I am a grown man, and they expect me to see that my friend unlock a new rifle and click on a congratulatory button to "Hooah!" at someone? This feature is designed for frat boys who want to circlejerk about who has the shiniest guns. I want to cry when I see that beneath my friends status updates I can click a button marked "Hooah!", which is a copy of "Liking" something on Facebook. I cringe when I go to pick a picture and I have to use some generic EA themed avatar. I bite the bullet and proceed to set up my profile. I want to quit out of this pathetic website and jump into Battlefield 3, but I can't. A web based service that is clunky, hard to navigate, and filled with useless information like what type of guns my friends have unlocked. Instead of the game coming up, my web browser fires up and I am greeted with a disgusting looking hybrid of Facebook and Twitter. What happens next is almost mind-blowingly absurd. I click on the nice "play" button and I expect the game to launch. Once I set up another account, I downloaded the and was ready to jump into the beta for Battlefield 3. What? Why do I need to create a separate account for Battlefield 3 when I just made an account for Origin? I need Origin to play Battlefield 3, so why can't I just log into Battlefield 3 with my Origin account? This is a major pain in the ass. I install Origin, and I create my magical Origin account, and we should be all set to play Battlefield 3. Other game companies do that, and it's not that bad. You can buy games from it, and you have to have it running to play these games. Before I even talk about Battlelog, I need to tell you about Origin. Now that I have taken up half a page with me rambling about what a good experience is like, let's take a look at what Battlelog actually does. I don't that I am asking to much for any game coming out in 2011 to have all of these things. Just about any multiplayer game on the PC has these things figured out. None of these things are revolutionary, or specific to any game. Finally, I need to be able to join my friends games. I also want to be able to browse servers easily, for those times when I want to play with a specific group or on a particular map that I really like. Clicking on this obvious button, should cause the game to find me a match, and let me jump in and play right away. When I want to join a multiplayer match, I want a giant "PLAY NOW" button in front of me. We don't want to sign up for a new account with every game that we buy, and we don't want to have joining a multiplayer match feel like taking an exam. Developers need to figure out how to eliminate as many hurdles as possible that stand in the player's way. It's also about how easy it is to jump into a game, and our connection to other gamers. It's not just about the game we are playing, or how good that game is. Steam has the meta experience figured out. I can just add a shortcut to Steam, and I can pull up this overlay from Lord of the Rings Online, Minecraft, or Bad Company 2. This overlay will even work for most non-Steam games. It's fast, quick, easy, and incredibly convenient. From this overlay I can quickly see what my friends are doing, my progress towards an achievement, or I can even open up a web browser. When I'm playing a game on Steam, I like how easy and convenient it is to open up the in-game overlay. It's evolved into something that has become an integral part of our gaming experience. This system is being used by consoles and PC, and it works really well. Dashboards, overlays, and popups show us information while keeping us in the game. We want friends lists, achievements, and the ability to quickly jump into matches. These days gaming is all about integration.
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