How much would you miss Gold?

[doctorrg]

Just out of general interest.

As for me, my 2 month Gold Membership is due to expire tomorrow, and I've made the decision to not renew for the moment. I mainly have decided to not renew to give myself a forced break from the Auction House, but I've also wondered whether it's still worth the money for me. First of all, the 2 month I had were an absolute blast, and I have pretty much taken it for all it's worth (don't really play online much, though). I've gotten myself the majority of cars in the game, all the tunes and designs I'll ever need, pretty much set up all the cars I tend to drive to my desire, and have gotten myself a small fortune which will likely last till the end of time. The only real drawback I currently see is that I can no longer bid on auctions of my favorite painters and will likely miss out on quite a few nice designs, and I'll equally miss out on other new designs to be bought from the storefront. Equally, should I get a free car, I won't be able to receive it. But that's pretty much it. Question is, is that really worth the $11/month, or the funds to purchase a longer term membership? Yes, I will miss Gold, but I'm not sure whether it's enough in order to warrant the price tag in future. And yes, Forza 4 is the only game on the Xbox I'd need Gold for.

How about you? For all the people who have Gold, how much would you miss it? How much is it really worth to you?

 

[Darren.]

Gold is everything to me, communitys, FPM and my real-life friends. Add offers and exclusive content, Gold is everything you need.

 

[VXR]

I'm mostly into photomode so gold is essential to me.

 

[Fezz_ST]

Forza 4 is pretty useless without Gold!

 

[buickgnx88]

I don't care for Gold at the moment. *record scratch*

I've never really gotten into online play, with the only time I go online to download the car packs. I prefer to race offline in single player.

 

[UKMikey]

I wish there was a halfway point option with Rivals but without multiplayer racing. It might have saved me a little money.

 

[WaRL0rD]

I pretty much play online races 100% of the time, along with using storefront, auction house, photomode, video upload, rivals + gifts. Gold is a must for me. I play other games online too, so totally worth it.

 

[cuco33]

Personally I use a lot of features that LIVE Gold gives me access too so I'd definitely miss out. It's great that Rivals mode doesn't require LIVE Gold but it kind of stinks that just a basic photo export or auction house/storefront are locked out to have Gold.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

The 360 would be pretty much worthless without gold. Most of my gaming is always with xboxlive. I use the 8 player party chat for communicating with friends and family every single day. Plus most of my gaming is co-op gaming and some multiplayer gaming. So without xboxlive the 360 would be worthless to me.

 

[hennessey86]

Netflix, Youtube in full screen HD, Vevo, Lovefilm and then theres the online gaming lol, Gold is worth every penney, cent, yen, dollar people pay.

 

[imported_flo]

I'd only miss it because I wouldn't be able to take photo's and upload them.....

 

[imported_phillkillv2]

I would miss it because it connects me to pretty much the whole world. Plus there is a better connection between people when you have gold. Forza would be the most played for me since there is alot of singleplayer content. But the storefront is what I will miss because it is the only way you can upload photo's.

 

[BryCivicSi]

If I am not racing online, I am testing and tuning to race new cars online. Rivals mode isn't a big part of Forza for me anymore. Neither photomode. I couldn't care any less about the storefront or auction house than I do now so those are mute points for me. I only use the SF to share the tunes I've made and even then I don't charge anything. I do it for tuning points in the leaderboard standings. But the game just isn't as fun playing the CPU racers. They are too slow even with every difficulty to the max. I can't go without Gold.

 

[t.o.]

Question is, is that really worth the $11/month, or the funds to purchase a longer term membership? Yes, I will miss Gold, but I'm not sure whether it's enough in order to warrant the price tag in future. And yes, Forza 4 is the only game on the Xbox I'd need Gold for.

How about you? For all the people who have Gold, how much would you miss it? How much is it really worth to you?

At 11/month you're wasting money. Get the annual and be done with it. In a few months you won't even miss those spent bucks.

 

[ImaRobot]

At 11/month you're wasting money. Get the annual and be done with it. In a few months you won't even miss those spent bucks.

At 11 a month your pretty much buying two year passes, with an extra 11 dollars on the side to buy another month. $50 can seem like a good lump of money in the beginning but i really recommend getting that from the get go.

As for the question, I would miss gold alot. I really dont think I'd even play my Xbox. I play games that revolve around online play just because i dont want to have to feel like i have to buy a new game if i complete it(which was usually pretty damn fast).

 

[cuco33]

The best LIVE Gold deal is actually the family pack/year. 4 accounts for like $100/year. So if you have 3 other buddies, that's $25/year/each account.

 

[Jamezinho]

I've made the decision not to renew my Gold membership when it runs out later this year. It's just not worth paying for any more for me personally as I've been unimpressed with Forza 4 online. In fact I will be retiring my 360 soon and making the switch to PC gaming. This year looks like a good one for PC racing sims.

