Xbox Live: What Are We Paying For?

[shadow skill]

I personally am not against paying for the service in principle, I'm just against paying for crap. Xbox live really is exactly the same as PSN when it comes down to how the games play. The price tag is not justified when you understand that many of the games on Live utilize a peer to peer connection mechanism. If you are going to be charged to play online you should be playing on dedicated servers across the board.

 

[Deviltongue]

we're paying for the right to say that our service is better than PSN cuz we pay!

 

[Stomp224]

I don't mind MS's payment system, even though I've been an outspoken critic of monthly charges for years. For me it's a little thing they decided on early in their development of the Xbox. Simply, I can buy game cards at the store. That means I don't have to incur interest on a card for gaming, and even more importantly; I am really lazy and forget to cancel things I'm not using.

I just THE biggest pain trying to cancel my account. I used a prepaid card for my initial 12 month sub, then only renewed for a 3-month period, using my credit card. BUT! when that 3 month period ended Xbox Live automatically signed me up for monthly subscription charges!
Which works out at £60 a year, £20 more than the 12 month option. The worst thing is, there is no 'opt-out' option anywhere, you have to jump through hoops and brave M$ customer support, even then I was told that " it will take 30 days to remove my card details from my account"
WTF? What if it had been stolen?
GRRRR! I hates you Microsoft!

EDIT: Bugger, I forgot to mention I renewed on a credit card....whoopsie. >_>

 

[propertyofcobra]

Popping in to answer the original question: Cause Xbox users seem to be stupid enough to pay up for something that REALLY should be entirely free.
There's no reason to pay for the 'service' that the other consoles provide for free. At all.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I think the Friends list system (as opposed to those abominable "codes"), messaging service, matching service, Gamercard support, and "no charge" content is worth the buck a week from me.

-- Steve

 

[Bling Cat]

Popping in to answer the original question: Cause Xbox users seem to be stupid enough to pay up for something that REALLY should be entirely free.
There's no reason to pay for the 'service' that the other consoles provide for free. At all.

gotta disagree with you there. theres a great reason to pay when said service is so much better than other consoles. See other peoples posts for reasons why its better

in answer to the question: i pay because a) my friends i know are on live, so i get to play with them and
b)i cant live without multiplayer, as most games i play now are for the multiplayer (TF2, COD4 etc.)

 

[Knight Templar]

Popping in to answer the original question: Cause Xbox users seem to be stupid enough to pay up for something that REALLY should be entirely free.
There's no reason to pay for the 'service' that the other consoles provide for free. At all.

Wrong. Because we pay for it microsoft needs to and can make it better. Anyway personaly 70 dollars a year isnt much to pay for one of the best online um 'thingy'(?) there is. If you have money trouble then open a direct debit account and put 20 cents in evey day. If live screws up then we get games free, because we "lost" money. If PSN does that well its free so you lost noting.

Its all about how much you valvue money and playing online

 

[Fire Daemon]

For the past couple of hours, I've been trying to get onto CoD4 and get the new maps. However, it won't let me download the updates for the game and the Market Place wouldn't come up (I was told to try again later). I've checked my internet connection, and everything tests out normal. Right now I'm pissed off because my friends can get on fine, but I won't let me.

That being said, I still think the Live service is currently the best and is worth paying for. I think they could stand to charge a little less, especially since the company already makes such large profits. But I still like it overall.

Over 100,000 people are trying to get to those maps. Thats why your having trouble. You should have stayed up like me

I like xbox live, I think its worth the price tag seeing as how I have no plan on coughing up the $1000 dollar investment for a PS3 or the $300 dollar upgrade for my PC I'll just stick with my Xbox named Clarice.

 

[Kogarian]

For the past couple of hours, I've been trying to get onto CoD4 and get the new maps. However, it won't let me download the updates for the game and the Market Place wouldn't come up (I was told to try again later). I've checked my internet connection, and everything tests out normal. Right now I'm pissed off because my friends can get on fine, but I won't let me.

That being said, I still think the Live service is currently the best and is worth paying for. I think they could stand to charge a little less, especially since the company already makes such large profits. But I still like it overall.

Over 100,000 people are trying to get to those maps. Thats why your having trouble. You should have stayed up like me

I like xbox live, I think its worth the price tag seeing as how I have no plan on coughing up the $1000 dollar investment for a PS3 or the $300 dollar upgrade for my PC I'll just stick with my Xbox named Clarice.

It took a couple of hours to download, but I finally got it.

You named your 360 too? I've been trying to think up a good name for mine, but nothing comes to mind.

 

[bulletproof12]

i dont mind paying 50 bucks a year for live. yeah i would like it more if it was free but, considering it isnt even the price of a new game and it adds so much content.

