Why do people pay for Xbox Live?

[lazysquirell]

I think the real question is why are you so bothered by it? If you don't want to pay for it then don't

Personally I pay for it because I generally like my Xbox I don't like the PS3 (not that I have anything against people who do like it) I can afford it and it's reliable.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

Two things. Zing! And nice avatar!

Thanks

And geez, 16 quotes over 1 post XD

Hey, that's your own fault for putting your opinion out there man. Oh well, haters gonna hate right?

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Because we can't play online otherwise.

 

[Saviordd1]

Better service, better servers, better system, better games, better controls, earlier downloads....

oh yeah

AND OUR PRIVACY REMAINS OUR OWN

You right. Xbox live has only been hacked twice. And the PSN has been hacked SOOOOOOOOOO many more times than that..... >.>

Maybe you should do more research, theres a difference between attempted hackings and hackers that steal millions of peoples credit cards

there hasn't been one confirmed case of credit cards being stolen. There has, however, been a tens of thousands of cases of 360 users having sensitive information stolen. maybe YOU should do some research.

I've done research for these other hack attempts, no results beyond lone hack monkeys messing up their own systems to do something else then game.

However I don't even have to do full research to see how sony dropped the ball on security, i can just browse the numerous articles on this site.

Next time you argue, or start an argument rather, bring evidence, especially when all i have to do is say "look at the news center on this site"

 

[monkey_man]

Goddammit, why does this topic sill exist? It's been done to death every few weeks for so long I can practically summarize the transcript of the arguments about to be posted:

- XBox 360 owners will rant about "quality service" and "better tech support".

- Playstaion 3 owners will rave that both services are the same except for PSN being available for free, often hinting at some real or imagined superiority PSN exudes like a Mac user in a "Mac vs PC" debate.

- People with enough disposable income to afford both will stop by to remind us of their financial security, accuse both sides of fanboyism, and say that they can't tell the difference between the two to RAEG bait them.

- PC gamers will butt in uninvited to stand on the soap box to set us "poor, unwashed masses" straight, say Steam is a better distributor than LIVE and PSN, and claim superiority over console gaming in general as the "golden haired and golden skinned PC gaming master race" with the infallible logic of a hipster saying "You just wouldn't understand."

Give or take a few (hundred) remarks about PSN getting hacked. The only reason I can think of for you to make this kind of thread at this point is that it's easy post bait. Now hurry up and end this so we can get back to our Portal 2 Cave Johnson jokes and fawning/raging over BioWare releases.

You are now my hero.

I second this so much. THIS is /thread. Not some joke about "look at PSN, now at LIVE"

Also. PS3 R TEH BESTHUST. ( Nah, had both, but I won't pay for online, did that for Runescape when I was 11, greatest regret of my gaming life.) I am a pc/ps3 gamer, going to buy another xbox. maybe. But why all the fuss over the best online? If you like it, buy it. if not, don't!

Because it's my money and what the fuck do you care what I do with it?

Seriously, I'm sick to shit of these console war threads, and yes, this is a console war thread no matter how you dress it up. I play games to play games, as I'm sure everyone else does, I have money to spare so who cares what i spend it on as long as its FUN. I don't care about hard drive space, graphics or online capabilities (I see no real difference anyhow), an Xbox is what I happen to have and I make do.
If I had a PS3 it'd be the same story.

Get over yourself and remember what gaming is actually about.

THIS^ is what I meant.

 

[Terminate421]

Heres a thing,

What keeps you motivated to work? Money
What do we pay to play? Money
What do they get for doing a GREAT job for the service? Money

Sony kept their service free, they were motivated to keep it up, but probobly not as "motivated" as those who knew they were recieving 50$ a year from 20 million people.

Its kinda a human factor in it is what I am saying

Personally, I knew there was a good reason to pay for it. Those who say "You pay for free services" truly need to show me some proof of that.

 

[S3Cs4uN 8]

microsoft really cares about xbox live users.they give us good protection,deleteing freind requests is easy as hell.sony really does not care about psn users at all.you guys got hacked because the manager of psn said that becaus it was free they dident have to give you protection.

Steam is free, are you saying Steam gives you no protection as well? Microsoft cares about getting free money for their customers. You might as well send me a $10/month and I "promise" to make COD even less laggy than it is now, it makes the same sense as paying Microsoft to play COD.

Steam has one hell of a pillar up it's ass over appealing bans (practically you cant) and they never tell you why you were banned either (that pissed my brother right off)
I will say that they do have good security i just wish the games didn't REQUIRE steam to run, its a pain in the ass becuase i cant play my games when my net is down or bandwidth is capped

 

[DVS Storm]

Well if you divide 60 euros with 12(months), it is 5 euros per month. That isn't much when you think about it. PSN and Live are similar yes, but the main difference imo are the social abilities like cross game-chat. I just like talk to my friends even though I play a different game than they are playing. Live also seems to run better than PSN.

I'm switching to PC gaming in the near future but until that, I'm going to play with my Xbox.

