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Your Halo 2 Stats Via RSS

Posted by Zonk on from the view-your-shame-or-triumph dept.

An interesting feature of Halo 2 was mentioned in a post on personal site davextreme.com - Multiplayer Stat RSS Feeds. His post (quoted with permission): "Really cool thing I discovered today about Bungie.net's stat tracking: RSS feeds. Not only do they track every single kill in every single multiplayer game (along with who did it, how it was done, and where it was done), but they put all this data into a feed you can subscribe to and never miss out on post-game scrutiny. Of course, to get to all of it you have to go through a really obnoxious sign-up process (which involves -- shudder -- getting a Microsoft Passport account), but once you've finally gotten signed in, associated your gamertag with your Passport, and found the stats page, there should be an orange XML button. Pop that into your favorite newsreader, and you're ready to obsessively review every single frag."

34 comments

  1. What about the little guy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bye bye csports.net.

  2. Is it!? by over_exposed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is this getting gaming one step closer to competing w/ the popularity of football, soccer, or any other competitive, publisized sport? Could this evolve into (way down the road) the possibility of televising tournaments? Maybe G4Tech TV could redeem themselves by televising QuakeCon, or whatever the H2 equivalent will be. I'm all for it! It would make LAN parties that much cooler, yet so much geekier...

    --
    "The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
    1. Re:Is it!? by Ayaress · · Score: 2, Insightful

      From what they were saying about "XBox TV" a few weeks back, combined with these RSS feeds and integrated into the Xbox Live system, it could very well amount to the equivalent of the amateur leagues in sports at the very least. If it were segregated in some level by region, it would be even moreso. For example, in the amateur sports leagues, there are often a lot more players than the big leagues, but tend to have a few stand-outs overall, and many local areas will have a few outstanding players or teams. They aren't as well known as the star quarterback for the nearest big league football team, and would probably never be recognized on the street outside their home town, but they get enough recognition that if they walk into a local sports bar, they can nab drinks on the house.

      A system like that could be automated to a limited extent. People could look at the best players' games, or they could limit it to games with players in their area.

      Televised stuff would probably stay limited to the best professional competitive players in a semi-organized league, I think. Things like the top quarter of the players in one of the bit conventions maybe (Like with any tournament, the lower you go in the rankings, the more sheer airtime it takes to broadcast, so you usually have to cut it off fairly high, and do a highlight reel of the lower levels of the tournament to show how far the remaining players have come).

      The main problem with coupling just stuff off Xbox Live with TV broadcast is that a lot of people on Xbox live aren't good players (and a lot more are just idiots), so you have a very low ratio of games worth televising to those that aren't, and a hard time to sift through to find the good games and still be fair and not overrepresent a few players who play either very well or just very much.

      One way or the other, unless the population in general can find a way to be inspired by gamers or driven to some level of team loyalty (the way people in Detroit get angry any time you point out how badly the Lions and Tigers have been doing the last decade or so), it'll be limited to gamers gaining recognition among other gamers. Not a bad thing at all, and I'd like it a lot, but its still a closed community in that case, and there's no real gain in overall recognition or legitamacy as a sport.

      Same thing applies on TechTV: The bulk of its viewers are gamers already, and I seriously doubt anybody who doesn't like video games watches it. People who do well enough to make it on the air will gain some recognition as gamers, but it won't be the sort of, "Hey, check it out, it's the Saginaw County Quake Champion at table six!" sort of recognition that can come from even amateur sports. MTV might be one channel that would buy into broadcasting games. They've usually been willing to try new things to try to appeal to adolescent audeinces. It's a step up, but again, you're broadcasting to an audience that probably largely accepts games already. Then is the fact that it's MTV. I remember a somewhat hostile response to MTV's video game awards by some gamers.

