Getting sick of paying for xbl?

This is around my 2nd time buying one and does anyone else feel, the more you buy them, the more of a complete rip off it is? I know that live is currently the best one out their but seriously... It isn't THAT great. Especially compared to PC which is free btw. Its nothing special and p2p not only makes a fee unnecessary but t also makes live much much worse. About 70% of the time, someone else im playing against lags like hell, it makes the whole room lag, like in gears because of no servers.

And my most hated thing about live (and every console online actually) is no lobbies like what PC games have! Every PC game, because of dedicated servers etc can sustain lobbies that you are able to log into and look around at all the games going on. This makes everything much easier, much more organized and less random. Plus you can easily make a room with all your friends, both join someone else's games and the whole experience is just overall better.

These subscriptions arnt cheep either, at first 50$ doesn't seem like much each year, but over time thats quite alot wasted on something alot of people dont even use all the time. So why do we still have to pay, it just doesn't seem to be worth it anymore. M$ is going to eventually push away buisness for next gen especially if they dont do something.

Dude I totally agree with you. Once my membership expired however I didn't renew it.

In all honesty once u buy an 360 you are force to pay the $50 for online gaming, if not it is a totally half backed experience.

I bought me a PS3 and a super Duper PC where instead I can enjoy not only real HD gaming and movies but most importantly I am not forced to pay for a SERVICE which should be free.

And let's not start saying that PSN is inferior, because my experience on CoD4 so far as been bullet-proof.

The problem is that as long as there will be people willing to pay M$ for LIVE the service will never be free.

Unfortunately customer are blinded and we pay the consequences.

Peace.

I think that it is worth $4.16/month.

I can voice chat on any game with anyone of my friends even if they aren't playing the same game. That in itself is worth every penny.

Voice chat is everything to me.

I've never been dump'd from a game or had problems with voice chat.

Oh, and there is nothing like leaving a message for a friend that isn't even online.

Dude I totally agree with you. Once my membership expired however I didn't renew it.

In all honesty once u buy an 360 you are force to pay the $50 for online gaming, if not it is a totally half backed experience.

I bought me a PS3 and a super Duper PC where instead I can enjoy not only real HD gaming and movies but most importantly I am not forced to pay for a SERVICE which should be free.

And let's not start saying that PSN is inferior, because my experience on CoD4 so far as been bullet-proof.

The problem is that as long as there will be people willing to pay M$ for LIVE the service will never be free.

Unfortunately customer are blinded and we pay the consequences.

Peace.

peppeaccardo

Agreed, PSN is almost if not just as good as live and its completely free. We should not have to pay for live when its such a big part of the 360 experience. But unfortunately, just like what you said, as long as ppl will pay, we will have to as well. Next time it runs out im not going to renew it though. Ill only renew it again if I buy a game and I want to try out the online.

I think that it is worth $4.16/month.

I can voice chat on any game with anyone of my friends even if they aren't playing the same game. That in itself is worth every penny.

Voice chat is everything to me.

I've never been dump'd from a game or had problems with voice chat.

Oh, and there is nothing like leaving a message for a friend that isn't even online.

3x24

All things that PC can do very easily for free. Ventrillo for chat, messenger for messaging even if they are offline and even though they try to make it seem like its barely anything by saying 5$ a month, it all adds up.

[QUOTE="3x24"]

I think that it is worth $4.16/month.

I can voice chat on any game with anyone of my friends even if they aren't playing the same game. That in itself is worth every penny.

Voice chat is everything to me.

I've never been dump'd from a game or had problems with voice chat.

Oh, and there is nothing like leaving a message for a friend that isn't even online.

bri360

All things that PC can do very easily for free. Ventrillo for chat, messenger for messaging even if they are offline and even though they try to make it seem like its barely anything by saying 5$ a month, it all adds up.

Free..... Electric $$$ + PC $$$ + Internet $$$ + Anti Virus $$$ + Anti Spyware $$$

Nothing is free. Free is just a gimik.

