A Simple Request For Our Friends at Xbox Live…
Not only have I been a paying member of Xbox Live since day one, I’ve also been one of its biggest proponents. While Sony’s PR machine wanted to sing the praises of a “free” online community, I’ve always believed that you get what you pay for–and judging by Sony’s new Playstation Plus online service (which requires a subscription fee), I think they finally agree with me. Microsoft has always made sure it never rested on its laurels by always updating Xbox Live and adding features as its user base grew and technology advanced–in fact, the Xbox 360 has pretty much evolved into that all-in-one digital hub that it was touted to be at its inception, being as adept at watching and renting TV shows and movies as it is at playing your favorite games. But sometimes as we advance and become more sophisticated, the most simple and basic needs get neglected–and for me, that would be a revamped notification system. Now, I grant you this is not a huge problem nor is it a reason to not use the service–Xbox live works brilliantly; but when it comes to user notifications, there is some room for improvement. In all fairness to our friends in Redmond, Apple is already well into its fifth version of the amazing iPhone and still hasn’t managed to nail notifications–so Microsoft still having room for improvement on an already excellent service is by no means shocking. Here’s how it breaks down:
When you’re in your dashboard on your Xbox and you get a message from a friend, a message appears at the bottom of your screen and then disappears. Once that goes away, there is an icon that stays on the upper-right portion of the screen that flashes and tells you that you have a message; it could be an invite or a simple “you suck” from an online chum, but either way, you’ll get the visual cue. However, what happens if you’re no longer in the dashboard? What if you’re playing a game, pause the game and head to the fridge for some refreshment? Well, the message will still appear at the bottom of your screen for a few seconds, but you won’t be there to see it; and unlike being in your dashboard, there is no persistent icon on the screen to tell you someone sent you an invite or a message. I’ve had more than one friend think I was ignoring him simply because I stepped away from a paused game and never saw the all-too-brief message icon pop up.
What Live needs is a simple icon that is consistent from to dashboard to in-game screens; a simple message notification that stays on the screen until you come back; at which point you can choose to respond or just ignore it–it can even be customizable so that as soon as you leave the pause screen the notifications disappear. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to ignore your friends and family intentionally, rather than have your Xbox do it for you?
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1 Comment
I agree that notifications needs a small revamp. However, in some games the constant notification icon could get annoying, especially when you’re in games such as MW2 or Halo where pausing just gets you killed.
I think the best way would be to have the four green lights on your 360 controller flash every few seconds. It won’t be as noticeable as something on-screen, but it’ll be there.