WEBVTT - TechStuff Looks at OnLive 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.880 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.119 Welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette and 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:22.079 I am an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:24.759 Sitting in a crust from me as always the senior writer, 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.440 Jonathan Strickland. Now, the way this story ends is that 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:30.760 they get married and he goes on to become governor 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:33.199 of the state. Never he gets to Australia, but it 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:35.479 keeps reading a lot of books about it. I get 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:37.440 to be sure of this town, and then I go 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.839 on to become one of the most beloved characters in 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:46.279 Western folklore. All right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Today we are 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.559 going to have a podcast discussion about a topic that 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:53.760 comes to us courtesy of a little Facebook feedback you 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.240 And this is from Jackson who says, wondering if you 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.840 guys could do a podcast about the on Live game system. 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:02.560 Does it work? What kind of games are on it? 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.560 Is it a serious contender and the console market? Thanks? 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:09.600 I love your podcast, Thanks Jackson, appreciate that. Um. Yeah, 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:11.520 we've talked about on Live a couple of times before. 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.119 But a lot of the discussion we had came before 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.840 the the service actually launched. Yes, you s had at ces, 0:01:19.319 --> 0:01:24.560 did you not? Three three? Yeah? I heard about It 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:26.240 was E three where I actually got my hands on 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.680 it and I enjoyed the experience. Then, yeah, it was 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.920 kind of neat. The concept is that it's it's Internet 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:38.000 streamed video games, and not the kind of video games 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:39.880 that you usually find on the web, like you know, 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.440 Bejeweled or Farmville or any of those sort of things. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.560 We're talking about the kind of video games that you see, 0:01:45.760 --> 0:01:49.760 like like the hardcore games on PC, Mac and and 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.320 your your video game console systems. Yes, like Slice of 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:57.760 Death three Assassin's Creed would be a good one, which 0:01:57.840 --> 0:02:00.440 you know, shouldn't might as well be called Slice of 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:03.440 Death three. I just wanted to say a Slice of Death. 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:07.040 Slice of Death anyways, that's just making me think of 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:13.200 a cake or death. I'll take cake alright. So um, 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.280 but but yeah, this is this is a really different 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.800 model for gaming because, um, for the longest time, we've 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:26.280 been buying games for consoles or computers in which you know, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.320 you go out, you buy your cartridge or your disk 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.960 or disks. In some cases um, and you pop it 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:38.480 into the machine. Um. In. In some of the older games, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.520 you would buy the magazine on the news stand, type 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:43.480 the code into your machine, have it compile and you 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.080 could run the game. But yeah, I mean you were 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:49.160 actually buying something and taking it home and plugging it in. Now, 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.520 of course, we have online gaming, We've had it for 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.440 quite some time now, where you buy the game, you 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.960 plug it into your machine, you connect to the internet, 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:58.840 and you play with other people online. But this is 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:01.280 a completely different model. It's not even the same as 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.520 buying a game from say Steam and downloading a team machine. 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:08.880 In this case, the game itself is in the cloud. 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.320 It's in the internet where you are not. You don't 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:17.600 need to uh put the software on your machine at all. Um. 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.200 In fact, you can run these games on PCs and 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:25.120 max and also on a little on Live console right 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.200 and then and then the console doesn't require you to 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.560 go out and buy anything either. You This is all 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:31.640 done online. Yeah. Once you get the console, you just 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.720 hook it up to your router and then you can 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:36.400 play games. You know, you you hook it up to 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:37.840 your router, you hook it up to your TV, and 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.200 then you can play these great PC games mostly PC 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.120 games on your television, and uh, it's it's really kind 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.880 of an interesting concept. And here's here's the big draw 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:52.880 with this concept. The big draw is that the barrier 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.360 to PC gaming in general is that you have to 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.560 keep upgrading your machine in order to stay current with 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.880 the latest games. Well, we've talked about More's laws so 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:08.200 many times, where the processor speeds continually get faster, and 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:14.160 in fact they are essentially doubling every months depending on 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.720 upon whom you ask, and uh, game development cycles run 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.440 about actually about that long to years, two to five years. