As I mentioned last month, I'm leading the development of a new, game-flavored, web-based service. We're now very close to launching its first draft, but before that happens, I could use a little community help with a certain aspect of it.
In order to make sure its user documentation is correct, I need some experience playing Xbox 360 games over Xbox Live with non-random people. In other words, I need to get more familiar with XBL's invitation and "party" systems, versus just hitting "Quick Match" after firing up a game and taking your chances playing with the total stranger the system pairs you up with. (Which is often nobody at all, for games other than the most popular.)
Because of my confidence that viewers and readers of The Gameshelf are some of the finest and most erudite game-players on the internet, I would like to invite whichever of y'all have an XBL Gold account, a headset mic, and some free time to give me a hand here. Basically, I'm just asking for folks to play a game or two with me, sometime in the near future. The main goal is for me to better grok how invitations work in XBL, but if I must actually play the games in order to do this, then this is a burden I am willing to bear.
Here are the titles I would be willing to try this with (but feel free to suggest alternates):
• Carcassonne
• Catan
• Bomberman Live
• Castle Crashers
• Team Fortress 2 (The Orange Box)
• Schizoid
• Assault Heroes
• Aegis Wing
• Ticket to Ride
• Lost Cities
• Every Extend Extra Extreme
• Heavy Weapon
• Uno
• Worms
If you are able to help, feel free to contact me about this through comments here, via email, or, yes, via XBL (that's my Gamercard there on the right). All I offer in return is a thank-you note in the project blog, along with the knowledge that you helped improve a project that is seeking to make online gaming a better experience for everyone. Also you get to play a game with me, so there's that too.
