I am sure that my feeling of disapproval with pricing schemes in regards to gamerpics and themes on the Xbox 360 marketplace is shared. I for one like having different Gamerpics and actually try and switch mine up every once in a while as well as the themes, but I just cant see myself paying for many of them for a couple of reasons.

My main reason is that you can only have one theme set at a time and a max of two gmaerpics. This stinks in my opinion, why pay for multiiple themes or pics if you can only use one set at a time? If Xbox added a feature to rotate your different pics and themes I would certainly purchase more. Have it set so you pick like ten gamerpics and maybe 4 or 5 themes and have it rotate on a timed basis, kind of like your backgrounds on your computer and screensavers.

Also the pics and themes typically are overpriced, they are just small pictures, why make them cost so darn much? It does not take much to have them up and I do not understand how some are free and others are a couple of bucks? Either make them all free or make them a nominal fee, I would lean toward free.

The Xbox 360 camera pics should also be able to be saved as themes or allow users to use multiple personal pictures to be used on each blade of the in game menus instead of just having one on all. You can take a pic using your camera and make that your gamerpic, which is kind of cool but then that is one less purchased gamerpic you can’t use.

What do you think?

Why play your games when someone can do it for you. The uber nerds behind levelmy360.com have a plan set up where they will add almost any amount of points to your gamerscore, for a nominal fee of course. I really don’t know how I feel about this. On one hand, I could care less because the gamerscore is kind of a pissing contest anyway, but the fact people are willing to pay for something as irrelevant as this just irks me. I don’t know of anyone who has undertaken this service, but if you do, please let us know.

Independent game and toy developer The Behemoth announced yesterday that the top players of Alien Hominid HD on Xbox Live will receive handmade trophies for their efforts. These aren’t just cheesy trophies from a shop but truly handmade pieces customized with their Gamertag, high score and date etched into the trophy’s base. Sweet!

You can actually see the entire process of how the trophies are made here. This is a nice shot of the final products.

There are some rules that apply in order to receive the trophies so read up. You can also check all the current leaderboard stats at their website.

I am impressed with Behemoth, both for creating a fun side scrolling shooter for the Xbox 360 Arcade and for following up with some nice incentives for gamers to go for the gold! Bravo guys! I think I am gonna go get my Alien Hominid on, maybe I’ll get a trophy for honorable mention?

From the press release:

The trophies, built with love and elbow grease at the developer’s studio, are being mailed out to players who have scaled the heights of the Alien Hominid HD leaderboards.

“We wanted to find a way to recognize the top players of Alien Hominid HD,” said Alien Hominid HD producer John Baez. “Making some spiffy trophies here in the office from genuinely simulated gold seemed like just the ticket.”

Hit the jump for more…

Games Radar has an article about the psychological backgrounds for choosing what do for gamertags. Does yours mean you’re a sexual deviant, a sociopath, or something else you don’t even want to think about? Are you looking for attention or approval? Or just looking for somewhere to hide in the miscellaneous world of the intarweb? Whatever your reasoning, there is always a good reason why you chose your gamertag. I mean, DonkeyBalls69 didn’t just hit some random characters.

It’s a good read, so check it out.

Since my gamertag revolves around an animal, this is what the site has to say about me:

these tags tend to be some of the more creative and use some of the best humor

Well, that about hits it right. The actual source of my gamertag was hanging around drunk one night. I asked a friend what would be a cool new gamertag, because I was tired of my original gamertag from the days of the Xbox Live Beta. He said “wouldn’t it be hilarious to see on the screen ‘You were head-shot by a group of drunk pandas’?”. I found it intriguing, and shot over to the Xbox v1 (this was pre-360) to see what I could come up with. Due to size restrictions, it had to get shrunk to drunk pandas, but it still invokes a good level of laughter when you see that on the screen.

What do your gamertags mean? Let us know in the comments.