I had some log-on problems on saturday (had to try multiple times) but gears seemed to work well otherwise. On a couple occations people dropped out when it started which is unusual (and usual during live problems).

Gonna catch the show later but thanks for posting it during your hectic times.

Im goin to get a ps3 but sell my 360?,no way.gears of war 2 is coming and other great games for 360 this year.I just want a blu-ray player now and getting a game console in the same package is a bonus,and ill have more choice.I have been angry over the live issues and commented as such.but playing gears last night i relised how amazing live is and has been for a long time.i had a ball last night.now dont get me wrong,the live issues need to be fixed and im sure they will.and the lack of info about the problems is also annoying.but ill tuff it out and see how things go.

I agree with those who felt "I answer the question ‘Hey Major, what’s going on with LIVE’?" was disingenuous; the answer being no answer at all, of course. Sure the issues are sporadic, and not common to all folks or perhaps regions. Someone should start a google maps mashup where people can report if they had issues - the community could gather and report the information that MS won't (or can't).

Major is in a bind, I think a lot of the folks here recognize that - He's always said many many times that this blog is something he does on his own time, and isn't 'official', though _much_ of the content is specific to items released on XBLA or marketplace or promotional interviews or whatever. He finally makes an "ordinary" blog post about hitting a burger joint with friends in a gas-guzzling stretch hummer, and we slag him for not updating us on xbox live's status. He can't win. So I can certainly appreciate those who say he might as well take the blog all the way corporate.

I wonder how much of this "no comment due to lawsuit" bit is an MS strategy to try and draw the community into putting pressure on the fools in Texas who jumped straight to a lawsuit? A redirection of the issue, perhaps, like the RROD, as Schooner2000 pointed out? I would be interested to know if the other "Major Nelson's" of the world (Jade, Acey Bongos, etc) are bound by these same restrictions, given their different legal jurisdictions. Perhaps they can comment even while e and the Major are doomed to karaoke "Our Lips Are Sealed" ad nauseum.

Are other companies (Bungie, Infinity Ward, Valve, etc) allowed to comment on the state of the XBL system should they have (potentially related) issues (like the lost ranking issues that COD4 recently endured)? Does this now mean that MS can not update the message on the Support page with any real info when the system is wacky, for fear of giving out too much information to the plaintiffs in that lawsuit?

It will be fine soon people all them 1month gold trials will end on the 24th of jan

Well major can you say anything about DRM? Even a "No" i can't because of legal issues etc? woulf be better than this silence that all MS employes have endured. The community is annoyed at the silence off you not your answers.

Well major can you say anything about DRM? Even a "No" i can't because of legal issues etc? would be better than this silence that all MS employes have endured. The community is annoyed at the silence off you not your answers.

Major,

Something I'm wondering is there any way there can be some education done at the store level (Best Buy, Circuit City, Gamestop/EB, etc.) by the Microsoft retail reps or maybe info put on the 360 or xbox.com about moving gamertags via MU's instead of telling customers to just recover the gamertag everytime they go to someone else's house? After you addressed it on your show a couple of months ago I told my friends, who then got MU's so they can get achievements when they're at each other's house. They weren't even aware you could do that. Two of them reported to me that the Gamestop people told them there was no reason to get MU's because you could just recover the gamertag.

If this is an issue related with the Live problems as has been rumored this may help matters. Good luck getting the issues fixed E.

Although I left a heated message earlier, I think I speak for everyone with pent up frustration and anger - we are not aiming it at Major Nelson, we are simply utilizing the only outlet we have for our anger. I'm sure (at least I hope) he knows this.

Major provides a HUGE benefit to the Xbox community. Unfortunately, Major being the only public figure, we're at our wits end with nowhere else to turn.

I was never a huge participant in the xbox community or Major's blog, but this LIVE outage has brought us together - I suppose that's one of the good things of these trying times!

Some thoughts about everything that is going on and how much worse it "might" get.

forums.xbox.com/.../ShowPost.aspx

Wow we scared him off i think?

Whats the fastest way to shut MS employee up? Mention DRM!haha they must go through torture training in order to keep this much of a silence? even trixie's good at it.

I feel like i should just give up with DRM now and except that i'll never buy another arcade title off MS?

Hey, I just had a thought, maybe all the issues are because MS are making live free?

Mind you i could be wrong? after all peer 2 peer is expensive and HARD for MS to maintain?

The second I heard, "December 13th", i ended up running back to my computer to make sure iTunes downloaded the right podcast.

