Soldato
I'm not going to disagree that it's an excellent service, but by your rational anyone who doesn't want to pay for it is a tightass?
Does anyone else refuse to pay for Xbox multiplayer?
- Thread starter Inazuma
- Start date
Associate
I don't think that not wanting to pay £40 on a service you believe should be free makes you a tightass
Caporegime
Like you've bought an HD console but it doesn't come with an HD cable? or you've bought a console but it comes with our second best controller? Or how about you've bought a console, you can play online, but you can't communicate unless you buy a headset. These aren't fanboy comments, Im just illustrating that all the console 'packages' are incomplete.
The counter to that argument is that accessories are a one off cost, not recurring
.
Soldato
18 sounds more reasonable to me too, is that at auction?
Soldato
Well, yeah the PS3 should have had a HD lead but it didn't. It should have had DS3 in the box but it didn't, etc...
This thread isn't about the PS3 though is it, it's about Xbox Live subscription charges.
Microsoft received money when you bought your 360 and again when you bought the game, then you have to pay them yet again to be able to play the online section of that game - it's a complete rip imo.
Associate
I see your point, but at least you can play all aspects of any game you buy with the console package. Asking people to pay twice to play all of their game is quite unfair.
I'm risking sounding like an anti-360 gamer, this really isn't the case. I'm a big fan of the 360 and I love the Live service, I just don't feel I should have to pay for it (after already paying Microsoft for the console and the game (MS takes it's fair share of the game price)).
Soldato
How about i got an HD console, it came with an HD cable but unfortunately no HD TV
Anyway I dont think you should have to pay to play online, but XBL is worth paying for, because off the extras it gives you. Maybe if gold/silver both gave you online play, but perhaps things like achievements, gamer score etc was gold specific. I know its something they cant change now as it wouldnt be fair to silver users who like achievements, but maybe in the future it could be done this way, so everyone can play online but for a small fee you get the nice (non essential for some) extras.
I don't really refuse to pay, it's more a case of the fact I'd never play online even if I did have a Gold account, I use my PC for that.
Associate
Yeah that is pretty cool, did you get your game saves back? or was it just your Gamertag?
Soldato
wouldn't be gamesaves they are stored on Harddrive or mem card, so would be redownloading DLC and gamertag which PS3 does also for free
Soldato
What do you actually pay for with Xbox Live? As far as I can tell, all the voice chat, friends list functionality etc is built into the console firmware and the games are all peer to peer - so the payment is 100% profit for Microsoft.
Associate
If you never had any intention using Live, why did you pay £60 for a Wireless adapter??
Soldato
The only reason I pay is for the cross game interactions, I like to play single player games until all my mates are 'trickling' online, chatting to the odd one or two, and then when everyone is ready, I get a cross game invite for some COD4 or something.. for me that just means the little time that I allot to play games, I am always playing games, and for that reason alone I pay £25-£30 a year, but as many have said, I'd rather it where free.. unless we are talking dedicated servers..
Now that Sony have announced officially that cross game chat is being added, at least we can now be playing single player games and 'coordinate' a MP game.. if they could sort out cross game invites, then PSN will be a no brainer for me..
However, I do worry that although on PSN it's free, who is paying for the dedicated servers and login servers, etc, etc.. it does look very obvious that Sony are wanting to recoup the money from Advertising and HOME transactions, which I believe is not a good thing for the consumer..
Now that Sony have announced officially that cross game chat is being added, at least we can now be playing single player games and 'coordinate' a MP game.. if they could sort out cross game invites, then PSN will be a no brainer for me..
However, I do worry that although on PSN it's free, who is paying for the dedicated servers and login servers, etc, etc.. it does look very obvious that Sony are wanting to recoup the money from Advertising and HOME transactions, which I believe is not a good thing for the consumer..
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Soldato
Nope. I don't mind paying it.
Associate
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- 18 Oct 2005
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I pay it, it's not a great deal of money, yet I still don't know exactly what I'm paying for...
It's a very limited way of playing games on the 'net, in my opinion.
It's a very limited way of playing games on the 'net, in my opinion.
Soldato
* Mottos for display on gamer profiles
* Game achievements, which are earned during gameplay
* Reputation rating which is voted on by other players who decide to either prefer or avoid another player
* Gamerscores, which are a total of a player's achievement points
* Friends list, which is a list of a player's chosen friends, up to 100 friends allowed
* Recent player list, which lists the last 50 players a user has played with
* Complaint filing system, which allows a user to report another user that has broken that Xbox Live Terms of Use
* The Xbox Guide, which opens a window on the left side of the screen at any time for easy access to common features
* Windows Live messenger integration
* Access to Xbox Live Marketplace content, including new game content, games and movies
* Voice Chat (wireless or wired headset required)
* Video Chat (Live Vision camera required, with headset optional for chatting, this is on Gold membership only)
* Multiplayer online gameplay (Gold only, unless a 48 hour trial code is used)
* Enhanced matchmaking using cumulative gamerscore, reputation, location/language profile, skill level, and gamer zone
* Bio section in which one can list personal interests, URLs, etc.
* Parental controls, limiting children's exposure to other users ("Family Settings")
Also full downloadable movie and full Xbox 1 games.
There is probably more but I just snagged that off the Wiki page. I'm not making excuses, just answering your question
Have you actually used voice comms over Live? The sound quality is fine, I've never had a problem with it and I'm sure many others haven't.
I don't mind paying for Live, at the moment. I do feel it's too expensive though but I wouldn't pay full price for it anyway.
I understand that a lot of people might not use the features of Live and wonder what they're paying their money for but there are lots of people that do use a lot of the features, such as in game messaging and voice chat. I use both of those frequently.
Live is just so easy to use. Say I'm playing a game online and I see one of my friends come online and I want to invite them to my game, as the 'xxx has come online' message appears on the screen I hit my guide button then hit 'Invite to game' job done.
As PSN / Home gets better and becomes a unified service with in game XMB MS are really going to have to do something with the pricing, as it stands right now Live is still the better option.
Oh, and there are lots more people playing online on Live than there are on the PSN. For now.
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