Square Triangle
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It's not.
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Why is XBL still the superior online service...
- Thread starter Speedymanic
- Start date
The Killing Joke
Neo Member
To me, XBL having party chat alone is almost a deal-maker, I use that function every single time I log onto Xbox Live. It's hard to get used to not having it on PSN. I mean sure you can chat inside of games, but a game-independent chat channel should be mandatory.
Kazuma Kiryu
Member
xbox live launched in 2002, psn launched in 2006. nintendo has no online service.
there's your answer.
there's your answer.
corporate cheerleader
Member
I wasn't talking about every single game, I should edit that. :|
Metalmurphy
Member
"You may report a user who is acting inappropriately or in breach of the PlayStation®Network Terms of Service."
fluffydelusions
Member
Improved, yes but on par, nope.
Well, I'm down to a choice between MS and Sony since it seems apparent Nintendo is going to underpower their console with the Wii U. Can I count on Sony to deliver a better online experience? Doubtful, but I do hope they come through. I would love to be able to drop gold service, but I would miss shooters like Halo and Gears. Sony simply has nothing in those genres to match MS shooter wise, and until they can come up with a better or equal online package with more variety in shooters MS will own online gaming. Pick it up Sony!
I'm rooting for Sony because I don't like the direction MS is headed in with a subscription based console, ads taking up the dash, and the commercials that are headed to our apps. Not a fan, and I'll jump ship if an equal alternative comes out without all that extra hassle.
I'm rooting for Sony because I don't like the direction MS is headed in with a subscription based console, ads taking up the dash, and the commercials that are headed to our apps. Not a fan, and I'll jump ship if an equal alternative comes out without all that extra hassle.
Mithos
Member
No offense, but if your not talking/communicating to the "team" you are playing with while online, why even play online?
PS+ also have the monthly "freebies" and that makes the yearly cost worth it.
i dont see how its doubtful; if they only match the vita they'd surpass xbox live as it currently is.
I've been hearing the exact opposite. Jeff Gerstmann from Giant Bomb has said on the podcast that people hack achivements almost on the regular. FYI: I believe he mostly plays on 360. Also lets not forget people using the hacked dlc characters online in Street Fighter X Tekken.
Infamous Chris
Banned
Pretty much. Add in beacons and no need to install things all the time in there as well. And I can compare friends and achievements faster on XBL than I can on PSN.
Microsoft just has this downpacked. I guess it makes sense since they are a software company.
Metalmurphy
Member
I don't see how that's PSN related. It's just the PS3 shitty file system. Also having no restrictions on patch sizes is a good thing.
And download speeds is relative, some people report to have good speeds, others terrible ones. Their server distribution probably isn't very good, but you hear similar reports with XBL as well. With me it usually maxes out my line speed.
you hack cheevos, someone reports you, the account will be banned.
Muchi Muchi Pink
Member
I'm okay with this.
This.
MS has been involved with servers and interfaces long before the xbox was ever thought of.
MS and sony just had different focuses.
Sony lacked the online vision but packed in the hardware as that is what they do.
hdmi port, built in wifi, low end linux pc option, blu ray built in to the system, bluetooth, memory card slots, upgradeable hard drives, digital audio out. All hardware features that the box 360 released without as it was not their focus nor area of concern. Sadly the lack of ram seems to be the one thing that held sony back.
Sony released a 4way array mic and motion camera, ms released a regular old pc vision cam.
Their processor goals were different, sony wanted the most powerful chip, ms said give us something similar we'll fix any issues through software.
It's like asking why nintendo gets gaming right. Well they are for the most part just a gaming company, gaming is their only focus, not interfaces or beefed up hardware, just games.
I have nothing against XBL, I just don't think its worth charging for xchat or other services. Reliability is to be expected not held ransom for a fee.
Schobeleth
Member
My problem with the VITA's PSN functionality is that they broke it up like they did, making everything a separate app, instead of having it all under a PSN or XMB like menu that pops up when you're in game via the PS button, like it does on the PS3. You should be able to sign in and then just be online, get messages, go cross game voice chat, etc, instead of jumping between different apps.
