| Set On Stun |

online gaming made simple

Look,  here’s the bottom line with this whole thing — Xbox Live is already an active social media application. It has been since it was first introduced back in the old days of the green machine.

• Friends online — check
• Same friends know when you’re gaming — check
• You can chat and game all over the world with people using a mic and a controller– check
• You can even watch movies together — check

So why — please tell us why the hell would you now need to muddle things up with all kinds of gobbledygook from FB and Twitter. Why? It’s not like you can hop on Facebook from your console and start chatting using the oh so deft controller to type responses to wall posts or for that matter chat with anyone. As it is it’s slower typing with your controller than it is with cell phones without a keyboard. And if you get a keyboard (that costs $30) then why don’t you just use your computer. It’s utterly ridiculous.

The basic notion of Xbox Live is social media for gaming and then some. No one actually goes on there to “catch up” with old friends. You go on there to shoot dudes with your buddies, demolish other gamers in some hella fun frag war or play some goofy games together. Occasionally there will be some kind of tournament or other gaming  opportunity/contest to win stuff,  then there’s all the other things we’ve grown accustomed to having with our gold memberships (beta tests, demos, movies, music, TV shows and the supremely awesome Netflix). Putting Facebook and Twitter into the the mix — well it’s stupid.

Some Things Are Better Left Alone

Let’s look at it from a purely simple, logistical perspective. What are the things that are intrinsically natural with Twitter and Facebook?

1. They’re internet based
2. Designed for instant communication
3. Open sources that allow you to open links, download apps, chat and even “poke.” They allow you to … browse

Now let’s compare that with Xbox Live — Closed environment, designed primarily for online gaming and getting stuff (either buying or trying out) oh and yes, for gaming.  No where in that template is there an opening for browsing the internet,  or chatting. More importantly, why. Yeah we know — all in one machine and all but guess what, XBL is really good at what it does. In fact some would argue it’s the best out of the three in this department.

“But what about the photos and stuff?”

What about them? Great you can tap into the photos and posts your friends post on FB. And? You can’t really respond to them unless you want to spend 10 minutes typing something with a controller. And the key point again is, why? Why bring these two worlds together. If you’re playing Modern Warfare 2 you could care less about what your cousin just tweeted or that your old high school chum just found a funny link on youtube.

When most gamers turn on their console they’re doing 1 of three things

1. Checking out the dashboard to see who’s online to game with and what new stuff there is to download or check out
2. Loading up netflix to watch a movie
3. Or loading up a multiplayer game and hoping to get in on some multiplayer fun where they will escape in videogame land for a while.

Oh and maybe, they might actually just want to play a …what was that again .. VIDEOGAME!

That’s it. Why mess with that Microsoft? Change the GUI all you want. Just don’t try to change an elephant into a camel.

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