Totally fed up with LIVE experience

W

wattsy1977

Guest
Right first a bit about me.

Im really quite a reserved bloke and upon getting a 360 and the chance to play other players across the world all seemed a bit daunting to me - I really didnt fancy the prospect of poliet conversation for 7 three minute rounds of Fight night, or a 10 minute game of Fifa.

I much prefered remaining annonymous and silent.

Slowly over the months I began to warm to the LIVE experience, adding a few friends and being able to compare high scores was great, made games such as Geometry wars worth pushing for a better score, or ridge racer 6 a much better game just trying to beat my mates fastest lap time.

However..........

Last night I decided to give SF2 another blast on line - my record is 11 matches 5 wins........but my actual record is more like 20 matches 14 wins. Im sick of people disconnecting on me all the time as soon as I win.

But this isnt the worse of it....

My parents visited last night, and they were really impressed that I was able to chat to my brother and play against him even though he lives 180 miles away. I then went on to show them how I could play anyone in the world, using SF2 as my example.

My next quick match paired me up with someone who I can only assume was American going by his accent......although for the entire 3 rounds the only word he would shout out was 'C#NT'. Im just glad my god daughter wasn't round at the time (she is 6).

As I was about to win - he disconnected, meaning I couldn't even report him. To say My parents were appalled is putting it lightly, and it has put my hobby in a bad light to them now. I have searched a few forums and it seems to be an increasingly common occurance for bad and unsportsmanlike behaviour.

What is the point in a ranking system when people cheat it? What is the point of a rep system if continual abusers are not dealt with appropriately?

I like being able to have a quick mach rather than having to go through the sometimes painful task of sending game requests (FIFA - how bad is that set up!!).

So far I have given up on the following online games (beside playing with those few on my friends list):

PGR3 - im average at best but online just get spun at the start.

PD0 - Sick of people on your same team killing you

FN3 - Constant disconnects

SF2 - Constant disconnects when just won

Burnout revenge seems to be the only game I haven't encountered sore losers yet.

Apologises for this rant but LIVE could be so good...yet it seems to be filled with complete idiots..is it just me being unlucky??

What can I / we do to make mircosoft and developers add measures for a better online experience?


Dave a.ka Wattsy1977
 
That's the reason for a friends list.

Find people who don't connect and ad them as friends.

Online scores mean nothing to me, who cares!

Just enjoy the game, they disconnected, you beat them, enjoy it and move on, knowing they are sad losers.
 
I think Dave as a point to a degree....However if you play with people on your friends list surely most of the above problems are circumvented. As for people swearing I must say i don't come across it that much...virtually never with people from the UK but alas I think we all have problems with certain people across the water....I don't tend to play anyone from the US except on UNO where you tend to get a better class of person!!!!
 
I am sorry to hear that you have had some unenjoyable LIVE experiences.
But unfortunately it cannot be avoided when playing with people you don't know.

Also, you can report people after you have played them. Just go to your friends tab and move right to the recent players tab; find the player you wish to report (most recent will be top of the list) and you can give feedback etc. Xbox LIVE will also try not match you with them in the future if your feedback is negative.
 
Chromehounds suffers from losers disconnecting as well. Hopefully they'll bring out patches for the affected games where if you disconnect you lose like they did on one of the football games on the original Xbox.

As rEVILospud says you can still leave feedback for people after they've left and I've still got people on my list from 18 days ago so just bad feedback them all as cheaters and hope that the system doesn't match you up again.
 
Halo 2 is fantastic online! It has the best live interface i've seen.

You can't stop people swearing or disconnecting or smoking for that matter :smoke:
 
I'm with you there, Wattsy. I feel pretty much the same.

One of the reasons I bought a 360 was that I wanted to be able to play racing games against similarly skilled "real" opponents (as opposed to being able to beat just about everyone I know at Gran Turismo). So the ranked system sounded quite attractive as there would be a ready supply of similar skilled folks around. Only trouble is, it just gets so aggressive. I've lost count of the number of times I've been taken out in the first corner, or even worse, on a straight, and then spent the rest of the race desperately trying not to be last. And then as soon as I overtake whoever's in front, they quit! It's just so frustrating, and not fun. I've found some techniques that can help avoid this, but it still happens far too much. I want a decent race, not to just get wound up by idiot drivers and go to bed in a bad mood.

