When the next-gen console war launched, the Xbox 360 was at the forefront displaying everything gamers hungered for. Mandatory high-definition content and an accessible arcade system were just a few of the features the 360 sported. However, all the features weren’t exactly pristine which prompted Microsoft to unveil the New Xbox Experience (NXE). NXE completely overhauled the interface and gave us gamers brand new features including one we longed for most; party chat. This feature is single-handedly ruining the online experience in competitive games.
It used to be a requirement that in order to speak to multiple people, you had to be playing the same game. NXE eliminated the restriction of chatting with just a single person, and being able to chat with up to eight people is truly nice. Strangely, the problem is that you can chat with those people no matter what game you’re playing, ranked, unranked, anything. What’s the big deal then? Oh, only that you practically cheat when playing the game. For instance, Gears of War 2 introduces a ghost-camera you may utilize when you die in a match. Players can fly around, locate enemies, mines, and give all the information to the still ticking teammates in order to pull a victory off. It’s a cheap and unsporting way to play video games.
When you’re killed in a match, there’s no reason you should be able to guide the other player around certain hazards. It takes away from the 
game, especially when you can’t even talk to the other team while in a party. Sure there’s a lot of trash talking and muscle flexing, but that’s all part of the competitive spirit of games. If you don’t want to hear the screaming kids, vulgar teen, or dude who blasts his music, there’s always the wonderful mute button.
I’m a competitive gamer. Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Gears of War 2 are some examples of games I enjoy (or enjoyed) playing. Being able to communicate with a team in these games is instrumental to the success of the matches you’re in. When the first Gears of War hit shelves back in November of 2006 I was completely enamored with it. Something so different and so tactical resonated well with me. Having to announce everything happening on the battlefield immersed me like no other game ever had. Gears demonstrated how important your teammates can be and how communication itself can be used as a weapon. When your comrades are taken out you lose location, arsenal, and other diagnostics that would otherwise give you a significant advantage when facing the opposition. It was simply incredible and is now non-existent.
I certainly understand that talking to a group of people playing very different games is a necessity, but it still needs fixing. Why not require people playing ranked matches to be devoid of any Xbox Live parties? Let’s say that there are eight people in a party and everyone but two people are playing different games. Those two people would not be able to be in a party together since they could be exploiting the system. But if everyone is playing a different game, they can talk freely. There’s a ton of ideas out there and I’m sure one of the geniuses who monitor and augment XBL can figure something out.
All I know is that this party chat system is ruining the way online games are played. The strategies and tactics online have all changed due to always having your teammates present even after death. There’s no reason to eliminate the system entirely, but it’s begging to be changed. If you have thoughts about this, please share them. This cheating garbage has gone on for far too long.
Comments
Why not just remove the ability for the player too view and report enemy locations on the battlefield? A black screen.
All I know is your mute button isn't that effective, in farcry 2 without fail every time you launch a game some one starts screaming nonsense into there mics, how do you mute somone you can't see talking?
When you do mute somone then you have to listen to one sided conversations, equally annoying.
90% of everything said on xbox live is annoying and pointless, being in a party at least means you don't have to listen to people scream in your ear.
It might ruin some aspects of gears or other games but, from my point of view its far better to never have to hear the majority of the douche bags on live in the first place.
Because you're a competitive gamer and the NXE gives certain advantage, you think it's killing online gaming!? GTHO!
This is truly an awesome feature. It's the developers that needs to learn how to counteract this not Microsoft.
Its a problem with the game mechanic, not the party chat. The games that allow free roam after the person's death should be patched to stop that capability, plain and simple. In Left4Dead, if a person dies, their view is attached to the players on their team that are still alive. This could work in any game that suffers from death cheaters. Its an easy solution.
Party chat is great i'm sure that some sort of mute system could be incorporated into the chat so that when you die the party knows this and automatically mutes you from anyone still alive. cant be that difficult!
Dude, quit crying and just get better at the games you play.
nitpicking at its worst.
In my opinion, Party Chat saves a lot of online gaming. No longer do you have to listen to the inane babbling of the morons who talk just to hear themselves. You can play a game and simply chat with your friends.
to start with, you play gears 2 for fun.
Stop that and you'll be fine.
more of a per game problem not a xbox problem
don't worry. Just take some Midol and you'll be fine.
But seriously, it CAN be frustrating. But it's up to the developer to restrict certain things for this NOT to happen. NXE isn't to blame, and i'd rather have the feature than not.
