So what is it you're actually paying for with Live Gold?

[Hiphophippo]

Best as I can tell, nothing I can't get for free on every other gaming platform I frequent. I love my xbox, don't get me wrong, but I'm not paying for gold.

 

[migo]

well iv got a flawless answer for you. have you ever considered its because your playing UNO. I mean the card game is fun and all but as a Xbox game its a bit of a dumb idea, what i'm getting at here is try playing some games like Halo 3, Battlefield bad company 2 or some other recent big tittle (Blacklight doesn't count because it sucks)which has a lot of effort and money put into it (and therefore good servers.

It's not flawless at all. Uno is so simple it shouldn't have any problems, it's not like it's taxing the CPU to run it, nor is it data intensive to the point of requiring anything more than a 19200 baud connection.

 

[migo]

Like many before have said, the problems with lag and such MUST BE an issue with your connection.

It can't be an issue with my connection. It's connected via ethernet, so it's not like it's WiFi signal interference, and my ISP gives me sustained 10mbps uploads and 18mbps downloads with under 10ms response time. The problem is either with the Xbox 360 or with the service.

I have an xbox, ps3, and a gaming computer, and neither one of them have any better or worse online play. Actually, that's wrong. The xbox has the best of the three, but I don't think you want to hear that.

It's rather simple though. I've got a gaming PC and no problems of any kind, I get problems with the 360, clearly that's the source of the problem.

I don't know why you dislike xbox live so much, you can get a year of play for only $60, which really is dirt cheap for the quality you recieve.

It's quite expensive considering I can apparently get better quality on PC and PS3 for free.

I do have one complaint. The microsoft point system for buying add-ons and such. It's such a retarded way for microsoft to try to fool you into thinking your not spending as much as you really are. Just tell me how much I have to pay for it!

Not only that, since you're buying points there's no cash value so it's that much harder to get refunds.

 

[migo]

It's a fairly new 360, and it's my understanding with Jasper and on that the hardware reliability was pretty solid.

 

[kaveradeo]

It would help to open your NAT. I used to lag out all the time, but THEN I fixed the ports to have open NAT and very rarely lag out. But I think this is only a problem if you use a router in addition to a modem. CodMW2 tells you your NAT type as well as halo and gears if its not open.

 

[Kermi]

It can't be an issue with my connection. It's connected via ethernet, so it's not like it's WiFi signal interference, and my ISP gives me sustained 10mbps uploads and 18mbps downloads with under 10ms response time. The problem is either with the Xbox 360 or with the service.

If you're consistently having problems and the ten million other people playing on Xbox Live aren't, whose problem must it be? Seriously. You can't just throw out a bunch of numbers and say "well it's can't possibly be me, I have twenty bajillion gigathings".

I get lag from time to time (usually MW2 or Halo 3 gives me a bad host which is solved via host migration mid-game), but not all the time, and my internet connection is far worse than yours.

It would help to open your NAT. I used to lag out all the time, but THEN I fixed the ports to have open NAT and very rarely lag out. But I think this is only a problem if you use a router in addition to a modem. CodMW2 tells you your NAT type as well as halo and gears if its not open.

This is a good point. Make sure your NAT is open, or your matchmaking experience will be pretty awful. You should also look up some tutorials for optimal Xbox Live settings for your router. There's one heavily referenced forum psot somewhere called "how to pimp out your router for Xbox Live", so google that and you'll be sweet.

 

[Kermi]

PS3, its free! Also it seems that some of you are misinformed, their not going to start charging for the PSN but instead charge for extras like exclusive demos and free games.

And Sony have never changed their policy on anything ever. Remember when rumble was a "last generation feature" and "impossible" to include rumble with the sixaxis?
I'd be happy to be proved wrong, but it's seriously only a matter of time before PSN+ is required for online gaming. All they have to do is start releasing games that require PSN+ support to play online, then start removing support for games that don't.

 

[Zaik]

I've got the month free Gold subscription that comes with a new account, so I figured I'd try some online play. Uno should have been easy enough to get that going. I try connecting to a friendly game and get dropped several times before finally being able to connect (I've got a 10mbit FTTB ISP and am connected via Ethernet, plus it's Uno, there's really no excuse for the connection dropping). Then a few rounds in some guy joins with a headset and starts trash talking (again, friendly game of Uno we're talking about here, not Gears of War). I also tried the Blacklight Tango Down trial, which turned out to be online only - I realize it's a new game, but given how highly it's rated you'd think I could find some matches. No luck with that either.

