feel free to vote/discuss

I sometimes use Kai or XBConnect, but not Live. I pay enough money for gaming.

Yea but I dont use it alot, just for forza.

I personally use services such as Xlink Kai and XBC, as I think live is a waste of money.

I have had live since before it came out and I love it...I was in the first wave of beta testers...it's come a long way...kai and xbconnect are great as a free alternative but nothing beats the stability and speed of the actual live service not to mention it's way easier to find people and get on and play a game with live...anyone who says otherwise doens't really know what they are talking about.

I do have XBL just expired it this month, but i am banned from Live
Need a new Eeprom and newest bios..

I LOVE LIVE..i have had live for about 2 years and got everybody in my hood to get an account. My xbox has like 12 different accounts on it for halo 2. Live is what seperates the xbox from the rest.

Actually, I agree with you. Less than $1 a week is practically free (I am talking about adults here, who cares what children think a lot of money is). I play Halo 2 on LIVE and some of the other games I own.

I also spend about twice that amount of time on KAI as well, and really enjoy lag free games there.

Playing online can be done fine with KAI (go get it if you don't already have it), but LIVE isn't just playing online for some games like Halo 2, there is actually pretty cool additional features that I think is well worth the $50 a year. Of course with the 360, I will probably just stick with a Silver LIVE account, because weekends will be good enough for me to get my LIVE cravings satisfied.

you are aware that theres a 99% chance your misunderstanding the free weekends thing right? its not free weekends, its some free weekends that will probably be exceptionally rare, kind of like how every now and then you get hbo and cinemax for free for a weekend. if you want to play live more then 1 weekend a year, your going to need gold

I had live but I got banned for the obvious reason. I would never regret buying it though.

xbox live for no lag, and more organized, and more people

I'll have it for a year and 2 months on the 20th, Less lag for me and more people to play at whatever times

I was a beta tester for it, so I've had it since before it officially launched.

I have a 12 year subscription for it, and I got it for FREE from the geekspeakradio contest

Was a beta tester, but I have to switch HDDs to play and I'm lazy, plus I prefer single player gaming, so I rarely play online.

If you enjoy online gaming youve gotta get Live.. much more people than the other options (though they are great too for those backedup copys after the damn dvds wont play anymore ) Its well worth $0.14 a day I mean come on anyone that has cable TV pays that a day or many times more for streaming crap

I must be an exception then. I'm into my 2nd subscription to Xbox LIVE but I use XLink Kai more and I have nothing but originals. I just prefer the XLink Kai service to Xbox LIVE. As mentioned Xbox LIVE is virtually free and I do use it for dload content but that's about it.

i have a live account, but my xbox is banned from live.

I have an account and I love it. $50 a year isn't that much money (just over $4 a month). It's worth it.

I don't play it enough though. I used to play on XBC a lot. I think Xbox Live isn't as personal as the other programs. On XBC we would play with the same group of people for hours sometimes. On Live, people don't even stay to look at the stats.

All in all though, Live is better and worth the money.

I haven't really played XBL with any other game besides halo2 but when I played yesterday on my friend's xbox i got modded on in a 1v1 and I was a level 4!!!!! I like Kai and Xbc better because, duh, they are free and allow me to do whatever I wish to my console or games without fear or being banned or modded on(if you get cheated on on xlink just ban them from the arena and bang! no more cheater!)

I love games like NFSU2 and stuff like forza which i think would be great on xbl but since i had not learned of xbox live and a modded xbox before mine I am not willing to spend the money to get another xbox so i'll just stick with kai.

Personnally I think halo2 on xbox live is complete bull crap. I was playing as a frickin level 4! C'mon I mean hell. I was playing as a noob with a super noob level and still got cheated on gemini by some prick named "YouLovetohateme" with auto aim and superbounce and super speed, and an automatic battle rifle.

Kai and Xbc I will take any day over xbox live for halo2.

had live for a while now... got a deal on these forums that was for MS product resellers and got a year for 19.99, but even at 50 bucks.. its a sweet deal.

got banned and bought another xbox just for live... then just recently got my banned xbox back up.. hopefully it lasts...



yeah.. game is awesome and worth every penny i PAID for it to play on xbox live.

I used XBC exclusively with Halo 1 and then I went to Xbox Live for Halo 2 and it was so much nicer without lag and such (of course most of the lag issues is inherent to the design of Halo 1 vs 2).

Getting into a game is so quick and easy with XB Live - makes it nice to sit and play a few quick games. However, all this talk about Kai makes me want to give it a shot...

