Is Catan changing Xbox Live?

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 8th 2007 at 1:00PM }

In what could truly be considered a statistical improbability for Xbox Live, we've made it through more than our fair share of rounds in Catan without any player-related issues. Everyone we've met who makes it through a full game gets a good approval rating and nobody (and we actually mean nobody) has deserved a complaint or negative review. No pre-pubescent screams, no racist/sexist/homophobic statements ... sure, there's expletive dropping -- but it's all in proper context. Is civility actually possible on Xbox Live?

People will instantly argue that Catan brings a different crowd to Xbox Live and given our experience that is absolutely true. And we love it! Catan, combined with Uno (although there are caveats with Uno), shows that there is a different demographic out there in Xbox Live land. Now does this stop the calls for an adults only section for Xbox Live? Not a chance. It would still be nice to play Halo without the ... let's just call it "noise." All we know is if this Catan community is the same that'll be into Carcassonne, then that's money well spent for a nice couple hours of gaming.

Tags: catan, XBLA, xboxlive

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Deric @ May 8th 2007 1:15PM

Actually in the last 4 games I've been not to freindly at the end.

I'm getting sick and tired of some moron that doesn't know how to play giving the win to a player by a final trade.

People need to learn how to play before entering a ranked match.

Idiots.

jeff @ May 8th 2007 1:16PM

I concur. even with my paltry 3 - 9 ranked record, I've yet to play in a bad game of Catan online. I would generally avoid any contact with random gamers due to the pre-pubes factor, but Catan is an excellent change of pace and it makes me plug in my headset.

msgfree @ May 8th 2007 1:17PM

I have noticed the same thing. Catan seems to be the anti-Halo or anti-GoW when it comes to the community. I think it has to do with the slow pace and cooperative nature of the gameplay.

copa @ May 8th 2007 1:18PM

I've seen consistent reports of problems with setting up and maintaining ranked matches. Are you guys getting through ranked matches OK?

Wickedneoq @ May 8th 2007 1:19PM

I find that people who haven't played the tutorial are just jumping online to play, not knowing how to play at all. But other than that, you can find a lot of civilized games that last about 15-20 minutes of dice rolling (a few glitches too). It's definitely a much more mature game, and I'm actually finding out that at 23, I'm sometimes the youngest in the games I do play.

I also think there's a lack of people playing it. It's a game with as much power as UNO in the Arcade lineup, but not enough people are experiencing Catan.

Dud @ May 8th 2007 1:25PM

I hope you mean Uno on the low end of the social pole.

Catan you might have some nice relaxed conversations, where in Uno you get to watch some guy swing his ballsac in front of the camera.

OhJustSomeRandomGuy @ May 8th 2007 1:30PM

Great. Thanks for jinxing it, Joystiq.

By tomorrow, you're not going to be able to offer wood for sheep without teenagers making jokes and then disconnecting.

Pete L @ May 8th 2007 1:34PM

For me having a good time on xbox live was just a matter of putting a good friends list together. It took me a few years, but now on any given night I can get in some good gaming, whether it be GOW, GRAW or Catan, with like minded adult gamers. I could care less about rankings.

Norm @ May 8th 2007 1:37PM

Sweet, sounds like I need to invest in UNO!

Michael McGuire @ May 8th 2007 1:44PM

Getting good people to play with on Xbox Live has always been about having a great list of friends. I'm a member of a fantastic community called the "League of Amateur Gamers" that consists almost entirely of adults who can't spend 3-4 hours everyday working on their 1337 playing and trash talking skillz. Instead, we spend our days at work posting to the site, learning more about each other, and then trying to kill each other in the evenings after our kids to go bed. ;-)

Wickedneoq @ May 8th 2007 1:44PM

People don't realize this one key thing: You can block those webcams on UNO. It's in your Dashboard privacy settings. This was talked about on Major Nelson's Xbox 101.

Zertoss @ May 8th 2007 1:51PM

UNO? Are you kidding me, Joystiq? I have only played with prepubescent racists on that, and every other game. I don't even have a gold subscription anymore because of crap like that.

This "League of Amateur Gamers" sounds interesting though. Maybe a solid community like that is what I need.

chris furniss @ May 8th 2007 2:02PM

Yeah, Uno is pretty dismal when it comes to player interaction. I have had more than my fair share of ballsac and stupid prepubescent kids yelling.

Catan has been good so far, but I imagine that is just because it's the people who are really into board games who jumped on right away. The tides will change as it sits on XBLA for longer.

Jake @ May 8th 2007 2:01PM

When you play on Live, you just need to send invites to all the cool people you run into and tell them you are sending them an invite. It doesn't take that long before you have a decent list of people that also have decent lists of people.

But I really wish there was a way that you could make game rooms for only 21+. I absolutely can't stand playing with most little kids. They trash talk, sing, act racist, and cuss to beat hell. They have no sense of humor when they do it either, just moronic comment after comment.

Michael McGuire,
Is there any way I can try out your club? Can I get a trial period or something? I'm very civil when I play and crack jokes but never really brag or bitch about anything. I'm average at most games and good at Gears. I'm 24.

hoos30 @ May 8th 2007 2:06PM

So far, so good on the Catan "culture". In no way, shape or form could this one game make a dent in the whole Xbox Live racist/machismo thing; there aren't that many people playing it. But every game that I've managed to connect to has included people who were at least helpful to a newcomer, if not friendly. It would take a dozen games like this to turn the tide in the other direction.

