Do you think that XBOX Live helped online gaming?

[Niode]

Maybe Steam would've inspired a better service out of Sony, who knows?

Well Sony has had a couple of years to fix PSN and it still sucks. So, no.

[MrPopo]

Of course it did, if it weren't for XBL, we wouldn't have Gamer Tags,

On consoles. PC's have had them for DECADES.

achievements,

This actually means something?

messaging on consoles,

I have yet to get a meaningful message. Plus, messaging kinda sucks when you aren't rocking out on the keyboard.

DLC,

This wasn't Live, this was the standard HDD on all Xboxes that made DLC a real proposition for consoles.

I imagine if it weren't for Xbox Live, online game play on consoles would still be handled like it was on the PS2.

You mean shoddy and incomplete due to the fact that it required an addon adapter or a late model PS2? I'm pretty sure we would have had better online play once a console manufacturer had high speed internet included from launch. I think it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if one of the main consoles launched with ethernet and a free online solution. I doubt Live would have done nearly as well.

[JJJ]

I completely agree with you.

I do like online gaming, its cool at times. But far, far better is offline multiplayer. I'm really ticked that most games give so little respect to this type of gaming.

Firstly, most shooter games contain MASSIVE maps. How the hell am I supposed to play this with 2,3,4 people? The never consider that just 2 people would get together and play.

Left 4 Dead is one of the best multiplayer games of this generation, yet it also fails in this area. Only 2-player splitscreen, forcing you to do the whole clunky system link thing to get 4 people gaming together.

The absolute worst offense I've seen so far is Duke Nukem 3d for XBLA. This is one of the best multiplayer games ever, and an amazing 1on1 game. *No splitscreen at all!* Seriously? Why the hell not? They didn't have to code a new game or anything, the game was already done. And they can't even add that *crucial* extra? No wonder DNF is still in production...

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.