I paid for a year, but I didn't renew my subscription. It's not worth the money. It's also laughable that MS charge money for downloads when you're already paying to use the service in the first place.SolidSnake35

I completely agree. I can understand them charging for something like an expansion of a game or a movie, things like that. But Seriously they charge for every little stupid things, pictures and themes, to maps for games you have already bought. Its stupidly rediculous.

Not at all. I am a serious cheapskate, but XBL is totally worth it to me. That's $50/year for Gold, less if you pay attention and find special deals (I saved $20 buy buying my next subscription card 6 months early @ Circuit City this summer).

The only thing I get sick of are people wanting it for free. Hello, XFire (which I use grudgingly).

I suppose there will always be people who want it for free. That's what XBConnect is for.

[QUOTE="SolidSnake35"]I paid for a year, but I didn't renew my subscription. It's not worth the money. It's also laughable that MS charge money for downloads when you're already paying to use the service in the first place.bri360

I completely agree. I can understand them charging for something like an expansion of a game or a movie, things like that. But Seriously they charge for every little stupid things, pictures and themes, to maps for games you have already bought. Its stupidly rediculous.

[QUOTE="bri360"][QUOTE="3x24"]

I think that it is worth $4.16/month.

I can voice chat on any game with anyone of my friends even if they aren't playing the same game. That in itself is worth every penny.

Voice chat is everything to me.

I've never been dump'd from a game or had problems with voice chat.

Oh, and there is nothing like leaving a message for a friend that isn't even online.

3x24

All things that PC can do very easily for free. Ventrillo for chat, messenger for messaging even if they are offline and even though they try to make it seem like its barely anything by saying 5$ a month, it all adds up.

Free..... Electric $$$ + PC $$$ + Internet $$$ + Anti Virus $$$ + Anti Spyware $$$

Nothing is free. Free is just a gimik.

Of course all that costs money, but all that applies to the console as well(mabye not antivirus but most dont cost money each year unless you get some ripoff like norton etc.), but you also got to pay for an additional fee on top of that for xbl. I just say free because we are talking about that directly and since those other things apply to consoles as well, we dont need to mention that.

And then the dashboard is spammed with adverts. Dont MS make enough cash from that? I like live but dont feel like we should pay for it.PelekotansDream

True, but alas M$ is just a bunch of greedy ppl that dont really seem to care about what the customer would like since they know ppl will still pay. At least they have the best games though lol.

nope,its a good service so I have no problems paying for it shaggyaz

im pretty sure a lot of people over looked this problem when purchasing the 360...its funny how people complain about ps3 being over priced when it costs almost exactly the same ....wat i mean to say is...if u keep ur 360 long enough ull spend more than u will on a ps3 which costs like 50 bucks more than 360 ..but with bluray :)

[QUOTE="shaggyaz"]nope,its a good service so I have no problems paying for it SolidSnake35

Care to elaborate on that? It takes money to make XBL as good as it is.

[QUOTE="shaggyaz"]nope,its a good service so I have no problems paying for it SolidSnake35

Everything about gaming is expensive: games, upgrades, new consoles, HDTVs, etc. Find another hobby maybe? Vyse_The_Daring

I love gaming and im okay with most expenses, but when nobody exept the 360 is charging for online, you get a bit frustrated.

This is around my 2nd time buying one and does anyone else feel, the more you buy them, the more of a complete rip off it is? I know that live is currently the best one out their but seriously... It isn't THAT great. Especially compared to PC which is free btw. Its nothing special and p2p not only makes a fee unnecessary but t also makes live much much worse. About 70% of the time, someone else im playing against lags like hell, it makes the whole room lag, like in gears because of no servers.

And my most hated thing about live (and every console online actually) is no lobbies like what PC games have! Every PC game, because of dedicated servers etc can sustain lobbies that you are able to log into and look around at all the games going on. This makes everything much easier, much more organized and less random. Plus you can easily make a room with all your friends, both join someone else's games and the whole experience is just overall better.

