There was a time when I started my 360, jumped online, and messaged a friend to get out of Gears and pop in Halo. He would be greeted by the other people in our party ready to bullshit and kick ass while doing so. With the uprising of the Xbox Live Party Chat, those friends are leaving me with the choice of talking with them or trying to enjoy my game.
Initially I think that chatting with people who aren’t playing the same game as me would be quite asinine, and it is, but I still found myself doing it up until recently, now I tend to deny party invites. Sure, it may seem like I’m being a dick, but when I throw in Call of Duty, that is what I want to play and be focused on. I have no doubts that there was some great events going on at school or work, but can’t we discuss that as we throw grenades together?
This problem goes further than just pissing some people off on my friends list, it is now becoming an exploit of sorts in current games. I would like to say it is cheating, but I can’t really blame someone for finding a way to beat the system. When playing certain modes in CoD4 for instance, there are gametypes (Search & Destroy) where the dead could not converse with the living, and for good reasons. When you are dead in the game, you get to view the living teammates screens. A neat feature, nothing new to a lot of gamers, but the point is, you wouldn’t be able to alert others of that enemy disabling that bomb or etc.
Gears of War 2 takes it to a whole other level by having a ghost cam while you are dead. So while in a party chat, you can give specific directions on where the other team is. Where is the challenge and fun? I feel like this is becoming steroids in baseball, if you want to have any chance of winning at all and keep up with the others, you have to use this exploit.
The examples don’t end with just versus modes, it even hinders people who choose to play co-op games like Left 4 Dead. I don’t understand the logic of the people who jump in this game while in private party chats. I scream a tank zombie is killing me to no avail. Sure, there is always leaving bad feedback, but I assure you, bad feedback does not stop those players from being in the same game as you (that is a problem to discuss for another time).
My friends list is half people I met while having kick ass games online with good chatter and strategy. Now when I jump online it is near silent. Maybe the PS3’s glorified chat room (Home) is actually going to be the next step Microsoft needs to take so I can find people who enjoy the same games as me.
I wonder, will future games now lose out of the little spectating feature while you wait to respawn? Will developers be given the proper function to disallow party chat while playing in ranked multiplayer games? Or is this something Microsoft could fix with a forced 360 update?
Something I have noticed that is quite funny, but still a negative… when you have those teammates that you just want to strangle for being so stupid, and in those exact moments you forget where you are and just have to yell at those people, and let a few explitives fly…. only to realize that you are in a party chat. Party chat has ruined games as we know it.
Random side note: What happened to the Netflix party chat that I remember being talked about before NXE was released? Binge Gamer was going to have Movie Nights, but now it will end up everyone being in a party chat and having to assign someone to do a countdown ..”3, 2, start the movie.. NOW” .. and then just hope that nobody gets lagged.
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what a dumb article ive ever read,, and saying it needs to go the way of home shows this guy is not the brightest on the block, what a waste of a article and time.
hahaha. wut a moron. learn some english before you go and start talkin shit. “what a dumb article ive ever read” hahahahhaha
hey buddy, you said wut instead of what, and talkin instead of speaking, so i think YOURE a big TOOL
AL OFF U NED TOO LURN TWO SPEEL GUD
Oh, delicious irony…
this is stupid, you could do this before the NXE, i used to be able to go to private chat and talk to people on other games and tell other peoples positions so i dont know what you are on about!!
With your whole team at one time?
It’s not like you couldn’t have just picked up a cell phone before, but it is the ease that everyone is now able to do it that sucks for ranked matches (only ranked matches mind you, obviously public games it shouldn’t matter as much).
