Something i just realized about Xbox Live

[DocHoliday78]

I just got RTCW and i have been playing live alot lately and alot of the servers are slow. Then i realized i am paying 50 bucks to play this game online and Microsoft isnt hosting any of the games. Its all hosted by other players. Since this is the case why is Lives monthly cost gonna go up. IMO i think this is bull****. What do you guys think?

[canadianboi3]

Just compare it to the other online services out there, and you will realize how fast it is. Ever played SOCOM on the PS2? If not, play that, and you won't complain about XBL speeds. I love XBL, if you don't, just don't subscribe again in November.

[DocHoliday78]

Come on now i didnt say i dont like it, **** i love the motherf*cker. I never played ps2 online but i dont play that **** system period. I just want to know if Microsoft plans to put up some of their servers?

[Bakeman]

Who said it was going up?

It's only 50 bucks again for a full year.

[l Maximus l]

XBox Live actually lags far less than any on-line gaming I have ever done.

Check the speed out of your broadband connection. What is the upload and download? Also, are you hosting games or joining games?

Personally, I pay a little extra per month to have a sweet internet connection. I get 1 meg per second download and 768K upload. I can host 16 people without any lag issues whatsoever...especially if all people are in the midwest or west.

If they are all around the world, I usually limit it to 12 people just in case. You got to make sure you join good servers. Make friends with people who have good servers and when you see them on-line, join up.

Just simple advice that will hopefully improve your situation.

[canadianboi3]

I don't pay extra, but I have an awesome ISP, and I get speeds of like 1200 dl, and about 800 ul. It's awesome for XBL. It's probably your ISP doc.

[LynxFX]

So far Live has been pretty good but I do agree with you that I want to see more of my money put to use, as in DEDICATED SERVERS. I'm sick of lag on lowly 8 person games when I can hop on a dedicated BF1942 server with 64 people and not skip a beat. Oh and for free. So something is definately missing there.

All I'm asking for is a sign that my yearly fee is actualyl buying me something. Online stats aren't worth $50. Lag free, dedicated servers are.

[Casper]

Well, here's what I'm seeing....

I pay $50/yr. for XBL
I pay $50/month for the best broadband connection on the boards (next to those that have fiber)

My ISP has just capped Jafo - for constant uploads - those coming form hosting RTCW constantly - sorry for being hardcore gamers They released the cap, but now he has to worry of that, as do I. He's hosting about as much as I used to host GR, I think I might have even been hosting that more...but whatever.

So here's my dilemma - I can host, and not have anyone complain, but they do when I'm not online. Or MS can use some of this freakin' money that they are getting from us and from their other services and start getting up dedicated servers for every game, minus the sports ones that only need p2p.

Sony doesn't charge for their games - not yet at least. So why is it that we're paying from the start? Just for not so stable VoIP and a gamertag that stays with us? I dunno, but their system is far from stable - the VoIP causes lag because they don't know how to program it that great in the game. You can play PC games with 64 players, but the most we can do is 16??

[ShannonX]

that has me wondering also. i'll keep my live account, but ONLY for halo 2. IF that wasn't coming out, i have to seriously question myself if its even worth the money.

And yes, i would like to see them actually make some dedicated servers that we join instead of having to look for games that have 4 or 5 people in them. Wooo freaking hooo. If i want 5 or 6 people, i'll just find 5 of my friends and have a local lan set up.

[l Maximus l]

Personally, I think XBox Live is sweet. I just wish we had better games to play on it.

Right now, I play Halo on XBConnect as if it were a religion. But, one thing I can say for sure is that XBox Live blows away XBConnect's connectivity.

Think of XBox Live like a new model of a brand new brand of car. Take the Hummer 2 for example. The first year that the H2 came out, it got rated as the worst SUV available. But, the company "Hummer" will next year do what is necessary to improve the vehicle for next year to get them off of the bottom.

Now, I'm not saying that XBL is on the bottom, but, I am saying that improvements are made more and more as time goes on. I remember when XBL first came out, if you talked through your headset, there would be about a 2 second delay. Now it's spot on with real time, or damn close.