These subscriptions arnt cheep either, at first 50$ doesn't seem like much each year, but over time thats quite alot wasted on something alot of people dont even use all the time. So why do we still have to pay, it just doesn't seem to be worth it anymore. M$ is going to eventually push away buisness for next gen especially if they dont do something.

bri360

Well, you don't have to pay. Cancel your subscription and go back to playing PC games online. :roll: I'm getting sick of people coming on here complaining about paying $50 measily bucks for an online service. You don't complain about paying for your ISP do you? You don't complain about paying for cable service? What about cell phone service?

With XBox Live you are paying for this --->http://console.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTIwOCwxLCxoY29uc29sZQ==

You money is paying to keep the XBox Live Center up and running. All your account information, achievements, high scores, win/losses, game title info, demos, HDTV shows, etc,,, are stored on servers there. It cost money to keep the servermaintained and running. It cost money to lease the building and pay for the staff. Sony is actually paying another company to run their servers. Not sure how long that will last as they are going to lose another billion for their 4th quarter because they dropped the price of the PS3 twice in less then 6 months. lol!!Thosefigures should be interesting come next year. Anyway,Sony is only paying fortheir gameson those servers. Other 3rd party companies are running their own servers and they can easily pull the plug on their online games if they see that people are playing it online. That won't happen with XBox Live.

[QUOTE="SolidSnake35"][QUOTE="shaggyaz"]nope,its a good service so I have no problems paying for it Vyse_The_Daring

Care to elaborate on that? It takes money to make XBL as good as it is.

Not as much as you would think it does, no servers makes it pretty cheep to upkeep. And PSN has servers and its good, plus its free. They get more than enough money from their adds, and dl's which they also overcharge for. In the end its just because MS is greedy, thats all it is. They have no reason to charge other than that and its pretty pathetic.

im pretty sure a lot of people over looked this problem when purchasing the 360...its funny how people complain about ps3 being over priced when it costs almost exactly the same ....wat i mean to say is...if u keep ur 360 long enough ull spend more than u will on a ps3 which costs like 50 bucks more than 360 ..but with bluray :)

Gamerboi27

This is true, as much as lemmings like to deny this, the 360 does cost more overtime since almost all users will pay for live at least once or twice, buy a few dl's, get somethings like the HDDVD player etc. And even if technically we cant use this in an argument since its not mandatory, realistically its true.

I paid for a year, but I didn't renew my subscription. It's not worth the money. It's also laughable that MS charge money for downloads when you're already paying to use the service in the first place.SolidSnake35

You don't have to pay for Demo Downloads? What are you talking about.

You have to pay for certain game content downloads, but that's the same on PSN as well. I'm still interested to see how long Sony pays for everyone FREE online server.

Dude I totally agree with you. Once my membership expired however I didn't renew it.

In all honesty once u buy an 360 you are force to pay the $50 for online gaming, if not it is a totally half backed experience.

I bought me a PS3 and a super Duper PC where instead I can enjoy not only real HD gaming and movies but most importantly I am not forced to pay for a SERVICE which should be free.

And let's not start saying that PSN is inferior, because my experience on CoD4 so far as been bullet-proof.

The problem is that as long as there will be people willing to pay M$ for LIVE the service will never be free.

Unfortunately customer are blinded and we pay the consequences.

Peace.

peppeaccardo

Looks like you played live TONS with that 3 star rep of yours. :roll:

[QUOTE="peppeaccardo"]

Dude I totally agree with you. Once my membership expired however I didn't renew it.

In all honesty once u buy an 360 you are force to pay the $50 for online gaming, if not it is a totally half backed experience.

I bought me a PS3 and a super Duper PC where instead I can enjoy not only real HD gaming and movies but most importantly I am not forced to pay for a SERVICE which should be free.

And let's not start saying that PSN is inferior, because my experience on CoD4 so far as been bullet-proof.

The problem is that as long as there will be people willing to pay M$ for LIVE the service will never be free.

Unfortunately customer are blinded and we pay the consequences.

Peace.

FonkeyMunky7

Looks like you played live TONS with that 3 star rep of yours. :roll:

im sure thats not the point of the tread

[QUOTE="bri360"]

This is around my 2nd time buying one and does anyone else feel, the more you buy them, the more of a complete rip off it is? I know that live is currently the best one out their but seriously... It isn't THAT great. Especially compared to PC which is free btw. Its nothing special and p2p not only makes a fee unnecessary but t also makes live much much worse. About 70% of the time, someone else im playing against lags like hell, it makes the whole room lag, like in gears because of no servers.

