Watch the (Pants-Less) Original Xbox Live Promotion Video

[John Funk]

Watch the (Pants-Less) Original Xbox Live Promotion Video

Hearken back to the launch of the original Xbox Live, when online play on consoles was a novelty, when gamer stereotypes were edgy and totally in your face - and they didn't wear pants, either.


Watch, young grasshopper, as an Asshole Gaming Stereotype named DarkMaster introduces us all to the wonders of Xbox Live. It is a world where you can play Acclaim's Re-Volt against other people all over the world - while never having to leave your couch! Oh my god, guys, this is the most revolutionary and hardXXcore thing ever! (Fun fact: Re-Volt was a game used to beta test the service, but never actually came out on the Xbox.)

Anyway, the video is an amusing look back at how Microsoft originally promoted its Xbox Live service at the beginning of the decade, as the company prepares to pull the plug once and for all. It's funny to see these things promoted as groundbreaking features - like voice-chat mute, for example - that we've come to hold as absolutely necessary to the experience.

We've gotten rid of that "over-enthusiastic, hard-core, in-your-face, edgy" gamer stereotype since then, right? Please tell me we've gotten rid of it.

However, I wasn't really aware that "doesn't like to wear pants" was ever part of the mainstream gamer stereotype. Seriously - DarkMaster is in his boxers pretty much the entire movie, and it's rather distracting.

(Via G4TV [http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/703956/Nugget-From-The-Net-Xbox-Live-Original-Promotional-Video.html])

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[Epictank of Wintown]

I...this...what?

What, really?

Still, it's interesting to see just how far XBOX Live has come since its inception and how far, really, gaming in general has come in the last ten years.

 

[Jared]

Heh, dont think we ever had anything like this in UK.

But, watching this...god, so cheesy back then. Who would think it would grow to be such a huge thing now, lol

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

Oh my god! He can hear me in real time!

 

[thenumberthirteen]

This immediately made me think of this:

<youtube=9ZdfC9u4xoA>

What an age we lived in. An awful, awful age.

 

[therandombear]

well that was, ..different.

Neither me nor my friends behave/behaved like that. So where did they get the notion that gamers were like that?

 

[Jark212]

Not wearing pants, that's hardcore...

 

[Crunchy English]

So, Microsoft actually encouraged people to act like they do on Xbox Live...
Well obviously the only solution is an all expense paid cruise to the middle on the Atlantic and lots and lots of fire.

 

[Poomanchu745]

I didn't know they had Xbox live in the early 90s(sarcasm)... That commercial was hilariously bad.

 

[crazyjay321]

well that was, ..different.

Neither me nor my friends behave/behaved like that. So where did they get the notion that gamers were like that?

My answer these day's for that question would be Xbox Live, but back then I have no idea.

 

[comadorcrack]

Dude... I miss my old xbox... I may go back and play it right.... NOW!

 

[Ophiuchus]

The funny thing is, if you hadn't pointed out that he's only wearing boxers, I would never have noticed...

 

[fanklok]

I couldn't finish it that Darkloser guy was such a condescending douche, someone tell me how it ended? Did Chuck kill him, oh god I hope Chuck killed him.

 

[Archemetis]

That seemed like a huge invite to be a noisy douche online...
So I guess it worked!

 

[joshthor]

i can see why xbox live never really kicked off until the 360 came around....

 

[SomeBritishDude]

So...Many...90s...Stereotypes....

 

[Kawatoo]

What do you mean gamer stereotypes don't wear pants? or is that just me?

 

[Cliff_m85]

Seems surprisingly Tim & Eric-ish.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I'm not supposed to be wearing pants to maximize my stereotype-ness? But wow, what a douchenozzle. Christ, no wonder Live is all filled with smacktards--If this guy is in the founding circle, it's pretty much all fucked from there.