I can get why they did it the way they did, to make it more feasible to send messages and stuff over 3G but - I'd rather have a full online suite like the current XMB has, it's just a shame they won't, or rather can't put cross game chat on the PS3 due to RAM issues.
To compare/mix and match the two online suites is kind of unfair when they're VERY different between the PS3 and PS VITA. The VITA has more features because of it's increased RAM but it's also limited to make things more flexible with 3G, as I mentioned.
Overall though, it's a free online service that is just lacking cross game/party chat and a few other small features that XBL users pay for. You can get online, play games, have in game voice chat, etc, all for free, and it's usually pretty darn reliable. Sure when it launched the PSN was pretty barren but it was still new, XBL was already several years old and well established thanks to Halo's success and online multiplayer.
PSN has made great strides and is a pretty big competitor IMO. Overall I'm pretty happy with what the PSN offers, it's a clean, easy to navigate experience and best of all - it's free. You can't argue with free when it's reliable and free of advertisements. Also, to damn the PSN due to the whole hacking fiasco is silly. It's back now and stronger than ever. Many people forget that XBL went down for weeks at a time.
The stigma that XBL is superior only remains because people want to justify using it because they pay for it.
I can get why they did it the way they did, to make it more feasible to send messages and stuff over 3G but - I'd rather have a full online suite like the current XMB has, it's just a shame they won't, or rather can't put cross game chat on the PS3 due to RAM issues.
To compare/mix and match the two online suites is kind of unfair when they're VERY different between the PS3 and PS VITA. The VITA has more features because of it's increased RAM but it's also limited to make things more flexible with 3G, as I mentioned.
Overall though, it's a free online service that is just lacking cross game/party chat and a few other small features that XBL users pay for. You can get online, play games, have in game voice chat, etc, all for free, and it's usually pretty darn reliable. Sure when it launched the PSN was pretty barren but it was still new, XBL was already several years old and well established thanks to Halo's success and online multiplayer.
PSN has made great strides and is a pretty big competitor IMO. Overall I'm pretty happy with what the PSN offers, it's a clean, easy to navigate experience and best of all - it's free. You can't argue with free when it's reliable and free of advertisements. Also, to damn the PSN due to the whole hacking fiasco is silly. It's back now and stronger than ever. Many people forget that XBL went down for weeks at a time.
The stigma that XBL is superior only remains because people want to justify using it because they pay for it.
PumpkinPie
Banned
I much prefer XBL. EU PSN only lets you add one filter to searches e.g. you can't search for PS3 > RPG, only PS3 or RPG, which means that I have to trawl through games for every fucking Sony system just to find the games I want. XBL is perfect for me, I can always find what I'm looking for.
jetsetfluken
Member
You're citing information in a ToS that you're most likely reading for the first time, and I'm citing experience. I've been on PS3 since 2006. They do nothing about Trophy manipulation (which started in it's first stages in 2009), you can ask anyone that.
I've also read the fine print of the ToS multiple times in the past as well as updates to it as the updates were rolled out. There is nothing in the ToS that really talks about game cheating or trophy manipulation.
A user on xbox360achievements.org said it best:
source http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=362740Eggnogga said:
Beyond the achievement/trophy comparison thing and how much of a playground the Trophy system has become on PS3, you have other things that have been manipulated by the end-user with no punishment. "Gamesharing" to a black market level, even if it has been curbed from 5 activations to 2, it's still very possible. "Account sharing", people signing into other people's accounts remotely to do (or in this day, hack) trophies for them or other shady business. So much shady crap happening and manipulations of the system. Sony laid out a weak shell that has been breached in multiple areas, and their lax outlook towards the online experience has led to almost zero support. All of this shady manipulation by the end user is not really possible or realistic on Xbox Live.
And even if Sony cracks down on trophy hackers for example, tons of them will get away with it. It's gotten beyond repair at this point. Two words that Microsoft has employed that Sony should take a hint at I should say, is "ban waves". But anyway, it's not my problem, and apparently Sony doesn't see it as a problem either.
