I already frickin paid, why am I entering this?

They have to recoup the cost somehow, and a $50 a year charge is one of those ways. $177 million in losses is what MS reported for the last quarter alone on the Xbox.

I will admit, I am very impressed with the XBox Live setup. Being broadband only is gutsy, but should make the experience better for all who can participate. The Dreamcast didn't live long enough to show how well online play would do on the console front, and the PS2 and Gamecube don't have any huge overall strategy. I will however like to point out that the XBox has no advantage over any other console for how ready it is out of the box for online play. Every current selling console requires me to buy something after the fact to enable online play.

And FYI for all the gamers, Unreal Tournament 2003 = Unreal Championship for the most part. Only minor differences exist like the built in voice chat, but beyond that they started their life as one game about two years ago. I'm pretty sure it's even the exact same build of the Unreal engine. So if you are like me and can't stand console FPS action, pick up the PC version.

For the record, I do own an Xbox, but see no games that interest me in getting XBox Live currently. I will however be on when Steel Battalion 2 comes out.