I remember when I first booted up my 360, and created my account on the service. I was asked to typify my gaming style for my profile. I was given four options to choose from pro, recreational, undergound, and casual. Each with different descriptions of what they meant. My first thought was that this is how the service was going to help me personalize my experience. That self identification would help me network, and play with likeminded people. Sadly it did nothing of the sort it was basically a useless shallow affectation. It was purely a dunsel, and that always made me wonder if there had at one time been a far nobler intention for those descriptors.
Over time though as I have played over Live it has become increasingly apparent. That the system desperately needs some better networking tools. Basically all the system does is toss you to the mob. Where it is up to you to find like minded people who you can have meaningful relationships with. It is literally like rolling the dice, and seeing if you can get lucky. Which is excedingly rare. You have to wade through a mass of wannabe hackers, juvenille delinquents, misanthropes, children, and people that can only be descibes as highly irradiated nuclear waste. You know the stoner that thinks he or she is passing, and that pot gives them super gamer powers. That chipmunk that couldn't kill a infant that has taken them down twelve times is so obviously the game cheating.
The whole system is just painfully inefficient, and it does take a lot of enjoyment out of gaming. I am really hoping that seeing as Microsoft is able to make gaming recommendations to us now. That maybe they can create a system on the service that will allow us to more readily network with people. Rather then through just plain random chance encounters. Making gamerzones part of the pairing process would be a good first step. Especially if they have more meat added to them. Am I the only one who would love the idea of putting your interests into your profile, and having the system trying to pair me up with like minded enthusiasts.
One of the great joys of playing on Live is you can talk and chew bubblegum at the same time. The discussions that can happen between players that actually have some shared enthusiasms outside of gaming. Are among the most rewarding facets of gaming on the service. If Microsoft needs a justification for this then it would have to be that more people would pay for the service outside of major online game launches.
Anyway does anyone else feel that Microsoft can, or will improve the system moving forward. To help players become more engaged with their fellow players?
