Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

mig0 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:22:17 GMT

Got a question. This "free program", does this mean in January, these games will no longer have free XBL access?

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

tisoy — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:47:49 GMT

DO SOME FULL GAMES PLEASE LIKE LEFT 4 DEAD

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Warrengonline — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:19:47 GMT

@Anon 61[Continued]

IF there was a Platinum or Titanium Account, with the 300 slot Friend's List, I would not have to worry about any of that as I would not have to Quick Match much at all. I meet quite a few more cool gamers who enjoy the battle no matter who wins. But then those who use foul language, really bad trash talk where every other word is profanity - I mute and Submit Player Review quickly so I'm never matched up with again. I'm not big on ranked matches as for some reason, some games lock my system up. I can't see my stats or theirs so.

You're "but if you really think it's unfair, don't pay for it, don't use it." is the most common sense. I myself, if i do not like something or it does not concern me - I treat as if it does not exist. Answer to your question: Yes, your Gold Account will go with you. I've done that, but need to buy a new Memory Unit, mine is 'malfunctioning'. Warning, do not download your DLC to their drive. It may cause problems (i.e. Rock Band DLC).

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Warrengonline — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:11:12 GMT

@Anon 61

I fear your choice 1 is WHY I wouldn't want it to be free to a certain extent, but listed accounts free and paid. I know of quite to many 'kiddies' (16 and under) who get online just to wreck havoc and ruin everyone's experience. Then there are the pranksters who just do not know when to stop, leaving rooms open and when it is a person's turn to fight - kick them out of the room (Soul Calibur IV, Street Fighter II HyperFighting, etc). Cool I'm not the one getting kicked, but to do that is just plain mean when the person has waited 10 minutes after 2 matches just to play.

Each account it linked via the email address, 'Temp Ban' should just temporarily ban the system AND name. But with good reason. I've played a game of Partner UNO and two females around my age talked trash, nothing really bad - but I casually talk trash like "Merry Christmas" when I hit you with a Draw Four Card or "Hey, what happens when a bus misses your stop? It 'Skips' you." and throw down a Skip card. The got mad at me because I won and called me names and gave me a bad rating (I used to check it on a daily basis). Really there should be a 'complaint form' online for gamertag reporting. But I've also heard of friends ganging up and giving a certain gamertag a bad rating and complaints when the reason is not valid. What then? See if all the complaints are form people who ACTUALLY played with the problem gamer in question?

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Sage — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:18:31 GMT

For those who demand that live be free, I have a question how many ***holes do you encounter? In that same period of time how many have you encountered on the computer internet? If you allow live to be free you have two choices.

1 Allow every ***hole who gets banned to have a new account to be back to annoying people in less than 10 minutes. Granted with the free trial with new account thing, the still can but when MS sees 20 account's being banned every month I hope that they would ban the console. I see it as, if anything a speed bumb to ***holes and boosters.

2 Same thing with gold to all accounts on consoles. Also what if you take your accounts to a friends with a memory unit as I do like 10+ times a month? Do you still have gold? What about if you get a new console does it transfer? what if you have teens who move out and get their own console? DO they have to get their own gold? Is it immediately or when the subscription on their former 360 end?

Sure it's not perfect, but if you really think it's unfair, don't pay for it, don't use it. It's you choice as the consumer. Something's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I however play at least an hour a day on average, and find that hour of fun to be worth the dime that I give MS.

Just my 2 cents.

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

meat94 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:25:44 GMT

its awsome

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

demitrius — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 07:23:14 GMT

awsome

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

imetalien — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:09:00 GMT

if friendship is free, can you make live online battle free,pretty please?

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Warrengonline — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:23:53 GMT

@Alex Atkin UK

I understand, but most bought Gears of War, Mass Effect and Braid without a demo. The ONLY demos that encouraged me to buy a game were Crackdown, Burnout Paradise, PURE, Saints Row (bad choice on my part), Scene It, Thrillville: Off The Rails and a few more.

I do not understand much on Silver Memberships, it like you can send email and messages, but you won't pay for anything and you KNOW what the Gold Membership has incentives for having it.

Why should a free account have access to demo right off the batt to slow Gold Memberships' bandwidth? Holding off the demos until the week the is a good ploy.

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Alex Atkin UK — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:38:45 GMT

I too am surprised at the lack of a browser.

We can now browse Xbox marketplace on PC, is it not time for us to browse xbox.com on our Xbox? It could even be included as a Gold only feature or a one-off marketplace purchase.

