How You Can Make Xbox Live a Better Place, Part 3 : Create Your Own Experience

*As I relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend, I offer you a reposting of a series I wrote back in June. This is part three of a three part article about what we can do to make Xbox Live a more positive place. See you on Monday.

I am all about having a positive playing experience online. I am 31 years old. Gaming is not my job. It is simply a recreational passionate hobby of mine. My Halo rank has no influence on my life whatsoever. That’s right, you heard me! I fully realize that my life will continue along its happy way, even if my rank goes below 30. Actually, my rank is always below 30 and I lead a fabulous life. See, point made.

I have said several times over that Xbox Live is a predominantly negative place. The randoms that infest it are often times untolerable. I have written two articles about how you can help improve the general atmosphere of Live, the first one about the golden rule of do unto others and the second one covering the importance of utilizing the feedback system. Now I am going to discuss how you can mold your own experience and create exactly the atmosphere you are craving.

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How You Can Make Xbox Live a Better Place, Part 2 : Feedback, Feedback, and More Feedback

*As I relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend, I offer you a reposting of a series I wrote back in June. This is part two of a three part article about what we can do to make Xbox Live a more positive place. See you on Monday.

Xbox Live can be a negative place. If you utilize that service for multiplayer gaming, you are already aware of that. Each individual person has the opportunity to help make our gaming arena a better place though. We already discussed a simple two word phrase that helps create a positive playing environment. Now let’s discuss something a little different that requires a bit more action on your part, the feedback system.

From XBox.com :

The feedback system was created to empower gamers. Choose to use it or not, but it drastically improves your online experiences when you let Xbox Live know what you think about certain players. When used responsibly, the tools can greatly improve your online experiences. On the flipside, if you overuse or abuse the system (i.e. by giving negative feedback to everyone you encounter) you’ll ostracize yourself from the general population, so use it wisely.

Leave feedback and increase the odds that you’ll be paired up with someone of similar skill—and character—next time you play. While you won’t get a free mint with each feedback form, you will get some satisfaction knowing that you’re in control of your online world.

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How You Can Make Xbox Live a Better Place, Part 1 : Do Unto Others

*As I relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend, I offer you a reposting of a series I wrote back in June. Perhaps you read it five months ago. Perhaps it is new to you. This is part one of a three part article about what we can do to make Xbox Live a more positive place. See you on Monday.

If you have played any multiplayer games over Xbox Live that support interactions with random people, you know it tends to be a primarily negative environment. There are endless examples of offensive language, sexism, racism, bad sportsmanship, and cheating (to name just a few). I believe if we all make an effort to change the general atmosphere of Live, we can indeed make Xbox Live a better place.

Don’t think you are capable of making a difference? Think again. Yes, we only have control over our own actions. But by doing a few small things that really require very little effort, we can all make everybody’s playing experience just a little better. Starting with our own.

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. ~Marian Wright Edelman

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