The side effect is also that you will have teammates in their own party chats so you cannot converse with them at all (despite those same people keep choosing to play objective based team games).
cell phones while gaming? al you have to do is put a confrence call on the house phone, then you call your friends and you dont need a head set
I totally agree it will kill competitive gamin like GB. Theres no fun when u kill some1 and he can direct his team mates where I am.
sounds like someone has no friends
He was talking about using something like Home to find new players that like the same games as he likes, cause right now, party chat is not allowing him to do so.
this actually happened to me last night while playing CoD:WaW. we had uneven teams so 1 guy that was in a part chat with 4 others happened to be on my team with my 3 other guys to make it 5-4.. we got beat because he ended up not doing anything but tell his guys where we were at and who had the bomb.. he finished w/ 0 kills, 0 deaths and 1 loss
*party*
figured i would correct myself before someone else makes a mockery out of it!
Just to save everyone time, I’ve actually played with Mike over XBL. He’s an active, articulate, funny and sociable person. So before you all even go down that path, I cordially invite you to eat it.
Also, I invite many of you guys visiting from networking sites (i.e. Reddit, N4G, Digg) to actually read the damn article before you start with the gum flapping.
That is all.
Dude, if people actually read the full thing, I would miss out on gems like this:
“he is just trying to show the one thing 360 has over PS3 and showing why its stupid!”
“tl;dr whiny fanboy whines about playing halo”
Oh man, I’m in tears here laughing:
Lame fucking article and everyone who posts here too
What the fuck is your problem with PS3?
i agree with this dude that the party system is hindering multiplayer games. xbl/psn-dylantalon
What the fuck is he on?? The party chat system is the best thing that’s happened to xbox live, sounds like somebody is trying to complain about nothing…..
I honestly like the party chat when I’m playing Rock Band, Tetris Splash, Fallout 3, etc. It just sucks if I’m playing at odd hours, my friends aren’t online, and then I jump into a versus-based game. I either encounter people cheating on the other team OR .. even worse, everyone on my team is in private chats so I’m not able to converse with my own teammates. It wouldn’t matter in things like Team Deathmatch, but I enjoy objective based games and it really blows when you are calling for backup of any kind.
ok ye I suppose that is a bit annoying, sorry for being a bit jumpy lol
It comes down to these things:
1. Party system is great for large groups.
2. Party system does cause problems for competitive gaming.
3. Party system is still great despite that fact.
End article forever.
I agree with that. Microsoft or somebody needs to step up and make a way that you can’t use it during ranked matches is all. Maybe in the end people will play more non-ranked games because of this.
I agree with this article, it’s something thats always ticked me off, having dead players tell the live ones where i am. It always happens at LAN parties, and can happen online on the xbox now as well. While it is a problem, and it does irk me so, just because they know your posistion doesn’t mean that you still can’t kill them, although it does make it harder.
Good article, i don’t get what all the hate on it is about.
Same god dang thing happened to me at a halo 2 tournament, it was just me and this other guy and he had all his friends telling him where i was, even though that was cheating so I never really had a chance while having his little spies behind me. DAMN SPIES, THATS ALL THEY ARE, SPIES
I mean, you can look at your dumbed down console gaming as ruined, but have you ever heard of Ventrilo? Competition in pubs might suffer from ‘ghosting’ but in a real match you might give a shit about you’d turn off that sort of thing. In the PC community people understand these things exist and cope with it. Seems like you’ve just got a case of the console player blues, computer games have had this for years without QQ articles all the time. Claiming that talking to your friends ruined gaming is a bit over the top. It really comes down to what you expect when you solo-queue up in an xbox game. I don’t expect to win or lose when i do that, I expect to play a pretty flawed game with useless teammates and they never disappoint me. Get real, stop playing LFD with random people if you expect anything to happen as far as teamwork goes. Seriously you opinionated blogging gamers are totally worthless and have no serious ideas or reasonable expectations.
I would really like to know what is wrong with some of you people and your idiotic reply’s to this guys article, he presents his argument in a very mature thought out manner, and all he gets in return is L2P n00b, seriously. Ever since NXE every game I’ve played is utterly silent the entire time. Objective games are a waste of time without a full premade party and when playing by yourself you will find you will be yelling at no one most of the time. NXE HAS ruined competitive multiplayer and will continue to until something is done.
