Yep, it's me! I am back for another opinion piece!

Yes, one of the most despised and semi-loathed PS3/360 owners to those in the 360 section(Waves!). I guess I will get to the point of what this is all about. I have been on Christmas break for about a week now and it has finally dawned on me while playing with some friends back home what is so interesting about Xbox Live. I will break this into parts based on my experience.  

Games- The reason I decided to open this piece with the games first is because I truly believe the exclusive shooters (ontop of COD and XBLA) are the heart of why gamers pay for Xbox Live. If you've played Halo or Gears like I have, you know that their multiplayer increases the longevity of these two franchises exponentially.  Owning both consoles and having played the offerings there, there is no rival comparison when it comes to exclusive shooters. Uncharted is great and learning, but not on Gears level in true fun factor. Sometimes I look at my watch after playing horde mode in Gears 3 and gasp at how much time I spent playing with friends. Those two games bring out a competitive streak in me I truly forget about when I turn on my PS3. I cannot count how many games my friends got me to digitally download and really if I havent counted this is probably a good thing because if you're having fun you tend to lose track of time and rational sensibility. COD gets all the DLC on the 360 first as well so if you're into that there you go. Black Ops 2 is really fun, but I like the last games maps better.

OS- The dasboard is smooth and is basically a successor to Windows 8. It seems like Microsoft is trying to be like apple and kep close connectivity of their OS on multiple devices closer together. This will make them a truer competitor. Its a smart choice if you like Microsoft more than Apple. Its not as choppy as it used to be. I know Netflix has nothing to do with the OS, but I miss the party feature, it was cool watching stupid things with my friends and laughing about it together. 

Friends- Friends are the major reason to keep Xbox Live Gold once you've purchased it. If you have a dedicated group of friends on Xbox Live they will nag at you to pay the $60 or find some way to you to buy the games that they have. They are there with you through some of your multiplayer experience and even if they aren't they are still chatting with you from the cross-chat. Word of mouth from friends is the #1 seller of multiplayer games on Xbox Live, including XBLA. On Xbox Live you're friends are your sales associate, partner and worst enemy (Whom you take pleasure in destroying because you cant do it in real life).  This is for the little bastards with no parental supervision and Xbox Live babysits you **** you!

Yes I did! This brings me to the best part of it all and thats destroying little kids in multiplayer. Nothing is more infuriating than getting a mouth full on Xbox Live by a brat on the opposite team or even on your team (There needs to be more friendly fire). Once his fire is momentarily extinguished and instant respawn isnt around he can't come back (BWAHAHAHAH!!) until next round::Cought::Gears!::Cough::. 

In conclusion, I think Xbox Lives value comes from the bulk of these things. Now is it worth paying for? Thats up to you. Another reason why I wrote this is because my membership has expired (again) and I am contemplating paying for more time or just waiting until Gears Judgement! See ya on the flip side!

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Good read, I never signed up to live seen as I only have 1 game on 360 so no point, The points people always bring up about Live have never swayed me to jump boat either.

I have no problem with XBL, I just think the possibility of enjoying the multiplayer part of a game should be included for free, since all the advantages you listed should be worth to pay $5 a month for by themselves. Nice read, even for someone who doesn't own a 360 like me^^

I like it because it feels like everybody knows what I'm doing. I don't know about you guys but I'm always looking at my friends list to see what they're watching on Netflix/Youtube, comparing my Achievements to their Achievements, playing what they're playing, etc. I'm a fucking stalker. Even if I'm not playing with you, I'm still playing with you!

And ( I haven't seen this in a PS3 game but I assume some PS3 games have it) it doesn't help that many 360 games will have this little indicator pop up from time to time saying "Twesterm finished this level in 8mins" or "Elgefe02 scored 180,000,000 points" or something to that effect. It really makes me want to do better and compete with their skill level. They never even know that they influenced my gameplay.

Wait, what?! You can see what other people are watching on Youtube? Not really sure if I would want to know what other people are watching...or having them know what I am watching :D

You can turn it off.  Like that time I was watching the documentary called "After Porn Ends".

Thankfully, it doesn't do that when you watch a movie via PC streaming.  Otherwise there were multiple times I would have been in trouble.

Nice read.

For someone who I tend to see as having nothing nice to say about the Xbox 360, a reasonably decent thing to say.

Hopefully you'll do something for the PS3.

For me, the only thing that really interests me with the PS3 is the Blu-Ray.  The games really don't interest me all that much, though I wouldn't mind taking a look at the Uncharted series.

Good read, S.T.A.G.E.

I think you hit it on the head with friends.

I've suspended my membership for a while, but before I did the single most important reason to own XBL for me was the fact that I wanted to play online multiplayer and co-op with my friends. Left 4 Dead, Gears of War, Halo, F.E.A.R. 3, Army of Two, etc. When it comes to video games, I think we tend to go where our friends go.

It really does that? That can get annoying if you want privacy.....

@bold
For real? Or is it just for achievements?