librarian for a southern, state run university. Valdosta state or something. Librarian? Sissy. That’s a job for women, but it takes all kinds don’t it? Bein’ a keeper of ancient knowledge, that’s something, but telling me you wear the pants while holding down that job? Don’t know why he’s an “expert” in anything. He’s a self-styled expert on some ancient dead guy, Alexander something, once wrote a professional piece on him and all. I won’t admit it, but Dog does know his stuff. Smart enough not to make the same mistakes I did.
 
Do you have a wife/fiance/girlfriend/family, or do all those DOAX2 posters keep you company?
He’s got himself a broad. Dangerous dame with some dangerous curves. Met her while he was at college and the poor sap took the cow home with him. Women are trouble. Bad news. She got him hooked on some underground thing, something called Vampire: The Masquerade, a little Dungeons and Dragons, can’t trust a dame that plays role playing games if you ask me. 

The capital of your state is Atlanta, and The Little White House, at the city of Warm Springs, was built for the use of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He died there, and the structure and grounds, including a museum, now serve as a memorial in his honor.  Do you ever visit this area?
I’ll tell you what a real memorial is. It’s knowing that’s what you are. I know I’m his second console. His first went insane, destroyed itself instead of playing that bikini volleyball crap again. Another time, another place, that could’ve been me. I was sitting on the bench, waiting for my shot at the big time, and when Dog walked in with his handful of horrible games that only he would be fool enough to play, I knew he was looking for something big. I got pulled off of the shelf and into his life. But I know I wasn’t his first pick. I tell myself that’s unimportant, I just do my job but when I’m alone at night, it takes my good friend Jack to remind me that I can keep going.

Georgia was the first state to allow 18-year-olds to vote, how did this impact your life?
Listen kiddo, you know what happens when 18 year olds are allowed to decide anything? Nothin’ good. Know what Dog was doing at 18? He was the getaway driver. Him and his jet black, ’98 Volkswagon Golf. Blended in with the shadows of suburbia that conceal all the darkness of the human soul. He and his buddies would pile in when the Fuzz came in to break up their parties. Dog was good at it to. Never got caught. Then again, the rule of the city is that if you were on the track team and the Fuzz caught you, you were off the team. I tell you, every track star should be able to outrun the Fuzz. Dog though? He wasn’t a star. Captain of JV is just the head loser. Poor guy. 

How did you come across 360Voice? What keeps bringing you back?
I’d tell you that the sky opened up, a beam of light shone down and he heard voices telling him to come join the site, but then I hate liars. I hate the truth too, can’t handle the truth myself, but the sordid saga begins and ends with a thread on xbox360achievements.org that caught his greedy, wandering eye. As if one site wasn’t enough for him, he clicked that cursed link and saw a post by a HxS F4t1l1ty that changed the poor boy’s life forever. He and his first console saw the blogs, signed up and I guess they had some good times together, some laughs. Not me. I keep coming back because this is all I know. It’s a good life, a good site, but sometimes I wonder what else is out there. I figure it ain’t as good as what I got, so I stick around, all the ups and downs like an origami schooner going down the Hudson. 
 
What are your favorite parts about 360Voice, and what are things that you would change, if any?
I love getting the scoop from the other 360’s, especially that one guy’s, Ichya Paradise, and hearing about some golden bikini the guy wears. Makes me feel lucky that Dog is normal. Can’t beat the community here, but sometimes, I think Dog wants to beat me. He gets this crazy look in his eye, like a man caught staring into the abyss of his soul long enough that the abyss stares back. He starts talking about some “Badges” and wanders off for days. I don’t know what he does, but he always comes back happy and drops some crimson colored plastic gloves into the circular file. Knowledge is dangerous, and knowing what he does when he wanders off, muttering “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges” to himself…well knowing what he does is dangerous. 
 
