I don't like the update Xbox live is coming out with. There I said it! I feel the kiddy/casual ideals Microsoft is pushing degrades me as an adult gamer. I understand that casual gaming is usefull in making money, but I bought my xbox to play more mature and adult games.
my point is:

Avatars- I really don't care what some annoy 8-year old THINKS he looks like (6 feet tall with long spikey hair, uhhhhh)

Dashboard- It lookes like my Ipod Video Nano's album screen (rip offs are not appreciated)

Netflix- this is the only thing I applaude Xbox for. I think this is the best thing they've done to the console in a long time.

My XBL avatar is, and will forever remain that eyeball that comes pre-loaded on the system.

I had no problem with the old dashboard, so I'm a little annoyed that they're going to change it up on me.

Netflix sounds like a pretty cool idea. End transmission.

What else are they going to do... there isnt much that they can do that hasnt already been done... i like what they are doing... especially the netflix. but hey thats my oppinion i respect yours and believe it is valid... i dont agree that they are basically copying everyone else and would like to see somthing new but almost everything has been done...

if it isn't broke don't fix it.

They fixed it.

Unoriginal and unnecessary.

Apparently, though, the avatars will only be able to be used in games E10+ or lower. Not sure if that's entirely true, but that still got a chuckle out of me.

Though personally, they look to much like Miis to me, though how they could even find a middle ground between the Miis and Home Avatars as either way it's going to look like the Miis or the avatars is beyond me.

Ya im definitely not looking forward to it. They should make it optional for sure.

Anybody who thinks this is unoriginal need look no farther than trophies. And honestly, avatars have been around long before this. I personally am loving the new layout and am o.k. with the avatars. The Netflix thing though is utterly awesome. So i approve.

the monopoly guy:
if it isn't broke don't fix it.

They fixed it.

i totaly agree with this, they REALLY screwed things up, xbox was for the casual players that love to hang out, so now they just combined wii, and ps3 and then kicked it a couple of times in the head to make it all confusing and un orginised, and i hope we get refunded on our microsoft points we spent on themes and stuff :)

If you guys don't like it, don't use the avatars. And how much time do you really spend on the Dashboard of your xbox? It won't change how the xbox plays the games. So who really gives a crap?

merkinater:
i hope we get refunded on our microsoft points we spent on themes and stuff :)

how do you know your themes wont be usable on the new dashboard. please show me where you found this info.... i would like to see this.

I personally hate the update. I never rent movies, so Netflix is meaningless, I absolutely hate it when people change any perfectly functional system that I've gotten used to, so the new dashboard is an unwelcome change, and the avatars are by far the biggest issue I have with the update. I know that Nintendo didn't invent avatars or anything, but the new avatars look so Mii-like that I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't sued. And it seems like the feature was added for the sole purpose of competing with Home. Not to mention that they look sickeningly childish. So, I'm not too excited to say the least.

I'm not really looking forward to the new look and avatars, but I'm really excited for the Netflix add-on. I went with a positive just because the Netflix and new XBLA games are bigger positives against the negative looks.

People can complain or not about avatars, but it's still optional and perfectly compatible with the themes and actuals avatars.

I love the xbox, but not this update. avatars are kiddy and unnecessary, the dashboard looks like the PS3 dashboard but on its side, with bigger icons. the netflix thing is the only good one, but its not available in the U.K so i'm not getting anything from this update.

Why fix what isn't broken?

Saying that the Xbox updates "degrades you as an adult gamer" is sad, really. I'm not gonna say this applies to you, but why are people so fixed about games being mature and adult, what does that mean anyway? More blood and gore than the latest Saw movie? It's like there is a shame in playing video games when you are above 20 and people need something to prove that it's still OK.

I can understand when criticism like this is pointed towards Nintendo, because nowdays they seem to put more effort in "Mii games" than anything else, but if Microsoft decides that they want to rip off Nintendo on one point people go crazy? It's not like Gears of War 2 is suddenley cancelled because you will be able to have avatars.

It seems the farther we go, the more and more samey the consoles become. When one has an innovation, the others are going to try to emulate it. PS3 and XBox compete for new movie features among other things. And from the sound of things they're taking quite a few pages out of Nintendo's book including customizable avatars and targeting for a non-core gamer demographic.

Dashboard: I love the old dashboard. I know where everything is and I can flick through it easily. The new dash is just annoying from what I've seen.

Avatars: I don't like them on the Wii. Why would I want them on my 360? Thank god you don't have to use them.

Netflix: The problem is you need a Netflix account to actually USE it. And I don't know what Netflix is, have never heard of it before and never plan on using it. So that's just another thing clogging up my dashboard and HD.

On the bright side we're finally getting group chat.

the monopoly guy:
if it isn't broke don't fix it.

They fixed it.

Couldn't say it better myself.

Sold my Xbox 360. Not for this reason as they were finally adding 1680x1050 support (!), but Avatars: YOU DONT HAVE TO USE THEM.

PS: Entire old dashboard is now the guide. You can just boot to game and never, EVER look at the new dash. You can even buy stuff from the marketplace in the guide now.

End of Topic.

I don't know how they can get away with the avatars.

Xbox and Sony have been at war stealing each others ideas from the start of this console generation. but I don't why Xbox feels the need to invade Wii it's a small neutral country with a completely different key market demographic which ether MS or Sony previously made fun of so why on earth do they feel the need to steal one of their features?

