By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

PINOYXBOX is one of the most prominent console-based gaming forums in the Philippines and is also one of the oldest, having been an offshoot of PinoyExchange. It boasts of 4,000 members, the majority of whom are from the Philippines though some based in other countries. It is pretty much a close-knit society, especially with the availability of Xbox Live, which allows Filipinos to play with or against each other and other nationalities.

Husband and wife Philip and Joanne Ortiz are among the moderators of PinoyXbox. They regularly check out the online activities of their members and get loads of information themselves from members. In one particular thread, there were members who stumbled upon Xbox 360 titles and equipment in a warehouse in Mandaluyong City. The two accidentally found an entire RockBand set that they bought for less than half the price in regular shops. Normally, a RockBand set, which consists of a guitar controller, drum set, microphone and the RockBand title, would sell at around P13,000.

Here’s the video I took of Philip and Joanne, who share some of their experiences as PinoyXbox moderators and Xbox 360 players.

“You get loads of information from the users and many of them share their own experiences with others. It’s a pretty tight group,” Philip said.

Xbox Live also enjoys a robust community of Filipino members, most of whom are from PinoyXbox. There are Filipino groups for Halo 3, NBA 2K8, and Call of Duty 3. Philip said there is already a group of Filipino “gangsters” playing Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox Live.

Offline, the group has a few eyeball parties where they also compete with each other in certain games. In their last EB in 2007, they were joined by members who lived abroad.

Philip also said the group is getting the attention of such companies as Microsoft Philippines and the organizers of the upcoming World Cyber Games Philippines.

Joanne for her part said that one of the advocacies of PinoyXbox is to have their members play only original titles.

“With the prevalence of pirated discs, there are opportunities for Xbox 360 owners to play pirated discs instead of original. There is little risk there but they don’t see the value of the people who work hard in making these games.”

Incidentally, here’s a video I took of Joanne her brother Rafael Formoso playing Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock on the Xbox 360 on its highest difficulty setting. This, along with the interview with Philip and Joanne, was taken during the WCG Philippines press conference. The song title is “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Steve Ouimette.

Editor’s note: Videos taken by INQUIRER.net community evangelist Alex Villafania.