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Industry Insider : Xbox Live 2.0

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:37:12 GMT

Xbox Live 2.0
(New Xbox Experience)
So by now NXE is about 2 weeks old and all the Xbox junkies have had their feel of the newness of it. So for all of you non-Xbox junkies let us feel you in on what you are missing out on.Some of the newest features NXE has to offer aren’t really all that new to the industry for example:

•Avatars:

These customizable mini character representations of what we want others to think of us are no new star to the gaming world. In fact these cute little characters bear a striking resemblance to Nintendo’s Mii’s. With the same basic concept of creating a virtual image and then allowing the player to use this virtual image in a variety of different applications over the Xbox’s console. Some of these programs include Xbox Live Arcade games such as A Kingdom of Keflings which allows the player to take their avatar and with four other players create a world of people were they are giants and they rule over keflings. Although as it stands right now the avatar system is nothing special ,but soon Xbox plans to release and market new game and new applications in which players can use their avatars to raze chaos.

Another great feature that the NXE has to offer is the new Marketplace some of its new features have some gamers drooling:

•Netflix:

Netflix has teamed up with Microsoft to bring the movie watching experience home to the gamer. This new feature allows Netflix customers who have an Xbox to create a list of movies, and then by registering your Xbox to your account stream the movies live over your internet connection. Which I must say is handy dandy slick as candy. Although right now this list of movies the player is able to stream is kind of small they are constantly adding new movies and TV shows.

•Demo’s Galore

Xbox has overhauled their availability when it comes to being able to demo games almost every game that is coming out has a demo that can be played. Which when it comes getting your game out there nothing like a good demo to spruce up sales.

•Gold Member Specials

NXE has a lot more to offer in the way of giving more benefits to its members. Some people complained that paying $50 to play online wasn’t worth it, but now Microsoft is making it worth it. By giving discounts on many items like new games, old games, accessories, exclusive downloaded content, beta testing, and much more.

•Installing Games to HDD(Hard Disk Drive)

Although this feature is very limited in its ability it opens the possibility for Direct2Drive download and play. Installing any current game in your arsenal sounds like a great idea to get around buying games, but Microsoft is one step ahead by not allowing you to start the game without the disc. Some people ask why even use this feature if you have to use the disc to play? Well if you do take the time to install the game to drive you will learn that some games play faster, load faster, and just generally run smoother. Right now this is limited but in the future this will be the way we get games.

In wrapping NXE have a lot of great features and a lot of functional features to offer. We have only listed a lot of noticeable changes and features that we thought sold us on the new look and design of NXE. There are tons of other things that they have created and a lot of new things that will be coming down the pipeline.

For more in depth details please visit http://www.Xboxlive.com. Thanks for reading and Check back for more news and information in the next Industry Insider.

How do you say BYOND?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:07:20 GMT

This is an age old question that I have asked on several occasions throughout the years I usually ask about once year. So with BYOND increasing population I figure I will ask it again to see how all the new people say it.

So how you do you say it?
B"e"Yond - Like a play off the work beyond?
B"i"Yond - Like the same sound as buy-ond
or do you say it differently all together.

The Industry Insider

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:27:15 GMT

Welcome to GCG,

Due to a very good idea that was suggested. GCG is going to do a weekly summary on the Gaming Industry. This hopefully will give some people a good idea on where things are going and where things stand. Each which the articles will be focused on a certain topic such as: Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC, New Releases, Press Work, and Lots more. GCG will also be conducting polls on topics you want us to find out about.

GCG is dedicated to the Gamer Creator. As we will also be posting helpful resources in hopes to point people in the right direction!

Thanks, GCG

Game Creators Guild

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:00:28 GMT

So over the past few months I have been attending class at a local college where I live. In this class I am majoring in Game Design and minoring in multimedia and my Goal is to become a Game Developer and work for an awesome game company as is probably everyone else that is on BYOND. Which brings me to my next point. The other day as I was sitting around at my friends house who I attend class with we were going over some game ideas he was telling me about an pretty sweet sounding game kind of based on the book Eragon. As he was talking to me I was working on a game in BYOND, working on icons, when I passed the idea to him that he should check it out. And as I explained to him how BYOND helped me with my programming skills and some artistic views the thought hit me. BYOND really is a great source to learn and hone in skills that you can use in the real world. Prime example in my Visual Basic and C++ classes that which I had to take both on the Beginning and Intermediate levels as this is course requirement. I realized that even though I was using this product that had pop-up and drop down menus to help me big what I was looking for having the concept and grasping of code layout learned from BYOND made it really easy. It was almost to easy on some programs I had made to point where I had found several different solutions to one problem simply because I had to do it BYOND like that. I even had to help debug the teachers code from time to time. Which was fun.

Back on point! So as I have learned BYOND is a great tool for any level of programmer or artist or anyone really! So I have decided to start a Game Creators Guild the point of the guild is to have anyone join who has a dream to one day join the Gaming Industry not just play great game but make them. Hopefully by bringing these people into a niche inside the world of BYOND we can pass ideas, knowledge, skills, and maybe other talents along to each other in a grand effort to one day attain our goal.

Hopefully you understand the point I am trying to relay to everyone. But allow me to summarize. BYOND is a great tool at any stage in a Game Developer's career from beginner to advanced and with the knowledge and the people we gain from BYOND we can excel to new heights and new goals.

Join the Game Creators Guild if you ever had, have, or wanted to become a Game Developer on any level. From Sound, Code, Concept Artist, Tester, Debugger, Level Designer, or anything else you can think of. Let us use what we have to help us gain for the future!

~Brent(Smoky)