With the network functionality (messenger, etc) it would be a lot more useful than using the PS3 or Wii. Just make sure it can run at 1080p native with custom font sizing. The Xbox 360 architecture allows you to allocate more than 256MB to the browser which the PS3 cannot so its even more suited to the task. It would be a good kick in the teeth for Sony and would make browsing this blog a lot easier so long as there were flash support for the videos and podcast.

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

HFC — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:13:16 GMT

Anyone ever wonder when we'll see browser embedded into the service? I mean, MSFT could tie the search facilities (Windows live obviously) within the browser to generate revenue from all our clicks. Just amazed they haven't done it yet.

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Alex Atkin UK — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:27:25 GMT

Indeed, I would never deny that there really should be more perks for gold users.

Being able to download demos should never be one of them. Restricting demos is plain stupid, demos are to give people a sample of the game for them to decide if they want to buy it. If people think Gold is too expensive then they aren't going to be renting games either, so a demo is their only way to see if a game is worth buying.

I have lost count the number of games I bought purely based on the demo. Just looking at my shelf I see Bioshock, Crackdown, Dead Rising, Kameo, Monster Madness, Prey, Saints Row, Sega Rally and Test Drive Unlimited, all of those were bought on the strength of the demo. Some were bought close to launch at full price. Had I been stuck with a silver account and as such no demo I might have waited and got them second-hand instead, which Microsoft makes no money out of.

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Warrengonline — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:00:19 GMT

@Anon 57

Nice! Even better! Far better thought out than mine. That Friend List and Discounts more frequently suggestion SOLD me. The Avatars get more clothing was the cherry on top. It would be well worth the price for that level! Hopefully Microsoft follows something close to that in the future.

That falls right into what Alex Atkin UK was stating "FREE" = Low Quality of Service + People to Make Multiple Accounts to Ruin Other Peoples Online Experience.

"If you have to lay down cash for the service you are going to treat it with a lot more respect." and get the incentives, spiffs and bonuses that go with it.

Note: 4 free DLC worth 800 points = ONE 800 Point DLC Per Each Quarter (1 Quarter = 4 Months)

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Secludedsfx — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:34:42 GMT

You have a good idea there Warrengon online, but instead how about this

Xbox live silver - FREE

* 25-50 slot friends list

* Ability to play the top 10 arcade games for free (or something along them lines)

* Ability to use private chat but not video or party chat

Xbox live gold - $30 a year

* 100 slot friends list

* Ability to play all games online

* Ability to use party chat and video chat (2 way)

* Download cap on new items

Xbox live platinum - $70 a year

* 300 slot friends list

* Ability to play all games online (and be offered places in certain beta's)

* Screen capture

* 4 free DLC worth 800 points

* 4 way video chat

* Avatars get more clothes

* Discounts more frequently on certain items

* Unlimited downloading

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Alex Atkin UK — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:37:07 GMT

Why do so many people not understand the main reason for charging for Live? The reason is, to give people something they can lose if they act like assholes.

Seriously, if your account is totally free you wont think twice before insulting someone, or spoiling a game acting like an idiot. However if you are PAYING for that account and potentially can get it banned, and would have to pay again to create a new one, you might think twice.

I haven't been online on PS3 because I like the seamless online support the 360 provides and the PS3 does not, its all stuck on afterthoughts with incompatibilities. Plus I love my achievements and the upscaling on the 360 looks great on my 1080p TV, the PS3 looks poor upscaled (as it usually leaves the TV to deal with it using its built-in cheapo scaler) with only the native 1080p games looking good.

It was actually the poor performance of the PS2 online service that got me onto Xbox Live to begin with. Back when I bought Burnout 3 and I hated the framerate on PS2, I hated the pad and I hated the whole service in general. I got it on Xbox instead and loved it. Then when 360 came out the service was a thousand times better still, the PS3 is barely any better than the PS2 service was.

So no, we don't want multiplayer to be free because, as said previously in these comments, you just end up with loads of kids signing up claiming they are over 18 spoiling the games. If you have to lay down cash for the service you are going to treat it with a lot more respect.

re: Xbox LIVE 'Friendship is Free' program

Warrengonline — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:07:39 GMT

"Microsoft in the clothing business" - why not? It's about time. Now people who wear the same shirt twice can say "Oh, don't worry, I 'crashed' yesterday. I'll 'reset' it later tonight."

Tip: KISS - Keep It Strikingly Simple (grin)