An article of the absurd, today, since I’ve got a lot going on. Not only is there a forum nerd out there who thinks that the Xbox 360 is cracking his discs, he thinks that the best solution to his problem is to perform an “Executive Email Carpet Bomb” (EECB). Basically, the idea is that you flood the email of all of the “figure head people” (who, “executive” or not, generally have among the least power of helping you out). You basically spam them to death, in hopes that they will surrender to your will. It has proven successful, I believe… NEVER.

First of all, I have heard absolutely no reports of the 360 “cracking” discs. Some others lump it in with the disc scratching, but I have to believe that it’s the behavior of the user that results in cracked discs. The pictures posted in the Penny-Arcade forums show that the discs always crack in a similar position. Once the game disc is in the tray it’s spinning at upwards of 7200 RPM’s (estimated 12x DVDROM speed). It’s statistically impossible to cause a crack in the same place every time. However, if you’re anal retentive enough to put your discs back in their case facing the same exact way every time, and instinctively pull them from the DVD packaging the same way every time, there’s a very good chance your cracks will be in the same place. If you learn to press down on the on the center ring of the package, rather than pull at the edges of the disc, you probably won’t crack them.

Rather than people just thinking that maybe this guy has his own set of problems to worry about, the Jergens toting jagoffs over at the The Consumerist are encouraging EECB workarounds. Here’s hoping Microsoft’s spam filters hold up and they never even catch wind of this loser looking for a handout. Go buy your games again, and learn how DVD packaging works.

So I’m reading a few articles today which just seem to rub me the wrong way. The United States Congress wants to put warning labels on video games. An ESRB warning system is already in place, to warn parents and children alike of the games content, but it’s just not good enough, they say. They want health warnings now. Still, the biggest complain comes back to the mental well being of children after playing violent games.

I am all for a game rating system, and I believe that the ESRB does a fine job. I would hope that they would be willing to stand up before congress and ask how they can make their labels better, before allowing congress to go create yet another obnoxious label to put on our games, as though they were a pack of cigarettes. What worries me most about them calling this the Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009 is the simple fact that they could begin warning against the “addictive nature” of video games. And you can place your bets now as to when they would tell you that you’ll get fat, like some Nutrition Facts.

I’m all for making a rating system where the warning has to take up 50% of the packaging, go nuts. But please don’t start putting wild inaccuracies and over generalized assumptions all over our games. Are sincerely starting to wonder if the movie industry ever actually had to go through all of the crap the video games industry is still dealing with.

So I’m catching up on Twitter yesterday when I notice that Total Gaming Network had linked to an article on Yahoo! Games. The article talks about five video game franchises we might be better off without. While I may agree that this is a problem for the video game industry, I often can’t believe it’s still a topic people care to read about.

The entertainment industry as a whole (as well as the fans) has never gotten past their lust for specific characters and plots. We have our favorites. Even if an actor is portraying a different character, we often see bits of the reason we love that actor shine through, bridging the gab between the characters.

The medium doesn’t matter. Movies? Six Star Wars films, a new Indiana Jones, almost a dozen Batman movies in under twenty years. And let’s not forget turning a classic like Ocean’s 11 into a freaking trilogy. Are you a reader? How about seven Harry Potter books, or four Twilight books in under four years? Music fan? Have you seen Britney spears making a 10-year comeback?

Now that you’ve grown up, have you watched children’s TV shows? Replace any set of characters, they all share the same plots. And I’m not even talking good guys vs. bad guys. I’m talking Prince and the Pauper spin offs, Jack and the Beanstalk references, etc… from Bugs Bunny, to Barbie, to Broadway – stories have been retold so many times, that even if the characters and backdrop are new, you should recognize the plot.

The abuse of a franchise, going back to a well we think would be dry is nothing new. Between 1931 and 1941 no less than 3 film adaptations of the book The Maltese Falcon were released. People think that the video game industry has gotten stale. But believe me, flooding the market with video game sequels is nothing new, and every other form of entertainment is has been going through it a lot longer than ours. The peoplpe complaining about the Halo trilogy had nothing to say back when Super Mario Brothers 3 launched. I’m really shocked that a few pretentious editors from around the internet come back year after year and complain that there isn’t enough new intellectual property. We are far from the first to experience this, and the games industry won’t be the last.

