I am not going to bash Xbox live or Microsoft's fee for this service, I simply would like to gather perspective on this subject. What does Microsoft bring new to the table when it comes to online services? Is their online experience so different and unique that it really should warrant a price tag?

Personally, I think not. Essentially the main selling factor is to play online. Sure, there are other things you can do with a gold account that you cannot do with a silver account, but primarily it all boils down the to if you want to pay to play online or not. Most people do, including myself. To be honest, the price isn't so bad either, after moving over primarily to PC to play online though I really have started to question Microsoft's service and the future of online gaming.

Xbox live to me feels like a much more polished and frivolously cosmetic version of Steam. They provide games to download, video to watch, text and voice chat options, profiles, and the ability to play games online. The only real difference is that with Xbox you have to pay a fee. Why? Is it to provide things such as Netflix, under par avatar games, gaming with celebrities night, and ........ advertisements?

First off, I don't see what Xbox provides that a web browser can't with exception to gaming with celebrities, and I don't see it as any different or valued then steam on a PC for that matter. 2nd, why are there advertisements on Xbox live? If I am paying for a service that I trust is sensible enough to sustain business through the income brought by it's user base, then ads with the exception of ads intended to market inside that service (Ex. Shadow complex is on sale now, try it out), should not exist.

Any real input contrasting or in agreement would be nice. I'm not going to reread what I just wrote. Mistakes are probably in there.

this made my day you know what's awesome about the pc too? the mod community.

but LIVE isn't so bad, at the least. why? paying for the fee to play online games is necessary to keep things polished. It's like comparing WoW to free WoW knockoffs, you can see and feel the difference, although steam is indeed great to play on but at times due to certain PC related aspects an awesome experience would turn sour. LIVE however makes it easier and all most flawless, the gold just gives you extra perks.

I rarely play on LIVE anymore, since im rarely at home where my 360 is but so far since the community just blew up, I'm loving the availability of competition LIVE has for us.

I've barely looked into that.

xbox live is a gyp.

PC, PS3, PSP, Wii, DS, all have free , decent online play.

Xbox 360 has decent online play with a flashy coat of paint + the most annoying user base out of all the online platforms AND they charge you for it.

at any given point I rarely have a gold membership, take resident evil 5, if I had it on ps3 sure id play it online with people, but am I gonna shell out extra $$ just for the ability to play it online with someone else? hell no.

is this a huge deal? nah not really.

if the next generation of consoles Xbox keeps charging and sony has free online will that effect which console I decide to buy? hell yes, learned my lesson this generation.

I don't mind paying a yearly fee for Xbox live. The way I see it is the money MS gets from subscriptions will be used to make the service better. Rarely I've ever came across online gaming problems on live that I do with PC games, like lag, or finding my friends and setting up a game with them almost immediately. My friend Mike who works at a mom n pop game store says he owns both a PS3 and a 360 and he tells me the 360's Live feature is way better than the PS3's serivce, despite the PS3's is free.

The way I see it is, if it works, use it. Besides 50 bucks a year to play thousands of games online is a small price to pay, even I can afford it.

Not to mention the 300ish bucks for a red ringing console.

When my console red rings, I'm selling everything I own for the Xbox. Unless Fatlus decides down the line to exclusively make games for it.

I'm pretty sure I heard the virtual arcade is going to require you to buy tokens with microsoft points. Also why the hell do gold members get mother fucking ads? Thats bullshit.

You do know the red ring is actually easy to prevent, right?

Also, I have gold and I've never ran into a single ad in any session.

hax

By not owning a Xbox?

If you are implying that "taking care of it" prevents it that's not necessarily true. A friend of mine took care of his like a child. He kept it out in the open so it not all closed up so there was good air flow. He clean the crap out of it so it wasn't dusty. And after a year or so it red ringed, and he is on his third xbox. It's bullshit and I don't see why people put up with it. But whatever.

Funny, because I've had mine for over a year and not once has it died on me. Maybe the older boxes ring out, but newer ones, with proper care, won't. Mine has been sitting in the same well open spot for over a year, and the only times its ever moved is when I take it to a friends house, and even after all that travel it's still in good shape.

Are you freaking kidding me? Wii? Decent online play? I don't think so. The few times I've tried to play with friends I ended up getting so frustrated with the fact I have to enter my friends wii code, then a game code, and then this code and that code and 800 million numbers later then I can play a game only to lag out and have to quit.

And don't get me started with the PSN's "free" service. It's only free if the devs choose it to be. If Konami was like okay we're going to make TMNT online, but we're gonna charge $4 a month for it. Guess what PS3 users, you're going to be charged that to use their service because of the lack of dedicated servers. Assuming you can join the damn game in the first place.

I tried the MAG beta and at first I couldn't even connect to the damn game because I kept getting dropped for no reason other than their servers were being hammered and couldn't handle the amount of people logging in.

I pay for Xbox live because I get dedicated servers and perks like access to premium content effortlessly and easily, live chat in the background of any games or just on the main launch area, a free headset in the system package that I dont have to jump through hoops to sync with my system and connect only to find out that my headset wont even work during the game anyways. The ability to mute annoying players in-game (Which I found out while playing MAG that you can not do on the PSN) as well as free things just handed to me on the regular (Themes/gamer pics/avatar stuff/whatever else that isn't game related and completely useless)

And the most important reason I subscribe to Xbox live is because everyone I want to play video games with (save for maybe a few stubborn die-hard microsoft haters) are on Xbox live, and playing games with them is as easy as turning the system on, finding their name on my list, and choosing join game.

/end rant.

No, I doubt it. PS3 has had Netflix as a streaming service for awhile. The thing is, it's on a disc, like the Wii will be, and since a representative of Sony says it'll be on disc "for a long while", I'm guessing that's because Microsoft has exclusive right to have it integrated into their system or something.

I wouldn't mind if Microsoft made it available to Silver members. In fact, I don't see why not. I mean, yes, I can see it's prolly because you can get a party online together to watch anything on it (unless it's a STARZ video or some shit), but can't they just change it so that silver members can't start or join a party or something? I dunno, it's dumb.

the only downside to LIVE are....them 13 yr olds who play MW2 and fucking yell at the mic whenever they die..