Xbox is changing the way gamers are gaming. To one outside the world of gaming, an Xbox is just a type of console, just like Nintendo or PlayStation. The major difference besides processing power and specs between the different consoles, is that each one has a different user interface and purchasable content to help make gaming alone or with your friends more engaging. In this page, I will describe how Xbox is changing the way gamers approach playing videogames, and some affordances that the Xbox UI has and how they can be fixed.
In days of yore, if you wanted to play videogames with a friend you would have to go over to their house, plug in a second controller and share a part of the screen with them. Now gaming with over 10 friends at once is possible if each member has the same game and Xbox Live (and working internet of course). Even if not participating in the same game, you and your friends can join the same party to simply talk together. This allows a different kind of communication over an Xbox party chat, where the users are not talking about the game they are playing, but how their day is going, and things about their personal lives. PlayStation has made a similar party and play together system as Xbox live, but I personally prefer Xbox’s version, because I grew up with it.
The main guiding question is: Does the Xbox UI and services help gamers to make their experience better, or does it hinder their gaming experience?
Xbox party
An Xbox party is essentially a conference call with all the members of the party at the same time. They can be set to invite only so as to restrict friends or strangers that you do not wish to make contact with.
The Walkthrough
Upon turning the console on, you are greeted with the most recent games you have played and apps you have used. Because Xbox is an entertainment device, you can also watch your favorite streaming services on it, provided you have an account in said streaming service. Similar to a computer, you can set a background which also displays upon bootup, mine shown is snake from Metal Gear Solid. The Xbox controller has a giant X button at the top middle which pulls up a sidebar where most Xbox live communication stems from. It gives an abbreviated home menu with the last four applications that have been opened, and you can use the joystick to navigate to the left and right to get to the other tabs: Friends, messages, account, achievements, and captures. The Xbox sidebar also has customizability on where each tab is. The friends tab shows what each of your friends on Xbox are doing within the Xbox console interface. Making friends on Xbox live is similar to Facebook or following on Instagram; you can look someone up by their username, or if you see them in a game, you can access their profile and send a friend request.
Sidebar and Home screen Walkthrough
Next up is messages, this allows you to text a friend, or even a stranger through a traditional text message, a voice memo, or even a capture from a game to show them something interesting. One affordance to this is that they both have a limit of size; text cannot be longer than 500 characters, and voice memos cannot be more than 1 min long. Messages are a common way to speak to a stranger that you met in a game, I personally have received many hate messages and sent a couple this way. However if these types of messages are not in accordance with Xbox guidelines they can be reported, but yet they occur more often than not. The account tab shows different settings for the system and if you want to switch accounts; this is helpful if you are sharing your Xbox with a relative or friend to determine who is the user, and whose game data should be used. Under your own account, it is possible to change many things such as your profile picture, your username, or even your visibility status to your friends. In the achievement tab it displays your recent accomplishments in games, an example being in Call of Duty completing a certain mission can result in an Xbox achievement which gives the user a number of gamer points. Having a large number of gamer points doesn’t nessicairly mean that you are a better gamer, but it does show that you have completed many different games. My personal friends rarely talk about their gamer score, but upon receiving a diamond achievement (meaning that less than 5% of people who own that game have obtained the achievement) always gives a nice feeling. Finally, the captures tab allows you to see the recordings or screenshots that you have captured in games.
All of these tabs are used to share the way you game
The friends tab is the basis for communication with friends, messages is a key way to speak with strangers due to the nature of its anonymity, account allows you to restrict what other gamers can see about you, achievements allow you to show your accolades, and captures help share your most interesting moments in games.
Changes Over Consoles
From Xbox 360 to the new Xbox home screen the focus shifts from games that you could play being the forefront of your screen, to the games that you already play being the center of focus. As opposed to the 360 home screen, the Xbox one home screen also puts the ads for games at the bottom of your screen, but they still take up as much screen space as your games. These ads can consist of game sales, a sweepstakes for a special console, and especially game pass games. An example was a game pass ad I saw titled, “Show me the legs”, and when I clicked on it it had a list of game pass first person shooters where you can see your legs. Another notable addition is the simplification, on the 360 screen there is a lot going on, especially at the top of the screen, but this is re-done in the new home screen. All of the top menus on the Xbox 360’s home menu are all accessible on the modern Xbox’s side bar.
Subscription Services
Game Pass Outline
Game Pass Ultimate
Game pass ultimate does not inherently change offline gameplay, but it does add significantly to it. Most new triple A games release at a price of $60-70, and this is no cheap expense if you want to buy many new games to enjoy. For a monthly price of $17, over 100+ games are at your fingertips. Ultimate has some games that come and go, so a videogame that you once played under game pass could now only be available for purchase in the Microsoft store. Online features that are included in Xbox live Gold ($10 monthly) are also included in a Game pass membership, so you do not have to pay for both memberships in order to play online. This allows all of your Xbox friends that also pay for the Ultimate service to share the same game pass games as you all for $7 more a month than just live gold. Many of the games are also available on something that is called Cloud play, which allows you to play a videogame without downloading it to your Xbox. Cloud play can be done from your laptop, PC, or even your phone, so long as . One more thing, is that most of the games on game pass ultimate are also available on your PC, so if you log into your Xbox app on your computer, all of those games are also available for download. Game Pass Ultimate is changing the amount of time gamers game.
