I wanted to try something out with twitter that I have seen around on other blogs. It seemed pretty neat and with the amount of popularity twitter is receiving at the moment it seemed like a fun idea. So for future reference I am going to ask a variety of gaming questions for my followers to answer and post the results on here.

Question

Do you feel the party system on NXE has removed the social aspect of playing online online?

Answers

1. AdamJWho Most of my friends use them to talk in groups online when playing a game together or when playing different games I dont mind it.
2. Morrius To some degree it has, but most randoms on live seem to be c**ts. I’m usually in a party with friends all in different games.
3. tomsweeney I usually exit from a party if I join a Live game with strangers. Although I’ve only played L4D online since NXE came out.
4. silentbazz Don’t know if NXE is to blame, but certainly less chatter on LIVE now. Am never going to get my Expert L4D done :(
5. AgentMOO You mean for public games? For private ones it’s great and I’ve been yakking it up on L4D every friday in bleh meng’s games.
6. Mr_Dingy I’m not sure if the party system hurt it or if the 360 community itself hurt it. It’s hard to be social with the antisocial.
7. wardrox Completely, worse is that it’s not very reliable.
8. jameswoodcock There is a silence on there now, however in saying that I prefer it this way! :)
9. Techn0phile I guess, but I like the party system. I think I’ve met maybe 2 randoms on xbl that did NOT make me /facepalm within 2 seconds. 99% of the ones I’ve met are either idiots or belligerent aholes. It’s not even worth the lulz anymore. maybe I’m just old.
10. stephenwoods I feel that NXE would benefit from a Home-type environment. the present avatars can’t do much but pose and play Uno. XBL”Home” has the potential (with active users). to be akin to console 4chan. Riot ensues.
11. Suff0cat Kinda hard to explain in 128 characters, but to me the social aspect died long before the NXE added party chat.
12. Bloorie I agree. tbh, most of the time I couldn’t stand what the kiddies were “screeching”. Gamers need a “mature” gamertag. :P
13. sonicalpha In some aspects yes. Not sure if it’s a bad thing though, it means I no longer have to listen to some kid scream down the mic.
14. ENerd maybe, but it also took care of the problem of screaming retards. Fare trade if you ask me.

My thoughts

Don’t get me wrong, I really like NXE and the party system that is now in place. How many of you have been in a lobby with your friends entering a public game and someone will randomly tell you to “shut up” while your having a normal conversation with your friends? I am sure the majority will claim it has happened to them. It’s very frustrating. Then there is that annoying random on the team who feels the need to scream and shout or play loud music. These are problems that the mute button can easily fix but an annoyance that you have to all the same.

After NXE launched, I have pretty much been in a party for 80% of the time I am online. It’s not just for chatting with my friends while playing a single player title or for avoiding the inane vocal spam of the general Xbox Live public. I have to admit, it’s really helped me socialise a lot easier with my Xbox. There have been times where I want to chat to everyone but really am not in the mood to play ‘that’ game, etc.

Then again, a good portion of my Xbox Live friends have been met from Online matches where you have built a good rapport with someone online. Seeing that when you play online now the vocal hustle and bustle has been reduced to only the ‘lonely’ users willing to have a conversation with you. This is kind of sad because a lot of people I had made friends with were usually playing in a lobby with their friends which means we all started to chat and have fun. The party system has taken a large chunk of ‘social’ gaming from newcomers to Xbox Live who necessarily haven’t had chance to build up a friends list.

Most people seem to really like the system in place. Others find the buggy disconnections yet another hassle to deal with. All in all it seems that the ‘party’ service is only really benifitting groups of friends – users who have already established a good grounding in the Xbox Live community. New users could find that Xbox Live might not be as social as it was previously advertised to be. I just hope that parties will not stop people just making friends in online matches.

Want to join in? Just follow ‘atheistium’ on twitter and @ reply when the question is posted.