Let me first open by saying I think it's neat that gamers from both Vista and Xbox360 worlds can play with each other online. Cross-platform anything is cool. However, "neat" isn't always something you push to production without considering the drawbacks.

My complaint is regarding this feature and the first person shooter (FPS) genre. This complaint is about the effect that this feature has on gaming. Allow me to clear that I'm not upset that I suck at Shadowrun and die a lot. Heck, it's fun to play even when I die constantly. Except against users who are clearly average or better gamers on Vista.

As anyone who grew up playing FPSs on the computer, my first distaste for the console FPS was the aiming system. The mouse allows you to more quickly and accurately input directional data to the game than does an analog thumbstick. A mouse lets you turn around instantly and accurately with the trained flick of a wrist. Thumbsticks are a far cry from this. Everyone knows this.

So why, then, do we bridge the gaming worlds of PCs and Consoles? Why, when the aiming device (mouse, trackball, whatever) has several distinct advantages over the thumbstick? Who knows.

All I know is, I'm tired of teleporting 3 times across someone's view and his shots follow me exactly, assumedly because he's using a mouse. Maybe he's really good, and I know I'm really bad, but my gut tells me that most of the time these players are on PCs.

For other games, sure, let's join the worlds, where the tools on both sides don't grant significant advantage.

All I want is a checkbox that says: "Only play with gamers on my platform."

If I played on a PC, I'd ask for this same feature, because it would be an absolute slaughter: me against console players.

Pretty please? A checkbox isn't so hard, is it?

Love,
Me, an Xbox Live and Shadowrun fan.