Xbox Live: Overpriced

[Alby_da_Wolf]

JaggedSac said:

Alby_da_Wolf said:
Maybe 50$/yr isn't overpriced, although 0$/yr is a lot better, but anyway it's fair to take it into account to calculate consoles' TCO.
I'd have one question too: not having an XBox360, I'm curious, is it possible to play online with it without paying Live fees, for example using games producers services not involving MS and offered for free to games buyers, free third party hosting services financed in a different way than fees, or hosting games on one of the players' PC, like it happens for PC games?

There is probably some tunneling software on the PC where you can simulate a LAN game.  This was a work around you could do for the original XBox.  I imagine someone has done it for the 360 as well.

Yes, I knew about the workarounds, I wished to know whether it's possible for SW houses to offer free online gaming services alternative to Live and to users to privately host games online for groups of friends without workarounds.