      I think to gain widespread recognition and acceptance on par with other sports, it'd have to make it onto more mainstream media that nongamers, and particularly nongamers outside the typical gamer age range watch. ESPN and other sports networks already carries some little league and minor league sports, as well as less recognized sports like paintball, poker, fishing, and so on. Hell, I saw a four hour caber toss tournament on ESPN once, so they're not afraid of investing considerable airtime into unusual things (Unusual to a mostly US audience, anyway)

      Not saying it can't be done, though. If log rolling, burger eating, and sharpshooting can make it to ESPN, I see no reason why Quake or WarCraft can't also. It'll really just take a network exec willing to risk a couple hours a week and a few advertising slots in prime time to try it out.

    2. Re:Is it!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Re: Your Sig.

      How about:

      I like my women like I like my coffee... black and headless.

      (Just kidding, people. Just kidding...)

    3. Re:Is it!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ground up and in the freezer?

  3. Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...when you buy Halo 2, you deprive yourself of your $DEITY-given right to modify your hardware. Even harmless modifications like the 200 gibibyte hard drive that I use for Xbox Media Centre will cause Halo 2 not to function in multiplayer mode.

    As a result, I have decided to boycott Microsoft by buying Xboxen and no games for them. Because Microsoft loses money on every Xbox sold, I will deprive them of income.

    1. Re:Just remember... by GoodbyeBlueSky1 · · Score: 3, Informative
      Because Microsoft loses money on every Xbox sold, I will deprive them of income.
      No, they don't. They only lose money at the very beginning of the production cycle. Once all manufacturing processes are in place for a while (e.g. setting up plants, working on more cost efficient development) they make money on systems as well, though still not nearly as much as on software.
      --
      why? forty-two.
    2. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Apparently, the concept of loss-leading is lost on the majority of the /. community. Almost every M$ basher that posts on here latches onto the catch phrase: "Microsoft is losing money by selling Xboxes." Taken in the way that so many anti-M$ zealots lurking in the shadows here mean it, it simply isn't true. Not content being anonymous morons, obviously, these cretins are trying to convince everyone of their glaring economic and financial ignorance.

      Look at it this way: A company evaluates a project based on the expected cash flow stream, internal rate of return, payback period, and profitability index (among other measures) it will generate over its life. Consider the initial loss on the Xbox hardware the cost or investment, but they make that up plus a ton more on the software sold and the licensing fees. A company, even one with M$'s deep pockets, will not green-light a project (Xbox-related or otherwise) if it is not expected to generate a profit and achieve measures that meet or exceed company standards for risk and return.

    3. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Consider the initial loss on the Xbox hardware the cost or investment, but they make that up plus a ton more on the software sold and the licensing fees."

      That's why the "buy an Xbox but no games" idiots think they are serving the noble anti-Microsoft cause by buying Xboxes - they are buying the loss leader without subsidizing Microsoft by way of software sales.

      Of course, this is a flawed tactic.

      I'd rather see Microsoft sit on unsold Xboxes that they've paid to manufacture than help them out by actually BUYING one.

      Now please STFU.

    4. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You misspelled "Xboxen."

    5. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You failed English.

    6. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A company, even one with M$'s deep pockets, will not green-light a project (Xbox-related or otherwise) if it is not expected to generate a profit and achieve measures that meet or exceed company standards for risk and return.

      Aye aye. The difference with Microsoft is that, with their REALLY big pockets, they were planning for that eventual profit years down the line... and to recoup their investment years later. Basically, they still have not had a profit in any quarter for over three years. They *might* hit the black this quarter (little thing called Halo 2).

      I think people just resent that Microsoft is essentially strong-arming itself into the market simply because of how much cash it has. Any reasonable company would have failed by now (*cough*3DO) or would have pulled out (what Nokia shall be/is doing).

      Microsoft just keeps on going, though.

    7. Re:Just remember... by kiddygrinder · · Score: 1

      Just a point about Nokia: they aren't in the same business. They may have been absolutely slaughtered by nintendo in the 'handheld gaming' business, but they made a tidy profit on their product as new model of phone. I'd say they'll just continue to release evolutionary hardware that capitalises on the niche of people wanting a phone that they can play good games on.