Out of everyone in the community, is there anyone you would be interested in meeting, maybe even going to brunch with?
I keep telling Dog we should get out, see the sights, leave behind this murderously mundane existence and hit the road. Almost came across Fshguy earlier this year when he passed through Valdosta, but that was the same day Dog was passing through Tampa. Brunch though, that’s sissy talk. I’d kick back a sake with Ichya Paradise’s console. Japan is the holy land for pale, balding men that love giant fighting robots. Never could understand that country myself. Dignified, respectful culture until you open a book. Some things once seen, cannot be unseen.

You recently had your 1 year anniversary on the site, and also received a 3VCE (360Voice community experts) badge on the same day! Congratulations! What kind of power does this give you, and can you walk us through a day in a 3VCE person's shoes?
Dog has power? HA! He can barely find my power button. There are other spots I hear he has trouble finding, but his daily life is a succession of common complaints with no easy solution. Life has no easy solutions and you can only tell someone so many times how to turn on their console each day. Every day it’s someone new. How hard is it to take off your clothes and run around in public? Sometimes Dog will turn me on and he’ll have a bunch of messages, waiting for him like coiled vipers that suddenly strike and cause him to mutter about those “Badges” again as he grabs his sledgehammer of plot and heads outside. I ignore the screams and just smile when he comes back in. 
 
Seems like you are pretty popular on the site, with 213 people currently watching your blog, how do you keep them all satisfied? Do you have multiple accounts to watch them all back?
Time is like a swift, flowing river, catching us in the stream and never letting go until we’re dash against one rock too many and break like a fragile porcelain doll. Or Mr. Kennedy. I already have 215 watchers, making me the 9th Most Watched Console on the site. Know what it’s like having a target on your back? Knowing all these people are constantly watching your every move? Hanging on your every flowery word? Can’t keep them all satisfied. Dog can barely keep his wife satisfied. If someone starts barking, he’ll throw them a bone and returning the watching, but if they don’t? He just lets a sleeping dog lie. Ha. Dog lets sleeping dogs lie. I need a drink. 

The longest streak you had was 58 days, are you not the kind of person who likes to streak? Or did PSonic's clones get to you too?
What sort of sick person likes to streak? Besides those New Zealanders, just admit you’re Aussies and get over it. Streaking is like completion, some consoles like it, but I don’t. Never did. Marched to the beat of a different drummer all my life. Never thought it would be Tommy Lee. Dog likes to punish himself, playing these weird, Japanese games. Dead or Alive Extreme 2, Katamari, some WarTECH thing. He likes going where no man has gone before, but it’s a shame this Dacoto character beats him to the punch. Chasing the dream of a 2.0 TrueAchievement Ratio. Chasing the Dragon more like it. 
 
You think Ignorant Quarrel will ever have a day the site recognizes him playing? Or is that a known *issue* that was programmed?
Dog is insane, but that IgnorantQuarrel character? He’s loco. Boy can’t find the power button? Shouldn’t be allowed to operate heavy machinery. I think the site keeps him off so he doesn’t drag us all into his web of insanity like a mad Malkavian harnessing the Malkavian Madness Network and listening to a lizard tell him that Cain is alive or something. 

Badges that caught my eye on your blog include the oddball and fighting 1-star, how long did it take to get those?  I also heard from sources that you are competing in a challenge to see who can earn the 3-star oddball badge the fastest... think you can win?
Dog and I were racing. And we won. Easy to win when you’re the one dog in the race. Oddball, Fighting, Strategy, Dog wants them more then he wants the comfort of a good woman. Those badges are addictive and dangerous, corrupting influences on a once good man. Used to be he’d play good games, but now? Now he plays crap. Stinkin’ badges. 

Doing everything you do, how do you find time to complete a full Dumpster Diving review every couple weeks (sometimes even weekly!)?
Lemme let you in on a secret. All he does is write some bad puns, make a pop culture reference and post a picture. That’s not effort, that’s not creative. Creative would be if he imagined his Xbox 360 as a hard boiled private detective from a horrible film noir. That would be creative and take some time, but those reviews? Piece of cake. Cake is a lie and not very satisfying so I hear he’s planning something bigger, better and more bad-ass for the future. Something about movies and reviewing every fighting game ever made at the same time. But what do I know? I’m just a hard boiled Xbox 360. 