"anyone who says live is a waste of money thinks so cause either they dont have any good originals, or they've never played xbox live..

theyll tell you they have, but odds are they haven't"

I have - and its the worst online gaming service with the exception of laggy kai and others like it. PC games and PS2 games have better online services that cost nothing. And you actually have a choice who you play with.
I actually see Live getting worse if they continue the Halo2 trend and force you to play their Nazimatch playlists.
I dont believe in paying to have someone else tell me what to do.
Just my 2 cents.

If they added a server browser or something of the sort in addition to Nazimatch I still don't really see why they charge 50$ - whatever Xbox Live offers has been around for free in PC games/PS2 games.
Maybe the 360 with the extra services like downloadable trailers and the like will make it legit - but until then I have stopped being a dumb nub and giving them money for cheater infested gaming. You cant even vote out cheaters? A sytem like that is tailor made for jerks because you have no choice but to play with them.

Sorry for double post - but i wasnt allowed to edit my original.

Live is good if you play all the time. I get my internet gaming fix on computer games... Halo 2 works fine on kai or xbconnect, but its hard to find players for less popular games. Can't beat live's easy setup and huge community... However, if xbconnect or kai had close to as many gamers playing, I'd much rather stick with a free application for xbox gaming - even if it means having to setup another device to handle tunneling. I don't have live anymore, but I would get it again if I had the money to waste or the time and devotion to make it worth the money. Now can someone please play me whacked on kai

Ur two cents is over priced, lol. I think ur insane to say PS online is better. It's limited in function, features, and availability. And on top of that, you need to sign up for each individual game. It's lame. So ur game experience is only as good as the company that made the game. Where as with LIVE the experience is pretty much the same accross the board.


I too have had LIVE since Beta. I was the champion of MotoGP the demo, haha. I almost never lost and when I did, I came in 2nd or 3rd. But I haven't played that game since. I sucked ass at Whacked though, lol. I don't get to play on LIVE as much as I'd like (or any games for that matter). But I think I still get my money's worth.

xlink dose have a lot of games to play online, but nobodys on them, just halo 2, GR2, and frycry. Halo 2 gets modded everytime i play it on xlink, as for xbl it only happens once in a while.

Live would be good if I owned a game or two. Xbox is only good for XBMC anyways.

So buy it. Post entered into the Warning system.

agreed. if its good, then do the devolopers some justice and pay for it.

i dont have live, only use xlink coz its free and i dont have to piss fart around with being banned coz of my modchip

who needs live when there is something free?

Bah to the GamerTag.

If I had the time, and money to buy the games I would like to play on Live, I would definitely subscribe, but working 50-60 hour weeks just to pay bills takes up about 90% of my time.

Although it cost money live is by far one of the best online gaming communities and will only get better with the launch of 360. btw I have 2 live accounts.

No, why bother when you can get XBConnect for free!

why use xbc instead? its free?

yeah its free, its also slower, it also requires open ports, theres no concequences to cheating, theres no guarantee youll play people ranked the same as you.. did i mention theres no concequences to cheating?

tunneling programs are ok if your bored, but if u play online more then a couple hours a day, tunneling is a shitty option

yea i have live mainly for halo 2 which i don't like to play anymore due to cheaters

I'll never pay to play online. I've been playing games online since before "online" was a phrase someone could use. I played Doom I, II, III, Duke Nukem 3d, and more via phone line and LAN connections. I'm sure there are earlier games people have played across the network.

The point is that I've never had to pay to play online, not even for Unreal, and newer FPS games. I'm not about to start now. I'll buy my games, and play them off my harddrive, and play online how I see fit instead of how MS thinks people should play.

Regarding the cost of live: Someone said it is nearly free at less than $1 per day. BS. I work hard for my money. I also only get to play every once in a while and sometimes on the weekends.

Regarding live having less lag: 50% true. Sure, if you want "Live!" to do it for you, it will setup a pretty good game. I have seen it on friends' systems. On the other hand I am learning how to use XBC and Kai and can usually pick a game that has almost no lag based on the information in the console. The free tools take a little more work and provide extra control/features in return. Fair trade for free, I think. I am looking forward to some of the up-coming versions of these free tunneling apps that look like they will help kick out the racists and other dirtbags.

Regarding XBC needing ports: My ISP has a shitty firewall that couldn't forward ports properly. I was able to play XBC when Kai wouldn't connect at all. Eventually Kai won't need forwarded ports either. Live! tunnels in a way. It just happens to do it from the game itself. No I don't mean to say it is the same kind of tunneling, but it is a form of tunneling. XBC is an excellent tool if you are going to play a lot if you take the time to learn how to use it, how to pick low latency games, and make it work for you. A lot of people seem to think that XBC and Kai are going to do everything for them where they don't actually have to think or learn about it.

