Xbox Live Voyeurs (and Exhibitionists)

I think the Xbox Live functionality of the original Xbox is great, and has been much improved with the Xbox 360, with its "rich presence" (basically it says what you are up to, similar to any IM program, ie: away, on the phone, etc...).

Now instead of just being able to see what friends on your list are online, and what game they are playing, now it goes deeper. In certain games, the amount of info broadcasted about precisely what you are doing is somewhat surprising (and just a little scary). Not to be alarmed or anything, but it is funny to see exactly where in a level of Condemned someone on my friends list is, or what their score currently is on a particular type of game mode in Hexic.

Last night, I was able to see that J. Allard having only one achievement left to unlock in Madden (see my earlier post for more clarification on what these are), was playing Madden and, using my excellent brain, figured out that he was trying to get that last one (bringing his daunting Gamerscore up close to 8000). I sent him a text message wishing him luck in unlocking it and suggested him to finish Gun for more Gamerpoints to add to his total , and in closing, jokingly calling him a "(G) - whore" [(G)= Gamerscore]. A couple of hours later, after having gotten the achievement, he changed his motto to "30 Long Years-GSW" [GSW=GamerScore Whore]. It was almost like an inside joke reffering to my earlier message.

Now, along with all of the information being sent out in real-time, I can also see what game my friends are playing, how far they are in certain games (and how good they are as well), by checking out their Gamercard. Mine is on this very blog (try clicking on it!).

This brings me to another related topic about Xbox Live and human nature: with this much information being given out, it's easy to become fascinated with what everyone else in your clique is doing, what games they are buying, and how far they've gone in certain ones and in games that we both have, it can un-intentionaly become a competition just by comparing your scores and/or achievements. I think it brings out the human voyeuristic tendencies to 'obsessively observe sordid or sensational subjects'. Some people could take that further though, to the stalking stage. :)

Sometimes I wonder if my intense interest in what others are doing in their games is a little unhealthy (in the same unhealthy way that the media has an infatuation with celebrities' personal lives). I think it brings me closer to my friends (though I sadly am not all that "close" to any of my online friends), even though no direct contact has been made. This information serves a useful purpose, though, in determining which games my friends have and what games I might like to play and being to play online with them, so it is nice that it's there and that I can contact them whenever they are online (or offline through leaving a voice and/or text message) if I so desire. :)