Quit whining...I bet you're one of the losers who uses a modded controller.
I completely agree. Sure there were idiots before, but now you still have idiots and there's a lot of silence because everyone is in a party.
why not try and get friends yourself and go into your own party, really lame article with stupid arguments
Man, grow up. Make some real friends and talk to then, live. This is the most stupid article I ever seen. =P
These games were developed before the party chat functionality was released on the nxe. The next batch of games will be developed with the new features in mind. Can't blame developers for not being able to see the future!
Meh,It isn't ruining anything.In fact it makes for more coherent teams in some games where you can't comminicate well with other squad members.In the end your skill as a player and teamwork is what gives you a win.You sound like a Seattle Seahawks fan whining about you loss oh so many years ago.Man up.
This kid looks like such a nerd....i think he needs to get some friends so he can experience the "party chat".
Um... it's not cheating if the other team has the same advantage.
I'm amazed this passes for journalism.
Waaaaah they cheated! How about the fact that party chat allows you to filter out all the idiots on XBL and only talk to your friends? What a poor attempt at a news item.
its not cheating if both sides have the advantage, What about when Godfather 2 comes out with TheDon Mode in multiplayer.
Also just cause your in a party doesn't mean your going to win every match.
This article sucks. The writer, a tool, Party chat is here to stay nobody wants to see it go. Get some damn friends scrub. I talk to alot of people whenever im online constantly joining other peoples partys. yea you can use it to cheat, but so can the other side. Most of them time im to busy talking about other stuff than what's going on in the game.
There needs to be a private, host administered (invite only) and lockable party chat. It would be really cool if outsiders could ring the party to get in and you could see who was ringing (gamertag caller ID ). That simple. It would also be nice if there were a group feature that would allow you to create groups of specific friends for specific games or types of games.
I LOVE party chat. Everytime I play CoD on PSN with my PS3 buddies I am reminded again of why LIVE and party chat rocks.
Having to mute little kids, budding rappers and the rest of the idiots, every freaking match, gets really old. Don't forget the mute feature doesn't work in the lobby between matches.....
I'll take my party chat, thanks.
Looks like this article got quite the reaction from people...I guess sometimes the truth hurts. Seems like people have a tough time separating their ideas from their egos.
wow what is wrong with these people leaving such negative feed back? It must be the cheating comment that struck a nerve. Anyway I agree It does ruin the online gaming community slightly, but only because i used to love meeting new and cool people in games and making friends. now you can't because there is no communication. It's like living in a neighborhood and only having friends over never getting to know the neighbors. no more block parties so to speak lol.
as much as I hate the little kids and the no it all anger filled trash talking teens and such i still miss the new exciting fun people.
I think that's why gears 2 SEEMS like it takes forever between games because you don't get to talk to the people in a lobby before the game but maybe 10 seconds unlike gears 1.
bottom line we will just have to get used to it I suppose
Andrew Whipple, you wrote what I wrote from December www.bingegamer.net/2008/xbox-360s-party-chat-is-the-downfall-of-gaming/
So... I agree with you (because it looks as though you have copy and pasted what I wrote), and expect many whines from commenters (as I see already).
For me it's great to be able to make a party with friends. I'm from Mexico and Xbox Live always connects us with english speaking people, and when they hear us speaking spanish they start to bash us, insult or say like "Don't speak spanish". It's not our fault that we get connected to them, so I don't see why they have to bother us, that's why we play on a party. Most of the time when I'm playing alone I don't make a party so I can hear the others but then I have to speak english only otherwise I get the problems listed above. Just for the record I'm from Mexico and I live in Mexico City.
@PacoDG: I actually didn't know about your article at all, and it's funny that the responses are quite similar.
Nowhere in here have I said to get rid of party chat. In fact, the article is about how it affects tactical games. Thanks for reading.
I don't believe they should rid party chat either, I feel more so that it should be eliminated from ranked games (especially in the case of Gears). My personal problem though is also with tactical games.. I am basically a whore to Call of Duty 4's Sabotage mode, and unless people have their mics on and in the game chat.. it pretty much turns into every man is doing their own thing, which hardly works for the goal of the team.
