Creating Communities: Microsoft

Critical Gamer writes: In every sense Microsoft is the most advanced of the three in its attempts to foster an online community. As mentioned in the entry relating to Sony, their inclusion of a headset with every Xbox 360 has made Microsoft’s console the most communicative online experience. However, the next step for them will be far more challenging, and where they choose to take it is an interesting dilemma. With its slick online service established, there is one main concern with how the Xbox community develops from here. With many having suffered from negative online experiences, Microsoft now has to decide to what extent it wishes to police this service.

[Cubes]

I've got to say, Microsoft are mostly responsible for the online gaming world that we have today. Sony could do with taking a few pointers from them by bundling a headset with each console.

[THE MAX SPEED 21]

Disagrees storm incoming.

[SmokexFFx]

The "lames" have some sense today. I would have thought a storm was coming too.

EDIT: Oh no they're HERE, hide your children!!!...and your wife and your husband they're disagreeing with everyone out here.

[SmokexFFx]

^Here's a lame now. We see Walther in his natural habitat where he like to grab random facts from his a$$.

[darthv72]

I believe they have the 2nd of your basic fundamentals.

There are dedicated servers for 360 games like those from EA and Activision. I think even MS themselves have some for halo but as for others, P2P is common. Even PS3 games have P2P on some of them.

[darthv72]

http://www.thebitbag.com/20...
Dedicated Or Peer, That Is The Question

by Torrence Davis

There’s been some misinformation being spread about the use of dedicated vs peer servers in next gen gaming. The PS3 masses have assumed that all PS3 multiplayer games are dedicated and all Xbox 360 multiplayer games are peer based. They couldn’t be farther from the truth.

With a tiny bit of digging I got some interesting information. There are plenty of Xbox Live games that are peer based like COD4 and Halo 3. There are also some server based games available too. After making contact with Microsoft I asked them one simple question; “Are some or all Live enabled multiplayer games are Peer To Peer or Dedicated Server based?” The answer I received was this:

“As of now, the majority are peer-to-peer but it’s completely up to the developer on how they want to do it.”

Well that doesn’t give me much more info than I already knew. I did learn however, that EA likes to run their own Live servers and that they are dedicated. In fact, EA is one of the few companies that can foot the bill for their own Live servers. There was a recent announcement that Left 4 Dead will be run on dedicated servers.

On the PSN side of things I posed the same question;”Are most, some or all PSN enabled multiplayer games Peer To Peer or Dedicated?“ Their response:

“It is a bit of both. IE Resistance is server based, but Warhawk is peer server based.”

The response from Sony kind of surprised me. I had always thought Warhawk was dedicated because of that sweet setup they had at Sony. Even though they use the term ‘dedicated’ many times in referring to the Warhawk server cluster, they are implying that it’s dedicated because there’s no one actually playing Warhawk on those machines. So they are ‘dedicated’ to serving games, not playing them.

So what does all this mean? What’s all the hubbub? Do we assume that dedicated is always better than peer? COD4 is a great example of a fast running peer based game. I’ve witnessed a few disconnects but thanks to the patch, I can keep playing with the same group of people I started with. This is achieved by switching the host when the main host drops out. On a dedicated server if the host goes down, there’s no coming back for the player.

I think we can all agree on the bottom line, whether dedicated or peer based, both PSN and Xbox Live offer an unprecedented multiplayer experience. If you don’t believe me, I recommend you try COD4, Halo, Forza 2 and Motorstorm to quench your thirst. The methods and tools used to get a game up and running on the internet should not be a reason to choose one system over another. It also shouldn’t matter to you, the gamer, how the game runs as long as it runs well.

[FlatulentGhost]

LOL @ the fanboy Torrence Davis trying to do damage control for Microsoft's online service.

[darthv72]

i know...lol

it's what came up on google. I am sure it has changed a bit since then. There needs to be an updated article on dedicated servers and peer to peer and how they reflect on either side.

That would be news worth reading.

[AceofStaves]

That's one of MS's strongest contributions to console gaming, without doubt. I prefer offline gaming, but there's no denying the importance of online play for many gamers.

[gamingdroid]

I agree, I also think the Achievement system they introduced is awesome despite MS not inventing it, they certainly popularized it on consoles!

They also introduced Netflix, which is the second thing I do most on my consoles these days!

[plb]

I don't own a 360 nor desire to ever get one but I cannot argue with that. I really do like all the community stuff 360 has.

[Kewl_Kat]

i'm a huge sony fan, and I agree with your point. I would argue that wii's shop channel and sony's psn owes itself to xbox live.

