While I am for the most part very happy with the quality of the service I receive over Xbox Live, I do feel that there is still potential to improve the service and here in no particular order are 3 suggestions that I feel could improve the multiplayer experience over Xbox Live

Number 1: Get Rid of Ranked Match Only Achievements

While I understand the principle behind having Ranked Match only achievements, as it is meant to stop people boosting and make sure that even one works on a level playing field. The only problem is that it does not work as people still find ways to boost, and there are often so few people playing Ranked matches that people can arrange to boost.

Having Ranked match only achievements also means you can “encourage” people not to play the game correctly reducing other peoples enjoyment of the game, if people could get them in private matches while it would make some achievements easier to get, it would also encourage games to be played in the spirit they were intended to.

I am not the only person who thinks this as demonstrated in this old blog post

Number 2: Combine Player and Ranked Matches

The only difference I can see between Player and Ranked matches is that Ranked Matches are attempted to be set up according to a players “true skill”, you can get achievements in Ranked matches, sometimes there are lobby/party restriction so you go to a new lobby after each game, and most importantly Player matches tend to be more popular than Ranked Matches.

I personally cannot see the point in maintaining 2 multiplayer categories as for a lot of games the number of people playing online is so small that True Skill is pointless, and you may as well consolidate the multiplayer population together.

In my opinion the only distinction that is needed between multiplayer games is private and public, to allow people to just play with friends or to “face the world”

Number 3: Set up a “Players Wanted” Notice board in Games/Dashboard

The main problem most of us face regarding multiplayer games is not the “idiots” who mess about and go around team killing or abusive language, the main problem is that it can often be difficult to find people playing some of the older games. While it is possible to post on community websites, there can often be regional lockouts stopping people competing with each other and its not as if everyone wanting multiplayer game checks them.

I therefore believe it would be useful if there was a Notice board in games or on the dashboard that allowed people to post that they wanted to play a game, the purpose of playing (achievements or pleasure) and when available. This would mean that you can quickly find out if there is anyone else wanting to play for the same reason you are, and possibly help garner relationships over Xbox Live.

If you agree/disagree or have a suggestion of you own please leave a comment