      --
      This is a joke. I am joking. Joke joke joke.
    8. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's unpossible!

    9. Re:Just remember... by unclethursday · · Score: 1
      A company, even one with M$'s deep pockets, will not green-light a project (Xbox-related or otherwise) if it is not expected to generate a profit and achieve measures that meet or exceed company standards for risk and return.

      Which is why MS green lights all the projects that haven't turned a profit, ever, right?

      And, if you took the 5 minutes to look, you'd see that Microsoft has NEVER made a profit from the Xbox, or its games. Since its launch, the Xbox has accounted for most of the Home and Entertainment Division's revenues... and yet, since the launch of the Xbox, Microsoft's Home and Entertainment Division has LOST over $2 billion.

      Look it up on the SEC's webpage. Microsoft's quaterly reports are free and public knowledge. You'd be a little surprised, I think, to see that Microsoft has consitently lost over $100 million per quarter on the Home and Entertainment Division for quite some time now, with some quarters topping $300 million lost.

      At the current rate, the current Xbox will not only never see a profit, but the Xbox 2 might not even recoup all the losses garnered from the Xbox and it's own losses in the beginning either (this being if, and only if, the Xbox 2 generates a profit during its life cycle).

      But, do feel free to see the SEC's webpage to try and prove me wrong.

    10. Re:Just remember... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They still lose less money if you buy an Xbox than they would lose if you didn't.

  4. Worthless Feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    And you need a Passport Account to boot.....who needs to know every kill in every game of every player in every universe. It's stupid

    1. Re:Worthless Feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True, there's a lot of data you might not care about, but if it's available someone can analyze it and use it to make better multiplayer levels or publish new tactics or make batter games.

      You can bet the army would like this much data about all their engagements.

    2. Re:Worthless Feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You're stupid. There's no real argument against passport other than it's from MS. You don't have to give passport any more info than you want to.

      Exposing data to users is something more services should do.

    3. Re:Worthless Feature by DAldredge · · Score: 1

      And what is so wrong with MS passport?

    4. Re:Worthless Feature by Osty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And you need a Passport Account to boot

      Of course, you already had to have a passport if you have a Live! account. If you don't have a Live! account, this is obviously useless to you.

      who needs to know every kill in every game of every player in every universe. It's stupid

      Do you keep track of the miles per gallon you get in your car? Do you follow your bank account, tracking where you spend your money? Do you follow any sports team? Even high school teams track stats. Maybe this is stupid for you, but this is an excellent feature even as a novelty item. Why? Because:

      • It can enable competitions. You can give prizes for most kills, most wins, most deaths, or even most times you killed someone from behind.
      • Halo 2 supports clans. Clans can range from a group of friends who typically play together to semi-professional groups of gamers who hold scheduled practices. For the former, tracking stats gives you something to brag about when you win. For the latter, the stat tracking and game viewer give you the ability to analyze your clan's performance and work on your weak spots.
      • Bragging rights. For example, 21 kills, 1 death, 0 shots fired. Without stats I could still regale my coworkers with a description of the game, but now I can also point to my prowess (the fact that I haven't duplicated that feat is also obvious by looking at the rest of my stats).
      Stats are cool. Just because you don't think so doesn't make them "stupid". Kudos to Bungie for going above and beyond with the Halo 2 multiplayer component, and I'm looking forward to what more they can do with this!
    5. Re:Worthless Feature by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      big deal. you ran around with the sword like a pansy!!!!!!!

  5. Borken for me by octover · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I had heard that Bungie.net had a way for you to check your stats online. I also had heard about the RSS feed. I thought I would check it out. It worked great at first, but then I started getting other people's games. It happened when I wasn't even home, and there wasn't really a consistent gamer tag where it seemed a wire had been crossed, but I was just getting a bunch of garbage. Anyways after over 200+ games I did not play in I deleted the subscription out of my news reader and relegated it back to "huh, thats nice, but I don't really care."

