Xbox 360 interface to be ruined on November 19th. I call shenanigans.

Written by Dan Zuccarelli

Wednesday, 08 October 2008 19:27

Have you heard our bitcast lately? I've mentioned this numerous times before in stories and in the comments how much I hate the new Xbox Live "Experience." Which is without a doubt a name conjoured out of a focus group somewhere. It literally reeks of upper management that thinks itself "hip" and "with it." Either that or someone went wild with PowerPoint.

BTW, making the Avatar is required.... GamerScoreBlog said in a post:

Yes, avatars are a part of the dashboard update, and integral to the new Xbox experience. If you hate them, for whatever reason, you can simply hit "A" a few times to select one of the defaults and skip past all the customization process.

How dumb are these things? There's a button to make them burp. Seriously.

Leave it to Microsoft to take something not broken and bust it apart. Replacing the entire interface with something that seems to take pleasure in wasting space, and leaving the functional part of the menu in a minority of the screen. Of course that small square you want to look at will be behind your dancing avatar, decked out in the latest crap swag to promote whatever casual game MSoft wants you to buy next. Hey everyone, let's all put on some "Let's Be in the Movies" t-shirts! Then we'll all get together and have an Xbox Live Party!

I finally figured out why I hate this idea so much more than Mii's or Playstation's Home thing.... because it's not optional. The Wii menu is white, slick and modern looking. The PS3 XMB bar is likewise slick and functional. If I want to watch a Mii Parade or walk around Home, I go launch those applications and enjoy them (which I don't enjoy so I avoid them). But every time I turn on my 360 to play Gears of War 2 or Left 4 Dead this fall I'll have to look at this chicklet cute interface, with the all-dancing crap of the world Avatars of my friends bopping around on my screen like there's some sort of fisher-price get together on my HDTV.

I love customizing characters in games like Rock Band and Little Big Planet. But THOSE ARE GAMES. This is a menu interface, it simply doesn't belong here.

So on November 19th this shit-fest will force it's way down the pipe and onto my 360, which for me means it's no longer my console of choice. Up until now all things being equal and the game available on multiple platforms I'd also go 360. No longer. Now if the option is available to me, The PS3 will get the money and game time. I'll play the occasional game and watch the occasional NetFlix movie on it.... and that's about it.

To those that think I have a particular slant against Nintendo or Sony (and I'm accused of both) what this proves here is that no company or console is above being judged on it's fun/usefulness/effectiveness/likability/etc. Up until this I was a big fan of the 360 (even though they're more fragile than fine china) but I have no problem pushing it to the back of the heap when they pull nonsense.

People will likely say I'm overreacting or it's no big deal. But guess what? I work hard for my game dollars and my game time, and will take steps to avoid what I find irritating and, quite frankly, stupid. Fuck off 360 experience. Blades? it was nice knowing ya.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know! This isn't a call to arms, I'm not trying to ask anyone to join in or anything... I'm not trolling for that kind of crap. Just one person's opinion.

Comments (16) Add Comment

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written by Miles Moore, October 09, 2008

I also read your rant on Kotaku, and I must say I agree with you one million percent. That stupid rip off of the mii avatar crap is pointless, stupid, and makes the 360 just plain childish. It really does look like a fisher-price gaming system now.

There was no need to re-vamp the whole dashboard like that, I for one actually loved the blades on the 360 more then the XBM and the Channel interface (Not saying they aren't good, I just preferred the 360 blades).

And the way everyone is just spouting off the "New Xbox Live Experience" crap really is annoying. It reminds me of the days I worked at Best Buy and Geek Squad and just had managers telling me all this management terms and crap. No sane,smart gamer is ever gonna say that long drawn out sentance, they are gonna say "dashboard" or "crappy GUI" or something.

It's a bunch of crap and I for one do not like it one bit. I'm sad that this new dashboard is not optional and neither are the avatars....ugh, I just realized that there really is a button to make them burp....I thought Microsoft was claiming the 360 to be the "Hardcore" console or something like that, Not some LeapFrog childs learning toy thing.

