What the fuck were you arguing with me for then, you silly man.

"It is silly to pay to play games."

"FUCK YOU! Actually I agree."

"Oh."

I don't see what the big deal is. It's really not that much money. It would be nice if it were free, but 50 bucks stretched over 13 months is a small fee comparative to nearly everything else in our lives. 10 bucks a month for an MMO isn't that much either actually if it's something you enjoy.

Microsoft's 2008 net income, according to Google Finance, was $17,681,000,000. Since there are 31,557,600 seconds in a year (assuming a year has 365.25 days), Microsoft actually needs 1 minute and 29.24 seconds to pay off the $50,000 :tpg:

Even if you use their gross profit of $48,822,000,000, you will need 32.32 seconds!

-----

On more serious matters, I don't think this fellow was tilting his consoles while playing, to render three of his game discs unplayable. The original article at the Madison County Record only mentioned that he played it conventionally for a few hours.

The only mention where the changeover from horizontal to vertical orientation is mentioned is in an application for a Class-Action lawsuit, representing everyone who's ever purchased an X-Box 360 before July 18, 2007. Yahoo Video Games may have accidentally conflated the two stories...

So I wouldn't be so quick to judge this Jason Johnson fella for stupidity.

(Also, Skills is the sane and well-reasoned voice here. What is the world coming to...)

"A PC gamer wouldn't be stupid enough to pay to play games"

"Of course not, not like those WoW, CoH, WAR players heh"

"*some shit about DVD players and missing the point*"

The point: you continue to miss it.

So you see no meaningful distinction between a platform that SUPPORTS a subscription model and a platform that REQUIRES it?

Really?

Really?

I mean honestly if it's only $5/month it's hardly worth arguing over but you've evidently got a bug up your ass over the whole thing.

Your argument would work if the Xbox 360 required an Xbox Live Gold subscription. Except it doesn't. Even so, that's not where my argument lies. See how I summarised it above. You made a stupid claim, I called you on it, and then you are the one that went off on this retarded tangent about how the Xbox requires money. Except it doesn't.

Keep going though, I'm impressed with how well you've managed to keep missing the point.

Why didn't someone just say this in the first place!

Well then, how silly. What the fuck does this "Gold" nonsense do, if it's not meant to let you play your games. Does it have something to do with the retarded little Mii ripoffs I've been seeing. What are you getting for your $5 if it's not some kind of functionality?

This is all extraordinarily curious! Please, tell me more of your magical world.

You need a Gold subscription to play games online on the 360, you can play them offline for free. (?) It's a bit of a ripoff (especially considering that online play is free on the PS3 and Wii), but it's not required. Though I'm not sure if that's what you were actually talking about, what with the DVD analogies.

That's not the entire argument, though I'm pretty sure you're aware of that and are just saying it to be patronising. I have an IQ of over 350 (so I don't need things to be idiot-proof), I just prefer consoles because it's more comfortable to play on my couch, with a controller, on a big TV screen, without worrying about system requirements, and nowadays the game library is pretty much the same on PC and consoles (so the old argument that consoles are for babies and the PC offers more complex games is not really valid anymore). Though I still love playing old point-and-click adventures on the PC...

Isn't there a free Silver membership that allows you to play online on the weekends or something?

Right now you can play certain arcade games online with a silver account. You were (still are?) able to play games like Shadow Run with silver. Nothing substantial like Halo or CoD though.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg

You'd think someone so fucking smart would be able to understand the DVD analogy they were using but hey.

This is pretty much what you're paying for, yes.

Paying for online is silly, says the PC user!

Well yes, yes it is. On the PC, it would never work! See: Live for Windows! Wasn't that a fun experiment? MOST CERTAINLY NOT.

However, consoles are the home of retards! You are paying for the service to make it as easy as fucking possible for Joe Shitlicker to find you in Call of Duty.

There are free alternatives, yes! But by comparison they are crap to the nth degree. Well, shit.

