Community Games

I remember being incredibly excited a year ago when Microsoft announced its Xbox Live Community Games. Finally anyone with some programming skills and big dreams could put their game out for the world to see. I knew the majority of the games were going to be terrible, but I figured the greats would rise to the top and indie developers like never before would have an outlet for their work. Since the official launch of Community Games several months ago I have tried maybe three games and bought one. What happened to all my excitement?

Well first of all, the sheer number of games available to try is incredibly overwhelming. Even with the huge dashboard overhaul, browsing through the hundreds of games on the Xbox is tedious at best. Couple that with the old four minute trial that basically required you to try a game at least twice (once to get through the menu and figure out the controls then a second to actually play the thing) and playing any of these games is suddenly more of a chore than it ever should be. The trial time has been doubled now at least, but there is still a lot more that needs to be done to make getting quality content easier.

I find it quite hilarious that the iPhone, a platform that was never even initially advertised as a gaming capable device, has gotten more coverage for its games among our community than the Xbox equivalent. Hardcore gaming podcast ListenUP! has a segment every week dedicated to some new iPhone game worth playing. The last time I heard a Community game mentioned on the show was a couple months ago and a large part of why that even happened was because the maker of the game mentioned also did some music stuff for a member of the shows other endeavors.

What does the iPhone do differently than Xbox? The rating system is probably a huge part of it. Anyone after playing a game can give a quick rating out of five. This instantly allows you to search for the games people liked the best, weeding out the crap. The store is also available on computers, which makes browsing potentially interesting games much faster and more streamlined. Finding out anything about a Community Game requires flipping through countless lists just to get a tiny paragraph about the game. Basically all the games on Xbox have going for them are word of mouth and that clearly isn’t enough.

The whole thing is a shame, because I know there are some very excellent games worth our attention. If Dishwasher, an XBLA game that got published as a prize for winning the best of the initial Community Games, can come out of such a system than I am very eager to play more. I just don’t want to spend more time finding them than playing them.