I play all the games I own from the harddrive. Load-times rock. MS is paying lip service to what "power users want" by making the xbox 360 more media oriented. If they really want to make the 360 rock, they will provide direct support for copying your video game to the harddrive. I love switching amongst my games without having to dig out cases and screw up my discs by handling them more than I need to.

It is neat that Live! is a little more integrated with the game, ranking, and profiles. There isn't any feature on Live! that I really care about that isn't already part of free tunneling software (if you really know how to use the tunnel program properly). The other things are cute and neat, but not worth actual money. MicroShaft seems to be in the business of handing people bullshiznit and telling it is food so they eat it up anyway.

Just my opinion/thoughts on the matter. For those that enjoy Live!, more power to ya. Hope it's worth it. I've seen a lot of "Live! Pros" get schooled on the free tunneling apps. I'm not good enough at any of the games to do it, but I've seen it time and again, and it's really funny.

Live! should ban people for cheating, not for moddifying their xbox. They have no right to say what I can and cannot do with the hardware after I have bought and paid for it.

Free online game-play forever. No one should ever charge to play games across the internet.

Pay4Play is like paying a monthly fee for a cell phone that has no included monthly minutes.

That's why it's all about choice and opinions, and that's why we are here on this very webpage, Because we chose to come to this forum, and chose how to spend our money whether it was on an isp, or paying to play on Live!, or for free on Kai, or XBC...I started out my online xbox playing on Kai, and xbc, and later i got Live! and found it to be less laggy for me cause there's not many servers close to me on Kai or XBC, and I also like the fact i can play whatever game whenever on XBL, because there's always servers up no matter the time of day, and about cheating on XBL sure it happens but it's as easy as leaving feedback or even writing MS an email about it, and it happens everywhere even on the free tunneling services, and also look at the PC there's cheaters there also, as long as you have a broad base of people anywhere there's always bound to be some pricks in the mix, anywho that's my opinion take it how you will or don't take it at all I'm off to play some more online games while my weekend is still here

I think ur trying too hard to make an argument, lol.


This would be the stupidest thing they could do. There is no easy way to impliment that kind of feature. On top of that the included HDD is only 20gb... that's what? 7... maybe 9 good games if ur lucky?


That's exactly what they're trying to do. They could, at anytime, scan your HDD for files that shouldn't be there. Instead they ban only those who have activated mod chips. It's just a simple way for them to keep cheaters off. The whole Halo2 thing is a joke though. Bungie needs to re-think their detection system or something (not that I have personally had a problem).


I would never pay to play PC games online. They're usually 10 bucks a month? I can't justify that. But to have a decent experience online with my console on the 61", I'll pay the $4 a month. What's another $4 when I'm already spending a shit load for my car insurance (could be worse though). The free services are shitty. Granted, the last time I played on one was a year ago, but still. LIVE is quality, easy, and fast. I don't know where everyone is getting this "50% of the time" crap. RARELY does it lag. It lags less often than any PC game I've played.

halo 2 isn't the only game on live.
cheaters are bungie's problem not live's.

huh... I think that paying for Live is crap... I mean... I'v tried it... I think it's pretty cool, but i'd never pay for it.
Xlink is the way to go:D
it's free, except for the internet connection of course... and it's been fairly lag free for me.
I think that live was just a money grab. I don't much care for that, I rather spend my money on something better, like... a charity of some sort.
i pay enough for my Xbox, the games, and my internet connection, i don't think i need to pay an extra $6.70 for a subscription to live.

and plus, I'm usually playing with my buddies from my own town... so that makes it better for lag n' such...

I'v got a bunch more to say, but I'm tired and hungry... so i'm gunna go complain about that for a ittle bit... then I'll probably get over it or do something about it, lol.

and way
Rock on

we all have our own opinions

I don't have XBL, but then again, I don't have an xbox

I am getting an Xbox 360, however, and I'll be getting XBL then (a gold membership)

i figure thats what im goign to do. but it looks like the 360 wont be out down under till march, so im going to have to keep it up with xlink for now

This and other comments like this is the reason why I can see PlayStation3 succeeding in the online gaming community.

i doubt it. the ps3 will have a siginifacnt disatvante, in that game devolopers know that it is much harder to code up a game for the ps3.

xbox live will go on hard and strong, i doubt ps3 will be much competition at all

It's funny to hear people complain about the cost, and how they use XBC, etc.
The cost, to me, is not a problem because the matchmaking in Halo 2 is more than worth it!
Just my opinion, though.

an xbox can only have 8 live accounts on it, so having 12 is impossible