The reason why Xbox live should never be free!

[Vern]

I disagree, speaking as a person who started playing online in 97 with a 33k modem. I now have a cable connection, and a brand spanking new PC as well as a 360. And I personally will never pay to play online. Part of the fun of the early online playing was dealing with people on slower connections, compensating for both your lag and theirs, and the fact that anyone could join. Made it a hell of a lot more entertaining. And I feel that if a game is designed heavily for multi-player, then there's no reason you should have to play more to play it on-line than single player. "We're going to completely ignore the initial $60 portion of our game and pour all our resources into the on-line portion that people will have to pay a monthly fee for!" And as of yet it seems like a decent business idea. I realize that Microsoft has to pay for bandwidth costs for their network, but it isn't like it was a sideswipe when they realized it cost money to host servers. They knew it would cost money to maintain their servers, and there's no reason they need to cheat people out of their money every month to cover those costs. PC's have been providing free online play for years aside from some MMOS. If people want to use their own ISPs as servers, there's no reason Microsoft needs to step in, let the ISP ***** to the person instead.

 

[DigitalJedl]

The reason Xbox live should never be free is because of the cheap people and the down-right stupid people. If Xbox Live was made free millions of people would flood servers with the worst, laggiest internet connections known to mankind (and Peter Molyneux)! It would be the worst video game crisis since Wii music! It would be absolutely horrific! So I'm fine with paying monthly to have fun with friends that have Comcast and not Crapcast. Do you think Xbox live should be free after reading this?

I'm not poking fun at poor people I'm just saying if you can't pay the fee then don't get XBL and if you have a bad internet connection and play on the PSN your probably the reason I made this thread.

Not to derail your argument, but I'm pretty sure Xbox Live is a yearly subscription, not monthly.
As to your topic, I'll give a reason why Xbox Live should stay a pay-for service: Playstation Network. PSN is one of the worst attempts at an online service known to man; the downloads take forever (at least in comparison to Xbox Live and I used the same modem for both) and you're downloading new crap constantly; system updates, trophies, environments for that idiotic avatar interaction singles bar.
Though, I would have to say the worst aspect of PSN is the PS3 fans touting that their "service" is "FREE." Yeah, it's free... to play online. Anything beyond that costs.
Ultimately, what PSN lacks is quality- sure, it's "free," but you're pretty much getting what you "pay" for.

Worst attempts? It's pretty fine with me. I think the Wii online is pretty horrid compared to the alternatives.
What downloads take forever? Explain this to me, as I have downloaded Final Fantasy VII 3 days ago, 1.36GB I think it is, and that took less than 45 minutes. If you're getting impatient go outside or something. I hear there is a new thing for the PS3 to increase speed of download times or whatever, however it's not by much. But it is noticeable.
There hasn't been a system update for a while, and why is downloading/installing new things a problem? Isn't that what we want? New items, modes, characters, bugs fixed, etc.
Home... I have no comment for Home. Don't care about it. I'm using my PS3 to play games, not Second Life.
PSN & XBL are just two sides of the same coin to me. There are 'tards on PSN, few and far between. All of them I have found on Killzone 2. Seriously, who the heck makes a PSN ID titled Xbox360sucks? Good thing is, not many of them have headsets.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Geez why do people still complain about paying for live, if you don't wanna then use XBconnect Xlink or whatever else is out there.
Live isn't "better" cause you pay for it just like PSN isn't better cause it's free. Both do things differently and both offer different services for different people.

 

[Low Key]

... Steam is free and I don't have problems with that. Guild Wars is free and I have no problems with that. PSN is free and.. [i/]take a guess[/i].

Granted I don't own an XBox so this can't have to much of an effect on me one way or another.

Yeah but the PS3 fanbase is generally a lot more mature or at least a lot less annoying twits screaming through the mic. No offense at all but this is just what I've noticed so far..

Um...the PS3 doesn't have mics. That could be why. And I highly doubt the people using the PS3 are any more mature than those who use a different system.

 

[TankCopter]

Just because people have money in their pockets does not mean they are intelligent or polite.
The Steam community is perfectly good, and Steam's free.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Its only 40 quid a year, not expensive realy. I dont think it would make a difference.

 

[Jirlond]

Point maybe been made many times but by paying for XBL we are funding microsoft to continually improve the service as new technology comes out xbl will be expected to upgrade where PSN would be more like - be grateful... its free.

And plus XBL has exclusive content such as GTA4 add ones and Rocket Riot.

All in all - I have both a ps3 and xbox 360 - and although I pay for xbox I use it more because it is simply better.

 

[Jirlond]

Its only 40 quid a year, not expensive realy. I dont think it would make a difference.

I can get them off play for £28 - make sure you check the feedback of the suppliers though - buit both me and my friend have both got them from re-sellers on play and they are reliable enough.

... Steam is free and I don't have problems with that. Guild Wars is free and I have no problems with that. PSN is free and.. [i/]take a guess[/i].

Granted I don't own an XBox so this can't have to much of an effect on me one way or another.

Yeah but the PS3 fanbase is generally a lot more mature or at least a lot less annoying twits screaming through the mic. No offense at all but this is just what I've noticed so far..

Um...the PS3 doesn't have mics.

Try to know what you're talking about some of the time. Yes it does, in fact it uses any Bluetooth headset on the market.

It does have a nifty bluetooth headset - I know you dont have a problem with playing free stuff but you do really get what you pay for - the difference between wow adn guildwars is huge because of the money they get and the changes they are able to make with such vast sums of money.

