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Originally Posted by Vampyr
I don't really get everything you're saying here. I think Xbox Live is a fantastic system, first of all, and I'm not sure how you can compare it to AOL. Live gives you a very easy way to keep up with friends and interact with them, as well as access to tons of demo's, a central hub for playing games online with other people (instead of having an incoherent server list for every multi-player pc game you have), access to the arcade, and netflix streaming among other things.
And yes, you do have to pay for some of this content, like the arcade games for example. But these games are being developed by separate groups who deserve to earn money for their product, I'm not sure why you think the content should be given away for free (and some of it actually is).
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The original Xbox Live (and Gold Membership) cost a yearly fee. You don't pay for the broadband or bandwidth (*coughAOLcough*) and many of the tiered services offered that you have to pay additional for have been offered for free on other platforms (*coughPCcough*) for ages. I'm not totally undermining Xbox Live, I think many of the services SHOULD cost money, including the arcade.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vampyr
(instead of having an incoherent server list for every multi-player pc game you have)
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Have you seen STEAM? It gives you one Friend's List for ALL the games available through STEAM. And STEAM is free.
Also, PC gaming isn't quite as archaic as you are making it out to be. Sure, some games had pretty lame Multiplayer GUIs back in the day, but PC gaming for the most part is "with it."
Edit:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/joinlive.htm
Like, the fact that the SILVER EDITION of XBox Live doesn't include "Online Mutliplayer Gaming" is pretty pathetic. Perhaps Microsoft should take 5% off your monthly bandwidth bill when you subscribe to the Gold Service.