A Look Back

When Microsoft first launched the Xbox Live service in late 2002, it made some bold, forward-thinking moves that were actually fairly risky at the time. The service was broadband-only at a time when broadband hadn't quite yet penetrated your average household. Microsoft also made the system closed and proprietary, which allowed for voice chat, universal logins, and more-consistent user interfaces. However, it also went against the conventional wisdom of the time, which was to leave each publisher on its own as far as providing online service and matchmaking for games. As the years have passed, most would agree that the Xbox Live model has been very successful, giving Microsoft's online gamers an added sense of community with the unified logins (EA games notwithstanding) and a more consistent overall experience. With the launch of the Xbox 360, Microsoft continues to propel the Xbox Live service forward by adding features that may seem strange or not all that useful at first, but have the potential to carry online gaming and online communities, as a whole, well into the future. It's also taken steps to address a lot of the primary concerns that cropped up with the existing service.

Who Are You? Who Am I?

Details on new Xbox Live features were first released during GDC in March.

One of the primary new features of Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 will be the introduction of gamer profiles. While user names, or "gamertags," are already consistent on the current version of Xbox Live, it's difficult to glean much useful information from them. Where does this person live? What games does he or she play? What's this person's reputation with other online players? The gamer profiles in the new version of Xbox Live promise to more easily answer all these questions about your opponents, as well as let you customize your profiles with an avatar, a motto, and your style of play (aka "gamerzone") so you can give people clues about your personality and whether you're an intense, competitive gamer or one who's more interested in just playing for fun.

Playing Nicely

You won't have to resort to using this to get back at rude players online.

You'll also have the ability to more easily give feedback on other players, which ties in to each person's reputation score on his or her gamer profile. In the current iteration of Xbox Live, you can lodge complaints with administrators by submitting the offending gamertag. But nothing happens until enough legitimate complaints are made about rude players. The new version of Xbox Live promises to be more effective, because you don't have to wait on administrator action to see results. Give an offending player a thumbs-down, and that will hurt his or her reputation score, making it less likely others will play with him or her. But more importantly, the system knows which players you have given poor feedback on. So if you give someone a thumbs-down, you're less likely to be matched up with him or her again. If you give another player a thumbs-up, the system will be more likely to match you up again. Did you forget to write down the name of that jerk who disconnected on you in Madden last night? You don't have to, because the system will record the last couple of hundred players you played with. You can just head into that player history, give a thumbs-down to the plug-puller, and then send a challenge off to the guy who did give you a good match the previous day.

Everything Counts In Large Amounts

You'll be able to easily compare game achievements with any other player online.

What's more, all the games you play on your Xbox 360--online and offline--will be logged and counted toward a numeric ranking, which is your "gamer score." No matter what you play, your progress in Xbox 360 games will translate into points that feed into your gamer score, which will undoubtedly result in a macrolevel competition between Xbox Live players. Individual achievements you accomplish are also viewable through your gamer profile, which will let you show off and also let prospective friends examine what games you're playing and what you're good at. So when you send that Forza Motorsport challenge over to 1337Ricerboi--and after he checks your profile--he'll know that you're the current world lap record holder on the Nürburgring track. Maybe he'll also see on your list of achievements that you've beaten Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic II. So during your race, you can argue about which Bioware role-playing game is better.

Matchmaking

Ultimately, the matchmaking system will still be most effective for games with large installed userbases.

Geographical locations of players, self-categorized gamerzones (or playing styles), reputations, and gamer scores are all criteria that can be considered by the matchmaker in the upcoming version of Xbox Live. Having more data to work with, in theory, means you're less likely to be stuck in a match that isn't enjoyable to you. Of course, a lot of the success of the new "intelligent" matchmaker is going to depend on how large the online community is for a given game. If you're looking for a match in Halo 3, the matchmaker will probably have lots of options. But if you're an American fiending for a gritty game of Rugby 2007, you'll probably still have to settle for whoever's available. Still, it's tantalizing to know that hardcore shooter jockeys who spend hours honing their sniper rifle skills are less likely to get stuck on the same server as casual players just looking to let off a bit of steam.