[mproper]

Ok, a couple dumb newbie questions. Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring some stuff out.


1) How can I sign out of XBL but still have my profile loaded? I've been playing Lego Star Wars with my kid lately, but would prefer that the little "Friend A is online" messages weren't popping up constantly. I tried signing out, but then it said it couldn't load/save the game without a loaded profile....so I signed back in, but then I was signed into XBL again. Alternatively is there a way to disable the notifications?


2) I see sometimes that my friends' status is set to "Away"....is this something that is done automatically after a period of inactivity, or can I manually set my status?


3) What do all the icons mean when I am viewing a friend's gamer card? For instance, last night I was looking to see who was online, and people playing Gears of War all had 4 icons in their "status" section. Mine appears to be blank, but I haven't really played much. Are these achievements or something?


4) What do achievements get me? Other than them showing up in my profile I mean. Are they just a measure of my greatness (uhm....not-so-greatness) or do they serve another purpose? Is there a point in getting these, other than a measure of my own self-worth? For example on Star Wars Legos, there are achiements for completing each level without dying. If I get 100% of the achievements, does it unlock something special? Does George Lucas send me an autographed personal note of congratulations? Or are they just goals that the developer set up as additional challenges beyond completing the game?


5) Is there a way to see which friends in my list are joinable without viewing each one individually? For instance, last night there were about a dozen friends online, all playing GOW. I had to open up each one to see if they were joinable or not. It would also be nice if I could tell if friends were playing together. For instance I'd rather join a game that 3 of my friends were playing in as opposed to one where only 1 friend was in. Is there anyway to tell that? Some kindof game-room id tag or something?


Thanks for answering my questions. Still learning, obviously.

 

[SixkillerNYC]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mproper /forum/post/0


Ok, a couple dumb newbie questions. Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring some stuff out.


1) How can I sign out of XBL but still have my profile loaded? I've been playing Lego Star Wars with my kid lately, but would prefer that the little "Friend A is online" messages weren't popping up constantly. I tried signing out, but then it said it couldn't load/save the game without a loaded profile....so I signed back in, but then I was signed into XBL again. Alternatively is there a way to disable the notifications?


2) I see sometimes that my friends' status is set to "Away"....is this something that is done automatically after a period of inactivity, or can I manually set my status?


3) What do all the icons mean when I am viewing a friend's gamer card? For instance, last night I was looking to see who was online, and people playing Gears of War all had 4 icons in their "status" section. Mine appears to be blank, but I haven't really played much. Are these achievements or something?


4) What do achievements get me? Other than them showing up in my profile I mean. Are they just a measure of my greatness (uhm....not-so-greatness) or do they serve another purpose? Is there a point in getting these, other than a measure of my own self-worth? For example on Star Wars Legos, there are achiements for completing each level without dying. If I get 100% of the achievements, does it unlock something special? Does George Lucas send me an autographed personal note of congratulations? Or are they just goals that the developer set up as additional challenges beyond completing the game?


5) Is there a way to see which friends in my list are joinable without viewing each one individually? For instance, last night there were about a dozen friends online, all playing GOW. I had to open up each one to see if they were joinable or not. It would also be nice if I could tell if friends were playing together. For instance I'd rather join a game that 3 of my friends were playing in as opposed to one where only 1 friend was in. Is there anyway to tell that? Some kindof game-room id tag or something?


Thanks for answering my questions. Still learning, obviously.

1. yes, you can shut off the notifications. Just go to your personal settings in the guide pane.


2. you can manually set your status in the personal settings of the guide pane

You can also set it so that if you're watching a movie you're automatically set to away. If you set to away I believe notifications are turned off as well.


3. those icons are the latest achievements that player has gotten.


4. Achievements are jsut something fun to shoot for, a measure of what you've completed in a given game. Some games have lots of them, others few. Some games make it very hard to get everything, others are very easy. I find them fun to go for, but they don't really mean anything. Others can look at your card and see what you've done in a given game.


5. Whether a game is joinable is dependent on the game. Few games are hop right in and joinable like that. Typically you'd jsut send a message to your friend asking for an invite. there's no way to see who's playing together like you describe.

 

[Sunkist]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mproper /forum/post/0


Ok, a couple dumb newbie questions. Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring some stuff out.


1) How can I sign out of XBL but still have my profile loaded? I've been playing Lego Star Wars with my kid lately, but would prefer that the little "Friend A is online" messages weren't popping up constantly. I tried signing out, but then it said it couldn't load/save the game without a loaded profile....so I signed back in, but then I was signed into XBL again. Alternatively is there a way to disable the notifications?You can disconnnect your network cable to stop the live sign in or go into your profile and disable online notifications.


2) I see sometimes that my friends' status is set to "Away"....is this something that is done automatically after a period of inactivity, or can I manually set my status?Same as above, it is in your profile


3) What do all the icons mean when I am viewing a friend's gamer card? For instance, last night I was looking to see who was online, and people playing Gears of War all had 4 icons in their "status" section. Mine appears to be blank, but I haven't really played much. Are these achievements or something?These are the latest achievements for that game that they completed


4) What do achievements get me? Other than them showing up in my profile I mean. Are they just a measure of my greatness (uhm....not-so-greatness) or do they serve another purpose?They do nothing just online bragging rights you could say


5) Is there a way to see which friends in my list are joinable without viewing each one individually? For instance, last night there were about a dozen friends online, all playing GOW. I had to open up each one to see if they were joinable or not. It would also be nice if I could tell if friends were playing together. For instance I'd rather join a game that 3 of my friends were playing in as opposed to one where only 1 friend was in. Is there anyway to tell that? Some kindof game-room id tag or something?Not really, you just have to check each account, or ask the person to play a game with you.