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written by Roundup, October 09, 2008

Well, you kinda suck at your point, since you're bashing a thing which isn't even released. You tried it? Nope! So what's my point? I want a friendly gui, so my kids would have fun even in dashboard cause it's a FAMILY console, get it? Not only-hardcore one. You're a hardcore gamer? Microsoft did a great job for you too! Turn on autoplay and never ever see that fancy dashboard again! There's a built-in dashboard right in the guide, good old blades, so you can have all of the previous user experience as before. So what do I think of your complains? Pussy whining!

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written by OH, October 09, 2008

While I can see your point about Avatars, they are pretty cutesy and an obvious ripoff of Miis and we should be able to "opt out" if we want, you're absolutely wrong about the new dashboard.

I'm a graphic designer, I do this sort of thing every day for a living. If you have every square inch of the screen used up it will feel crowded, the user will feel overwhelmed, and it will look amaturish. Amature...ish. I'm not sure how to spell that. There's a balance to be reached between function and fashion.

My point though is that the Blade system was great, but it's time for a change. The new UI, while being very Apple, is a definite step in the right direction.

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written by Dan Zuccarelli, October 09, 2008

I can see both sides of the argument here, but I really wish it were optional. That way those of us that wanted the family oriented stuff could have it and the rest of it wouldn't have to partake.

Also, while I definitely think there's a balance between form and function... and overcrowding does indeed look amateurish, this is way to large a swing in the opposite direction for my taste. Negative space in anything is usually a good thing, but to me this here is simply wasted space.

I do love the "but have you tried it yet" argument. Every day we make decisions about things by looking at them and weighing whether or not we'd like it. I saw a trailer for movie A and it looks like it sucks... The food at that restaurant looks delicious... etc etc. So the argument that I can't have an opinion on it before I'm forced to use it seems goofy to me.

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written by Ryan Hewson, October 09, 2008

Yeah. You arrived at basically the same point I have.

OH has a point in that you don't really want to cram every inch of space with stats and info as it won't give your eye any place to rest. That's just standard negative space in design. But this isn't the real issue with the ... I won't say it. Let's go with "new dashboard."

Also - I knew there would be no way to deactivate those avatars. I knew this for two reasons: one, MS wants to push them hard, and two, the X360 firmware is kind of small comparatively speaking (which is why it downloads/updates so quickly). Not a lot of room in there for options, like the obvious choice of being able to turn on the "classic Dashboard". If it had that, everyone would be happy. But I suspect it literally won't fit. And the design of the ... uh, floating panes?... is such that they must leave room for the avatar in between the focused item and the next, so you can't even "disappear" the avatar in the interface. Everything about the design philosophy is about that avatar.

So the avatars are here to stay, they are the new face of the Dash, and we had better get used to it. And that's why I wrote my original post that I linked above – this augers poorly for the hardcore players that were the initial X360 adopters. MS figures they've maxed out that group (or nearly) and now want to go after these "casuals" that print money for Nintendo. Ergo, the Mii Too invasion.

Now, I don't hate avatars as vehemently as you Dan (I will be at least trying out Home) but I completely understand your point. I think your new best friend will be the "Boot on disc insert" function.

And I fully intend on unpacking the whole new dashboard when it finally hits – I've been watching preview videos all along on the gamerscore blog and making notes. I don't want to fully judge until its out. Because I think there will also still be some ads crammed in there.

It's gonna cause some anger, that's for sure.

It's classic Microsoft interface design. They thought CoverFlow was neat; they wanted something like Miis; they wanted something with reflections like Apple... and then they threw it all in a blender. It's so typical for them, it's actually painful for me to watch. I wasn't a big fan of the old Dash at all but at least people seemed comfortable with it, and now they're going to replace it with what is potentially a whole new set of issues.

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written by Mike, October 09, 2008

So now i've heard two conflicting stories on if the avatars will be mandatory, me thinks they shall be which blows big time. i have NO interest in having an avatar AT ALL.

