How Microsoft Saved My Relationship

Girlfriend works at one of Microsoft's Xbox translation/localization offices in Tokyo. For the past six months, she has been working on the Japan version of the game Jade Empire, which was finally released this week. The first thing we did upon getting our copy of the final build was check the credits. Much to our delight, her name is in there (and spelled correctly). Congratulations, Girlfriend, on your first credit!

Even more exciting (for video game fans, not necessarilly for you), she'll soon start debugging language in titles for the next-generation console Xbox 360. This means she and her co-workers will have their hands on the hardware months before its release in November (December in Japan).

Girlfriend had no interest in video games prior to her employment at Microsoft. I mean, she claims to have been a real "gamer" back when Super Mario Bros. 3 came out, but that's the extent. Now, thanks to her professional connection to the industry, the two of us can hold intelligent conversations about the difference between Halo and Timesplitters. And that, my friends, is what true love is all about.