Innovative Services From XUG

One of the key words you often hear about the next generation of gaming is innovation. Often the word is used when discussing game developers or console manufacturers, as everyone rushes to bring gamers the latest and greatest gaming experience.

In the case of Xbox 360™, much of the innovation that is being brought to gamers goes beyond the games themselves. Yes, we are seeing major leaps and bounds in the games, but just as important are the tools we get outside the games that enhance our experience. Nowhere is this innovation more evident than with Xbox Live®. While other consoles talk about online communities and try to get their services off the ground, Xbox Live is already pushing the boundaries of innovation when it comes to online gaming and online services.

From movie downloads (Xbox Live is already beating the pants off of Amazon's similar movie download service) to game demos, to the Xbox Live Vision Camera, Microsoft isn't just the best service, it's burying the competition before they get started.

So when it comes to Xbox® community sites, if you want to be successful and stick around for a while, it's just as important that you raise the bar and foster innovation. Let's face it: If you're going to support the trailblazers of the next generation, you need to bring your A game every day.

Here at XUG, we continually add services and programs to our website that help our members not only get the most out of their XUG experience, but the most out of the white and green box sitting by their television. In the last few weeks we have seen two amazing new features added to XUG: Live Communities and the Xbox Live Messenger Bot. All of our features are developed by XUG's "techno-guru" StonyArc.

Since the advent of online gaming, clans have been a way for gamers to separate themselves from the larger community and create small brotherhoods (or today, sisterhoods) of gamers. Clans may be a serious group of gamers that play in tournaments and events, or a casual group of friends who just want their own community. Larger clans often have websites and forums, but for smaller clans, websites are often impractical, or even unnecessary.

That's where XUG Live Communities comes into play. Simply put, it's a way for XUG members to give their clans a home base to operate from and a way to find new members and matches. Members who start a community forum will get access to tools such as Live Leaderboards, where they can track their members' statistics on Live, and basic clan tools such as add, delete, and promote members. Most important, they have a forum where they can easily communicate with their members to keep everyone updated on upcoming Clan events. With over 40,000 members on XUG, it's a way for small clans to recruit even more members.

What excites me the most, though, is our newest feature, the Xbox Live Messenger Bot, which turns your MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, or Live Messenger into an information gatherer on Xbox Live and gaming in general. Its beauty is its simplicity, allowing you to gather an amazing amount of information with just a few simple commands in Messenger.

Once you download Messenger to your computer, add xuglive@hotmail.com to your contact list, it will appear as XUG Live Services. Open up a dialogue box and your information gateway is open. Want to see if a particular gamer is online, or check their basic gamer information? Just type in "/gt" followed by a space and the Gamertag you're looking for, and the Live Messenger Bot will retrieve the information instantly and post it in the dialogue box for you to see. For those of us that use Messenger all day long in the office, it's a quick and easy way to not only see if your friends are online, but to get detailed information quickly and efficiently.

But this handy tool is not just about gamer info. You can also get the top five news items from XUG by typing in "/news" or see what everyone else is playing by typing "/nowplaying". The news will come back with links that take you right to the story on XUG, keeping you in touch with what's going on in the world of gaming.

These are the sort of innovations you should expect from a community site: A place where you can get together with friend, a place that helps you get the most out of your gaming experience. That's what we believe XUG does, and as Xbox 360 continues to push the envelope for gamers everywhere, we will be there as well.

Article by Chris Boyle (boheim), Xbox Users Group