 

[Findlebob]

Well, we pay to not have our information stolen >.>

<..>

They got through the ps3, what's to stop them hacking the xbox

 

[AlternatePFG]

When I had my Xbox, I paid for it because I hardly had a choice. You have to if you want to play multiplayer.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Well...because I have to :')

 

[RoBi3.0]

Xbox live has a better online gaming interface and better matchmaking. Xbox live really isn't that expensive it like the cost of a game yearly, not really a big deal IMO. That said Playstation's paid service is loads better (albeit in a different way) then live simple because of all the games you get with it and the automatic update feature and cloud saving...... you know when it is working.

Honestly if you have the money pay for both if is worth it. if you can only pay for one and you love playing Multiplayer game go with Xbox live. If you love getting tons of games for one relatively small price go with PSN+.... you know when it starts working again. If you are to poor to afford either go with regular PSN (duh) it is nice to have so many choices.


Also I had no idea that Microsoft was into extortion, which is basically what the idea of "I pay to keep my credit card info from getting stolen" amounts to. It is really LoLz It is not like if you stop paying for Xbox live your info is suddenly more likely to get stolen.

 

[S3Cs4uN 8]

I don't see why people say cross-game chat is good...you can have MSN or Yahoo or Skype or something on your computer and speak to them through that, AND have a webcam on if you want. That's what me and my friends do when were on PSN, and my friend doesn't need to be on their gaming console either. I don't know exactly how cross-game chat works. I don't own an Xbox (the controller is FAR too chunky for my liking, that and I still have no idea if the Red Ring of Death is still a problem. My cousin went through 6 Xbox 360s before he gave up and got a PS3)

And to those who are rubbing the whole hack in our faces: Names, address, birthdays and the like are already easily obtainable from a phonebook, your Facebook page etc. People have managed to hack into the Cloud (which is run by Microsoft), which far outshines PSN in every way, since that is where some banks/companies store their details, and Sony is making a password change mandatory when PSN comes back on. They are trying to improve their security systems. XBL is not bomb-proof. Everything has weaknesses as internet crime gets more and more sophisticated. Let's just hope it doesn't happen to Xbox Live or they manage to shut the servers down in time.

Besides, changes don't occur until something bad happens. Case and point: transport accidents (plane crashes, train derailments etc), someone has to slip up at some point, and there will always be a next time (may not be the same company)

RROD is not as common as it used to be but im not the best person to be telling

 

[GLo Jones]

you are basically paying $60 a year for cross-game chat and that is it.

I'm perfectly happy with this. I don't know WHAT I'd do without the 'party chat' system. I use it practically 95% of the time my xbox is turned on, and for about the same price of a single game, I happily pay each year.

 

[GoddyofAus]

This is not at all a Live sucks, PSN is better thread, I actually think both services are very similar in what they do and how well they do it. Everything I'm about to say is completely factual.

My problem with Live is that Microsoft wants to have their cake and eat it too as Microsoft charges you for services they don't provide. The FREE Silver Live account offers services that actually cost Microsoft money and resources to provide. Running and maintaining the servers that store the games, demos, DLC, etc. for everyone to download is at least 90% of the expenses of the Live service. And, all that stuff is offered for FREE through Silver membership because Microsoft wants everyone to have access to their store so people can spend money in their store.

For Live Gold membership, Microsoft charges you for Netflix, online gaming, Facebook, last.fm, etc. So, in order for you to have the ability to watch Netflix, you have to pay Netflix, your ISP, and MICROSOFT!!! Microsoft is not incurring any costs of any kind when you watch stuff off Netflix, Netflix is streaming movies from their servers using their bandwidth to you over your bandwidth that you are paying for, Microsoft is not involved in any way. To prove, rather simply, for people who might not believe that, PS3 users can still use Netflix with PSN down.

Onto online gaming, which is another big slap in the face to Live customers from Microsoft. If you play any third party game (e.g. COD), Microsoft is not incurring any costs or bandwidth when you play COD online as you are not playing on Microsoft's servers (you are not even playing on a server as almost every console online game is player hosted) and the publisher of the game is running the game servers that just track stats and nothing else. For a game like COD, the developer puts probably about half its resources into the multiplayer aspect of the game so about half the money you payed for the game is for the multiplayer. On Live, you have to pay Microsoft to unlock game content (online multiplayer) that you already payed for when you bought the game. The only thing that would make sense is if for Microsoft to allow online multiplayer for 3rd party games for Silver accounts, but only allow Gold accounts to pay first party games online. However, Microsoft isn't going to do that because people would be like, "I can play COD or Bad Company for free, screw Halo and Gears" and those communities would be a lot smaller. Also, Microsoft doesn't even run any dedicated servers whereas Sony does run dedicated severs for a few games (MAG, Killzone, Warhawk, etc.).

The only service Microsoft is providing you for Gold membership is cross-game chat so you are basically paying $60 a year for cross-game chat and that is it.

