For me (and I throw my money away so don't value my opinion too much) it is well worth the money. Just buy a 12 month gold card when you're feeling flush and you don't have to worry about it for another year. Once you become a gold member you really notice a difference ... not only being able to play games online with other people but you just feel in the mix a bit more, thats how I feel anyway.
Why don't you buy a 3 month card or something? take it for a test drive first.
EDIT - sorry forgot something ..
"This is why I don't play online much:
- I hate being matched up with people who have unequal skill to me.
- I hate typing on a controller and I don't do online PC gaming because the FPS games are just twitch fests when playing competitively"
If you do get matched up with somebody of an unequal skill you can rate the player, if they are too good/bad the player becomes avoidable. If you find somebody you like playing against you can rate them so the chances of you playing again are higher.
The QWERTY pad might help you out a little. That said just like a keyboard you can get kinda fast writing messages with the controller.
