XBL is Raising Their Price

[Nxs]

As the price of XBL is going up 10 bucks, which is batshit insane, I wrote this:

(Yes, I know. I am supposed to be gone, but some things need to be said)

An Open letter to MS

For years now, I have been pissing and moaning about Steam, Fp, Live, and any other service that should run, basically, like GH does. I always hated Fileplanet because
they have a paid service that basically gives the paid members access to beta's, no wait in line to download demo's, etc.. Steam, I never liked because all it is is some extra
crap on my puter that does not need to be there. Steam is a third party DRM! Period! There is no two ways around it. Live is the same way. MS controls everything on
Live. Which is fine. You buy the 360, you go by their rules. And their rules dictate that you have to pay 50 bucks just to play a game online. Due to MS' service, most
people paid for this and dealt with it. Again, I never did!

Then, the rules changed. The PS3 came out, at an unholy price, and you could play online free! Now, it was not near as good as Live, but not paying an 50 bucks a year
on top of the games was almost a good trade off back then.

Fast forward a couple few years.

Live added Facebook, Twitter, cross game chat, indie games, Lastfm, Netflix, etc.. These are all great. Most people use them every damn day. The problem arises when
people that bought the 360 actually use it for gaming. Almost none of this other shit matters at all! You can't stream music from lastfm while you are playing on Live, you
can't have netflix running either, Twitter will update itself on some things, Facebook is just horrid, and the worst part is that everything that is on XBL gold can be done
quicker and much more easily on a computer.

This brings me to my point. Today, MS has decided to increase the price of Live from $50 to $60 a year starting November first. Granted, this may not seem like much,
but really here, What does being a Gold member entail?

It gives you the privelage of being able to play online! Well, whoopie! Anyone that has had a computer has been playing MP for free for years! It gives you demos a week
early. Again, who gives a shit! Most of them show up on the PC or PS3 about the same time. It gives you the privelage of using Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, etc.. Well,
who give a rats ass? None of that has anything to do with gaming at all! Seriously here, Facebook and Twitter are best left to the computer. Everyone knows it! As for

Netflix, anyone that has a Wii or PS3 can run it without paying a surcharge to MS.

I really understand inflation. I do! Paying for crap I will never use I will never understand.

I got the 360 to play games. Paying 50 bucks to play online, I never understood. Now that the increase is coming, I really do not know why anyone would keep it.
I really thought that MS would bring the price down as Sony is catching up with a quickness.
Why charge more when the competition is most likely going to whip your ass?

Do I have ads on PS Plus? Noooo. Do I have it on Live? You bet your ass. Hell, I don't think I have them on the PS3 at all!

Here is the problem; MS has a gold and silver tier that really sucks! The MP, Netflix, and other things should be included in the silver package. Every other platform has
them as a free service and that is the way it should be! If you are going to have a 'gold' package, it should give the player something that they want! Haveing to pay for
MP and then that God awful 'buy new get to play online for free' shit is just un-fuckin-real! How in the hell can you charge people to play online, plus the ISP service, plus
live, and the online pass? Might as well just rape console gamers and be done with it.

Yes, I know, some years ago the prices of game went up ten bucks. Why? EA was experimenting and then every other publisher caught on. Why did I bring this up?

Simple! As much as EA sucks, because everyone followed suit, you have to pay the sixty bucks to play a game, basically. However, most games do come out on the PC,
PS3, PC, and the Wii! As it stands, there is no reason at all, to give MS more money per year.
Lastfm can be done on the puter. Free! Netflix can be done on the puter, Wii, or PS3. Again, free. Facebook and Twitter should always be done on the computer and
guess what? Freeee!

It was bad enough that MS was charging money for gamers to play games online and raising the price, no matter how much, is just insane!

I will say this though, for people who have money, it really does not matter. For those of us that live paycheck to paycheck though, it really does. An increase in anything
really hurts! I would have thought that because Live is so popular that it would have decreased not increased. My high school economics teacher has gotta be fuming
right now!



After all that bitching, I think I should offer my way to fix the problem. I know! It is odd, but it has to be done.

First and foremost, you little kiss ass people on Major Nelson saying that it is not a big deal need to be shot! No good can come of this. Live Gold offers nothing for what
they charge! You know it, I know it, everyone knows it!

There should still only be two tiers: Silver and Gold.

Silver should let everyone play Mp, Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, etc.. Because, let's face it, it is way better doing it on a puter. Not to mention easier. As for Gold, there
needs to be something that says 'I am Live! Hear me roar'. And I swear to God, it has gotta be gaming related as no one gives a shit about all that other crap we can do
on a computer, that let's face it, is probably no more than three feet away from us! There has got to be something that would drive a person to pay 60 bucks a year to do
things that can be done for free, for most likely free, in other parts of the house.