It's difficult to see how to address this kind of problem though. Sometimes it is just driver error, but often it's obviously on purpose (as watching a few replays has demonstrated).

I think you can still report someone even if they quite early. One of the tabs in the dashboard shows people you've played recently, so you can find them on there and send feedback that way. Makes you feel better if nothing else!

It's a shame that the Rep system means nothing. I had high hopes for it when I first read about it, but now it seems quite lame. What does it really matter if someone has loads of bad comments against them? How can I use this to not play against people who have a history of quitting or being unsporting - I can't. It's a pity people don't get banned for a day if their rep becomes too low, or if your rep stays high you get credited with some Live points (not going to happen, I know...)

If you do go back to PGR3 and fancy a more gentlemanly race sometime, send me an invite and I'll be happy to have a few laps with you. And I promise not to swear :)

Balders.
 
Losers disconecting and going unpunished really annoys me too. However, it's unfair to blame live as it isn't a problem with the service, it's a problem with the developers. There are games that punish quitters correctly, so it's really frustrating to find games that don't. Any disconnection from a game should be treated as a loss. Of course a connection can go off unexpectedly but that's just tough luck, a loss should still be recorded.

Annoying opponenets that shout/swear/sing/rap etc are a ball ache too but as someone said already, you can find them on your recently played players list, send bad feedback and avoid them.

These are problems assosciated with online gaming in general though and are not exclusive to live. If you think live is bad, then whatever you do, don't venture into the world of PS2 online.
 
I'm with you on racing game i hardly ever play PGR3 anymore every time i'm near the front of the race i come to a corner and the person behind comes racing into the side of me and thats me at the back of the pack. Shame really as PGR3 was one of the games that made me buy the 360.
Other games are fine once you have built up a friends list and can play with them.
 
I agree with the comments here. A good friends list is definately the key to an enjoyable experience. I hardly ever join a quick game with people I dont know anymore.

Re PGR, I'm always up for a few races if anyone ever fancies it. I might knock you off the track but it won't be intentional.:D
 
D J C 197 said:
Re PGR, I'm always up for a few races if anyone ever fancies it. I might knock you off the track but it won't be intentional.:D

request sent as i want to play it again without being knocked off
 
You'll often find this problem with ranked matches - and as most say, the Friends list is the most important and in effect you're in the right place here, send out a bunch of friend requests as we're all pretty much in the same boat.

In PGR3 for example if you set up a match just with some friends you can even turn the collisions off, so it'll be down to driving skill alone getting rid of that infamous first-corner pile-up! You haven't mentioned GR:AW but the ranked matches on there do my fruit in - I only ever play against friends, and mix up the experience (picking a small map and having grenades only is a great leveller, for example, and good fun too).

I'm much like you mate, very reserved and am only now slowly coming round to the whole experience - stick with it and build up your friends list and this should guarantee you a) a better time and b) more value for money, as you might be tempted to trade in your games if you've played through on single player and are dis-heartened on Live with them.

Whilst I'm not online at the moment as I've just moved house and our new pad hasn't a phone line :)eek:) feel free to send a request through :smashin:
 
Every time you play, find the person in your 'recently played' list (they'll be on there whether or not they disconnect) and give them feedback, either good or bad. (Don't bother if you're neither hot nor cold for the individual.) Immediately you give someone bad feedback, the matchmaking system will never again pair you with them. (At least that is how it's supposed to work.) Anyone you +rep and people on your friends list are prioritised when picking opponents.

For someone constantly swearing, I'd go the extra mile and actually report them. Plenty of people are getting temp bans by MS already and it's part of the Live system they're working on. Obviously, if you're "Underground", anything goes.

As for the game itself, the disconnects require a patch. It's an oversight on the part of the devs. People who disconnect should be heavily punished. I'd happily risk getting punished for an accidental disconnect, as long as I know the cheaters out there have something to worry about.

The top of the leaderboards for SF2 are all cheaters. Simple as.
 
A lot good advice above; personally, I very rarely play against randoms, it's just not worth the hassle.:(

A good way of building up your friends' list quickly wattsy is to join one of the many games groups that are out there. I belong to www.gamegeezers.net, and we're a friendly bunch of slightly older gamers. We have a (near) weekly PGR3 session which is always good fun.

