Fancy a shot of Truth Serum?  This will not be pretty so tread carefully my friends.

[Update] I’m happy to report that as of July 15 the issue has been taken care of … I am a relieved camper … and I wanted to say thanks to the team at Microsoft for all the help … they truly went above and beyond to correct this issue.]

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Start your gaming history over or suck it up and miss out on certain aspects of Xbox Live.  That’s what it ultimately boils down to if you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position of not having access to your email address and having to change a Windows Live ID on your Xbox 360.  You’ll be told to get a new one and lose whatever history you’ve built up within the gaming community and you’ll be forced to miss out on things that require an accessible WLID like getting blue flames from Bungie.

The way it’s supposed to work is that you simply enter the password on the account and change it.  Simple right?  But what happens when the system won’t recognize any password change that you make?  Well then my friend let me introduce you to hell … nice to burn you.

Most people don’t understand that your email address isn’t just an email address when you use it on the Xbox 360.  For every other service on the internet an email address is just an email address.  However, with Microsoft and its system your email address has to be established as a Windows Live ID.  Why is that necessary?  Only the minds at Microsoft can tell you why you have to transform your regular email address into a Windows Live ID before it’ll work on their network.  A wise basketball player named Sidney Deane once said, “Some muth****s always trying to ice skate uphill”.  In other words, they’re making this harder than what it needs to be.

After your email address has done its own Optimus Prime transformation, it is now stuck for better or worse in Microsoft’s web.  This means that as long as you’re a good little boy or girl and you never lose access to whatever Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or various other email address you’ve turned into a WLID, you’re okay.  But let’s say for some reason you’ve used an email from a DSL company and that DSL company decides to get rid of that domain.  Let’s just say that you had no choice in the matter and you need to update your WLID now because the email address literally doesn’t exist anymore.  You, my friend, should just prepare to enter a ridiculous fight that may very well put a legal battle in the Supreme Court to shame.

I know the support links and various other recommendations from Xbox and Microsoft would lead you to believe the process is as simple as logging into your console and changing your email address.  But it becomes so much more difficult if you ever have to verify that you own the account.  I’ve personally given Xbox Support the birthday, credit card, secret question answer and my left lung to prove that I am the owner of an account that I’m trying to update the WLID on.  Xbox Support has verified that information.  That would be awesome except for the fact that Xbox Support can’t help me with a WLID problem and instead the WLID team has to ultimately fix my situation.  So you’re saying that Xbox can’t help you with an Xbox problem? Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

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