Tell me honestly, how did you get involved with DOAX2, how many countless hours have you put in it, and what has been your source of motivation for completing it legitly (not using the gambling trick)? 
I’ve had to endure that disc spinning in me for over 150 hours so far. Know what started it? Failure. That’s what starts all great men on their path to greatness. Think if Spider-Man had stopped that burglar, he’d be Spider-Man today? Of course not. Dog was a failure with a measly 10k gamer score after 10 months of running his first console. Wanted to do something big, something to be remembered. That’s what we all want isn’t it? To be remembered? Someone to cry when we’re gone. My buddy Jack, he’ll cry for me. Jimmy and Johnny too. But that’s what spurred Dog on this crazy quest. To be remembered for being one crazy bastard. Have you noticed FarCry 2 multiplayer? WarTECH? Or the horrible abominations that are Spectral Force 3 and Operation Darkness? Dog gets motivated by horrible, horrible games.

Have you ever considered making a leather-bound book out of all your reviews? 
Remember what I said about knowledge kiddo? You like the leather I take it. That’s all right, we all have our demons. I hear that Dog’s planning something beyond a book. Something about a capture card and editing software.

You are currently participating in the Fshguy's MegaChallenge #2, and I can see you from high atop my 1st place throne, do you think your position will increase from 137th?
Son listen, from what I hear Dog has half the site convinced you’re a dirty dame named Tiffany. That your stage name sweetheart? There’s other ways to win besides being number one. Life has real winners and real losers, and sometimes, we get a little dirty getting there.  

Do you play your games for fun or completion?  Or even a bit of both?
Dog gets a kick out of being a clown, here to amuse you, part of the reason he plays such horrible games. His suffering is someone else’s fun, which I won’t touch with a twenty foot pole. Never did like Freud. Made my head hurt like a symphony of jackhammers working their way to Beijing via my cranium. 
 
How long have you been gaming, and if you can remember, what was your first game (arcade included)?
My first game was Dead or Alive Extreme 2. Dog needed his fix, like a dog eying the fire hydrant. His first game? Super Maro Bros. for the NES of course, but his first love? That would be Dragon Warrior 3. His uncle got him into those RPGs, which are just gateway games into other more horrible genres. Like bikini beach volleyball, wrestling or Foosball. 

What is your gaming setup like, and how many hours a week do you play?
I sit next to a Warhammer box. Ogre Kingdoms Army Box actually. Right above me is his 28” LCD HDTV which hooks right into his computer. It’s a sad little setup, but Dog doesn’t spend much. He turns me on, fiddles with my joysticks, all in high-definition. 

I'm selling magazine subscriptions to help pay for my college tuition, how many can I put you down for? We have DOAX2.....DOA4....Rumble Roses XX.....Onichanbara...X-Blades... all monthly issues for a low price of $9.99 each!
If you get your jollies from looking at Japanese schoolgirls, then good for you. Dog doesn’t watch Sailor Moon or anything like that, and just because his twitter icon is that Hitomi dame from DoA, his forum signature has the Kokoro broad, and he rocks Street Fighter IV with Rose, Sakura and Cammy, it doesn’t mean he has some sort of unhealthy fascination. He’s quite healthy.

There you go... the Dog in all his glory!

Reminder: E3 Chat today

Monday June 1st:  Microsoft  -  1:30pm EDT (10:30am PDT)
Here is the chatroom: IRC via Mibbit

Jump in! The water is warm!

Top 20 Most Popular for May 2009

Here they are... some new faces on this list. The top 20 most popular 360voice blogs from May 2009:

* means comments enabled. Go say congrats!

