Breaking Up is Hard to Do

We broke up. I moved out. We divided our possessions. All the hardware was mine - the Xbox, the Gamecube, the PS2; most of the software, his. A sad sifting of the content of two lives once shared.

It all went fairly smoothly - until we discovered that we both had large game files on one Xbox. No problem, Justin said, I can probably copy them over using ethernet. So he bought a new Xbox and I brought over mine one afternoon and we tried to transfer our respective games. Just to be on the safe side, I had brought along an official Xbox-approved memory card.

Turns out the saved games we want the most - KOTOR, which we both love - won't fit on a Microsoft-licensed Xbox memory card.

Justin is a man of action. He promptly called customer support. "I have two Xboxes," he said breathlessly. "A memory card that's too small and an ethernet cable. Lets try to figure this out."

Impossible, he was told. There was no way to transfer my saved games.

"That's ridiculous," Justin countered. He doesn't back down easily. "There are a lot of brilliant people at Microsoft and you can't tell me that they didn't think of this problem. Now we're going to stay on the phone and fix it together."

Not possible.

"Well, could I get a bigger memory card then?"

That is the biggest memory card Microsoft makes.

Justin started to get frustrated. "Okay, maybe I could talk to someone else who would know how to help me?"

No one knows, because it's impossible.

"So you're telling me it's not possible for my ex-girlfriend to take with her her own saved games? I can't believe that! You make it sound like hacking my Xbox is a good idea!"

Three hours later, the last phone call in a series of stymied attempts to do a simple data transfer was over, and we both stared at the one Xbox that jealously guarded both our saved games. It is unlockable. We've got the book. The great black box sat implacable, a challenge and a dare.

But not today. "You keep it," I said, finally. "You're sick."

Comments

[eric]

this makes me sad.

hope things look up for you two, soon.

[jane]

i hope Microsoft fixes this problem soon!

then things will look up for me for sure.

[Bowler]

I can't believe that you can download large files to the Xbox but you can't upload.

[mark]

That's too bad. :( I've been reading this 'blog off-and-on for a while, since the Rez Trance Vibrator in fact ;) but this is the first time I've bothered commenting on anything. Hopefully the Xbox will be the biggest of your problems with everything that's happened.

[mark]

That's too bad. :( I've been reading this blog offf-and-on for a while now, since the Rez Trance Vibrator in fact ;) but this is the first time I've bothered actually commenting. Hopefully the Xbox will be the worst of your problems after everything else that's happened.

[Mike Drucker]

My first girlfriend gave me the NES game "Ice-Hockey" when we broke up. She knew I loved it; it was a generous act, back when moving away with the parents was proper reason for a break up.

[andrewstern]

sorry you're having to go through all of this, but god, you guys are so interesting to read!

[Christian McCrea]

Whatever happens, and whatever it means for GGA, you guys rock. Both of you. So keep on writing and keep on thinking, its been a pleasure reading articles, using them in classes and generally interacting, even at a distance, with game writers of worth.

Good fortune to you both, in all things.

[Malkaiya]

At the risk of sounding like a complete ass,
Does this mean you are available Jane?

j/k-

Good luck with the XBox, and good luck to both of you. We, the people, will continue to be here.

[Bored]

I have two thoughts:

As a game developer: fuck you. Of course they didn't worry that their saved games didn't fit on an xbox memory cards. Who the fuck buys xbox memory cards? ... Oh ... Good to know, I guess. :)

As a human being: Suck. Only the two of you could bring us such a modern version of a timeless classic. Suffice it to say, our thoughts are with the both of you. We know we'll still be reading about/from you for a while to come.

And no backsliding! (Just some good general advice.)

[Jurie Horneman]

I also came for the Rez trance vibrator and stayed for the interesting articles. This is a strange kind of bookend to that earlier article, again gaming technology touches lives.

My geek problem-solving instinct obliges me to say that hacking or modding your Xbox should solve your problem. With a debugkit you can move files of pretty much any size around. (And here's hoping I'm not breaking an NDA by saying that - but hey, it's for a good cause.)

Good luck to the both of you.

[Draigon]

About 3 years ago, I was sitting on the corner of my girlfriends bed listening to her music. I had only really known her for a few weeks at the time so I was still learning about her. I looked up from her CD collection to see her shifting little trinkets around her mirror. A small fairy statue, a porcelain butterfly, tiny heart pillows, several candles and the like. I couldn't help but think of the resemblance to Zelda games. I realized I did not know much about her as a gamer so I said, "You look like you're organizing your inventory, Link." She looked at me then back at what she was doing with confusion for a moment but then laughed and said, "Oh! Haha, I haven't played that game in years!"

One thing led to the next and before I knew it I was bringing over my NES, SNES, and several of my games including Battletoads and Bionic Commando because she had never heard of those two (every girl should be introduced, I say!). These were the original artifacts. Many were dusty and scratched. A few, like Battletoads and Lost Vikings, had sentimental attachments to them with childhood friends. By sharing this stuff with her, I thought it would help get us aquainted a little more and plus find out where she was with gaming.