GoonieGooGoo @ May 8th 2007 2:19PM

It's defintely a good game.....though I almost fell out of my seat when I was on the verge of victory with 9 points and some player had stockpiled tons of Development points came out of nowhere to swipe my victory being almost 4 points back.

I think I yelled "CATAAAAAN" (like Admiral Kirk said KAHN in Star Trek II) at the end of that game.

Heck....I'll say it again.....everyone should do it.

"CATAAAAAAAN!!!!!"

sheppy @ May 8th 2007 2:49PM

Yeah, sign my ass up for that amatuer gamers league thing too. gamertag NME-Se7eN...

I know, I know...
But NME used to be my old arcade initials but plain old NME wasn't usable on Live, NME Zero was taken, so I flipped through a couple old sketchbooks and came across an old robot design of mine named Tsin7 and figured, what the hell.

Digi Smalls @ May 8th 2007 2:52PM

weren't those "zones" supposed to help with this? why can't i just choose to play with people in Recreation and not Pro or Underground?

sure sounded like a good idea..

.

Iscariote @ May 8th 2007 3:08PM

I don't have problems with any games on Xbox Live, because I made a good friends list and play with normal people.

c1pher @ May 8th 2007 4:05PM

Another good place to check out for older, mature gamers is geezergamers.com. It's definitely for those of us balancing families, work, and just interested in gaming online with good people.

c1pher

LordMinogue @ May 8th 2007 4:33PM

A high level of emotional maturity is required to play Catan; the vast majority of A-holes will pass it up in favor of more violent and mindless games.

And if you're an A-hole, nobody's gonna trade with you.

You've got 10,000 sheep and all ya need is a brick...
who would of thought, it figures.

SonicRift @ May 8th 2007 4:35PM

I don't have Catan, but I'll tell you my big problem with Live lately is finding an English language game. For some reason, I keep getting paired up with players from Taiwan or France...

Piemaster @ May 8th 2007 4:59PM

Seriously, what the hell? I swear I meet more racist homophobic jerks who are over 18/21 than I do ones younger. Sure, prepubescent kids are annoying, and sometimes they scream, and one time I met someone names Solidsnake[random numbers] who kept saying he was going to snap my neck in a comically high voice, but people of all ages are assholes, not just young kids. And personally, I'm 15, and I only act like an asshole when someone pushes my asshole button (says I suck because I killed them, calls me the n word, etc.).

And even if they make 18+ rooms, people can lie about their age when they sign up, its the internet.

apotheos @ May 8th 2007 5:12PM

My track record hasn't been nearly so lucky. When the game actually connects me with players, so far at least one of them has been disruptive or offensive.

Again, thats when the game actually works, which is not most of the time.

horngreen @ May 8th 2007 5:32PM

I've noticed kindness with racing games. The more Sim oriented they are the nicer the other people are. People apologize when they wreck somebody or run a crappy line. Nobody flies off the handle and at worst you might hear a dissapointing sigh. FPSs on the other hand are filled with HATE and screaming not to mention teabagging. Maybe I need to look into Catan for a change. Of course I've done my share of it in Halo 2...

ogvor @ May 8th 2007 5:41PM

I've noticed this as well. Everyone of my games was filled with friendly gamers who just wanted to play a game a catan, and always stayed with it to the end. They only ever get "mad" when you pull out the monopoly card or steal the longest road from them, and even then it's just in context and appropriate.

I have however met a few people who skip the tutorial in favor of online play as Wickedneoq noted. They then expect everyone to teach them and not steal their cards becuase they haven't learned how to play. One was especially annoying in that he kept saying "Dude, guys I've totally one this game" even though he had 2 points. Then he went and talked to his family about all the contents of his fridge wiithout turning off his mike (though I'll admit, hearing half the conversation was sorta funny) and even then this wasn't anything compared to the kind of people I've met on GoW.

Also, anyone else had problems joining custom matches. I can only get into player matches using Quick Play. Usually I can find a game that way, but it's still annoying.

Kamizar @ May 8th 2007 5:58PM

Funny, I heard the same things about Gears during it's first weeks, the smaller the community the nicer the people have to be, lest you want to live as a social outcast...

If Catan grows expect things to get worse over time...

Michael McGuire @ May 8th 2007 5:54PM

For those interested in League of Amateur Gamers, the web site is http://www.lagxbl.com. Be sure to check out the FAQ for information about what is expected of the community.

ackmondual @ May 8th 2007 9:28PM

I play using Sea3d. It's the freeware, OpenGL implementation for PC. Sure, it has its glitches and bugs, and there are assholes on network play, but from what I know with XBLA, I'd gander the community there is better.

t_m @ May 11th 2007 9:20AM

OMG! This game is for kids! It doesn't have any headshots or dismemberment! Why isn;t it on the Wii where it belongs!

PS/ http://games.asobrain.com/ is another decent online, freeware version of catan.. though it aint 3d. It has a nice set of people though.. and several other games to boot..

none @ May 13th 2007 4:44PM

The people in general are great, but I do have a problem with the ones who keep trying to trade for a resource that nobody has (hint: use the LB). There is also one guy in particular that kept showing up to crash the game by never placing his pieces (timing out crashes the server).

The worst problem is that ranked matches never finish. I've finished 3 and have started probably 10. It also takes awhile for a ranked match to get going.