Anyway, the trophy/achievement system comparisons I'm making might not apply to your or other's personal enjoyment of the system, but it's just a symbol I'm using to show the differences in seriousness of the two online services.
corporate cheerleader
Member
That's what I'm talking about. Both these companies have their pros and cons, they could actually learn from eachother.
Metalmurphy
Member
I was simply replying to your claim that "The "Grief Report" feature you cite is very lax, as it only applies to harassment-based messages". Clearly not just that it's intended for.
Either they ban someone for trophy hacking or not I have no idea. Although I do know they do ban accounts.
It just works and its fast, love the Kinect integration. The store took a step back from NXE, IMO, but it's still leagues ahead of the PSN store.
The current dashboard starts on the game you have in the DVD drive. There's no "trouble to launch a game".
The current dashboard starts on the game you have in the DVD drive. There's no "trouble to launch a game".
They shouldnt be aiming to be on par with xbl.. they need to be on par with Steam with great sales and free services , also give the developers more control over their games and not charge them up the ass to give us free content, patches and dlc.
Stronghammer22
Member
"Online" doesn't just mean competitive multiplayer. He could be playing co-op with his friends, or talking to them while playing single player games. A lot of people on Xbox will have friends they talk to as soon as they get online, it doesn't mean they're going to play a team based multiplayer game.
This for me with Party Chat being far and aware being the key feature. The ridiculously slow download times and patch process on PS3 is certainly annoying, but having no party chat is the one thing that holds PSN back from having more or less feature parity with XBL. I am in a party chat with a bunch of people usually playing different games almost every single day. At this point in the console generation I know people that won't buy a PS3 because they can't party chat with everyone. People like being connected, but if for whatever reason Party Chat isn't an issue for you I think the services themselves are pretty comparable.
At this point I'm more interested in seeing how it plays out next-gen, particularly if PSN goes fully paid or not.
But it still doesnt take you out of the game so thats not a very big deal.
As we are talking about PSN as a service and not in one particular platform, PSN already has party chat.
Personally, the only thing that bugs me about those prompts is that they keep popping in and out. Just give me the 3rd screen for 8 seconds, I don't care.
jetsetfluken
Member
When Sony actually does get one of their lazy SCEA-based employees (interns probably) to temporarily ban Little Billy for cussing on PlayStation Home, I guess that counts as "banning".
Actually banning the cheaters and manipulators of the console's featureset, no action. Constructive action is not taken, just aimless dawdling.
I don't think it's fair to make it seem like 2006 was Sony's first ever effort. They were doing online stuff just as long as Microsoft - PS2 had the broadband adapter and SOCOM was a 2002 release for example.
It's just that Microsoft did things properly from the start while Sony wasted several years on a flawed strategy and had to play catch up.
Microsoft is primarily a software company, Sony is primarily a hardware company.
Mithos
Member
Only second example would need cross-gamechat though.
If voice chat is possible straight from the xbox360 between friends though (I have no idea if it is) there should be no need to have cross-gamechat when playing sinleplayergames.
Infamous Chris
Banned
Oh junior, you make it so painfully obvious. XBL went down for weeks at a time and people just forgot?
According to your profile you only own a PS3 so I don't think you're in any position to make up any conspiracies about stigmas.
Live Free or Die
Banned
Joke thread?
famousmortimer
Banned
As an old man that used to have my modem call my friends modem so we could play Warcraft against each other accross town (on 14.4) I think this whole conversation is silly.
Can you get online and play with your friends? Yes? Ok, good, your online system is fine.
The things that these services add aren't even necasarily positives.
* party chat - Whenever my friends and I use it someone always drops, there's also usually one person who can't hear another person. The sound quality is absolutely horrendous. And, most importantly, it's completely fucked the competitive balance of shooters, especially those without *gasp* respawns.