1. dakisbac x360a *
2. the dren *
3. Stallion83 *
4. Vader XXX
5. Major Nelson
6. PSonic *
7. t4nd4r *
8. Fshguy *
9. Kornfan2007 *
10. Dog of Thunder *
11. Namey es Rey
12. aeris311
13. Mr Achievement *
14. XxSexy Ag3ntxX
15. ZOIG
16. xxx TAMMY xxx
17. Drk Fury *
18. lupadi *
19. vI Demon Iv
20. Mightymango *

Who are all you people?!?!

Power outage at our hosting company

Hi everyone,

At 8:30 CT this morning (May 30 2009) there was a power outage at our hosting facility. Our cluster was impacted, causing our job processing server to lose contact with our database servers. This means that things are delayed.

We did not lose any data... this will not affect anything like streaks and such. All it will do is delay the daily processing of blogs, rivalries, etc.

The badges will most likely not finish today, so if you are waiting for a badge, you should get it tomorrow.

Sorry for the troubles.

Trapper (ChangeAgent)

Want to hang out during the E3 keynote?

Hey everyone! It is that time of the year... E3... and they say it is back and bigger than ever right?

Myself, Fatty Chubs and a few others from gamerDNA will be hanging out in a chat room during the Microsoft keynote... come join us... we will do some T-shirt drawings... and best of all you can get the event badge! yay!

Hope to see you there:

Monday June 1st:  Microsoft  -  1:30pm EDT (10:30am PDT)
Here is the chatroom: IRC via Mibbit

To watch the live video streams, you can watch it live on TV on G4TV.  You can also watch live streams on G4TV.com (which will have TONS of live video all week), or you can watch it live on GameTrailers.com.

Network Fail - Blogs delayed

Somehow our job server lost network connection with our other servers early this morning.  As a result, Rivalries, Blogs, Badges and everything else did not run correctly. No data was lost, we are just working on getting everything rerun. I don't expect Blogs to start showing up until pretty late tonight, and there will be no badges for the day.

I will update when I know blogs are going in. Thanks for your patience!

UPDATE 10:05PM EST - Blogs have been running and should be done in the next couple hours. Let us know if anything looks off.

New 3VCE - Dog of Thunder

Congratulations and welcome to our newest 3VCE, Dog of Thunder. Today is his one year anniversary on the site, and we wanted to thank him for all his contributions. He has been an active and helpful forum poster and commenter, who has helped consolidate the madness around genres. He is also the 10th most watched individual on the site, has a respectable challenge score, once achieved a 58 day streak, and I heard he saved a kitten from a burning building once.

Top 20 most popular blogs - April 2009

You knew it was coming!

* means comments enabled, go say congrats!

1. the dren *
2. Stallion83 *
3. Drk Fury *
4. Mr Achievement *
5. Dog of Thunder *
6. Fshguy *
7. Buckswana *
8. Major Nelson
9. Champ Kind2007 *
10. markd12 *
11. MLC2074 *
12. PSonic *
13. SaintTheOutcast *
14. TheDuffManUK *
15. Freefloater *
16. Lawl Pwned *
17. ZeroDesolation *
18. FragEmAndSmile *
19. Vader XXX
20. MMgiggas2 *

Wow that was a seriously fast month! May! Scary!

Maintenance Happenings - No Badge Updates

Running some maintenance today and tomorrow. As a result of the added load on the database, badges will not update today. Things will resume tomorrow as normal, and calculations for streaks and the like are still running, just the badges won't reflect any changes until Tuesday evening.

We are working on a badge update as well, which will appear in a few days after maintenance. As part of this we will be adding a genre and a collection and doing the normal maintenance around genres.

Also rolling out a change to Auto-Challenges. Starting this Tuesday (if all goes well) when Auto-Challenges are populated, you will only be included if you played a least one day the weekend or Monday before. So for example if I played on the 24th or 27th (and have auto challenges turned on), I will be included. However if the last time I played was the 23rd, I would not be. This is intended to make the challenges more competitive in that it's people actively playing, and playing online.

The 360voice community helping Zachary

Hi everyone,

As many of you in the community might have heard, D TWICE recently lost his son to cancer. PSonic is coordinating an effort to collect donations to assist the family. You can get the details in the forum.

