Over the last week or so I have been in a rather unpeculiar place when it comes to my on-line status. Network and Wifi issues have severely damped my on-line presence in many but different ways. First and most importantly is my almost non existence here at the Xbox Domain over the last week and secondly is the pain of not having consistent enough network performance to properly play and/or even stay connected to Xbox Live.

Surely anyone reading that opening paragraph will think that I’m trying to get some sort of pity or to get some sort of sympathy, but this is about the supreme importance that Xbox Live makes to a gamers gaming habits once it’s become such a staple in the gaming routine. Of course this is assuming that the majority of the people out there that are relatively serious about gaming have an Xbox Live account, but more importantly a Xbox Live Gold account versus the less capable Silver account.

Xbox Live gold completes the Xbox 360 experience, sans Jerry McGuire

If your one of the people out there that refuse to pay for on-line gaming with the excuse that the PC has had free on-line gaming since before the beginning of time, then you are sorely mistaken about what Xbox Live gives you versus the tinker man’s nature of the PC arena. Sure, anyone can play many of the games that are available on both the Xbox 360 and PC with the intent of just playing the game with the likely hood of playing on the PC you likely already have, but what about the other large percentage of people who haven’t got a clue when it comes to tweaking settings and figuring out optimal performance.

Largely just a console advantage in general, putting a disc in your console and having it work without fear is a thing of beauty. In some case’s you might have a read disc error as some have experienced from time to time, but for the most part it’s a plug and play experience. Now taking that same expectation to the on-line and more importantly on-line multiplayer world is where Xbox Live shines through and through.

I don’t have to preach to the choir when it comes to explaining why Xbox Live is great to the other millions of people who already are having a blast on Live, so why is it that Microsoft has to make a case for a paid service either? Not to long ago the Gamerscoreblog team ended up in this same situation trying to justify the expense of paying for that of which is free else where. I understand that they’re selling a service, but when it comes down to it you either want it or you don’t.

It’s been said before by many people that having a Xbox 360 without Xbox Live is in all accounts really a Xbox 180. Giving very little thought about this from a Xbox Live veteran, anyone would be hard pressed to not agree with it. Imaging the Xbox 360 without Xbox Live is very much in the same likes of having a PC without a web browser and no internet connection. It can be used for it’s intended purpose of playing games, but your missing out on half of the use the machine was designed for.

Yeah, but why do I have to pay for Xbox Live Gold?

This is the number one question. Why do we have to pay for it and is it really worth it? Every time this question is posed it’s a very simple proposition to explain. Ask all of the subscribers of the PC only World of Warcraft if paying $15 a month is worth it to play World of Warcraft only. When Xbox Live Gold is purchased you have on-line multiplayer access for every game you play and/or buy until your subscription runs out.

Beyond the cost of Xbox Live gold is the consistency of the experience that is sadly the complete opposite of the PC. Paying for a consistent user experience should be enough for most people, but because of the lineage of PC and other on-line platforms being mostly free it becomes an argument that will never go away. Of course, there’s much more to say about this but you would be reading for forever and a day.

Nevertheless, the entire reason for this comes from the last week where I didn’t have a reliable connection to anything, let alone Xbox Live. Yes, I could log onto Xbox Live, but how long it would last or the quality of it was in question. I could have done something else with my gaming time, but I ultimately found out that I didn’t want to play anything at all with what gaming time I had if I wasn’t connected to Xbox Live and at the very least my friends list . This naturally would be associated with what has affectionately been called “Achievement Whoring”, but “Xbox Live Whoring”, no way. It’s not unheard of when a game is played out of spite only to acquire more achievements without any real tangible reason to play otherwise, but not playing at all because of just the very connection to Xbox Live in and of itself was in question.

The power of Xbox Live to a seasoned user is mind boggling. Xbox Live in the grand scheme of thing’s hasn’t been around for too long, so why would it have such an effect? On-line gaming has been found of some sort on consoles in the past. Never before has a service of this type been such a influence on the way gaming has inherently been done before it. Unfortunately for competing systems, it hasn’t been topped yet and there still are a lot of people who haven’t experienced on-line gaming of any sort.

Much like achievements are a strong sway toward the Xbox 360 versions of multiplatform games, Xbox Live itself just may be the back breaker in the end. Maybe it’s time to usher in the time of the “Xbox Live Whore” as well.

-William “thewilleffect” Bell-