I'm so sick of how they handle Xbox LIve

After reading Negi & Stinger comments, it made me think. I think I really take issue with any subscription based gaming model. It bothered me a lot when I played WoW for a while, and it's always bothered me with Xbox Live too. The problem is, some of us are just very casual gamers, and it annoys me when I do get struck the mood to fire up the Xbox to try a round of Halo matchmaking or try some demo, I can't. But I'm expected to pay the full price for the service even though I've barely turned on my Xbox in the past 6+ months? So what should I do if I want to try Halo matchmaking which I may or may not get back into? Pay $60 bucks to find out?
 
You can buy an 1 month on Live for those bouts of multiplayer that you have or you can wait until a free Gold weekend to test it out. There are way too many sales and deals on Live to not notice or take advantage of.
 
How do you find out when free Live Gold weekends are taking place? I've never even heard of that happening, are they fairly often? I didn't even know they sold Live amounts in 1 month increments, I thought 3 months was the lowest. Thanks for the info.
 
That same thing happened to me and I got angry and just played it at my friend's house. I don't think I'm going to buy live anytime soon until Christmas or whenever. im not in a hurry to get it anyway.
 
cliverederson said:
After reading Negi & Stinger comments, it made me think. I think I really take issue with any subscription based gaming model. It bothered me a lot when I played WoW for a while, and it's always bothered me with Xbox Live too. The problem is, some of us are just very casual gamers, and it annoys me when I do get struck the mood to fire up the Xbox to try a round of Halo matchmaking or try some demo, I can't. But I'm expected to pay the full price for the service even though I've barely turned on my Xbox in the past 6+ months? So what should I do if I want to try Halo matchmaking which I may or may not get back into? Pay $60 bucks to find out?
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It depends on if you use it for other things. I am a very casual gamer now too. But I still watch a ton of video off the video apps, as well as multiplayer gaming. So for me, the $5 a month for the service is worth it for what I use it for, even if I don't game online nearly as much as I used to.
 
Nah, I never use any of the other apps either. I have a Mac Mini with Plex that I use for all of my video viewing needs. I never could find an efficient way to stream videos to my Xbox without having to re-encode them, since I only have Mac computers and no Windows Media Center. Plus, it has the added benefit of being able to watch Netflix without a monthly fee... in addition to Netflix's of course.

I was just reading about how Diablo is better on the console than the PC... no auction house, better loot system, offline play... ugh, not fair!
 
Ok, I just want to say that I am able to download the Diablo 3 demo now, so I guess it was just a case of not letting silver members download it at first. So I guess I was wrong, but I still think it's a little weird to do it like that, but I understand they want to give more benefits to paying customers. I think at the end of the day, I'm mostly just irritated that I can't fire up my Xbox and play a Halo match every once in a while... sorry for the venting!
 
If you ask me, Xbox Live is just another bill. I pay $36/year which is worth it considering what you get. So many people cry about having to pay for it since PSN is currently free. But if you DO play online, XBL is definitely worth it because most DLC packs release first on XBL. And if you don't, then it's a no brainer because DLC doesn't matter to you. Every penny you put into XBL goes back into making the service better. Just ask all the PSN users that couldn't play during the blackout. I have friends that have a PS3 too, and they are always on XBOX because the PSN servers suck. My point is that if you're crying about how MS handles XBL, go try PSN for a year.

EDIT
cliverederson said:
Nah, I never use any of the other apps either. I have a Mac Mini with Plex that I use for all of my video viewing needs. I never could find an efficient way to stream videos to my Xbox without having to re-encode them, since I only have Mac computers and no Windows Media Center. Plus, it has the added benefit of being able to watch Netflix without a monthly fee... in addition to Netflix's of course.

I was just reading about how Diablo is better on the console than the PC... no auction house, better loot system, offline play... ugh, not fair!
Click to expand...
I don't know how long you have been a PC gamer, or to what extent, but it's an anti-piracy measure (offline play). Bioshock was like this and it was absolutely HORRIBLE, especially since they shut down the server about a year after release so nobody could play Bioshock, a campaign only game. One of the main reasons I left the PC community, everyone trying to prevent piracy and therefore ruining the game.
 
Does anyone remember how there use to be PS magazine or Xbox magazine and it came with the demo disc. Just because they were demo's it didn't stop you from tossing it into the system and playing it. There was a unique user interface and a few videos. It wasn't anything that impressive by today's standards but if you paid the 7 bucks for the magazine you were going to be guarenteed with 3 hours of teasers after you got done demoing the demo.

I think that this decision is a way to recreate that excitement. No one is buying 7 dollar magazines or looking for demo discs anymore. That's just not the way the culture works. I think that in an attempt to replicate that excitement and try to say that "this is a reason to get gold" you find being locked out of demos. However, it just pisses off none XbLive people instead of exciting Xb gold people.

It had the opposite effect, but my guess is that the reaction is so quiet, they probably don't notice or have other things to worry about.
 
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