Xbox 360: Anyone playing the Community Games?
12-01-08, 07:45 AM
#26
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Wow. OK, the three-A game is an insult and a ripoff. That's definitely not what I'm considering when I say "acceptable launch game". That would be acceptable as a proof of concept, to prove to the programmer he can make stuff happen, but that should never make it anywhere close to the sales floor.
I can appreciate that the community is only preventing games that have legal issues, I don't want to get to where they only allow the games "they" think are good on, but I think there should be some minimum level of acceptability; Three-A would definitely not pass, and should either be laughed off the storefront (if it was an honest attempt) or the programmer drummed off (if he was trying to scam consumers).
I can appreciate that the community is only preventing games that have legal issues, I don't want to get to where they only allow the games "they" think are good on, but I think there should be some minimum level of acceptability; Three-A would definitely not pass, and should either be laughed off the storefront (if it was an honest attempt) or the programmer drummed off (if he was trying to scam consumers).
12-01-08, 08:05 AM
#27
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I have to post about this game before I go! 
These games sort of abuse the system, but the community doesn't decide what gets onto the Xbox by any sort of good game / bad game rating system. They just reject games that break rules (copyrights, plagarism, content violation, etc.) or crashes. It has to be something major for the game to NOT pass the community testing. So basically almost every game produced will get onto the Xbox, even games that are not games at all like the one you spoke of above.
These games sort of abuse the system, but the community doesn't decide what gets onto the Xbox by any sort of good game / bad game rating system. They just reject games that break rules (copyrights, plagarism, content violation, etc.) or crashes. It has to be something major for the game to NOT pass the community testing. So basically almost every game produced will get onto the Xbox, even games that are not games at all like the one you spoke of above.The peer review system of CG lets them filter out games that break the service agreement, break copyright, are pornographic etc. Nowhere (from everything i have read) do they give the peers the opportunity to filter for games that aren't very good.
Thankfully, the "Three A" game doe have a trial so it is easy to avoid.
Overall i am very excited about these CGs (as can be seen by my posting in this thread). I used to teach a high school class on game design where we studied and analyzed board games and video games and the students designed their own tabletop board games. If i was doing the same thing now the idea of being able to analyze CGs or maybe even have a class XNA account for designing would make me absolutely giddy.
This is also why i really enjoy beta testing games. It appeals to my desire to eventually go for a phd program focusing on games in education. I love discussing/analyzing games and the design process.
Yes. I am that much of a nerd.
12-01-08, 08:08 AM
#28
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I modified my signature to have no links, thinking this was the case, and the name of my website (not my website URL) was blocked. So "Matthew Doucette / Xxxx Games" became "Matthew Doucette / Games". I cannot even post the name of my website in this post. It is banned. Plus my signature was manually modified to "[remove ad]" as if my signature was an ad. It wasn't. If you look at my signatures all over the Internet, they are the same, which is a link to my website and a link to the current project I am working on. I never considered this to be an ad, and have never been insinuated as spammer because of it, even on non-gaming sites. I guess now that I have an upcoming product I will be selling, as opposed to my free offerings before, I will have to be more careful with this. But still, this is a very strange unwelcoming practice from my perspective. I apologize for stepping on anyone's toes with "spam", it surely was not the case nor my intention. I just wanted to talk about XBLCG, especially because I'm directly involved with it, and I didn't think it would matter to have a link to my work in my signature. If it was more posts needed, then maybe my signature could have been changed to [10 more posts needed] or something more descriptive and welcoming. Right now, I still do not know what the signature ban was for. I was left in the dark. But, after thinking about it again, I can only assume it was because of "spamming".
I do not have to post here, and I probably won't anymore. It's not a big deal to me. Take this feedback for what it's worth.
I do not have to post here, and I probably won't anymore. It's not a big deal to me. Take this feedback for what it's worth.