1 patches
2. private chat
3. ingame chat
4. non retaded matchmaking (deeper then other systems)
5. ingame voice chat
6. free game demos
7. some free gamer pics, wall papers and other fun system stuff.
8. friends list, recent players, you can give feedback, and report cheaters.
9. and XBL does occasionally give away free stuff, like some free GH songs, free arcade games.

 

[Colodomoko]

$50 a year is preety cheap don't ya think?

Spoiler: to save that kind of money you leave your P.C./Console for many days and get this thing called a Carrer. I'm sorry let me spell that a little slower...

C...a...r...r...e...r

Hey, what are you doing with that shotgun? O_O!

 

[stompy]

Spoiler: to save that kind of money you leave your P.C./Console for many days and get this thing called a Carrer. I'm sorry let me spell that a little slower...

C...a...r...r...e...r

Sorry, but it's 'Career'. Let me spell it a little slower:
C...A...R...E...E...R

And I'm shotgun resistant...

 

[Fire Daemon]

For the past couple of hours, I've been trying to get onto CoD4 and get the new maps. However, it won't let me download the updates for the game and the Market Place wouldn't come up (I was told to try again later). I've checked my internet connection, and everything tests out normal. Right now I'm pissed off because my friends can get on fine, but I won't let me.

That being said, I still think the Live service is currently the best and is worth paying for. I think they could stand to charge a little less, especially since the company already makes such large profits. But I still like it overall.

Over 100,000 people are trying to get to those maps. Thats why your having trouble. You should have stayed up like me

I like xbox live, I think its worth the price tag seeing as how I have no plan on coughing up the $1000 dollar investment for a PS3 or the $300 dollar upgrade for my PC I'll just stick with my Xbox named Clarice.

It took a couple of hours to download, but I finally got it.

You named your 360 too? I've been trying to think up a good name for mine, but nothing comes to mind.

Just look at it and call it the first name that comes to your head.

 

[GeeseH]

$50 a year is preety cheap don't ya think?

Spoiler: to save that kind of money you leave your P.C./Console for many days and get this thing called a Carrer. I'm sorry let me spell that a little slower...

C...a...r...r...e...r

Hey, what are you doing with that shotgun? O_O!

A carrer? What the fuck is a carrer!? Anyone here heard of a carrer???

Anyways, Xbox Live is like 30 or 40 pounds here in Blighty, right? That's about £3 a month. If that means the service runs smoothly, gets updated frequently and all that jazz I'd happily pay for that.

haha, some dudes called me a 'whinner' cos i complained about something the other day, (woot! i'm a whinner

makes you wonder huh - maybe firefox needs an inline grammar checker as well as spellcheck (K.O. YOU LOOSE!)

would i pay for xbl, definitely, hell i even pay for hotmail

would i pay for online services for all three consoles? no effin way

 

[ert47]

I gladly pay the £30-40 a year, it's like 5p/week and is much, MUCH better than anything else I've tried, and with Nintendo trying charge for that excuse for an online, we're getting an awesome deal.

wut...? Nintendos' online multiplayer is free... you pay to download games for the "Virtual console"

please check your facts before posting

 

[moderndayvampire]

maybe that they have to program the acheivements into the game? other than that i cant really think of much that would be to charge for.
ive never been on XBL and i have a ps3 i dont really mind the online because i dont really ever get messages on it (ive gotten like 3 messages in over a year)but for some reason my wireless router cant handle having my laptop and ps3 connected at once so if im playing ps3 online then no internet and visa versa so thats kidna a pain

 

[Drong]

Its paying for a service that would be free if it wasn't run by a bunch of profiteering gluttons

 

[Kogarian]

For the past couple of hours, I've been trying to get onto CoD4 and get the new maps. However, it won't let me download the updates for the game and the Market Place wouldn't come up (I was told to try again later). I've checked my internet connection, and everything tests out normal. Right now I'm pissed off because my friends can get on fine, but I won't let me.

That being said, I still think the Live service is currently the best and is worth paying for. I think they could stand to charge a little less, especially since the company already makes such large profits. But I still like it overall.

Over 100,000 people are trying to get to those maps. Thats why your having trouble. You should have stayed up like me

I like xbox live, I think its worth the price tag seeing as how I have no plan on coughing up the $1000 dollar investment for a PS3 or the $300 dollar upgrade for my PC I'll just stick with my Xbox named Clarice.

It took a couple of hours to download, but I finally got it.

You named your 360 too? I've been trying to think up a good name for mine, but nothing comes to mind.

Just look at it and call it the first name that comes to your head.

Or just name it Vera. That's what I named my guitar. I call her Vera.

Fire Daemon, I looked at it, but nothing came to mind.

Vera? I like the name, but for some reason I consider my 360 'masculine'...probably because I say and do things near it that I would want no woman to have to see/hear...plus my friend and I used to hang out and play with it, so I considered it 'one of the guys'.

I'm sure I'll come up with a name, but it might take a while.