TheIcemanCometh
03-04-2006, 10:05 PM
I have completed the first beta of the Gamer Grid. You can try it out at http://www.cimba.com:8380/flgs/friends.jsp. Here's a quick screenshot from the output of the application, with a short explanation below.
http://www.cimba.com/testing/gamergrid1.png
The concept starts with the idea of a 'primary' gamer, which will be the gamer that all of the shown games will initially be based on. This is the name you will see in the header and the first row of the table, and will be highlighted in pale green. The remaining gamers will be shown in the alternating gray and white rows as you've seen in my work before. The cell that contains the gamertag will indicate their level of Xbox Live, with a regular xbox.com account being white.
The games that are shown in the grid work on the following logic:
1. The table (currently) only contains eight games. This could be expanded, based on how long it takes to retrieve the additional data.
2. The primary gamer will get first ''crack" at filling in the games. If the primary gamer has eight or more games, nothing else will be used, and you skip down to Step 5.
3. If the primary gamer has less than eight games, the second gamer in the list is scanned to any additional games that the primary gamer does not have. The second gamer also gets his/her crack at filling up the remaining games, up to eight.
4. Step 3 is repeated until the list of eight games is determined.
5. The table is built.
Based on this logic, if you re-order the gamers in the list, you will most likely get a different look table, as far as the games that are filled in.
The percentage you see at the bottom of each game cell shows the achievement percentage, not the percentage of gamerpoints collected for that game. Cells that are filled correspond to the games in the header.
Go ahead and try it out (remember, it's beta), and let me know what you think.
One thing to keep in mind. The XML feed we are getting only keeps track of the last 16 games anyone has played. So if you're doing a grid, and a game you know someone has played has not shown up on the grid, that's why. It's the same on the xbox.com website. It's a limitation of the data Microsoft is providing us - not our (my) fault.
Also, I have decided to set aside the development of the gamer 'card' I was working on. There seems to be enough of those out there right now. I appreciate TechIsCool putting together the graphics for that.
http://www.cimba.com/testing/gamergrid1.png
The concept starts with the idea of a 'primary' gamer, which will be the gamer that all of the shown games will initially be based on. This is the name you will see in the header and the first row of the table, and will be highlighted in pale green. The remaining gamers will be shown in the alternating gray and white rows as you've seen in my work before. The cell that contains the gamertag will indicate their level of Xbox Live, with a regular xbox.com account being white.
The games that are shown in the grid work on the following logic:
1. The table (currently) only contains eight games. This could be expanded, based on how long it takes to retrieve the additional data.
2. The primary gamer will get first ''crack" at filling in the games. If the primary gamer has eight or more games, nothing else will be used, and you skip down to Step 5.
3. If the primary gamer has less than eight games, the second gamer in the list is scanned to any additional games that the primary gamer does not have. The second gamer also gets his/her crack at filling up the remaining games, up to eight.
4. Step 3 is repeated until the list of eight games is determined.
5. The table is built.
Based on this logic, if you re-order the gamers in the list, you will most likely get a different look table, as far as the games that are filled in.
The percentage you see at the bottom of each game cell shows the achievement percentage, not the percentage of gamerpoints collected for that game. Cells that are filled correspond to the games in the header.
Go ahead and try it out (remember, it's beta), and let me know what you think.
One thing to keep in mind. The XML feed we are getting only keeps track of the last 16 games anyone has played. So if you're doing a grid, and a game you know someone has played has not shown up on the grid, that's why. It's the same on the xbox.com website. It's a limitation of the data Microsoft is providing us - not our (my) fault.
Also, I have decided to set aside the development of the gamer 'card' I was working on. There seems to be enough of those out there right now. I appreciate TechIsCool putting together the graphics for that.