[Xperia Play General] lightningdude:
Dude, you've gone off on this one. I originally agreed with you, but seriously. I'm not just saying this because I have an R800x, but there are stupid noobs with every kind of phone there is. You can't just say, "oh, I see these guys don't like being singled out, so they must be complaining." Last I checked, there are a whole lot less of us R800x users here, and even fewer that actually complain about the roms that exist. Yes, we'll ask if they're compatible with our phones, but that's simply because of the difference within the devices themselves, despite the fact that they have the same name.

As for using a phone on a particular carrier, I'm going to have to guess that you don't live in America, you don't have your own plan, or both. Here in the states, we generally have to pick what carrier actually has service in our area, very much so in the rural areas. That being the case, if I were to go with AT&T or T-Mobile, I wouldn't be able to get signal where I live. My only options, given that, would be to go ahead and use Verizon, or use the smaller providers, or use prepaid. I've been on Verizon since before they even had feature phones, and at the time, the only prepaid service available here was TracFone. I'm not saying anything bad about TracFone, they were pretty good for the first year or two that I actually owned a cell phone. I made the switch to Verizon, and despite all of the complaints I've heard and read, I've never had a bit of trouble with Big Red. As such, I've stuck with the company I've always used. Heck, even on my previous smartphones, the CDMA bit didn't cause any problem with development.

And then I got an Xperia Play. The only problem I have with this phone is the fact that the R800x has been treated (to borrow a phrase) as the "red-headed stepchild" as compared to the other models of the R800 line. May I just say now that I didn't get the Xperia Play to hack my phone. I got the phone because I'm a gamer, and the game pad gave the phone much more appeal than the other available phones. But since I like to mess with phones, as I had on my previous ones, I decided to jump right in to the scene, as I had before.

Now, I've followed all of the recommended routes with this phone. I've paid to have the bootloader unlocked, read up on the things I need to know to manipulate this phone, and have tried to help other users in figuring out their phones. I'm not going to say I've contributed anything, really, because I call it just being a helpful person. Heck, I've even clicked the "Thanks" button a few times! While I can't say that all of the R800x users have followed the same path as I have, I can say that given the seclusion that we CDMA users have faced hasn't gotten the core of us down. In fact, as an example, chevyowner was single-handedly modifying the CM9 roms to work for us CDMA users, making the data and such work just as flawlessly as it does for GSM users. When he said he got a new phone and wouldn't be able to "port" it anymore, at least three members immediately stood up to take his place. If that's not a community coming together, I don't know what is.

Oh, and as for calling out the R800x noobs, take a look in the Q&A sections, the GSM threads, and heck, take a look at the thread that started this all, the MIUI thread. I see far more GSM members complaining, moaning, and bugging the devs than I do CDMA users. So before you single out a small group that has already been secluded time and time again, take a look at the bigger picture.

One more thing. People who can only get reliable CDMA signal in their area can't simply "stop being cheap and buy an unlocked phone." Your special unlocked GSM phones won't work on our network. Now before you say I'm complaining, I'm not. It's my choice to stay on Verizon's network, and truth be told, I don't mind having to look a little harder to mod the phones that I have available to me. I just happened to choose this one. It's not the limited support for the R800x that bugs me, it's elitists like you that think others should conform to your standards.