Xbox Live - Question of the Day

h8b1llg8ts

Is there a location online where a person could see what games are being played on Xbox Live at that moment? I'm kind of speaking of a all around Dashboard for all Xbox players online. So if you wanted to see how many people are playing Call of Duty 4, or Gears, or Halo 2, or even Rainbow Six 3 you'd be able too.

I told you it was the question of the day ...

fragglefart

I don't think so. But Major Nelson usually posts "most played" lists at the end of week (or month).

And some games have internal counters for number of players online - Halo 3 with it's global map for example.

h8b1llg8ts

Again I'm probally the only one who would think about oXbox games. But I do find rooms that are full in Rainbow Six 3, or Crimson Skies, or ect sometimes. It would be neat if you could just see a list of players and games online and then jump in ....

darleysam

Well considerably less people will be playing at the moment, apparently

http://kotaku.com/5083456/microsoft-swings-xbox-live-banhammer-thousands-fall

edit: text

The forums trolled by Xbox Live subscribers are thick with accounts of bannings today, with what appears to be a broad sweeping set of Live accounts deleted, keeping thousands from accessing online gaming. At this point, we're not sure of the root cause — and neither, does it appear, do those affected — but there is rampant talk in the Xbox Scene forums, at least, about the abuse of pirated copies of games like Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty: World At War. It's all "played early" and "back up" talk — thinly veiled "I pirated Game X before launch day" — amongst some users.

Others swear innocence and false bannings. Whatever the cause, it's affecting a larger group than normal. We're attempting to learn more from the folks at Microsoft about the current rash of Xbox Live bannings and who is affected.

Fireflash

darleysam wrote: »

Well considerably less people will be playing at the moment, apparently

http://kotaku.com/5083456/microsoft-swings-xbox-live-banhammer-thousands-fall

edit: text

The forums trolled by Xbox Live subscribers are thick with accounts of bannings today, with what appears to be a broad sweeping set of Live accounts deleted, keeping thousands from accessing online gaming. At this point, we're not sure of the root cause — and neither, does it appear, do those affected — but there is rampant talk in the Xbox Scene forums, at least, about the abuse of pirated copies of games like Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty: World At War. It's all "played early" and "back up" talk — thinly veiled "I pirated Game X before launch day" — amongst some users.

Others swear innocence and false bannings. Whatever the cause, it's affecting a larger group than normal. We're attempting to learn more from the folks at Microsoft about the current rash of Xbox Live bannings and who is affected.

Haha this is so delicious. I take great pleasure in seeing people crying that their modded machines are banned.

darleysam

Same here. "But I only modded a little bit.."

urahonky

My favorite: "I don't mod to pirate games!" Suuuure.

Sir Platypus

I don't see why people haven't figured out that taking your modded console online is a BAD IDEA.

It's not like it's the first time this has happened.

Niceguyeddie616

From these posts I'm reading it seems people are getting banned for playing games early.

I'm picking up Mirror's Edge tomorrow, but the release date is officially the 13th. My console isn't modded at all though, so would it matter if I started playing it tomorrow, or should I wait until Thursday to start playing it to be on the safe side?

Fireflash

Niceguyeddie616 wrote: »

From these posts I'm reading it seems people are getting banned for playing games early.

I'm picking up Mirror's Edge tomorrow, but the release date is officially the 13th. My console isn't modded at all though, so would it matter if I started playing it tomorrow, or should I wait until Thursday to start playing it to be on the safe side?

I'm not entirely sure but I think its just people wondering if they got caught because they started playing their pirated games early.

Anyways they shouldn't really complain. 200$ for a new console is nothing compared to the worth of all the games they pirated.

Viscountalpha

Niceguyeddie616 wrote: »

From these posts I'm reading it seems people are getting banned for playing games early.

I'm picking up Mirror's Edge tomorrow, but the release date is officially the 13th. My console isn't modded at all though, so would it matter if I started playing it tomorrow, or should I wait until Thursday to start playing it to be on the safe side?

I wouldn't play online.

Niceguyeddie616

It's complete bullcrap though, why ban people that haven't modded their consoles and thus can't play pirated copies? It seems kind of unfair in that it punishes some people that actually paid for the game, even though it bans a bunch of pirates.

urahonky

Well the games do have a hard street date. You'd be violating that by playing it early, unless specified by the company that you can (like if you preorder it and as an added bonus you get it a week earlier or something).

