Xbox Live’s Ten Year Anniversary

So what is it that makes Xbox Live the ultimate online console service? Well…

 

The Games

 

To make a console successful, you need a strong library of games to back it up. With Halo, Microsoft hit the ground running with a game that not only seriously demonstrated the capabilities of the consoles, but also showcased how fun it was to play with others. While it didn’t officially support online play in its first iteration, by the time the sequel came along gamers were desperate to get their hands on adversaries online, and all of my Xbox-playing friends at the time were amongst the many to make Halo 2 their first online console experience. The Halo series may have moved on from those times, but with games like that showing off what can be added to a player’s experience with online play, it was hard not to get excited.

 

 

With games like Call of Duty proving to be the most popular online nowadays, the multiplayer experience is still evolving, with Call of Duty, evolving the way games approach multiplayer much like Halo did before it, and the Live service seems to evolve and innovate along with them. Would party and voice chat be so popular if multiplayer games didn’t emphasise the need for teamwork and co-operation? Without the intense popularity of multiplayer, would so many companies create extra map packs as downloadable content, and would DLC even be as popular as it is today?

 

XBLA

 

The way Xbox Live has helped changed gaming as we know it is also evident when you take a look at the Xbox Live Arcade service; providing smaller, cheaper experiences on your console without ever having to put a disc in. It’s also shown that you don’t need a Hollywood budget to make games fun, and there are loads of Arcade games that have become well remembered classics without the benefit of major publishers and executive meddling.

 

 

The wide library of games on the service provides for the player whether they want some co-op fun with friends in Castle Crashers, spend hours meticulously creating tracks to drive their friends mad on Trials HD, or even delve into defining narrative experiences like Braid or Bastion. Some of the best experiences the console has to offer come from games you couldn’t find in a store, and without Live being there to help champion digital distribution on consoles, whether it be with the Arcade or the Indie Games, the future of gaming would look very different indeed.

 

The Community

 

So apart from quality, what else dictates the longevity of a title? The community. 

 

Granted, there are always going to be those who try and ruin it for others, but that knowledge is more comforting when you consider there are sites like Fat, Ugly or Slutty and Why Was I Banned? to name and shame those who do. Those people don’t make a difference; the people who do are the ones who go above and beyond in their love for gaming. It’s easy to focus on the guy firing racial slurs at you like the bullets you’re slugging into his face, but you may forget you’re doing it on a map custom made in forge, on a game type created by a community member.  

 

 

Many games live or die by their community, and Xbox Live has made that adage appropriately apt for console gaming, too. Your community are the people who can take the tools you’ve given them and create things you’ve never dreamed of.  Back when Rooster Teeth first released Red Vs Blue, no one could have possibly known the impact it would have on both the game itself and gamers around the globe. It helped make the Machinima movement mainstream, and nowadays it’s entirely common for people to take the games they love and create something unprecedented. With more contact with the people who play the games, companies are able to more effectively discover bugs they may have missed, balance weapons, and add more content that players want. Thanks to Xbox Live, there’s no excuse to ignore what the community are saying, and it means that in the long term, titles can remain relevant long after their release date.

 

Achievements

 

There’s no way you could ever have a discussion about Live without mentioning achievements; it’d be like talking about Star Wars and not mentioning lightsabres. 

 

Yes, they may just end up as numbers at the end of a Gamertag, but those numbers have the power to define you as a gamer, whether you’d like them or not. Nothing demonstrates your gaming preferences more clearly than achievements. Do you prefer to play online or offline? Your achievements can probably tell you. Do you prefer to just get to the end, rather than explore the world around you? Do you not consider a game to be complete until you’ve done absolutely everything the game has to offer? I’ve got a feeling that just by checking your achievements, we could find out just what kind of a gamer you are.  

 

They haven’t just exposed the type of gamer we are, but they’ve even altered the way we play. How many more times have you found yourself mumbling “just one more go” in order to hear that comforting plink as another achievement is unlocked? How much time spent conversing about games with friends is spent discussing how to unlock certain achievements, and how often do you and your friends go back to older games for the chance of seeing your score increase? How often have you passed up the chance to play a game because the achievements seem too difficult, focus too much on multiplayer, or commit the cardinal sin of having point values that aren’t multiples of five?

 

At some point, without realising it, Achievements became the biggest thing in modern gaming we never knew we needed, and for better or worse, they’re the most important reason Xbox Live has become the dominant force in gaming it is today.

 

Here’s to ten years, Microsoft. Happy Birthday, Xbox and of course, Xbox Live.

 

  

Words: Edward Price