Xbox Live Beta Report

mrquackers writes "CNN has an interesting article up giving its thoughts from the Xbox Live beta test. The system actually gets high marks for its ease of connectivity, matchmaking and voice communicator, but the writer doesn't seem convinced that Microsoft's going to have a big success with this (though he vows to do a better job of backing up that statement "next week")."

Comments

Obscenity

[Anonymous Coward]

This headset thing is really cool. However:

Do you think it's occured to microsoft the repurcussions of the fact that they are going to be relaying voice unfiltered?

Unlike text, there is no realistic way they can filter voice for obscenity.

Do you think they've considered what that means? All the gaming communities i've seen, everyone seems to be pretty free with using just random obscenities. They will probably be more so when communicating requires nothing more than muttering under your breath, instead of having to type out stuff.

How long do you think it will be before that Xbox Live thing comes with a little note saying "Warning: To prevent exposure to adult language, it is suggested children do not use the headset component of this product."

in a nutshell

[Quirk]

I thought the following quote said it all: "The trick for Microsoft will be ensuring that lag remains a non-issue when the system opens up to a vastly larger player base."

Latency doesn't add to the gaming experience and the net isn't always the most accomodating environment.

Microsoft has nothing to fear.

[BitwizeGHC]

Microsoft has nothing to fear about the viability of the X-Box: in a year or so, the X-Box will become the dominant console platform.

Historically, the console with the most shovelware running on it has been the winner in the console wars for that generation. Because it's easier to grind out Britney Spears or Blue's Clues games than truly otiginal creations, there are far more publishers of shovelware than there are publishers of outstandingly unique games, and console platforms like computer platforms have a sort of "developer gravity about them": the more developers they attract now the more developers they're likely to attract in the future.

The PS2 had a head start in the shovel-wars, but the X-Box was designed from the ground up to be a shovelware console platform. What with its use of fairly stock hardware components and the industry standard Direct3D API, porting games from Windows (another big shovelware substrate) should be easy. Developers which find getting decent results on the PS2 or Gamecube difficult will flock to the X-Box.

I could be wrong on this. In a year I'd love to be proven wrong. :) But that is my current conviction.

XBox Live = Bad implementation.

[Viewsonic]

First off, Microsofts gaming network is closed off. Meaning you wont be able to play with your PS/2 buddies in the same game, like GameCube and PS/2 owners are able to. Microsoft has made it a point that they don't want any of their online games to be cross compatable with the same games on other platforms. They pretty much lock you out from your friends and a larger player base. EA has dropped support for this simple fact. The "Our way, or the highway" attitude MicroSoft has had since inception carries on through their lousy online service. Second, you have to pay a fee! I'm sorry, but I think Nintendo went the right direction with their model. Basically they dont want to put a lot of effort into it because most of the online gaming is done on PCs, but they knew console kids would still want it available. So they let the game publishers decide if they want to charge or not. For the most part, all the games will be free much like Blizzards Battlenet games. No service to pay for! Hooray! Third, I have NO idea why XBox gets posted so dang much on Slashdot. It must be because the underdogs always are loved here or something. You would think they'd be more inclined to post PS/2 stories (Ie. the PS/2 Online stuff) over anything MICROSOFT .. Especially since there are Linux PS/2 Dev kits available that can do everything the MODDED XBox can out of the box.

Re:XBox Live = Bad implementation.

[MikeyNg]

There's actually a good reason why Microsoft doesn't want Xbox Live! to be compatible with PS2 and GameCube games. They can guarantee that every Xbox will be using a broadband connection. They can not say the same about PS2 users nor GameCube users. If you want a good gaming experience, you want as little lag as possible, and broadband gives you that. Ensuring that everyone has a decent connection is a step in the right direction.

And heaven forbid that they should charge money to try to recoup some of their costs! They're running dedicated servers. Do you think those come for free? You can look at this site, and you know that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Do you also realize that these dedicated Live! servers will allow people to see across games? Let's say you're playing Tony Hawk and your friend wants to play a game of NBA2k3 with you. Your friend can notify you through your Xbox because the service sits on the server. Amazing stuff.

Also, have you played on battle.net? I'll admit that they've done a superb job with the Warcraft III release, but EVERY release before then has been utterly horrid on the battle.net servers. The servers would lag for days while people would jump on or download the latest patch. The old adage of you get what you pay for is true.

btw, it's PS2, not PS/2. The PS/2 is either a) your keyboard connector or b) an old IBM machine. Sorry, that's just a pet peeve of mine.

The article really is not informative as to the whole Xbox Live! experience. So far everyone that I've heard from in the beta really enjoys it. Heck, even the guys at penny-arcade enjoy it. I am looking forward to November 15th myself.

Re:Where are do start to me?

[rizzuh]

So, in other words, MS can't really please you.

You use a free ISP and got a free dsl modem. This is why MS should offer Xbox Live for free, not the over-price $50. Nevermind that it is in competition with the PS2 and nothing else; the PS2 charges $50 for the actual hardware: equivlancy.

Many ISPs offer free game servers. Except you just made that up, because I have yet to see an ISP market this fact unless we're talking about Speakeasy.net (which doesn't even give out the IPs to their servers, they're mostly clan servers). Apparently ISPs do mind doing this, because they don't do it. Let's pretend we live in a fantasy world where there are free servers by ISPs; they're not very free if you're paying your ISP. With your logic, we could say that Xbox Live's servers are free. Of course, that would be a fair comparison which you simply wouldn't use.

