Like Xbox Live Arcade, the Xbox Live Marketplace is another underappreciated aspect of the Xbox 360 experience. Using a form of currency dubbed "Microsoft Points," gamers can buy Arcade games, gamer icons, console themes and other digital bric-a-brac to customize their gaming experience. Microsoft Points can be purchased at a rate of 80 per $1 USD.

Points are cool for a few reasons. Mostly, it's clear that they've been very carefully thought out. The exchange rate itself appears to have been carefully chosen so that points don't line up against most of the major world currencies in a simple ratio. A US Dollar buys 80. A Yen buys .67. A pound buys 120. A Euro buys about 67, and so on. That's important because it distances the gamer from the financial impact of the purchase. If the conversion to dollars is simple, every transaction will be evaluated in real dollar terms. If the conversion requires math, most people will choose not to perform the conversion and will presumably spend more freely.

Second, the structure of Marketplace minimizes credit card transaction fees that Microsoft needs to pay. They're not passing those savings on to us, but the more gamer spend that we keep out of the pockets of middlemen-credit card companies included in that category-the more money goes into the pockets of the content creators. That's good for the games industry, because it means existing developers will make more money. More money flowing to developers should also increase the number of firms developing games, which will in turn increase the variety and creativity of games that make their way onto our gaming devices. Sweet.