feauturing article

Friends of Friends on XBL

by tait| Published: Monday, November 26 @ 16:53:24 EST

The December 4th XBL dash update will include the newly announced "Friends of Friends" feature where users can spy on the friends list of any friend in thier own list. What better way to sell that new pyramid scheme product that everyone 'has to have'?

To be fair, you'll have the option of blocking your friends list from the general public, but not by default - you must manually change it. The press release makes reference to the growing popularity of sites like Myspace & Facebook as a reason for the move. Unfortunately, it's not the clan list that every person at 2old2play was hoping it would be. /sigh

From the Press Release

Microsoft is making it even easier to expand your Friends network on Xbox LIVE®, starting with the Fall Dashboard Update on December 4. You'll be able to check out the friends lists of fellow Xbox LIVE members right from the Dashboard. With this new feature, members can find old friends or connect with new ones within the community of more than eight million people on Xbox LIVE around the globe and send messages and game invites, as well as compare games and Achievements.

With the prevalence of social media websites such as MySpace and FaceBook, this type of capability has largely come to be expected from consumers as a means to relate in an online community. Xbox LIVE continually seeks new ways to better serve the expectations of its members, which often result in free enhancements made available through the bi-annual Dashboard updates.

Friends List Settings
When the Fall Dashboard update is distributed on December 4, the new default setting on Xbox LIVE will be active, enabling members to see the Friends lists of other Xbox LIVE members. If you'd like to keep your friends list private, you can take the following steps to change your settings beginning today:

Log in to www.xbox.com/fof and select one of the three options available for your Gamertag:

  • Everyone (only available to members 18 and older)
  • Friends only (available to members 13 and older)
  • Blocked (available to all members, and automatic for anyone under the age of 13)

Stay tuned for more information about the Xbox 360 Dashboard Update later this month!

Read more at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/1126-foflive.htm


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Reader Comments

hm (Score: 1)
Posted By anski on Monday, November 26 @ 18:50:42 EST
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Looks like they took a page from Xfire



Into the Abyss (Score: 1)
Posted By DEEP_NNN on Tuesday, November 27 @ 07:24:48 EST
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Get a Clan related GT created now! I.E. 2old2playClan

This tag would reserved for Clan members only and no one will likely play using this GT. With each member being able to access this GT, they will always know which Clan members are online.

The XBL FoF capability has the potential of giving you access many hundreds, if not a thousand, XBL friends. Imagine, each GT on your FL representing another 99 friends.

How clunky this XBL feature is, will determine it's usefulness. Keep your finger crossed.


Silver Dummies (Score: 1)
Posted By tait on Tuesday, November 27 @ 08:10:44 EST
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Yes, there has been a lot of buzz about clans setting up dummy XBL Silver accounts to be placeholders for clanmates. Example:

Fictional Clan BobsPancakes has 160 members and sets up two silver accounts named:

BobsPancakes01
BobsPancakes02

and fills these accounts w/ the 160 clan member gamertags. Then, each BobsPancakes clanmate adds them to their friends list (whichever list you are not on, that's the one you add - the other one is already on your list from when your gamertag was added to its friends list). Now, each clanmate has a friendslist through just 2 spots on their own friends list of every clanmate. And, it's obvious which ones are in the clan and which ones are not just through this very simple feature.

This could be the fill-in for clan support we would've rather had - a potentially healthy substitue hinging on Silver accounts....




Silver accounts can have a friends list? (Score: 1)
Posted By GroovyElm on Tuesday, November 27 @ 11:56:48 EST
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That would make this a much more useful feature I would think.




My thoughts exactly (Score: 1)
Posted By Enosh on Tuesday, November 27 @ 08:56:20 EST
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That was the first thing i thought when I saw the release on gamerscore blog. It's not really clan support, but it is something that clans can really leverage while Microsoft figures out how to do clans right.





Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By Caesar on Tuesday, November 27 @ 11:20:49 EST
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wow, shitty, im kinda pissed ms wont go the clan route


Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By jonny12gauge on Tuesday, November 27 @ 11:51:31 EST
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*sigh

I was really hoping for clan support.


:(




Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By probot26 on Tuesday, November 27 @ 15:01:14 EST
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I would have been happy with a friends that would go up to two hundred. That would have been good enough for me.





This is horrible. (Score: 1)
Posted By LocGaw on Tuesday, November 27 @ 16:00:20 EST
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I can feel the spam now...



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By Nomad on Saturday, December 01 @ 01:44:07 EST
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At first I thought this idea sucked but I thought about it and with the recommendation from one of my clan members I have already made my clan tag. We'll see how it goes. :)



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