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The Xbox One friends and party system is horrible

What needs to be fixed with the Xbox One Interface…Long Rant Incoming 

I have been played a good couple of days now and have some major gripes about the interface and how you interact with your friends and party….if I were to summarize it quickly the interface and friends system is broken at the moment…the rest of the console is pretty cool,I love the snap feature…I love the voice controls to some degree and I am really enjoying the games but the friends and party system is really spoiling the experience…I’m not sure if this is what CBOAT was alluding too but it’s almost like they went out of their way to create the most confusing and non user friendly system for when you want to play with your friends. 

I have seen the major nelson piece about how to party up but even that seems confusing and dipped in pr ..most people just want to join their friends party of their choosing and join into their game if there is a spot…you cant do this with most of the games.

 The New ideas are nice in theory but they have completely destroyed something that was simple and works well on the 360. 

Here are the main gripes 

Accessing your friends list 

You can’t simply bring up your friends list while in a game…..unless I’m missing something you either have to go back to the home screen and click on the friends tile or you have to snap the ui and bring the party tab into the second window…both methods are cumbersome and one of the best features of the 360 was how you could simply click the orb button..bring up the friends list and invite to party or join party . Another rather annoying thing is that I have to filter to online only every time I go into my friends list…it should be showing the online guys first and the offline second. 

Notifications 

Not sure what they have done here but you can’t set the notifications to show when your friends come online…instead of this they have put some retarded system which prompts other people on your friends list to join into a party if they happen to be playing the same game…this would not be a problem if I was chummy with everyone on my friends list but I play with some friends on some games and some other friends on other games 

The Actual Party System

 Why do you have to turn party chat on every time you join the party??...if we were all grouped together in a party do you think people would like to sit around and stare at the usernames??...would make sense if you could invite people to games…which brings me to my next point 

The Invite System

 Probably the biggest pile of crap in the whole thing…you can’t simply click on a friend and invite to game......try setting up a private lobby in forza5…you will go insane…you cant even join a session in progress….there is no option too unless the game you have has it built into their matchmaking system….you get the invites late,the pop ups to join the party game put you into lobbys of the people who are playing it on your friends list (who you may not want to play with) and sometimes it decides to randomly kick someone which causes the game to crash for one or two people in your party.

 I have read somewhere that this function is there but is not visible if you are not matched……this is completely crap 

How Do you Fix this…????
let me suggest a few things 

The Party and Friends System needs to be Quick..Snappy and to the point….most people don’t want to stuff around snapping menus..clicking unmute and having to go through menus to simply reply back to a message

 1)      Make the orb button on the control bring up a menu that has Friends…Party and Messages..nothing else If people want to go to the home menu let kinnect guide do it or add in a function like double clicking the orb button that does this….i know this is the snap function but surely that could be remapped to some other button press of combination Under these menus..have it like the 360s…reply to message…invite friend ect…there should be no more than 2  submenus Any more than that and its bloated 

2)      Get rid of the matchmaking Party system crap…I don’t want to be matched up with everyone on my friends list who is playing the game I’m playing..i suspect this is the evolution of the broadcast crap that was on the 360 that nobody that I know used.Its Crap..sometimes I feel like jumping in a game with some friends who are new to the game..sometimes I don’t Do not put up a wall stopping me doing this and don’t force me play with people I don’t want to play with. 

3)      Let me invite or join session in progress like the 360 used too..dont block me from doing it because of my rank/reputation ect 

4)      Show me when my friends come online..and if I want to see who is online don’t make me have to click on a filter every time I want to go through my hundreds of freinds 

5)      If I join a Party its because I want to chat with them…don’t mute everyone by default  

I suspect many of these are already been worked on but in my opinion you should be able to quickly reply back to a message…quickly join a game or quickly invite someone to a party..all of this can currently be done on the 360 in seconds

 If someone who is working on the interface is reading this have someone with a 360 sit next to you and time how it takes to do something …if it takes longer..scrap it…if its quicker. …Add it
 
I’m betting also that there may be some quick shortcuts that I’m not aware of but myself and 8 others on my friends list were all scratching their heads over the weekend trying to do basic things and we are gamers….imagine Mum and Dad trying to figure this out
 

mjc

Member
I believe dropping the guide menu was a mistake. They could of refined that with faster performance and quicker short cuts

Yeah is have to agree with this. As it stands the guide button is a glorified home button that you don't have to use. Just say Xbox Go Home.
 

quickwhips

Member
should have kept the 360 dash board. It just worked so well. I would have just built skype to replace the party chat instead of what we got now.
 

