The best point in this thread is the one made by usedcisco. We all saw the GuitarHero III hype, including “play online with your friends!” Nowhere did it say that you were required to have a Gold membership to do so. In fact, I actually got GH3 for 360 instead of my PS3 just because two of my friends that only have 360 would be able to play with me.

I was SO HAPPY to try to get online the day I got the game and realize that without a Gold subscription, I couldn’t even browse leaderboards, or get the code to link my game with the Guitar Hero website.

Charge for DLC, and I won’t say a word. Charge for special features, and that’s fine. Charge me something that YOU advertised as core gameplay, and I’ll scream my head off.

I’m done with online on 360. PSN has better latency anyway.

I refuse to pay for Multiplayer gaming.

Good on you V3D

It’s not about the money, its about the principle.

50$ for a year is NOTHING but why do people have to pay for it? Think about it, you pay money to get more out of an internet service. You pay money. To get more. That’s pure gain of profit from MS right there.

If you’re talking about cheater then its easily answer: 1) Ads 2) Cheaters make people not want to play, less people playing will eventually lead to less games being bought, less games being bought less profit MS makes, right? I think that MS would pay out of their own pockets to keep cheaters at bay, it’s not like their short on cash.

Here’s an example

-You own a public pool.
-You charge normal fees for swimming and extra fees to go swim in the deep-end.
-There’s a shark in the pool.

Are you going to

A) Wait to get enough money from the people that pay extra to be able to hire someone to get rid of the shark. This restricts everyone from swimming till you get enough cash

B) Pay out of your own pocket to get the shark ASAP out of that pool so that you can go back to making money

Gold is quite possibly the biggest slap in the face I have ever received as a gamer. When I am REQUIRED to pay for a premium service to use a feature that was advertised as a core feature of a game I paid full price for (Yes, Guitar Hero III, I am looking at you), then something is horribly wrong with the service.

I come from a long standing PC gaming background, and I have never paid for my online play, and cheaters are rare. Why? Because users create programs like PunkBuster. Oh wait, MS doesn’t allow user programs, does it?

MS is simply milking the 360’s playerbase for every nickel they can get. Yes, the ads on Live would more than pay for Gold to be free. No, MS doesn’t care.

Do i like having to pay the $$? NO defently not, it probaly could be a free service with the money microsoft has and makes, but would it be as good if it was free? id probaly expect to see more advertising and pooerer service if it was free, being free means no one cares for it. its like a cheap wine, ya its there in the fridge, it will get u drunk, but you wont enjoy the after taste.

As for paying for LIVE, I don’t mind if they want to offer a paid service so you can have elaborate friends list, voice chat etc, but to include in that service the actual online component? Thats just pure bullshit. The online multiplayer should be in the silver so that anyone can ACTUALLY USE THE GAME THEY PAID FOR.
If you want to withhold all the niceties of LIVE for the Gold subscribers thats fine, but don’t withhold online multiplayer just to squeeze more money out of the consumer trying to play their games. Hell, even Nintendo offers free online play, and in games like Guitar Hero III, Battalion Wars, Strikers, MoH2, the actual online gameplay is every bit is solid and problem free as Live, you just don’t have all the bells and whistles like voice chat and friend requests, but the online gameplay is great, and free. If Nintendo can do it, MS sure as hell can.

Free means that everyone and their grandmother can use it with no restrictions……..maybe you like going into a game online with other people where some of the people are using mods that give them an advantage that you don’t have because you play fair……I don’t.

Even if Sony banned people who cheated what’s to stop them from creating a new account and doing the same cheating they did before? I’ll answer that for you……Nothing can stop them…….because it’s free.

If you get banned on Xbox Live you can always create another gamertag but you’ll have to pay the fees all over again to play online……I’m sorry but $50 a year is a small price to pay to keep the cheaters out……

I find it funny that people will pay it.

@ ManOfTeal

Sony offer a service free of charge with less lag than Live. They also seem to have less problems with trouble makers than Live.

If you disagree then try out Warhawk. Its as good a live gaming experience as you will find anywhere and its free. There is no excuse at all for Microsoft to charge you for a system, charge you for a game and then charge you to use it.

I’ve played with both the PS2 online and the original Xbox and Live is by far the superior service, you get what you pay for and with the PS2s rather limited and rather laggy online functions that couldn’t be more true (don’t have a PS3 so I can’t comment on the PSN stuff, chances are I never will, too expensive and not enough genuinely good games).