You forgot the point of the thread, MS is forcing him. I think he's one of the chosen few that has a guard from MS stationed at his house to make sure he pays. In fact, he is doing something heroic right now, while the guard is on break, he is on System Wars telling everyone how horrible XBL is.

He should be commended, not questioned.

heretrix

if he wants to play online he doesn't have a choice does he so he has to ( forced ) to buy xbox live gold account..... or do you know a free alternative..

( forced also means no choice and in this case if he wants to play online he doesn't have a other choice then to pay )

but maybe we should make the question simpler

"Why do I have to pay to play games online ??"

because a lot of people in this thread don't understand the way the op intended the word forced in the question

so new updated question

"WHY DO WE HAVE TO PAY TO PLAY GAMES ONLINE WITH AN XBOX??"

srry but a lot of console games don't have dedicated servers so that point fails.

plus if I want I can dedicate enough of my fiber connection to host a server.

but what do you pay for let's see

1 partychat only for gold ( crappy sound and you host it on your own connection)

2 video chat

3 facebook

4 twitter

5 espn

6 sky player

all are normal free pc options whoohoo yeah guess those are also great things to pay for......... and who uses

oh and oh yeah you pay to play most games on a p2p base (whoopty dooo)

but with all the advertisement on xbox live these all should be free

and yes you can check out demo's why so they can sell em it aint a bad thing but it's mainly advertisement for you to spend more money

so annyone enlighten me why do I pay? what good quality service do they offer that is worth it ?

Because it costs money to run the service. Just ask Sony the guys losing money on PSN.

The__Havoc

but I guess we are paying for all the faulty systems they made :P

Another person complaining about paying $60 a year, Yeah its $60 a year, who can't afford $60 a year, break it down its less than 1.25 a week, I spend that on a coffee ever day

Supabul

it's not about can or can't afford..........

and with your coffee you are actually getting a product you pay for.....

as for live you get 0 I mean almost all games are p2p that means it could be you hosting........... it's not as they do that for you....

you pay to be able to use your already payed internet for to play online with a game you already payed for wich has also had royalty's for microsoft on to start with......

in the end you get nothing special with gold and your just a stupid milking cow.................... but hey mate at least you could afford it.........

AND REMEMBER THE WORLD IS FLAT PEOPLE

AND ELVIS LIVES

The mostly p2p online gaming on the 360 with required gold account is discusting.....

I't not like you pay live and have a connection you still need you provider for that so what do you pay for ???

the voice chat is horible campared to pc alternatives the game points is fun but doesn't justify the gold and the rest you get is advertisement.

I like my xbox for the few games that arent on the pc but if I have to choose between the 2 I know wich I would keep. :)

you can argue what you want but the mostly mindless microsoft zombies think and will keep onthinking they get elite gold stuff.......brain.......must eat brain.......uhnnnnngh

and yes you are forced if you want to play online with a xbox because there is no alternative to it.

It hasn't come out yet, but here's to keeping my fingers crossed that it's Two Worlds 2. I wanted so badly for the first one to be great, and it was a terrible, unplayable mess. I've heard many positive things about the sequel from those that have previewed it.romans828_2002

it shouldn't be hard to make the game better then the turd two worlds 1 was ( I'm ashamed I bought it at release )

Stupid question..................... just cause 2 ofcourse :P

I loved the game but the 1st one sucked

nothing.

it isn't worth it....

The party feature what's so special about that the voicechat is horrible compared to pc alternatives and paying to play a game online on my already payed internet conection in a p2p situation is just milking the mindless croud.

half of the so called great xbox live service is advertisement for the crap you can buy.

xbox live didn't do much good for gaming it started with paid dlc and crap like that before we had xbox live certain developers would occasionally deliver a free map pack or addon.

I like to have the xbox for certain games but I'm never getting a year xbox life ever again.

I mean what do you really get for paying ??? the ability to play online should have been free to start with..