Do you think that XBOX Live helped online gaming?

[Haruspex]

Because XBOX Live isn't free do you think that made/force developers to put more thought and work on the online part of their games? I mean not only at available online options of the game and/or in general how well the game plays online but also further optimizing the network code to minimize and/or completely eliminate lag.

Or do you think that was the logical thing to happen since online gaming pretty much matured over the years and XBOX Live has nothing to do with it?

[Lanfear]

Having never been much of a Microsoft fan, I feel like the LIVE service is pretty incredible.

Obviously advances towards a seamless experience were .. expected, but the gamertags, achievements, and online friends and buddies system is very well implemented. love it.

[JJJ]

I think that the fact that Live isn't free did initially help online gaming. Developers in the past had a really relaxed attitude towards online multiplayer. Maybe a skeptical attitude is a better word? But Xbox Live changed that, because instantly developers could see how big the paying market is for good online gaming. So I think after that, alot of effort was put into online stuff, and more competition forced even better features.

Its gotten to the point where good online features are expected for nearly every game. Thats a good thing for gamers.

[t0yrobo]

It definitely made a difference. Up till then for a game to have online it was up to the developers and publishers to handle all the infrastructure and support, plus other systems had no integration for online play. Live made it way easier for online to be ut into more games and made it a consistent experience for all games.
Unlike the online for the PS2 which pretty much left the devs and publishers to themselves to figure how they feel like doing things, making it so that games all had different user names etc.

[Bootaaay]

The success of Xbox Live has certainly led more developers pushing the boundries of online console games, but it's also helped decrease the focus on offline multiplayer - so many FPS & Driving games are now released without split-screen multiplayer of any kind, there's really little regard for offline multiplayer gaming nowadays - it's super rare to find an FPS that fully supports offline multiplayer with 1-4 split-screen multiplayer & bot-support, which is a real shame imo as some of my favourite multiplayer gaming memories have been had offline.

[Scooter]

For the most part I play games offline and by myself. When I do play with others, I prefer to do it live and in person on one machine. As mentioned by a few above, I think the focus on online play has hurt some games and gaming experiences for many of us.

[superlarz]

I think it has, but only play isnt always a good thing. i think improved online play is coming at the expense of single play modes, and as someone said, offline multiplayer play. personally I only usually play online against people i know in real life... nothing bothers me more than playing annoying teenagers who try to talk trash but just sound like idiots.

[Ack]

My biggest question right now is, what will happen once the next generation of consoles are out? Will all the information currently on Xbox Live disappear, not only downloadable content, but entire games, like Castle Crashers?

It seems to me that if so, it's following a precedent set by the online component of the Dreamcast, or even Nintendo's Satellaview. I will say that I think Xbox Live has been successful for the console market, but gaming in general has had a presence online since at least the early 90s, when we could first download Doom as shareware. Xbox Live was just a continuation of a trend that I already knew was coming.

[Niode]

Without Xbox Live, I don't think something like Steam would exist. Steam is almost like a carbon copy of Xbox Live. The centralised friends list, the community aspect of it, being able to join your friends in other games, being able to chat to friends regardless of game.

These features are all worth paying for IMO. When you play the competitors services on Wii or PS3, you yearn for the seamless support you get on Xbox Live, not being able to communicate with each other and not being able to join your friend's game is criminal. They might as well had not bothered. I think as gamers now, especially gamers who have experienced Live and all of it's features, expect more from an online infrastructure these days. It took far too long for Sony to release an in-game menu system. Who knows how long it's going to take before they catch up with an online system that is worthy of being called a competitor to Live. I know what I'd prefer given the choice of having to pay for a great service and not paying and getting a crap one.

[GSZX1337]

Of course it did, if it weren't for XBL, we wouldn't have Gamer Tags, achievements, messaging on consoles, DLC, all that nice stuff. I imagine if it weren't for Xbox Live, online game play on consoles would still be handled like it was on the PS2. Maybe Steam would've inspired a better service out of Sony, who knows?