Logic for Xbox

I finally got around to listening to CAGCast #94 from cheapassgamer.com. I'm only a week behind. Not too shabby.

Anyhoo, Cheapy & Wombat interviewed Xbox's Major Nelson, and brought up a couple items I was wondering when I'd hear someone talk about.

First up was the price of Microsoft Points. Although the conversation focused on using points rather than just straight monetary purchases on Xbox Live, I've always wondered why Microsoft is the console with the points not equaling American currency.

Nintendo: 100 Wii Points = 100 cents
Microsoft: 80 Microsoft Points = 100 cents

While a price difference isn't odd in itself, it always puzzled me because Microsoft is the American company. They're the ones that should be in sync with the dollar. Nintendo is Japanese. It just adds fuel to any argument about Microsoft's bizarre lack of logic in all their decisions.

The other issue brought before the Major... caps on the friends' list. A person can only have 100 people on their list. Major Nelson's argument was that the average user only has about 25 people on that list anyway. More flawed logic.

This average would be brought down by people with only a couple people on their list, but it would not take into account those who have maxed out already. Their input into the mean would be only 100, even though they might have 1000 if they were allowed that many. Shouldn't the average need to factor in the projected totals? Perhaps remove the cap from the list for a few months, then see where the average lies.

The most common suggestion for a solution has been to let people purchase more space on their friends' list. Most people probably won't be so quick to approve a new friend if it's gonna cost them money, so that's probably not the best way to expand the sense of community. Do people want to pay another buck a year just because they found somebody who is actually willing to play Big Bumpin' with them?

My solution is different. They should offer users the ability to make Xbox Live Clans. Surely this has been thought of before, right? People join a clan, for instance, made up of people who frequent an online gaming forum... then they add that Clan name as a friend, taking up a single space on their friends' list. Online Clan members would be listed in a new submenu. A simple patch could incorporate these Xbox Clans into multiplayer games for ease of use.

Now, the hosting for the Clan lists would probably be fee based. Websites or Sports Teams would probably pay to get their own clans started, to show off how many fans they have. Perhaps Xbox would offer smaller clan packages for less. It's a very doable feature.

And that's all I have.