Robert-Boyd
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Xbox Live Indie Games ratings are being manipulated, devs say
If you thought jocks versus nerds was a war you left behind in high school, we've got some bad news: It's followed you to a new, less predictable battleground. Yup, Xbox Live Indie Games. Seemingly provoked by a harmless call to action by the developers behind College Lacrosse 2011 on their Facebook page -- they even said, "Please remember to not rate other games low to help CL11" -- some developers have noticed a drastic drop in their XBLIG rankings. "After hanging out around the #6 top rated slot for a month or two, our game's rating started to drop very quickly," Cthulu Saves the World dev Robert Boyd wrote on Microsoft's App Hub Forums. "In less than a week, we went from being #6 top rated to our current spot of #11." And how are the lacrosse games doing? "In contrast, the Lacrosse games which were in the middle of top 20 best rated (I don't remember the exact positions) are now ranked #4 & #5," Boyd observed. For its part, Microsoft's XNA Creator's Club has acknowledged the possibility of manipulation, tweeting, "We are investigating a possible misuse of ratings on #XBLIG titles. We'll announce more information here as it develops." The real issue is how easy it is for a group of individuals (take the 177K fans of College Lacrosse's Facebook page) to influence the popularity of games on the service: Users can rate games on Microsoft's website without owning an Xbox, purchasing a game, or even playing a demo. When download numbers are as tied to rankings as they are on the Indie Games marketplace (just like on the iOS and Android marketplaces) this issue is really critical in maintaining the fairness of that ecosystem.
XBLIG facts: Nazi-killing a no-no, revenue a yes-yes
During the Xbox Live Indie Games panel at GDC, a who's who of XBLIG developers (James Silva, Nathan Fouts, Robert Boyd and Ian Stocker) talked about their experiences, successes and failures self-publishing on the service. Perhaps of more use to budding XBLIG developers are some facts about the service, including the revenue split between Microsoft and the developer, as well as some gameplay restrictions. For anyone who publishes an Xbox Live Indie Game, Microsoft takes 30 percent of the revenue, leaving 70 percent for the game maker. Even more interesting are some of the restrictions for games. James Silva of Ska Studios said it's impossible to have an XBLIG title where the player kills nazis, for example. "That's like an inherent human right that's been taken away from us," Silva said. "We grew up on killing Nazis." Silva then went on to provide an anecdote about a game concept he had, about a burly mountain man who hunts people, but it turns out XBLIG isn't murder-friendly, either. We've followed up with Microsoft for some more information on the guidelines of Xbox Live Indie Games.
XBL Indie Games Winter Uprising falls a little short
Though they may have had the noblest of intentions, organizers for the Indie Games Winter Uprising are admitting things didn't go precisely as planned. The idea had been to launch 14 games on Xbox Live Indie Games in the first week of December as a way of separating the wheat from the massage game chaff on the service. At the moment though, only eight of those games have made it out the door. "The way Xbox Live Indie Games are set up, it's difficult to release on a specific day," organizer Robert Boyd told Edge. "You can't get your game approved and have it come out later at a day of your choosing – once a game is approved it goes up automatically within 48 hours. Likewise, if you submit a game for approval and then find that you have to pull it for whatever reason, however small, you have to wait a minimum of 7 days before resubmitting." It's not all doom and gloom though, with first Uprising release Epic Dungeon moving over 6,000 units. The Uprising's still a great project, and we'd love to see the devs try again soon ... maybe even with a little help from Microsoft this time?