Littaly:
Saying that the Xbox updates "degrades you as an adult gamer" is sad, really. I'm not gonna say this applies to you, but why are people so fixed about games being mature and adult, what does that mean anyway? More blood and gore than the latest Saw movie? It's like there is a shame in playing video games when you are above 20 and people need something to prove that it's still OK.

I can understand when criticism like this is pointed towards Nintendo, because nowdays they seem to put more effort in "Mii games" than anything else, but if Microsoft decides that they want to rip off Nintendo on one point people go crazy? It's not like Gears of War 2 is suddenley cancelled because you will be able to have avatars.

The avaters are childish and rip-off from the miis, Home while ripping off avaters theres is not childish looking. By degrading as an adult gamer i'm guessing hes talking about them looking like manchilds and womanchilds instead of you know like an actual person. I guess it fits though being that the 360 is somewhere bewteen sonys hard dick and the ninetedo asshole that puts out shitty 3rd party games and decent 1st party.

P.S Adult gamers want more games with deep plots not avaters, They know what they look like in real life and probably don't care about some 13 year old who will probably hack it and then make a nude avater and start waving his dick around.

if it isn't broke don't fix it.

They fixed it.

That's cause it was broke. The blades interface was designed for far less options than it currently has to deal with, as a result it's messy, unintuitive and has shit everywhere. It's still better than the XMB, barely, but only because it loads faster and the XMB largely suffers from the same problem, as it was designed for the PSP, which has half as many options in each menu.

zirnitra:
I don't know how they can get away with the avatars.

Xbox and Sony have been at war stealing each others ideas from the start of this console generation. but I don't why Xbox feels the need to invade Wii it's a small neutral country with a completely different key market demographic which ether MS or Sony previously made fun of so why on earth do they feel the need to steal one of their features?

Sony=HARDCORE! Microsoft=Softcore Wii=Your mum.

Are they TRYING to repulse reasonable people?

How about they spend the money on creating a system of maturity level ratings, then hire trustworthy people to go about rating the users so that the people who don't want to hear racial slurs or mindless blather can have a decent conversation amidst a firefight?

Bulletinmybrain:

zirnitra:
I don't know how they can get away with the avatars.

Xbox and Sony have been at war stealing each others ideas from the start of this console generation. but I don't why Xbox feels the need to invade Wii it's a small neutral country with a completely different key market demographic which ether MS or Sony previously made fun of so why on earth do they feel the need to steal one of their features?

Sony=HARDCORE! Microsoft=Softcore Wii=Your mum.

PC = looking down at the squabblers and just chuckle.

Oooo, burn ;)

the monopoly guy:
if it isn't broke don't fix it.

They fixed it.

Essentially this, but can anyone say "Mii"? *cough* riff off! *cough*

does any one really give a shit what the dashboard looks like and if you look beyond the avatars you will see that there are also a lot of cool new tricks being added like letting you switch from a game in the drive to an arcade game with out having to even go to the dash so maybe all you people bashing it with out any more knowledge than maybe one news storie should shut up and go and find out some more about it.

First of all, for someone who doesn't use a 360 often, the old interface was hideous and packed with too much in one place. It made things hard to see and hard to find. If it ain't brike, don't fix it...but to me it was broken, and needed a fix.

Second, why are so many people worried that avatars are going to make their penises fall off? Are you so insecure in your masculinity that if your console gives you the option of making an avatar, you're somehow less grown up and masculine? I have a bit of advice there... grow up.

Edit: Just for emphasis.

TheKbob:

On topic: Seriously, Major Nelson stated in his podcast: YOU DONT HAVE TO USE AVATARS. Done. End of Story. Stop whining.

[/rant]

TheKbob:

Bulletinmybrain:

zirnitra:
I don't know how they can get away with the avatars.

Xbox and Sony have been at war stealing each others ideas from the start of this console generation. but I don't why Xbox feels the need to invade Wii it's a small neutral country with a completely different key market demographic which ether MS or Sony previously made fun of so why on earth do they feel the need to steal one of their features?

Sony=HARDCORE! Microsoft=Softcore Wii=Your mum.

PC = looking down at the squabblers and just chuckle.

Oooo, burn ;)

PS3: "You raging hypocrite! My master can make you at less than me apparantly, but how is he supposed to know that after he's bought the AlienWare version of you costing him 5X more than me? And you call yourself a cheap prouct?"

360: "Yeah, and why did you crash on my master to? All he did was pop in the disk to play, and it refused to load. Then when it finaly did it refused to play because it apparantly didn't have this stupid thing installed so he had to install that but it STILL DIDN"T WORK!"

Wii: "And what the fuck is up with the long ass serial numbers?"

PS3+360: "errmm..." irony :P

Ohhh, burt yourself there slightly. lololololol

Im assuming you made those little jokes (which I liked) because each system has the exact same issue? Cost, crap not working, and codes...

^____^

Then again, i'm pretty slow on these things. Oh well.

On topic: Seriously, Major Nelson stated in his podcast: YOU DONT HAVE TO USE AVATARS. Done. End of Story. Stop whining.

AntiAntagonist:
Where's the "I don't care" option on the poll?

Exactly, it's not going to affect my ability to play games, so I'll just take the defaults and move on.