my biggest gripe regarding online gaming with the 360 is accessing the profile while in game. Sending invites, private chatting, recent players list, checking just to see which friends are online (while in game), etc.... is slow and sluggish. It seems some games like COD4 make it even slower.

When I go to permanently mute a moron in my recent players list I have to wait for the list to load. Sometimes it will load them a few at a time and sometimes it will load them individually. I get so frustrated sometimes I just back out of my profile and mute them every round.

With all the features and options MS adds to their service with updates why do they never stream line the online profile?

The other complaints I agree with except the BS you "hear" online. There is a quick fix for that. Turn down or take off your headset.

live is there least of there problems its the hardware,nephew got his 360 back red ringed 3 hours in playing cod4 this time there asking for it to be sent with the hard drive why,three weeks to get it back 3 hours for it to red ring

I have no problem with points because who wants to charge a credit card 1, 2,or 5 dollar at a time. Yes there is nickle and diming going on here but that's just the norm these days. Cell phones and Ipods do the same.

Dedicated servers will only fix host advantage on games that use server side hit detection. In games that use server side hit detection, any players with a bad connection will cause the problems of not being able to kill them. MS needs to add network testing to the 360 and help people get there routers set up correctly.

M$ are the masters in devising ways to make you buy there crap, all little sneaky tricks and i am sick of it. M$ make LIVE free now or lose even more customers cos HOME will kick LIVE back to the dark ages.

The FACT that the BABOONS have to pay for it..HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA

I just wish they would add 3 & 4 person private chat so me & my buddies could all talk when we occasionally play different games, but I guess they won't because you could use that as an advantage in ranked matches.

I wish xbl was free, but even at $50 a year (= $4.17 a month = $0.14 a day), it's still much better than psn, & a much more social network that drives MP games. Did I mention it's less than 14 cents a day for this service ???

As for nickel & diming, there is *plenty* of free gamer pics & themes to chose from & free demos, new content comes out ALL the time (especially compared to psn). I like the content, I like the choices, I like how streamlined it is, I like the Betas. At a cost of $4.17 a month, it is well worth the money for any gamer, ...unless you are some n00b who plays games all alone in your mom's basement & you arent good enough to play MP, lol !

As for the "racist children", lol, I just mute them & have a good time with my friends.

"Microsoft is running a scam that’s been around for years. Carnies have used it since they first introduced the mullet. It’s the ticket scam. You want to ride the rides, you have to buy tickets. The rides cost five tickets, but you have to buy eight tickets at a time. This leaves you with three tickets. You want to ride another ride? Buy eight more tickets. No matter what, you either don’t have enough tickets, or you have too many and they’re useless. This is a scam. Why Microsoft insists on continuing with it is beyond us. Maybe it’s because people are going along with it."

So so true. Good article, they should've included the DRM issues but other then that a pretty good job on the article.

there is nothing out there now that can touch live. i have a Ps3 and I love it to death but lack of a unified structure cause many games to be played without voice chat because the player doesn't have mic. I used to hate playing resistance multiplayer because no one had a damn mic. Live has created a very unique community and I have made many friends all over the nation on live. I was an original beta tester and whether you like it or not it has come a long way. Now I am not sure that Home maybe able to compete with live as it appears to me that Sony might be laying it on too thick but I will try it anyway. Remember Live isn't really a service its a standard such as THX.

Paying for xbox live isn't a big deal. Just think if you have a cell phone how much you pay a year for that. Cell phones are a waste of money when compared to live. Live is much more fun :-)
Also, the little kids are the worst thing about live. Some parents really need to learn how to raise their children.

Lol, it's like the sony circle jerk in here. If admins banned everyone in this thread (except me), N4G would instantly get 100% better.