Definitely overpriced, gaudy, and what's worse they made an already ugly console an even bigger eyesore. I always wondered if people were really into these monstrosities. Guess that's another mystery to tick off my list.
Shocker: Nobody Bought 360 Faceplates
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...you could actually get these? Wow. I never even noticed.
But then I can't anyway see the point in such a thing. Who buys/shows off a games console, DVD player, whatever as a decorative piece? Only the incredibly vain, or people who live in Ikea catalogues. The rest of us either a/ don't give a crap what the mess under the TV looks like, b/ get a nice cabinet to stash it all in so it's reasonably accessible and organised, but you don't have to look at that stuff all the time.
After all, looking pretty in-the-plastic is not its raison d'etre. It's making pretty images on the HDTV that's a few feet higher up and on entirely different sightline.
Wouldn't be surprised if the regular different-colour ones (and PS3s, Wiis similarly) aren't doing all that great shakes, particularly as they tend to cost more for what is, basically, the bother of the same components having a box wrapped around them which had a different low-cost dye injected into its raw plastic at the factory.
More understandable for phones, portable consoles, even TVs. It's something you, and people around you are going to look directly at and see a lot more often. Plus with the pocketable devices, there's more chance of dropping it, losing it, getting yours and a family member or friend's mixed up. Personalisation both has greater aesthetic and practical benefit. Even I've daubed a bit of correction fluid on my otherwise generic-looking memory stick to make it stand out from the other standard issue ones at work.
My brother is the only person I know, mind, who's actually ever much changed his phone fascia, and even then he quickly bored of his cheap re-shell, couldn't find anything else that took his fancy... so gave the original flat grey shell a custom paintjob with his Warhammer paints and used that until he changed handset. Hardly anyone else seems to have even given it much thought - they'll pick a model whose appearance they already like (or, they buy an iphone...) and stick with it, rather than picking a customisable but otherwise so-so one then modding it to be perfect.
My phone actually came with a selection of rear covers (yes, rear... erm? the front is plain white, no choices... the whole thing is full of bad, committee-led ideas, though), from which I chose the least ugly (the slate-blue, rather than puke green or diahorrea brown) and - amazingly - it auto-changed the onscreen theme to match. Some people have different favourite colours I guess, though my money's on most people with this model plumping for blue because the other pack-in covers are hideous, all the others are expensive, and you can't paint it because the theme will clash. I don't actually give too much of a crap, though. I don't pay the cover much attention. It's a phone, an interface that I only visually interact with via the screen, and more or less touchtype on the keypad. Everything around it is distraction.
I'd consider $5 on a new all-over cover for it to be a bit of a bling treat. $10 to be extravagant. Any amount of money on a stay-at-home console to be completely wasted. $30 on either?! You know what I could get for that money, that would actually be of use or at least properly attractive appearance??
For the sake of full disclosure I have a similar issue with browser skinning / firefox personas / etc, and windows themes (after a brief flush with them in the 90s that as far as I can tell pissed off every single person around me, except my juvenile self). What exactly is the point? I spend as little time staring at the interface elements of my operating system / web browser as possible. The content is the important thing. When I actually have to visually interact with the control system (rather than keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures etc), it needs to be simple, clear, and familiar. So, bogstandard browser theme, and "windows classic" in one of the more soothing but not flat grey default schemes, ta.
Firefox keeps trying to force me to give personas a go. I'd like a nice big button that can be pushed to say "shove it up your arse and let me get on with my life".
But then I can't anyway see the point in such a thing. Who buys/shows off a games console, DVD player, whatever as a decorative piece? Only the incredibly vain, or people who live in Ikea catalogues. The rest of us either a/ don't give a crap what the mess under the TV looks like, b/ get a nice cabinet to stash it all in so it's reasonably accessible and organised, but you don't have to look at that stuff all the time.
After all, looking pretty in-the-plastic is not its raison d'etre. It's making pretty images on the HDTV that's a few feet higher up and on entirely different sightline.
Wouldn't be surprised if the regular different-colour ones (and PS3s, Wiis similarly) aren't doing all that great shakes, particularly as they tend to cost more for what is, basically, the bother of the same components having a box wrapped around them which had a different low-cost dye injected into its raw plastic at the factory.
More understandable for phones, portable consoles, even TVs. It's something you, and people around you are going to look directly at and see a lot more often. Plus with the pocketable devices, there's more chance of dropping it, losing it, getting yours and a family member or friend's mixed up. Personalisation both has greater aesthetic and practical benefit. Even I've daubed a bit of correction fluid on my otherwise generic-looking memory stick to make it stand out from the other standard issue ones at work.
