Let’s talk about my miserable second half of October!! Wait, no, that’s boring and lame. Here’s something way better:
Much better. See you all tomorrow! :)
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I don’t know what’s been causing all the not-so-recent issues with Xbox Live accounts being hacked, compromised, stolen, locked, relocated, what-have-you. I started hearing reports of accounts being ‘borrowed’ through friends of friends and on the Quarter to Three Forums.
Now Ben Kuchera is talking about it on Ars Technica and Giant Bomb has also noted the FIFA connection that’s been raising eyebrows.
I’m not too impressed with the MS statement that Ben posted:
We do not have any evidence the Xbox LIVE service has been compromised. We take the security of our service seriously and work on an ongoing basis to improve it against evolving threats. However, a limited number of members have contacted us regarding unauthorized access to their accounts by outside individuals. We are working with our impacted members directly to resolve any unauthorized changes to their accounts. As always, we highly recommend our members follow the Xbox LIVE Account Security guidance provided at www.xbox.com/security to protect your account.
If you’re a gamer, you knew about the PlayStation Network Hacking Saga. If you didn’t have a PS3 or Sony Online Entertainment Account, you probably just pointed and laughed (not judging, btw), but you still knew about it and wondered how a company could be so oblivious to what was going on and do such a poor job of communicating to the people counting on them to come through.
Hypothetically, if you were Microsoft, right now, and there seemed to be a growing angry buzz about hacked account shenanigans … wouldn’t you want to show the world how your PAID service is so much better than ‘the other guys’? Wouldn’t you want to give more than a boilerplate response?
Sony was attacked again recently. Philip Reitinger, their Chief Information Security Officer, came out and said so. We don’t like that this happened, sure, but we sure do like knowing about it!
We gamers are a dedicated lot. We have incredibly strong emotional bonds to digital things that’s aren’t technically real — or even ours, once you read the EULA — and, predictably, we react emotionally (ANGARY!!!) when people take those things away. It’s a sense of ownership and self. We are encouraged to make these accounts “ours” and put our hearts and effort into achievements, trophies, avatars, player ratings, etc. When this ownership is threatened and those in charge of protecting it aren’t seen to be doing enough to help, it’s an insult. It hurts.
Way back in 2008 I posted an entry called Getting Rid of Xbox Live. Here’s the first half:
This shouldn’t be so hard. Actually, it shouldn’t be hard at all! I’m ditching my Live sub when it expires this week and all I want to do is make sure it’s not renewed. Can I do that? Not online. Not through my still-online Xbox 360. No no no. I have to call them. This is 2008 and I have to call them to cancel an online service. I can even claim to understand that but I cannot fathom why I have to call back only during PST business hours when I can call for an Xbox coffin any hour of any day (or, you know, do it online). I can’t even change my credit card information on my Xbox nor remove it in any fashion. I do NOT want that information on there. I think I re-subbed last year in a hurry so I could play Crackdown or Forza or something with my friends but should I ever go back to Live in the future — let’s face it, I’m a geek and a gamer and it’s highly likely — it’ll be with prepaid cards, only. What a frustrating joke.
Two Thousand And Eight. And it’s no better today. I caved back then and I didn’t write about it and I need to apologise for that. I let them KEEP my credit card and even updated it with my newer one in the last year or so. Why? Because even though I kept calling at different hours to get different people to, in theory, get different answers, I was continually told that if I insisted on removing my credit card, they’d delete my gamertag. LadyGuardian would no longer exist or be selectable as a name to me. I folded like a cheap lawn chair.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
I’ll tell you what’s in a name. It’s MY name. It’s a name that’s been a part of me since I was a wee little kid and I wasn’t going to let someone take it away from me unless I had absolutely no other option left. So I caved and counted on my bank to have my back in case something happen and the CC was compromised. Not the best decision I’ve made in my life, but I was lucky. I was luckier still earlier this afternoon, too. I called Xbox Support, 1(800)4MY-XBOX/469-9269, selected Billing, then Remove CC (which wasn’t a phone option last I had called!), was on hold for about 15 minutes, and then a lovely man named Preston had me prove I was myself, confirmed my email address, asked me to hold for not even a minute, then told me to check my email since he had removed the CC and sent me pre-paid codes equivalent to the time I had left. Boom, done, the end. I hung up the phone completely shocked. If only everyone could have that kind of customer service when they need it, eh?!