The “downfall of gaming”? Being a bit of a drama queen, aren’t we? Perhaps YOU should stop gaming. Thoughts?
Hmmm I see what you mean.
So you are trying to say, this Group Party thing is bad, like in Gears of War 2, when you are in the Ghost cam you can direct other players into winning and avoiding hazards.
Yes that’s the downfall of the feature, but still man, it’s a game, the other player should have others trying to warn him while in Ghost Cam.
I think this Party Group thing is an AWESOME feature.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance I was playing last night, trying to get the Ultimate Team Alliance achievement. So I said who ever I meet online, I’ll invite him/her to the party so we can’t get lost whenever the game mysteriously disconnects us.
Yea bad thing about it is when you join other people’s party and you end up with annoying brats who trash talk or talk too much. Just reduce the volume on the connector set connected to your controller, if not, leave the party.
And for the NETFLIX Party, it’s a complete waste! Why sit in your basement, watching same movies together over Xbox Live!? O_o
Well it’s a great feature but it does have its downsides that can be fixed.
But when I go in a game talking only to the friends I already planned a strategy with. I find that my team does a lot better than usual.
It all really depends on the type of people in your party.
I mean some people could just call using a phone in an online ranked match to give the locations of the enemy.
That problem will always be there. They can try to fix the one using party chat and I agree with doing that.
But there will still be people that find a way around it.
And thank you for pointing this out.
The real downfall of gaming is whiny losers like you complaining about party chat.
this ^
I agree it is a downfall. It makes online gaming LESS social IMHO. Most people on Halo 3 are in private/party chat and it leaves the game chat silent. Nobody is talking about strategy which is important for team games.
Well put. I didn’t even think about it in that simple way, that the party chat is supposed to be a social thing (as I see by so many other comments saying I am not social enough or things of that nature), where as I am trying to be social within the game itself, which the party chat seems to take away from.
strategies have never been important in gaming ever, people only work together with friends, which makes the party chat great, whenever someone is teamed up with strangers, you never know what kind of wild card you get
but at least people can say things like ‘I have the flag, cover me’ etc
I agree with MakoXL, when I go into a CoD4 or WaW game the in-game chat is dead silent. Most of the people on my friend’s list I’ve meet through competitive and cooperative gameplay (death match, etc; ) but now almost 90% are in party chat’s. Also I do notice people cheating more now with this party system, more and more frequently I die and to my surprise I’m always left saying ” wtf!? how did he know I was there?”
Sucks hopefully MS fixes this…someway
I agree toatally accept for glorifyinh HOME- it looks awful!
But nothin better then being able to let those noobs u just powned on COD know how ribbish they are. Party chat is unfair advantage and a hinderence to gmaing in most genres
glorifying HOME is what you took from this article? Get a life
No I think that party chat is good when not in multiplayer of most games as it disrubts play , however on arcade games and some other areas its a great idea. when it comes to home i just dont get it, you pay for the PS3 whichis gettni better all the time, bluray built in, and u essentially have a glorified habbo hotel!
Can everyone stop *#@$#@$ whining already!!! Everyone asks for it, now they have it…. Now you dont want it. Personally I think its the best thing ever… being able to shoot it out with all your friends @ the same time enjoying your fav game. Best thing M$ ever implemented. Just my 2¢.
Better than penicillin?
Gosh, I, too, feel sad when I pop in L4D and get a group together just to find out that they don’t want to talk to meee. But, honestly, the absence of party chat would probably not make them talk to me anyways. Private chat or just popping their mic out would still be just as large a problem.
People who don’t want to talk to my amazingness should just not be allowed to buy L4D.
