The Day After...

Well, what can I say? The Join The Ghosts event was a massive success. Over 50 members of the public and press came along to the event and I was very pleased with the whole thing. You can find more coverage of the event on BXB.

Anyway, what the success of this event goes to show that despite numerous pretenders springing up over the last few months, BXB is still a leader in the area of Xbox Community. Not only are we promoting and nurturing our own community but also helping others to widen their own circles.

The Join The Ghosts was a "networking" event for many of the visitors with numerous fansites attending, chatting, sharing ideas and swapping phone numbers. It was a great feeling to see that an event I'd been so heavily involved in organising was helping other communities to grow and knit together.

But I think the most humbling thing was the thanks I got from the attending people. I'm certainly not one to shy away from publicity and I am a well known attention whore (hence the blog) but yesterday was a totally different experience.

To see something I'd been envisioning in my head for so long finally come to fruition was just incredible. I don't think it's sunk in yet that it's all happened and that it was very successful.

It's was good to be back where BXB belongs - making the news.

I'd like to thank Chris at Ubisoft and Paul at Skirmish High Wycombe for having the vision and the drive to make this event a reality. Couldn't have done it without them.

Websites that visited the event include: Xboxgamezone, 360 monster, Hexus, Press Start Online, Xbox Live Addicts, Totally 360, Pro-G, GameCell, Gaming-360, Game.net, TGSN, Bit-Tech and Club Skill. So thanks to the sites for visiting the event and I can't wait to see your coverage!

State of Play

While I claim this blog was about an "Outsiders" view of the gaming industry, I've actually rarely touched upon this topic. So, in this entry I want to try and fix that little problem by talking about my current thoughts on the Xbox Community Network.

BXB was originally admitted to the XCN on recommendation of Ade at msxboxworld, something I'm very grateful for, and after chatting with the former XCN manager Gareth Morris I felt that being part of the Community was a very positive thing.

It seemed the original UK XCN wasn't simply a list of fansites, but a badge of honour for those admitted and I trumpted our acceptance a fair old amount when it first happened. And the great thing was that a person could visit each of the XCN sites and get something different from them all. Meaning that none of the sites were really in competition to get users.

The equilibrium was kept and stayed that way for a while. Shortly after BXB was admitted to the XCN Gareth Morris handed in his resignation and left. Leaving the Microsoft to appoint a company called Digital Outlook to run the XCN. Onto the scene stepped Crissie Ricotta - the new XCN Manager.

It was around same time Crissie began to manage the XCN that I encountered someone else who I believed intended to use the XCN to line their own pockets with cash.

They boasted in an e-mail to me: "...the XCN will have an 'exclusive interview' which will depend on if they contribute to it. Also you've got to understand that with the community work that I do, obviously I'm not going to do it 'all' for free."

This was something I couldn't abide and led to months of unrest, conflict and threats but I felt I was protecting something that I believed in, something that had been good to BXB. As an outsider looking in I saw this as a cynical way of making money - something that's on the increase in this industry.

Away, I digress. Back on topic, I've recently become very disgruntled with how the XCN is being run. At first Crissie offered us some great content and the chance to get review copies of games that we might have otherwise struggled to get. Two things that I'm very pleased about.

The main reason behind this swing in opinion is that the XCN Manager has totally failed to even acknowledge BXB's Join the Ghosts event. I've made my feelings known behind closed doors so I feel comfortable expressing them here.

BXB has been added to the Xbox.com Community Developers Program(XCDP); we've been added to the EMEA reviewers kit list and we're working closely with the second biggest publisher out there. How many other XCN sites are doing what we're doing?

One of the reasons I wanted to run this Join The Ghosts event was because I wanted to give XCN sites the chance to get great content and have a fun day - one of my stipulations with Chris Easton was that all XCN sites are invited (This was done before the recent update).

BXB is part of an attempt to grow an online community which will complement the Xbox Live community experience. That sentence is the very genesis upon which BXB was born and flourished. And after my chat with Gareth Morris I felt he was working to the same agenda. Digital Outlook, however, in my opinion, are not.