You want to make gold worth a crap? Tell me I don't have to wait for your insane game acceptance program. If I see an arcade game that I like, let me buy the damn
thing without the four months you spend telling them they can't unless you offer some shitty paid dlc. Get rid of that dumbshit buy new get to play online thing. No
gamer wants that and you know it! We pay you already! Get that shit out! Ads! Dear God! We see a relentless amout of ads as it is, we don't need to pay to see
anymore. You are not the cable co.!

All gamers are asking for, MS, is something that gamers want and need from a gaming console. Jacked up prices and stripped down services we can get elsewhere is
something we don't need or want.

N

[Slaymate]

Unemployment is raging out of control and XBL wants to charge more for entertainment. Everyone should send their XBoxes back to Microsoft, maybe then they'll get the picture.

[64705]

Have they actually increased the XBL fees since introducing the console? If not, this increase is almost certainly below the level of inflation since 2005.

I wonder whether Microsoft could save much money through implementing a Bit Torrent client to distribute downloads, perhaps even on servers (you console 'tards wouldn't notice!)

[Iczer]

The whole "ZOMG U HAVE 2 PAY TEH $$$$ TO PLAY GAMEZ ONLINE!!!!11!!" mentality that Microsoft has had with the 360 is one of the biggest reasons I've been putting off buying one. Seriously, we play for free on the PC versions for the most part, why the hell should it be any different than the console version? You can (and some have tried to argue this to me) claim that a year of the service is roughly the price of a single game, but at the same time that's at least one less game per year you'll be buying too, just to sate your desire to shiv person "X" in COD:MW2 again.

The fact that they're also raising their fees during what they know to be a recession in the USA right now is also something of a slap in the face. At least Steam has regular weekly sales on games (not to mention the holiday sales, not JUST Christmas too, they've had sales for QuakeCon recently, a Summer Vacation one, Easter...) and is free to use...

/goes back to Steam to continue playing L4D2 online for free on the PC

[interman]

Supply / demand. People are willing to pay it, so they do. Sure it sucks to pay for something you feel entitled to, but it's their product and they're in the business of making as much money as possible.

Don't like it? Don't pay. Boycot it. But you know what, there's a lot of huge titles out, and more are coming. It's worth the money. Hell, if $60 a year screws up your finances that badly then you shouldn't be playing games, you should be looking for a job.

[Nxs]

Supply / demand. People are willing to pay it, so they do. Sure it sucks to pay for something you feel entitled to, but it's their product and they're in the business of making as much money as possible.

Don't like it? Don't pay. Boycot it. But you know what, there's a lot of huge titles out, and more are coming. It's worth the money. Hell, if $60 a year screws up your finances that badly then you shouldn't be playing games, you should be looking for a job.

Oh! You dirty corprate kiss ass!

The extra 10 bucks is not the problem. Tis the fact that Live is not worth the money people are paying now, IS the problem.

If MS would have not been so damn greedy and left well enough alone, there would have been no problem. However, since they jacked the price for no reason, people are going to get pissed! Twitter, facebook, etc.. Who gives a shit? Gamers buy consoles for games! Heaven forbid the 360 gives gamers what they want!

Seriously here, we both know that when you buy a console, you want to play games! Sure, the extra crap is nice, but that is what we have a puter for!

You are right though Inter, if 60 bucks is a problem, I really should not be playing. However, if it is 60 on top of 60 on top of whatever the ISP is, on top of what the game companies are charging to play online, on top of waiting for waiting for games to be approved by MS, on top of God knows what else in the next year, I could buy a car! Hello Camaro! :D

Games were and are supposed to be relaxing! The only thing that we should be aruging about games should be who got to what dungeon first! Not why companies are charging for shit that has always been a free thing!

Could be just me though :D

[interman]

http://www.milkmanthefilm.com/akirawing/img/Worlds%20Smallest%20Violin.jpg

[Nxs]

MS and Inter :D

[Nxs]

After a couple days thinking about it, Inter may be correct. Why bother pissing and moaning about something when it is never going to make a difference? Publishers are never going to give a damn about what I say. I can bitch til I am blue in the face and we all know, it is not going to matter.

I have bitched for years about steam, Live, FP, DRM, etc. and nothing has changed. Well it has, but for the worse. I have played games for 30 years now and all that experience seems to have no bearing on anything!

30 years of games! 30! That is more years than most people on GH have been alive!

These big publishers are screwing up our games! Actiblizzard, Ubi, EA, and the rest of them are making the games we pay for and love, die because of the greed. I say fuck them all and let the indie devs take over! Sure, eventually they will do the same thing but, it won't be til later.

I really hate that my favorite thing to do is being killed by corporate dumb asses that charge for things that should be free due to greed instead of giving a gamer what they want and then keeping the person that bought the game interested instead of getting so pissed off at second hand sales that they think it is OK to block a part of the game that should always be there.

I want to keep going, but I am going to eat and take care of the wife :D

[Gazz]

*looks at his PC and PS3 and smiles