Xbox Live Community at it’s best

Forget the trash talk, racism, shouting and swearing. Forget about the idiots that can sometimes try to stop other people having fun online. Most gamers just want to enjoy their games and enter into the community spirit. This is the Xbox Live Community at it’s best.

Fable 2 is the only game that I have ever played that has made me want to get all the achievements regardless of how difficult, devious or just bloody awkward they are to get. It’s a desire I have to squeeze every last drop fun out of Albion and my sign of respect to Lionhead for producing such a masterpiece.

Some of the achievements are straightforward and are part of the story. Others are unlocked for experimenting within Albion while collecting 50 Silver Keys and destroying 50 Gargoyles are quests all of their own. The difficult, devious and bloody awkward achievements I refer to here are of course The Doll Catcher and The Completionist.

The Doll Catcher requires you to have all the Hero Dolls in your inventory. The catch is that only one of the dolls, either Lucien, Hammer, Theresa, Reaver or Garth is available in each game so you have to trade online. It’s not the easiest task to obtain your doll as you must get second place, by scoring between 150 & 174 points, on the Westcliff Shooting Range. I did eventually win myself a Hero Doll, Hammer, and then went on to win 6 more hoping this would be enough to trade. I used the Red Dragon Pistol if anyone is interested in knowing which weapon I used. I found it's fast reload and accuracy helped a lot.

So, with the Hammer dolls in my possession I headed off to Bowerstone Market ready to trade. After a few hours of trying, despite my abundance of Hammer dolls, I didn’t manage to trade one single doll. Not because I couldn’t strike a deal but because I just couldn’t find anyone to trade with. Thinking that this wasn’t going to happen by chance I decided to check out the Xbox Forums. I’m glad I did! Using the Official Doll Trading thread on the Xbox forums I was able to offer my dolls for the ones I needed.

Even with my new plan I didn’t always manage to be online at the same time as anyone offering help but the fact people were offering trades, even those that already had the achievement, was great.

On Tuesday evening this week I officially became a Doll Catcher and .. erm .. despite feeling rather strange that I, a grown man, was talking to numerous other male gamers, most of whom sounded and spoke like mature gamers and who incidentally would probably fit in well on the Gameov3r FORUM, about swapping virtual toy dolls. I needed to shower when I had finished. One guy sent a message to me and I quote “easy fella, never thought I`d ever say this but you up for swapping some dolls?” Nail on the head I thought. He was a nice guy to. We had a brief chat, swapped our dolls and continued our respective cuddly toy related searches. There was none of this demanding large sums of gold or saying, “I want 5 of yours for one of mine” - he must have been a Taxman, or “give me all your gold and legendary weapons or you’re not having the doll!” ok I exaggerate, but the feeling I got before trying to collect all the dolls was that it would be hard work to prise them from their owners hands.

Actually it’s impossible to prise one from another Hero’s dead hands as you’re not allowed to kill another gamer’s Hero. Of course I wouldn’t kill another Hero even if I could. My hero is so good she even has a halo. Well she does now. She might have had horns, bad skin and evil green eyes at one time but none of us are perfect.

Anyway, I thought it was great that all the Fable 2 gamers I met online, yes all of them, were courteous, friendly and helpful. As mentioned at the top, I know there are still a minority that abuse Xbox Live and item trading in games. “I need hammer, lucien and theresa (someone just stiffed me for hammer, stole my doll)” is a recent quote from the Doll Catcher Thread on the Xbox forums.

But this is all about the good side and it has been very good indeed.

Many thanks to everyone I have traded with so far and also to those that tried to trade but couldn’t. In no particular order...

Penter2192 and for the co-op Companions achievement.
TalentFromGod
Lkf Remos
xCx PuP xJx
Sir Balin
Webizul
SJUVIP
TaMotha
Sent Seven
cuteyteena
alross13 who very kindly gave me the Back Flip Trick Book.

You’re all a credit to the Fable 2 community and to online gaming. I Belch, Victory Arm Pump, Dance, Fart and do the Sock Puppet thing in your honour.

If anyone reading this needs a Hammer doll just let me know and I'll try to help you out.

Now all I need is to trade something for the Hat, Headband, Moustache expression book and The Completionist Achievement will unlock. Help!? Help!!?? Gameov3r FORUM.