Cue where all the people who don't use live talk about what a rip-off it is.

I used live since the original xbox, and yes it's a ripoff....a ripoff with ads on every blade of the dashboard.

When Xbox Live is having issues, I play single-player. I'd almost forgotten Call of Duty 4 even had a campaign in the first place.

Yeah, all those ads for game/demo releases, tournaments and other events, Xbox sponsored situations, among few other things. Its not like they're advertising movie theater releases, store deals, or any other outside marketing bullshit.

If its a rip-off in your mind- here's a simple solution: don't pay for it. If you keep paying for it, either you're stupid, or its not so much of a ripoff.

WHAT THE FUCK! inexcusable that psn is free, and doesn't have outages, and xbl, which I pay $50 a year for, does. What the fuck ms?? :

:(

"Its not like they're advertising movie theater releases, store deals, or any other outside marketing bullshit"
Funny what are those Speed Racer and Harold and Kumar ads doing there then?
It's amazing that you are so clueless you defend a ad splattered pay service....you sheep.

@Zeus God.

That makes you stupid as well as millions of others

Yep, just enjoyed a lag-free BTB on Halo.
Continental lag for the US? It's been fine for all the Brits I play with...

It being fine for you is technically irrelevant and a waste of joystiq space.

Ever experienced a voice skippage? long matchmaking join times? Sudden HALT in a middle of a shootup?

Only thing worth on Live is the community. Its more competitive with more pros, lively, loud and funny(lots of cursing) than PSN. But those are costless.

PSN has yet to fuck up. It may well happen if n when install base increase.

It is working fine for me, too. Seems relevant to me.

This is too easy. I'm gonna pass on this.

*picks nose, reaches into Pojo's popcorn*

uhhhhh, maybe you could do those in reverse order next time??

*goes to get more snot-less popcorn*

yea that was certainly a low blow on the PSN for no apparent reason, but im staying out of this one.

you guys sharing the popcorn?
*places more boogers in Pojo's fresh batch of popcorn*
*pisses on el serpiente's cat*

What's with all the self narratives...

you probably have a repaired/replacement xbox 360

you need to create a new silver account and attempt to play the divx files, then when it prompts you to download the update go ahead and do it while online. You should be able to play dixv offline after this...

ah you're right. thank you. will do!

I love not being able to play my arcade games because I can't get into live.and before anyone asks, it's because my first 360 redringed. i really hate that they set it up like that. why couldn't it just authenticate once and that's it?

/rant

I wonder what free game we'll get this time :P

some other craptacular $5 title that nobody wants, or Banjo 3. Same thing I suppose

That's completely unfair, PojoMofo. Last time, we got a craptacular $10 title that nobody wants.

copa, i stand corrected

Same here. Running like usual.
BTW, @ pwnetheus, You don't think they've anticipated the traffic from GTA? If it goes down AT ANY TIME next Tuesday, I'll stand stark naked in front of Union Station at rush hour, painted bright blue holding my 360 in one hand and GTA IV in the other yodeling, "MICROSOFT SHIT THE BED!!!"

Exact same problem for me last night on Halo3. The way other people were staying on, I began assuming problems on my end.

the last five games of halo I played (stopped just a couple of minutes ago) had two or more people get disconnected - and a couple of the matches I played were laggy as all hell. If I had to guess, I'd say it's not quite over with just yet.

Thats like saying your 360 hasn't RROD'd therefore its not a problem anymore.

Really? I would say thats a pretty subjective comment, considering I find it to be very worth it, and I've gotten my money's worth out of it from day one.

Nickel and dimed? I wouldn't say that 50 bucks for 13 months is "nickel and diming"- thats $3.84 a month. Nickel and diming generally means they are milking you of your money- this isn't the same thing. It's a fairly reasonable fee for giving you access to hours upon hours of enjoyment added onto games.

Ok PS3 lurkers... Stop voting him up. Your only making PS3 fans look like idiots.

