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Kasz216 on 10 March 2013
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trasharmdsister12 said:
When I used to play more multiplayer, party chat made Xbox LIVE a bearable and very enjoyable experience. What it does is separate you and your friends from all the other chatter going on in a game. Yeah, you can play different games and still chat, but you could also play the same game and chat independently of what everyone else is doing.

What this means is you don't get annoying people screaming or cursing or yelling derogatory slurs in your ears. Instead, you play with your group of friends who you enjoy talking to, coordinating with, and actually playing the way you guys like to play independent of what others are doing.

The party chat extends beyond that though in some games. It means you can move between playlists, custom games, and such as a group. For example, in Halo 3 they had custom games, matchmaking, co-op singleplayer, and theatre modes. When in a party, all your chatter is isolated to within your party but you can also jump between these modes as a group. Me and my friends would play a round of team slayer, then with just me (as host) moving to the theatre mode to check out our latest battle for strategy improvements, all my friends would also be there right away. There's no annoying leaving one mode and joining another individually and re-coordinating with invites and what not. I just go to theatre and everyone is just... there.

Same goes for changing between games. We'd all be playing Halo and then a couple of us would want to go play some co-op Fable. So we'd split into groups of two, split the chat and we'd be good to go with a quick disc change without having to deal with a whole lot of invitations and rejoining sessions, etc.

I haven't paid for LIVE in the last 2+ years because I don't have the time to sink into multiplayer games like I used to but I know that the party (chat) feature of LIVE actually made me want to use it and made online gameplay bearable for me personally.


Yep, that's more or less a good way to use it.  It's also REALLY helpful on some PC games or other games where the chatting function just is programmed right. (or an option.)