No games available in Windows Live Messenger

Hello, thanks for reading this and sorry if my english is not very good.
My problem is this: when using Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0812.00, and
trying to start a game with a contact, the little menu shows "no games or
activities available". This also happens with MSN Messenger 7.5, and on a
fully patched Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, and with any version of
Flash Player installed. After trying this in many computers and accounts of
my friends, I noticed that we all have in common is: our Windows Live ID
profile is "Country: Chile" (in south America). I changed my country to Spain
or United States in my profile, and then the games and activities appeared
correctly. I can say this problem is happening since January or February of
2006. Before that time, I could play every game correctly (they appeared on
the list).

Is it happening the same to you?
Is there another way to start a game on Messenger without 'lying' about my
country of residence on my Windows Live ID (Microsoft Passport) profile?

This is happening to many, many people (at least everyone who says "I'm from
Chile"), so, please, try to solve this and we, all the chilean people, will
thank you so much!

Greetings,

Yes, these choices are based on the locale in your Passport/Windows Live ID. I also changed
my own locale to Chilie and got the same thing.

As such, at this point you will have to lie about your location to get these. There could be
a variety of reasons why these aren't available but I'm not sure specifically in this case.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2006 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.
--


"okeloco" <> wrote in message
news:A6DE1F35-3C6D-415C-B479-...
> Hello, thanks for reading this and sorry if my english is not very good.
> My problem is this: when using Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0812.00, and
> trying to start a game with a contact, the little menu shows "no games or
> activities available". This also happens with MSN Messenger 7.5, and on a
> fully patched Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, and with any version of
> Flash Player installed. After trying this in many computers and accounts of
> my friends, I noticed that we all have in common is: our Windows Live ID
> profile is "Country: Chile" (in south America). I changed my country to Spain
> or United States in my profile, and then the games and activities appeared
> correctly. I can say this problem is happening since January or February of
> 2006. Before that time, I could play every game correctly (they appeared on
> the list).
>
> Is it happening the same to you?
> Is there another way to start a game on Messenger without 'lying' about my
> country of residence on my Windows Live ID (Microsoft Passport) profile?
>
> This is happening to many, many people (at least everyone who says "I'm from
> Chile"), so, please, try to solve this and we, all the chilean people, will
> thank you so much!