Well folks, I have achieved the improbable. Using only my ability to play flash games, in concert with a zen-like patience and herculean will-power, I have earned an Xbox360. Yes, that's right. I have spent no money, only continued exercising my college-learned habit of spending free time playing flash games. All I had to sacrifice was variety in my gameplay, since I essentially played the same four games for six months straight. At a maximum point limit of 1000 per day, I could technically have accomplished this feat in two months, since the Xbox360 costs 55,000 points. I do try to maintain some semblance of a social life though, so it took me six.
Microsoft's Live Search Club is what allowed me to do this. My roommate in my final semester of undergrad pointed it out to me one day, so I started playing (Thanks, man!). I assumed at first that it was a short-term promotion and would end in a month or two. I also never thought that I would get close to 55,000 points, since the most lucrative game on the site only gives you 25 points (the least awards a paltry 2 points). In fact, about a month after I started playing, they removed the Xbox360 from the awards list. I could have given up, but I kept going, hoping that the public outcry would make them put it back up. I was right. There were a couple other prizes that I also wanted, but they were all eventually removed from the prize list, finally leaving the Xbox as the only hig-point-value prize that I wanted. I had a goal. I had the determination (because who doesn't want free stuff?). All I needed was enough time to finish.
Long story short, here I am, roughly six months later, and now I have this e-mail as proof of my accomplishment:
Now all I have to do is sit back and wait 8-12 weeks!