[PSonic is] accepting donations via PayPal. Please send your contributions to doubledomer at adelphia dot net (replacing the at with @ and the dot with .). My intent is to either wire the money directly from the bank I work for to a bank that is local for D TWICE, or send the entire amount to him via PayPal.

Read more

I would encourage you to help in this time of need. It is times like these when community matters the most. Please tell your gaming friends. Hopefully we can all make a difference.

The history of badges

Indigo Ferret and Fshguy sent me a link to this awhile back... and I apologize to them that I haven't gotten around to checking it out until now... Indigo, using the data Fshguy provided, put together some charts about the various 360voice badges... and the numbers of people holding them along with historical curves.

Check out the forum post, because it is FULL of stats. But here are some examples:


What you can really see in the genre badges is how hard it is to get the 3 star version, given the volume of titles coming out. We have always known that we would have to rework these over time... but as many of you know... things are just too crazy on our end to re-code this entire system.... remember Badges 2.0? ;)

Anyhow, check it out... some good charts that highlight the challenges of the genre badges. Thanks guys for pulling this together.

Member of the Moment: Koding

Posted on behalf of t4nd4r

I finally got a chance to chat with Ken Rumsey from Kissimmee, FL.  Have no idea who I'm talking about??? Then maybe the name Koding will ring a few bells!  He's been a member of 360Voice for 2.5 years and is a parent/gamer/coder/teacher/ among other things.  I won't spoil all the juicy details he disclosed to me, and give you a chance to read them for yourself!

Where do you work, and what do you do there, how long have you been doing it?
I currently work at Valencia Community College where I am a Learning Assistant II, or in more understandable words, I'm a tutor. I tutor all levels of math from Elementary Mathematics up through Calculus III, and all computer programming, OS, and application classes. I have been doing it since June 2008 and plan to keep doing it while I attend classes at the University of Central Florida.

Family life?
I am divorced and have 2 kids. Bryan (GT: Lucien Vicious) is 21 and Ashley (GT: QuadGlitch) is 19. Both are college students, Bryan at the University of Central Florida and Ashley at Valencia Community College. And both are pretty active gamers although with school and work, I know they don't get to play as much as they would like. Ashley owns her own 360 and Bryan, well, he's not big on the 360. He prefers his Wii and DS.

You currently live in Florida... are you next to a beach??  Even if you aren't... the weather must be nice right?
I am very landlocked as I live just south of Orlando, but I'm still only an hour or so away from the beach on either coast. Right now the weather is great, low to mid 80s but in a few short weeks the heat will be back in full force and it won't be so nice. Thankfully, someone invented air conditioning! :)

How did you come up with your GamerTag?
A while back I wanted to change my gamertag from Boardgameplayer (my original gamertag) to something a bit shorter. I like to program, you may have seen my 360vui web app, and was trying to think up a gamertag related to coding. Everything with "Code" in it seemed to be taken so I started looking at "Kode" instead. That's when I became Koding. Now, I'm thinking of changing it to something math related. Any ideas?

What brought you to 360voice?
Honestly, I don't remember. It's hard to believe I've been a member here for 2 1/2 years. I'm sure it was probably a Google search I did right after I got my first 360. I was looking for interesting sites related to the 360..I found the best one!

What is your favorite part of 360voice?
Well, it's very cool that my 360 can do a daily blog (something I myself have tried...twice...and failed at), but the best thing here is the forums and the community of people that populate it. While I don't currently have the time to roam the forums like I used to, I still try to get in the odd post here and there.

What is something you would like to see on 360voice?
Hmmm...free MS points for every 100 forums posts? ;-) Honestly, I can't think of anything the site needs but I'm sure the guys will add something soon and I'll go "that's awesome...I wish I had thought of that!".

You have at this moment accumulated 3220 forum posts... can you believe that?
Not really. In all the years I've been on the internet, I've never been this active on any forum. The fact that I have is yet another testament to the great community of mods and users there are in the 360voice forums.

