Infinity Ward has flipped a switch in Call of Duty 4 that doubles the experience points you'll earn between now and Monday. Unless you're playing on the PC, in which case you'll have to make do with the four new maps you got yesterday.

Even though I rarely take advantage of them, I love these incentives to get you to play a game. There are so many good games out there that sometimes all it takes is a little nudge to tip you one way or the other. Microsoft's Xbox Live calendar makes not-so-subtle suggestions that you really should spend the weekend with whatever is the latest game. Their themed weekends presumably get people to register for prizes, which involves – big surprise – a trip past a nag to sell your information to "third-party partners". The prizes are mostly piddly little runner-up gee-gaws, but they also give away a new Xbox 360. You might think this is ironic, given that you need to already have an Xbox 360 to win another one. But this prize is perfect for when your current Xbox 360 invariably breaks down and has to make a month-long round trip to the service center McAllen, Texas. Do I sound bitter? You just wait until you have to deal with their QA department. Seven times.

The upcoming Ninja Gaiden II weekend seems a little silly, given that it's a single player game you can play any time. The only real hook here is some downloadable ninja movies, even if they will eat into your valuable Ninja Gaiden II time. The hook for this weekend's Quake Wars weekend is that you can play against the guys who made the game. I'm not sure I'd want to do that. I mean, I just got Quake Wars for the 360 a week ago. Those guys have been making it for probably about 18 months. Why would I want to play against them? I'm perfectly capable of being pwned by the average 14-year-old. I don't need a professional developer to join the pile-on.

The calendar features regular Family Nights and GamerchiX Ladies Nights, which seem not to understand the point of a "ladies night" is ultimately to get the dudes out. According to the site:

This isn’t a chance for the guys to find girls to play with, fellas. GamerchiX is strictly for the girls.

Yeah, good luck with that. But credit to them for trying to foster a female-friendly community. And their Rosie the Riveter logo rocks:

You have to wonder what's the point of any of these? What makes them different from any other night? Why would you play Uno with your grandma on Family Night instead of say, tonight? None of these questions has an answer, and none of them needs an answer. For the most part, these calendar events are about as meaningful as your Gamerscore. But while Sony throws their time and money at Playstation Home, Microsoft understands that it doesn’t take a lot for communities to just sort of happen.