Social Networking on the Xbox 360

[Peench]

Expand Your Xbox LIVE Network of Pals by browsing the Friends lists of other Xbox LIVE members

New Experience to be made available on December 4th with the Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard Update

Microsoft is making it even easier to expand your Friends network on Xbox LIVE, starting with the Fall Dashboard Update on December 4th. Members will now be able to check out the friends lists of fellow Xbox LIVE members right from the Dashboard. With this new feature, members can find old friends or connect with new ones within the community of more than 8 million people on Xbox LIVE around the globe and send messages and game invites, as well as compare games and Achievements.

With the prevalence of social media websites such as MySpace and FaceBook, this type of capability has largely come to be expected from consumers as a means to relate in an online community. Xbox LIVE continually seeks new ways to better serve the expectations of its members, which often result in enhancements made available for free through the bi-annual Dashboard updates.

When the Fall Dashboard update is distributed on December 4th, the new default setting on Xbox LIVE will be active enabling members to see the Friends lists of other Xbox LIVE members. Members who would like to keep their friends list private can take the following steps to change their settings beginning today:

Log in to Xbox Friends of Friends and select one of the three options available for your Gamertag:

• Everyone (only available to members 18 and older)
• Friends only (available to members 13 and older)
• Blocked (available to all members, and automatic for anyone under the age of 13)

Stay tuned for more information about the Xbox 360 Dashboard Update later this month.
~~

I logged in today and mine was set to everyone. I changed it to Friends only for now. At least until the rest of you "Friends" start harassing my other Friends, then I might lock it down!!

What setting will you set yours?

[N0W IM N0THING]

Just changed mine to friends only. Should be interesting to see how this feature will grow.

[ZoomZoom71]

Have they announced an increase in the # of friends allowed on the FL? If not, then this new "feature" doesn't do much for most of us.

[N0W IM N0THING]

I did some major cleaning of my F/L and weeded it down to 70 or so. Now I have a little breathing room

[BiffCo]

I currently have around 45 people on my friends list. I tend to keep it about there as a lot of people come and go on my list. If I haven't played games with you in over a month or two, please don't feel offended if I take you off. There are exceptions, and I even did a little test to see if Wonder knew I was gone. It worked!

-Brad

[Crippler]

Yeah, I noticed too Brad. I'm currently maxed also. I wonder what the big deal or limitation is that's holding us to 100 friends?

[Wondermonkey]

Interesting feature. I set it to friends only as well. I don't necessarily want the general public harassing the people on my friends list, especially the people who aren't on our site.

It is cool that you'll be able to check it out online as well though. Now I can finally see who Crippler is playing Viva Pinata Party Animals with every morning at 2 a.m.

[Peench]

Originally Posted by Crippler

Yeah, I noticed too Brad. I'm currently maxed also. I wonder what the big deal or limitation is that's holding us to 100 friends?

I thought it had something to do with BC titles. Since the FL on those old Xbox games were limited per game, I think it would take a massive overhaul to change it? I don't recall the exact reason why though, but I remember it being something fairly significant.

[Crippler]

Originally Posted by Peench

I thought it had something to do with BC titles. Since the FL on those old Xbox games were limited per game, I think it would take a massive overhaul to change it? I don't recall the exact reason why though, but I remember it being something fairly significant.

Wow. So we may be being held back because of a previous gen console.

[Lord Geoff]

Originally Posted by Peench

I thought it had something to do with BC titles. Since the FL on those old Xbox games were limited per game, I think it would take a massive overhaul to change it? I don't recall the exact reason why though, but I remember it being something fairly significant.

Correct, sir. Friends list was a software feature last gen and it would take a patch for each BC title in order for you to be able to see all of your friends.

[Peench]

Originally Posted by Crippler

Wow. So we may be being held back because of a previous gen console.

Yeah, kinda sucks. I'd rather have no BC (now that Halo3 is out!).

[Quo]

but that would only affect you when you're playing BC games, right? Why not make it an option for 360 owners? I'm probably missing a major point, but this still doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[Lord Geoff]

If the Xbox games are hardcoded to only accept 100, it may actually cause the game (including Halo 2) to lock up and become unplayable when it detects a number outside of that range. It seems as though it would be easy to fix, but if it were as simple as a patch or other small change, it would have been done. The friends list issue is very well known to the Live team. They mention it on at least one of the Live is 5 interviews on the Major Nelson podcast. They also cite that the avg Live user only has 27 or so friends.