I personally miss the old days of halo 2 when everybody had to be chatting in game and everybody could hear everybody else. You had to deal with some twits but nothing was as satisfying as blasting the smack talking tard in the face with a shotty and letting out a triumphant "take that b!tch" Now everybody is in party chat or you can't hear the other team. Sometimes I feel like I'm just playing against good AI not real people. As much as sometimes I complained about the cursing or racist remarks being able to smack talk was a great part of the game. Ask anybody who plays pick up basketball games. The passion is absolutely sucked out of the game when you can't hurl insults at the other team.
I'm going to have to disagree with a large part of this article; so lets get what i do agree with out of the way first. I do believe party chat is fundamentally changing the XBL experience. As Dante Foxx mentioned above, you can't meet new people when you can't hear them. Some of the funniest characters I know on live I met in a random game of H3. It creates a level of separation that can detract one from the community. I'll also agree that larger parties (5-8) can get crazy because there are so many people. Especially when people are playing multiple games. Just the other days I was in a party with four playing matchmade H3 and two playing matchmade Halo wars, didn't work. It’s the same as having a bunch of people in the same room all talking at the same time. In the grand scheme of things I feel these are minor problems that can be overcome by regulating party size and separating tactical groups.
That said, these so called advantages and cheating have existed for far longer than the NXE update. I would even argue that NXE party chat levels the playing field as opposed to the past. Take for example back when halo 2 was the latest Bungie game. Back when clan matches existed. These were competitive times, with competitive people. Though I never reached a competition level I knew guys that did. I knew many of the more serious clans used conference calling to gain this deadbox advantage the author speaks of. I also knew guys that would use Ventrillo servers on their computer to accomplish the same thing. So you see, the advantage has always existed for those who were serious enough to get it. It has spanned both PC and console games for some time now. NXE has done nothing more but make "cheating" accessible to the masses. Essentially eliminating an advantage it provided. If you’re as serious and competitive as Mr. Whipple assumes, why aren’t you using party chat in the first place? The logic doesn’t hold up.
On the whole I agree with the author that spirited competition is the goal. When teams really learn to communicate, the game reaches a new level. I desperately want that level to return once more as well. You want to gripe about something. Bring back clan support. I think clans fostered more cohesive team play than any other game I’ve ever seen. If you were serious about winning, you could find others who wanted the same. It’s much harder for the user to find clans now that they’ve been thrown back to the internet. NXE is all about the community, wouldn’t that just keep building it? Overall, I think NXE is a good thing. It is bringing fundamental changes, but live must grown as the industry does. Mr. Whipple, I really think you got it wrong with this one.
Party Chat needs to remain as is. It took Gamers years to get it in place and because you think you lost a couple matches because someone used a Ghost Cam or talked to a friend when you feel they otherwise shouldn't is no reason for it's elimination.
Also, you call yourself a Competitive Gamer... where? If you were attending CGS, MLG or WCG Events you would know that Party Chat is exactly what is used in Competition since Gamers are all sitting in a row and there is no restriction as to when one can talk... in fact a 5th person (Coach) stands behind everyone able to see all Players Screen that is allowed to announce anything that may go unmentioned by someone with a controller in their hand.
Basically, Party Chat was instituted so that people like me who actually spend hours upon hours playing on Xbox Live don't have to deal with the racist and immature people that are in the regular Game Lobby's.
Thanx for trying to kill the best and most requested feature to come with the NXE. Here's hoping your opinion stays where it belongs... in your whiny blog.
I have no idea why you're complaining. Firstly, if you want to meet new people, don't join a party. There are loads of unpartied players on Live for your socilization pleasure, though most of them won't talk to you despite having the ability to do so.
Secondly, you feel that this "cheating" is ruining Live. In many of the gametypes available in your "choice" games, it is not possible to abuse parties for cheating purposes. Any abuse that currently is possible via parties is just as easily done through conference calling over the phone or voice-calls through instant messenger services. If people want to abuse the system, they will, regardless of the availability of parties.
Finally, suck it up. If you're really a "competitive gamer," a little added challenge should be welcome. Also, the number of individuals you meet on a daily basis that have Live accounts would amaze you, so you should not require Live as a crutch for your social skills. Many enjoy parties - don't ruin it.
I know this is an old article, but seriously kid (The guy who's arguing over party chat), get some dang friends bro. I bet your probably just an nerd that probably can't get friends. Party Chats is one of the best features in NXE and im glad I have friends to talk to everyday (or family members), hard to believe a guy like Andrew Whipple had problems with party chat because he had no friends.
Thanks for trying to ruining the best feature in NXE, jerk.
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