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Possible Spectator Mode for Xbox2

Posted by Zonk on from the watching-you-watching-me dept.

BlueMoon writes "Spong.com posted an article about a new Microsoft job offering. The job details not only confirm the internal codename of the next generation Xbox console is Xenon, but it also reveals more information about Live features. It looks like many games will have a 'Xbox TV' feature allowing some sort of spectator mode with tickers at the bottom of the screen featuring recent high scores and game highlights, a tournament system, and tradable trophies."

4 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Worth it? by christopherfinke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not a big gamer, but I play Counter-Strike and some other FPSs from time to time, so maybe I'm not the demographic they're taregeting, but my question is, what is the draw of watching other people play? If you've got an XBox and XBox live, wouldn't you rather be playing than watching others play? Could someone who finds this new aspect exciting explain it to me?

    1. Re:Worth it? by Ayaress · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can see a good few uses for it, actually:

      1. Newbies: New players to the game can watch better players and try to learn the game. I did this with Starcraft, Warcraft III, and Shattered Galaxy and picked up those games very quickly when I started playing myself, compared to, say, Red Alert II, which I still suck royally at.

      2. Tournaments: See some of the competition in action. Same idea as with the newbies, but a bit more specific as to what you're looking for.

      3. "Referee": I had a friend who I beat very badly at Starcraft repeatedly. He constantly accused me of hacking. The only way he would stfu was if we set up a 1v1 between us with the same setup as the previous loss, and have two neutral third parties (we each picked one of them) as spectators who would then tell everybody at school wether or not I was a hacker. I wasn't, although it turns out he did have a map hack running. Sometimes you need somebody who wasn't in the game to settle stupid arguments like that.

      5. Just plain bored: I have a few gameplay videos stored, and I run them sometimes when I'm doing something and can't dedicate the time to actually play.

      I know that replay files are pretty popular downloads for Warcraft III, largely for the same reasons as above. The same could easily apply on XBox Live.

  2. What about just doing it? by NashCarey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We watch people play reality games on TV. We watch people play sports. Why can't society just freaking participate?

  3. Cheater's wet dream? by RaymondInFinland · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hope not all games get this spectator mode. It might be ok for action games(like sports or fighting games), but for RTS/FPS games it should have the option to turn it off. Otherwise, just get another X-box and you can spectate what your opponent is doing...