 

[Wolfe]

I connect my Xbox to the internet less than once a month, mainly because of the lack of native WiFi. Internet connection sharing on a laptop (my usual solution) makes the Xbox complain about NAT, and because the NAT is "moderate," I see fewer lobbies, which makes finding a good lobby and getting into a race more time-consuming than usual. The old "Forza Menusport" glitch was just an extra kick in the face.

I might put up with this if Gold wasn't way more expensive than I remember a few years ago, and if Microsoft didn't hold your debit/credit card hostage. I'm actually on Gold now, and just a couple days ago Microsoft was all too happy to take $10 off of my hands for me, because I forgot to cancel the day before autorenew. I knew I'd regret buying that "1 month for $1" deal. It's an obvious trap.

Most of the time I just stick to Silver. Sure I'm missing out on half of the FM4 experience, but that only illustrates the shortsightedness of modern game development; years from now, when the XBL service as we know it is dropped, games like FM4 will be half of a game for everyone.

It's by no means a bad game offline, but it would be nice to not have to pay a subscription just to customize a race against AI. Or to receive a "free" car.

 

[cuco33]

Wolfe, do what I do... just buy the cards at the stores and be done with tieing up a credit/debit card to XBL/PSN. I had my account compromised (XBL + FIFA12 UT hack stuff) and had a CC tied to my PSN the same year. I will never put another card on file for any game system again so it's all buying cards for online/MS XBL/PSN credits/points and nothing more.

See the thing with me is that FM4 isn't the only game I play so the XBL Gold cost is a single cheap cost which gives me everything Gold comes with for every game, X360's features, etc. And you better believe that Sony is not going to miss out on charging to play online or use certain features for the next PS system!

You don't even need XBL to drop a game's online modes many years from now (and withFM2 it happened already). EA has already dropped online services from a game launched not even a year from the date they pulled the plug...


And I'm with you Jamezinho.. PC racing sims look great as to what's out now (in beta = pCARS) to what is hitting the shelves soon enough (GTR3/rFactor2)

 

[Wolfe]

I'm pretty sure the card attached to my XBL account is about to expire, so I'll be following your advice. 👍 The ease with which you can buy and spend MS points with the attached card is a bit frightening.

That's a good point about FM2, I forgot about that. That example goes to show that some people still prefer to play the older titles. A sequel isn't automatically better for everyone.

 

[doctorrg]

At 11/month you're wasting money. Get the annual and be done with it. In a few months you won't even miss those spent bucks.

At 11 a month your pretty much buying two year passes, with an extra 11 dollars on the side to buy another month. $50 can seem like a good lump of money in the beginning but i really recommend getting that from the get go.

Can you use passes from a different country? The cheapest I've seen in Australia was A$69 for 14 month, haven't even seen 12 month any cheaper. And all of those state that these cannot be sold outside of Australia. Does that mean I cannot use passes from another country within Australia? Or can I?

And yes, I was/am considering a yearly membership, but I'm already playing Forza 4 less (as in actual racing), after just 2 short month, and who knows, in 4 month I may not play it at all anymore. If I'd pay A$70 for a yearly pass I only use 4 month of, I'd have paid more than A$17/month, which is a lot more expensive than A$11/month. Just some things to consider.

The best LIVE Gold deal is actually the family pack/year. 4 accounts for like $100/year. So if you have 3 other buddies, that's $25/year/each account.

Don't really have any close friends to share Xbox accounts with, most of my friends have a PS3, only a few play GT5, none play Forza 4. Besides, I don't think I'd want to go there. As far as I'm aware, whoever purchases the accounts, while holding all the control, is accountable for whatever happens from either of these accounts. Or is that incorrect?

 

[stevetam]

I will direly miss my gold for 8 days. Mine expires in late April, but due to willpower and exams, I'm not renewing until April 30....

In fact, its more like I direly miss XBOX too.

 

[doctorrg]

I direly miss mine already, and it hasn't even expired yet. I can already see myself missing out on all these awesome designs from may favorite painters, just because I can't get onto the auction house. And that really is the main reason for me at the moment as to why I'd really want to keep Gold. But now, these awesomely designed cars wouldn't just cost me heaps of in-game credits, but real money. Tough choice this one is, but I'll remain firm on not renewing for now. After all, I have been wasting way too much time in the auction house, and I don't really want to pay real money to see more of my time being wasted. I just can't stay away.

 

[Spagetti69]

After haven't raced for around 2months I popped on and had a bash tonight.
Damn I'm around 3 seconds slower than slippy. Trying to catch his rival around rd America was a laugh. Either he's improved Ive gone backwards or both lol.