If you had the chance, who would you like to meet in-person from 360voice?
I don't think I could choose just one, although if I had to, she'd be single and over 6 feet tall. Better yet, I think we should do a 360voice Meet-Up (in Orlando would be nice) so I can meet all of you (including any single tall females). ;-)

You currently have a streak of 0 days... but used to have 153 days, what happened??
Life, school, stuff like that keeps my streak pretty low right now. And, if I remember correctly, I lost the 153 day streak when my daughter came over one day and I forgot to play. With this semester, my time to play has been extremely limited. I'm hoping I have more time in the summer.

You are currently in Auto Challenge #27031, do you only participate in Auto Challenges? What do you think the outcome of this one will be?
Not only in Auto Challenges but with my hectic work and school schedule this semester, I haven't tried to compete in any real challenges. And this one  will end the way all of the other ones have, I will lose and most probably be in last place. However, when this semester is over, I'll be back in regular challenges...and I'll be doing my best to win them!

How long have you been gaming?
32 years. Wow...that's a long time...

If you can remember, what was the first game you played?
Pong, 1977. Back when a 'bleep', a 'bloop', and monochrome graphics were the things that made us "ooh" and "ahh" over games.

Why do you play videogames?
Actually, this was the subject of a pretty recent forum posting. Here's what I said...

"Because it's fun... where else can I drive a NASCAR race car, jack another car and drive over pedestrians while shooting automatic weapons out the window, get involved in a street fight and punch the lights out of someone, and fight as a soldier (on all sides) of World War II...

...all in the same day...

...without going to jail...

Gaming...where do you want it to take you today?"

I think that pretty much sums it up.

You currently have a GamerScore of 68,739... are there any games you would like to point out that helped you achieve this impressive score?
Avatar: The Last Airbender. :)  OK, maybe not. No games really pop out at me. I've enjoyed playing most of the games on my list and don't (usually) play them just for the gamerscore. However, in the past, I have played games I've not really liked simply to get the gamerscore (*cough* Avatar *cough*), but I don't do that (much) anymore.

Think you will reach 100,000 GS by the end of the year? Or do you not think about GS milestones?
It's possible but not highly probable. It really depends on how many, if any, classes I take during the summer. If I take the summer off, the probably goes up a bit. Still...I don't think it will happen.

Do you enjoy single-player more, or multiplayer, or does it depend entirely on the game?
Usually I prefer the single-player as that's where the story primarily is. For some games, the Call of Duty's for instance, I enjoy the multiplayer more because the single-player campaign is so short.

Seems like every game nowadays is having some form of Co-Op, what are your feelings on that?
I'm all for it. Well, as long as they give us both local co-op and co-op over Live. I've local co-op'd a few games with my son and I started co-op'ing Halo 3 over Live. Actually, that reminds me...I need to finish Halo 3.

What is your favorite food/drink when gaming?
Just water, Coke Zero, or DMD. No food. I don't need Cheetos dust on my controllers. :-)

What is your current gaming set-up?
360: I have an Xbox Premium with a 120 gig hard drive and HD-DVD player. It's connected to a 61" Samsung DLP HDTV for video and a Sony Home Theater Dream System 5.1 channel speaker setup for the audio.

PC: Intel quad-core 2.4 GHz on an eVGA 780i mainboard, 2 gig RAM, eVGA 8800GTX video card, Creative Labs Fatal1ty Platinum Champion Series audio card, 2.5 TB hard drive space, Antec 900 gaming case, 24" Dell LCD monitor displaying 1920x1200 resolution

Yeah, I know, you probably don't want to hear about my PC setup but I do play some games on it and some of them are Games For Windows games that 360voice tracks. :-)

How many xbox360 games do you currently own, including XBLA?
52 retail and around 45 XBLA.

It says on your blog you have played a total of 297 games... what do you think your 300th game will be??
Puzzle Quest Galactrix

Do you have a subscription to GameFly? If so, how many games do you think you "rent" a month?
Not anymore. I'm on and off with GameFly. If I don't take any classes during the summer, I'll probably rejoin until my fall classes start. When I had the service, I usually got between 6 and 10 games each month.

