Now I am a complainer, let’s get this straight. There is very little that I don’t have an opinion on, but (on a good note) not all of it is negative feedback. When there something I find amazing I will be the first to tell you, however when something is bad, I’ll be twice as fast and likely to tell you about it. In this case the topic I wish to discuss is the general lack of respect for the common consumer in the gaming marketplace by the very people we keep employed.

This isn’t just happening with Microsoft’s consumers, this is happening to nearly every average ‘Joe Blog’ gamer around the world in general. I have a feeling that there is only so much a consumer can take before he says to him/herself ‘right I am really getting sick of being pissed about by these guys that I keep afloat with my money’. That is exactly how I feel sometimes when I see the latest batch of DLC from Epic Games, that is what I feel when I look at Microsoft’s attitude towards gamers in general that they are walking money-bags and nothing else. Microsoft seem to have this thing where no matter what they touch, or come into contact with, that object/franchise becomes another money-making scheme to come back to the already amazingly filled piggy bank for Microsoft.

Bill Gates is the personification of business

Don’t get me wrong they have to make it a business right? How would they have survived this long without the amazing business skills that Microsoft possesses? As much as I dislike the Bill Gates/Microsoft monopolization of the market, one must respect that savvy businessman who really did put a PC in every home as he stated so long ago. However we must realize, nay Microsoft must realize that while making good business is great and so on, they must give the consumer good reasons to stay with them, make them feel like they are actually wanted and are respected. This is where Microsoft has not done well at all or probably ever will.

Such examples of Microsoft’s lack of respect for the average gamer are for a start the console itself. Even after the Xbox 360 being out for nearly four years, a line of unbreakable Xbox’s seem to completely elude Microsoft’s engineering team. One can only think that it was manufactured by a stampeding herd of bamboos because of its frequency to break down within several months of purchasing it. Now while this is bad enough, the attitude towards this problem was one of complete and utter ignorance on Microsoft’s behalf. People were screaming for so long for Microsoft to get the problem sorted out and here we are four years later and yet we have no ‘unbreakable’ Xbox. Yes we may have a three-year warranty for RROD and error E47, but what about when my hard-drive dies? What about when the very Xbox I am using is scratching my discs to the point where they are unusable? Why have they not taken notice of this problem, how loud must I, nay we shout before we am listened to? This is an example of how I feel Microsoft wish to push every problem they have created under the carpet.

The Xbox 360 is infamous for breaking down...

The next example being Microsoft’s tendency to give nothing at all back to the gamer. While this all sounds very silly as nearly no-one in business ever does this and the tendency to do so seems irrelevant to most, they still need to give us some type of comfort or something that makes us believe that we are appreciated and are not just the walking dollar signs as so many see us. When you work in an industry whose fortune is determined by what the public wants you would expect some kind of payback by Microsoft to the average person, a break, an offering of appreciation to the people who have kept you afloat for so long. However Microsoft’s attempts to give back have been beyond abysmal. Microsoft points can be wasted on the most stupid things on the Xbox Live Marketplace, Gamer pictures and game themes which cost 2 pounds sterling. Not only that but now they have avatar clothing that may be purchased for Microsoft points, another way to abuse the stupidity of general society. The deal of the week is without a doubt the biggest joke I have ever seen; the DLC that has money taken off is either a game that nobody ever plays anymore, or they have taken next to nothing off it (33% off 8 dollars is not a deal). Look at Steam for example, they have PROPER deals, deals that make the consumer interested and think “hell yeah, this is an awesome deal”. This deal of the week is an insult to the very word ‘deal’, as it bears no significant amount of money off the designated product.

I’m not sure what console I will be devoting my loyalties to in the next coming years as the next generation of console begins and as such war will be declared by Nintendo, Sony and our dear friends Microsoft. One thing I am sure of though, being with Microsoft right now is fine, I can tolerate most of it, and I’m not to the point where I want to burn down their headquarters in Washington. I will however say that I believe that Microsoft (if they wish to keep their audience) really needs to start focusing on their customer service and the overall quality of their products. It is with this attention to detail that Microsoft will win me over completely to the point where I sing love-songs involving Bill Gates, the Windows OS and a pointy hat. If they don’t however, my tendency to stay loyal to them rather than jumping ship will undoubtedly shatter, and considering the treatment a lot of people have received from the Microsoft games empire, I doubt I’ll be the only one.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect those of the site.