This here XBox Live Arcade thingy

Ok, I'm old and suddenly hopelessly behind the times. Finally bought the 360, even though Istill have stacks of unplayed games for the previous systems. I don't have much time to play nowadays (thats what happens when you're old enough to be a grandpa), and maybe get in a halfhour a week at best. The Live Arcade intrigues me, but I have a few questions that I need you young geniuses to answer so I dont have toconduct hours of research, trial and error. Honestly I dont want to rig everything up for Live if I find its an unneccessary hassle.

Will the complimentary Silver XBox Live membership allow me to download XBLA games and/or game content, or do I need to pay for Gold status?

Whats with the "points"? Can I simply buy a game, or do I have to have points?

Is there a site that lists the prices of the Arcade games?

Are the arcade games available for play once downloaded, or do I have to be "online" to play?

With silver you can download content, but not play others online.

You need to buy points to buy games.

It's $6.25 per 500 points with no deals for bigger purchases. The whole point system seems ridiculous to me that they don't offer both, but thats not for me to decide.

Once purchased and downloaded games are playable offline for the single player, but you need gold to play any multiplayer.

Thanks! I didnt know if the point system was based on how much one played online, or getting these achievements or something I was never going to do!