[Keith Olbermann]

I sometimes use mine but too often I get children talking garbage on the other end. Too often you hear rap music blasting and country bozzzz talking trash. Thats why I dont care too much about online gaming. There are very few games that draw in a majority of the mature crowd. Those that do, eventually get over run by children again.

[Apocalypse Shadow]

course,they still haven't in 5 years been able to push their single game community to resistance2(60 player) or MAG(256 players) levels though with their supposed software prowess.

no,we only question microsoft on HARDWARE and PRICING of HARDWARE ACCESSORIES.and PAYING($50) to be a part of that online community that just went up $10 dollars(now $60).

they've created a large community of gamers.but that same group had to deal with failing hardware and price gouging to be a part of that community.things i'd rather NOT deal with.my gaming dollars are precious and need not be wasted.

[gamingdroid]

... or *shock and horror* customers think the service is worth paying for!

If it is so bad, MS is:

- ripping you off on Xbox Live fees
- inferior hardware
- expensive accessories
- inferior exclusive games (or games in general)

Why isn't there a mass exodus to the PS3 or Wii? Why is it continuing to sell and increasing sales?

It might be hard to fathom it if you have a bias, but to the vast majority of others are willing to pay the fee to enjoy their Xbox 360 and guess what? They aren't here complaining about it! Only the people that aren't part of Xbox community is!

Maybe they are just jealous....

[darthv72]

or at least have patience and faith.

[gamer8179]

Your gaming dollars aren't wasted by having an xbox 360. If your console failed, they would replace it within 2 weeks or less for free. Not really sure what hardware accessories your talking about other than the wifi adapter. Everything else was price about the same as the ps3. Not to metion the console itself was cheaper than the ps3.

[tatotiburon]

having a multiplayer of 60 or 250 is not enough for having a perfecto online experience, resistance 2 and mag have it but who are playing this games right now? nobody compare to the numbers of players that halo and cod have.

Microsoft year after year rise the bar of the online experience that's why nobody cares to pay 60dls a year, is the best online experience available.

[fooltheman]

..for pure online gaming sony and microsoft are equal...
But besides that, microsoft exels...

[Optical_Matrix]

Yeah but be serious man. You gotta give to them that the Xbox Live holistically is MUCH tighter than PSN. It's integrated a lot better and it feels more like a community than Playstation Network. As much as I don't like Microsoft, and as much as I think Xbox Live should be cheaper or free, I give credit where it's due and online gaming on consoles wouldn't be what it is this gen without Microsoft.

[King-Leonidas]

''resistance 2 and mag have it but who are playing this games right now? nobody compare to the numbers of players that halo and cod have.'' Maybe because those games are older, and people moved on...

[Orionsangel]

The Wii has failed in creating an online community.

[leonlion]

It's a shame there are so many smack talking 14 y.o amercan kids
Sometimes I wish it was harder to get a headset
But the infrastructures there, Just wish they could put region filtering on so I don't get so much lag

[gamer8179]

Xbox live does have its fair share of smack talking 14 year old kids. But whats cool is that you have the option to block everyone except your friends. That includes hearing them or recieving messages from them. You can also just go into a party chat, either by yourself, or several of your friends at any time.

Edit: Who the fuck is disagreeing with what I said. Its pure facts. If your disagreeing with that then you have never had and xbox 360

[leonlion]

but how would you make new friends?

[maxx1223]

You go OUTSIDE and meet them?

[0oAngeluso0]

The other two companies should have taken better notice of the original XBox live setup. The sad yet true fact is XBL 1.0 was better then either PSN and Nintendo have to offer now. Online is the biggest feature most gamers are looking for. To accomplish this you need a few key ingredients, great voice chat being one of the most important. I rarely run into a player on XBL without a headset and the voice chat is crystal clear. In fact the new dash update improved the voice chat even more, it's better then phone quality or Skype quality. While on PSN nobody has a headset, nobody communicates and it makes the games less fun as a experience.

Everyone tries to Rambo it up on PSN, less competition there as well, less Gamebattles teams and when Doom 1 on XBL has more active players online then Killzone 2, there is a problem. For some reason Sony games don't have a lasting life, online or off. Even the Multi-platform games don't last as long on the PS3. MW2 still has over a million a day on XBox Live, not even 100 k on PS3.

Microsoft has really excelled with XBox live, worth every penny. So while they continue to improve and add, I'll be thankful and actually have an enjoyable experience with players that communicate and call out.