XBOX Night

Through Feb 2010

About

In order to provide for a safe friendly environment for kids to play XBOX with their friends, I am organizing monthly nights at our house where we network XBOX consoles together and let the kids play against each other.   We mostly play Halo 3 since it is the most multiplayer-friendly game and most have it.  Online play is a different experience than playing against the computer. Unfortunately, online communities aren’t the best kid-friendly environments, mostly frequented by adolescent boys where inappropriate language and aggressive taunting are common. We try to have a WII available for younger siblings.

House Rules

1. No bad language. That includes: friggin
2. Keep taunting to a low level
3. No cheating!
4. No betrayals (shooting your own team members). The games we play will most likely not allow this. But remember if you betray, you can get booted from the game.
5. No time outs once game starts. If you have to go to the bathroom, you can still get shot so go between games
6. No food or drinks while playing. We don’t want to mess up the borrowed consoles or controllers.
7. There will be a designated leader for the night that selects and hosts each game. NOBODY else should be starting a hosted game.
8. Gravity and speed should be set to normal for each game.

What to Bring

These are all optional. Remember we CAN have up to 4 players per XBOX though my goal is to have enough to limit 2 per screen.

• An XBOX, of course, if you have one. Classic or 360. Don’t forget power chord and video cord.
• Controllers, as many as you feel comfortable but no more than 4, 2 is usually enough (S-type at least, please no original large controllers).
• Headset
• Games
  • Halo3
  • Halo2
  • Gears of War
  • Call of Duty 2
  • Call of Duty 3
• $5 per person. Max $10 per family. Covers food & drinks. Even if you don’t eat, please contribute $5, keeps things simple.
• Snacks or drinks are always welcome and can substitute for the entry fee.
• LCD monitor, especially if it has composite/component connections AND speakers.

Now that we plan to focus on 1 player 1 xbox, I would like for each station to be as enjoyable as possible.  My house has 2 Samsung LCD TV’s that offer the best HD experience.  I also recently bought a 24in flatscreen monitor for home that I use when I work at home on my laptop.  I bought a model that has an HDMI connection.  This allows us to have a very nice 3rd HD experience with an XBOX. David often prefers this over the Samsung TVs.  Finally I have a 32-in and 27-in tube TV that does not offer an HD experience.  Three more station can be setup with various computer monitors, again no HD experience.

Sooo, if anyone is inclined to upgrade there home computer monitor or are planning on buying a new system, I highly recommend getting one that has an HDMI connector and paying a little extra for the convenient monitor speakers.  You can the bring it to XBOX night and guarantee you have an HD experience.