I was thinking about taking my 360 online, but I was wondering if the people thought it was justified spending that much to go online?

I simply want to know what makes it so good, and whether or not its likely to drag someone who is a reluctant multi-player gamer online more.

Heres my current situation with the 360.

• I don't have anyone with Live gold that I know personally.
• I was thinking about getting a 360 so I could connect it to my CRT monitor in my bedroom because its hard to fit gaming around other people.

This is why I don't play online much:

• I hate being matched up with people who have unequal skill to me.
• I hate typing on a controller and I don't do online PC gaming because the FPS games are just twitch fests when playing competitively.

So can you tell me if it would be justified for me? My initial feeling is that its not but making a judgement without knowing the service is stupid.

Oh one last thing, if you mention the PS3 or PSN in an obvious Microsoft/Xbox Live only thread you probably have emotional problems and should see someone about them.

For me (and I throw my money away so don't value my opinion too much) it is well worth the money. Just buy a 12 month gold card when you're feeling flush and you don't have to worry about it for another year. Once you become a gold member you really notice a difference ... not only being able to play games online with other people but you just feel in the mix a bit more, thats how I feel anyway.

Why don't you buy a 3 month card or something? take it for a test drive first.

EDIT - sorry forgot something ..

"This is why I don't play online much:

• I hate being matched up with people who have unequal skill to me.
• I hate typing on a controller and I don't do online PC gaming because the FPS games are just twitch fests when playing competitively"

If you do get matched up with somebody of an unequal skill you can  rate the player, if they are too good/bad the player becomes avoidable. If you find somebody you like playing against you can rate them so the chances of you playing again are higher.

The QWERTY pad might help you out a little. That said just like a keyboard you can get kinda fast writing messages with the controller.

Well, Squilliam, if you use Newegg.com or Amazon.com, you can get a 12+1 Month Xbox Live gold card for $40 or less. It has many benefits. You can obviously use Netflix.

Also, Xbox Live games all use a matchmaking service called "True Skill" which matches people very well with others of similar rankings. It has a system wide party setup, system wide chat, the ability to mute anyone annoying in any game, most games have casual/unranked playlists. I do have quite a few people near me with gold accounts, but I still find myself playing mostly with people I met over Live. It's pretty easy to find a group of cool people to game with. A few of my friends I met way back in 2003 and are still my gaming buddies today.

What games would you play?

I'd pay $100 if I had to, I like paying for quality service.

About the typing on the controller gripe you have, I usually type out long messages really fast on Xbox.com, they receive it instantly. For real short messages I don't mind using my controller.

What of our TF2 game? Was it just a twich-fest to you? Was it? WAS IT?

if microsoft charged $100 for xbox live, i would buy the service because i have no other choice- for that reason only.
its not because the service is good, i dont know what thats supposed to mean. whats online? you play people and send messages. in my two years of playing online on xbox live and psn, i dont see a single difference in quality. its all a consipracy made up microsoft. but at times 360 games can get laggy online like large sized battles on halo 3. but honestly who cares, all i need is to be able to play online games and send/recieve messages.

I pay $50 a year, and honestly, I don't think about it, I just click the re-new option when it comes around (February-ish). I think you can get it cheaper here if you search ($40), but that obviously might not apply outside the US (sorry).

If you don't play on-line that often, I'd recommend against it, unless you have a burning desire to spend that extra money.

As to your two points about not playing on-line:

- Find a good group of people you enjoy playing with and play with them...only one of my friends on my XBL friends list is an "in the flesh" friend. All others are on-line only friends.
- Typing?? Headsets, baby. The chat pad works for quick messages, but nothing beats a good headset (Turtle beach).

For what I do, Gears, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, *occasionally* Halo 3, I don't mind the cost at all.

NETFLIX NETFLIX NETFLIX NETFLIX

Why would you pay $65?

You can get 13 months for $39.

 Isn't that only avaliable in the US? And doesn't that also require a subscription to, *gasp*, netflix?