Unfortunately, most customers calling the support centre right now are having quite the rage-tastic time with it. A lot of “too bad, so sad” and “we’re going to lock your account and you have to wait 20 days and we might get back to you with something other than a notice to wait longer” are being posted as the new standard support line responses online, and that just makes fellow locked-out people even more unhappy. This is not to say that MS is doing nothing! Of course some people are getting some of their points refunded and accounts returned, but they are not the ones frantically hitting refresh on every thread about this on the internet. THOSE are the people that support needs to reach out to and convince that they really are taking this seriously and doing their best to set things right. Boilerplate responses rarely, if ever, give that impression.
After I posted the above articles on twitter, Snubs tried to call in and got told
I do not understand the purpose of the passcode. Perhaps one of you can explain it to me. Because if your account IS hacked, wouldn’t the hackers just bypass the passcode by recovering the account?
Oh, and note how their phone response to Shannon completely ignores the issue she was calling about >_<
What should have happened with her is the same that did happen with me.
- You say you’d like to remove a CC
- They have you answer your security question and rhyme the last four digits of said CC
- They confirm your email address and the paid time you have remaining on you account (which you can check through the site, by the way. Once you login, click My Account at the top, and you can see whether you have Automatic Renewal On or Off, the Expiry Date for your Gold Account, and Payment Option will list your CC on file)
- They put you on hold while they work their magic, then tell you to check your email for some pre-paid codes that will add up to the time you already paid for.
Simple, right? I swear it depends on who you get on the phone 99% of the time! My guy was awesome. It was completely painless and relatively quick for a support call. If you get screwed/denied on the phone, your best bet is to be unfailingly polite and call back another time. Hopefully you won’t have to wait a few years like I did :(
REMEMBER! There are some important things to know when you call: Be patient. Have a speakerphone and a book for while you’re on hold. Be polite. Remain calm, no matter how infuriating the person on other side may be. Write down everything: the time you called, the name of the person on the other end, a confirmation code/tracking number for the call. Even if they tell you they can’t remove a CC, we both know that’s not true, but getting angry won’t help… you never know what they write in your files that makes future agents even less likely to help out. There ARE good people on the other side that do want to help! It’s just that finding them can sometimes depend on luck, sadly. But keeping meticulous records will be your best protection in the future and will only make your case stronger when trying to get points and time reimbursed. Best of luck to all!!
If you’ve been hacked and want to share your experience, feel free to post a comment or links to your writing about it elsewhere, or e-mail jenn@openalpha.tv. There’s nothing I can really do for you outside of publicize what’s going on and hope for the best. But the more articulate and well-documented these incidents are, the harder it will be for MS to not release a stronger statement and/or, hopefully, simplify this process so that the innocent people can get their accounts back, losing as little time and money in the process!
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When did that happen? At least outside my window looks all pretty!
ooh, colours
Checking my blog, I’ve been gone since the 4th. That sounds about right. I was stressed out of my mind and not coping as well as I’d like. My Grandmother is now in the coolest home I’ve ever seen. If I could afford it, I’d live there right now. The move was smooth enough with everyone pitching in — somehow I lucked out into not having to do much of the actual move. I got to wait for the cable guy in the home while playing The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition. Dear 3DS and DSi owners, get on it and grab this while it’s still free!! — and my brother made a surprise appearance at the end that was supremely helpful, both for moving heavy objects and helping give Grandma a very pleasant memory to kick off the first night in her new home.
Thus ended a few weeks of being away from home and looking after her. I drove home on Thanksgiving Monday and promptly did nothing but some driving therapy and sleeping. Oh, the joys of sleeping in my own bed! Now that I’m back with all my toys, I’ve really been hitting the digital tracks this week. Boy, what a week for racing, eh? Let’s break it down:
- Sebastian Vettel surprises no one and secures the World Championship at Suzuka
- Oh, and Jensen Button won at Suzuka (one of my all time favourite tracks), but he’s not getting the credit for a brilliant drive because of the whole ‘World Champion’ thing. Gotta be a bit of a bummer, that.
- Kaz announced a very cool event to celebrate Vettel’s accomplishment. Free Red Bull X2010s for everyone! Hat tip to the always fantastic GTPlanet for linking that video in their article. Genius! Oh, and you get 5 million credits for beating the very generous benchmark times. You’ll get it on your first lap, if not your second. The event ends on Sunday so get to it!
- Gran Turismo 5 released A-spec v2.0. Yes, the damn game should have launched like this, but it’s still a most welcome update! There’s a lot of griping about the lack of 300% payouts from the Seasonal Events and no more half price deals in the Online Car Dealership (they call it OCD for a reason. I admit to being way too into it), and I was definitely surprised by how little I was earning, post-update, compared to before. Not knowing, or paying attention, that bonuses were increased for a while made it a bit of a surprise. I’m over it. Now you get bonuses from consecutive login days. Since I already had more than 10 days straight logging in, I get 200% exp and cash per event. What’s the advantage of this multiplier as opposed to the old system? It applies everywhere! Seasonal, A-Spec, B-Spec, Online. Doesn’t help that much with the OCD, of course. Glad I had nearly cleaned it out beforehand.