Localized servers. So instead of putting Xbox Live in the hands of Microsoft, you want to bet that your ISP will throw up free Xbox servers for you to play NFL on? We're talking broadband here, you can realistically get a 100ms travel time from your Xbox to MS to another Xbox. Replace realistically with almost always.

So you're saying when Xbox 2 comes out, MS will stop accepting money? You're cynical in all the wrong places. It's also likely that Xbox 2 will play Xbox games like the PS2 does with PSOne games, I see no reason why Xbox Live wouldn't do the same. Otherwise they'd lose money/customers the instant Xbox 2 came out, and Microsoft doesn't like that.

Even though the author seems to dismiss this as "ok", most ppl don't like paying $50 for an online game and getting their A$$ kicked 99% of the time.

You have a perfect idea. That has never been successfully implemented anywhere and magically it's Microsoft's fault. I don't know how long you've been playing games (maybe you're more casual than I), but there is no way you can possibly improve by playing with people who are at the same skill level as you. If there's more than one super-duper player on the server, then you either really suck (which is okay, everyone gets better with time) or for some reason that's a "hardcore" server and you should try another one. Also, some games are team games where certain skills are more focused than others.

BTW, I believe the author was joking. His wombat coordination skills wouldn't really hurt him that much in a football game.

Now sorry if this sounded like a flame, but I just think far too many people treat MS unfairly in every single instance possible. Not only is Xbox Live a far more organized online platform compared to the PS2 (which has already launched, did you notice?), it'll increase the amount of people who have broadband (even by a slim margin), and it had some exciting titles in the future (unlike the PS2, which has a pretty clear calendar for 2003).

But I will tell you that the PS2 is still the better system, and Xbox Live certainly won't get my money until Halo 2. Cheers.

Ease of Use

[NetJunkie]

To me $50 is a deal. You get the hardware and a year of gaming. If you don't want to pay to play don't. But, how many of you pay to play Everquest or something similar? The same rules apply here. MS is running servers on their side. The downsides are you have to pay and you can't play against other types of consoles. The upsides are that you can do full online stat tracking, find your friends in any game, set up tournaments, and have the same online identity anywhere.

I'm VERY happy they limit this to broadband. The PS2 net play is getting slammed due to all the modem users lagging games and causing problems. I don't want that.

It's a simple case of ease of use. Sure, someone could build a great Linux system by hand for CHEAP, but most people buy Windows since it's easier to deal with and does what they want. It's the same here. I'll pay for the convenience of it all. My beta kit should arrive next week and I can't wait to sit on my comfy couch in fron to fthe 64" HDTV and just play some good online games. No drivers. No patches. No "why did my game just die to the desktop"?

You've got that exactly backwards.

[Thag]

No, the leading console GETS the most shovelware, because it has the most consumers, and therefore a better chance to sell more of any particular title. It also gets the most nifty niche-type games, like dance games or RPGs or puzzle or strategy or shooters or what have you, because even though those games will only attract 1/10th the audience of a GTA3, with the big consumer base of a leading system, that's enough.

Microsoft has nothing to fear about the viability of the X-Box: in a year or so, the X-Box will become the dominant console platform.

You could have fooled me. In Japan, XBox is locked in a life or death struggle with the Dreamcast for third place. And the Dreamcast has been dead for a year and a half.

The PS2 had a head start in the shovel-wars, but the X-Box was designed from the ground up to be a shovelware console platform. What with its use of fairly stock hardware components and the industry standard Direct3D API, porting games from Windows (another big shovelware substrate) should be easy. Developers which find getting decent results on the PS2 or Gamecube difficult will flock to the X-Box.

Welcome to October 2002. If it weren't for the infinitely deep pockets of the parent company, XBox would aready be dead. As it is, it's on life support, because Microsoft can pay companies up front to produce a game for the XBox, which is about the only way they would ever do it.

And, FWIW, development on Gamecube is rumored to be a breeze.

I could be wrong on this. In a year I'd love to be proven wrong.

IMHO, you're already wrong.

Sorry.

Jon Acheson

Moderation and feedback

[MrCaseyB]

You can leave feedback for players on Xbox live, negative feedback for people who swear or play cheap or quit in the middle of a game. I have not had any problems at all with people being rude or using bad language. If there is, I can mute them.

I am loving every second of the beta actually. Im glad That only broadband is allowed, Im glad that devlopers and MS arent building their system to support other platforms. Im happy that every person will have the same exact hardware, config and same experience. This will all lead to the best possible gamign experience. If I want interoperability, If I want to change the game files, if I want to play against modem users, Ill use my freakin PC. I dont want to though, I hate PC gaming, I hate the small screen, I dont want a PC in my home theater, I dont like playing on a PC with 4 other people standing over my shoulder. PC gaming and consoles are 2 different arenas, XBoxLive is just what console gaming needs.

Of all the Xbox live naysayers, how many of you hate MS with a passion? you are dismissed, How many of you Hate Xbox because you dont have one, you have PS2? You are also dismissed. of all you naysayers, how many of you are slamming it because everyone else does on slashdot? You are dismissed. Is anyone left over? Hmmm not really. Those people left who are still slamming Xbox Live, have you actually used the service yet?

Keep an open mind, There is a world outside of slashdot and we are all very excited about online console gaming like Xbox live.