It is our profoundest pleasure at Tied the Leader to report that the Clan System is once again alive and well – and thriving on Xbox Live. Prior to the most recent Xbox Live Dashboard Update, there were rumors spreading throughout the gaming community about what enhancements were slated for automatic installation.

When the news became official, as was expected, a Clan List to augment one’s Friends List was not included.

Then, a whisper campaign started… Something about the ability to see Friends of Friends on Xbox Live. It was puzzling, but it held promise. Would we be able to send Game Invites? Or just Friend Requests?

As is with all things, the TTL Gunslingers count on nothing until it is installed and working on our machines.

Since the update, we are using new tools for networking among gamers to better unite what was our Halo 2 Clan. Actually, the potential for uniting gamers into cohesive teams, groups, or communities under this system has far more reach than the extra friends list was “cheated” into the code for Halo 2.

Allow us to provide a case study for how we are using this new pearl of functionality. We have even drafted some network diagrams to tell the story in pictures…

That is a TTL Gunslinger. Isn’t he adorable? He’s a good gamer, but he needs friends. That is why he joined a clan, after all…

In Halo 2, our hero [The Gunslinger] could sort his Allies and his Clanmates on two lists… One for his Friends, and One for his Fellow Gunslingers. It worked well for him. He could rely on his Fellow Gunslingers for solid covering fire and planned strategy, but still had Friends among the gaming community at large. In a hostile zone like Xbox Live, after all, one cannot have too many friends.

When Halo 3 launched, the clan list that had always been home to his Fellow Gunslingers vanished like a spent bullet casing. The gamer who wrote the blog for Tied the Leader was being really obnoxious about making sure that The Gunslingers had each other on their Friends Lists now. The Gunslinger had to say goodbye to some of his more casual friends. His clan had grown beyond the reach of his Friends List, so he even had to lose some of his Fellow Gunslingers as well. This made The Gunslinger sad.

After the most recent Xbox Live update, however, the Staff at Tied the Leader announced the implementation of something called “Peering Points”. Apparently, they were silver gamertag accounts that existed for no other purpose than to allow The Gunslingers to find one another in a specific game.

Using the newly arrived “Friends of Friends” feature, The Gunslinger was able to access lists that served as active rosters for all of his favorite games. To join his Fellow Gunslingers in a game, all he had to do was look at the people on the Friends List for the Silver Account that was named after said game. This cleared a lot of space on The Gunslinger’s Friends Lists for some of the Friends that he had been missing. This made The Gunslinger happy.

Not only that, but the gamer who wrote the blog for Tied the Leader could organize The Gunslingers into clusters for all of the titles that they were playing. This made the gamer who writes the blog for Tied the Leader happy.

Say thankya!!!

Posted by XerxdeeJ