The reason it is one of my earliest memories is because it also is one of the most embarrassing moments I ever had on Xbox Live.

Picture this: you've had Xbox Live for roughly 4 days, after having been waiting months to finally get it after the service was announced for its European release. You went out and got an Xbox Live-enabled game two weeks early just to play on Xbox Live, and so you're now trying to play it in every possible waking hour you can. At this point, you've been told you can play for 10 minutes more before going to bed; I didn't have my own Xbox at this point, and so was playing downstairs on the TV in the living room, surrounded by family; my mum was closest, roughly two feet away from me, watching me play.

I hopped into a lobby with the intent of joining one more game of the classic Whacked!, to find a group of adult players who seem to know each other; they're already chatting amongst themselves and having a good time.

"Can we start the game please?" I asked hopefully; I didn't want to sit and listen, I wanted to play, damn it!

I was met with a question which I have never forgotten, in all my five and a half years of Xbox Live since.

"Are you a boy or a girl?"

And what did I do in my massive embarrassment? I didn't answer, waited thirty seconds to see if they'd start the game, then promptly left and turned the Xbox off because, as I told mum, there wouldn't be time to get another game in before I went. I then proceeded to apply a voice mask to my voice for the next half year of using the service, dropping it only occasionally with people I knew and was friendly with, only to put it back on and hide my apparently girlish voice.

Thanks a lot, to whoever said that.