Now we could argue that those alternatives are justifiably crap because they are free, but that wouldn't weaken the argument for paying for live, so.

Maybe if Live was free, the others would have to step up to plate to make their shit less ridiculously bad in order to compete on that feature set, though.

Actually, PS3's online is getting better and better. They're expanding their service and making it much more smooth. Eventually it'll be caught up to XBL, though until sales start really picking up I doubt MS is all that worried. But still, PSN is quality online. Long ago I would've said the lack of a headset being included with the console itself was a drawback, but fuck, 2/3 of the people in a random online game don't even have theirs plugged in over XBL.

Hey. What's up? I understood it fine, it just looks like there was a communications breakdown between Pang and Omagnus, since either Pang doesn't understand what functionality a Gold subscription actually provides, or Pang was talking solely about the online portion of games (and how all 360 games require a subscription for online multiplayer, unlike with PC) and Omagnus misunderstood that, and all in all I think some confusion could have been avoided by skipping analogies altogether.

Oh, okay. (?)

Care to explain how PSN, being free and all, is going to be picking up sales.

Wrong. It's acceptable online some of the time, but it's rarely quality online. Every time they release any sort of big update that a lot of people will be grabbing you can practically see the PSN grind to a halt. True, it is getting better, but it still lacks structure, reliability and the ability to deal with scaling.

Wrong again. I'd love to know what corner of Xbox Live you've found where 2/3rds of the people aren't using mics and talking shit or absolute nonsense.

Would having additional 13-year-olds screaming directly into your ears about what a faggot nigger bitch you are really improve your play experience?


(Jesus Christ OP, just calm the fuck down unless you're being paid for this breathless defense of whatever the fuck)

Wherever it is, please give me directions because I'd love that place.

Like everything else good in the world, it's in Fairmont, New Jersey ("Home of The Wumps")

The console itself. Good sales, but still in third and most big online games get bought on the 360.

That really isn't a big deal anymore from what I've noticed. Until Call of Duty 4 came out the online was generally shit, especially for multiplat games. But since it's above decent. Most games run just as well, in terms of multiplayer, on the PS3 as they do on the 360. Some exceptions, but the multiplat games I've played on both have been quite smooth.

Put in a lot of time into games like the CoD series, Rainbow series, GRAWs, etc etc. The majority of people in a room simply don't talk or don't have their mics plugged in. Either you only notice the loud people or play with your friends or simply don't notice, but that's just the way it is. Only big games that a lot of people talk in are Gears and Halo. Seriously, go into a random game of CoD4/5 with no buddies and in most games no one will talk or just one or two. It makes games like objective games in Rainbow unplayable if you don't have a group with you.

Ugh, Jersey? Forget it then. I'll just keep getting called a dyke and a cunt any time I play anything competitive.

Man, yeah. COD is such a silent experience, Omagnus. I mean, shit. We must never have played it or something because that's just how it is. How could we not have realized?

O u no, just laughing at how someone can honestly think they have an IQ that literally breaks the scale of the test and is untold factors above even the greatest geniuses of our time. You know, the usual stuff.

I don't know what games you guys get into, but for all the days I put into random pickup games in CoD4 most were silent. Maybe it depends on the hour of day or what, but hell, whenever anyone tries to ask a question they get complete silence unless I pipe in. Hardcore gets more talkative people, if I'm in a group people tend to talk more, but otherwise... not a whole lot. Beats hearing people yell and throw insults around though. But even then that's a couple or so out of the 12 people in a room.

Consider yourself fortunate, then.

Only way I could explain it is having a canadian isp or playing between 10am-3pm/2am-5am. Can't think of any other reason it would be different.

Yeah, must be the ISP. Shaw doesn't have the option to "block all traffic from certified asshats". Perhaps it's time to switch.

Of course that doesn't explain it. Neither do. You're just as likely to get an asshole at 1 AM than you are at any other time of the day and I'll still get matched up with people all over america no matter what. But hell, silent players seem to be the norm from what I've heard around other parts of the internet and my experience matches that.