Oh and Curmeo,

EAT MY SHORT DICK!

"It's a fairly reasonable fee for giving you access to hours upon hours of enjoyment added onto games. "

Except that this "access" is free everywhere else...and the free ones (mostly) don't put ads on your tv...

Zeus is right, that is a subjective comment

a comment that a lot of people agree with, includig me.

Me on monday; "Jump in... jump out...jump in again....jump out...dammit....jump in.....jump out....sod it, play oblivion instead..."

And a comment that even more (talking multiple times, here) disagree with.

It may be free everywhere else, but can those other services compete in features? I mean, in every situation SOMEONE has to pay for it- other than XBL, that means Nintendo, Sony, and server hosts must pay for it (server hosts as in PC gaming). 50 bucks for 13 months is a PITTANCE for the amount it give you. Nintendo- their online play is free, but you really don't have much going for it. PS3's online play is free, but guess what, someone has to pay the bills- they've opened up their future release of Home for in-game ads by Google, and will likely charge for it later down the line. Bandwidth and servers cost a fortune- with XBL, you may pay for it, but you have FAR more features than the other two combined. The only thing as of right now that can beat it is PC gaming, but then again, this is about consoles.

The fact of the matter is, if you're too cheap to pay 50 bucks a year, then you're too cheap to own anything more than a Wii. Its as simple as that.

I try to stay out and you PULL ME BACK IN ZEUS.

---
"and will likely charge for it later down the line."

Absolute bullshit, you just made this up. Pure FUD. Where did you hear this?
---
"you have FAR more features than the other two combined."

I'd say 'functioning' is the most important feature, eh?
---
"if you're too cheap to pay 50 bucks a year, then you're too cheap to own anything more than a Wii."

Let me translate that into non-dickhead: If you don't think you should have to pay for online multiplayer, buy a Wii or a PS3.
---

Zeus, really, its okay if Microsoft fucks up once in a while. You don't have to run up and down huffing and puffing defending every fart that comes out of their ass.

"It may be free everywhere else, but can those other services compete in features?"

No, Live currently has the best feature set of all the consoles. But don't act as if gaming online on the PSN is impossible or something. Biggest advantage Live has over PSN are unified cross-game invites, chat, and messaging. None of them are required for online play but they are very convenient. Some games on PSN do have chat and there is messaging it's just not unified across games. So that's what Live has over PSN at this moment, convenience features.

"I mean, in every situation SOMEONE has to pay for it- other than XBL, that means Nintendo, Sony, and server hosts must pay for it"

Yeah I know but I'd rather it not be me...

"they've opened up their future release of Home for in-game ads by Google"

Walking around in Home and seeing a billboard for coca-cola is different than having the advertising on your blades, but maybe that's just me.

Oh yeah and I'll reiterate my previous point, this advertising keeps the service free, on Live I pay AND I get ads.

"and will likely charge for it later down the line."

You're just pulling stuff out of your ass now.

"The fact of the matter is, if you're too cheap to pay 50 bucks a year, then you're too cheap to own anything more than a Wii. Its as simple as that."

I have all three systems and have owned many systems in my life, I definitely don't mind spending money on video games. What I do mind is paying a company that has you by the balls so you can't get a match of anything online unless you pay, especially when they are double dipping with ads.

El Serpiente, you really spend way too much time ranking yourself up.

I didn't hear anything about it- its common sense. They will likely start charging for it down the line if they ever get ahead of XBL (which isn't at all unlikely). How is it bullshit, though? You don't think that Sony cares about throwing money down the drain to maintain servers (pretty unique and probably fussy servers, at that) along with the high costs of bandwidth, not to mention the initial cost of the servers for a console that is dead last in this so-called "war" and isn't pulling in any real money? They have resorted to allowing ads from Google for their launch of Home- but do you really think that will cover the costs? If you have any idea what you're talking about, you would understand that answer is no. The chances of them charging for it are higher than they ever have been, and I wouldn't be surprised at all. You just keep bitching about the cost of Xbox LIVE while your screen is plastered with ads in-game. Unlike those that are on the dashboard (shouldn't bother you in the least unless you spend a majority of your time not doing anything; its kind of like bitching about the looks of the console), which are relevant to the Xbox and it's games, demos, and general marketplace. Then again, I don't know if this will ever reach you, as your post was the typical fanboy type response that you generally give.

Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm not being biased. I'm giving REASONABLE arguments that are logical and pretty clear cut. Try taking debate, if you're even in high-school yet (your maturity shows that you're likely still in middle-school). With your none-sense, you would get raped up and down the place.

Moving on, I'm on Xbox LIVE right now, playing Test Drive Unlimited with absolutely no issues. As I have said in another comment, I got disconnected ONCE last night, and haven't had any problems since.

Non dick-head? Yeah, 50 bucks- not expensive for 13 months of online play. If you don't want to pay and don't mind getting a few decent features, then yes, get the PS3 or Wii. If you want the best online experience out there to date- get a 360 or PC.

You know what? Fair enough- I don't have to defend Microsoft after every little fuck up (even though I don't, and have, if you weren't a fanboy, criticized them numerous times), but you don't have to come in and harass everyone with your drivel and insults as you have done time and time again, along with trying to nitpick everything that Microsoft does.

But... Whatever, if you want to keep coming and making foolish comments every time I say something, and troll around trying to "pick fights" then I can't really do much to stop you, but only in replying to this with your "wit" will you prove all that I have just said. Carry on a conversation for once.

cc123, I'm not acting at all like online gaming is impossible on the PS3, nor have I implied that. All I have been doing is making a point to the otherwise ignorant posters of Joystiq.

If you would rather not pay for it, fine, but you won't get the features of the other services that do cost you- even though 50 bucks a year is nothing. Contrarily, you will likely get things you don't like and inconvenient features such as not being able to send messages while in game, like on the PS3. So far the PS3 has been marketed on what it WILL have, not what it does have, and while free is great, it doesn't compete overall.

I don't know what planet you're from, but seeing adds in Home would be the SAME thing as seeing them on the dashboard- only difference is, the ads aren't necessarily going to be related to games, releases on PlayStation Store or anything like that. On Xbox LIVE you get ads FROM and ABOUT Xbox LIVE and features on it- not ads for soft-drinks, candy bars, and fast-food joints, which I would feel would be a bigger nuisance than whats already on Xbox LIVE.

They don't "have you by the balls". What is up with you guys- you are acting like Microsoft has your family hostage or something until you pay for Xbox LIVE. If you think 50 bucks is too expensive, then don't pay for it! It really is that simple. If you don't want to spend 50 bucks, then stock up on a few year cards on Black Friday or after the holidays or something when they're real cheap.

Fuck this damned if you do, damned if you don't bullshit. People like you are born to bitch, and its getting pretty annoying. If you don't have anything constructive to say, don't say it.

Wow, does Microsoft pay you by the word?

"They don't "have you by the balls"."

Can you play a game against another person without paying MS more money than you already did when you bought the 360 and the game itself?

What's that?

No.

OK.

So you own a 360 and you own a game that has online multiplayer that was included in the games purchase price. But you can't use it unless you pay more. That's having someone by the balls.

If silver accounts allowed online play without the convenience features and gold accounts allowed online play + chat/messaging/invites I wonder how many of the Live "price defenders" would still pay for gold.

Wow... Talk about stupid. You can't have a simple conversation with either of you without you two ignoring the facts and start going into semantics (or in Serpiente's case, being a child. I swear to God Serpiente if I ever met someone as annoyingly stupid and ignorant as you, I would beat the ever-loving shit out of them). This isn't if if if if if, its what it is NOW. XBL is better than PSN. You don't like paying 50 bucks for online play? Good, go away. Play your PS3 and have fun. Period. End of discussion.