Paying for online gaming is something that PC gamers won't put up with. A fee will lose the interest of some gamers. What's the incentive for playing on Live?

Achievements? Gamerscore?

I'm not so sure that is enough. Especially when I can use Xfire to have more social features (more friends, friends of friends, server bookmarks, server favorites, instant messagin) than XBOX Live and controlled voice communication (no random jerks).

Just how much is Microsoft going to control online PC gaming?

Yeah, Blizzard makes $1.5b a year from subscriptions to WoW. But the precedent has already been set. Almost all online PC games are free and have always been that way.

Maybe I'm wrong. Satellite radio has done fairly well.

In addition to achievements and gamerscore I think the principal advantage is connection to the Xbox 360 community. Someone that games on PC and only PC probably doesn't want it. However, if you play the same game on PC and 360 you'll probably want your campaign progress, stats, etc to be uniform across both platforms. I see it as a feature for those who game on PC and 360, not for a dedicated PC gamer.

I see it as a way for me to rip up on little nublets that think they're amazing with a controller, only to find out that my mouse and keyboard skills, while not quite the greatest, are still lightyears beyond theirs. :)

DJ

Has it been confirmed whether or not we will be able to play Shadowrun multiplayer w/out connecting to the XBox Live network? If so, then this is a moot point as we will be able to play just as we have been in the past. There will only be the added functionality of XBL interconnectivity. If not, then we've got a problem.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but here's the architecture of PC gaming online as I understand: the software publisher/developer hosts main servers that keep track of all of the dedicated servers that the gaming community hosts. You connect to this server to get just the name and IP of the dedicated server you want to connect to. Then, from there on out, unless you want to worry about stats (I don't) then you have no other connection to the Game Dev's servers. Right?

Rap, you were talking about XFire to do a lot of the community things we like about XBL. So I guess what I'm saying is... will "Games for Windows" or "Live Anywhere Enabled" games end up forcing the XBL architecture down our throat w/out giving us the option of the previous architecture? This would mean that the game publishers no longer host the main servers, it would become the responsibility of Microsoft, and we would pay for it.

I was thinking, Live Anywhere is going to suck if people who already subscribe to Xbox Live have to pay an extra fifty dollars a year for the what is essentially the same service for PC.

I use Xfire, and as much as it and services like Gamespy Arcade have bridged the gap to an efficient system that allows you to communicate with your friends, see what they're doing, and personalize yourself, Xbox Live is pretty good at it. It's what PCs are good for, and what console gamers should be jealous of PCs for. Live Anywhere is going to change all that.

I think dedicated PC gamers won't appeal to this. This will appeal more for those who play on different platforms (like myself), like Midnight said. It won't matter to me, since I already have a Live account. Still, I can't help but be irked when PC gamers have always, for the most part, enjoyed free online play in most of their games, excluding some MMORPGs.

Hopefully this will help PC gaming become more popular, instead of alienating those who already play on PCs.