Niceguyeddie616

Well yeah, I preordered Mirror's Edge, and got a call today that it can be picked up tomorrow. The thing is, I don't know that Microsoft will be aware of this for me or anybody else getting the game a day early, and to me that essentially means that if my console gets banned from Live, it'll be for something that wasn't my fault.

There's gotta be some way that MS can tell if your console is capable of playing pirated backups, otherwise this seems pretty unfair to people who might get banned. I've heard already that MS screwed up and banned consoles that weren't modded and didn't play any games early.

urahonky

Do you know if the hard street date is the 13th, or if that will be the day it's in "stores" because of shipping. There's a huge difference.

043

Trust me, Microsoft knows if you're playing with a legit disc, a DVDR copy or a hard drive rip; if the console is online at all, they can see all of the data.

Just like how they stop people from cheating the 20$ HDD offer -- the system knows if a HDD has been attached more than once, used on a regular basis, tied to multiple console IDs, etc.

AlwaysAngryGuy

urahonky wrote: »

Well the games do have a hard street date. You'd be violating that by playing it early, unless specified by the company that you can (like if you preorder it and as an added bonus you get it a week earlier or something).

This is retarded. Street dates are for retailers not consumers. Not all of us know the exact date games are supposed to be available. So what you're saying is that someone can walk into EB Games, buy a game off the shelf, come home and play it and then get banned because it wasn't supposed to be on the shelf yet. If this is really how Microsoft is doing their banning then it's completely fucking stupid.

taliosfalcon

urahonky wrote: »

Well the games do have a hard street date. You'd be violating that by playing it early, unless specified by the company that you can (like if you preorder it and as an added bonus you get it a week earlier or something).

You wouldn't be violating it, the store that sold it to you would. Its very plausible that if a store was selling a game early random people who knew nothing about it could buy it from them with no knowledge of the street date. and since theres generally just a big "DO NOT SELL UNTIL" on the crate the games come in rather then a "DO NOT PLAY UNTIL XX" on each individual copy they wouldn't be at fault of anything.
"

darleysam

Yeah, I can't see they're banning people for playing legitimate copies early. There's going to be a tonne of people out there who don't know about street dates who might just pick up a new game and get lucky (like someone always seems to do at a launch) and play it early. They're not the ones to blame for that, and I honestly don't think they'd be the ones punished.

urahonky

Yeah you're right. I guess I was thinking retail street dates, which I thought would be the same as consumer street dates.

elevature

Tycho posted about buying Gears 2 at 711 before the release date, and hasn't posted anything about being banned from Live because of it, so I doubt it's affecting people who legitimately bought games early. At least, I would hope not. If the store sells it early that's their fault, and customers shouldn't be penalized for that.

Tiemler

Given that xbox.com lists the release date of Mirrior's Edge as 11/11/08, there's not a reason in hell to worry about playing your legit preorder when you pick it up tomorrow. Go to town.

darleysam

Yup, it was for modding

Major Nelson, via Kotaku wrote:

In our our continued effort to keep gameplay safe and secure for our community of more than 14 million members, Microsoft has taken action against a small percentage of Xbox 360 consoles that have been illegally modified in order to play pirated games.

Whoops!

Aoi

urahonky wrote: »

My favorite: "I don't mod to pirate games!" Suuuure.

Bah, I have a modded PS1 and 2, and have never screwed with pirated games at all. I've also modded my old SNES and N64 for importing. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there are a few fairly big import houses that make a nice living on the import gaming scene.

Accualt

Niceguyeddie616 wrote: »

From these posts I'm reading it seems people are getting banned for playing games early.

I'm picking up Mirror's Edge tomorrow, but the release date is officially the 13th. My console isn't modded at all though, so would it matter if I started playing it tomorrow, or should I wait until Thursday to start playing it to be on the safe side?

I was playing Mass Effect a week before it was released (thank you KMart), connected to Live the entire time, without getting banned. You don't need to worry unless you have a modded box.

