Romier S Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 It seems like a good time to address some issues I've been wanting to get off my chest. Over the past three months we've had a nice steady flow of online gaming happening thanks largely in part to the launch of the Xbox 360 and the new games on the system. It's been really great playing with you guys, and even better getting back into gaming on Xbox Live as the the previous generation left me very wanting. So much so that I found much more enjoyment in the world of PC MMORPG's. Let me explain that statement some so as to not breed misunderstanding... We certainly had a large amount of games to choose from on previous generation systems, but then there was my issue: We had too many. In fact, we had a saturation of games that excited us in reading previews, reviews, and developer interviews. These games really made our imaginations run wild in thinking about how fun those experiences would be online. The reality was that a great deal of those titles got played for a week or two at most. A large number of us simply game hopped over to the next supposedly big release until the initial game was left to sit on the shelf collecting dust until it was finally traded in. It just kept on going from there on. It's the equivelant of online gaming ADD. It's a topic that we've discussed concerning single player games, but really not how it affects the online aspects of this forum. So why do I bring this up now? Well, it's quite simple really. I've very much enjoyed our time online and I want it to continue. At this point in time our options for online games on the Xbox360 are rather limited, so that helps in keeping us focused on small amount of titles that get a good amount of play time on the system. In the future that will change drastically. Over the next year or two we will see a slew of Live, PS3, and even Revolution games that will be playable online. Our interests will fluctuate and we will not doubt feel compelled to buy and try these games. It's natural, but in the end I want to try and preserve our ability to maintain interests in the titles we do play, and most importantly get some longevity out of these games. In March, 360 owners are faced with barrage of titles that will be playable online. Games will inevitabley fall off the radar due to natural attrition. That is entirely normal, and Perfect Dark Zero will more than likely be a great example of this. When Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter releases, I'm sure alot of our focus will move over to that game. Perfect Dark nights will invariably be reduced to accomodate that, but by that point we would have gotten four months of solid play time out of the game, and we can revisit it as we so choose and get even more longevity out of it. Burnout will also challenge Project Gotham for our play time and things will need to be rearranged for the sake getting play time in with these games. However, we will have gotten a great deal of play time and enjoyment out of Project Gotham, and we can continue to do so over time. This sounds reasonable to me, and I'm sure it will more than likely sound reasonable to you. So what are we to do then? You're probably asking yourself "Hold on man, are you trying to tell me what to buy?!" "Are you saying it's my fault or that I have ADD!?" Certainly not! What I am trying to say is the we need to try and be mindful of trends, and how negatively they can affect our online play habits. I'm just as guilty as I'm voracious about my game buying, and love having a good variety of titles to choose from. For our part, Joey and I will continue to do the weekly gaming schedule. I plan to have that become part of the main site (and make it easily updateable), along with the wonderful gamertag leaderboard Glen and Ryan worked out for us here. We've kept weekends off of the gaming schedule up until now, but we'll no doubt start adding some weekend play dates with some later and earlier play times for more folks to join in. On your end, the main point of this thread is to provide a support system. Something similiar to the LCVG "Drop 8 Tons" thread that saw our members help one another reach a weight loss goal. A place where we can talk about what we're playing. What's getting old? When's the best time to start changing up games so that we can avoid the game hopping that happened last generation. Most importantly to make our online experiences across all three of these next generation consoles and handhelds more enjoyable. To strive to be less about following trendy big releases that may not get any play time, and to get the most enjoyment we can out of the games we do buy. You may even save some money in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted February 2, 2006 Report Share Posted February 2, 2006 Excellent topic. My thoughts are pretty much like yours all around. We have fight night coming out in a few weeks. Think we could pair that on Friday nights with DOA4 for a while. The way things look in March GR:AW and Burnout will probably replace PD0 and PGR3 as you mentioned on Tues and Thurs nights. I love our PGR3 chat sessions but like i mentioned in the schedule thread Id like to play some Quake 4 next thursday to take a break from PGR. Blazing Angels is also coming out in March which we could always schedule in for Fridays as Battlestar's season is ending around the time it comes out. Of course all depending on if the game is good or not. I would like to keep at least one night "old game night" so some of our favorites still get some play time. Maybe make that for Saturday or Sunday night. I really like PD0 and PGR3 and hopefully some extra content will come out soon. Id hate to see it go on the backburner like so many did last gen. Each week we could do a rotation of a couple of older games. Put up a poll or something to see what people would like to play. Id like to hear everyone elses thoughts as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony G Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Great topic that addresses a real concern. Old game night sounds great Joey. A monthly poll based on games released would be very useful in gaging the titles that the LCVG community will gravitate too the most. It will also give members, who can't purchase 4 titles a month, an idea of which title to get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted February 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I'm moving this over to the console discussion area to give it a bit more exposure. The more commentary we get from the community on it the better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHiL Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Great ideas all around.. I agree with anthony to, having a poll would be great and will without a doubt get more people coming on