I thought, "How unusual of Major to not correct himself like he usually does. Must be the December 13th show..."

yes major, I am very frustrated that you have said virtually nothing of the drm problem that people like myself, but mainly people that have had the RRoD have come to hate, the drm online only when not on the original console.  I have just about given up to listening to your shows, I like them, but there is too much talk about gadgets, not enough talk about our concerns.  and if you do comment you bury it somewhere in the middle of the podcast, instead of discussing it at the beginning.  I personally have a life, and I can't listen to your show droll on for an hour about gadgets to hear one tidbit that I could have heard at the beginning and ended it right there.  Or put it in your blog if it's important.

I'm ranked #8 on post rank and have been posting on your blog since the 360 launch, and many people besides me have been posting on your blog about how this drm situation sucks, and how tech support takes forever to fix it, if they ever do, how they spend so much time on the phone and everything.

You haven't addressed this issue even though so many of us share our situation with this problem on your blog.  People have had this issue since DAY 1 and there is still problems with it, and you haven't even addressed it?  That's lame, and it's annoying that you are supposed to be the person we go to on stuff like this and you don't answer the flood of posts on this.

People complain about a little bit of downtime compensation that is meager and we get an arcade game, yet we have voiced our problems with the drm and we don't even get a peep out of you guys out of this.  pathetic, it really makes you feel like our voices aren't heard or that we just posts concerns that are ignored.

Yeah, I have to say, I feel bad for Major. He's the conduit for these kinds of things, and I can't say that suing or criticizing "M$" is the problem. I won't go into these long-winded posts, shorter stuff, I think is where it's at. I think you guys should chill out, and let the team do their thing. Personally, I've had no trouble with LIVE for the past few weeks, except for one instance upon which I could not sign into Messenger. So, personally, I think this entire thing is slightly exaggerated. But either way, complaining and making legal threats is just putting undue stress on the team. So, instead of whining about problems everybody already knows about, why don't you *marketing pitch time* play one of the excellent single-player experiences on the Xbox 360 (and I have to add this, in order to sound more like PR-speak) platform. Seriously, guys, I wonder how you are able to pull yourself away from Rock Band.

--

Oh, and by the way Major, those pictures by Howard Schatz are downright beautiful. Reminiscent of the Oracle from 300, which according to the commentary, is pretty much a video version of the same thing.

I wish people had better things to do than trash-talk the poor guy on his own blog.  Lawsuits are a serious thing, and so is confidentiality.  If Major hadn't disclosed it until recently, its because he couldn't.  And by the way, its none of our business.  Yeah it sucks, but all you need to know is that Live is having issues and Major can't release specifics because of a lawsuit involving MS.  But quit with the smack-talk, really.  If you are so mad at Microsoft, cancel your account and sell your XBox on EBay.  Have the guts to do something about it.

So, is it only Major Nelson and e who cannot comment on the current Live issues? Or all Microsoft employees?

I'm sure Major has read all your DRM posts.  Microsoft probably wants everybody to stay silent on the issue.  As I stated in a comment in a different blog, it's not like Microsoft can just say "hey lets change the DRM today."  Their DRM is being used to protect thousands of pieces of content on Xbox Live, which come from hundreds of different companies that have agreed to let their content be sold with the current DRM.  Many TV/Movie studios would probably stop selling over Xblx Live, if the DRM became so weak that it couldn't protect their content (or if they even felt it might be weak at all).  This is why I don't expect we will be hearing anything about DRM anytime soon.  Plus when you signed up, you did agree to this, no matter what the console failure rates are, or what the status of Xbox Live is.  I really just hope people grow up (I don't care if you're 12 or 112, there is no reason to insult Major Nelson when he posts something that isn't directly related to Xbox Live status).  It's not like Major Nelson's only thing to do in life is keep us informed.  He is a normal person, and working at Microsoft is his job..... not really that much different from any of our jobs.  How would you feel if you were in his shoes?  Everybody (including him I'm sure) agrees with what people are posting about Microsoft, Live, and the DRM, however there is no need to be rude about it.......

you know he at least said he couldn't comment on the live downtime issue.  he addressed that he can't discuss that.  he hasn't even said he can't comment on the drm issue, as far as I know, I don't listen to every minute of his shows, there is so much filler, I just can't do it to verify that, but he hasn't to my knowledge, and I've tried to find it.  he's never mentioned drm on the blog except that "we are looking into it" a long time ago, but hasn't really said why it is why it is and why it is so hard to fix it for users through tech support, and why microsoft screwed it's customers with the drm, that was really apparent for RRoD victims.  but he hasn't said anything.