and as if by magic…

(This is a reconstructed version of the original post - I was clumsy, which I explain below)

Having logged onto my Xbox account I noticed that the „Official European Halo 3” tournament get underway sometime in March (this only seems to be on the German site). Now, I’m getting all excited and working out how much time I would need to train up my Halo 3 skills and maybe have a go.

Of course I will get slaughtered. Properly, slaughtered.

I’ve been spending a more time on Xbox Live than I have been on the internet of late. I just want to get under the bonnet of the gaming industry again – at least, that my excuse and I’m sticking to it. The fact of the matter is, I’m kind of getting hooked on it all and Xbox Live has opened up a dimension to gaming that I haven’t really been exposed to before.

I don’t really want to talk about the product “Xbox Live” in terms of features (although there is some really cool stuff in there – I particularly like the movie section and featured the games) I’d just like to talk about the experience of playing against and with total strangers, and some of the stories that have unfolded (and I should point out that I’ve only really been playing Call Of Duty 4 which is brutal).

Because you have a headset you can hear what other people are saying and you can talk to them directly. The dialogues tend to be, well “contextual” to say the least and go something like this:

HIM: “Fuck, who was that?”
ME: “Headshot!”
HIM: “Who was that?”
ME: “Me”
HIM: “Where you based?”
ME: “Munich – you?”
HIM: “Portsmouth, but I’m only on until the missus has finished cooking supper”.
ME: “Fuck, who was that?”
SOMEONE ELSE: “Headshot!”

Although I’ve been playing console games for years, and even worked for Nintendo, I must admit that I’ve joined this whole online gaming thing a bit late in the day – a bit like this whole running thing. When I first logged onto the online version of COD4 I was startled to see that my rank was rubbish my inventory was rubbish and that I was rubbish. I was playing against people that had obviously been playing for ages, had enormous rankings and tip-top weapons and things. And, thanks to me being rubbish, gamers from all over the world get to improve their rankings, weapons and inventory by kicking my backside as and when they see fit (Kris is actually as rubbish as I am).

It was a little like the experience of “buying a shoe” and “learning to run” – being a beginner just plain sucks and in much the same way as I felt like a fool in the sports shop I feel like a complete arse when I see what I’m up against in the lobby of a “free for all” much on COD4.

 

“I know my place” - “That was the week that was“
Late entry is a real issue and I bet one of the key factors within the gaming community, particularly with Xbox Live gamers is to get a copy of the game as quickly as possible in order to speedily up their ranking and stamp their authority all over the community. This hierarchy, although virtual, is for the duration of the game quite real and (due to the benefits game-play benefits that a higher rank brings with it) quickly develops into a micro class system and to a large degree dictates to behaviour of the people playing the game.

UPDATE: This post got spammed quite heavily - and in the process of cleaning out the comments I managed to delete the entire post. I did however manage to save the comments which were as follows:

1. Charles Frith | charlesfrith.blogspot.com |

Thanks for this Marcus. I need to know more about this world and I can’t think of a better way other than playing than to read a blog post about the stuff that you notice. Really. Great informative blogging stuff and saves me a lot of work because it becomes effortless to read from here.

2. The Kaiser | thekaiser-edition.com |

Pleasure Charles. What’s really interesting is that; where the offline version of the game is quite lineal and ordered - start at the beginning etc.etc the online version is complete chaos. Offline there is a story that you can get lost in but no real hierarchy/class structure - online the class structure is the story.

3. Kris Hoet | crossthebreeze.com |

In your dreams.

4. lauren | sheseesred.blogspot.com |

Marcus, tell me, am I right in guessing that it is it mostly blokes playing these kinds of games? And if so, perhaps it is the pack-mentality, heirarchical structure that is the critical element of the drawcard to these games and the online system. If you took that element away from it and just made it a shoot-em-up without rank, class, merit, reward, competition etc, would most people get bored pretty quickly and bugger off to play electroplankton?

5. The Kaiser |

Lauren - as far as I am aware/have experienced there are loads of women that play this game - I was destroyed by a group of 5 young ladies from the south of England just last night.

So no, you’d be wrong to assume that it’s just a boys thing.

Ranking is of course of major component of any online game; whether that be a first person shooter, strategy or racing game. It’s a game - with winners and losers. But the ranking part has almost organically grown out of the context of arcade gaming where the “high score” was a mechanism to keep the coins being pumped into the gaming machines.

What happens here is something slightly different. Your ranking gives you access to “privileges”. Some of the young ladies from yesterday evening had an arsenal of weapons that I can only dream of. I can pick up there weapons should they “die” but my rank doesn’t give me the necessary skills to use them properly.

6. The Kaiser |

Oh and Kris, I you’ll need to salute the next time we meet in the lobby.

7. The Kaiser |

Lauren - girl gamer:

http://www.rockersdelight.co.uk/

who has a great post about scores etc.

http://www.rockersdelight.co.uk/index.php/2008/02/07/admitting-youre-a-score-whore/

8. was spam.

9. lauren | sheseesred.blogspot.com |

excellent, pleased to hear all of that. and you’ve now scored access to a secret arsenal of flamethrowers, in return for shooting down my theory relating to men and attraction to primal structures. brilliant.

10. was spam.

11. Rob Mortimer | ad-pit.co.uk |

I love Xbox live, before being on it I totally underestimated how great it could be for games.

All Forza2 games on live go like this:

*start*
…
Bang
*screeech*
“who did that?!”
‘me sorry….OI!’
#Sorry#
“Whoa! Just missed you”
‘Well my car is knackered now, back in 5′
“Mine too”
#Me three#
…
…
“Lets try the Nordscliefe!”

12. Rob Mortimer | ad-pit.co.uk |

Oh and the xbox live ranking system is designed to put newcomers against each other. Usually works well.

13. The Kaiser | thekaiser-edition.com |

The COD4 ranking systems seems to not care.

And the rest was spam. Sorry about that - but I’m ill with man-flu.

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