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written by Katana, October 09, 2008

As I understand it while it will be mandatory to have an avatar, they won't be jumping around on screen unless you want them to. Based on what I've seen they are banished to a box in the corner unless you are using the new "social" features being added. So if you just want to get your Gears of War on you won't have to wade through a sea of Avatars to do it.

Also for everyone saying that this is obviously just a Mii ripoff, clearly you missed the Rare interview about a month ago where they were working on Avatars before the Wii even launched.

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written by Chris Paladino, October 09, 2008

Wait till it comes out, and give it a try. Even if you still hate avatars, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the feature set, the speed and pep the dash has, and how easy it is to navigate.

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written by dgenerate, October 09, 2008

"Leave it to Microsoft to take something not broken and bust it apart"

Did not like the interface before, so I'm super pumped about this update! I almost considered it 'broken'

"what this proves here is that no company or console is above being judged on it’s fun/usefulness/effectiveness/likability/etc."

Totally agree (even though I disagree with a lot of what you said)

"Up until this I was a big fan of the 360 (even though they’re more fragile than fine china)"

Amen brother.

The only thing I don't understand is what the big problem you have with avatars is. A forum on a website is not a game, but we have custom avatars for those. The fact is, most people like to customize shit and people LOVE online social networks. The New Xbox Experience adds to these features. If you like the blades so much, just press the XBox button and it will bring up a small version of the blades interface (which also happens to be more effective and more efficient)

The fact is, that the original interface was designed with the original vision of XBox LIVE in mind. As that vision of Xbox LIVE has changed, so too should the software to use the service. I just wish this was around since launch.

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written by Ryan Hewson, October 09, 2008

I understand why he hates the avatars. It's the art direction.

The idea of an avatar is that it reflects something about you personally. A JPEG in the corner of the blog post (while also being totally static) can be literally anything.

The idea behind the new 360 avatars is ostensibly for players to "show off their personality in new ways". As long as you look like a Bratz doll.

I may be speaking out of turn here, but I bet if you asked Dan if he'd be cool with a gigantic pixelated N+ ninja for an avatar, he'd probably say hell yeah.

It needs game characters, or at least more "neutral" characters. Not these things.

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written by Russ, October 10, 2008

I also arrived here through your Kotaku rant. Glad to see better discussion here, though, from calmer heads. It is strange for me to envision such hostility towards a change like this and it doesn't help that all(none) of the details seem to be clear. Even reading the gamerscoreblog, I'm still not sure what exactly is required/mandatory/optional.

Microsoft stated previously that they want the XBox to be the media center for a house. It has everything, but it really has been the default console for FPS and Hardcore gamers. Shifting markets requires some different, more user-friendly, software. It doesn't mean you won't be able to do what you want on it, just that the OS is different (sorta like I can still look up as much pr0n as I want whether I'm using my WinXP PC or a Win98 public library PC-not that I do, just an example).

Lastly, you're right about decisions we make daily based on first impressions, but a movie you choose to pass on don't ruin the theatre/dvd player/television and food you eat will be through you in less than 24 hours--flavor of the week. Maybe you were just exaggerating to make a point, but the xbox is not ruined for anyone unless it becomes completely unusable (supposed to be more usable after this for more people)--regardless of cutesy shit.

I'm just glad we don't have to pay for it.

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written by Utopaline, October 13, 2008

How about we all wait til the 19th of Nov. Use it for a bit, then complain all we want if it really does indeed suck. It's like saying a movie or game is "the best thing ever" or that is "SUCKS" but none of us has even come close to playing, seeing or using it.

Uto

P.S. I had a much better response that I wrote a few days ago, and for some reason (I think the P$3 loving in all of you) it did not post.

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written by gf202, December 02, 2008

While I agree, the old Xbox was better, its not that bad. I hate it also but you look at it for two seconds at the most and then your playing your game. The avatars seem like a rip of the wii and it does look like someone went crazy with powerpoint but 360 is still my choice, for I base my choice on in game experience and what appeals to me (certainly not the new dashboard smilies/tongue.gif