Wow, what an incredibly original argument! I'm going to respond just using the power of common sense.

First of all, stop pissing and moaning about every little thing Gold members have access too. There is an understanding that only Gold members get access to social and streaming services. Silver members basically just have access to the market place, simple as that.

360 fans don't really care about party chat. Its just amusing Sony has failed to duplicate it simply due to the limitations of the hardware.

Feeling you're entitled to free online services is ridiculous. Bear in mind providing online services is not free and more expensive than you presume. MS doesn't charge publishers for bandwidth, Sony does. MS operate servers all servers except for EA, Sony leaves all of that to publishers/developers. If you don't like paying for services you feel entitled to, even knowing there is a lot of overhead to run those services, than go with the free alternatives. Since there are free options there should be no need to piss and moan about what Microsoft does for their platform.

I agree with your DLC comments for the most part. However, it has nothing to do with Xbox Live.

Anybody who pays for Xbox Live simply to do things that can be done on a PS3 or even a Wii, I would suggest buying a different platform. However, the millions and millions of us that use Xbox Live for exclusive features and to play exclusive games online, we're okay with paying for Live because we're getting something no other platform offers.

I think the only thing you feel terrible about is people choose to spend their money on something they personally enjoy and you don't.

This thread is giving information. I'm explaining what I think is wrong with Xbox Live Gold subscription. Rather than people coming back at me with arguments as to why or why not Xbox Live gold is a good thing to subscribe to they are just trying to say why my opinion is wrong. It makes me lol.

A person who replies with actual critisicm? Magical. 360 fans do care about party chat, it's all they talk about when they say live is superior to psn...Where have you been? Why shouldn't I be entitled to free online service? I buy the console, buy the game, and then I'm not allowed to play the multiplayer side of the game? What? The DLC thing was supposed to be an example as to how Microsoft is setting a bad example. Developers caught on to the DLC craze and realized the potential profits of releasing DLC. Nintendo/Sony see the profits Microsoft is making with XBL and they might decide to join them and then we would all have to pay for features that should come with the console. The only exclusive feature paying for Xbox live that I can think of is party chat. Name me something else because nothing comes to mind. 

Seriously, the average 360 fan is not talking about party chat. Give it a rest. Its just something Sony fans focus on because they can't have it.

You are allowed to play the multiplayer side of the game, just not for free on the 360. Sony decided they and 3rd parties will eat those costs and good for them! When online services are available for free, that's great! But being entitled to free online services implies MS shouldn't be allowed to charge for online services. And since I'm not a communist I disagree.

Why do you think developers are okay with MS charging for online services? Because MS takes away their financial burdens of offering online services!

Well your example was bad. MS charged for Live and created a very robust online service never seen on a console before. That forced Sony to compete and create a better online service as well. I'm not sure how that's the same as publishers abusing DLC to make more money. I'll repeat, your example was bad.

The Xbox has a lot of streaming apps not found on PS3 or Wii. I also consider exclusive games as exclusive features. For example, where else am I gonna play Halo 4 or Gears 3 online? I enjoy playing those games online more than any other titles, so that a lone is a good enough reason to pay for Live.

If Sony had Live?

Hey what exactly are all the features that Live has over PSN anyways besides party chat and cross game chat? Serious question

my aunts boyfriend had a 360 but we could never figure out why we couldn't get online like we could on ps3. We realized later that we would have needed to buy a cord to get on the net and we didn't even acknowledge that we would have needed to pay for the online.i went out and got gears of war, perfect dark, king kong and Kameo before it red ringed. He was 1 of those lame gamers who only played madden and maybe Grand Theft Auto here and there.

riderz13371 said:

It doesn't annoy me that you use your own money to pay for something. It annoys me that Microsoft is getting away in making you pay for features that should be accessible for free.

You can't say over and over that you're looking at this from "a gamers perspective" and then throw a fit about a feature that is entirely unrelated to gaming. Furthermore it's a misleading argument to make because I honestly don't know a single person who pays for XBL Gold just so they can watch Netflix. That would be like saying someone pays $80 a month for their cable package so they can watch the weather channel. In reality they probably love ESPN or HBO or Comedy Central and these other channels are just a bonus. You can say they should be accessible for free but MS says otherwise. I believe that given how painfully slow download times are on PSN and how long some installs take, Sony should make automatic updates free for everyone. But they put it behind a subscription to PS+.

I don't mind paying for Live because the infrastructure is far superior to Live, games have more people online playing them, voice quality is better and more people use headsets. Those are things an actual gamer thinks about. And to me those things are worth a few bucks a month. A gamer doesn't think about having to pay to access Netflix.