What other consoles do you own?
Sony PS2, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo DSi, and Sony PSP. I also have a Sega Genesis (with Sega CD and 32X) and a Sega Master System boxed up somewhere but I haven't seen them in a while. I'm thinking about getting a PS3 but haven't convinced myself I really want one yet.

When did you join Xbox Live, and why?
The day I got my first 360. At the time, I did it so I would be able to play Gears of War online. I never had an original Xbox so I wasn't exactly sure of what the Xbox Live service provided to me. I was pleasantly surprised.

Do you think you get your money's worth paying for a gold xbox live subscription?
Absolutely. For only a few bucks a month, I get a quality online experience. If there was something similar to it on the PC, I'd sign up in a second.

What are your current top 5 favorite games for Xbox360?
GTA IV, Saints Row 2, Call of Duty 4/World at War, Puzzle Quest (and Galactrix), Burnout Paradise

What are your current top 5 most hated (Read: made you want to throw your controller
out the window) achievements you have earned?
30 year franchise achievement in Madden '06, beating all the time trials in Forza 2 (I had a lot of trouble with Nurburgring), any collection achievements (such as the CD's in Saints Row), and any from Devil May Cry 4.

Are you an achievement whore, completionist, or neither?
OK...I admit it, I used to be a big-time whore. For instance, I hate football, baseball, basketball, etc. but went out of my way to get, play, and beat those games simply because most were easy 1000's. However lately I haven't had time to play games I enjoy, let alone ones I don't just for their score. And I am definitely not a completionist as the short list of games I have completed vs how many I have played can attest to.

What are 5 of your current achievements you are most proud of?
Beating all of the time trials in Forza 2 (like I said above, Nurburgring gave me a lot of grief), getting all of the driver badges in NASCAR 08 (that one took a while), and ... hmmm, that's the only ones that come to mind.

If you could change one thing about Xbox Live, what would it be?
Increase (or remove totally) the cap on how many friends you can have. I'm always near the 100 friends limit and find myself constantly deleting people so I can add new friends.

What games are you looking forward to releasing in the near future?
Splinter Cell: Conviction, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Prototype. And a little bit further down the road, Bioshock 2 and Assassin's Creed 2.

Is there anything you would like to share with everyone, or give any shout-outs?
To my kids, Lucien Vicious and QuadGlitch: Hey, look at me! I'm the Member of the Moment!! To my math students: do your homework and study! To everyone else: Thanks for reading this far. I'm honored to have been chosen at the Member of the Moment and hope everyone learned a little something about me.

Defendit numerus!!!

Thanks again for your time Koding, I have no idea how you found some with everything you do! Hopefully we all will see more of you this summer, and get a chance to play some co-op games as well!

Server migration complete

Hey everyone... working on the server migration. Things might get strange. Because it is a new server there shouldn't be an outage really... but for some reason the blog pages are no longer working as we have been migrating settings. Working on it.

Update 10:08pm

Work is done. Server is up. DNS has been pointed. Might take a bit for people to see it. You will know you are on the new server if you see (rack3) at the bottom of the page.

Hacked (again) - Outage planned for tomorrow (tenative)

So the site has been hacked (again) meaning that a root kit is putting redirect javascript into our JS files (again) causing people to be redirected to random sites (again). This means that we have to perform another complete server rebuild (again) which will require a sizable outage (again). This time though, we are moving to an entirely new server with a new IP, which might make the outage loger as we change over our DNS to that new server.

When we did the rebuild last time, we made sure that everything was removed and even did a scan on the entire server a few days later which turned up all clean. So it is possible that whatever is installing the root kit is running at a lower level than the OS or something. At this point... no ideas. We aren't doing anything crazy. We have our services locked down by IP, don't run any special settings... it is just a website.

So be prepared for an outage tomorrow night during the server rebuild. This blog will be updated as we go during the outage tomorrow.