Thanks for answering my questions. Still learning, obviously.

Hope those help!

 

[Spyderturbo007]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mproper /forum/post/0


Ok, a couple dumb newbie questions. Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring some stuff out.


1) How can I sign out of XBL but still have my profile loaded? I've been playing Lego Star Wars with my kid lately, but would prefer that the little "Friend A is online" messages weren't popping up constantly. I tried signing out, but then it said it couldn't load/save the game without a loaded profile....so I signed back in, but then I was signed into XBL again. Alternatively is there a way to disable the notifications?


2) I see sometimes that my friends' status is set to "Away"....is this something that is done automatically after a period of inactivity, or can I manually set my status?


3) What do all the icons mean when I am viewing a friend's gamer card? For instance, last night I was looking to see who was online, and people playing Gears of War all had 4 icons in their "status" section. Mine appears to be blank, but I haven't really played much. Are these achievements or something?


4) What do achievements get me? Other than them showing up in my profile I mean. Are they just a measure of my greatness (uhm....not-so-greatness) or do they serve another purpose?


5) Is there a way to see which friends in my list are joinable without viewing each one individually? For instance, last night there were about a dozen friends online, all playing GOW. I had to open up each one to see if they were joinable or not. It would also be nice if I could tell if friends were playing together. For instance I'd rather join a game that 3 of my friends were playing in as opposed to one where only 1 friend was in. Is there anyway to tell that? Some kindof game-room id tag or something?


Thanks for answering my questions. Still learning, obviously.

1.) You can disable the notification messages if you want. If I remember correctly, highlight your gamercard and hit "A", then to personal settings and then to notifications.


2.) This is also a preference you can set up. There are options such as Away, Busy and also one that hides you from being seen by friends. It's in the privacy section. You can get there by hitting the guide button, then go down to privacy settings. Then down to online status.


3.) The icons show the 4 most recent achievements your friend has received in the game he is playing.


4.)You are correct, you don't get anything except for a higher gamer score. I don't even bother trying to get them, I just have fun playing. Other people are hardcore about achievements and will even exploit game glitches to get them.


5.) Not sure about this one, but I don't think so.


Some of my "paths" to get to the above mentioned settings might be off, but they are close. Just roam around and you will find them.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

Ah, crap, you beat me SixkillerNYC. I guess your fingers are faster.

 

[LR6AGB001]

1. Xbox guide button - personal settings - notifications - uncheck show notifications.

2. Same as above only after personal settings click on online status and change it accordingly.

3. Those icons you see below gamercards are indeed achievements.

4. Achievements really serve no purpose other than bragging rights, if you care for that sort of thing.

5. No way other than manually opening up gamercards to see if they are joinable, at least not to my knowledge.


This was my first Xbox and I had bit to learn with all the buttons on the system as well as navigating the dashboard, it can get confusing at times since the menus all seem to look the same.


~Beat me too.~

 

[mproper]



Quote:
Originally Posted by LR6AGB001 /forum/post/0


1. Xbox guide button - personal settings - notifications - uncheck show notifications.

2. Same as above only after personal settings click on online status and change it accordingly.

3. Those icons you see below gamercards are indeed achievements.

4. Achievements really serve no purpose other than bragging rights, if you care for that sort of thing.

5. No way other than manually opening up gamercards to see if they are joinable, at least not to my knowledge.


This was my first Xbox and I had bit to learn with all the buttons on the system as well as navigating the dashboard, it can get confusing at times since the menus all seem to look the same.


~Beat me too.~

Thanks for all the feedback. I guess that somehow I managed to miss the personal settings area in my profile. I will play around with it when I get home.


And I agree...I find the dashboard a bit hard to navigate, but I'm figuring it out. It looks so straight forward though, I feel like an idiot for not being able to find things. I guess I should try to get some GOW achievements so it's not so embarrassing jumping into an online match and having no achievements showing up.

 

[SixkillerNYC]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mproper /forum/post/0


Thanks for all the feedback. I guess that somehow I managed to miss the personal settings area in my profile. I will play around with it when I get home.


And I agree...I find the dashboard a bit hard to navigate, but I'm figuring it out. It looks so straight forward though, I feel like an idiot for not being able to find things. I guess I should try to get some GOW achievements so it's not so embarrassing jumping into an online match and having no achievements showing up.

Nobody really cares about your achievements, don't worry about it.


I find them fun for my own use. they give me a little extra incentive to keep playing some games, and I like that.

 

[Chicago77]

I know how to sign in automatically when you sign on. I believe it is a default.


I am looking to be able to sign in online but automatically be placed in "Appear Offline"?

 

[vpn75]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Chicago77 /forum/post/0


I know how to sign in automatically when you sign on. I believe it is a default.


I am looking to be able to sign in online but automatically be placed in "Appear Offline"?

I'd like to know if this is possible too. Sometimes, I just want to play some single-player and not be bothered with invites from friends wanting to play GoW.