My brother is the only person I know, mind, who's actually ever much changed his phone fascia, and even then he quickly bored of his cheap re-shell, couldn't find anything else that took his fancy... so gave the original flat grey shell a custom paintjob with his Warhammer paints and used that until he changed handset. Hardly anyone else seems to have even given it much thought - they'll pick a model whose appearance they already like (or, they buy an iphone...) and stick with it, rather than picking a customisable but otherwise so-so one then modding it to be perfect.
My phone actually came with a selection of rear covers (yes, rear... erm? the front is plain white, no choices... the whole thing is full of bad, committee-led ideas, though), from which I chose the least ugly (the slate-blue, rather than puke green or diahorrea brown) and - amazingly - it auto-changed the onscreen theme to match. Some people have different favourite colours I guess, though my money's on most people with this model plumping for blue because the other pack-in covers are hideous, all the others are expensive, and you can't paint it because the theme will clash. I don't actually give too much of a crap, though. I don't pay the cover much attention. It's a phone, an interface that I only visually interact with via the screen, and more or less touchtype on the keypad. Everything around it is distraction.
I'd consider $5 on a new all-over cover for it to be a bit of a bling treat. $10 to be extravagant. Any amount of money on a stay-at-home console to be completely wasted. $30 on either?! You know what I could get for that money, that would actually be of use or at least properly attractive appearance??
For the sake of full disclosure I have a similar issue with browser skinning / firefox personas / etc, and windows themes (after a brief flush with them in the 90s that as far as I can tell pissed off every single person around me, except my juvenile self). What exactly is the point? I spend as little time staring at the interface elements of my operating system / web browser as possible. The content is the important thing. When I actually have to visually interact with the control system (rather than keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures etc), it needs to be simple, clear, and familiar. So, bogstandard browser theme, and "windows classic" in one of the more soothing but not flat grey default schemes, ta.
Firefox keeps trying to force me to give personas a go. I'd like a nice big button that can be pushed to say "shove it up your arse and let me get on with my life".
there are two people in this situation who need to be shot, The first is the Jackwagon who thought pricing twiggy pieces of plastic at 30 bucks was a good Idea and the second is the guy why wondered why they weren't selling. If they were sold at 5 bucks each everyone right now would have a couple different plates right now.
As it is the only plates any of us have are the plethora of plain white plates we stocked up on when they had to be removed before shipping back our RRoD consoles and getting new ones with a free white faceplate on them.
As it is the only plates any of us have are the plethora of plain white plates we stocked up on when they had to be removed before shipping back our RRoD consoles and getting new ones with a free white faceplate on them.
I am very sad they're not gonna make any face plates for the Slim, I quite enjoy my Deathsmiles face plate
I've got the PC version (The Hori flightstick is just a licensed repro of the Saitek X-35 family).Snotnarok said:
Which cost half as much, is about three times better build quality, and has proper PC drivers so you can use all the programmable features and mode selectors.
If you bought the Hori version you got ripped, the Av8r joystick (also a Saitek stick) is more than enough for all the arcade flight games on the Xbox (since there aren't really any flight sim games barring Il-2)
I dunno XT. Even at $5 I bet you wouldn't get much uptake. If there was actually some purpose to it, then maybe. Like, maybe it works a bit like my phone cover, and it changes your dashboard theme, or something with your avatar. Maybe lets you into certain areas on particular games or unlocks related minor DLC, I dunno.
We have multi coloured dual shocks and memory cards for our PSX & PS2 at home. Helps you tell them apart, AND they're things that you would be buying anyway (gotta have controllers, gotta save your progress). These things are pure frivolity, bling for a device that you'd sooner just hide out of sight anyway. Don't forget that TVs with built in DVD players are fairly big business these days, rather than seperate players with customisable fascias. Peeps just want to drop the disc in and see their movie. I just want to slot in the disc (+ controller, memcard) and play my game.
Flat black plastic is good. It hides real well in the pine cabinet, along with the flat black DVD player and PVR and charcoal cable box and VCR. All you can really see are the status LEDs and time/channel readouts. But a TV with a built in console would be A-OK also.
On the other hand, I could see myself paying $150 for a joystick, if it was a really awesome joystick that made my control and enjoyment of relevant games - or even one totally fantastic relevant game - so much better. Though I haven't bought a driving wheel/pedals for myself (pad is just fine, thanks), I have been gifted one and was quite happy to receive it, even though it ultimately never really worked. (Though of course, paying $50, or even $25 for it would be far more likely). It's a useful thing, you get something for your money, not just a slip of ugly plastic.