About 3 months later, we broke up. When we weren't playing games, we were fighting. Actually it was more like she was yelling and I was apologizing for things I didn't do just to make peace. Eventually I was so mentally exhausted that I was beginning to become just as angry and depressive as she was. When I broke it off, I wanted it quick and permanent. I didn't want to have to see her again and face the insanity tornado. In the haste of things, I forgot my games.

I never got my games back from her, although I probably could have had I worked up the nerve it takes to face a wild boar. I started thinking things like "She doesn't deserve my games", "She only pretended to like games to get to me", or crunching my eyebrow thinking of all the sentimental attachments to childhood friends. In the end, I just sent my little childhood artifacts a farewell and a prayer that they could cure her of what I could not.

I haven't had a girlfriend since.

I hope things work out better for you, Jane and Justin. From the dividing of hardware/software it at least sounds better than my situation already. Good luck to both.

[Slyfeind]

A little rant, if I may, as a bit of a counterpoint to this "Boo Microsoft!" stuff.

As someone who's been in one of those customer service "hell" positions, I'd have to say Justin was completely unconstructive in that whole conversation. Once something has been labeled "impossible," you stop trying to get help, because there's no breaking through that brick wall. (If you want to rant, write a letter to the developers. Don't take it out on the CSR. EVER. They're not therapists.)

Once you face that wall, there's only one thing left to do: ask for FREE STUFF. That's the CSR's job; to give you presents when you're sad. If no free stuff is forthcoming, ask for your money back. If no money is forthcoming, sue.

The CSR admitted freely that they produced a shoddy product. That should have been the focus of the conversation, and that's where the results would have come from.

[Lev]

There's a time for love and a time for letting it be, baby

[waka]

Good luck you guys. Keep writing--we need voices like yours.

waka

[adam]

Also having working in and around customer service positions it?s been my experience that ?impossible? can often also be translated as ?I really don?t want to deal with this,? or ?I don?t know and don?t want to admit it.? It does defy logic that there is no way to pull the saved game from an X-Box, there has to be a way.

[Jake of 8bitjoystick.com]

My ex-GF used to have me catch Pokemon for her. It was very emasculating.

[erick]

Alas, the most dreaded moment in any gamer couple's life. What to do with all this stuff when you break up. My ex-gf took my entire SuperNES and Genesis collection and half of my PSone collection. Its been almost 4 years and I dread thinking about what has happened to my former empire of classic games.

But if you guys are still serious about transferring that save then pick up the Pro Action Replay for the Xbox. You can upload the save to a PC and then transfer it to the other Xbox.

[anon]

Just FYI, some games on the Xbox actually prevent you from copying saved games and downloaded content from one Xbox to another. It will sign the content with the unique ID from that particular Xbox then everytime that data is accessed, it ensures the Xbox the program is running on is the same as that which saved or downloaded it. It's to keep people's info bound to a machine or to keep downloaded content that was paid for from being transferred. I dunno if there's a hack around this or not honestly, but I assume someone's figured it out.

[Ray]

Awww geek break ups...

[mdeloura]

Sorry to hear you're going through troubles - I don't think I've ever met either of you, but friends of mine refer to you by your first names, so I almost feel like I know you. ;)

Have you tried one of the unlicensed 16mb memory card products? For example, this one - if it isn't two banks of 8MB each, perhaps it will work. Do you know the size of the save file?
datel xbox 16mb

good luck!

[ryan]

damn, that's sad. it's hard enough to split up the possessions. i just went through that ordeal about six months ago.

even though i got to keep most of the stuff (my girl was only a part-time gamer), there's no way i can play animal crossing anymore. her character still lives in the town, and i can't bring myself to evict her. so the memory card just sits on a shelf, and the weeds have surely overtaken the town by now.

maybe when the sequel comes out...

[Trapp]

This is even sadder than when my last girlfriend had to move out of my Animal Crossing town.

[jane]

i still haven't even plugged in the new empty xbox yet. it's too depressing! to think i have to go through all those hours of building up a character again. *sigh*.

[Ken]

I'm sorry to hear that a bad situation was made more difficult by stupid product design. It sounds somewhere in between divvying up video collections and deciding who gets to keep a pet. This is a situation that MS needs to consider at this point if they are going to be having HDs on their console (Or Lucasarts should have optimized their save files better.)

And, not to get too far off topic, but I agree with Slyfiend as another ex-CSR. It is not their fault the box was poorly designed. It is their job to be the front line in customer relations, but you are wasting your time and theirs if they tell you something is impossible. If it could be done, it would have been figured out by now. If they can't help you, just ask nicely to be escalated to a supervisor. Also, threatening to sue will get you nowhere. I gaurantee every CSR person will find it hilarious when one threatens to sue over a video game not working (plus there is no legal precendent). Not that I'm sure you care at this point or anything.