On PS3 I remember not being able to find anyone to play Fatal Inertia EX online with when it was only available on the Japanese PS Store - that's understandable with a different timezone of a not well hyped game. I also never had a connection drop despite having a much less reliable ISP at the time and connecting via WiFi.

Where's this better online experience you're paying for with Gold?

I don't know about "better", but basically, what you pay for is basically a crappy version of Steam. Sort of like if you took an IM program and added in the ability to get a list of player hosted servers for whatever game and join them. Costs them next to nothing.

 

[migo]

]And Sony have never changed their policy on anything ever. Remember when rumble was a "last generation feature" and "impossible" to include rumble with the sixaxis?

They were getting sued for patent infringement at the time that the PS3 was released, the DualShock 3 got released once the patent issues were resolved.

I'd be happy to be proved wrong, but it's seriously only a matter of time before PSN+ is required for online gaming. All they have to do is start releasing games that require PSN+ support to play online, then start removing support for games that don't.

That would be suicide for them.

 

[migo]

It can't be an issue with my connection. It's connected via ethernet, so it's not like it's WiFi signal interference, and my ISP gives me sustained 10mbps uploads and 18mbps downloads with under 10ms response time. The problem is either with the Xbox 360 or with the service.

If you're consistently having problems and the ten million other people playing on Xbox Live aren't, whose problem must it be? Seriously. You can't just throw out a bunch of numbers and say "well it's can't possibly be me, I have twenty bajillion gigathings".

It's really quite simple though. PC connected exactly the same way with no troubles. Xbox 360 has troubles, either the issue is with the 360 hardware itself or with the service, because it's not my ISP.

It would help to open your NAT. I used to lag out all the time, but THEN I fixed the ports to have open NAT and very rarely lag out. But I think this is only a problem if you use a router in addition to a modem. CodMW2 tells you your NAT type as well as halo and gears if its not open.

This is a good point. Make sure your NAT is open, or your matchmaking experience will be pretty awful. You should also look up some tutorials for optimal Xbox Live settings for your router. There's one heavily referenced forum psot somewhere called "how to pimp out your router for Xbox Live", so google that and you'll be sweet.

Thanks, I'll take a look for that.

 

[Double A]

360's cheaper than the PS3, and now that Sony is gonna start charging for it, we're still cheaper.

Also, there's a mute feature.

You do realize that PSN as it is will still be free, right?

I heard somewhere that they'd start charging.

Also, Microsoft doesn't ask for your freaking address.

 

[Zaik]

360's cheaper than the PS3, and now that Sony is gonna start charging for it, we're still cheaper.

Also, there's a mute feature.

You do realize that PSN as it is will still be free, right?

I heard somewhere that they'd start charging.

Also, Microsoft doesn't ask for your freaking address.

nah, they started offering this extra service thing that costs money, but the base service is untouched.

 

[Timbydude]

PSN may be free, but good luck voice chatting with people when 90%+ of the player base doesn't have a Bluetooth headset, whereas headsets come bundled with all 360's.

I use both services, and Live is far better simply because of the fact that people talk to each other on it. I've yet to play a game of Killzone 2 or Fat Princess where more than one person is using a headset, whereas Halo 3 and Call of Duty (say what you will about the 9-year-olds who won't stop talking) at least have talking going on, and that way you can form a strategy and go at it.

Is the $50/year price justified? No, not really. You're paying for multiplayer gameplay, which comes free on every other system. But is it the best online service on a console? Currently, yes it is.

 

[migo]

360's cheaper than the PS3, and now that Sony is gonna start charging for it, we're still cheaper.

Also, there's a mute feature.

You do realize that PSN as it is will still be free, right?

I heard somewhere that they'd start charging.

Also, Microsoft doesn't ask for your freaking address.

Yeah, they do, your phone # too, you just have the option of not entering it.

 

[migo]

Incidentally, I did a search for that post. Unfortunately it was written for the old dashboard rather than NXE, which seems to be less robust when it comes to network settings. It tells me I'm connected but nothing about an open or closed router.

 

[Drexlor]

You get nothing that you couldn't get for free from PSN, at least nothing worth paying for. And PSN Plus is optional and gives you exclusives and some cheaper prices. Does Gold do that?