Does anyone else refuse to pay for Xbox multiplayer?

4T5 · 5 Mar 2008 at 08:46

I've been lucky enough to be given codes & haven't had to fork out the 30-40 quid yet which is just as well because since i got it in November i haven't really had 40 quid for something that doesn't really add to my gaming.
Lets be honest here folks who is going to pay to play COD4 on live with the low player count, thrown on any server, controller using when you can play on COD4 pc & choose your own Low ping server & play with enough people to have a proper war & use a mouse & KB.
Playing PGR4 on live with mates i already know is sound & great fun but in my house the sexbox loses every time to my Old PC. When i fancy a drive i take out RBR, when i fancy a race i take out RFactor & when i want to war i take out BF2 & occasionaly COD4, None of them on the 360.
No matter what I've tried since getting the box it just hasn't sucked me in enough to get my 40 quid out.

Wyrdo · 5 Mar 2008 at 08:54

malc30 said:
Lets be honest here folks who is going to pay to play COD4 on live with the low player count, thrown on any server, controller using when you can play on COD4 pc & choose your own Low ping server & play with enough people to have a proper war & use a mouse & KB.

Lots of people would?

Low player count?

I'd rather play it on my 360 than on my PC.

House · 5 Mar 2008 at 09:34

Bad example.

COD4 on the PC with 50 people on maps designed for 12-16 max is not fun.

I play COD4 on my xbox allot more than i do on the PC.

Live is well worth then money and i find it strange that people who are happy to pay blizard £10 a month to play WoW think £40 a year is too muct to play lots of diffrent games.

Yes id like dedicated servers but live is not a bad service and well worth the money.

xander_uk2 · 5 Mar 2008 at 09:38

Good point.

Live is worth the £40 a year (or £4.99 a month) Those who moan about it need to get a life. MMORPG's charge twice as much and no one moans about that

Streeteh · 5 Mar 2008 at 09:39

At present, Live! is the best example of online console gaming available on the market, because of this you have to pay a premium for the service. If, when released, Home betters or equals the Live! service i imagine MS will either drop the fee or work to improve the online service to once again exceed that which Sony offers. As long as MS offer the best service they will charge people for it.

beachBOYken · 5 Mar 2008 at 09:56

i find microsoft charge for everything and there prices are a complete rip off , considering they are one of the richest companys in the world , i dont see why the cant offer more reasonable prices for there services or better offers ,money grabbers :mad:

not sure if they do this but do they do a gold membership for just a month or a couple of weeks without it getting renewed? i dont get much time to play live so i dont want to pay large sums for just the odd day here and there?

wannabedamned · 5 Mar 2008 at 09:59

Again, I restate the point from earlier.

Doesn't silver account, Which is free, Offer everything gold offers, Apart from the ability to connect to another person for online gaming?

If so aren't Microsoft charging us for nothing? Charging us to host games on the 360, Connect to another 360, Using the ISP we are already paying? To play video games?

JudgeC · 5 Mar 2008 at 10:00

I must admit, having just got my 360 a couple of weeks back and being a PC and PS3 owner, I wasn't keen on paying for the right to play games online it seemed a bit of a rip off.

Having said that, I stumped up the cash and after a couple of weeks of playing COD4 online with my mates, I am less inclined to moan about the cost. Xbox Live makes for the easiest way to just switch on, see who's around and jump into a game, when compared to other online platforms.

I am a convert (Although if MS want to make it free, that's fine by me).

FTM · 5 Mar 2008 at 10:04

Inazuma said:
I'm a long time PC gamer - a long time user of quality, free multiplayer with in-game music and chat support. So when I got my 360 not long after launch, I took a firm stance on not buying into M$'s 'service', especially after paying £60 for a wireless adapter. (Though it is admittedly becoming increasingly more tempting to do so). I was wondering, does anyone hold a similar grudge against Microsoft for making gamers pay for something that's always been free in the past? Am I just being ridiculously stubborn?

you cant be that long a time pc gamer

I used to pay 40 quid a month on wireplay back in about 1998/99

we are so lucky these days...

mmj_uk · 5 Mar 2008 at 10:10

wannabedamned said:
Again, I restate the point from earlier.

Doesn't silver account, Which is free, Offer everything gold offers, Apart from the ability to connect to another person for online gaming?

If so aren't Microsoft charging us for nothing? Charging us to host games on the 360, Connect to another 360, Using the ISP we are already paying? To play video games?

Exactly, it's a scam but as you can see people are "happy" to pay for it so Microsoft can get away with it.

wwwebber · 5 Mar 2008 at 10:13

wannabedamned said:
Doesn't silver account, Which is free, Offer everything gold offers, Apart from the ability to connect to another person for online gaming?

