XBL Public – A Feature Not Included in Halo 3

Posted on October 1, 2007 
Filed Under Halo 3, Xbox Live

Saw this over at HBO this morning:

During the ramp-up to Halo 3, Bungie was, for the most part, VERY careful about what they said about the game. This bothered a lot of fans; I mean, why all the secrecy? Why so vague with details? Just say what you mean, man! Well, there’s a piece over at Advanced Media Network (thanks, Avateur) that describes a segment of the Bungie community that is ‘outraged’ that a feature discussed a year ago by one of the UI designers didn’t make it into the final game…

That feature (for those who don’t want to read the entire article) was going to be called “Xbox Live Public“, a way to create and search for custom games (similar to matchmaking, only with user made games).

I personally don’t really mind the absence of such a feature.  When I look at how Online games such as Halo have developed over the years, “Xbox Live Public” is actually a step backware from where we are at now.  Before we had a matchmaking system in Halo 2, all of our games were essentially “Xbox Live Public”.

Of course, the addition of a feature wouldn’t be a bad thing, as it would be easy to find any game you want immediately.  But with the additional features such as Forge and what not, who is to complain about the lack of something we upgraded several years ago?

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