lol steam is by far the worst one.

XBL > PSN > battle.net >> steam.

sure steam has some good deals every now and then, but playing on steam is a pain in the ass.
Bad friendslist, LOTS of cheaters, LOTS of flamers, matchmaking? Nope, VAC for CS is useless, insecure etc etc

Actually I prefer battle.net over steam any day.

I can say I have played them all and believe me, XBL is by far the best with PSN coming in 2nd. The PC counterparts are way worse. But how could you know, you never tried.

I think VGChartz has a search function.

It all depends on who you talk to.

For example, some people like the matchmaking and chat features with Xbox Live, but I'd prefer being on the PC and using dedicated server and list of games to join and easily hopping into a skype voice chat with friends if we want to play together and have clear voice communication.

I think you are being a little hard on Steam.  First of all, Valve only makes a few of the games that are on steam, otherwise they sell other company's games.  What is nice about them is that they allow you to maintain contact with those on your friends list while you are playing other non-Valve games, and can jump into other multiplayer games your friends are playing with a simple click, and no disk switching.

As far a cheating in PC games, I think it will always happen to some extent, but it is usually less prevalent than you think it is.  90% of the people you think are cheating are in fact, just very good (I played CS for many years and stood behind some of these people at LANs and was in awe at how good some of these guys get).  The one thing that PC games can do that console games don't do, is build communities.  The server based structure means that people return to their favorite server.  These communities then do events and whatnot, maybe even LANs where people meet each other.

Now, this is sort of thing can happen with or without Steam, but Steam is just a platform for buying games online, having a screen overlay that is available cross games, applying achievements to PC games in a way that others can actually see them, and keeping all your Steam purchased games updated.

Now, I am NOT saying that Steam is better or worse than XBLG.  I am simply saying that it brings something to PC gaming that wasn't there before, a service that manages your updates for you and connects you with your friends while you are playing different games.  Steam, of course, isn't the only platform out there, but it seems to be the largest.  One thing that XBL should take from Steam is the ability to make groups.  Groups allow communties to form and communities give people another reason to come back and play games on your network.

I give this thread a 9.3.

Also, to avoid shio.

Because of Halo basically, its worth every penny to play one of the best multiplayer experiences ever!  I would probably pay even more just to play Halo, it really is that good of a game (of course MW2 isn't that bad either, but when Reach comes out, thats it!)

I heard there are also people who pay for MMO subscriptions every month....

As an Xbox Live subscriber, I pay $50 a year for something that Sony SHOULD be charging for. We get cross game chat, the ability to watch Netflix with somebody around the world, discounts on Arcade games and DLC, exceptional online, free games like 1 vs. 100, the possibility to "Game With Fame, exclusive videos, and to keep those cheap "Silverbacks" from playing with us.

You just said it all OP, almost is not the same. Almost in this case represents a lot of cool stuff, you can try it out for 3 months and see for yourself.

I would pay $100 a year for that.. ;)