Xbox Live had a new member every second during Christmas

ah, thats why i received so many friendsrequests within the last week or so. i was already wondering about that. all the newbies wanna pimp their friendslist. feels like the launch days requestwise…

20 million people NOT 2 million people.

That’s a typo on my front.

It should be fixed by the time you read this.

Explains why Burnout Paradise has got an influx of new racers.

I wonder, how many of those new folks just used the 24hr gold passes included in most game boxes.

Another interesting thought. If near 40 million xboxes are out there, yet only 20 million people are on LIVE. Meaning that almost half of the owners do not play on LIVE. I also wonder what the ratio is of Gold to Silver of the ones that are on LIVE. Just because someone connects to LIVE, doesn’t mean they are paying 50usd/year for Gold membership.

I am pretty sure we will be letting our last Gold Membership expire w/o renewel. We have let two Gold accounts drop to Silver already. My kids just don’t play it like they used to. Now they play PC(WoW, TourchLight, WCIII, etc). We also have a PS3 thats gets a fair amount of use. I am thinking about switching my preorder of BC2 to PS3 and being done with LIVE after 6 straight years of gold.

“I wonder, how many of those new folks just used the 24hr gold passes included in most game boxes.”

You get a month free when you create a new silver account… so that probably wouldn’t be the best idea.

As for the ratio, it’s discussed in the other thread (it’s over 50%).

I’ve never actually played on Live. Even when they have those ‘silver users can play for free’ events, I just never feel the inclination. Play with real people? Eww.

/shudders

I like a bit of co-op from time to time, but I rarely play multiplayer.

Single player AI bores me most of the time. Mostly because it’s usually so predictable.

Not like online gaming, where almost every game is different.

I find online gaming predictable… particularly the torrent of insults I get should I ever dare to play well.

(Seriously, wtf is up with that, I got a kill streak bonus in one of the very few CoD games I ever played and my inbox pretty much lit up)

To tell the truth thats one of the reasons I am leaning towards giving LIVE up. I don’t enjoy the experience enough to play enough to make it worth paying for.

In most cases I feel that playing on LIVE is like showing up at a grade school playground for a game football. I just don’t fit in, don’t belong there, and feel out of touch most of the time.

I don’t think it is the Online gaming that bothers me. I think it is the headset weilding teens. I play a fair amount of PC online. I play WoW. Lots of teens there too, but when I use vent its only our guild/group. No one spouts off, and over all pretty enjoyable.

@ PT:

LOL! Were you camping? I’ve got a feeling you were camping, because I get kill streak bonuses all the time, and I don’t get that reaction (Check out my MW2 vids everyone, btw!)

@ OG:

Just mute people! You can also change your settings so that you can only hear people on your frineds list. Anyway, I think that the online experience is best when you play with people that you know, rather than just as someone going into a game where it’s possible that everyone else in there is just a bunch of idiots. (They could all be nice people as well, though!)

No, besides, from what I’ve heard that doesn’t work very well in CoD because of the kill cam.

Trust me, that’s not the case.

Fair enough, I didn’t play it long enough to find out.

I have to say PT having stuck with the on line with MW2 (my first time I have to add I usually run away from it after a few tries and major ass kicking).
I am finding it a pretty good experience.

I am probably using the brackets text as a form of cover for my woeful playing so far (I have managed to get to level 42) as my level does not give a true picture I feel.

My kill to death rate is currently .50 Which basically means I am getting killed twice as much as I am killing.
Camping, Run and gun, etc etc, I have tried with mixed effects.

My point been if there ever was one is that no matter what you try you have to be good or your ass is history.
No checkpoint or sussing out the AI moves, every single match different, some good ones some really bad ones.

I am not sure if I will stick this out to 70 or indeed prestige mode as I am finding it a roller coaster experience atm.

To get back to the point PT on the abuse stuff.
I normally just hook up to team death match and seldom bother with the head set so I am not finding that a problem.

To finish I would say that on line really puts it up to you and can be very frustrating at times but the challenge can be much more satisfying at times.
I have learnt one thing from it at least (and maybe Gigs might agree with me here) and that is you have to be a good shot to survive.

In game it wasn’t really a problem, I was just astonished that these losers cared so much that they felt the need to send me shitty messages over live.

Which is exactly what they are PT.

LIVE is okay for what it provides, but online multiplayer really isn’t that much fun if you’re not playing with people you know.