Party chat flawed, but everything is flawed when it’s first released. Specially when it comes to M$!
haha true, I remember a XBL update before NEX came out…and well basically every one couldn’t get a game in CoD4 ( connection interrruptions etc;)…when I went to the CoD4 forums so see wtf? they posted saying that the new XBL patch/update whatever it was at the time was causing all these connection issues and M$ was working on it…
I guess that’s what happens when you don’t beta test things -_-…they don’t have enough money to do that I suppose…*cough*
yeah i agree with you about it for the most part, but it is cool to get to talk to all of your friends if we are playing different games. cause my cousin (i barely ever see) doesent have any games i have except for halo 3, which i dont play much any more. So its really cool to get to chat with him while im playing gears or cod with my friends. i never played left 4 dead on the xbox either. i have it for the computer so i wouldnt know what that is like to be getting killed and not be able to get help. and on gears yeah it shouldnt be like that.they should think of something to do about that, but not take of party chat
i completely agree with this blog post. I play gears 2 quite often and to be involved with a party chat while playing significantly increases your team’s chance of winning. one should not be able to talk with your team while dead because of the invisible cam you may become to navigate the battlefield when you die, and party chat completely avoids the chat block that occurs in gears 2. thus, party chatting while playing gears 2 is cheating.
We were just playing last night and it became an issue since we were not all playing the same game. A few of us were on COD:WAW, one was on COD:4 and another was on Rainbow Six. The two who were not playing with the rest were being obnoxious and loud. Now we have a rule that if you’re not on the same game, you’re not allowed in the party.
I think the point that’s missed is that I don’t like talking to people who I don’t know. It might sound lame, but I’d rather have a party chat set up with all my friends than be forced to talk to a bunch of idiots (like many of the people commenting on your post).
i totally agree with this article its proven man i shot a guy in gears blew his friken head off next think i know all 4 of his buddies are running jamming their lancers down my throat it does not produce a fun gaming experience when someone is cheating, yes i agree its fun when you are playing single player games like i was playing hitman and a buddy of mine was playing fallout that is great we talked and still played the game but the fact is when people are cheating it does not produce a fun gaming enviorment
I thought you could change the party from “party chat” to “game chat” which basically disables the party communications and lets you chat with people not in your party.
Ever heard of ranked matches? You should really try it!
What an idiotic article! I wouldn’t play on XBL if the party feature was removed!
I can’t tell if this is a serious comment or not. The whole reason I wrote this is because of ranked matches being fucked over by the party chat.
I don’t want party chat removed, I want it only available if people are NOT playing ranked matches.
agree 100% xbox live is completely destroyed because of this. the whole concept of co-op or team play is kind of stupid when 3 people in a 5 person team are in seperate private chats and cant communicate with eachother. you might aswell be playing coop with the computer. and if you dont have a friends list of like 300 people by now youre gona be hearing crickets 90% of the time you play.
its like psn at this point. nxe is excellent but that little tidbit absolutely destroyed the community aspect of live. meeting new people and such.
rip xbox live
if u had some real friends you wouldnt have this problem
I’m going to have to disagree, party chat is a great addition.
When I’m in a party with my friends, it’s good to know that we can talk about stuff without having others listen in to our conversation.
It’s also good to know that while having said conversation, you aren’t disturbing other players who are fully concentrating on the game and would get mad otherwise.
Does it make games less social? Yes, but understand that if someone is in a party chat, they do not want to talk to you. It’s no different than them not having a mic plugged in.
Does it make cheating easier? Yes again, and while I don’t condone cheating it is going to happen either way. You just have to deal with it, and as long as you are better than the other person, you’ll still be able to win.
Have fun while playing, there’s no sense in saying that being able to enjoy a private conversation with friends is “destroying” the live community.
=]
OMG!!!! ur so stupid if i wanan chat with my fuking freinds i should be able too…….. haha now im jus gunna tell everyone not to buy it because its fukin gay with the whole no party chat things……… haha gud fukin luck with tht whole party chat thing haha ur gunna piss alot of ppl off and who eva the queer is tht says its cheating wow…. stfu seriously kno one cares its a fukin game stop ur dam complaining and play
No.
Or Yes.
Whatever.
you can do that, thered be so much interference, i tried it while LANing and it doesnt work stupid n00b you have to use the netspeak