I've been robbed!

I've been robbed! But I'm over it now.

I mentioned that I started a blog for my Xbox 360 at www.360voice.com. Your Xbox 360 "writes" entries based on how you've used, or not used, the system each day. While I know I'm not going to be the best player out there, I knew there was one thing I could be good at. Playing every day and maintaining a continuous streak.

With my recent move I wasn't sure how I was going to maintain my streak. My internet connection was still hooked up at my apartment, but my TV and all my furniture was moved to my new house. For two days I took my system over to my parent's house (much to my mother's dismay) and hooked up and got online. Sometimes I played for an hour or so. Sometimes I just logged in, opened up a game and played for five minutes. Just long enough for the system to register that I was online and playing (even if I only had the game up in the menus). It was enough for me.

Once I got everything up and running at my new place I could go back to my regularly scheduled gaming habit. My mom was relieved. And for awhile everything was working just fine. That was until Thanksgiving.

I spent a lot of the day at my parents for the big turkey dinner. I didn't get home that night until 10pm, but there was still plenty of time to play games. I booted my system up and played Gears of War 2 with my friends. I don't know if that was the night we played late, or if after a couple of matches everyone went to bed and I decided to watch a movie in my Xbox 360 before going to bed. Either way I played that night just like every night previously for the last 244 days (according to my 360's blog). But something happened and I was about to get robbed.

It wasn't until Saturday when I was playing around on my computer that I decided to go read my 360's blog and see where my ranking was for my continuous streak. When I checked the numbers my ranking was down in the 40,000s instead of the 190s range I was at before. What happened? I went back and read through all my entries and found out that the entry for the Thanksgiving holiday said I hadn't played at all. That can't be right. I played. I ALWAYS play.

But there it was in black and white. My streak was gone. My badge was gone. My rank was gone. I was robbed.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if there was someone I could contact to correct the problem. I was livid. After all my hard work and stress about keeping my streak going during the whole moving process only to have my streak ended in what was obviously a glitch in the system. I wanted to rip someone's head off (now you know why I like snapping the neck of a meat shield in Gears 2). I was so mad I wanted to chuck my 360 into my swimming pool. But I didn't. I walked away. Let myself cool off. And THEN started snapping people's necks.

It's been a week and a half since then and I've come to turns with it. I've cooled down enough to wonder if it really matters in the long run. I mean, any idiot can turn their Xbox 360 on every day and get a continuous streak going. There's no skill involved other than pushing a button and logging in. So I play video games every day. Do I really need a badge that lets everyone else know that? Probably not, because then I'll start to hear those "get a life" mutterings from every Tom, Dick and Harry I meet.

I just wanted to be good at something. Better than my peers. It's not going to happen in the games I play, with the people I play. So why not pick something I CAN do and maybe be better at than others. I know I have friends that play online every day too and if they had a blog at www.360voice.com they'd have a continuous streak just as long as mine. Maybe even longer. But for now, I had all my friends (who are on the site) beaten. Oh well.

Since my streak has been broken sometimes I haven't felt like getting online. What's the point? I don't have a streak I have to maintain any more. If I do get online I know I'm going to be wrapped up in a couple hours of game play. But now I've got a house that needs some attention and other hobbies that I'd like to spend some time doing. But not playing online makes me miss some of my friends. They can be a pain in the you-know-what but I love playing with them anyway.

Maybe getting robbed of my continuous streak was a good thing. Maybe I'll find the time to finish reading a book I started over the summer. Or get some more cross stitching done on the pattern I'm making for my mom. It's a large one and it would be nice to get it finished before she dies. (Not that she's going anywhere, it's just that big of a project.) Either way I'll still be playing video games. I can't image a life not playing video games. Besides I HAVE to play some move video games. I have a New Year's Resolution to break the 10,000 point barrier with my gamer score (I'm currently at 9,531) and I'm running out of time to do it in. So I'll see you online. Like always.