1vs100 on XBL - Another season in the can...

It's official.  Season 2 of 1vs100 is no more.  Unfortunately, too many distractions (among them -  a cold) kept me from obtaining the "Quick Draw" achievement and reaching Lvl 50.  =o/

Alas, now that the season's over, the kid gloves come off.  Yep, I'm a big fan of the game to the point of being labeled a rabid fan, and I have nothing but high respect for those involved, but, the game (and related features) still has issues - and here they are:...

1)  Lack-luster prizing.  It's the end of Season 2 and we're still dealing with Microsoft points and arcade games. I'm not trying to sound ungrateful, but, the game's novelty isn't exactly new anymore.  We're nearing a year since its debut, and it's time to push those prize values up.

2) Game advertising.  I found it interesting to see how many people posted on the forums after Season 2's last LIVE game about how they "just found out" about the game.  Dashboard entries, Inside Xbox videos are fine and dandy, but if you really want to push this game out for people to take interest, get the marketing out there.

There's more to Twitter and Facebook - you're limiting exposure by sticking to certain areas of the advertising medium.  Buy banner ads on popular sites (maybe grease some palms with game dev sites to post ads on their end?) - How about a big huge banner on the front page of the xbox.com site?  I've seen plenty of promotion for other games and events.  Don't forget texting and mobile media.

It's obvious a lot of time, effort and I'm sure money is being spent on this endeavor - and yet, some people don't even know about the game or what it's about.  I volunteer to help promote the hell out of this.. just ask!

3) Trivia Texting support.  Season 2 took us a bit further with texting interaction.  However, many a times I came across what appeared to be technical problems.  One of which being told "I had already participated this week" when the trivia text was sent on a Tuesday.  Unsure where the system got the idea I had already participated, but, I feel some of my entries were automatically discarded through no fault of my own.

Problem is, I didn't know who to contact.  @1vs100XboxLIVE yielded no replies.  Texting questions in the 1vs100 forums also were met with a handful of answers that weren't "official."  Not even an announcement was made on 1vs100's site, forums, Twitter (can't speak for Facebook - I'm hardly on there) about this texting feature and so, frankly, to me it felt like a half-ass promotion/feature with little or no support.  If this appears in Season 3 - this little/no support part definitely needs to be fixed.  You can't offer features to players and not offer some recourse or instructions should things go *boom*.

4) A 1vs100 Knowledge Base.  I know this was briefly mentioned sometime during S2 - I hope it's ready for S3.  A lot of the forum clutter could *hopefully* be directed to this KB system.  By the way, the very first KB entry should detail.. A Patch of Blue does not cheat.

5) What happened to the play-by-play during LIVE games on Twitter/FB?  Sure, there was some but it wasn't consistent. Back to "advertising" - the more buzz created, the more potential attention the game draws to itself.

6) Fix the Prizing fullfillment aspect of the game and unless I missed it - post on the 1vs100 site what one should do if your prize doesn't arrive after the 4-6 weeks timeframe.

7) Keep building on your question database -  Season 3 should have little to no repeats.

8) What happened to the forum "Shoutout" threads for the LIVE shows?  They all but disappeared in S2. New players come in and don't know what's going on. Plus, the in-game audio is not consistent enough for some.  Post the email address in the opening game credits or in the game's help or on the lobby "Scoreboard" - Less forum clutter, and threadlocking.

I really would like to see this game take off.  The team has laid out the groundwork. It's time to tweak, fine tune, and get this puppy ready for "Primetime!"

See ya'll in Season 3!