And my most hated thing about live (and every console online actually) is no lobbies like what PC games have! Every PC game, because of dedicated servers etc can sustain lobbies that you are able to log into and look around at all the games going on. This makes everything much easier, much more organized and less random. Plus you can easily make a room with all your friends, both join someone else's games and the whole experience is just overall better.

These subscriptions arnt cheep either, at first 50$ doesn't seem like much each year, but over time thats quite alot wasted on something alot of people dont even use all the time. So why do we still have to pay, it just doesn't seem to be worth it anymore. M$ is going to eventually push away buisness for next gen especially if they dont do something.

XanderZane

Well, you don't have to pay. Cancel your subscription and go back to playing PC games online. :roll: I'm getting sick of people coming on here complaining about paying $50 measily bucks for an online service. You don't complain about paying for your ISP do you? You don't complain about paying for cable service? What about cell phone service?

With XBox Live you are paying for this --->http://console.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTIwOCwxLCxoY29uc29sZQ==

You money is paying to keep the XBox Live Center up and running. All your account information, achievements, high scores, win/losses, game title info, demos, HDTV shows, etc,,, are stored on servers there. It cost money to keep the servermaintained and running. It cost money to lease the building and pay for the staff. Sony is actually paying another company to run their servers. Not sure how long that will last as they are going to lose another billion for their 4th quarter because they dropped the price of the PS3 twice in less then 6 months. lol!!Thosefigures should be interesting come next year. Anyway,Sony is only paying fortheir gameson those servers. Other 3rd party companies are running their own servers and they can easily pull the plug on their online games if they see that people are playing it online. That won't happen with XBox Live.

MS has a server for things like accout info, and all the dl's. This isnt exactly the most expensive server to keep maintained. If they had servers for multiplayer then mabye, just mabye their might be a real reason to charge. They have adds, dl expensis etc that would more than cover the costs of these servers. They just want to make even more of a profit from something they dont need to make it from. Also no I do not complain about my cable bills etc because everyone charges for those, and their is a reason for charging.

Live is the only one that charges for online out of the consoles and they shouldnt be. Oh and even with servers a game gets taken down from online, it doesnt happen for a long time when almost nobody is playing and they could also have p2p once its taken down just for the few that might want to play later on.

[QUOTE="SolidSnake35"]I paid for a year, but I didn't renew my subscription. It's not worth the money. It's also laughable that MS charge money for downloads when you're already paying to use the service in the first place.XanderZane

You don't have to pay for Demo Downloads? What are you talking about.

You have to pay for certain game content downloads, but that's the same on PSN as well. I'm still interested to see how long Sony pays for everyone FREE online server.

You have to pay for alot that should be free, themes, arcade games, pictures, maps of games you already bought.

Stop crying. If you don't like, then don't pay. I consider it a superior experience compared to PSN so I pay to play. RaveRabbid

Nobody is crying... just discussing why is really should not cost us anything. And have you ever tried PSN? Its just about as good as live and will soon have almost all live features and its free. Plus live isnt even close to as good as a pc online and we still are practically forced to pay for it. MS is just greedy thats all.

[QUOTE="RaveRabbid"]Stop crying. If you don't like, then don't pay. I consider it a superior experience compared to PSN so I pay to play. bri360

Nobody is crying... just discussing why is really should not cost us anything. And have you ever tried PSN? Its just about as good as live and will soon have almost all live features and its free. Plus live isnt even close to as good as a pc online and we still are practically forced to pay for it. MS is just greedy thats all.

Yes I have tried PSN and No I'm not playing any PSN games online. I have a PS3 and the last game I finished was Uncharted. The only game I liked online was RFOM and that got boring after 15 hours online. THe maps weren't very good. Rented Warhawk and lets just say, its a sub par experience compared to many online games available right now.

