A Eulogy for my Xbox 360

Last night, mid-mission in Mass Effect 3, the worst thing that could have happened did. The Reapers did not destroy the world, but they may as well have. My Xbox of 4 years suffered the dreaded red ring of death. The only thing that was comical about it was the fact that my TV screen went solid blue. It was like a last reminder that the Xbox is indeed a Windows product and therefore, is not immune to the blue screen of death.

I admit that I nearly cried. It’s been a fairly bad week all around, and the RROD was the bright, shiny red candle on the cake. We tried to fix it. When those solutions didn’t work, my husband offered to crack it open and repair it via the information we found online. He’s a pro at that stuff, so he really could have done it. But I told him no. It wasn’t worth the risk of damaging something else, like my hard drive, to irreparable measures.

I wrote a little eulogy for my departed friend on Game Revolution, if you’re interested in reading something awesome and heartfelt that I wrote. If link clicking isn’t your thing, here’s the best portion of it:

I wish you could have held on just long enough for me to finish Mass Effect 3, but I know you were sick for a long time. The signs were all there, even though you kept trudging along. I appreciate you doing that through all of my writing deadlines, and at the same time, I feel guilty for not trying to diagnose your problem earlier.

I hope you’re in a happier place now, a place where you can rest peacefully without your loud pains and a place where your lights are always green. Thanks for the memories, and godspeed, my friend.

PS, don’t be mad that I’m picking up your replacement today. Oh and if you don’t release my game data, like my Mass Effect 3 data, I will smash your corpse into oblivion.

May the rest of the week get better, and may my new Xbox last at least until I’m ready to buy next-gen.