Re. swearing: that one's a bit more difficult. I would never swear at someone I didn't know. Having said that, I do occasionally swear! :devil: :D Pretty well everyone does, but there's a clear difference between trash-talking with mates and abusing a stranger. If it's really a no-no for you, it's probably best to change your zone to family; although that might present other problems. :)

Feel free to send me a friends' request, although I'm on holiday at the mo.
 
wow..thanks for all the replies. Seems I need to use the 'prefer this player' more often - kind of like when u get a new mobile phone and u have to train it with the predicitive text input, its a pain at first but eventually works fine.

If its ok I will add you all to my friends list - look forward to some proper games with mature gmaers in the future, where the best man wins - not usually me!!!

Swearing im cool with (did work in a factory for 4 years)...it was just 3 longish rounds of SF2 hearing nothing else but C~~T shouted at me - was pushing it a bit far.

Cheers again all, and if anyone else reading this but not posting fancies adding me to your friends list I would welcome that.
 
Excellent OP, Wattsy. Might I suggest you join one of the many "over 30's" gaming clans. At least that way you can be assured that your opponents will act in a more sportsmanlike manner.

I can't believe SF2 players are being so dishonourable. This is totally against the spirit of the game. The matching situation is pretty poor IMO. Lag is terrible and then to have people "stat boosting" by cancelling lost games is another nail in the coffin. Shocked, becasue I would've thought most SF2 players would be in their late twenties/early thirties by now......
 
Not sure if I have you on my friends list, I have a wattsy on there but I think it's wattsy17, you haven't slightly changed your tag have you?

Anyway, if that sin't you, feel free to add me. I only play for fun and despite being pretty damn terrible at most of the games I play, I always enjoy playing & if I ever lose connection you can be certain it's just that, I never quit from games, don't care when I lose TBH:)

Would really like to join some of you guys for some light hearted PGR3 as I haven't managed to get an online game in since february(I must be more rusty than a sunk ship now). For some reason I seem to be unable to join sessions in progress with that game so please pop me an invite if you see me online, I'll at least try to join.
 
We should organise a time where everyone who wants a game of PGR3 can be online so we could have a few games without people intentionally knocking people of the track.
 
Id just like to ask why you can choose PRO, Underground etc..I first thought that when you join a randon lobby it would put you with peeps of the same class(pro,underground) but it puts you with any so whats that about then?
 
csd7025 said:
Id just like to ask why you can choose PRO, Underground etc..I first thought that when you join a randon lobby it would put you with peeps of the same class(pro,underground) but it puts you with any so whats that about then?

I wonder the same thing - I also had a game of PGR3 a few months back and the race was full of rammers and abusers, so I left bad rep and even reported a couple.

So I go back through, get into a lobby and surprise, surprise, most of them are in the lobby I join :thumbsdow
 
wattsy i have already sent you a friends request, i enjoy most games and dont mind getting spanked on them either, just last night got beaten on NBA 24 -97!!!!
 
C225 said:
We should organise a time where everyone who wants a game of PGR3 can be online so we could have a few games without people intentionally knocking people of the track.

Good idea, I have you on my friends list already. Best times for me are either late afternoon/early evening UK time, or UK early hours. I'm 4 hours behind you lot y'see.

BTW, I do have a tendencyto knock people while playing PGR3, never intentional, I'm just a bad driver. I do try to avoid knocking other players though & usually spend most of the race saying "oops, sorry about that mate":clown:
 
Tetlee said:
Good idea, I have you on my friends list already. Best times for me are either late afternoon/early evening UK time, or UK early hours. I'm 4 hours behind you lot y'see.

BTW, I do have a tendencyto knock people while playing PGR3, never intentional, I'm just a bad driver. I do try to avoid knocking other players though & usually spend most of the race saying "oops, sorry about that mate":clown:
lol

I'm the same, I don't have a mic yet though...so people don't know weether it was accidental or not. :/


Mic should be here tomorrow though :)
 
I'm up for a bit of PGR3. I *never* swear, dont need to, and usually only speak if i'm spoken to. I find 'Duelling' on the online career the best but you still get quitters now and again.
 

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