to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberwoo Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I'm looking forward to getting back into XBL gaming. I plan to start looking for a 360 soon in preperation for games like GRAW. Hopefully that game will stand the test of time (ala: Halo2). It certainly sounds and looks impressive so far. The problem I see if alot of you guys always buy every game under the sun and spread yourselves way too thin. Maybe games should be $100 that way gamers can only afford 1 or 2 every few months or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave C Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Romier addressed many of my concerns I previously mentioned in the COD2 thread. I'm all for helping the community make better decisions on what titles to pick up or let go based on it's online multiplayer longevity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrik Draven Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Man, I've been around here a long time and I have yet to play with my fellow LCVG'ers online. Sad that I didn't really even realize that we had an online area here. I'm definitely going to have to change that because I keep running into asshats online and, it's starting to get on my every last nerve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony G Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I'm definitely going to have to change that because I keep running into asshats online and, it's starting to get on my every last nerve. That's what happened to me and I just stopped playing live. Once I picked up the 360 I just populated my friends list with only LCVG members and I have had a blast. Last night I laughed so hard I had a killer headache. We really have good times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce B Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I'm not quite sure how you would set this up on this site, but I would like to see a list of gamertags by games they are interested in playing online. For instance, I have only had the chance to play Dean and Anthony online in Madden because I dont know who else to add to my friends list who is interested in playing that game(I know there arent many). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeyN Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I used to do a list by hand with games everyone had, but it became way too much to do. Im no programer, but im sure it can be done. RYANNNNN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce B Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I used to do a list by hand with games everyone had, but it became way too much to do. Im no programer, but im sure it can be done. RYANNNNN Is it possible to create a thread of who owns what and make that particular thread editable by anyone, therefore each person could add or subtract games from their list without burdening the moderators? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisBardon Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Some good thoughts there. I know that I'm definitely making a conscious effort not to buy as many games this genereation, or at least to finish with the ones I have before buying new ones. Since I also passed on the whole "online" thing last time around, I can't really comment on titles dropping off the radar, but actually I can only see the problem getting even worse for the new generation. Last time around, you had Xbox Live and a slipshod Ps2 online service with pretty limited support. This time around though, you're probably looking at cohesive online services from all three parties, plus a much wider base of support for online gaming. I'm definitely still having fun with PD0 though, and can't see giving that up anytime soon. It's certainly more fun playing with you guys than some of the "unwashed" as you guys have dubbed them. Keeping it in the rotation for a while is a good idea, especially since there are still people just getting their 360s who might want in. Agreed that a list of who has/is interested in playing particular games would be a good idea. Any idea how much you can extract from gamercards? I haven't really looked at the backend code that closely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daisy Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Hmm... Well, since Ryan seemed to be able to grab a lot of data from the Gamertag stuff, I wonder if they have the ability to grab which games you've played on your 360. At the very least, you should be able to grab the last 5 game info, I would think. Other than trying to get the Gotham TV achievement in PGR, I haven't played the unwashed in any games... and I'm totally ok with that. Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magness Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Yea I have to agree with the general sentiment here - I pretty much quit playing on Live on the original Xbox beacuse of all the griefers etc. Now, I play on Live daily with you guys, even PC games like WoW and Guild Wars I play with the LCVG crew because that's when I have fun playing the game. I check the online gaming schedule almost daily and I will continue to as we add new games to the roster and I have to add that I love the idea of an "old" game night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainmaykr Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Excellant thread. I'm all for a more economic use of our time. Many games in the previous generation didn't have a chance to mature online because too many moved on to the latest and greatest, just like you said. I recall we didn't play some of the last released maps in Wolfenstein, for example, even though we had a blast in that game and would have played it otherwise, if not for the release of other games (which ended up not being as enjoyable for me as a good frag fest among friends in Wolfenstein). Looking forward to the poll... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlucci Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 To my way of thinking, the only way to cure this problem is to have a population explosion. The more non-asshat gamers we can draw to this site, the better our chances of getting in great matches. I'll confess I have registered and added friends from a "mature" gamer site, just to try to find friends who game on the same late night schedule as me. I haven't had tremendous luck with that, but it is helping some. I'm sure many of us have friends on our list who don't come from LCVG. How about a thread just for referrals? You can post things like, "hey guys, my friend X is a really good player in game Y. If you have a friends slot available, add him in. This will help us all build a larger circle of friends. Unfortunately, the friends list is still limited to 100, so there will need to be constant shuffling. It might even have the very desirable side-effect of drawing more gamers to this site. The larger we can grow our list of willing participants, the more fun to be had. We don't have to be limited to one room per night. With a greater pool of gamers to choose from, we could have a room for PD0 and GR:AW on the same night, and let everyone pick and even hop around if they want. Carlos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I think we could use a system where everyone picks the games they have (or just what they want to play), and then you browse by game (like how DSconnect.com works). I'm not one to play many online games at once, so something like that would work especially well for people like me. March will be a problem, though. I'm picking up BF2, GRAW, Burnout, and probably Blazing Angels ASAP, and hopefully they'll all be a lot of fun on Live. The weekly schedules should be great for that, so I'll try to join in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted February 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I'm sure many of us have friends on our list who don't come from LCVG. How about a thread just for referrals? You can post things like, "hey guys, my friend X is a really good player in game Y. If you have a friends slot available, add him in. This will help us all build a larger circle of friends. Unfortunately, the friends list is still limited to 100, so there will need to be constant shuffling. It might even have the very desirable side-effect of drawing more gamers to this site. I'm all for it Carlos. The more the merrier I say and I'm all for having more gamers joing in our online matches and the forum. I usually ask everyone during our Perfect Dark matches to invite anyone they like from thier friends list, and everyone should feel completely free to do so. I'm definitely in agreement with having multiple rooms of certain games playing. I'd love to play some Ghost Recon for siometime and then swap out to a Perfect Dark room already running with LCVG'ers in there playing when I get tired of Ghost Recon. Keep in mind that we've got a great number of folks already hopping online as well. Perfect Dark nights have bordered on 20 folks in the rooms, but I know it can get difficult for west coasters to hop on and join in when us East Coasters start playing so early. Last night for PGR3 we had to end up turning folks away because the room filled up so quickly. Which is great in terms of being online and having fun, but I hate to send voice mails to folks saying "Sorry room's full." Scheduling needs to work for both sides of the country, and it's something Joey and myself need to work on. Lord knows I'd love to get a 32 player game going on Perfect Dark, and I know we could do that and more if we got all of us in one game and at one time.:tu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle-K Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I think we could use a system where everyone picks the games they have (or just what they want to play), and then you browse by game (like how DSconnect.com works). I'm not one to play many online games at once, so something like that would work especially well for people like me. March will be a problem, though. I'm picking up BF2, GRAW, Burnout, and probably Blazing Angels ASAP, and hopefully they'll all be a lot of fun on Live. The weekly schedules should be great for that, so I'll try to join in. When I get a bit of free time (that I don't spend on the 360)... I'll see what I can do about adding some xbox features to dsconnect... maybe an offshoot site, or something... I don't know how it'll work exactly; for one thing, there are a lot more live games than ds wifi, so keeping it updated might be tricky... but I'm envisioning having a list of your games, and then some sort of active LIVE list showing which games you play on Live right now. If anyone has any ideas with respect to this, I'd appeciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle-K Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Scheduling needs to work for both sides of the country, and it's something Joey and myself need to work on. Lord knows I'd love to get a 32 player game going on Perfect Dark, and I know we could do that and more if we got all of us in one game and at one time.:tu Or... instead of the DSconnect -> XBLive additions, I could help with setting up some sort of scheduling system... if you guys need some help. I think a calendar of sorts, with some sort of evite-style list of people who plan on attending might work well... especially if you can set up some sort of "plan to attend all nights of a particular recurring event..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted February 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 I could help with setting up some sort of scheduling system... if you guys need some help. I might take you up on that Kyle. I essentially want to tie in the scheduling with the gamertag leaderboard we will be putting up on the main site, and then expand that when other next gen consoles hit. I'm really interested in doing some limited tournament functionality on the main site as well. I don't want/need for it to be complicated or indepth (there are other sites out there for that), but I would like to have some limited functionality that ties into the forum for when we want to setup something like Carlos' Marble Blast time challenge for instance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Daisy Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Scheduling has become a minor issue for me. For example, Tuesday is PD Zero night, but I'm only around for 1 hour because I play hockey at 10 CST. I'd love to play more PD Zero online with some of you guys, but the scheduling just becomes an issue. I think if we could have some sort of App that would allow us to post a time that we're going to be around playing a specific game that would rock. Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle-K Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Scheduling has become a minor issue for me. For example, Tuesday is PD Zero night, but I'm only around for 1 hour because I play hockey at 10 CST. I'd love to play more PD Zero online with some of you guys, but the scheduling just becomes an issue. I think if we could have some sort of App that would allow us to post a time that we're going to be around playing a specific game that would rock. Definately! I think the calendar system should allow for people to add their own entries into the calendar... but it should also highlight the "official" LCVG games... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foogledricks Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 Don't you all wish this was built into XBlive? I do. Being able to access game scheduling via the dashboard and Xbox.com would be spectacular. Someone email Major Nelson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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