I'll be honest, the best games online on a console are on the X360 (Halo 3, COD 4, Forza etc.) and those are reason enough for people to pay for live. THe online experience is just smoother on live compared to PSN. I would like everything to be free but unfortunately, that can't be the case. I'm expecting Sony to start charging for PSN at some point.

[QUOTE="XanderZane"]

[QUOTE="SolidSnake35"]I paid for a year, but I didn't renew my subscription. It's not worth the money. It's also laughable that MS charge money for downloads when you're already paying to use the service in the first place.bri360

You don't have to pay for Demo Downloads? What are you talking about.

You have to pay for certain game content downloads, but that's the same on PSN as well. I'm still interested to see how long Sony pays for everyone FREE online server.

You have to pay for alot that should be free, themes, arcade games, pictures, maps of games you already bought.

You have to pay for these things on PSN as well. What are you talking about? You didn't already buy the Arcade games or maps. If you did, you wouldn't have to pay for them again. Many of thethemes come with the games you buy. They get loaded onto your HDD automatically.

**************************************************************

I'll be honest, the best games online on a console are on the X360 (Halo 3, COD 4, Forza etc.) and those are reason enough for people to pay for live. THe online experience is just smoother on live compared to PSN. I would like everything to be free but unfortunately, that can't be the case. I'm expecting Sony to start charging for PSN at some point.

They'll start charge gamers once they get their 4th quarter report and find out they lossed another billion dollars for the quarter. Right now Sony is paying to keep their servers up, so they are losing even more money. This is a business. M$ is trying to make up for all the debt they were in with the original XBox. So I'm sure some of the XBox Live $$$ isgoing to those debts.

[QUOTE="3x24"][QUOTE="bri360"][QUOTE="3x24"]

I think that it is worth $4.16/month.

I can voice chat on any game with anyone of my friends even if they aren't playing the same game. That in itself is worth every penny.

Voice chat is everything to me.

I've never been dump'd from a game or had problems with voice chat.

Oh, and there is nothing like leaving a message for a friend that isn't even online.

bri360

All things that PC can do very easily for free. Ventrillo for chat, messenger for messaging even if they are offline and even though they try to make it seem like its barely anything by saying 5$ a month, it all adds up.

Free..... Electric $$$ + PC $$$ + Internet $$$ + Anti Virus $$$ + Anti Spyware $$$

Nothing is free. Free is just a gimik.

Of course all that costs money, but all that applies to the console as well(mabye not antivirus but most dont cost money each year unless you get some ripoff like norton etc.), but you also got to pay for an additional fee on top of that for xbl. I just say free because we are talking about that directly and since those other things apply to consoles as well, we dont need to mention that.

Like I said nothing is free. You are paying for it one way or another. If you are not paying in cash you are paying in another way.

Take this sight for example. If I pay I get more? right? If not I don't.

If I pay for XBL I can chat all the time with my friends while playing the console of "my" choice.

If I wanted to play some PC game and use a secondary "software" to talk to my friends I would.

If I am not mistaken... I could pay ventrilo for an upgraded version?

I like paying for the convenience I get with XBL. I like seeing who is online and what they are playing. I like see who I just played with just incase I want to become friends with them. I like being able to block someone if I don't like them.

Nothing is free. You either pay for something you want or live with something you don't pay for.

It's also laughable that MS charge money for downloads when you're already paying to use the service in the first place.SolidSnake35

Makes about as much sense as saying, "I laugh at amazon.com charging me for products when I already pay for internet service." Or better yet, "I laught at comcast charging me for internet service when I already pay for cable." If $50 a year is gonna break the bank, don't pay for it. Theres millions of gamers on it... you won't be missed.

Yeah Live is soooooo expensive. $50 a year is just way too much money. I mean how am I going to afford to pay for my 24 pack beer and cigarettes every week. Something has got to give. Ironhorse001

I mean I'd pay for it with a smile if we had dedicated servers, but if one person has a bad connection everyone feels it. I mean we're paying for p2p online play!! It's garbage considering it's no different then hooking up a few 360's in a lan party. I mean what are we paying for because everything, including a freaking skin cost money.