AAA Videogame
A Triple A Game is a videogame that is produced by a major videogame production company such as Activision or Ubisoft.
Xbox Live Gold
Xbox live allows for the friends and messages tabs to be enabled, without live these abilities are grayed out, and unavailable. I personally do not like the fact that all of these features will still be in your side game menu, showing that you do not have a certain feature, like owning a sock with a gaping hole in it; it just doesn’t feel right. One capability that live has is that it allows you to talk to complete strangers in game lobbies through game chat. This means that in a game you can talk over the microphone to your teammates and either collaborate together to achieve victory, or yell at each other which can be upsetting to some players, or funny to others. In all of these games there is an option to mute game chat which means that you will neither hear nor talk to the people in the game lobby. Also within the account settings there is an option that completely cuts off communication with un-friended individuals, which allows for more online safety. Gold changes how we game with others.
How they affect gameplay
Game pass ultimate with friends is the best way to use it in my opinion. This is for the sole reason of not being tied down to a bad game that you paid for. Many a time in modern day videogame releases are sometimes not fully functioning and full of bugs and glitches that detract from gameplay, and if you just paid $60-$70 for a broken game then it is not very fun at all. A key example being Redfall, which I displayed in my blogpost.
This was one of those game pass games that did not end up being very enjoyable for me or my friends. I believe we played it all together two or three times together, and continued not enjoying it for the stale gameplay as well as the buggy enemy artificial intelligence. We decided that it was not very fun, and all moved on to other games while not having a $60 hole in our wallets. While its true that not all new games are on game pass, there are a notable amount of games that are on game pass day one of release that gamers are able to assess whether it is worthy of more time or not. One very big notion that I want to get across is that game pass with friends allows you to own the same games as your friends, so if you both happen to like a certain genre of games such as first person shooter (FPS) you can find an online one in the game pass library to play together.
Problems with the UI
The user interface (UI) of the Xbox home screen and the Xbox console as a whole has done a lot right, but in my eyes, there are some problems worth resolving. First and foremost, without Wi-Fi, many games that you have purchased are unavailable, regardless if they are multiplayer, or need Wi-Fi at all to play. A good example of this is my favorite game, Metal Gear Solid V, a game which does not requite Wi-Fi to play cannot be booted up if the player does not have Wi-Fi. Even if it is started with an internet connection, and the internet connection is lost mid game, the game does not lose any integral features. This isn’t to say that you need Xbox live to play these games, but internet connection is needed. Another important topic is the ads on the homepage of a console you purchased. I find it similar if you booted up your computer, and taking up 25% of your background screen was an ad for a piece of hardware you purchased, and who you paid Microsoft for their windows operating system. Unless you are already paying for game pass, many of these ads are related to game pass or purchasable games. I find getting ads every time I boot up my console a bit unsavory. Rest assured they are all related to Xbox somehow, and aren’t ads for a law firm or something.
Conclusion and Solutions
The Xbox UI and system all together is missing an integral part without online and live capabilities. Even without Game Pass Ultimate I believe that just having Live Gold is enough to have plenty of fun with friends. Xbox in the large scale has changed the game with the entire system they lay out. Gaming has never been more sociable due to Xbox’s many methods of online interaction, whether it be with friends or complete strangers that could become friends of yours. Although the ones who do not wish to pay for Xbox gold or game pass should be able to boot up their Xbox without seeing ads for these two subscriptions. Even players with these services could open their Xbox to news about their favorite games taking up that space, such as if a new update got released, or a new DLC was on the way. This could take the place of where the current ads are run as a fun way to engage gamers with not only the community, but the game developers of a certain videogame. Regarding the Wi-Fi situation, my solution is that games purchased should not have to be referenced in a Microsoft database as to whether the user bought it each time the game is started. This can be solved by internally saving whether a game is purchased or not. As for users that do not have gold, the greyed out friends, messages, and captures tabs, they could be either removed, or replaced with content relating to the game you are playing, such as tutorials, FAQ’s, or even randomized selections of fun games to play next. As for game pass games played offline, the information that your have renewed your membership should be stored in the Xbox on the day that you paid your month’s due for the subscription, and have a 30 day expiration to ensure your subscription was renewed from the Microsoft servers. This will require a reconnection to Wi-Fi once every 30 days, but this is so as to not rip off Microsoft and still allow some offline play if a Wi-Fi cable or router needs repair. It is a bit difficult to try and put an experience into words, but it seems that Xbox has made it easier to spend time with friends without having to see them all the time, while still doing something fun with each other. This especially rings true with me as a gamer whose friends are 3 hours away and I still talk to them almost every day.
Answering the original guiding question, I believe that apart from the aforementioned affordances, the Xbox UI and online services do a great job of enhancing one’s gaming experience.