12-01-08, 08:33 AM
#29
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While it may be irritating to you right now it is just a measure to prevent a bunch of work for the mods having to clean up spammers. Don't take it personally, we actually have a pretty good forum here, but due to how large it is i imagine it gets hit with a ton of the spam bots. The policies in place make it so us end users rarely see the spam. I know when i was modding a forum with about 50-60 folks we would get spam bots about every day and if they started posting in a bunch of threads it would take a good bit of time to clean everything up.
12-01-08, 06:44 PM
#30
DVD Talk Legend
welcome to the forum. As mentioned your questions would likely be better handled in the feedback forum. But based on what I can gather from your posts, the link you have may have been deemed some form of advertising based on what was seen on your site by a mod or admin (it wasn't me). If you generate any sort of revenue from a link you post, that's considered spam here and why it was manually removed by an admin.
12-02-08, 05:46 AM
#32
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12-02-08, 08:02 AM
#33
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welcome to the forum. As mentioned your questions would likely be better handled in the feedback forum. But based on what I can gather from your posts, the link you have may have been deemed some form of advertising based on what was seen on your site by a mod or admin (it wasn't me). If you generate any sort of revenue from a link you post, that's considered spam here and why it was manually removed by an admin.
12-02-08, 09:25 AM
#34
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Is a good game worth less to you because it lacks leaderboards and achievements? I am not sure if I am allowed to mention this (lol) but the biggest downer for me, as a developer thinking about my game, is the lack of leaderboards. I find leaderboards are important for simple games, because scores matter more for simple games. The more simple the game, the more the score matters. Take geometry wars for a current example, or any super old-school game (pac-man, space invaders, etc.) for an old example. They do not have levels or "accomplishments" such as finishing the game, so scores are what matter most. Anyway, long story short, I think Community Games are mostly going to be simple games, thus would benefite the most from leaderboards. My game does have an end, but it is still simple, so I sit in the middle grounds. I think half my game's players will enjoy the score feature, and will miss the lack of leaderboards.
Our only way out of this right now is a "hack", where you can share your local top scores with anyone else currently playing the game at the same time via Xbox LIVE Gold. Biology Battle already does this. Eventually the scores get shared around and passed on to everyone. This takes extra work and is not quite the same as what Xbox LIVE Arcade players expect.
Our only way out of this right now is a "hack", where you can share your local top scores with anyone else currently playing the game at the same time via Xbox LIVE Gold. Biology Battle already does this. Eventually the scores get shared around and passed on to everyone. This takes extra work and is not quite the same as what Xbox LIVE Arcade players expect.
12-02-08, 11:25 AM
#35
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There are some CG that give the player a code when they die. You enter that code on the developers site online and it registers your score on one big leaderboard. Again, a crappy work around.
Achievements though would be a huge thing. For a few years now they have been hyping up achievements and training us to salivate at the sound of the little unlock in an almost Pavlovian manner. So to play a game on Live without them seems a little emptier.
It is stupid i understand. Achievements don't matter. However i still have been trained to look for them.
All that being said, i will still buy any CGs that pique my interest and seem like a good deal even knowing there are no achievements.
Achievements though would be a huge thing. For a few years now they have been hyping up achievements and training us to salivate at the sound of the little unlock in an almost Pavlovian manner. So to play a game on Live without them seems a little emptier.
It is stupid i understand. Achievements don't matter. However i still have been trained to look for them.
All that being said, i will still buy any CGs that pique my interest and seem like a good deal even knowing there are no achievements.
12-03-08, 08:10 AM
#36
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All Geometry Wars fans need to check out the demo to Biology Battle. It is very reminiscent of Geo Wars.
Also, i ended up buying Galax-e-mail last night for 200 points. It is a pretty fun 2 stick shooter with some neat power-ups and the ability to transform your ship to one of three forms. The transforming ship reminds me of the old Silpheed game. It is easily worth the 2.25$ because you could spend a good bit of time shooting things.
Also, i ended up buying Galax-e-mail last night for 200 points. It is a pretty fun 2 stick shooter with some neat power-ups and the ability to transform your ship to one of three forms. The transforming ship reminds me of the old Silpheed game. It is easily worth the 2.25$ because you could spend a good bit of time shooting things.