There are people constantly working in the XBL data centers. Hell, two of them are not far from my house! Maybe I should go over there and tell them what's up!!

[DocHoliday78]

Its not my isp. I download at 300 KB but i only upload at around 120 K/B. It matters who is hosting the game and how fast other peoples connections are in the game. My main point is that since xbox already comes broadband ready why do we have to suscribe at all if Microsoft isnt setting up servers themselves? There is the headset to pay for, the ability to have a password to protect your account, stat keeping, and downloadable content. I guess all of that adds up to 10 bucks a month. So yeah it does make sense now that i think of it.

[l Maximus l]

Originally posted by DocHoliday78
Its not my isp. I download at 300 KB but i only upload at around 120 K/B. It matters who is hosting the game and how fast other peoples connections are in the game. My main point is that since xbox already comes broadband ready why do we have to suscribe at all if Microsoft isnt setting up servers themselves? There is the headset to pay for, the ability to have a password to protect your account, stat keeping, and downloadable content. I guess all of that adds up to 10 bucks a month. So yeah it does make sense now that i think of it.

Actually, dude...it's not even $10 per month. It's $50 for a whole year. That comes up to about $4.16 per month

[Casper]

Originally posted by DocHoliday78
Its not my isp. I download at 300 KB but i only upload at around 120 K/B. It matters who is hosting the game and how fast other peoples connections are in the game. My main point is that since xbox already comes broadband ready why do we have to suscribe at all if Microsoft isnt setting up servers themselves? There is the headset to pay for, the ability to have a password to protect your account, stat keeping, and downloadable content. I guess all of that adds up to 10 bucks a month. So yeah it does make sense now that i think of it.

Well, I will be the first to say that your speeds suck....run a test and copy/paste the info, because you must be missing something there. With a DL as low as that, you're practically on an ISDN line if anything, and that UL...wow, eh, you couldn't get away with hosting a 4 player game on XBL.

My speeds- 8000+ kbps down - 900+ kbps - with that, I can host however many I want with no lag.

And like Maxy said - work on your math

[borka105]

interesting points you guys are making.....


although a couple of nights ago, I joined a Dedicated RTCW server called something like (XBL DEDIC. 1)......


something weird like that... but I asked several people in that server and they all told me that it was a MS setup dedicated server.....


I also saw an XBL DEDIC. 2 and 3.........


Like Maximus said, be patient....... it takes time to improve a new product and MS is doing their best.


-borka105

[lotec16]

Halo 2 better have dedicated servers, I can't take anymore xbox connect. But if you think about it, imagine the kind of internet connection that the xbox live center would need for dedicated servers with no lag, that would be tens if not a hundred thousand dollars a month, on top of hardware and people to service it. I'd have to imagine when halo 2 comes out stuff will get better because there will be a big boom in the amount of xbox live subscriptions.

[WynnFire]

Before I play a game on XBL I always make sure they have a good connection. Then the games are usually fun and lagless.

My Upload blows at:160KBps

My Download is at: 1536Kbps - Is that good?

[LynxFX]

Originally posted by lotec16
But if you think about it, imagine the kind of internet connection that the xbox live center would need for dedicated servers with no lag, that would be tens if not a hundred thousand dollars a month, on top of hardware and people to service it.

God help me for saying this but that is exactly what PC companies have been doing for years....for free. Take *gasp* EA *gasp* for example. They have dozens of dedicated servers for BF1942 supporting a range from 32 to 64 people. Nvidia has their own dedicated servers on there as well and they gain no profits from the game, yet they can provide their own dedicated servers and MS can't? That just doesn't make sense.

I still don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth with a yearly/monthly/daily whatever fee for Live. I'm still paying for it and will probably sign up again, but that doesn't mean that I'm not bitter. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it is early bugs they are working out. But by the time Live2 is out this **** better be perfect. How often do you see me on Live? Now you know why.

