Section 10.10. Game Statistics to Excel

10.10. Game Statistics to Excel

Halo 2, a game for the XBox console, can be played as a multiplayer online game over the XBox-Live network. If you do this, your players statistics become available online as an RSS 2.0 feed. Example 10-1 shows an example of such a feed, courtesy of player "nedrichards."

Example 10-1. An RSS 2.0 feed from Halo 2

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <rss version="2.0">   <channel>     <title>nedrichards's recent games</title>     <link>http://www.bungie.net/stats</link>     <description>Halo2 games played recently (courtesy of Bungie.Net)</description>     <language>en-us</language>     <pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:16:54 GMT</pubDate>     <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>     <generator>BungieTest RSS Generator</generator>     <webMaster>[e-mail]</webMaster>     <item>       <title>Arranged Game: Rockets on Headlong</title>       <link>http://bungie.net/stats/gamestats.aspx?gameid=30084649&player=nedrichards</link>        <pubDate>Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:49:33 GMT</pubDate>        <guid>http://bungie.net/stats/gamestats.aspx?gameid=30084649&player=nedrichards</guid>        <description>Game played at Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:49:33 GMT<br/><br/>Playlist: Arranged Game<br/>Rockets on Headlong<br/><br/><b>Gamertag (Team): Score, Kills, Deaths, Assists</b><br/>Evil Ted Hed (4): 25, 25, 14, 1<br/>Cranium Oxide (0): 21, 21, 12, 2<br/>nedrichards (2): 15, 15, 25, 1<br/>smokingdrum (3): 12, 12, 18, 2<br/>Frizby (1): 11, 11, 24, 1<br/></description>          </item>          <item>             <title>Team Skirmish: 1 Flag CTF Fast on Burial Mounds</title>             <link>http://bungie.net/stats/gamestats. aspx?gameid=30068566&player=nedrichards</link>             <pubDate>Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:28:23 GMT</pubDate>             <guid>http://bungie.net/stats/gamestats. aspx?gameid=30068566&player=nedrichards</guid>             <description>Team game played at Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:28:23 GMT<br/><br/> Playlist: Team Skirmish<br/>1 Flag CTF Fast on Burial Mounds<br/><br/><b>Gamertag (Team): Score, Kills, Deaths, Assists</b><br/>Frizby (1): 0, 3, 8, 1<br/>BoP Andy (0): 0, 4, 2, 1<br/>nedrichards (1): 0, 3, 7, 1<br/>smokingdrum (1): 0, 2, 8, 2<br/>Ninja Master 35 (0): 0, 10, 6, 1<br/>Snake9000 (1): 0, 11, 8, 2<br/>BEACONHILLGAMER (0): 0, 9, 5, 1<br/ >Spartan 736 (0): 0, 7, 6, 2<br/></description>          </item>          <item>            <title>Team Slayer: Team Slayer on Foundation</title>             <link>http://bungie.net/stats/gamestats.aspx?gameid=30060296&player=nedrichards</link>            <pubDate>Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:17:44 GMT</pubDate>             <guid>http://bungie.net/stats/gamestats.aspx?gameid=30060296&player=nedrichards</guid>             <description>Team game played at Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:17:44 GMT<br/><br/> Playlist:Team Slayer<br/>Team Slayer on Foundation<br/><br/><b>Gamertag (Team): Score, Kills, Deaths, Assists</b><br/>AgelessPainter (0): 22, 22, 4, 3<br/>smokingdrum (1): 12, 12, 14, 0<br/>sfpipeman1 (0): 11, 11, 8, 2<br/>DARKNIGHT377 (0): 11, 11, 6, 1<br/> nedrichards(1): 9, 9, 12, 5<br/>BlindJokerCard (0): 6, 6, 6, 6<br/> Frizby (1): 4, 3, 15, 4<br/>Wang2 (1): 0, 0, 9, 4<br/></description>             </item>       </channel> </rss>

Each item contains the statistics for a single game. I've removed most of the games from the example to save space.

Such statistics are perfect fodder for analysis, and so Samuel Radakovitza program manager for Excel within Microsofthas built a workbook for Excel 2003 that can import Halo2 feeds and produce beautiful reports from them. It is getting ever more powerful, and the latest version can be downloaded from http://www.isamrad.com/Halo2RSS/.