^ yeah live is p2p. But that's not useful info for this guy

Both are avaliable. You can add friends to your friend lists, so you can communicate with them like by telophone, or you can just send messages to them through that service.

When you play a game online, before the round starts, you are entered into a lobby, where you can communicate with everyone in that room, and once you enter into the game, you can communicate with the rest of the team

Thanks, ymeaga1n,

So the marketplace/store is sort of an amazon equivalent, yes? I suppose that's something you just go to from a main menu type thing.

On the games side, I've seen myson playing WoW. I guess it is like that - so you just enounter people playing, have some means of communicating with them from in the game and add them from there?

Yup you got it. My best recommendation is to sit down and play with it if you have the opportunity. That's the fastest way to learn.

EDIT:

Xbox Live don't only consist of the marketplace btw. There is an area where you've got list of friends so you can see what they're doing and chat with them. Section where you can check stats on all the games you've played. Gaming News. Events. ETC.

Also note that if you want to play a game online with ppl from xbox live. You have to launch the game and select the "multiplayer" option from the games main menu, then it will link you up with other people online. You don't do that from the xbox live main menu.

Woohoo!

Munkeh - you very kindly explained what a lobby is just as I was about to ask - thanks.

I understand your confusion, as the people talking about it are doing it mostly to try to convey value on their console.

When people talk about online, they talk about accessibility and features, what you can do with it and how convenient it is.

That's all.

IMO, the best online is the one that is seamless. I remember the day when I accessed online at home with RTC lines. It was cumbersome, as you couldn't afford to let it on everytime. So I largely prefered the online at school, which was faster, but mostly its best advantage was that it was constantly connected.

I remember my early days of Internet (1991), when I thought that it would never start as long as people couldn't stay on 24h/24. Internet usage exploded with broadband, not because of throughput, but because you could live it on 24h/24 without problem.

When looking at gamers describing online, and what they describe as the best, is actually a geeky system that is yet inaccessible to others not in the know.

As I see it, the best online is the one of the Wii, which is the only one that understands at least the basis of Internet usefulness. It's the only console that can be left online 24h/24 and uses this capability. Also, going on the Internet is seamless. It truely destroys both its competitors' online capabilities by far.

Once it gets streaming TV, it will definitely let the two others in the dust.

To answer your question better, you'll find that explaining PS3 and XB360 online is very difficult, while explaining online on the Wii is very simple: it's like everything else, you go on some TV screen and you won't even realise you're on the Internet (provided you configured it once).

What do you mean by that. How are the other services not seamless, I don't understand what you are saying, and do you mesn 24/7

It means the console is connected and discussing 24h/24, and seamless means the online part is not distinguishable from the rest, same interface as everything else. It's nothing like a PC interface to online.

So, from what I (think I) have learnt so far:

1) everything has got a shop

Whether it is store/marketplace/Wii shop they are all the same sort of thing – presumably the differences are just in what you can buy.

2) Xbox 360 and PS3 have a sort of hang-out area

Live and Home – is that right? I sort of envision Home as a souped-up Habbo Hotel thing. Presumably Live is similar? As in it is always there and has places to go and people to meet.

So presumably the differences are down to content/presentation, technical reliability and whether you meet the right sort of people there.

Can’t remember hearing of anything similar on Wii. I guess that is where friend codes come in. As I understand it, the way Wii does it is different for every game, so it can’t have that community thing going outside the game environment.

3) everything else comes down to the games

So, it just depends what the games do. There seem to be differences in who provides the in-game service, but I guess that is just behind-the-scenes stuff.

Anything I am missing? (anything important that is - I'm not looking to rush out and buy a console or anything like that, just to be able to understand what I read at the moment)

Make up your mind? Do 1, not 3 :)