Where were you when the lights went out?
A couple of years ago, this was the question on everyone’s lips when electricity failed in about a half-dozen cities. This gamer was fortunate enough to be in New York when it was plunged into the madness of a full-scale blackout. I had a front-row seat to witness the silent desperation of mankind, as the machines that drove the progress of our lives came to a screeching halt.
This week, that variety of madness paid a visit to the Haloverse. A 24-hour maintenance window for Xbox Live plunged millions of Halo Addicts into total darkness. Discussion boards on all of my favorite gaming sites lit up like Christmas trees of panic. New topics sparked ablaze with discussion, bearing titles like: “Live-Less”, “No, It Can’t BE”, and my personal favorite “How are you surviving?”
Taking a break from a game is an altogether healthy thing – from time to time. In any community, each gamer takes their turn at a little sabatical from their favorite role-play. Prolonged combat can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, after all. A week later, they are back in the saddle – and far more pleasant in the face of defeat, or lag, or whatever else was pissing them off beyond their ability to enjoy the game. These vacations must be chosen, however. When the time of a gaming vacation is chosen for the gamer, panic will grip their very throats!
With their umbilical to the great battles of online multiplayer cinched off by the clamp of necessary workflow, gamers huddled together on discussion boards like displaced refugees. Forum traffic spiked. Useless posts ascended to epidemic plateaus. Another four pages of idle chatter was tacked onto the never-ending dialogue of pointlessness that breeds in what we call the Gunslinger Saloon.
People swapped suggestions for how to pass the time. Play campaign? Again? Read a book? Clean your room? Get a haircut? I recommended that people GO OUTSIDE and rediscover the youthful pastime of T-Ball [you have to take baby steps when you return to sports from a long couch hibernation]. All of these alternatives paled in comparison to the specter of stealing someone’s flag. The itchy trigger finger just could not be scratched.
Never underestimate the resourcefulness of a cadre of deprived geeks, however. Like a bunch of junkies building their own Methadone Clinic, a crew of Gunslingers who would not be subdued dusted off something you may remember. Xbox Connect. Like moths to the flame, displaced Halo Addicts swarmed around Microsoft’s first-generation networking tool for the console. At the mere mention of a fix, they began swapping hardware specs. “Will it work through my computer?” Hope began to bloom.
One by one, clients were downloaded. Accounts were established. Games were started! The rest of us just sat back and watched the scene unfold, as if we were watching an MIT thinktank try to rebuild a transistor radio after the EMP of a Nuclear Holocaust. For a while, it was touch and go. It seemed that some would be left behind, despite their noblest efforts. Suddenly, the posts stopped. The chatter ceased.
It had all gone back into the game, where it belonged.
The lights are back on now. Perhaps we can appreciate them all the more. Happy gaming.
I took my much needed day off of LIVE in stride. I was almost productive even.
Despite the best efforts of those known as the Halo gods, many a Spartan could be seen last night without a trace of XBOX Live. What would we do? How would we survive 24 hours without having the stream of MC running through our veins? Through persistence, we gunslingers were able to make the best of a very primitive, yet useful tool.
After an hour of asking “How do I host a game?”, “What does this mean?” “Who is Sir Owns A Lot?”...I decided to man up and read the FAQ. Minutes later I was up and hosting my first XBC game. To those who needed their “fix”, I was the sketchy dude in the suburban who would be meeting you in the parking lot for the “trade”. Come one, come all. Those who expected the worst, such as myself, ended the night with a fondness for this stone age program and the 0 lag we encountered.
To play Halo with absolutely zero lag, is what Bungie intended the game to be in its simplest form. Every shot was landing dead on, hell I got a killtacular in a game of “Sticky Punch”.
XBC was actually the most enjoyable gaming experience I have had since our Chicago LAN, and it will not be the last time I reside in its confines.
This will not be my last journey onto XBC, I will slowly lure the addicts in. Sure, you can easily get onto what’s popular and easy, but I got the good stuff right here.
I returned to fixing up my apartment, but got into a bit of campaign every few hours. I hopped online at roughly 12:30 and found myself trying to calm down the angry mob that was building since Live wasn’t back on yet.
I managed the Saloon. That’s about it.
I found somethings to do, like help out other Gunslingers with a media project. But it seems that M$ is hitting giving us more time for ourselfs. Live is back down and a lot of people cant sign in.
Dren
takes me back to my roots of Halo 1, playing 2v2 right beside Fouch. Alas, I had no idea that this blackout even occured. I’m far too busy with work, school, and trying to transfer to another school. I hope I can return to my Mjolnir armor soon. Until then…
The nice thing about XBC is I didn’t run into any Timmys. Even the guy named “coolinator” was actually pretty cool.
Oh and I got to pick my own game types, which is highly under rated IMO
As TTL Ninja said, the best thing about XBC is the fact that one can chose his/her own game types AND play random opponents. There are many features within XBC that help control lag issues that may pop up from time to time due to a player being located in some far off land.
I have used XBC for years to get my Halo 1 LAN fix. I still enjoy Damnation, Chill Out, Boarding Action, Sidewinder, Hang Em’High (remeber these fellas?), and so on. And yes, the pistol is STILL to this day the best Halo 1 weapon.
I was only affected by the blackout for a few hours after I had gotten home from my night shift job. It was on when I got up around noon and the world was right once again.
Great writeup. We had some TPA members doing the exact same thing!
I still can’t get on. If it isn’t back up by the time I get home tomorrow I think I’m gonna try chasing my cat around with a paintball gun. Then after he steals my flag maybe jump in my Grand Cherokee and play a little tour de hog through towm. Man I’m jonesin’.
Yes Xbox Connect saved about four TPA members lifes that night.
Here is a scary thought for everyone. What if it went down for a whole week?!
I actually came over to your site and posted for yall to get on it. I thougt some would like something to do.
I bitched and moaned for a good 10 minutes.
But I eventually overcame the trauma and played solitaire for a solid 4 hours.
ya know what, this is just good writing above all. ‘Safety On’ to you Deej.
Wow people get so upset about one day without xbox live. I haven’t even looked at halo in 2 weeks and you don’t hear me crying. Get a life mental retard geeks or nerds. pale kids, scrawny kids, angry and pathetic losers, stubborn, nasty weirdos. Oh wait, I may have gotten ahead of myself.
Now, Son…
Allow me to remind you that your e-Mail is haloadam2@hotmail.com. For your address in cyberspace, you have chosen a moniker that places the title of a video game before your own first name. I think that pretty much means that you are the kettle and I am the pot. We are both blackened by geekdom, you and I.
Like it or not, you are one of us. Don’t be ashamed, Adam. Find the joy in your life. You can continue to show up here and spew dischord, or you can align yourself with us.
I caught up on some much needed sleep. I don’t mind being away for a few days, it does me good.
I rented gasp Dead Rising and attempted to satiate my blood lust… it was amusing for a time but no substitute by far for Live. I came to realize in the 24ish hours of disconnection what life is like without the “Matrix”. What life is like without that constant “safety net” of entertainment. For we all know that TV is a wasteland of reruns and crappy infomercials.
Long live the fighters… long live Live at least till the next maintenance cycle.
I got some studying done for a test I have tomorrow morning. Good thing too, because I definitely didn’t get much done tonight. Good games guys!
I’m glad it’s over.
I went outside and killed small animals in a Slayer type hunt…
I know an FBI profiler who would love to keep tabs on you.