Spar

Yeah, but the difference is that modding the Xbox 360 doesn't allow you to play imports. Whoever modifies it does so only for pirating games really, as it's the only thing that allows you to do.

urahonky

Aoi wrote: »

urahonky wrote: »

My favorite: "I don't mod to pirate games!" Suuuure.

Bah, I have a modded PS1 and 2, and have never screwed with pirated games at all. I've also modded my old SNES and N64 for importing. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there are a few fairly big import houses that make a nice living on the import gaming scene.

I'm not saying that I don't believe you... I just have a hard time believing you. So many people I know have turned to the dark side by modding. It's just... It's like having a hot chick slapping her tits in your face asking you to do her.. Or something.

Aoi

urahonky wrote: »

Aoi wrote: »

urahonky wrote: »

My favorite: "I don't mod to pirate games!" Suuuure.

Bah, I have a modded PS1 and 2, and have never screwed with pirated games at all. I've also modded my old SNES and N64 for importing. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there are a few fairly big import houses that make a nice living on the import gaming scene.

I'm not saying that I don't believe you... I just have a hard time believing you. So many people I know have turned to the dark side by modding. It's just... It's like having a hot chick slapping her tits in your face asking you to do her.. Or something.

Same thing can essentially be said about owning a cd or dvd burner. I don't know a single person who doesn't use them a majority of the time for copying movies, games and music, but it never seems to have the same stigma attached to it that a modded console does. Again, go somewhere like Play Asia, NCSX, or Pink Godzilla. Those places wouldn't be around if it weren't for the legit import scenes.

The region lock thing just screws honest people, too. Sony back in the PS1 day would lock out people from playing legit copies of games if your system is modded, yet the pirates had those protections ripped out the moment they hit the sites. It's kinda funny that Sony has pretty much thrown out region protection with the PS3 and PSP, and Nintendo who were always the most lax about it not only have one of the more secure region locks in the Wii (other than the Homebrew channel workaround), but they're also locking down the DSi, which is something they have never ever done with their handhelds in the past other than the Ereader.

Anyway, off topic. Good for banning the pirates.

urahonky

Aoi wrote: »

urahonky wrote: »

Aoi wrote: »

urahonky wrote: »

My favorite: "I don't mod to pirate games!" Suuuure.

Bah, I have a modded PS1 and 2, and have never screwed with pirated games at all. I've also modded my old SNES and N64 for importing. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but there are a few fairly big import houses that make a nice living on the import gaming scene.

I'm not saying that I don't believe you... I just have a hard time believing you. So many people I know have turned to the dark side by modding. It's just... It's like having a hot chick slapping her tits in your face asking you to do her.. Or something.

Same thing can essentially be said about owning a cd or dvd burner. I don't know a single person who doesn't use them a majority of the time for copying movies, games and music, but it never seems to have the same stigma attached to it that a modded console does. Again, go somewhere like Play Asia, NCSX, or Pink Godzilla. Those places wouldn't be around if it weren't for the legit import scenes.

The region lock thing just screws honest people, too. Sony back in the PS1 day would lock out people from playing legit copies of games if your system is modded, yet the pirates had those protections ripped out the moment they hit the sites. It's kinda funny that Sony has pretty much thrown out region protection with the PS3 and PSP, and Nintendo who were always the most lax about it not only have one of the more secure region locks in the Wii (other than the Homebrew channel workaround), but they're also locking down the DSi, which is something they have never ever done with their handhelds in the past other than the Ereader.

Anyway, off topic. Good for banning the pirates.

Actually the DSi is region locking DLC stuff. Which makes sense.

I realize that there may be four or five of you guys out there that use modding for a "legit" purpose (I say "legit" because there's region locking for a reason) but 99.9% of the time, it's used for pirating. And, all it takes is one person to fuck an entire group of people out of their setup.

I thought I had more than that, but I didn't sleep at all last night, and my job is making me clean out the server room. So I'm not all here right now.

Pirates are bad, and they need to stop.

Aoi

I agree completely about pirates, but again, four or five people aren't going to be enough to support several pretty damned successful stores. And last I read, DSi was region locking the DSi specific carts, though it leaves the DS carts alone (since they probably don't really have anything setup with the DS specific software for it anyway).

But anyway, far off topics. Yeah, boo pirates and all that.

BlueBlue

Wait, are there confirmed dsi specific carts now? I apparently haven't been keeping up.