Xbox
LIVE is now available in North America.
Other Launch Dates:
Japan January 16, 2003
Europe March 14, 2003
The time has come, online console gamers, to prove your mettle not
only to the friends on your block, but also to the whole world. Are you
ready? Well, were not. In our first week of Xbox LIVE, weve taken some
horrible beatings, but weve also learned that it isnt all about scores
and stats its about having a great time playing great games, and its
about ganging up on the guy using the cartoon voice mask.
Online console gaming isnt new, dating back at least to the early
1980s and the numerous online experiments conducted by Atari, and most
recently attempted fairly successfully by Sega and SegaNet. However,
online gaming for consoles has never really come to stay (RIP
Dreamcast), and thats where Microsoft has decided to make their claim.
Theyve constructed a dedicated network of servers and support systems
and they call it Xbox LIVE. The LIVE system (XBL from here on out)
incorporates voice communication and a broadband standard to bring the
console experience to the online arena. Console gamers are keen to keep
talking with opponents, as you can easily do when playing your pals in
the living room, and the whole thing has to work like a charm. There is
little tolerance in the console world for upgrades, patches, and
tweaking. Fortunately, XBL has addressed these issues.
Here
is what you need to set up your XBL account: An Xbox, a broadband
internet connection (cable or DSL for most of you), an Xbox Live Starter
Kit (costs about $50 at most retailers) and Xbox Live enabled games. The
price of the Starter Kit includes your first years subscription to XBL,
and if theres a point that the anti-XBL contingent likes to harp on,
its the requirement for gamers to pay to play. This is nothing new in
the online PC world although many online enabled PC games offer the
ability for individual users to set up free servers, many games such as
Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot, as well as online gaming providers
such as Microsofts Zone, charge access fees. The argument, and its a
fiscally sound one, is that it costs money to run these systems and keep
them running well. So if you want a continually evolving and continually
maintained environment to play in online, youll pay for it. So far,
people do so with a bit of grumbling. Gamers love to grumble when asked,
and polls say that up to 90% of console gamers claim they will not pay
for online gaming access. That remains to be seen, but so far it seems
like those gamers will grumble all the way to their local videogame
store to plop down 50 bucks for an XBL Starter Kit.
Starter Kits are currently in short demand, although we figure thats
just a temporary situation. Microsoft has sold 150,000 Starter kits in
the first week of XBL availability, making it the fastest growing online
gaming service of all-time. And that means that there are currently
150,000 (300,000 if we all brought guests) gamers waiting to meet your
challenge. The ranks are swelling, and so far the folks who have signed
up for XBL are feeling pretty good about their investment. According to
figures provided by Microsoft, over 5 million games have been played on
the system, averaging about 500 games per minute. That equals more than
1 million hours of gaming, and more games played than in the entire
history of the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB combined. Thats a lot of gaming,
folks. And a quick browse of the forums at Xbox.com will tell you that
while people have some complaints and suggestions for improvement, they
are enjoying themselves.
Setting up XBL is an easy procedure. Plug your cable modem into your
Xbox, pop in the Starter Kit disc or an Xbox Live enabled game, and
start filling out the forms. The trickiest part of installation was
figuring out just where the subscription code is located on the Starter
Kit cd cover (you have to scratch off that holographic foil on the
inside of the cover). The most annoying part of installation is
definitely filling in your credit card number so MS can charge you for
another year of XBL after your first year is up. This credit card number
is also used to bill you for online purchases of premium content (and
nobody knows exactly what kind of premium content will be offered just
yet). Parents should have no fear because the whole system is secure and
you can set a passcode that will allow you to disable online purchases.
However, its worth noting that if you decide your XBL service isnt
worth the going price next year (which Microsoft has been suspiciously
quiet about), then youll want to cancel it before you are charged.