It seems increasingly apparent to me that BXB has fans within the Microsoft corporation itself as we've been added to the XCDP and, rumour has it, that the decision to add BXB to the EMEA reviewers kit list was taken higher up in the echelons of Microsoft where companies like Digital Outlook and Red have no influence. A rumour supported, perhaps, by the fact that our admission to the EMEA reviewers kit list was totally out of the blue.

The recent additions to the XCN have also caused me some concern. Many of these new sites are missing basic gaming website requirements like a reviews section or make absurd claims about their popularity and affiliates. I'm not attacking these new websites, I'm simply stating facts, which, with a little investigation are proven right.

Take www.xboxliveaddicts.co.uk, they claim to be the official forum for THQ's massive MotoGP 3, yet, if you take a look at their forums they have only around 1000 people signed up. The two don't match. If THQ were really backing this website, it'd be 100 times bigger than any other XCN site out there. Once again, I've spoken to the guys behind XBLA about this so I'm not concerned about saying this publicly.

What has irked me most about this new influx of websites is that the XCN is no longer a "Badge of Quality" awarded to sites that offer something unique to visitors and has essentially caused a massive increase in competition for all XCN sites. Now, we're all fighting to keep any new users we get via the Xbox.com link.

And recently content offered by Digital Outlook has become less and less impressive. For example, last year they offered an exclusive MotoGP 2 interview about six months after the game was out. I humoured. When the interview came back several months later (so much later I had forgotten about it) it was so utterly out of date that I've never bothered to publish it.

As Ash reliably informs me BXB gets almost no traffic from the Xbox.com link, I've actually considered removing BXB from the XCN because I don't want to be associated with some of the other XCN sites and we getting little to no comeback for our investment.

I realise I'm talking about the negative a lot here, and it's not all bad. The XCN supplied BXB with the European Xbox 360 launch advert which and we were the recognised first website in the world to feature this advert. Something that I'm proud to add to our Porfolio,

But this is a two way thing. I've carried the XCN's message time and time again but when I turn round and ask the XCN to help me carry BXB's message they don't even bother to reply to my e-mails. Not only is that frustrating but also plain rude.

I'm beginning to think that perhaps it's that what BXB is achieving is actually showing up Digital Outlook. They have a budget, they have man power and they have massive corporate backing. I've helped pull off the Join the Ghosts event from my bedroom on my days off from working for Tesco. Where are Digital Outlook's Community events?

I fought for the XCN, BXB has put itself out for the XCN and how are we repaid?

I will update you when I get a reply from Digital Outlook.

Well Chuffed!

I'm very pleased to be able to say that BXB's great work in the Xbox community has once again been recognised by Microsoft and we've been added to the Xbox.com Community Developer Program.

This program allows us to get access to all sorts of restricted information which is available relating to Gamercards and Xbox Live in general. Our site Director and general technical whizz kid Ashley Allen is currently going over the feeds to discover what sort of content and features we could create for BXB from it.

Possible ideas at the minute are increasingly detailed Gamercards on our forums, your own friends list on BXB and a BXB Gamerpoints league so you can compare your own score to others in our great community.

This great news comes after we were recognised by Xbox.com as the first website in the world to use the Gamercard on our forums. Many many other websites have since mirrored the feature, some using the same code we released out to the public in the spirit of Community Unity.

What we'll be doing with these new feeds is still undecided but you'll be hearing about it soon on BXB!

Green for Go!

So, I've had a real roller coaster ride emotionally over the last couple of weeks and it feels that last Friday was like the last big dip before it all ended.

Friday was a very exciting day. It started pretty innocently with a Maccy Ds breakfast and a meeting about future stuff on BXB with Ash. We discussed stuff like what the new features on the site would include like official boring stuff like affiliates and advertising as well as more important stuff like new Tournaments and better front page navigation.