I have been extremely busy this week. But let’s give our first editorial a shot.

As Microsoft’s “Live Anywhere” promise continues to grow, I began to ask myself why my Xbox Live experience wasn’t as portable as I would like it to be. Then I asked myself what could be done to make it happen, what would make it great, and how Microsoft could best approach it.

Let me begin by saying Xbox.com is a great start to what I want. Among my favorite things are being able to check in on my online friends, as well as read and send messages to them. My first question is: why can’t I do it from my cell phone?

Now, it’s true, that if you have a smart phone or some other web-enabled device, you can generally travel to Xbox.com and use those features. iPhone & Android users even have a similar application that would allow these communication methods. But why can’t I go to my mobile phone’s built in store and get an official Microsoft made application for viewing my friend’s lists and messaging my friends? Why not even allow voice messaging? After all, a cell phone is sort of designed just for that!

Okay, but this argument has been made before. What makes my little whine-fest any different? Well, I want more. I want a true xbox experience available on my cellular phone. I want the games. Sequels, spin offs, and even 3rd party ports of tons of Xbox games are on cell phones. More game studios are going multiplatform, and casual games, like those found on the Xbox Live Arcade, are generally put on Xbox Live after they’ve become popular through some other method, like the PC. Still, having an “Xbox Live Arcade” app would absolutely make money. Not every Arcade game has to be available through this method, but the minute you give me the choice between Zuma on my cell phone, and Zuma on Xbox Live Arcade for my cell phone… suddenly we’re talking something different.

How different, you ask? I want achievement points. Mobile achievements. If I load up Contra, Street Fighter II, or Tetris Splash on my cell phone, and have the ability to earn 50, or even the same 200 Gamerscore – I might never put my cell phone down. If Microsoft managed their portfolios correctly, developers would be clamoring to get their Xbox Live Arcade game, which would sell better with achievements, on the new Xbox Live Mobile platform.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that the game is exclusive to Xbox Live members, or that the achievements would have to be enabled for people who wouldn’t even know what gamerscore is. Still, just having the option available for people to log in to their Live accounts and perhaps benefit a little bit for it – that could lead to increased sales of games for people who might overlook mobile games – the Gamerscore junkies! Meanwhile, the game plays and looks the same (as much as possible), as to not alienate non Xbox members from picking up the game on their mobile-carrier’s download service.

Sounds nice, but what about the execution? With Google’s Android debuting on T-Mobile, and the iPhone launching on AT&T – why wouldn’t Microsoft pair up with Verizon to make this happen? As more and more people are jumping ship away from Sprint, Verizon wireless makes perfect sense. They already have a well designed music store, as well as their “Get It Now” service (I believe they are phasing out the name, but the framework for the service is cemented in place). It seems like it would not be an impossible transition and would open up an entirely new platform to us gamer-geeks who already have cell phones!

So, now that I’ve written a small book – how do you feel about it? Would you rather they launch it on your cell phone carrier? Should it only work on Windows Mobile phones? What do you think? I encourage you to register and comment!

A few months after I started the current version of WinBreak, I kept promising more of “my input.” And while I may have given my partiular spin on an article or two, I haven’t written too many “editorial” type columns. That’s all changing.

If you just can’t get enough of me (and I know you can’t), you can now follow my Twitter. It’s not hyper-active like some other users, I might only make 2 or 3 updates in a day. Who knows, I may even go days at a time without updating it. Apart from that, I will also begin writing a few more editorial pieces, strictly my opinion, not those representing any of my… oh, wait, I don’t have sponsors… so yeah, it’s all me! These posts will be tagged “NuAngel’s Notes.”

Why all of the sudden, you might ask? Well, after making a long winded post in the Xbox.com forums that nobody will ever read, I decided to start bringing more of my opinions here. I will even encourage members to log in and comment on the stories. I will be making the registration process a little easier to find – all the while, finally (hopefully) updating my blog-software. I’m using an older version of WordPress, but every time I try to update, I lose all of my content! I’ll work on that later, but don’t you worry – your login information should still be mighty safe, when you register.

Anyway, yes, be on the lookout for upcoming editorial posts – I’ve got things I’ve been holding back for a while, and hope to bring it all to light in a comedic yet fact-facing manor… I’m not the next Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, but I’ll try and get you to crack a smile, like I did in the past.