Iacobellis

Junior Member
famousmortimer was right, then.

In all honesty, though, this doesn't sound much better than PSN on the PS4. LIVE never had online friend notifications to begin with, so I don't understand the need to complain there.

On PS4, you have to bring up the Dynamic Menu and goto your Friends from there. Granted, you could always double-tap the PS button and quickly switch between the game and list that way. Invites are also on a game-by-game basis, there is no ability to invite (or join, I'm not sure) from a Friend's profile. Only Party Chat works that way.

The PS4 doesn't have a "Guide" either, you get full access to the console while playing a game.

It sucks that Microsoft went backwards on LIVE with the XB1, whereas Sony made great steps in moving forward on PSN.
 

Hubble

Member
This sounds terrible :(. These are the most important features used in the console. The 360 system was perfect. When I thought the UI was going to be better... I'm not so sure now.
 
I really cant figure out the thought process that went into the design of the ui and interactions....its completely stuffed in some areas and brilliant in others
 

Nebula

Member
I love it when a team is payes thousands to remake an already great system for it to be horrid. I seriously hope it gets simplified and made more user friendly by the time I get it next year. I hate pissing about in menus.
 
famousmortimer was right, then.

In all honesty, though, this doesn't sound much better than PSN on the PS4. LIVE never had online friend notifications to begin with, so I don't understand the need to complain there.

On PS4, you have to bring up the Dynamic Menu and goto your Friends from there. Granted, you could always double-tap the PS button and quickly switch between the game and list that way. Invites are also on a game-by-game basis, there is no ability to invite (or join, I'm not sure) from a Friend's profile. Only Party Chat works that way.

The PS4 doesn't have a "Guide" either, you get full access to the console while playing a game.

It sucks that Microsoft went backwards on LIVE with the XB1, whereas Sony made great steps in moving forward on PSN.

LIVE never had friend notifications ? In what way?
 
As the guys said on the Giant Bomb launch stream, it's a huge step back, and I've got no idea why MS made those decisions. Maybe in time they'll better integrate everything together as opposed to it feeling like you're running multiple layered apps to make things work. Making things more complicated may offer more options, but it didn't make things better.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
nvites are also on a game-by-game basis, there is no ability to invite (or join, I'm not sure) from a Friend's profile. Only Party Chat works that way.
That's not true actually. I was able to join someone's multiplayer session from the main screen.
 
famousmortimer was right, then.

In all honesty, though, this doesn't sound much better than PSN on the PS4. LIVE never had online friend notifications to begin with, so I don't understand the need to complain there.

On PS4, you have to bring up the Dynamic Menu and goto your Friends from there. Granted, you could always double-tap the PS button and quickly switch between the game and list that way. Invites are also on a game-by-game basis, there is no ability to invite (or join, I'm not sure) from a Friend's profile. Only Party Chat works that way.

The PS4 doesn't have a "Guide" either, you get full access to the console while playing a game.

It sucks that Microsoft went backwards on LIVE with the XB1, whereas Sony made great steps in moving forward on PSN.
Can you invite people to a game on ps4? I haven't found any way to invite friends to Killzone. Do they have to be playing the game? Or is it just not possible?

They added the functionality for devs to add on a per game basis midway through the ps3's life. Surely it's there for ps4 and I'm just not seeing it?

That's not true actually. I was able to join someone's multiplayer session from the main screen.

Oh? By going to their profile? What about inviting?
 

Pop

Member
famousmortimer was right, then.

