Nostalgia: Does anyone remember the old days on Xbox Live?

[Nimrod]

I was browsing reddit and came across this post:

Gameplay mechanics aside, Halo 2 was in a different era of the internet. You are probably excited to be playing online and learning lots of things about the game that you'd never thought of from other players. When Halo 2 was new this is how everyone felt. Everyone was introducing new friends to each other constantly, we all wore mics all the time, had hours and hours of custom game lobbies where we'd just sit and talk, show each other jumps we'd found, do the same superbounce (glitch that made you jump very, very high) for a whole evening straight, stupid customs like first to 250 plasma pistol punchout on Ascension/Lockout. There were also a lot more custom games going on - if you had a full friends list or a clan you pretty much had access to a lockout or midship FFA game 24/7. You'd join games that had been going for hours where the top 10 players all had hundreds of kills and you could never hope to catch up, but it was just fun to play.
We played custom games where the rules were fully imposed by the community, and it was up to us to gang up on players who broke them (e.g. Cat and Mouse where 2 players would get in Wraiths and the rest would try to run away in Warthogs, no shooting of the Wraith and no getting out of the Warthog, Zombies where you had to switch teams when you died and had to not use the human weapons as a zombie and not use the sword as a human). Halo 2 had a clan system built in, complete with clan matchmaking games. I used to try out for clans in 1v1s against a player who was in it to prove my worth, and I can still remember winning some that at the time I thought I had no hope of doing so.
A lot of what was so magic about it was that the internet was a different place back then. I remember playing about 5 games of matchmaking with a guy, then we went into a custom lobby on Coagulation (Blood Gulch re-make) and literally just shared our whole life stories with each other over the course of a whole afternoon, and at the time this is just the sort of thing you'd happily do on the internet. We ended up playing together almost daily for 3 years. The attitude in matchmaking was different too, the social lobbies were really social, people weren't worried about KD like they are now, they'd shout more (excitedly) and get angry less. Ranked was super serious, though.
Halo 3 was pretty fun too, the forge and deeper customisation options led to some really amazing gametypes being made that you would just never be able to conceive of yourself. Doing the puzzle maps with friends, the zombie variants, playing matchmaking on custom maps etc was all completely new to me at the time. The Xbox userbase at the time hadn't gone off using mics yet, in the ranked playlists you would still expect all 8 players to be using mics the vast majority of the time.
I guess if you didn't play Halo 2 or 3 online then the idea of the ranking system is pretty new to you, but that was one of the greatest things Halo had to offer, and frankly the game is nowhere near what it was without it. The intensity of the games used to be crazy. If a game was 49-49 then the next point would secure the win and the winning team's ranks would go up while the losing team's would go down. The tension at that point was really massive, and I haven't really felt it since. You really would feel your heart sink when someone died on your team, or guilty if you was you, and inversely such intense joy when your team won and pride when it was your kill. People devised names for every location on the maps and would constantly update you as to the enemy team's location and status in order to give you even the slightest advantage. It's strange to think now because it hasn't happened in so long, but we would be endlessly saying things like "Papa John is one-shot on training with rockets", "They have a guy in shotgun with sniper watching long hall, rockets up in 20 seconds" etc. It was a whole different experience to the social gaming you experience now.

Source: Ito15 comments on Can some veteran Halo players describe the multiplayer of previous Halo installments to a 12 year old?

Not just with Halo, but the old days of Xbox Live I rmemeber when everyone used Mic's, most people were friendly and games turned into massive conversations with all players talking, getting along and having a blast.

Recently playing on Xbox Live since the player base is massive now just doesn't seem the same. Hardly anyone uses Mic's, (or if they do, there in party chats), there is never any sense of team work (due to the lack of communication) and it just doesn't seem as fun as the old days. Perhaps it's just me getting old, but to be honest I miss the old Xbox Live a lot. I haven't really met anyone new randoms on Xbox Live in years (other than friends from Digiex or real life who I have added directly).

Another example is just recently on GTA5, we had like 6 members of Digiex in a game and only two of us (who also happened to be sitting in the same room next to eachother) were using Mic's, everyone else had them connected and wouldnt speak so after a while we just took headsets off. I don't know how your suppose to work as a team if your not prepared to speak to eachother, but again that's just me.

Does anyone else have any memories of Xbox Live from the past, or feel the same or is it just me?

 

[InsaneNutter]

Very interesting topic to bring up, I certainly do remember Xbox Live been vastly different than it is now.

I think it all changed when all the major games adopted match making, it's so impersonal... your only likely going to play one round of a game with the people you are currently with before you are matched with some totally different people. So why bother speaking to them? I think what totally changed Xbox Live was party chat, everyone just goes in party chat with their friends so even if someone in the public game is trying to speak your never going to hear then. It does kill any chance of some proper team work, or talking to new people. What was a good idea was Modern Warfare 2 forcing people in party chat to speak in the public game once it had started.

The golden days of Xbox Live for me:

I much prefer the classic server list approach where the players control the game options, maps and can even kick people out the game who are not playing fair... or simply abusing the mic. That for me is how i remember Halo 2 and Gears of War. I never had Xbox Live on my Classic Xbox, so i used to play system link on Xlink Kai, you would end up playing with the same people each day, speak to them and work as a proper team. Sure i was not the best at Halo 2, however i learned a thing or two and the most important thing was everyone had fun, win or loose.

I felt that was replicated well on the Xbox 360 with Gears of War, half of the random people on my friends like are people i played Gears of War with back in 2006 / 2007. Gears of War had a server list browser, so you could host a game, set your own options, balance the teams your self and most of all talk to people. I found the same people would join the games i hosted each day, like playing with the map cycle, options i chose and would add me to their friends. So after a while it became easy to just look on your first list and easily fill a game with people, and most of all speak and have fun.

 

[xXTacoGuyXx]

I can't comment on this properly, with me only having got XBL early last year, but i had played some Halo 3 at this business in my city which allows you to pay for a certain amount of time, and you can go on their computers or Xboxs and play online.
Anyway, i played Halo 3 a little bit there before Reach came out, and lots of people were using mics and there was a lot more teamwork. I'm pretty much always in party chat now due to not wanting to listen to annoying 12 year olds, and 40 year olds who live in their parent's basement, and mexican kids with their entire family in one room with echoey Kinect mic.

 

[xzKinGzxBuRnzx]

For what I lack in social skills I make up for in real skills.

 

[Slaz]

I never owned an original Xbox, but I do remember the early days of Xbox 360 where everyone was in the 'game chat' instead of isolated parties. I played days and days of Gears of War and Halo 3, and met new friends of which some I'm still friends with in real life!

Nostalgia is a strong feeling, yet I do believe that the current 'isolation' state of Xbox Live with parties and a more expansive game library, with a spreaded player base as a result, misses some of the charms Xbox Live used to have.