3669

So how did the XBox Live Gold family pack used to work? Did you have one master account and you added family members to the account? Or did everyone in the house use the same login?

The Home Gold thing sounds pretty good for most use cases (you get Gold wherever you sign in and on one designated Home XBox), but I’m curious again for folks who have two XBoxes in the house. Would you then need two Gold accounts? Say there’s an XBox for Dad, and one for the Kids. Dad signs up for Gold. Under the system as described, it sounds like he would need to designate the Kids’ XBox as his “home”, and then his XBox as his “sign in” to get Gold on both. Either that or he has to buy separate Gold accounts for both him and the kids. Of course if a family is buying two XBoxes, they’re probably not worried too much about two Gold memberships, but with separate accounts, now it also becomes more cumbersome to have purchased titles shared between the two.

Hmm, and now that I’m thinking along those lines, does that mean two people could use this setup to share games, even if they aren’t in the same geographic area? Example:

Bob lives in Pennsylvania, Joe lives in Florida. Joe signs into his XBox using Bob’s account and buys Live Gold. Joe’s XBox is now considered Bob’s “Home”. Bob signs into his XBox and buys a game digitally. Both Joe and Bob have access to the game because Bob’s XBox is considered his “sign in” and Joe’s XBox is considered his “Home”. Of course there’s the question we talked about way back about whether Bob and Joe could be playing the game at the same time (the article does not say one way or the other), but as described it sounds like this would work.

3670

They’re not raping you, they are not beating your children, they are not forcing you to use a camera. BECAUSE IT’S A F^&*ING GAME MACHINE AND YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BUY IT OR NOT.

They can’t screw you unless you volunteer to be screwed. If I choose spend $500 to play Halo on a box that has a video camera I can’t turn off (or put something over the camera) I can’t then scream I’m being violated because I not only agreed to put that camera in my living room, I paid $500 for the privilege.

You aren’t being screwed if Microsoft decides to charge $100 a month for XBox Gold, because you don’t have to pay for it. They choose a price for their game machine, you choose whether to buy it. It is not an essential of life. It’s not the same as if the oil companies start charging $50 a gallon for gasoline, or the grocery stores raise their prices 10X tomorrow. It’s a 100% non-essential luxury you use to play frikken’ games on. And yeah, it is the job of MS to figure out how to make as much money as they can with it. They are not a charity. They will charge as much as they can get for the box and services, and the consumer will define what that amount is.

So if you buy an XBox One knowing what you do, you aren’t being screwed, you are agreeing with the price, the camera, the policies, and the services.

These are 100% voluntary, luxury items. You are no more being screwed by Microsoft’s decisions on the XBox One than you are if Mercedes starts to charge for oil changes that they use to give owners for free.

3671

Dude, they are also one of the most predatory,aggressive companies in the world. They have low to negative margins to destroy the competition (whole industries) by virtue of the size of their bank account…

They became the monopoly on ebooks by selling ebooks at a loss. Think about that again. They sold ebooks at a loss.

3672

Well, I’m not disputing that. There are lots of issues around the brand - labor, taxes, environment - but it’s possible to be both fascinating and predatory.

3673

Yeah, like Hannibal Lecter…

but yes, I do find it fascinating in that way :)

3674

ha! This is definitely one of the most exciting times in console history - Sony’s E3 performance; Xbox One’s re-launching; Valve preparing a box; Amazon preparing a box; rumors that Apple may do the same. 2013:Consoles as 1998:PC Games

3675

While mostly I’m just popping popcorn while watching this fight, I think Jeff hit this one on the head. This is a luxury good that you aren’t forced to purchase, and people are comparing it to child abuse? Really?

As usual, Jeff put it more eloquently than I could have, so I’ll leave it at that. Thank you, Jeff, for injecting a bit of sanity here.

3676

I’m now going to attack Aleck.

It has nothing to do with our previous conversation. I just like attacking that guy.

3677

You’re suggesting that comparisons of the XBone to rape and child abuse should go unchallenged? Because it’s cleaner that way? No. It’s cleaner to make it clear that that sort of bullshit is inappropriate and unwelcome.

Make your points without being staggeringly creepy, guys. It’s not hard.

3678

Sigh… try finding that statement anywhere in what I wrote, please. I’m challenging Jake’s way of talking to people here, not endorsing any other peoples statement.

I think the biggest problem we have is that a lot of us seem to talk past each other, and not really understanding what others write. I know I’ve been guilty of that in other threads, and I see it all the time here as well. Your response to me is a perfect example. It completely misses the point I was making. That may be my fault for not being clearer, or it could be your fault for not actually reading what I wrote, but the fact is - You did not understand my intent.

Now - We can debate this stuff all night, but seeing as this is the internet, its probably pointless, but I felt I had to point out, that you did not understand my post, for whatever reason.

Edit: For whatever reason, not any reason.

3679

I’m totally fine dropping this. You can say I’m being cynical, rude, lack sympathy, whatever you want to say. But I sincerely found the comments made by others - not you - in incredibly poor taste. I said as much because it needed to be said; we don’t need to rehash it.

3680

Consider it dropped as far as I’m concerned! :-)

3681

Cool. So… I hear the Blackberry is making a console now too!

Obviously kidding. Have a wonderful weekend all.

3682

Did the XBox really boost the GPU? I guess I missed that. In the end, the Kinect requirement and the price difference are sealing it for me. I have a wall mounted setup and I hate and avoid using the current kinect (not for technical reasons, I just don’t like it). A mandatory kinect would require getting a few hundred dollars more wall mounting work, added to the $100 in additional cost.

3683

Yes. A whole 53MHz more. Nothing that really matters.

3684

And you have to recognize comparison as to reasoning does not imply equal gravity of the two situations.

Stop trying to be so cleverly smug. You fully understand the point of the comparison. At no point did I or anyone else say that Microsoft’s console strategy is morally as bad as beating up a child. Frankly, I’m disgusted with you attempting to portray it that way, and think you should feel embarrassed by your tactic here in this thread. The point was instead the trying to give you a comparison as to the reason why people are so distrustful of Microsoft, which you seem so blind to, as to people who act badly “changing” and how legitimate that change actually is, and whether you will instead just see more bad behavior from them in the future when they think the coast is clear. I think you know that, and I think your fake obliviousness is grotesque.

3685

I’m dropping this. Your words and analogs are your own

3686

Which is not, in fact, illegal in most circumstances. Also, it was actually a relatively small % of their sales of ebooks.
I’d remind you whose practices just ended up being hammered in court.

(Also, they’re far from a monopoly outside America)

3687

I thought it was an anti-trust violation to sell a product for a loss if your goal is to eliminate a competitor.

(Which is, of course, hard to prove)

3688

Stores have loss leaders all the time. I’m not sure what the legality of it is.