(This had originally been posted in the wrong forum)
This is an essay outlining why the xbox live market place could be a revolutionary change in gaming. I haven't scene the layout of of the 360 market place, but I do understand its potential, and hopefully somebody out there can tell me if these ideas are possible with the 360, and whether microsoft has any plans to impliment them.
First is the abolisment of demo game discs. Since you can download games straight to your hard drive why not release the demo for the next FF over live it's obviously in the best intrest of the game developers so they're on board. Then gaming magazines would have to concentrate on their articles instead of their demo discs, and thats a scary thought. This will also allow gamers to try out games they'd never consider trying out before, just because a free easy to download demo.
Next is the rise of the small time game developer. In the past those "mom and pop" game developers have a hard enough time even developing a good game, but the real challenge of their trade is finding enough sources to distribute it. With the xbox live market place distribution only cost bandwidth, which is getting cheaper, and cheaper. This will allow smaller game developers to have millions of potential customers many of which are in smaller comercial markets their games would of never been distributed to. (If you don't believe me about the power of rural america just look at the 2004 election distribution almost every major city in America voted for Kerry, and almost every smaller community voted Bush)
Community created content also known as "mods" in the pc world is a very sticky situation in the consol industry. Pc mods have given us greats like counter strike, and millions of other user created content that makes games better, but there's also a darker side. Hot coffee for me was the middle ground on its own a great mod, but brought unwanted attention to sex in games, and quite frankly rockstar was practicing some shady business to release it. For every legit modder trying to make a game better there's someone out there thats gonna mod to cheat, and thats always gonna exsist so just down give them the pleasure of hearing you cry, and just quit on em. User created content could mean anything from car settings in Forza to complete 3d models by amature designers, but the more flexable microsoft is with user created content the more successful it will be. For example do you think half-life on its own was a good enough game to get all this publicity. I'm also want to give props to the original quake which is the grand daddy of mods.
Last is machinima, and video content. Rooster teeth has had great success with red vs. blue, but there's so many gamers out there who have never seen it. With the live market place it's easy to release RvB to the masses. If released on live it would create a luctritive market for unique programming specifically for gamers, and with the release of some good editing and capture tools for 360 don't be surprised if we start seeing alot more jokers like Leeroy Jenkins running around.
At the end of this article you might think the xbox live marketplace is the promise land of the gaming future, but remember many of these ideas have not been implimented by microsoft, or may not even be possible. Its quite aware that they've had great ideas, and not followed them in the right direction for example xbox live feedback would be 10x more effective if it was personalized, and available to the public. If a gamer has 200 people saying this guy team kills constantly, and hogs the rocket launcher, and should be able to know that, and choose not to play with him. I want to know if my team mates are the quiet type, or if I'm going to be playing with rascists. In this aspect xbox has taken a good idea like user feedback, and dropped the ball as which they will if they don't impliment the xbox live marketplace correctly.
I apoligize about the long rant, but I think it was worth it,
Hawk
This is an essay outlining why the xbox live market place could be a revolutionary change in gaming. I haven't scene the layout of of the 360 market place, but I do understand its potential, and hopefully somebody out there can tell me if these ideas are possible with the 360, and whether microsoft has any plans to impliment them.
First is the abolisment of demo game discs. Since you can download games straight to your hard drive why not release the demo for the next FF over live it's obviously in the best intrest of the game developers so they're on board. Then gaming magazines would have to concentrate on their articles instead of their demo discs, and thats a scary thought. This will also allow gamers to try out games they'd never consider trying out before, just because a free easy to download demo.
Next is the rise of the small time game developer. In the past those "mom and pop" game developers have a hard enough time even developing a good game, but the real challenge of their trade is finding enough sources to distribute it. With the xbox live market place distribution only cost bandwidth, which is getting cheaper, and cheaper. This will allow smaller game developers to have millions of potential customers many of which are in smaller comercial markets their games would of never been distributed to. (If you don't believe me about the power of rural america just look at the 2004 election distribution almost every major city in America voted for Kerry, and almost every smaller community voted Bush)
Community created content also known as "mods" in the pc world is a very sticky situation in the consol industry. Pc mods have given us greats like counter strike, and millions of other user created content that makes games better, but there's also a darker side. Hot coffee for me was the middle ground on its own a great mod, but brought unwanted attention to sex in games, and quite frankly rockstar was practicing some shady business to release it. For every legit modder trying to make a game better there's someone out there thats gonna mod to cheat, and thats always gonna exsist so just down give them the pleasure of hearing you cry, and just quit on em. User created content could mean anything from car settings in Forza to complete 3d models by amature designers, but the more flexable microsoft is with user created content the more successful it will be. For example do you think half-life on its own was a good enough game to get all this publicity. I'm also want to give props to the original quake which is the grand daddy of mods.
Last is machinima, and video content. Rooster teeth has had great success with red vs. blue, but there's so many gamers out there who have never seen it. With the live market place it's easy to release RvB to the masses. If released on live it would create a luctritive market for unique programming specifically for gamers, and with the release of some good editing and capture tools for 360 don't be surprised if we start seeing alot more jokers like Leeroy Jenkins running around.
At the end of this article you might think the xbox live marketplace is the promise land of the gaming future, but remember many of these ideas have not been implimented by microsoft, or may not even be possible. Its quite aware that they've had great ideas, and not followed them in the right direction for example xbox live feedback would be 10x more effective if it was personalized, and available to the public. If a gamer has 200 people saying this guy team kills constantly, and hogs the rocket launcher, and should be able to know that, and choose not to play with him. I want to know if my team mates are the quiet type, or if I'm going to be playing with rascists. In this aspect xbox has taken a good idea like user feedback, and dropped the ball as which they will if they don't impliment the xbox live marketplace correctly.
I apoligize about the long rant, but I think it was worth it,
Hawk