Actually it's surprising how much pace you lose being out of the loop.
Anyhow I popped into the cycled production lobby where most people were mic'd up. Git into a bit of banter, called my moves and kept it clean. The lobby turned out to be a good one. A couple of idiots popped in but they were shown the door.

All in all a very stable 16 player lobby with all mics working and no lag. Leaderboards and storefronts were quick and responsive and I couldn't ask for more.

My other system used to take an age just to get into a lobby when I used to play it. Mind you online is free with that.

Would I pay for PSN? No.
Gold? Yes.
No complaints on either really. Ones free but not as good the other is a lot better.
Depends if you want to pay for a better experience. If someone is limited by the amount of online time they get in, then gold is the way for them. Hanging about and regular maintenance is not my cup of tea.

 

[doctorrg]

After all that, I faltered.

Was going to collect from my last set of auctions (figured I'd have till the end of the day) before signing off, only to realize I had been signed out. My Gold Membership had expired already. And there I was, greeted with the option to renew for A$10.95 for a month, and I said "No!", and reverted back to free! Yes, I thought! As soon as I had reverted back to free, I was greeted with a 2 month for A$2 limited time offer, and seeing I still had A$2+ left in the gift credit card linked to my account, I simply couldn't pass it up. So I signed up for another 2 month. All in all, that makes it 4 month of membership for A$4. Can't really complain here, now I just need to have more conviction to stay away from that bloody auction house. After all, I've got more money already than I'll ever need, so what's the point in keeping to pick up bargains to re-sell?

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Also make sure you keep an eye out for dealso on Amazon.com. They usually have gold for an entire year for only $39.99. I just bought 2 of those when they went on sale. One for my wife and one for myself. In fact I need to enter those codes very soon and cancel the auto renewal.

 

[cuco33]

I'm pretty sure the card attached to my XBL account is about to expire, so I'll be following your advice. 👍 The ease with which you can buy and spend MS points with the attached card is a bit frightening.

That's a good point about FM2, I forgot about that. That example goes to show that some people still prefer to play the older titles. A sequel isn't automatically better for everyone.

Tell me about it! It's the reason why the hacker that got into my account charged some 10k MS points, wiped those out and whatever points I had on FIFA12 UT stuff. I didn't even own FIFA12 yet and I had achievements for Ultimate Team related stuff! lol

Got it all refunded and my points credited back but a new card was ordered and I didn't put it on file, nor will I ever (not for XBL nor for PSN)

I learned through that fiasco that you can put a block on any purchase on your account so even if the account was compromised no purchases can be made.

 

[imported_racer22]

Gold is good. But I love playing against my friends when they all meet at our house. This is where I believe Microsoft and forza is screwing me. They took out system link from forza so we now have to buy gold to enjoy the game with my friends under the same roof. That's what sucks

 

[stevetam]

After all that, I faltered.

Was going to collect from my last set of auctions (figured I'd have till the end of the day) before signing off, only to realize I had been signed out. My Gold Membership had expired already. And there I was, greeted with the option to renew for A$10.95 for a month, and I said "No!", and reverted back to free! Yes, I thought! As soon as I had reverted back to free, I was greeted with a 2 month for A$2 limited time offer, and seeing I still had A$2+ left in the gift credit card linked to my account, I simply couldn't pass it up. So I signed up for another 2 month. All in all, that makes it 4 month of membership for A$4. Can't really complain here, now I just need to have more conviction to stay away from that bloody auction house. After all, I've got more money already than I'll ever need, so what's the point in keeping to pick up bargains to re-sell?

Be careful when you give XBL your CC information. While it seems like a good deal, if the have you CC info they will try to auto-renew XBL which will cost a fortune compared to that rate or a XBL sub that is on sale. That's why I only use prepaid cards so I don't have to tell MS to 🤬 off and cancel the renewing.

EDIT: MS has made it easier to stop this. Make sure you do this if they have your CC info! http://support.xbox.com/en-US/billi...management/cancel-xbox-live-gold-subscription

 

[doctorrg]

Be careful when you give XBL your CC information. While it seems like a good deal, if the have you CC info they will try to auto-renew XBL which will cost a fortune compared to that rate or a XBL sub that is on sale. That's why I only use prepaid cards so I don't have to tell MS to 🤬 off and cancel the renewing.

EDIT: MS has made it easier to stop this. Make sure you do this if they have your CC info! http://support.xbox.com/en-US/billi...management/cancel-xbox-live-gold-subscription

Already done. Switching auto-renew off was the first thing I did. Same as last time I did the 2 month for A$ 2 deal. I actually did let it expire and passed on the option to renew (they actually ask you again, even if you told them you don't want to renew). Once I had reverted back to free, I did sign up for another deal, and immediately switched auto-renew off again. There's only A$ 3.xx left in that gift credit card anyway, so they'd have a hard time charging $A 10.95.

Thanks for the warning, though! 👍