12-03-08, 04:06 PM
#38
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Indeed...
12-04-08, 06:56 PM
#39
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I just played the demo for Colliseum and it was pretty cool not sure if I like it enough for 10 dollars though. The controls are nice once you get used to them.
12-04-08, 07:13 PM
#40
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That was pretty much my impression. I thought it could have been fun but i didn't know if it was 10$ fun. The demo completely doesn't give you enough time to try it.
01-25-09, 09:55 AM
#43
DVD Talk Godfather & 2020 TOTY Winner
Re: Xbox 360: Anyone playing the Community Games?
I wish the RC Airplane Simulator was a little more polished. It would be fun to let the kids play with it, but it's so crappy that you can't even see the plane crash back to earth.
01-25-09, 10:01 AM
#44
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Re: Xbox 360: Anyone playing the Community Games?
I just tried the demo and immediately bought the game. It's simple and fun. There's nothing exactly like it -- kind of like Peggle in reverse, but with a Spider-Man or Bionic Commando mechanic going on. I didn't think I'd be buying any of these games, but that one is very polished.
I wish the RC Airplane Simulator was a little more polished. It would be fun to let the kids play with it, but it's so crappy that you can't even see the plane crash back to earth.
I wish the RC Airplane Simulator was a little more polished. It would be fun to let the kids play with it, but it's so crappy that you can't even see the plane crash back to earth.
02-26-09, 12:21 PM
#45
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Re: Xbox 360: Anyone playing the Community Games?
Ok...I'm attempting to revive some Community Games talk. The podcast I do will be having a Community Games discussion on the next episode, so we're looking for any thoughts or titles that we can incorporate.
I've fallen in love with Groov and really enjoy Ultratron, even though I haven't bought it yet. Anyone else finding anything noteworthy out there?! (Other than the seemingly new fad of games that turn your controller into a vibrator. WTF is that all about? Seriously.)
I've fallen in love with Groov and really enjoy Ultratron, even though I haven't bought it yet. Anyone else finding anything noteworthy out there?! (Other than the seemingly new fad of games that turn your controller into a vibrator. WTF is that all about? Seriously.)
Last edited by superfro; 02-26-09 at 12:28 PM.
02-26-09, 12:24 PM
#46
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Re: Xbox 360: Anyone playing the Community Games?
I continue to check daily and snag trials of all the new releases that day.
Nothing has piqued my interest lately although there was a Bocce game that was kind of amusing. I almost bought it.
There was also a point and click adventure that i almost picked up as well.
Nothing has piqued my interest lately although there was a Bocce game that was kind of amusing. I almost bought it.
There was also a point and click adventure that i almost picked up as well.
02-26-09, 12:53 PM
#47
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Re: Xbox 360: Anyone playing the Community Games?
Three cool 200 point ($2.50) games that Nick Suttner pimped on recent podcasts:
Miner: Dig Deep - Dig Dug meets resource gathering/item management. Hard to explain, but the demo gives you a good taste.
Groov - as mentioned earlier in the thread. A great musical Geometry Wars clone.
Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp - simple, old-school, single-screen arcade platform fun. Controls are a little bit touchy but it's worth the price.
I picked up all three after trying the demos.
Miner: Dig Deep - Dig Dug meets resource gathering/item management. Hard to explain, but the demo gives you a good taste.
Groov - as mentioned earlier in the thread. A great musical Geometry Wars clone.
Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp - simple, old-school, single-screen arcade platform fun. Controls are a little bit touchy but it's worth the price.
I picked up all three after trying the demos.
02-26-09, 12:57 PM
#48
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Re: Xbox 360: Anyone playing the Community Games?
03-09-09, 02:06 AM
#50
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Re: Xbox 360: Anyone playing the Community Games?
Just giving a heads up for those interested, as I mentioned above for our 360 podcast we interviewed the creator of the Community Game "Groov". You can find the link in my signature. (The interview is about 30 minutes in in case you just want to jump to that part. )
)