should be a one time fee. and were are the dedicated servers? sucks getting the boot when the host leaves the game.

worth it, i would play most shooter for 20-30 hours without live. with live its hundreds of hours. to me it increases the value of my games 100 fold

No. I think XBox Live Gold is a complete and utter rip off. They aren't doing anything that others do for free. PSN provides the same basic services, all for free. I will say that XBox Live is currently much more mature than PSN, and as a result, provides a much better overall experience. Hopefully the PSN will get some updates to get it on par with XBox Live (in game XMB to keep tabs on friends would be a good start).

Edit:  My opinions would probably be different if Microsoft actually hosted the games, but they don't.

well I think it's worth I mean think about it to play on officials servers of a lot of MMORPG you have to pay... money most of the time is used to maintain the servers... if PSN had more player/ user I think they might have to change that on the long run or have a large cost added to the PS 3 production cost... which sony don't want....

hell I was paying more money to websites when I was younger through donation to keep them alive... than I pay for my gold membership... that I barely used for the past 3 month... still if a friends ask me for a GOW or halo session or any other multi or co op game.. I'm all set to go.... in pounds it sucks more but in dollars for a european it's way worse it lol :) it's almost like it's free :P

and home... well if I want that I play sim's lol :).... I prefer a system simple as the XBL... i'm rarelly not playing when I interact with my friends on the live.. so I don't see the use of home... I don't really care having a fake house.... like in test drive and stuff it's annoying....

I think its worth it at the moment but in a few months that could change, if sony can offer a better network servce free then ms will need to do something really good to keep people believing in its value.

Live is the only thing that keeps me playing my 360 without it i dont think i would touch my Xbox so yeah its so great imo.

It's worth it. I don't think even HOME will surpass what LIVE does. The best part about LIVE is it just works. It works with any game, and it's very seamless. Anything Sony does at this point is just tacked on.

Sony might get it right next generation, and I do enjoy what home brings to the table, but Live is definitely worth 5 bucks a month.

Xbox Live doesn't cost £5 per month. Are you mixing up currencies? £3 per month is more like it.

Definitely worth every penny. Also Im not sure where you get the £5 / month from

http://www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/4-/860394/Xbox-Live-12-Month-Gold-Membership-Card/Product.html

That link has 12 months subscription for £35 which is under £3 / month and I reckon that with a bit of browsing (or by finding a discount code) you could find it for less.

£5 / month implies it costs £60 a year

Just as with M$ points dont buy live or points through the 360 / MS websites. Buy them from retail / online stores and it is much cheaper.

Back to the main topic, £3 / month is frankly not a lot of money the chat, messaging and invite system on Live is so easy to use that without a shadow of a doubt it is worth it. Obviously I would not complain if it went free but do not feel that it has to. Always research purchases before you get ripped off paying to much (ie £5 / month for something you can get for £3 / month) and stop complaining about something which costs less than 2 pints every month!

Woah, that's $10 per month, or $120 per year. Yikes.