James Avatar

Hi! My name is James Wanders. I used to love playing with my Xbox 360 avatar in every game I could use him in. But just thinking about what happened 3 months ago makes me sick to my stomach. Something that changed my view of gaming enjoyment.

One fine spring day I woke up and proceeded to do everything on my regular morning schedule which includes playing Xbox afterwards. But when I went to go turn on the power on my console I only found it being busted after seeing the red ring of death surrounding the power button. After trying to think every possible way of why its busted I furiously threw my busted console into the trash with thoughts of buying another one (since I did have the money.) So I then ready myself to search an Xbox 360 for a great deal.

Only after about 5 minutes on the search I spotted a cardboard box sitting on the side of the road I was driving on. I was very curious of what was in that box so...I pulled over and went over to it. While I was walking towards it I somehow sensed bad vibes coming from the box but opened it anyway. Once I opened the box up the first thing I saw were a bunch of gypsy artifacts in the way.

But once I reached the bottom I couldn't believe what I found. It was an Xbox 360 in perfect condition with a hard drive already installed.

"It must be my lucky day." I thought to myself.

I then took the Xbox 360 with me in my car and then made a stop at the mall and purchased $20 worth of Microsoft points so I could download a game I always wanted to play "Tony Hawks Pro Skater HD."

Once I finally got home I rushed to my living room in excitement and plugged the console into my TV. Once I got to the main menu I first created my avatar "James409", enter the code for my Microsoft points and then went to the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace to download pro skater hd. When I confirmed the purchase it oddly only took 5 seconds for the whole game to download and it even already downloaded the revert pack. I thought this was cool and went on to play the game. Everything was normal with the music playing in the background and the skater selection screen. Of course I chose my avatar as the skater and started in the classic warehouse level.

Now this were things got a little weird. Once I started the level and went through the glass wall I heard a loud "OUCH" coming from my avatar and also seeing shards of glass cutting him as he was bleeding. I thought this was just part of the programming making it seem realistic and just kept playing. Once I finally collected S-K-A-T-E I wanted to get the secret DVD so I gained up speed and went through the glass windows and got it. But when I went through the glass windows on the top I messed up a trick while flying in the air and heard loud screams. Once I hit the bottom my avatar was screaming in agony as he was bruised up badly and lying there in a puddle of blood. And it seemed that he wasn't getting back up. This really started to freak me out so I shut off the console and didn't play for the rest of the day.

The next day I turned back on the Xbox and expected everything to be ok. But it seemed to be far from ok. First of all while I was going through the avatar selection screen every avatar had a scared look on them as if there was something very wrong. And when I reached my avatar he was lying there on the ground ill and still had bruises on him except this time they looked infected.

I still signed in when I did a text box from my avatar appeared on the screen saying, "Please.....don't....do...this to me."

I was very scared at this moment.

When the menu screen popped up instead of the background being green it was a blood red. I was having trouble moving the analog stick to pro skater hd because I was freaked out. But when I finally got on the game there was no music playing in the background it was just silence. Somehow the skater selection screen didn't pop up it just skipped to the level selection screen so I decided to play on the Canada level. During the loading time a message appeared in my inbox.

I was curious of what it was so I opened it up and it said, "Are you enjoying yourself?"

When the level started my avatar was skating so slow that I was barely getting any points. And plus there was no time limit or people around. Then I got to the point were I accidentally let my avatar fall into the freezing waters and once again heard screams coming from him. After that the Xbox started going out of control that it shuts it's self off. I was scared out of my mind at this moment and didn't even bother turning back on the console.

I then unplugged the console out of my TV and threw it out my window hearing it smash. I went outside to go look. It was in pieces when I spotted a little written note in the system. I picked up the note and read it. It clearly stated in a bloody hand writing

"YOU ARE A FOOL FOR PICKING UP THIS CURSED CONSOLE!" And then that's when it hit me. The Xbox must of been cursed. That's what those gypsy artifacts in the box were for.

"IT'S A GYPSY CURSE" I shouted.

Well it's been 3 months now and I am still shocked about what happened. I've been feeling guilty about my avatar and it's seems this is something that's going to be stuck in my mine for a long time. I recently just bought a new Xbox 360 but first tested out and it seemed really normal this time. My new avatar didn't get bruised or scarred when I played pro skater hd again on my new Xbox but still I just now play as other skaters.