Originally published April 25, 2007

1. Server-Based Online Multiplayer
   
   There are good arguments as to why this should be added, but only as an option. Why? The cost of maintaining hosting servers means someday whoever is paying will no longer want to pay. And this can happen fast when a game isn’t particularly popular. Online PS2 servers have been dropping like flies despite a 100+ million installed-base. P2P gaming means even those of us who own the first-generation of Xbox Live games can go online with our friends and continue to enjoy multiplayer until the end of days (or Live, whichever comes first).
   
   I went out of my way to purchase a decent upload speed (768K up) to ensure I could host lag-free games. It’s not perfect, much of the world is still linked through all kinds of horrible carriers meaning ping times can be atrocious regardless of your connection speed, but it works. While I personally find the 360 a bit more sluggish than the original Xbox (where I could host 16 I’m better off with 12 on the 360), overall the issues of host-advantage and lag are tied to cable-modem users hosting with 256K/384K speeds and everyone trying to host above their capacity. It’s a user issue when it comes to P2P and I don’t know how to educate the masses.
   
   Back to Server-Based: it should be an option. Microsoft should test a few new titles that include alternate multiplayer interfaces. When choosing to join or host on a few titles a “Company Server” location should be offered so they can test the effect on their bottom-line and how users respond to the option. I don’t want only company-based (or Microsoft-based) servers for both the potential of them going away but also for the pain that the Battlefield 2: Modern Combat model offers: the chance you can’t play because you’re not of the right rank or there are no remaining server slots.
   
   There were far more online games for the Xbox than the PS2 and part of that is surely the fact that once the code is done it’s up to the users to handle the servers, managing irritating players and ensuring everyone has fun. If Server-Based multiplayer was the norm I think overall the number of online games would shrink, and while that might not affect you guys who only own a handful of titles, people like me who love to bounce between dozens would be affected in a very negative way.
   
   
2. Clan and Party System
   
   First let’s deal with the “party system”. Only a few bonehead early titles didn’t have a traditional lobby on the 360. That seems to have gone away. A party system is not a generic plug-in because games can be very different. How would Dead or Alive’s lobby work in a Party System? In fact, most of the party systems on the 360 are horrible, Saints Row being the worst. I want to set up a room, send invites, let anyone join, be able to change options between rounds and so forth. Halo 2 didn’t do that, no open parties like nearly every other Xbox Live title. TXB can shove their Party System theory where the sun don’t shine.
   
   As for Clans, this is tricky. I can see the advantage of an overarching Clan that would allow messaging and such between what amounts to a secondary Friends list. Past that, however, things get tricky. Loads of Clan features are game specific. What if your “Global” clan didn’t have anyone who really wanted to play some Clan-enabled game you loved? You’d have to abandon your Clanmates just because one particular game didn’t fit in with your leader’s desires? And what of odd-Clan games like Tournament Paintball MAX’D that was set up to support simultaneous Clan (or League) membership.
   
   I’m not writing off the benefits of a Clan blade, but it is superfluous in regard to our Live membership. The bigger issue is developers wimping out on Clan support. Toward the end of the original Xbox’s days you found Clan support in all sorts of titles. You even could get full leanue-play in a game like Iron Phoenix, yet Microsoft left Perfect Dark Zero out the door without Clan support, and Ubisoft, the first Xbox publisher with Clan-enabled games, took over a year to deliver what they had been doing for years already.
   
   No, lack of Clan Support and Party Support do not make the Xbox Live cost a scam.
   
   
3. Dedicated Download Servers
   
   Who knows whether these don’t already exist? I guess this is a fine feature, and I agree at times downloads can be slow, but at other times they are just as fast as downloads on my PC. Does this make Xbox Live overpriced? In terms of comparison to the original Xbox, certainly not. As a value-add, it’s be nice, but it doesn’t affect my gameplay, and that’s what I pay for with Xbox Live, multiplayer gaming.
   
   
4. Microsoft Points Program
   
   Sounds like a good idea, but the lack of free rewards doesn’t make Xbox Live overpriced. Silver was a gimme, you are still paying for the features from the original Xbox with Gold plus some more, like actual follow-through with additional content, something that on a whole went nowhere in the past. Again, this adds nothing to the multiplayer gaming experience you are paying for with Gold. A nice idea, on Microsoft should consider, but not a deal-breaker for me.
   
   
5. No Ads
   
   I wholly support this, but it brings up the problem I have with our membership fee: no new multiplayer features. You can read one of my journal entries for some examples of online multiplayer features we could use. I have a lot more. If such features were implemented they’d have something to stick into those empty spaces the ads currently occupy.
   
   I understand the ads in one sense: not everyone stays on the boards to know about new releases and maybe they don’t want to have to drill-down on the Marketplace to find the newest XBLA game or Map Pack. With the Marketplace gaining its own blade they could move all the ads there for all I care.
   
   What I care about are new multiplayer features like game requests and server counters which could fill in the generic ad spaces. Until then, what goes in those spots? The blade background? Gimme a break. Once again this does not impact multiplayer gaming.