Alphajax and Notifications

[Keith Wallace]

Since Alphajax came out yesterday, I installed it and sent the link to my sister for it. I haven't touched the app yet, but I guess she has. Ever since, she says it's been sending her lots of notifications. She uninstalled the app last night, but the notifications didn't stop with it. She said she had to disable Xbox LIVE on her phone because it wouldn't stop in the middle of the night. She said they're notifications about being challenged and having it be her turn.

I told her to reinstall the app and try turning the in-game and tile notifications off, but that the notifications didn't stop. Only disabling them in the Games hub made it stop. Does anyone know what causes this to not stop after uninstalling the app or how to make the notifications stop in THAT game without stopping them for all games?

 

[inteller]

XBL Alphajax is a complete disaster. It does not honor the "Friends Only" setting in your Xbox privacy settings.

 

[Keith Wallace]

That's an annoyance. Someone should probably ask them about that stuff. I would, but I have no Twitter.

 

[shinygerbil]

I hope you are aware that this phrase:

It does not honor the "Friends Only" setting in your Xbox privacy settings.

does not automatically imply the following phrase:

XBL Alphajax is a complete disaster.

Now of course I understand that this *is* an issue, but for a lot of people it is not a dealbreaker.

Going round badmouthing the app when the problem in my eyes lies with Microsoft (Seriously? One checkbox for the whole of Xbox Music, Xbox Video and Windows Phone Games?! Yes or No? All or Nothing?) is not exactly fair on the AlphaJax team, is it? A lot of effort has gone into this. It is not a "complete disaster". The game works wonderfully well from where I'm standing.

I don't really want to even bother, but let's look at Words with Friends as a counter-example. It locks up my phone requiring a powerdown and reboot maybe 1 in 4 times I use it. Another 1 in 4, it simply crashes. The other 50% of the time it is full of bugs to the point that it's not playable.

*THAT* is a complete disaster.

I at least hope that you have privately raised the issue with the AlphaJax team and received a response *BEFORE* you start ****posting about them. Excuse my language.

 

[Keith Patton]

I made this definitive post on the subject of AlphaJax notifications for you guys

Turning off notifications - Alphajax - A - D - Xbox.com Forums - Xbox.com

Any questions, post up to the official AlphaJax forums on Xbox.com at the link above. We're here to help and to play people!

 

[Keith Patton]

bear in mind also we've gone from zero to tonnes of users in 1 day, it was a crazy first day and some users early on obviously got a lot of "please play!" random requests. Expect this to lessen as the usage grows (and believe me it is growing!).

 

[inteller]

I hope you are aware that this phrase:

does not automatically imply the following phrase:




Now of course I understand that this *is* an issue, but for a lot of people it is not a dealbreaker.

Going round badmouthing the app when the problem in my eyes lies with Microsoft (Seriously? One checkbox for the whole of Xbox Music, Xbox Video and Windows Phone Games?! Yes or No? All or Nothing?) is not exactly fair on the AlphaJax team, is it? A lot of effort has gone into this. It is not a "complete disaster". The game works wonderfully well from where I'm standing.

I don't really want to even bother, but let's look at Words with Friends as a counter-example. It locks up my phone requiring a powerdown and reboot maybe 1 in 4 times I use it. Another 1 in 4, it simply crashes. The other 50% of the time it is full of bugs to the point that it's not playable.

*THAT* is a complete disaster.

I at least hope that you have privately raised the issue with the AlphaJax team and received a response *BEFORE* you start ****posting about them. Excuse my language.

DId Microsoft write the game? No they didn't And they have the same XBL settings that EVERYONE else must abide by as well. This is NOT a Microsoft problem, it is a FAILURE of the game studio to account for the well known and documented XBL settings. And YES I did tell them on their support forums what the problem is and never got a reply.

The bottom line is this is a COMPLETELY EASY thing to test, and it was totally left out of whatever flimsy QA plan that was put in place. That is a disaster.

 

[shinygerbil]

The game has an unmissable "Microsoft Studios" splash screen. I assumed that the Alphajax team had some help/collaboration with Microsoft Studios then. As far as enforcing policies, I would suspect that at least a portion of this is done within the Xbox Live infrastructure rather than the app itself. Also, presumably Microsoft have to certify Xbox Live games before they go on release. So if you want, you can blame Microsoft's "flimsy QA plan". (Which is presumably the same plan they use to test every other XBL game that ever gets released)

I don't see any posts on the Xbox.com forums. Looking at the (deprecated) Zendesk site, I see one complaint and - more importantly - an actual reply from Keith Patton which states "Friends only does work, however you will find that it may offer a restricted game play experience in line with Xbox LIVE policies for a game such as AlphaJax."

This leads me to realise that you have not actually stated what your problem is. How exactly does it "not honour" your Friends only settings? Care to give an example? That's usually the first step when you have a problem - rather than assuming you know the answer.

 

[inteller]

Microsoft Studios is the PUBLISHER, not the developer.

No games can be create in this app because it gives me the warning about XBL permissions, which are set to Friends only and has been for YEARS. No other games have a problem with those settings and you are naive to think I am alone in this issue.

 

[shinygerbil]

I never said I thought you were alone in this issue. I was mentioning that you haven't posted the issue on the xbox.com forums. And you said you haven't received a reply when I can clearly see one on the zendesk forums.

My point about MS certification still stands.

And...are you sure you can't create a game against a friend? There is a separate Friends pivot under Create a Game. Does this not work? If that does work, then everything else is as intended.

 

[inteller]

starting a game with a friend just fires off an email. Starting a skills match with a random person should work no matter what incoming privacy settings I have.

 

[shinygerbil]

See, you've put that word "incoming" in there but I don't see any use of that word in the Privacy Settings section of xbox.com. All I see is "Decide who to communicate with using voice and text on Xbox LIVE. This includes voice and text chat, messaging, and game invites." which sounds decidedly direction-agnostic.

If other games allow you to chat or send invites to strangers then *they* are not honouring your Friends Only setting.

AlphaJax *is* fully honouring the setting. You've been badmouthing them without reason.

(It will fire off an email if the friend you are inviting doesn't have AlphaJax installed.)