- Why, yes, I was surprised and pleased when Kaz re-tweeted me. Why did he do it? I have no idea. I offered no insightful commentary beyond “Woo!” but, hey, I’ll take it. It brought a bunch of new racing followers and PS3 people to race with, so it’s a win all around ^_^
- F1 2011 on PC is my primary go to for F1 racing, but I’ve been charged with reviewing the 360 version. It arrived while I was out with Grandma, so I’ve only been able to play it this week. It’s been a disaster, honestly. The support for the MS wheel isn’t great and there are a ton of bugs. There are random stutters and freezes, whether you have it installed on the HD or are playing on disc. I always choose to start with Team Lotus and my engineer will warn me that Kovalainen is behind me when it’s Perez. That’s a big ‘oops’, especially when I’m basically wearing Heikki’s skin/suit since I, sadly, took his place when selecting my starting team. Oh, and sometimes the game will randomly force skip a race after you qualify. That’s a much bigger oops since you can’t go back and do the race that was missed, through absolutely no fault of your own. I was pretty peeved about it last night and remain that way today. I do not want to restart my career even though that makes it impossible to get the achievement I was going for this season. To recap: F1 2011 on PC is great, on 360 there are serious bugs that need fixing, and the PS3 version is pretty ugly looking in places.
- Oh, and this game called Forza 4 came out. You might have heard of it. Rivals mode alone is worth the purchase price. I’ll be testing out the Kinect side of things next week, too. I’m not expecting the head tracking to be as solid as TrackIR, but hopefully something is better than nothing. Also, the photo mode is pretty fun and I hope to play around with that some more when I need a rest from driving. The photo below was taking while I was using my wheel, so I lacked controls to tweak it, but I like it anyway. Later photos will show up in my gallery.
Why, yes, that IS a Kia Cee'd on the Top Gear test track.
This is a very busy week for racing! The Korean GP is this weekend, too, and I can’t wait. Please oh please let Mark Webber get a win this year!!!
If you guys have any specific questions about any of these games, I’d be happy to answer them. I’m still working on that racing questions post I mentioned earlier and I’d be happy to add more recent stuff to it, too.
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I love driving. It’s one of my favourite things in the whole wide universe. Unless it’s in the city. When I drive in the city I just boggle at the stupidity of people.
Guess what? Every single day the sun rises and the sun sets. MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE SOME SUNGLASSES IN THE CAR. I’d make it a law. That and cables and a roadside safety kit and a mini shovel (because it’s Canada and it snows, even though people manage to forget that every single year. Heck, they forget month to month. It’s pathetic! I might be bitter) should be in every vehicle.
I also do not understand people that take ridiculous chances to make a light or dart across four lanes of traffic (two opposing, of course) or massively illegal turns. Won’t THAT be fun to explain to your insurance broker and, hopefully down the line, the judge. Screw you and your dangerously inflated sense of importance. My dad stopped just off the highway the other day to help a motorcyclist under a jeep. The jeep did a wildly inappropriate U-Turn in an area full of crazy construction and just plonked the guy like he wasn’t there. Mad props to the guy for being very tough considering the bone in his arm was sticking out plain as day. The lady that hit him was a wreck. Also props to the ambulance, fire truck, and police showing up reasonably quickly. Seeing as nearly everyone in my family rides a motorcycle, we especially hate seeing and hearing about stuff like that :(
Speaking of stoplights — while I’m on a roll — I strongly dislike hypermilers. No one forced you to by that huge-ass SUV, deal with it. I don’t dislike all hypermiling techniques, I should add, just a couple of them. If you want to coast to a red light or stop sign, go for it! No issues at all. Racing to slam on the brakes is pretty silly. However, when that line turns green, you have a responsibility to the large gathering of cars behind you to get off the line before it turns amber. I can spot these guys from a mile away (har, har) so I’m ready for it, but you can see everyone else just ready to go snapshow on them.
I’ve been saving fuel whenever possible myself. Basically by not driving. Which sucks. So if you were wondering why I’ve been even more obsessed than usual with driving games, there ya go.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go cry at the local Petro while I fill my tank to run some errands. Then it’s back to some digital racing. It’s not the same, but you gotta work with what you can!!
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