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6 January, 2009
Community Features Review: Xbox (360) Live
I spent most of my gaming hours playing Xbox 360. Xbox 360 has a brilliant basic feature: connect the device to the internet, and your progress in games is published online.
Recently I finished a work deadline, and I looked at my stack of games. I wanted to play something. I realized: I was thinking "which one of these games will give me some quick Gamerpoints?" Because with 4370 I'm towards the top of my community, but friends of mine who have jobs are closing in on me.
My 360 badge: Mass Effect promotional icon, "zone" underground (which means I don't mind cussing and freaking out online), and my Questerian personal slogan.
Most of the games for Xbox 360 I play tend to feature shooting, imperialism and saving the world. Power Fantasy stuff. This is a console that feels much more tough and "hardcore" than, say, the Nintendo Wii. I will admit enjoying escapist capitalist entertainment, but I believe the community features of the machine redeem the aggressive character of the 360.
Even when I am working, away from games, I check in on my community: I can load my list of friends, and see what they're up to:
A view of my buddy list from my web browser, from Spring 2006; what movie was Nicksthings watching? Xbox 360 needs to tap a CDDB-type service for DVDs for further social surveillance.
And I can message my gaming friends from the web, dropping them a text note. Of course, typing any kind of response back using a controller is a pain, so I don't often get more than a few words back. Short words. Misspelled short words. If they reply with voice, which is easier, I can't listen through my web browser. Heck, it's a miracle it works in Firefox on a Mac. So the communication is there, but it's imbalanced.
I check my Xbox Live friends list on the web usually once a day, in the late afternoon or evening. On weekends, I might check Xbox Live at 10am to see if someone is tacitly giving me permission to hit the sauce early.
My Xbox Live web page tells me which of my friends is busy kicking ass, and what games are popular or persistent. I'm often looking for a certain group of friends who live in another city and occasionally get online to play Halo 2; I check the web browser to see if I can join up with my buddies in Clan Fragitz. But perhaps they are all checking the web site, waiting for someone else to start playing first? Xbox 360 should ship a version with a hard drive loaded up with Halo 2, so you can play a single player game, and then shift to the good old shooter without leaving the couch.
I spent assloads of time on Xbox 360, but my most lively online console gaming memories come from Halo 2 on the antique Xbox. There's been no game I've spent as much time with, nor encountered so many provocative strangers in. Halo 2 still provides an un-matched testosteronal license to abuse people. Or maybe just not enough of my Fragitz-friends have a 360 and Gears of War.
Tracking and publishing my gaming statistics, combined with the social surveillance of seeing my friends' gamer statistics, has me hooked. I don't want to play games any more, unless I'm getting experience points for it. Experience Points outside the game!
And, I find gaming on older systems, or on my PC so lonely. I can't play with my friends! Even if we're not playing the same game, I like seeing that KimP is bangin' with his homies in Saints Row, or J and Bevin are inbreeding and promoting cannibalism in Viva Piñata. Co-play through light surveillance.
There are drawbacks: kinks in the design. I can't search for emails and real names of friends to find them and make them my Xbox buddies. My name is "Just In Queso" but you might not remember that, or remember to type in all the spaces between words.
Many games, even if you sign on to play them together, they're not well designed. Each game has its own lobby, before and after a match; oftentimes it's hard to arrange to play together, and then the game scatters the players to winds when the match is over. It's like the designers didn't have time to actually spend night after night, six pack within reach, melding their ass with a sofa, developing a sense of community with their dev kit.
Today I'm developing a game that rewards people with experience points for web surfing and creates a sense of gentle competition between web surfers. The Xbox Live meta-game of scoring and watching other people score is one of the strongest influences on my experience design.
Posted by justin at February 4, 2007 10:39 AM
Comments
You think you are gamerscore hooked? You should try working at MS! It's giving me an idea what it must have been like to be a WWI fighter pilot, when an ace pilot pulled up with all those kills painted on his plane...
A common water cooler conversation are what games are easy acheivement/point chasers. Common ones sited are King Kong (haven't played it), Pacman, Ms Pacman, Time pilot...
In terms of my own wish list of Live features: I have the same issue you do: Any time I get a friend request, the first reply back is "who is this?"; so like you said, would like to link to real-world email.
Similarly, I don't like that I only have one friend list. What if would like to participate in two communities, and have different identity in each of them. (e.g. work friends vs personal; developer friends vs high-school friends)
Posted by: kpallist ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://interactive.usc.edu/members/jhall/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 7, 2007 12:20 AM
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