• Set Up Your System
• Guide to Home Networking
• Join Xbox LIVE

How to Use Matchmaking & Friends

No, we're not going to set you up with a hottie (see other Web sites for that), but Xbox Live Matchmaking will hook you up with the people you need to play with. Whether you just want to get in and play fast, or you've got a bunch of criteria, or you want to host your own game, we'll show you how.

Your Friends list is your posse of teammates and rivals that you want to play with again and again. Find out how to build it, how to work it, how to drop losers off it.

Find Someone to Play

Your Xbox is connected to the Internet, you've got your account set up, and your Xbox Communicator is resting comfortably on your head—so now what? You need someone to play with. This is where Matchmaking comes in, and you've got three easy ways to use it:

1. QuickMatch – Join the first available game.
2. OptiMatch™– Set game criteria and search for a match.
3. Create a Match – Host your own game, your own way.

Finding people to play with has a lot to do with your personality. For example:

• QuickMatch is perfect for both the super-mellow and the impatient types of players. Either you don't really care who you play with, or you're so anxious for immediate gratification that you need to find an opponent NOW!
• OptiMatchis a good option for those who are somewhat picky, but not in a neurotic, retentive way. You know what you like, and you're willing to spend a couple minutes selecting the skill level, game stage, and other game-specific criteria that you want.
• Create a Match is for you control freaks: the take-charge, type-A players that want to host their own game and let other players come to them. You're the kid who used to say "If we don't play my way I'm taking my ball and going home!" By the way, in some games, if you are the host and you sign off of the XboxLive service before the game is over, the game ends for everyone else. Sort of like taking your ball and going home.

To access Matchmaking and all its wonders, go to the Matchmaking screen in your Xbox Live enabled game and follow the instructions on the screen.

Note Some games do not support the Create a Match feature.

Use Game Slots

A Game Slot is a space in a game for one player. If your game supports eight players, it allots eight Game Slots. Simple.

Two types of Game Slots exist: Public Slots and Friend Slots. If you are hosting a game using Create a Match, you can decide if you want to allow anyone who meets your game criteria to fill a slot in your game, or if you want to restrict it to people from your Friends list. Or go half and half—four Friends and four Public. Whatever you want. Public slots will be filled either by XboxLive Matchmaking or by invitation.

Create a Friends List

The Friends list is a list of your Friends—duh. It's actually a cool way to keep track of all the people you enjoy playing with. Say you had a great time playing a football game with someone you met using Quick Match or OptiMatch. You can send that player an invitation to join your Friends list. Then, each time you sign in to Xbox Live, you can check if that player is online, what game they're playing, and if they've got Voice turned on. You can have up to 100 players on your Friends list, and of course, you can boot them off if you decide you don't like them anymore.

To invite someone to join your Friends list:

1. Go to the Players list.
2. Select the player that you want to add to your Friends list.
3. Select Invite.

Then wait to see if the player accepts your invitation.

Note When you add a Friend to your Friends list, you will also appear on their Friends list.

Send Game Invitations

The situation: You're playing a game, having a blast, and then you think, "Man, the only thing missing is my good buddy Ralph. I wish he could play this game, too." The solution: the in-game invite.

To extend an in-game invite to a Friend:

1. Go to your Friends list.
2. Select "Ralph".
3. Press A.
4. Select Invite.

Then wait to see if Ralph accepts your in-game invite.

Here's the really great part. Even if you're playing hockey and Ralph is slaying dragons, you can still invite him to join you on the ice. He'll then:

1. Open his Friends list.
2. Select your name (it will have an invitation icon beside it).
3. Press A.
4. Either accept or decline.

Let's say Ralph accepts your challenge. All he has to do is swap the dragon game disc for the hockey game disc, and he's ready to play.

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