Stopped caring when you mentioned shooters, that's a bullshit "reason". Otherwise an other specific online service should be booming because of it.

Ick, no thanks.  I despise stuff like that.  I don't want to know what other people are doing and I definitely don't want them to know what I'm doing.  Different strokes and all that.

: O I'm speechless................ Nope still nothing.

Same here, when I get competitive on a shooter, I get crazy competitive. I almost forgot how much adrenaline I get from playing with my friends because we used to be in a clan on PC when I was younger. I finally figured out how to bounce off of walls in Gears and staying in constant movement as well before tag nade someone. Brilliant!

Thanks! I believe I can find some time to write up why PSN has an allure of its own opposed to Xbox Live now that school is over.

Thats pretty much what the existence of the Xbox has done since creation. The Xbox is pretty much the reason why shooters have taken off on the console. It is the reason for the massive increase in popularity of shooters. Everything from the controller design to Halo. The online experience is second only to PC, except its a closed experience. Now because of them Sony and Nintendo are learning slowly but surely. As I said this is an opinion piece and because of the structure of Xbox Live you cannot play the likes of Gears, Halo or COD online without paying up. You are truly missing out on the experience of those games if you're only playing for the story. When I was younger in my community the Xbox was called "The shooter box" because thats primarily what it was famous for bringing to the dance. I don't know about you and I am not judging either. 

Ask Sony why they are working so hard with the guys whom are making Dust 514. They are desperate for an exclusive shooter that sells the community. Thats what Halo and Gears does for Microsoft and if you dont believe it, look at the attributes of their exclusive shooters. They are all community team based shooters. They tried with M.A.G. to show that they can have 256 players on a map at once and that didnt work. They barely put out a proper commercial for that game. Sony wants a Halo and Microsoft wants an Uncharted, plain and simple.

As for specific online service becoming a reason, thats neither here nor there, you could say the same thing about PSN. Again, its an opinion. If you pay close attention to your PC and phone (if you have Windows 8 or Windows Mobile) the only difference from those things is the addition of online multiplayer and Microsoft doesnt make you pay there. Microsoft does cut you off from communication if you dont pay though, so meh. If you pay for Xbox Live you can communicate through external sources provided like their website and stuff.

lol WTF? Serious? I never noticed. 

It's not in every game.  Games like Shadow Complex, Gears of War, SSX, Hitman Absolution, etc. have that feature.  That's why I said "I haven't seen this in a PS3 game but I assume some PS3 games have it."  It's something they add on a game by game basis, I guess.  Xbox DOES have the Leaderboards for almost all (if not all) downloadable games, though.  Even Sam and Max had a leaderboard of who saw the most dialog!

Very true, community is another thing I needed to add, but I did not want it to be in conflict with friends. The biggest difference Xbox Live and PSN is the feeling of true communion while gaming.

I can agree with most of that.