In all honesty, though, this doesn't sound much better than PSN on the PS4. LIVE never had online friend notifications to begin with, so I don't understand the need to complain there.

On PS4, you have to bring up the Dynamic Menu and goto your Friends from there. Granted, you could always double-tap the PS button and quickly switch between the game and list that way. Invites are also on a game-by-game basis, there is no ability to invite (or join, I'm not sure) from a Friend's profile. Only Party Chat works that way.

The PS4 doesn't have a "Guide" either, you get full access to the console while playing a game.

It sucks that Microsoft went backwards on LIVE with the XB1, whereas Sony made great steps in moving forward on PSN.

C'mon now

Ps4 party system is simple. Press the PS button, move up once to the party icon...

Yeah thats so hard.
 
famousmortimer was right, then.

In all honesty, though, this doesn't sound much better than PSN on the PS4. LIVE never had online friend notifications to begin with, so I don't understand the need to complain there.

On PS4, you have to bring up the Dynamic Menu and goto your Friends from there. Granted, you could always double-tap the PS button and quickly switch between the game and list that way. Invites are also on a game-by-game basis, there is no ability to invite (or join, I'm not sure) from a Friend's profile. Only Party Chat works that way.

The PS4 doesn't have a "Guide" either, you get full access to the console while playing a game.

It sucks that Microsoft went backwards on LIVE with the XB1, whereas Sony made great steps in moving forward on PSN.

Party chat works, famous said the system to handle parties had changed if you are referring to that he was right about that, but it is not broken and works. And live did have online friend notifications. Biggest gripe is the removal of manually inviting friends to game from friend list on X1 in an easy fashion.
 
I witnessed the Forza party thing on Giantbomb's stream the other day. It was amusing to say the least watching 4 people sitting on the same couch there spending 20 minutes trying to get a 2 player game going.
 

Iacobellis

Junior Member
LIVE never had friend notifications ? In what way?

Wait, I meant that LIVE never had notifications if a Friend went offline. My mistake.

That's not true actually. I was able to join someone's multiplayer session from the main screen.

I take back what I said!

Can you invite people to a game on ps4? I haven't found any way to invite friends to Killzone. Do they have to be playing the game? Or is it just not possible?

They added the functionality for devs to add on a per game basis midway through the ps3's life. Surely it's there for ps4 and I'm just not seeing it?

I've only been able to invite players from Killzone itself. I've also noticed that the matchmaking for the game will only group you with your Friends if you are already in a Party Chat. It's kind of like the Vita. Killzone does not have its own Grouping system, a la Call of Duty or Battlefield.
 

Nibel

Member
I just saw some of it in the GiantBomb livestream and it took like 15 minutes until they setup a FORZA online game

And game-dependant parties are a huge step back
 
damn, I wasn't aware that they changed most of those things. one of the things that I love about my 360 is how simple and quick it is to access the guide in game..

game-dependant parties? the fuck are they doing? straight up, I'm probably going to get an Xbox One at some point the future (dat Killer Instinct) but hearing how they've changed around these systems for the worse might have delayed my purchase for a while
 

Mullah88

Member
famousmortimer was right, then.

In all honesty, though, this doesn't sound much better than PSN on the PS4. LIVE never had online friend notifications to begin with, so I don't understand the need to complain there.

On PS4, you have to bring up the Dynamic Menu and goto your Friends from there. Granted, you could always double-tap the PS button and quickly switch between the game and list that way. Invites are also on a game-by-game basis, there is no ability to invite (or join, I'm not sure) from a Friend's profile. Only Party Chat works that way.

The PS4 doesn't have a "Guide" either, you get full access to the console while playing a game.

It sucks that Microsoft went backwards on LIVE with the XB1, whereas Sony made great steps in moving forward on PSN.

false, you can join a friend's game from multiple ways. You can join via there profile page, via party chat and join when they are streaming. The games live page also has a list of friends that own or played the same game so I suppose you can also join from that page
 
Over engineered. They had a system that worked great on the 360, but someone at MS had to make it "better." Same goes for the controller (except the dpad).
 

