I am a huge fan of the Xbox 360, if that is not already obvious. However, after playing the games, using the service, and watching Microsoft’s public moves on the console after 2 years of it being out… I have some suggestions for improving the service, quality, and overall Xbox 360 experience. Warning in advance, I am not complaining by any means, but just giving my thoughts as both an avid gamer, and 360 site writer.

Leaderboards - While its great to have Halo 3 stats online, Xbox Live loves using leaderboards for every XBLA game and most Xbox 360 titles… so why isn’t this stuff online? To help build on this community aspect that Microsoft seems to love, they should find a way to get these leaderboard tools online, so that we can really see how creative these community sites can get. Can you imagine 360voice.com doing a daily post like - “DaKing240 is still #2 on Uno, and holding onto #18 on Call of Duty 4.” Again, that is only the beginning, what if other kinds of stats were made public, like that game where you had 11 head shots in a row, or you won the game for your team with no time left. Surely the tools are out there to record this kind of data, and if this was all made possible, people would create tools to share them on all kinds of web sites. Xbox 360 seems to thrive on how attached to the community they can get, so with some extra tools in place for future games, they really could do stuff that other system haven’t even thought of yet

Let Halo 3 Lead By Example!

Games For Windows - While its great for a retail game to be made available on both Xbox 360 and Windows, why not expand the service to the casual gamer? If I were in charge at Microsoft, my goal would to expand this concept of GamerTags, Achievements, and even mix in Live Messenger. “Would you like to play Catan against this Live User?” Have a program launch, and automatically be put into a private room with your buddy. I can’t imagine this working easily for retail game, but every single Xbox Live Arcade game should eventually be put on computers, where people can play against each other on the Xbox Live network. So, how many users are using the Xbox Live network now, not including all the newly purchased games by simply word of mouth and convenience.

Anyone else want an invite to Catan?

Dashboard Update - Just a simple request… instead of having it popup that “Player A has invited me to a game,” why not have it actually tell me the game? “Player A has invited you to play Turok.” Ahh, perfect, but can’t you see that I am still playing Call of Duty 4?

But Halo has it! - I am a stalker when it comes to my friends and the games they play. I mean, if they are on my friends list, then obviously I want to game with them. Which brings me to my next point… if Halo 3 can have the software to show you players in a party, and other cool stuff to quickly jump from one party to the other… why is this not standard? Microsoft obviously has the tools to push Xbox Live to the next level, but was Halo 3 simply a test, or were they simply reserving the cool Xbox Live features for the “power house” games? Either way, I don’t really care, it should be for every title, no questions asked.

Next Generation [with 16 players?] - With the exception of a few games, if a computer game can have 100+ players in a game, why is no publisher, developer or whoever makes the decision pushing the limits a bit beyond 16 players? I can understand some games may want to keep the max at a minimum, but if I am making a game, and want to attract an audience, then why not give a game some dedicated servers that can feature some true multiplayer battles, with more than 16 players!

Free Advertising! - Microsoft has this very stupid policy, which makes no sense to me. Now, I want to watch what I say here before I upset some people who make these decisions, but work with me here. If the Xbox community has 100000+ sites that want to talk about games, show screen shots, and simply want to embrace XBLA games, then why is so much information purposely hidden? XBLA games are released on Wednesdays, but most, if not all, sites are made aware at noon on Monday. Which gives every site 2 days to talk about games, 2 days to get interviews, videos, achievements, pretty much anything. But if gamers are willing to advertise among themselves for free - why not give them more time? Imagine if gamers and sites had say, 2 weeks in advance about the release date of a certain game. It would create a much better buzz, and possibly sell many more copies of games. This would give web sites more content to work with, publishers/developers more sales, and would make Microsoft much happier then then can attract more companies to put games on XBLA. But limiting sites to 2 days? Enjoy the same screen shots on every site :/

Names and Categories - While its cool to have MasterChief123456789 as a friend, it would be even cooler to be able to give your console a feature to rename it locally to the console, so that its easier to track who’s who. On top of that kind of a feature, how about other additions to categorize the friends list. I already know the different lists I would create - Fans, Community Sites, College, High School, Random, Specific Game Friends, the list goes on and on… I have a hard time remembering how I met some people, but if I could categorize them into a group like “Gears of War Friends,” it would certainly help me out, and many others who make random friends in random gaming sessions.

So in conclusion, I hope someone reads this post, and will even consider some of these changes. Lets improve Xbox Live…