Exactly.

What is my main e-mail account? A free Gmail account.

Friends list? Who doesn't offer this these days? Steam, ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, etc.

Messaging? See the above.

Stats or matchmaking? See the above.

Free multi-player/matchmaking? See, oh, every PC game out there? I do admit there has been a recent attempt to make people pay for this.....by Microsoft....using Windows Live.....

Web browsing? Past the single charge I pay for my ISP, free (even the asshats that add "perks" for paying customers let me acccess their site for free.)

That is not to mention all the websites that offer superior products for cheaper prices (similar to iTunes) or completely free.

Again, given the 20% premium we are now paying for 360 games coupled with the advertising aspects (demonstrations, promotions, community events, direct advertisements, user trend tracking, etc.) and the service's extremely anemic features, the only reason they are charging for this is to nickel and dime everybody.
Speaking of nickel and dime, take a look at, oh, any purchaseable item on Live.
Having spent $0 on Live, but having purchased for the Wii virtual console,
Ray

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I'm william Shatner and I'm a shaman - what's your game?
http://www.livejournal.com/users/raymarden/
I love you, mom.