Hey Microsoft, Where's the party?

There are plenty of great features about Microsoft's xbox live service that have brought online gaming to a new level. There is however one thing that remains absent, that I have yet to see in any 360 game and that's the beautiful party system from Halo 2.

This was a phenomenal system that made going online and playing with friends so easy, I could create a party, invite my friends, chat for minute while everyone arrived, then head off to kick some ass. Now I understand that I can join any unranked game, then head to my friends list and fire off invite to people from there, but to be quite frank it is not the same.

Some developers have reported that the reason it is not in their games is because Microsoft's "trueskill" system does not allow it. This kind of makes sense, as many abused the party system in Halo 2 to level up friends in ranked games. So is the solution to get rid of it? not allow it? no, even simpler, don't allow it in ranked games. problem solved.

There are also reports that the upcoming cross platform Shadowrun will support it, as well as Halo 3. So if that's the case, is it only games that microsoft want's to have the party system are allowed it?

Xbox.com and other gaming forums are all complaining about the lack of this fantastic feature, especially in the great gears of war. Nothing is more annoying than starting a match, inviting your friends, playing a few rounds against some others, then having to do it all over again when starting a new match.

Get with it Microsoft, when a feature is that successful and enjoyable it should be MANDATORY for every game, not excluded.

/end rant.