Here are some of my thought on what makes a great Xbox Live game. I hope
to fill out this outline into a coherent article at some point.
-
Single-Player
-
Storyline:
Some games seem to forget about the story. See Unreal Championship.
-
I want to be logged in to Xbox Live: I play the single
player game when I'm waiting for a friend to jump online. There is
nothing better then seeing the game invitation icon in the corner of my screen
when been playing the same level for the umpteenth time trying to beat with
using only non-lethal weapons.
-
Playing the Multi-player part of the game
-
Friends List: List the game your friends are
in(Ghost recon doesn't do this) and make it simple to find the
list. I should be able to hit the start button and scroll down to the
friends list from anywhere in the game.
-
Content: Full Spectrum Warrior has the same content for
the single player as the multi-player. One can only hope that they will
update the game and bring in an adversarial mode. A good Xbox live game
is really two games in one. The Multi-player should be a different
experience then the single player.
-
Control
-
We should be able to set any button to do any action. Some of us play a
lot of different games in the same genre, we don't want to have the X button be
reload in one game when it's jump in an other. Let us pick what each
button does and provide your recommendations. Hell even let us trade our
controller configurations with friends.
-
Voice Communications
-
Proximity Chat and Team Chat: Both should be
supported. I want to be able to taunt my prey.
- Individual volume control for other players: Some people talk softly
others shout. I may want to talk to them but I don't want to have hearing
damage just because they can't move the mic away from their mouth.
-
Hosting
-
Lobbies
-
Reading indication
-
Host can force a launch
-
Player can force a launch through a vote
-
Must be able to have voice communications with everyone in the lobby
-
Kicking and Banning: I don't want to kick the same
guy multiple times. Also it should not be easy to accidental kick
your buddy who just happens to be next to the annoying guy on the players
list.
-
Friends: Let us change the number of reserved spots for friends in the
game. There is nothing more frustrating then having to close a room and
reopen it just to change a setting for the server
-
Options: The more options you give the host the better. Let them
choose the type of weapons that are allowed so that they can disable that one
weapon that's not balanced.
-
Expandability
-
New maps
-
New game types
-
Let us make maps
-
User Feedback
-
More options for sending feedback about a player. We need options like
"Immature," "Annoying," "SpawnCamper," and "TeamKiller" and
then thresholds that the host can set not to let people in with too many of
those feedbacks.
-
Score players based off of Live's feedback system. I want to know if the
guy that just entered the room is going to be a pain.
-
User Base
-
I came over to xbox live because I was sick of upgrading my PC to play the
latest games and for Voice communications.
-
Games have ratings, Enforce them. I should not be constantly running into
pre-teens in rated "M" games.
The simple answer is to that question is game play, but there are plenty of
examples where the game play was great but the game does not rank well in my
book.
----- Notes -----
Read http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20030328/isensee_01.shtml