There have been some reports of problems (many having to do with lag
caused by varying broadband access speeds faster is better), but
according to what weve been able to read online they all pretty much
have solutions. If you run a firewall you may have to check your
documentation to open some ports, but most common firewalls will work
with XBL with no adjustments. One sidenote worth mentioning is the fact
that XBL will not admit any modded Xbox to the system. That means that
if youve modded your Xbox you cannot access XBL. Why? Microsoft claims
this is a way to keep the playing field as even as possible, and
although it is impossible to eliminate every way for gamers to "cheat",
it is a good idea to disallow mods and GameSharks in online play. But
there is undoubtedly another reason for blocking Xboxes with mod chips,
and that has a lot to do with the fact that mods are generally used to
play pirated games and facilitate nonlicensed development, two things
that Microsoft is very keen to prevent. While the hackers vs.
corporations battle is neverending, and I have little doubt that modders
will figure out a way to make the chip work alongside XBL, it is worth
making a warning to those folks who may be modding without a lot of
technical knowledge that the current generation of mod chips for Xbox
are going to block you from online play.
In signing up to XBL, you choose a Gamertag. Your Gamertag is the
name by which you are known online, so choose wisely (although, those
who havent chosen so wisely dont seem to have any less fun). You can
maintain a friends list which will tell you when your buddies are
online. Even if they are playing a different game than you, you can find
them and send an invite to them to join your game. In general the
Gamertag system works pretty well, although it is apparent that each
game implements these features differently. Once some uniform
conventions have arisen to govern this interface, things will be even
easier. It is widely acknowledged that Moto GP has some of the best XBL
interface design so far. Each game generally presents you with a lobby
where you can see players and look for games to get into. From the lobby
you can also check on your friends and invite them to play. More
textured configurations and filters could work well for example, in
some games it is hard to track groups of gamers, making it difficult to
get into a groove with a consistent group of folks. And, of course,
everyone wants to be able to ban or filter out particular individuals
who make the gameplay less enjoyable.
The
voice communication provided by the Xbox Communicator really does make a
difference in games. You can do things that are outside the boundaries
of the game because you can talk to other gamers. The quality is about
equal to a cel phone, although, again, the quality of your internet
connection is the limiting factor here. (Although, its useful to note
that the headset will work on most cel phones that use the 2.5mm ear/mic
jack to connect to a headset, which could start an interesting urban
trend of using the XBL Communicator in public.) Of course, the voice is
also the bringer of smack talk and generally offensive discussion, so
finding the right group of folks to play against is essential. You can
mute your mic and turn down your headset to play in peace and quiet, or
you can simply leave a game full of jerks who talk too much.
Be prepared to encounter the full range of gamers out there. It
always surprises me a bit to find so many middle-aged men playing,
although I myself am rapidly becoming a middle-aged man playing
videogames, and I have plenty of friends who are middle-aged men playing
videogames. Login at the right times and you can be transported right
back to seventh grade at 3:30 in the afternoon, complete with kids
farting into the mic and listing all the profanities they know. Youll
find the occasional sexist mysoginists out there who pick on women
gamers to no end, and youll find the really nice folks who help out
newbies and genuinely try to play the game as purely as possible. Its a
big world out there, and it cant all be daisies and rainbows, but with
a bit of experience its not too tough to find games you can hang in.
And always remember that if you ditch a game full of lamers, theyll
whine and cry about it for minutes to come, which provides me some
degree of satisfaction. But overall, I am simply fascinated by the
numerous peeks into peoples gaming habits there is serious fodder
here for sociological inspection and peoples living rooms. XBL voice
chat underscores how significantly our perceptions of ourselves can
change when the mediation of that perception changes.
Overall, Ive spent much more than five movies' worth of time on XBL
already, and I have 51 weeks of gameplay left to go, which makes it one
of the best entertainment values of the year. The money spent on XBL is
obviously going to build a successful and enjoyable online gaming
service, so its hard to feel bad about it. After getting online so
quickly and easily, and so readily finding a game, its hard for me to
do anything except to wholeheartedly recommend it to all Xbox owners.
The broadband hurdle is a significant one, but these days you arent
really using the Web unless you have broadband it truly changes your
life that much. However, thats fodder for another article. For now,
keep an eye out for GamesFirst on XBL.
Shawn Rider |