I'm not saying they haven't been planning it, or saying it's a ripoff.

All I'm saying is that the way Epic put it last winter, this was the last thing on their mind.  They didn't want to face lawsuits on this, etc.  And it happening now, just seems suspicious.  That's all that I said.  I compared it to LBP, because that is the most recent, and biggest news to hit the console User-Created game in a while.  That's all.  Nothing against XNA and it's affiliates. 

No, it makes your argument completely irrlevant because now you're acknowledging that you aren't going by reality because it's not the type of games you want to hear about. Sorry, but if you were arguing from Neva Neva Land you probably should have said from the start that MS had announced more at the conference in Neva Neva Land than Nintendo and Sony combined. Based in reality, I don't quite think that the release date for a game we all knew was coming soon somehow completely negates the announcement of 10+ games and a majo demo download service for the DS. Just no.

LOL.  No, I think I'll stop now.

Okay, that's all I wanted to know.  I do think that it's good for ametuer developers, and it being free makes it all the more better for Live users.  Now I can get a little excited for it.

LOL, with my last post I was trying to politely say that games you listed are small potatoes compared to GoW and Ninja Gaiden and not big news at all but that I respect your taste in games. If that is news for you, good for you!

Those simulation elements in Fable 2 are actually very nice. Almost as if they took the best elements in Animal Crossing, and the Sims then they took them to the next logical level. I always wanted to own the town in Animal Crossing, and I wanted to upgrade it as I liked. I hope there is the option to be a slum lord or the possibility of singling out one of the townsfolk. I also like the concept of torture as was available in the Sims where through cruel neglect you could be highly entertained. Yeah it was like taking a magnifying glass to a ant hill, but the unexpected results were part of the thrill.

The one thing nobody is picking up on is this. Can an invited player marry you, and more to the point can you get knocked up by them. I am sure the thought has occurred to the developer, but imagine the ramifications. You might have to put the kid up for adoption, and then what happens twenty years later when he or she comes looking for you. There is even the potential for incest.

So many possibilities when you introduce simulation elements. Imagine your friends over for a visit when your character gives birth. Imagine their reaction if you then gun down your mate, and murder the baby. That is freedom my friends.

Dmeister, it's not as if I was trying to argue with you. I honestly didn't understand why you were so focused on why MS did this and kept bringing up LBP.

All that matters to me is that they are doing it, which will force both Sony and Nintendo to offer something like this in the future if it's even remotely successful.

This has the potential to flip the console world on its head if MS does it right and does it cheap (aka. free). This is so far beyond anything we've ever seen on consoles before and I'm really excited about it. Not because MS did it, for I would be just as excited if Sony or Ninty did the same, but because it's being done, period.

@DMesiter
Not sure why you would put your faith on what epic says especially Mark Rein who said unreal 3 was only being worked on the PS3 yet a mag had played months before or that gears 2 wasn't in development until unreal was done. MS never came out and addressed Epic regarding this issue. If I recall he just kept touting the PS3 for allowing it etc while maybe just maybe MS had other plans that might have not worked for Epic. Just saying all you got is Epic for your suspicion which to me at least seems rather weak. By the way is fine if your not excited. I am just commenting about user created content portion of what you said.

On a more serious note, I'm looking forward to playing 14,000 different versions of Pong, half of which will mysteriously be bugged despite the game being so incredibly simple.

I want to get UTIII for 360.  And I want to know if it will have the user-created mods on there.  Remember how Epic was talking about Microsoft not being to keen on it, a few months ago, but now MS went and did XNA on XBL, if they're doing that, will I have my UTIII mods?

Also, I wouldn't say that I am as excited about you for XNA (Are you a developer?), but Indie games that cost little to none, and are good would be absolutely fun to download and play.  Are you kidding me?  I love flash games and these will be more complex than that correct?  Then I'd be happy to download and support indies!

ROFFLE! Gears of War is only big in NA, and even then it's outclassed by several 360 games on the hype-o-meter (Halo, GTA, etc.) Monster Hunter is the only thing keeping the PSP alive in Japan and is defying the trend of poor PSP software sales over there. And Ninja Gaiden? LOL!