I’m BAAACK from the land of tea and crumpets! I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Dialpex, your community director who also shouldered the burden of editing and posting the show for episode 148. Unfortunately he was really sick and couldn’t fit in recording episode 149 but we’re gonna give that one another go this week. In case you didn’t get a chance to send in a multiplayer tip last week, here’s what we’re looking for:

Grab a full sniper and jump off the map with it, so the other team won’t have it

Got better tips than this one? Then send them in… This week we will be sharing with our listeners all the multiplayer tips that you have for the halo nation. Com’on click on the green button to the right and send us some smoking tips to help people level up and stay there.

Throw a shield drainer on the big lift and a frag grenade right after

Well, im sure you guys can do better… So, how about we get some tips and useful info on our map of the month which is Construct. So go ahead, send us some stuff that will improve our games on this map.

Ps. The deadline is tomorrow at 6:00 PM EST. So, lets get going!

Blam!

According to my friend’s list, 34 of 50 gamers reported that their XBOX 360’s have failed since purchase.  That’s 68% for those of you scoring at home.  That’s much higher than the 16% reported last week and 30% reported by retailers in mid-2007.

I posed the question to the 90 gamers on my friends list three weeks ago after my XBOX 360 Elite failed.  50 out of 90 gamers responded and 34 of them said that they have had to send off their XBOX 360 for repair or replacement at least once.

In one case, someone had to send their system to Microsoft 7 times for repair.  Another person reported that her husband also had to send off his system for repair as well.  There were several cases of people having to send off their console multiple times.

I am a heavy user.  My XBOX 360 is in use 10-25 hours a week.  I suspect that most of the gamers on my friends list are also heavy users.  However, the failure rate from my perspective is outrageous.

Is the XBOX 360 supposed to be an appliance or a gadget?

Am I supposed to look past these extremely high failure rates in my social sphere?

40 gamers did not respond to my questionnaire that was sent to their XBOX Live message inbox.  Even if they all said that they have not had to replace or repair their console, 38% of my friends list will have had failed XBOX 360’s. 

XBOX 360 and XBOX Live is about being social.  It’s about communities of gamers.  In my community, upwards of 60% of gamers have experienced a failed XBOX 360 in response to my survey.

I get that 50 gamers is a small sample. But, 50 friends is a good amount of friends and I’ve met all but about 10 people on my friends list.

Oh, I’m not on my friends list.  I’ve owned a Core, Premium, and Elite system.  They’ve all failed in 6-12 months.

What can we do? 

At least Microsoft is handling the situation by offering extended warranties and repairing consoles at no charge.  But, it’s hard to be an XBOX evangelist with these high failure rates.

Digg the story here:

Cryptoflix and the Pod TV crew bring us another episode, this time to show us how to get the catch skull in Halo 3. Check it out!