The state of online gaming as well as the media and games

ashersgcorps

Shared on Fri, 04/28/2006 - 23:43

Ive spent a lot of time playing online since first acquiring my xbox. Too many hours on halo2 and feeling lost on other games online features (or lack thereof). It astonishes me that halo 2 has stayed at the top of the xbox most played online since release. It also surprises me that someone has not done something as simple as just following bungies lead. Even with the advancements on the xbox 360s dashboard, its still a shadow of the masterful setup that bungie gave us. The matchmaking engine of bungie has been given mixed reviews, but the party system with which bungie endowed halo 2 with and comparatively speaking, its amazing that noone else has decided to implement this on a grander stage. Even some of the more basic features (clan support, mass messaging, mass invitations, and more) have seemingly gone unanswered or unchallenged by any other manufacturer. The only things that bungie missed in its formula in my opinion is the standard old-school optimatch (you set your own map, your starting weapon etc.) and the ability to make your own matches publicly available. I highly doubt that any developer is reading this that works for any company, but you seriously might want to stop and think about what Im saying here. If you have the right game, all you need is the right online setup and the game at the right price and wham instant success.
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Ive recently acquired the g4 channel as well. Ive suffered through x-play. This show in my opinion is a tragedy! We need a serious show that actually views gamers as what they are: people. I think that a show that would be akin to the 6:00 news (maybe weekly, maybe daily?) that would go for about an hour that would not only review games in a serious tone, but also go into the industry news, top games, as well as upcoming games. I dont think this idea will go anywhere until someone takes the plunge and tries it, but Id prefer anything to adam sessler and morgan webb who usually spend more time making fun of games (kind of like people sitting on couches at home detracting from a lot rather than actually offering up constructive criticism). I feel that this only further detracts from the seriousness of video games and video gamers.
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On another note, I think that it would be a good idea for a publisher somewhere to start up an actual magazine based for parents and video games. Im not referring to the annual x-mas special that comes out at the holidays that only covers what a grandmother or grandfather wants to get junior for the holidays.Im referring to an actual regular monthly periodical that goes into all the releases and discusses each game, what the content is (as a parent is concerned) and age reccomendations.
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I guess in summary that the press is in general taking games as always, lightheartedly. This allows more to go head to head with more and more finger pointing. Maybe this step would be towards the right direction. But we can always guess, cant we?

 

 

Comments

Caesar's picture
Submitted by Caesar on Wed, 05/03/2006 - 10:37
i wonder if bungie has a patent on the party system. if they do other companies cant even think of producing it. unless they want to pay royalties to bungie, which you would think they would do since i think its worth it

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