Why I Dislike my Xbox 360

[Szymon]

I paid $200 for a system that will break in 1 year. I paid another $60 for Xbox Live. What is Xbox live? Does it provide me with an Internet connection, so I can play with friends? No, my ISP does that. Does it buy me additional content to games I already own? Nope, I have to pay more money for an unnecessarily shitty point system to get that additional content. Does it host games for me so I can have a better gaming experience with my friends? Nope, it's up to the game company or the users to host their own games. So what the fuck am I paying for? It's like trying to go to your friends house, except when you get to the door you find that the lock has been changed and you're locked inside your own home. You look outside your Window and see a skinny old man with an awful haircut holding a key in his hand and smiling. He's telling you that he can provide you with this lovely service. He can open the door and lend you the key for an entire year. This give you access to many great features, which he lists off as though he owns them. These features include seeing your friends whenever you want, meeting new people you've never seen before. Essentially they're selling you a world that somebody else created, and that you already paid for and already have access to. The sad thing is that most people are completely okay with this, and pay the man the money to go outside. Some people are even thrilled with this service that he's providing them. Then you go shopping, and you want to pay for your ice cream cone, but the ice cream man won't accept your money. You need special tokens only available from that skinny fucker that changed your locks. FINE. You go back to the skinny man and ask for enough tokens to buy your ice cream, but he won't sell them to you. You HAVE to buy more than you need because he doesn't sell tokens in small enough amounts. All you wanted to do was go outside and play with your friends and eat some ice cream and they've fucked everything up for you.

If you want to play with me, I'll be on my PC.

PS: I am currently cranky and running on 3 hours sleep and coffee.

[Szymon]

You want to enhance your life and get a car, and you buy yourself a great car you got for a great price. You wake up the next day and leave your house and get into your car, but it won't start. It seems the skinny man has disabled the usage of your car because it goes against the agreement that allows you to leave your house. If you want to buy a car, you need to buy one from him and you can be sure he will fuck you over in price and quality to make a huge profit.

[Gambit_X]

Anybody else feel like this should have started with "Hi. My name is Szymon, and I'm a recovering Xbox 360 user"?

:P

But seriously, I agree about the Xbox Live thing, but there are still some things I definitely like way better about my 360 than the PS3. For one thing, I've always hated Playstation controllers with a passion, and I take it as a personal affront from Sony for not offering a decent alternative to the Dual Shock. Besides that, not every 360 pukes out after a year... just most of them... :P Guess I've been lucky.

Anyway, I can't say I blame you for deciding to go back to PC, but I think you might want to sleep on it. Good luck to you!

[Fox 6]

hahaha

Hilarious.

[Szymon]

Can't afford to go outside? You sit inside and play alone, and try not to listen to how much fun everyone else is having outside. The problem is, the skinny man pokes his awful haircut into your windows and tells you who's outside and what they're playing. You sit and wonder, why should I have to pay to go outside!? This is ludicrous! So you wander around your house and eventually you stumble upon an idea. What if I could build a better door? I would build one that couldn't be locked by the awful skinny man, or could easily be unlocked. Welcome to PC gaming.

[DarkMaster]

I agree with you that Xbox Live is bulllshit, and if not for my roommate who purchased a year of gold service, I would never use it. Lets not forget that you have to buy a stupid ass $70 wireless thing if you don't have a wired internet conneciton. On the other hand, the PS3 supports excellent online service for free, and has built in Wi-Fi. I mean even the Wii has built in Wi-Fi, and it's definitely not a system focused on online play.

I've had my 360 for two years now, but with the PS3's lowered price, the 360 is definitely not the console of choice that it used to be for me.

[Bond]

Sell your 360. Use the money to buy a Wii.

P.S. Didn't you just buy a new HDD for your 360? Where did all the love go?

[Szymon]

I have a Wii, but I'm unimpressed with the low graphics quality. I just wants quality graphics, with a keyboard and mouse, without being charged for everything I want to do.

