Remember yesterday's story about my 4-year old buying me a copy of Torchlight off XBLA? Well, I guess my 3-year old was paying attention because I was the recipient of yet another gift courtesy of some rapid presses of the "A-button" and a little boy who wanted to play the "jumping game".
My 3-year old and 4-year old sons love Doritos Crash Course. They can't wait for bedtime to approach because they know that they'll get the chance to play ten minutes of the "jumping game" with Daddy. After supper last night, I went up to my bedroom to change out of my work clothes and prepare for some quality gaming time with my kids. As I was changing, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet come into the bedroom.
I came out of the bathroom to see both my boys sitting on the bed, controllers in hand. My 3-year old's controller was on, most likely due to his fascination with the over-sized Xbox guide button. I turned the TV on, switched the video input, and saw a video for Halo Reach playing on the TV. Hmmmm - what are the odds that something funny happened again...?
I took the controller from my 3-year old and quickly checked my MS Points balance. I'd just finished depositing 5000 points into my account (Pinball FX 2 tables, Stacking, Costume Quest, Mass Effect 2 DLC, and Fallout New Vegas DLC aren't free). My account balance showed 4310. Dammit! Are you kidding me Microsoft?!
I worked my way to my purchase history and found another accidental purchase listed: the Halo Reach Defiant Map Pack for 800 MS points. While I wasn't too bothered by my 4-year old's purchase of Torchlight, I refuse to spend money on a multiplayer map pack - especially for games that I don't own and have never played.
Thankfully, Microsoft Support was very understanding. I'm sure that they're aware of the dangers of young children turning on consoles and hammering the "A-button". My purchase was refunded without issue once the support representative got all of 6the details surrounding the purchase.
I question why the software developers responsible for the 360 dashboard don't create a slightly modified button sequence to buy new items off Xbox Live (how about A-A-Y-A?). Or why not give me the option of having my 360 dashboard default to a different tab set which might force my kids to input both button presses and left stick movements to buy and download new purchases?
Then again, the 360 dashboard set-up resulted in me pulling the trigger on my purchase of Torchlight. And I'm sure that there are many other parents out there completely unaware that their children have accidentally triggered purchases of random bits of software.
Well played, Microsoft. Well played...
My 3-year old and 4-year old sons love Doritos Crash Course. They can't wait for bedtime to approach because they know that they'll get the chance to play ten minutes of the "jumping game" with Daddy. After supper last night, I went up to my bedroom to change out of my work clothes and prepare for some quality gaming time with my kids. As I was changing, I heard the pitter-patter of little feet come into the bedroom.
I came out of the bathroom to see both my boys sitting on the bed, controllers in hand. My 3-year old's controller was on, most likely due to his fascination with the over-sized Xbox guide button. I turned the TV on, switched the video input, and saw a video for Halo Reach playing on the TV. Hmmmm - what are the odds that something funny happened again...?
I took the controller from my 3-year old and quickly checked my MS Points balance. I'd just finished depositing 5000 points into my account (Pinball FX 2 tables, Stacking, Costume Quest, Mass Effect 2 DLC, and Fallout New Vegas DLC aren't free). My account balance showed 4310. Dammit! Are you kidding me Microsoft?!
I worked my way to my purchase history and found another accidental purchase listed: the Halo Reach Defiant Map Pack for 800 MS points. While I wasn't too bothered by my 4-year old's purchase of Torchlight, I refuse to spend money on a multiplayer map pack - especially for games that I don't own and have never played.
Thankfully, Microsoft Support was very understanding. I'm sure that they're aware of the dangers of young children turning on consoles and hammering the "A-button". My purchase was refunded without issue once the support representative got all of 6the details surrounding the purchase.
I question why the software developers responsible for the 360 dashboard don't create a slightly modified button sequence to buy new items off Xbox Live (how about A-A-Y-A?). Or why not give me the option of having my 360 dashboard default to a different tab set which might force my kids to input both button presses and left stick movements to buy and download new purchases?
Then again, the 360 dashboard set-up resulted in me pulling the trigger on my purchase of Torchlight. And I'm sure that there are many other parents out there completely unaware that their children have accidentally triggered purchases of random bits of software.
Well played, Microsoft. Well played...