If so aren't Microsoft charging us for nothing? Charging us to host games on the 360, Connect to another 360, Using the ISP we are already paying? To play video games?

Interesting point.

andshrew · 5 Mar 2008 at 10:16

FTM said:
you cant be that long a time pc gamer

I used to pay 40 quid a month on wireplay back in about 1998/99

we are so lucky these days...

You didn't have to pay to play back in the day though, there were plenty of free alternatives such as the MSN Gaming Zone for playing online. I've never payed more than my ISP fee's to play online (bar MMO's).

I'm at work at the moment so can't check the following is factually correct for all PC games but based on my experiance with Gears of War for PC Microsoft don't charge Live for Windows gamers to access multiplayer functionallity of the game so that suggests to me the only reason they charge on the Xbox is because they can get away with it and people are so willing to pay due to there being no alternative. I do think its cheeky that they provide it free to one set of gamers but not to their majority (the console Live users).

Wyrdo · 5 Mar 2008 at 10:19

Gold membership for the PC version gives achievements and True Skill matchmaking.

Shep_Cobain · 5 Mar 2008 at 10:22

its £25 for 13 months XBOX LIVE GOLD?

Its amazing and i will always pay for it!

Its that good that pirates even pay for the service!

andshrew · 5 Mar 2008 at 10:26

wyrdo said:
Gold membership for the PC version gives achievements and True Skill matchmaking.

It gives online achievements and the core multiplayer functionality is provided free. You still get all the single player ones and a gamerscore if your into that sort of thing.

As for the true skill match making, if your into that sort of thing then I guess its worth it

jas72 · 5 Mar 2008 at 11:02

Inazuma said:
I'm a long time PC gamer - a long time user of quality, free multiplayer with in-game music and chat support. So when I got my 360 not long after launch, I took a firm stance on not buying into M$'s 'service', especially after paying £60 for a wireless adapter. (Though it is admittedly becoming increasingly more tempting to do so). I was wondering, does anyone hold a similar grudge against Microsoft for making gamers pay for something that's always been free in the past? Am I just being ridiculously stubborn?

Buy a PS3

I did and the XBOX will be gone once I've finished the games.

Wyrdo · 5 Mar 2008 at 11:05

andshrew said:
It gives online achievements and the core multiplayer functionality is provided free. You still get all the single player ones and a gamerscore if your into that sort of thing.

As for the true skill match making, if your into that sort of thing then I guess its worth it

I couldn't care less, you said you couldn't check what the differences were so I listed them. Maybe I should have just quoted the page or not bothered at all.

Players can upgrade to a Gold Membership to enjoy all of the Silver features above, plus: TrueSkill matchmaking, the ability to unlock multiplayer achievements, and full access to the benefits of the Xbox LIVE Gold membership.

I agree that the differences between Silver and Gold on the PC and Xbox kinda make you wonder why we're paying.

Demon · 5 Mar 2008 at 11:17

beachBOYken said:
i find microsoft charge for everything and there prices are a complete rip off , considering they are one of the richest companys in the world , i dont see why the cant offer more reasonable prices for there services or better offers ,money grabbers

not sure if they do this but do they do a gold membership for just a month or a couple of weeks without it getting renewed? i dont get much time to play live so i dont want to pay large sums for just the odd day here and there?

Yes, you can get voucher codes from the bay that give very short periods of gold usage..

No one wants to pay for LIVE, but MS are a business, I still hope the reduce/scrap the price if/when Sony get their act together, but at the moment, it's a revenue stream for them..

Again, I restate the point from earlier.

Doesn't silver account, Which is free, Offer everything gold offers, Apart from the ability to connect to another person for online gaming?

If so aren't Microsoft charging us for nothing? Charging us to host games on the 360, Connect to another 360, Using the ISP we are already paying? To play video games?

No, it's just that Silver is a loss leader for them.. And in reality a service is a service, you are paying for the ability to connect, not necessarily the physical interaction..

Exactly, it's a scam but as you can see people are "happy" to pay for it so Microsoft can get away with it.

That's a very jaded view, I think we all know it isn't a 'SCAM', it's just a good service that we all wish was free..

andshrew · 5 Mar 2008 at 11:36

wyrdo said:
I couldn't care less, you said you couldn't check what the differences were so I listed them. Maybe I should have just quoted the page or not bothered at all.

I see but what I mean't was that I was unsure if free multiplayer applied to all Live for Windows games or just Gears of War (the only one I actually own) but as your quote shows it appears it does.

Simon · 5 Mar 2008 at 11:36

Silver gives everyone the chance to download AND pay for updates, games etc.