*matchmaking - I don't mind it as an option but I absolutely hate not having server lists. Back in the day on the pc there were servers that would play one map, one mode 24/7. That may sound boring to some of y'all, but the absolute mastery of map that it created was amazing. DE_Dust is sandblasted into my memory banks. The level of play on those servers were so much higher.
But besides my nostalgia, matchmaking often means I don't have choice. Depends on the game, of course, but many developers use matchmaking to take choice out of our hands and I hate that.
Voice chat - with randoms it's impossible to call this a positive.
Most games are peer to peer. Plays like crap and the host has the advantage.
So, yeah, if you wanna say xbl is the best of that mess go ahead. To me they are all equal. Its up to the individual games to make it good or bad. If I can get in and play with friends without much hassle it's good. And all 3 services are capable of that. And all 3 mess that up as well.
Can you get online and play with your friends? Yes? Ok, good, your online system is fine.
The things that these services add aren't even necasarily positives.
* party chat - Whenever my friends and I use it someone always drops, there's also usually one person who can't hear another person. The sound quality is absolutely horrendous. And, most importantly, it's completely fucked the competitive balance of shooters, especially those without *gasp* respawns.
*matchmaking - I don't mind it as an option but I absolutely hate not having server lists. Back in the day on the pc there were servers that would play one map, one mode 24/7. That may sound boring to some of y'all, but the absolute mastery of map that it created was amazing. DE_Dust is sandblasted into my memory banks. The level of play on those servers were so much higher.
But besides my nostalgia, matchmaking often means I don't have choice. Depends on the game, of course, but many developers use matchmaking to take choice out of our hands and I hate that.
Voice chat - with randoms it's impossible to call this a positive.
Most games are peer to peer. Plays like crap and the host has the advantage.
So, yeah, if you wanna say xbl is the best of that mess go ahead. To me they are all equal. Its up to the individual games to make it good or bad. If I can get in and play with friends without much hassle it's good. And all 3 services are capable of that. And all 3 mess that up as well.
Infamous Chris
Banned
This is true.
Mithos
Member
Me too, talking multiplayer online here, if your not playing the same game as me, stop talking to me, I'm busy talking to my "teammates".
Lazy vs Crazy
Member
Who in the world could possibly care about "trophy manipulation."
It does not impact you in any way at all even a little bit.
It does not impact you in any way at all even a little bit.
I know you mentioned you didn't know much about it, but that's no reason to lash out, because it isn't how party chat works.
You can only be in one voice channel: game or party. You aren't tied up and forced to listen to your horrible talkative friends, it's on an invite basis.
if you care about completing games, something that in no way inhibits or diminishes your joy in completing games is a big deal.
Uno Venova
Banned
How many platinums somebody else cheated to get is probably the least important thing in the world to me, I agree.
I didn't realize that, well I'll have to check in it. (As I sit here and play Gears 3
. I'm looking to jump ship though if Sony can bring something amazing to the table. I guess we'll see.jetsetfluken
Member
This. Sony's apathy made the choice to be mainly on Xbox an easy choice.
I can't begin to describe the frustration I'd feel on PS3 to grind away at a very hard trophy or game completion itself for weeks, only to have hundreds of teenagers then hack it and get the Platinum in 2 minutes.
All because one of them acquired some poor sap's 100% savedata file, manipulated it and released it on a hack forum. It's that simple. And NO punishment.
For example, some kid sent me a message on PSN asking for my 100% savedata (I ignored it), it turned out he was going down the leaderboard of 100% achievers on one of those 3rd party trophy list sites, someone finally gave it to him, and I check back on the leaderboard days after he asked me, and the leaderboard was already filled with hackers who got the game complete in less than a minute. I really put in work for that completion, too. Very disheartening.
PS3 is like a country with no government or control where the people run with no punishment and no morals. They must think that because Sony isn't doing anything about it (or even knows is more like it) and see others doing it, it must be morally OK to do. But it doesn't matter what I think, it doesn't matter what you think, all that matters is the facts, the fact of the matter is they're manipulating the system and cheating, and the fact is that's wrong. The other fact is they're getting away with it, where on Xbox Live they don't.
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