Then my phone beeped and Chris Easton had been kind enough to text me that we had the go ahead for our "Join the Ghosts" event. if you don't know what that is and you're reading this blog then I'll say two things to you:

1) Get over to BXB now, it's all over the site.
2) Thanks for reading my blog, you non-BXBer!

Damn tangents. So, I literally leapt up from the sofa, jumped into my car and drove really fast back to my house to start getting things ready. We went live at around 1pm on Friday and the immediate response from BXB's visitors and other members of the press was brilliant. By the close on Friday we'd got at least ten members of the press attending plus plenty of people entering the draw.

But where did this idea come from? Well, it all started a long time ago. I'd just returned from Bawtry Paintball Fields after a Clan BXB meet up and had had a very good time. Once the hangover haze had vanished I had a great idea of trying to organise a "Real Life" clan match. Two BXB clans battle it out at Paintball. At that point I neither had the time or the backing to pull it off and hence it remained just an idea.

But it bubbled away in my mind. I ran it past a few people at the last LAN event. Namely Dan from Game Network who was incredibly excited about the whole idea and really spurred me onto to get it sorted.

So, I began looking for a potential partner in the idea and this is when I stumbled across the idea of it being a LAN event to promote a game as well as a paintball day. BXB's relationship with Ubisoft and it's Community Manager Chris Easton had been steadily improving with numerous competitions and support exchanged and with Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter out around the time I'd wanted to run the event - they seemed like a good choice.

I dropped Chris an e-mail, he responded that he'd be interested and I began the process of arranging it. Note, I had no idea how to go about doing this really and just started firing off e-mails to paintball companies in the UK.

With a matter of hours Skirmish Paintball High Wycombe got back to me, forwarding me onto Skirimish's Marketing guy, little did they know they'd be the hosts of the event. Over the next few weeks I went back and forth between the two companies. Writing out drafts, setting up meetings and discussing the potential of the event with both sides.

A site visit a few weeks ago at High Wycombe left me feeling a little overwhelmed as I met Chris who had the power of the second biggest publisher in the world behind him and was quite happy to use it.

I felt that with just BXB that I wasn't offering as much into the whole event but Chris was kindly reminded me that the event was my idea and that he considered BXB an equal partner. Elation is far from how I felt.

Another site visit was held later between Chris and the company Ubisoft was hiring the hardware from but I didn't attend this and sat there waiting for the go from Ubisoft. I sat and waited. And waited. And waited some more.

With the date fast closing on February 27th I began to feel increasingly worried that we wouldn't be giving people enough notice to go but Chris stayed confident and was helpful in keeping my frustration in control.

As my Dad always says: "It's never as bad as you think." With the press releases, news stories and artwork all prepared in advanced I played the waiting game until I finally got the ok. I was so relieved and incredibly excited.

Still, the event is now just over a week away and I'm getting nervous and apprehensive about it again. Meeting so many members of the gaming press (because we don't all see eye to eye) but one thing I'm pleased about is that I'll get to meet a whole bunch of BXBers and that fills me with confidence it'll be a great day!

Simple Stuff 2

Just a quick update following my "Simple Stuff" blog entry a few weeks back about a potential collaboration between XCN members BXB and XGZ for running competitions.

We've made some sound agreements about running the events and we'll be looking at starting the first of our new tournaments in March on Dead Or Alive 4 and Project Gotham Racing.

BXB will be working with publishers to supply prizes for the winners. We hope that this new venture will help both BXB's and XGZ's communities grow!

Why not start now and check out XGZ by clicking on the following link.

The Following Link

Not so Subtle Hints...

As you can see from my previous blog, I find the concept of pre-hyping an event with worthless blog entries as a total waste of time and frankly symptomatic of a belief that you're somehow more important than you are.

It's a kind of condescension to believe that people want to read 50 words full of nothing and a few tactically placed asterisks. So, it pains me a little to want to write about something I'm not really allowed to talk about that I'm going to be revealing very soon on BXB.