My ps3 is only good for playing my ps2 games - all of my IRL friends and online gamer friends all have XBL another reason to pay the money. but each to his own man, diffrent strokes!

 

[Jirlond]

Its only 40 quid a year, not expensive realy. I dont think it would make a difference.

I can get them off play for £28 - make sure you check the feedback of the suppliers though - buit both me and my friend have both got them from re-sellers on play and they are reliable enough.

... Steam is free and I don't have problems with that. Guild Wars is free and I have no problems with that. PSN is free and.. [i/]take a guess[/i].

Granted I don't own an XBox so this can't have to much of an effect on me one way or another.

Yeah but the PS3 fanbase is generally a lot more mature or at least a lot less annoying twits screaming through the mic. No offense at all but this is just what I've noticed so far..

Um...the PS3 doesn't have mics.

Try to know what you're talking about some of the time. Yes it does, in fact it uses any Bluetooth headset on the market.

It does have a nifty bluetooth headset - I know you dont have a problem with playing free stuff but you do really get what you pay for - the difference between wow adn guildwars is huge because of the money they get and the changes they are able to make with such vast sums of money.

Well thats a worthless comparisson, as the services aren't provide d by similar people. There is no benefit.

The argument is why we think XBL was worth paying for. I was using other comparisons on a free to paid basis and weighing up the pros and cons... so unless microsoft provides PSN or vice versa, the entire argument is invalid.

 

[Froobyx]

Personally, I love XBL... I play it with my friends and boyfriend when I do have Live but because of lack of money this year I havent been able to get it. I prefer not to play with other people cos most the time they're dicks and mainly to me because I'm a girl and I'm doing better than them or I just killed them or something daft for them to get upset about.

I'd actually love it if it was free. Or they could do it where you play for free with your friends and then have to have a subscription to play with other people or something, but they could atleast make it cheaper.

 

[ItsAChiaotzu]

The reason Xbox live should never be free is because of the cheap people and the down-right stupid people. If Xbox Live was made free millions of people would flood servers with the worst, laggiest internet connections known to mankind (and Peter Molyneux)! It would be the worst video game crisis since Wii music! It would be absolutely horrific! So I'm fine with paying monthly to have fun with friends that have Comcast and not Crapcast. Do you think Xbox live should be free after reading this?

I'm not poking fun at poor people I'm just saying if you can't pay the fee then don't get XBL and if you have a bad internet connection and play on the PSN your probably the reason I made this thread.

Not to derail your argument, but I'm pretty sure Xbox Live is a yearly subscription, not monthly.
As to your topic, I'll give a reason why Xbox Live should stay a pay-for service: Playstation Network. PSN is one of the worst attempts at an online service known to man; the downloads take forever (at least in comparison to Xbox Live and I used the same modem for both) and you're downloading new crap constantly; system updates, trophies, environments for that idiotic avatar interaction singles bar.
Though, I would have to say the worst aspect of PSN is the PS3 fans touting that their "service" is "FREE." Yeah, it's free... to play online. Anything beyond that costs.
Ultimately, what PSN lacks is quality- sure, it's "free," but you're pretty much getting what you "pay" for.

The downloads do not take forever, if you can't be bothered to wait that long then you really should get a little patience.

You are not downloading constantly, it's very occasional and the more frequently it's done the quicker it takes.

Hardly anyone uses the "idiotic avatar interaction singles bar" so I don't really give a shit about that.

And you also have to use money to buy DLC, you don't get it built into the price of XBl you know?

 

[Low Key]

... Steam is free and I don't have problems with that. Guild Wars is free and I have no problems with that. PSN is free and.. [i/]take a guess[/i].

Granted I don't own an XBox so this can't have to much of an effect on me one way or another.

Yeah but the PS3 fanbase is generally a lot more mature or at least a lot less annoying twits screaming through the mic. No offense at all but this is just what I've noticed so far..

Um...the PS3 doesn't have mics.

Try to know what you're talking about some of the time. Yes it does, in fact it uses any Bluetooth headset on the market.

That was an unnecessary asshole response.

 

[sneak_copter]

...is because of the down-right stupid people.

It already has those.

And there are many things like Live that aren't laggy, just look at previous posts.

I think LIVE thrives on stupidity.
When they tried charging for the PC version of LIVE, players were smart enough to say "no" to a service that they could get free elsewhere and so M$ just ended up making it a free service.

Oh please. Can we stop this M$ thing now? It's old as hell.

OP: Good point, the way you summed it up is rather elitist, to be honest.

There should be some kind of warning before you buy a gold account along the lines of "Your connection is below [some bandwith]. For an optimal LIVE experience, we recommend you're internet connection is faster than [some higher bandwith]."

 

[Valiance]

Yes, of course I still think it should be free. Lag isn't the problem, it's greed.

Simple as that.

 

[kiltmanfortywo]

so you are saying that if xbox live becomes free, idiots and stupid people will use it, ruining the experience for everybody? Have you been on live, say, ever?

 

[Count_de_Monet]

XBox live is pay to play and it has the worst accumulation of idiots in the known world populating it already... Making it free might class up the joint.

 

[Minimike3636]

Making Xbox LIVE free?

Knowing Microsoft, they'll just ramp up the prices of DLC to compensate for the money loss. I would rather stick to $50 a year and $10 per worty DLC, as opposed to $0 a year and $15-$20 for DLC. Of course, this is based off of the 800-point packages. It would probably boost Xbox sales, however...

I demand a one month test run of free online service before furthering my opinion (and I don't mean one of those stupid "1 free month of Gold" trial cards, Microsoft).