(Heck, I did actually pay over the odds for a custom-shelled Toughdrive external HDD... again, it's a very practical thing (near-unkillable mass data storage), quite attractive in its own right, and as there's quite a few of the same model knocking about it helps differentiate which one is mine without having to either plug it in and look at files, or physically deface it)
We have multi coloured dual shocks and memory cards for our PSX & PS2 at home. Helps you tell them apart, AND they're things that you would be buying anyway (gotta have controllers, gotta save your progress). These things are pure frivolity, bling for a device that you'd sooner just hide out of sight anyway. Don't forget that TVs with built in DVD players are fairly big business these days, rather than seperate players with customisable fascias. Peeps just want to drop the disc in and see their movie. I just want to slot in the disc (+ controller, memcard) and play my game.
Flat black plastic is good. It hides real well in the pine cabinet, along with the flat black DVD player and PVR and charcoal cable box and VCR. All you can really see are the status LEDs and time/channel readouts. But a TV with a built in console would be A-OK also.
On the other hand, I could see myself paying $150 for a joystick, if it was a really awesome joystick that made my control and enjoyment of relevant games - or even one totally fantastic relevant game - so much better. Though I haven't bought a driving wheel/pedals for myself (pad is just fine, thanks), I have been gifted one and was quite happy to receive it, even though it ultimately never really worked. (Though of course, paying $50, or even $25 for it would be far more likely). It's a useful thing, you get something for your money, not just a slip of ugly plastic.
(Heck, I did actually pay over the odds for a custom-shelled Toughdrive external HDD... again, it's a very practical thing (near-unkillable mass data storage), quite attractive in its own right, and as there's quite a few of the same model knocking about it helps differentiate which one is mine without having to either plug it in and look at files, or physically deface it)
You couldn't just let me be blissfully ignorant on this? I got my fun out of it on Ace Combat 6 and the garbage that was HAWX and I played the hell out of Tie Fighter on PC. I'm not sure if other joysticks work with the 360 besides the HAWX one which looked like garbage to me.GloatingSwine said:
I think I paid 120 or something for the game and the stick together. This is also 3 years ago mind you so telling me I overspent is a bit useless hahaha.
I have the wood with red stripe, second from the right, but use the black carbon which isn't in that picture. What can I say, one day at walmart they were $1 each.
Faceplates are ok for handhelds and controllers, but for a home console, it's just silly. I never look at my PS3 when I play. I look at the fucking TV. It's like those funny-shaped CDs they tried to sell fifteen years ago. It may look nice, but once it's in the player, who cares?
To be honest, I found the initial 360 design was rather flawed, and not just with the flagrant RROD matter, despite my initial love for the actual device. Never mind the inane no-HDD version that was a waste of everyone's time,[footnote]And an excuse to limit general game content so that people who bought one of these bloody things could still utilize the game in question.[/footnote] I wanted a black 360, dammit, not something that looked like it was designed partially by Apple![footnote]It took how long for someone to realize how awesome the black is with the Elite version?!? Oh yeah, long enough for people like myself to already have the original and not be willing to budge just for that.[/footnote] But now we have this white(ish) device and over-priced faceplates to offer an at-a-glance perception that your 360 is a special looking piece of hardware suited to your individual taste. But generally it ended up looking like half the paint job was skimped, leaving the rear in exposed primer, and all for more than a pretty penny that may as well have been invested towards a full skin or something.
The faceplates were truly a cute enough idea, but were hampered by Microsoft's insistence to follow in the line of their other accessories (wi-fi adapter, anyone?), thus diminishing the overall value and demand by consumers.
The faceplates were truly a cute enough idea, but were hampered by Microsoft's insistence to follow in the line of their other accessories (wi-fi adapter, anyone?), thus diminishing the overall value and demand by consumers.
Well, there's always the easier option for customization by using a sticker. Sites like Decalgirl offer just such decorations without the need of hard plastic. Usually a nicer quality, to boot. But then, a vinyl decal is less intrusive than the faceplates. Nice idea, wrong audience, I think.
Faceplates for a mobile phone are fine, you get to show them off and look at them as stuff... you barely look at an xbox, - what you look at is the screen.
Now selling xbox menu themes - well that might work better.
Now selling xbox menu themes - well that might work better.
My brother got handed a rainbow six vegas one to promote the game, or the xbox, either one.
Free ones are cool, right?
Also, this is relatively cheap considering you get a full body simpson xbox for 2 grand 0_o.
Or just paint it
Free ones are cool, right?
Also, this is relatively cheap considering you get a full body simpson xbox for 2 grand 0_o.
Or just paint it