This is why I will never pay for Live as I'm not going to pay someone for a service they aren't providing, it's that simple. If Sony pulled this, I'd turn into a PC gamer and use Steam, which also provides the same services Live Gold does for free.

I have a question for you: Why are you such a tight arse that $60 a year is such a ridiculous notion? Australians pay $80 a year and our dollar has more value then yours.

Paying for Live is a lot like an insurance policy, for when if Xbox Live ever suffers the same fate as the PSN, we'll have ammunition that Microsoft can't possibly fight back against.

 

[RoBi3.0]

My cousin went through 6 Xbox 360s before he gave up and got a PS3)

I find it really hard to believe stories like this, I've only ever had 2 xbox360s' and the only reason the first one broke is because I tripped over and dropped it down the stairs.

I'm aware RROD happens, but if you go through 6 xbox's that RROD, either you've won the lottery for fail or you're using your xbox to cook eggs.

My brother has been through 3 xboxs. Oddly enough I don't think any of them broke due to RROD. He is however also the proud owner of a Yellow lighted PS3. So maybe some people are just hard on consoles.

New Xboxs are more RRoD resistant then the older models, so that is hardly a issue anymore, unless you still own a older model, well at least you get the "best warranty in the industry".

 

[i7omahawki]

Well, it's simply a good deal. PSN might be free, but seriously look at whats happening right now and tell me its better.

It's a sound investment to pay £40 to have multiplayer fun for the entire year.

I don't have Gold at the moment, simply because of a lack of funds, but when I do, and when I have more free time to play multiplayer more, why wouldn't I pay for it?

It's fun, generally high quality, and actually quite inexpensive anyway. They aren't charging huge amounts of money, if it were say £10 a month I'd definately reconsider.

 

[Lictbringer]

Why is a tree good?
Why is a sun set good?
Why are boobs good?
THEY JUST ARE.

 

[Baneat]

I phoned them and said I wanted to cancel, because I could buy the card thing and it was cheaper overall than the £6/month rollover plan, and the guy then said to me that he could sign me for a yearly plan at £24/year

£2 a month is not half bad

That's why I pay for live (Also, you should try this too if you're paying the full plan in at least the UK)

 

[Dejawesp]

This is not at all a Live sucks, PSN is better thread, I actually think both services are very similar in what they do and how well they do it. Everything I'm about to say is completely factual.

My problem with Live is that Microsoft wants to have their cake and eat it too as Microsoft charges you for services they don't provide. The FREE Silver Live account offers services that actually cost Microsoft money and resources to provide. Running and maintaining the servers that store the games, demos, DLC, etc. for everyone to download is at least 90% of the expenses of the Live service. And, all that stuff is offered for FREE through Silver membership because Microsoft wants everyone to have access to their store so people can spend money in their store.

For Live Gold membership, Microsoft charges you for Netflix, online gaming, Facebook, last.fm, etc. So, in order for you to have the ability to watch Netflix, you have to pay Netflix, your ISP, and MICROSOFT!!! Microsoft is not incurring any costs of any kind when you watch stuff off Netflix, Netflix is streaming movies from their servers using their bandwidth to you over your bandwidth that you are paying for, Microsoft is not involved in any way. To prove, rather simply, for people who might not believe that, PS3 users can still use Netflix with PSN down.

Onto online gaming, which is another big slap in the face to Live customers from Microsoft. If you play any third party game (e.g. COD), Microsoft is not incurring any costs or bandwidth when you play COD online as you are not playing on Microsoft's servers (you are not even playing on a server as almost every console online game is player hosted) and the publisher of the game is running the game servers that just track stats and nothing else. For a game like COD, the developer puts probably about half its resources into the multiplayer aspect of the game so about half the money you payed for the game is for the multiplayer. On Live, you have to pay Microsoft to unlock game content (online multiplayer) that you already payed for when you bought the game. The only thing that would make sense is if for Microsoft to allow online multiplayer for 3rd party games for Silver accounts, but only allow Gold accounts to pay first party games online. However, Microsoft isn't going to do that because people would be like, "I can play COD or Bad Company for free, screw Halo and Gears" and those communities would be a lot smaller. Also, Microsoft doesn't even run any dedicated servers whereas Sony does run dedicated severs for a few games (MAG, Killzone, Warhawk, etc.).

The only service Microsoft is providing you for Gold membership is cross-game chat so you are basically paying $60 a year for cross-game chat and that is it.

This is why I will never pay for Live as I'm not going to pay someone for a service they aren't providing, it's that simple. If Sony pulled this, I'd turn into a PC gamer and use Steam, which also provides the same services Live Gold does for free.

I guess enough people pay for gold to fund the silver services as well and as such gold pays for both.


Personally if they offered gold for free I wouldn't like it. That a company desires my money is what keeps them in check. It keeps them busy to please me so they can keep getting my money. When they offer something for free they have no incentive to keep doing it or even to do it well. All they can do is go "well it was free" and they're clear of whatever fuck ups they cause.