Basically, BXB's next event is a natural progression from a LAN party. It's an idea I've had bubbling away in my head for sometime and was waiting for the circumstances to be right to start organising it.

Right now, myself and the two partners I've brought together for the event, are waiting on a quote from the company we're hiring the hardware from for the latest event. Yes, it will have elements of previous LAN events but it's going to have a very exciting twist.

If you've been following the subtle (and not so subtle) hints I've dropped on BXB over the past few weeks then you should be able to figure out where it will be hosted and what it's going to feature. If you've not got them yet, you need to dig a little harder.

Working in the business arena is very frustrating as the media world tends to move a hell of a lot faster and no matter how much I put pressure on the partners to resolve the issues and move forward on the event - it still takes an incredible amount of patience.

What I will reveal though, is that this won't be our only event of the year. I hope to do another LAN event like last year and as I've already said I've been looking at changing the venue.

One such venue we've been looking at is the excellent National Space Centre in Leicester. I visited there recently with my girlfriend and enjoy the exhibition greatly! (I'm into space and black holes and stuff like that). It'd make a great venue but would be a slight change in pace as there's no bar!

Anyway, we've prepared everything from the new web pages, to the artwork to the press releases for our next event and the very second I get the OK from my partners I'll start advertising it! So keep your eyes on BXB!

Project Bore...

I'm currently working on a new super-secret project with BXB and ***** and *****. We're around 4 weeks into the development of Project Bore and we're really excited about what it could do for the gaming industry.

Our previous events have been massively hyped with MSN sign in names and signatures on obscure forums and have always managed to be massively underwhelming. So, this time we've inlisted help from ****** and ***** plus those hlepful chaps at *****.

The advertising and licencing agreements have been made and everything is coming along nicely, we'll be looking at launch in *****.

What amazes me about Project Bore is how simple it is. I mean, I don't know how all you other fucking retards out there didn't think of it? I mean it's so simple, we just **** the ***** and twist the ***** before putting the ***** into our ****** and letting it ****** around for a while!

All you other shite websites out there are going to get ****** buttfucked.

Assume What I Will

Now I've calmed down somewhat following the disappointing behaviour of fellow XCN website News0r regarding their claims that BXB has closed, I feel I can reflect upon it with a little more poignancy.

The first thing that comes to mind is the lack of professionalism the website displayed in not following standard journalistic procedure, if you will, and relying on weak sources for their news.

I've had plenty of experience in journalism and it's pretty much the said thing to wait for a company, person or in this case website to get back to you about what's happening. Particularly about something as dramatic as a website as popular as BXB closing down for good.

Despite me asking news0r to confirm who dealt with the actually story, they refuse to clear up my simple questions with honest answers. Their Editor claims he wrote and published the story yet I was contacted by their News Editor Ben Furfie. It's seems very odd that one person would ask for a comment for another persons story. It's certainly not standard journalistic procedure in my experience.

I also asked News0r's Editor is he felt that basing a story on someone's MSN sign in name was a bad idea? He claims he has further sources, people from BXB who contacted him about it. However, again, he refused to reveal who it was.

Finally. Their story "Britxbox Bites the Dust" seemed to cause quite a stir on Newsnow, a website visited by many thousands of members of the public and gaming journalists to get the latest news. The story, even though it still linked to a blank page, sat in the top 20 most clicked stories for at least a day afterward.

What damage has this slanderous story done to BXB? Honestly, I expect it's done nothing. In fact, I expect it has helped raise our profile. Something I'm quite pleased about.

It doesn't, however, excuse the poor behaviour of the staff at News0r.

I find it very disappointing that the management at the website were also unwilling to provide me with the answers I required and it's left me with little choice to fill in the gaps for myself and frankly it's not a pretty picture.

From what I can tell their post was a very deliberate, planned and vicious attempt to tar the good name of BXB. I'm more than willing to keep that opinion liquid until they are professional and mature enough to answer the questions I ask, admit they made a mistake and apologise on their website publicly.