[Fox 6]

Yet you play WoW
:ohreilly:

[Typhoid]

I 100% agree with you.
This is why you need a PS3.

[gekko]

I mean even the Wii has built in Wi-Fi, and it's definitely not a system focused on online play.

What it doesn't have is ethernet, which is a shame.

[Dylflon]

I'm pretty nervous about my new Xbox breaking.

I didn't have enough money to buy a warranty. Apparently I'm only covered for 3 months...


...crooks.

[TheSlyMoogle]

I'm pretty nervous about my new Xbox breaking.

I didn't have enough money to buy a warranty. Apparently I'm only covered for 3 months...


...crooks.

Depends on if you got it used or new. New generation 360s are supposed to have fixed the problem.

[Soviet Stinger]

Don't play Wii.

What a foolish thing to do.

[Zen]

i agree with this, its why igot ps3, my gold membership expires in march and that will be the end of it

[dropCGCF]

Every old Xbox that doesn't have the newer, "Jasper" chip will eventually fail because of the way heatsinks are designed.

...with that said, it IS Microsoft, and you should have known what you were getting before you entered the market. M$ has learned from their mistakes.

If you're getting in a tizzy for a service that's less than the average home pays for drinkable water, you really need to adjust your perspective.

You have to also understand that internet and internet gaming are technically a luxury.

[KillerGremlin]

I had Xbox Live for a year.....I honestly barely used it. I find that the best Haloing I do is with friends, in person. Even Xbox Live is better with a friend. I just wish they didn't give everyone a microphone, I'm sick of hearing 12 year old brats throwing the F and N word around.

Doesn't Microsoft take a hit on every Xbox sold? I'm sure they gain back some revenue with Xbox Live.

[gekko]

Doesn't Microsoft take a hit on every Xbox sold? I'm sure they gain back some revenue with Xbox Live.

Actually, no. They broke even about a year after launch (Nov 2006). However, they extended the warranties for the RROD which cost them a ton of money, so the entire division didn't start profiting until summer 2008.

[Blix]

If MS hosted servers for every game I'd be inclined to defend them tooth and nail. People want great services and good things cost. So I was the type who defended MS when people started complaining about having to pay for the service. But since many games are hosted by players or the company that developed it... I'm left wondering why do they charge. I get achievements, servers, friend list and what not on steam and that's all for free. The maintenance of the service can't justify that money. So while I used to defend live tooth and nail on this matter before, my experience with steam leaves me wondering why they can't offer me this stuff for free. There are a bit of differences between both services, but I don't believe they affect that much.

[gekko]

The maintenance of the service can't justify that money. So while I used to defend live tooth and nail on this matter before, my experience with steam leaves me wondering why they can't offer me this stuff for free.

It only costs around $4 a month, and that's not a whole lot of money. Your money goes to more than just maintenance, it goes to development of the service. Yes, the servers and bandwidth cost money to store your online profile, and you must also hire the staff to maintain the servers. Generally, people forget companies make need to profit for more reasons than white collar bonuses. There's still the research and development of new products, and in this case, new services for Xbox Live.

Adding avatars wasn't free, and neither are any of the "free" items they release. The party chat system cost money to develop, even though Infinity Ward pretends it doesn't exist. Xbox Live Primetime (1 vs. 100) didn't make itself, and neither did Halo Waypoint. Those Inside Xbox movies that air every week requires a small crew to produce. I could go on.

Point in, maintaining the servers may not cost the millions of dollars they bring in every year, but you're also paying developers to continue to improve the service, and of course, bring in some extra profits.

[Professor S]

I don't find $50 or so a year a prohibitive charge for the best on-line component of any console out there right now. I'm actually surprised it's so cheap.

Outside of the RRoD (and I've had my 360 for YEARS and it's never RRoDed so I don't think it's inevitable if you don't put it vertical and choke it in a small space), I find most complaints about the 360 to be small points and minor annoyances.