Trouble Trying to Quit

A few years ago, I had an addiction that I'm a bit embarrassed to speak about. It was the first year we lived in Brenham, and Kristi was in Houston teaching summer school for much of the summer, so I had a lot of free time to myself. And that's when it happened.

I know it was an addiction because I spent every available moment doing it. I went so far as to try to hide it and, later, to try to justify it. It was horrible. I was a prisoner. But, God help me, I loved it.

At first I just tried it - just to see if it was for me. I had friends that had tried it before and told me that I'd like it. At first it was free, too. Then about a month in - once I was good and hooked - the money came due if I wanted more. So I paid.

Oh, sorry. What was my addiction? I joined X-Box Live.

After that glorious summer, when Kristi and Kayci came back home, our lives returned pretty much to normal. Oh, I still had my addiction. But I wasn't as blatant about it. I would stay up late after Kristi had gone to bed or get up really early in the morning to play.

But over time, my addiction began to fall away. It was probably a combination of the realization of exactly how much time I was wasting playing video games as well as a busier work load at work and with freelance work. And we also had more family time. And a new baby. But slowly I played less and less.

Okay. I admit. I got tired of getting my ass handed to me in Halo by twelve-year-olds. There's no description for the kind of rage you feel at a some pre-pubescent kid from Georgia or somewhere taunting you in your headset (yes- I wore the headset.)

These days, I hardly ever play games online anymore. I still play the occasional video game, but I don't spend hours and hours doing it as I used to. It's much more in moderation. And I like it that way.

In the past year I've probably played online at X-Box Live a total of five times, each time getting thoroughly bored or frustrated. So when I got an e-mail this morning telling me that my account is set to renew next month, it was a no-brainer that I wanted to cancel the service. It's $50 a year that I don't need to spend.

So I followed the instruction in the e-mail about where to go to cancel your membership. And now I'm just pissed off. I've been clicking in circles for twenty minutes trying to find where to cancel. Even the page entitled "Cancel Your Xbox LIVE Membership" only leads you back to the beginning to the page you see when you first log into your account! ARGH!!!

It shouldn't surprise you that X-Box is owned by Microsoft. It's typical of their "support" style.

So here I sit with a subscription to X-Box Live that I neither use nor want and that I can't quit.

But I'll have the last laugh. A few months ago, Kristi and I cut up our credit cards and cancelled our accounts. So when old Microsoft tries to bill that Discover card $50 for X-Box Live, they'll get NOTHING! And I'll be vindicated because that's about what their support site is worth.