Microsoft Lawsuit over Xbox Live Service

My roommate's a pretty big gamer. Usually around 9 or 10 o clock at night, he'll throw on his Xbox, connect to Xbox live and play a couple of rounds of Halo 3. He can play from a half hour to several hours depending on what day it is, who's on, and what else he has to do. Every once in a while, Xbox live won't connect. He'll grumble and groan, but that will pretty much be the end of it. He will either start channel surfing, throw in a movie, read, or get on his computer. Even as a heavy gamer, he's able to respond rationally. It seems a few gamers out in Texas are suing Microsoft for five million dollars. During the holidays, the online network was experiencing problems and was down for a few days. It is because of this that the gamers feel that they are entitled to heavy reimbursement for "damages."

Really? Five million because you couldn't play video games? I know they offer a service and you expect it to work, but sometimes it doesn't. Our internet here in the apartment goes out from time to time. We'll curse, but then we move on and do something else while still paying the bill in full. This is a minor inconvenience at best. If Microsoft gave gamers a few extra points to use on Xbox live or knocked a few dollars off the charge the next month, that would be much more then enough to atone for the "egregious sin" that has been committed. I didn't think it possible but someone has actually come up with a civil case that is almost as ludicrous as that one man who sued a dry cleaner for 8 million dollars over a pair of pants. It's not quite there yet as an Xbox and games are more expensive then pants, the point remains that this is ridiculous.

Even if the Xbox itself exploded, assuming no one was harmed, you shouldn't expect a huge check. No, a new Xbox (preferably one that doesn't explode) would be an appropriate payment for those damages. If you got shrapnel in your leg, then yes they would probably have to foot the bill and maybe toss in a couple thousand bucks for the trouble, but again, not 5 million.

Microsoft is a big well. I'm guessing that people think that 5 million is nothing, and while that is probably the case, it doesn't justify people being spoiled, whiny, greedy and generally stupid. If you're going to sue someone, do it over something worth suing over. Not being able to play Halo with your buddies is not it. If you want to get rich quick, become a pro. Gamer tournaments offer huge sums of money to do pretty much what you're doing. It's tragic in a way but hey, if you get to make high sums of money doing what you love then mazel tov.

There are other things to do in the world. Why you could read a book, you could watch a movie, you could go out bowling, you could go to a restaurant for dinner. There are endless possibilities when it comes to occupying yourself during your free time. But you really really wanna play right now? OK, how's this? Have some friends over and play multi-player on the one system. You can do that you know. It's all the fun of online play without online play. If everyone else is busy you can always play in single player mode. From what I hear, and from what I've seen, it's a fun game. Crazy, I know, but you can still enjoy Halo and other games without connecting to Xbox live.

There was no online game play for systems like N64, Sega Genesis, or Nintendo. We all got along fine, we never sued anybody because they did not give us the ability to play with people who weren't in the room. Why is it, after a short time, we feel like it is a necessity? Gamers need to get their priorities straight. This lawsuit is a huge waste of time and taxpayer money (as if the government isn't bad enough at money management but that's a whole different thing). Go do something useful and break your addiction to the box. There's a whole world out there, a real one, with people as opposed to avatars. Who knows? This could be an opportunity for growth, having no online game play could be the best thing that ever happened to you. If you vehemently disagree feel free to write me off as a "noob", yeah yeah I'm just jealous cause of your "uber-leet haxx skillz" right? Oy vay.