XBox Live Therapy

Someone from my friends list recently requested a chat simply to mourn the loss of his beloved dog. The poor little guy drowned in this friends pool and the image doesn't seem to fade away for him. I spoke with him a while and tried to console; telling him about when I lost a dog very dear to me while holding him in my arms. I don't know if that really helped much bu the conversation ended with aforementioned friend deciding to go to bed. So perhaps I at least put his mind at ease. These type of stories are the great byproducts of Microsoft's social gaming network; people who wouldn't normally talk, share personal information, try to help eachother, actually can and do. I was always very frustrated with MS's products, namely their poor user interfaces, but XBL is really starting to show me a new side of the company. I hope they can see all the potential they have here for connecting people beyond a myspace level.