A couple weeks ago I received an e-mail asking me if I

would be interested in attending the Xbox Live Boot Camp in Redmond, Washington. 

I honestly thought this was a joke at first. 

Sure enough, it wasn’t.  Microsoft

sent me a free Xbox, Xbox Live Beta Kit, and flight information. 

I was off to Seattle.

I was curious, so I asked them why they’d want me in

attendance.  They told me since I

was a “pillar in the gaming community,” they wanted my opinion on the Xbox

and Xbox Live service.  I wasn’t

going to complain, especially since I’m a pillar and all.  But I have to admit, I always had this image mulling around

in my head of Bill Gates waiting for me with a baseball bat.

So Monday morning I hopped the plane to Seattle. 

The first thing I noticed about this whole thing was that Microsoft

wasn’t shy with spending money or being extremely accommodating. 

All editors arrived on Monday and were to depart on Tuesday or Wednesday,

but Microsoft even let me extend my trip so I could stay with Rick Powers for a

couple days, and “visit friends”. 

I was greeted at baggage claim by my limo driver, and he whisked me off

to the Hyatt, where I unpacked and got ready for dinner.

At 7pm, all editors boarded a stretch Hummer limousine to

head to Kirkland’s Fish Café,

where we were greeted by the rest of the invited guests. 

People from Penny Arcade, Team Xbox, Halo.Bungie.Org, Xbox Addict, Xbox

365, Operation Sports, Dropship Command, GC Advanced, Planet Unreal, and Xbox

Solution were in attendance.  It was

very interesting to be sandwiched between a whole slew of Xbox fanboys. 

I was instantly targeted as “The GameCube Guy.”

Inside

the stretch Hummer limo