I was sent a request last night from a friend on my Xbox Live friends list which just contained a URL to setting up an account on Playfire.com. As this is supported by Gamespot and other credible games review sites I thought that this social networking for gamers would be a decent platform for promoting this website. The precedent of the site seemed like a good idea, essentially a Facebook for gamers so to speak. Granted that I’m not a fan of social networking at the best of times because it’s intrusive, I thought with anonymity of my online persona, per se, this website, would be a good idea to get our messages out there into the gaming community a bit more successfully. However, as with anything which seems like a good idea, I was completely unprepared for what actually happens when you sign up for a profile on the site.

The first page of this does the usual credential check but the major problem I have with it is the next page whereby you enter your associated gamertag. Now I’ve signed up with many gaming websites such as GiantBomb and TrueAchievements, so the linking with your gamer profile in Microsoft is fine. What they don’t tell you is that it sends a message out to every single friend on your Xbox friend list, without asking your permission, essentially spamming everyone who I play games with. Since they did not ask you if it was ok for you to do this, I feel completely violated and taken advantage of by this hidden request. Even Facebook asks if you want to do something like this and while I do not agree with any sites using your profile to mailshot other users, at least Facebook has the courtesy of asking you first. It’s like helping yourself to someone else’s biscuits, protocol dictates that you should always ask first.

Well what’s done is done, and I looked through all the settings in the usual Settings and Account screens and NOWHERE can I see whereby you can find a way of deleting your profile. Again, even Facebook and Myspace have the option of deleting your profile if you are unhappy, clearly the admins of Playfire have you forever once you’ve signed up. It’s like Herpes, once you’ve got it, you cannot get rid of it.

So f*ck it I thought, I’ll make use of it while I cannot delete this stain from my gamertag. I customised the profile and set up all the usual profile pics and stuff, and read the usual automated welcome message. At the top of the page I saw the word “Buzz”. This is where the equivalent of the Blog is on Giant Bomb. Since it allows hotlinks I thought that this was a good platform, while I have this profile I didn’t want, I could post up my game reivews. I managed to post up about 20 of my reviews when the flood of abuse from other “gamers” started to roll in. Turns out that the “Buzz” is not in fact a blog repository at all, it’s a live feed of which other gamers can see. I did use the term gamers in inverted commas just then, because the unsolicited abuse I got last night I could only describe them as c*nts, horrible, sad and abusive c*nts. How was I to know that this wasn’t a blog of any kind? There is literally no explanation whatsoever and whoever that tw*tty girl who probably fingers herself to pictures of Justin Bieber thought it was necessary to quote and verse the posting “rules” to me, which are not anywhere obvious and certainly not on the automated welcome message, can sincerely f*ck off.

This, being myself, fuelled me to do it more, why Playfire thought it was necessary to spam my friends list without prior permission by myself, I feel perfectly vindicated to spam the feeds back with my reviews, after all it claimed to be a website for gamers to interact, and since it was game reviews I was putting up, I feel that it was relevant, and totally exonerated to post as frequently as I liked. I don’t care for the rules, as they were not adequately explained to me. Not to be an iconoclast, but since I was tricked into signing up, I feel no guilt.

Microsoft should put into place some kind of filter to stop third parties using people’s Xbox Live gamertags to mailshot other gamers into tricking them into using a site populated by f*cking idiots who just cynically abuse other people’s opinions. If I could delete my account I would, maybe I should try and get myself kicked off by spamming them some more, after all it was being spammed, and causing me to spam others which has irked me somewhat and I think marketing your website without prior permission to piggyback on my gamertag to promote their website is a wrong, let alone denying me the ability to delete my account. I’ve already had to apologise to the majority of friends on my live account for this, and the embarrassment of doing so was more than enough for me to want to unsubscribe to this marketing scam. Don’t get me wrong it’s not a bad website per se, I’m just annoyed that I subsequently spammed all my friends for signing up. Microsoft pull your finger out and stop the mail spamming!