Iacobellis

Junior Member
C'mon now

Ps4 party system is simple. Press the PS button, move up once to the party icon...

Yeah thats so hard.

I never said it was difficult, I was just explaining the process to do it. 360 was easier (and smoother) than PS3. Shame on Microsoft for fixing something that wasn't broken.
 

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
I would add to this that Kinect's non-perfect command recognition adds to the frustration; especially when the game's loud sound hinders it. ("Xbox, snap party.", "...", "Xbox, snap party.", "...")
 

amchardy

Neo Member
I don't really have a problem with the home screen taking the place of the "guide", I just like to think of it as a full screen guide.

What I do have a problem with is the speed that it takes to access anything. I now have to launch an app which takes a few seconds where it was pretty much instantly available on the guide.

The new party system just seems totally unintuitive too. I think MS's idea behind it was that everyone in the party would always be playing the same game and that they'd want to go off and launch other apps/games while waiting to find a new multiplayer session. Why they've chosen to implement it this way is totally beyond me.

I fully accept that there's going to be some relearning when your switching over to something new but it's frustrating when it now takes more steps to do something and each of those steps is now slower.
 
C'mon now

Ps4 party system is simple. Press the PS button, move up once to the party icon...

Yeah thats so hard.
Same can be said for Xbox
its home button button to left that says friends BAM.


I guess there is a learning curve on Xbox after the guide though.
 

Iacobellis

Junior Member
I just saw some of it in the GiantBomb livestream and it took like 15 minutes until they setup a FORZA online game

And game-dependant parties are a huge step back

Game-dependent Party Chat reminds me of how early PS3 games needed to implement their own unique view of the PSN Friends List. Same with not being able to include Trophies. And custom soundtracks (although that never got much use). The system became fragmented a bit once 2.40 hit.

I imagine that if the XB1 ever goes back to OS-level Party Chat, a good number of developers aren't going to be bothered to update their games that used the old system.
 
IT's a huge step back from a usability perspective. What used to be straight-forward and, arguably, the best integrated online platform is now cumbersome and unwieldy. I liked Live because it felt easy to party up, chat between games, invite/join others, etc. Now, I have to relearn everything again, and the process has become slower, more cumbersome, and less intuitive.

It feels like the same design arrogance that made Windows 8 made Xbox One -- we know better than you how you'll use our device and service and designed around that.
 
Although it's disappointing I'm sure they will improve the OS over time. It's not as if this will remain as is throughout the systems life cycle
 

kitsuneyo

Member
The Xbox 360 had the best friend and invite system by a mile. That guide menu that you could bring up anytime was perfect. Damn, I wish the Wii U had some of that stuff. Can't imagine why MS would throw all that out.
 
I was in a party and wanted to play fifa with someone in the party. The problem is that party was a battlefield 4 party because the guy that made it was playing BF4. We had to leave, play the game, then come back for it to let me invite my friend to the game.

That may not be broken in the strict sense but it might as well be.
 

Iacobellis

Junior Member
The Xbox 360 had the best friend and invite system by a mile. That guide menu that you could bring up anytime was perfect. Damn, I wish the Wii U had some of that stuff. Can't imagine why MS would throw all that out.

360 truly was ahead of its time.
 

Jrs3000

Member
WOw how could they go from near perfection with 360 to broken have working mess on xb1? What happened to "if it ain't broke don't fix it?". It be funny admist these drastic changes if nintendo does a new update adding party chart and invites that work better than xb1/ps4.
 

Iacobellis

Junior Member
I was in a party and wanted to play fifa with someone in the party. The problem is that party was a battlefield 4 party because the guy that made it was playing BF4. We had to leave, play the game, then come back for it to let me invite my friend to the game.

That may not be broken in the strict sense but it might as well be.

Do not tell me it really works that way. Please, do not fucking tell me that.

Microsoft has to be stupid to think that EVERY Party Chat on 360 consisted of eight people playing the same game. Jesus fucking Christ.
 
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