[bluefire712]

Originally posted by Lynxfx-XBA
God help me for saying this but that is exactly what PC companies have been doing for years....for free. Take *gasp* EA *gasp* for example. They have dozens of dedicated servers for BF1942 supporting a range from 32 to 64 people. Nvidia has their own dedicated servers on there as well and they gain no profits from the game, yet they can provide their own dedicated servers and MS can't? That just doesn't make sense.

PC game servers are managed by the players/clans that play the games not by the company that publishes the game. People pay from $39-199 a month (depending on number of players and game) for dedicated gaming servers on the computer. They're not free, it's just free to you. If all those generous people left you'd be in the dust. nVidia has gaming servers? Since when? I guess they host driver files. Most of the those game's just mooch off of Gamespy's master gaming list, so you should really be thanking them if anyone. Gamespy does making a small amount of money of GS Arcade/ads from the trial version.

I think some of you people are just cheap. $50 a year isn't much. You get a single gamertag, good support, easy billin, voice support, cross-game enabled features, XSN, PDA/cellphone alerts, invites, friends, downloadable content, and more to come. I am not saying it's a "steal," but I think it's worth it.

[LynxFX]

Originally posted by bluefire712


PC game servers are managed by the players/clans that play the games not by the company that publishes the game. People pay from $39-199 a month (depending on number of players and game) for dedicated gaming servers on the computer. They're not free, it's just free to you. If all those generous people left you'd be in the dust. nVidia has gaming servers? Since when? I guess they host driver files. Most of the those game's just mooch off of Gamespy's master gaming list, so you should really be thanking them if anyone. Gamespy does making a small amount of money of GS Arcade/ads from the trial version.

Bluefire, apparently you haven't been paying attention. Yes EA does have their very own servers that THEY are paying for and providing to their customers. THEY are running free dedicated BF1942 servers. Nvidia also has dedicated servers up that THEY are paying for. EA has invested a lot of money into their online servers which is one reason why they hvaen't gone to Live. I don't think that is the right decision for them, but that is a whole different debate. So no it isn't just people setting up and running their own servers.

As for gamespy, they aren't mooching off of gamespy's server list. Gamespy works directly with the game developers to either incorporate the server list into the game and vice versa with gamespy's thirdparty application. No mooching is going on as they are working together.

I could care less about the extra 'fluff' features like cell phone integration (yet to be seen) friends lists, online stats, easy billing (shouldn't even exist), gamertag, and downloadable content, voice. If I can't play a lag free game, it is all useless.

[bluefire712]

Originally posted by Lynxfx-XBA


Bluefire, apparently you haven't been paying attention. Yes EA does have their very own servers that THEY are paying for and providing to their customers. THEY are running free dedicated BF1942 servers. Nvidia also has dedicated servers up that THEY are paying for. EA has invested a lot of money into their online servers which is one reason why they hvaen't gone to Live. I don't think that is the right decision for them, but that is a whole different debate. So no it isn't just people setting up and running their own servers.

As for gamespy, they aren't mooching off of gamespy's server list. Gamespy works directly with the game developers to either incorporate the server list into the game and vice versa with gamespy's thirdparty application. No mooching is going on as they are working together.

I could care less about the extra 'fluff' features like cell phone integration (yet to be seen) friends lists, online stats, easy billing (shouldn't even exist), gamertag, and downloadable content, voice. If I can't play a lag free game, it is all useless.

Sure they probably provide a few servers, but not nearly enough for as many people that want to play multiplayer. Plus it's really the least they could offer seeing as it probably costed $50-60 at launch. I'm sure in a yaer or two those servers will have disappeared. So thats 15 servers (I'll assume) for $100/month for 2 years: $36K which is pocket change to what they've probably made on the game. nVidia only hosts 10 servers on a single game (BF1942). Most of the servers come from the generous player's pockets.

The reason I used "mooch" because Gamespy is really providing the service and doesn't directly (to my knowledge) get anything in return. You make EA sound like the holy grail of online gaming, but really it's a service based on all of Gamespy's work.

Where do you get lag? I rarely get lag if I join a good game or host a small one of my own. The only semi-laggy game I used to own was Ghost Recon and that was one of the buggiest games I've ever owned.