    1. Re:Borken for me by Achronos · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yeah, sorry about that. There's a caching bug with the RSS feeds which is why we haven't publized the feature much. A fix should be going out late this week or early next week, depending on a few other things.

    2. Re:Borken for me by Kingfox · · Score: 1
      This week or next? The response in email I got from you guys earlier today was this:
      Known problem we should have this fixed up in the next day or so.
      Either way, great feature, and thanks for the quick response about the problem!
  6. ok by Inuyashayoukai2 · · Score: 0

    wel that might be helpful in the upcoming future

  7. I think its more for Guild Websites than "news" by L7_ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dark Age of Camelot had something similiar to this RSS feed two years ago. They kept track of guild and member pvp statistics (in the form of things called "Realm Points" and kill/death ratio and stuff) for each server and published the results to an XML file. Every DAoC "Pvp Guild" (I use the term loosely), had a php extension that showed real-time statistics of thier members and thier top-status on thier web page. So you could tell how good or bad a DAoC guild was by just browsing thier webpage!

    I assume things will be done similar to this. Real time published statistics to guild web pages, showing those viewing them how active they are, how "good" they are, and which members are the better players in the guild. And since they will be updated in real-time, it should be obvious if the information they are publishing is valid (cause a witty programmer could just change all thier published statistics to "win", but then that wouldnt match up with the central server).

  8. Publishing by ifreakshow · · Score: 1

    Is it possible to publish your stats to the community as a whole or only subscribe to your own stats?

  9. Crap by JFitzsimmons · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This just makes it really easy for those hugeass php script forum sig images with everybodies l33t stats in them. *Sigh*

    --
    Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -Anonymous
  10. http://vivalar4d.com/halo/ by c0nrad · · Score: 1

    check out my game stats.
    although it shows the latest game at the bottom, it worked out pretty good.

    http://vivalaR4D.com/HALO/

  11. Not really news by Osty · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The game itself tells you about this (in tips while waiting in the multiplayer hopper, and in the manual). The RSS feed is neat, but it's pretty useless since you can only get to your own feed unless a feed link is given to you by someone else. I don't need to watch my own feeds via RSS, but it would be nice to watch friends and rivals without having to always go to bungie.net.

    However, the most impressive feature in my opinion is not the RSS feed, but the Game Viewer. A full list of features available on bungie.net is available (Game Viewer is section 6.5), as is a list of medals you can earn during multiplayer and a description of how rankings are determined.

    This data is stored on XBox Live!'s stat servers, so sometimes bungie.net can be out of sync (I've seen it think I hadn't played any games on the overview page, though the games themselves showed up in the game list).

  12. At last! by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 0

    At last we'll have Hard data on Halo 2.
    Hopefully this will help clear the smog of positive Hype and negative FUD surrounding the game and potential buyers will actually be able to buy a game based on cold facts for once in the history of gaming.
    There should be more of this kind of thing.

    This of course doesn't take into account the fact that most potential buyers have already gotten/ordered Halo 2 anyway.

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  13. What's next?... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1

    A fantasy Halo 2 league?

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  14. As a result... by hollismb · · Score: 1

    I created a page to parse the XML for my stats on my site with a little help from my friend Kick the Donkey. The stats, for some reason, come oldest first, so we had to switch it to be reversed, showing the most recent game at the top. It's a lot cooler than having to check Bungie.net all the time, and has links that will take me straight to each specific game. Also, and more importantly, I can't check Bungie.net from work, where most of the guys I play with are, so this helps a lot with bragging-in-your-face rights the next day. All in all, pretty cool, and you can check it out at my site, here. Strange the number of games they picked to list in the XML file though. Not 30, not 35, but 34. Huh?