40 Days #33: Expose dashboard features through setup wizards

Peter — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:30:00 GMT

Another day, another story about a kid experiencing something inappropriate over Xbox Live. Sadly, these things will happen and Microsoft can't do all that much about it. The Xbox 360 already has a fairly robust system of parental controls, and Microsoft recently even launched a family timer to physically limit play times.

In a way, Xbox Live is a victim of its own success. The Wii has such restricted online features that nothing too offensive can physically be done at all, and because of the limited functionality, not all that many people play any given game online to begin with. Sony's console had (and still does to a lesser extent) a high price tag, so its adoption rate into families was much slower. Also, the online network isn't quite polished yet, so again, you have fewer people using it.

However, Xbox Live is not only the most popular online system on consoles today, but it is also the most full-featured one, so the millions of active users have many ways to send something inappropriate through the network. Microsoft is trying to push it as a family console, it has good brand recognition and a reasonable price. As a result, a lot of families and kids play games on the console and on Xbox Live. And again, Microsoft can't do much more than the user reporting/banning that they take care of already.

While the Xbox 360 has a solid amount of parental-control features integrated into the dashboard, Microsoft still needs to take that one final step that will let the company show that they did all they possibly could to prevent little Timmy from seeing that underwear malfunction online while playing Halo 3. The problem with all the dashboard's features is that parents just don't know about them. Sure, Microsoft organizes all sorts of events with buses and demonstrations and what not, but how many people really come to these anyway?

The other problem is that most parents are probably used to appliances like a TV or even a PS2 console - you turn them on, and that's pretty much it. No settings, no options, no menus. The Xbox 360 may have the best parental restriction system ever, but most parents will just never know about it. And you can't necessarily blame those people for tech ignorance either - they just didn't grow up in today's fast-moving gadget world.

What needs to be done is to extend the initial setup wizard from the few steps that it takes now to literally cover a majority of the dashboard features, step by step, explanation by explanation. This would take a long time at the very beginning, and might take up a chunk of the memory space for the dashboard OS, but it is increasingly necessary as the console gets more complex.

This setup process could ask questions like "Are you a parent with children who will play on this console?" Then it could offer to set up all the family's gamertags, parental controls, timer, and friends list restrictions and privacy for the child accounts.

The wizard should also be intelligent enough to know when peripherals like the Vision Camera are connected, and add appropriate steps. For example, add a warning about how the camera could be used to transmit all sorts of images, and if there are child accounts, talk about restricting camera access.

Interesting options here could include the need for at least a somewhat grown-up user needed to complete the initial setup. For example, if you sign into Xbox Live at the beginning of the process, the console can determine that you are under 13, and you can't finish setup on your own, without another, older gamertag. Of course, this wouldn't work offline and would ultimately complicate the process too much, but it would be neat if only a parent could set up the household's consoles, especially if the children are very young. That way they would be forced to read through all the features and options, and perhaps realize what all goes on while playing on today's consoles.

Power gamers would naturally want to skip as much of this as possible, but it may be better to let the minority suffer so that the commitment to family safety is stronger for everybody. At the very least, some obvious - yet clearly worded - disclaimers would be needed when skipping any of the steps.

Such setup wizards should also pop up again when new peripherals are connected after a console is already set up, as well as when new features are added through dashboard updates. The latter case would be beneficial to most users, not just parents. Although Microsoft is pretty good about detailing the changes in a dashboard update and even uploads some videos about it, it would be really nice for the console to walk me through the new features after it boots up from the update, and let me immediately change any new options that were just added. Otherwise I have to hunt down change lists or download and watch videos, and then remember to go check out the new features.

Another way to remind gamers of what all their console can do, as well as teach them about shortcuts and neat tips, would be to use the dashboard ads to periodically highlight a certain feature or tip, with a little write up and a direct link to any applicable settings screen. The Wii already does this when you use their various channels: they frequently point out features or time-saving techniques that can be used in the channel. The dashboard team could probably even take the archives of Major Nelson's Xbox 101 podcast segment and rework them into dashboard tips.

There are a lot of shortcuts on the console - like using the various controller buttons to navigate lists or media files - and it would be nice if the dashboard was trying to teach me how to be more productive while using it.

Playing on Easy : Parental Involvement

40 Days #33: Expose dashboard features through setup wizards