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.360 So people are developing games and they want to in 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:30.200 order to sell the living daylights out of a game. Um, 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:33.039 they want to take advantage of the latest hardware. They 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:37.160 must on the bleeding edge. Like the idea for most games, 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:40.560 like we're talking the hardcore games again, is that if 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:43.440 you turn all the graphics settings all the way up, 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:46.320 you are going to need the fastest machine that's on 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.400 the market in order to run it when it when 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.720 the game launches, right, So you can still play the game, 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:53.640 but you don't have to play it at you know, 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:56.240 you have to dial down the graphics. Most of them 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:58.960 have settings where you can say all right, Well, my 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.120 processors not as fast as the one that they recommend, 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.200 so I will turn it down now. This this also 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.160 extends the shelf life of those video games, right, because 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:09.800 it means that you know, three months from now you 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.760 might get the computer that can really run it at 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.080 its at its peak. Yeah. And in my personal experience, 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:20.159 there is this uh lovely honeymoon right after you buy 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.799 the computer where when you pick up the game box 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:25.920 in your hand, you look at the system requirements. The 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.640 machine that you just bought beats all those system requirements, 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:30.000 and you take it home and you have this great 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.240 experience where you get to run everything flat out. And 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:36.040 then like a year, year and a half, two years later, 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.680 you look at the box like, well, you know, I've 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.440 got the bare bones system requirements. I should be okay, 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.200 and you are okay, but you can't take advantage of it. 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.760 And then you get another year two years later you 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:48.840 started looking at it like how much do I have 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.760 to turn off in order to play this game? Well, see, 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.160 I think you're being really ambitious with the year to 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.040 a year and a half thing. For me, it felt 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.760 more like three weeks later I suddenly employ the latest games. Well, 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:05.280 here you know, uh, those of our listeners who are 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:07.360 long term listeners know that I am primarily a Mac 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.240 person at home, although I have Windows and Linux available 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.760 to me as well. Um, Mac, Mac games and PC 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:15.640 games are a little bit different because Mac games have 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.919 a lot longer shelf life. Now PC games the the 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:22.440 If you're a PC gamer, you know that you expect 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:25.240 to see a game full price for I don't know, 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:27.880 probably six to eight months really, I would say, and 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.280 then before you know it, it's in the bargain bin 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.960 for ten bucks. Yeah. I mean it makes sense when 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.280 you think about the way the development cycles work, right 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:41.200 because because Mac computers get updated on a very deliberate pace. 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:46.560 Yeah they really, it's dictated by Apple. So when you're 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.000 a developer for a video game, you know that, uh, 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:51.840 at least you have a pretty good idea that you're 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:55.080 that the hardware is going to remain consistent on Mac 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:57.840 for a given amount of time. Usually it's a couple 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.320 of years, and really it's probably about two years between 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:04.280 major updates. So that means that for two years your 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:08.160 game is gonna run like new on all machines sold 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:13.120 after a certain date. PCs are like absolute chaos in 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.880 comparison because you have multiple manufacturers, you have multiple UM 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:23.360 chip manufacturers, so you've got you know, different processors out there. Uh, 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.560 what is going to be the fastest MAC is gonna 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:27.480 be the fastest MACK for two years. What's gonna be 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:30.000 the fastest PC is gonna be the fastest PC for 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:34.400 maybe a month. You know. So with that kind of 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.360 of rush, then you've got the rush to keep up 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.480 in order to play games. We kind of really cut 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.440 off track here, but on Live, well that the thing 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:46.000 gets around that. Well, yeah, that's the that's the whole thing. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:47.680 You don't have to be with on Live. You don't 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.320 have to be caught up in worrying about whether or 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:54.960 not you have this hardware installed in your machine. You 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.480 don't have to worry about the cost of the game 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.320 on the shelf. Um, what you really need to do 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:04.480 is worry about the cost of the monthly subscription. Yeah, 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.640 well two things, the monthly subscription in your monthly internet bill. 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:13.520 That's true because one of the big things about this alright, 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.200 so so online they're worrying about the equipment costs. They're 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.320 worrying about making sure that their machines are going to 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.160 run the latest games at the at the best possible 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.640 UM levels. And then what they do is they're going 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.240 to compress the video that is generated and then shoot 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.440 it to you, the customer. Yeah, that's the trick. That's 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.920 how they do it. They they are compressing the video 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.600 output of these games to improve the compatibility with multiple 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.680 systems and to and cut down on latency issues. Yeah. 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:47.120 So your your Mac or PC or that little console 0:08:47.200 --> 0:08:51.120 that we talked about, they have within them a decoder 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.040 that will decompress the video as it comes in. Is 0:08:55.080 --> 0:09:01.040 it far Go North decode or um the Uh no, no, 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.760 not that kind of decoder. I'm not that Southern anyway. 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:10.000 The the the device or the software will decompress this 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.520 video stream so that you can view it theoretically in 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:17.439 its full glory. And it's based in the framework of 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.920 the interface. Right. So in the case of the PC 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:23.600 and MAX software, you've got this interface that you use 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.839 to access all these games, and the interface in theory 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:31.920 will display the game at its highest possible resolution without 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:35.640 taxing your computer because the real work is being done 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:39.040 in the cloud. Um, that's not always how it works out, 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.720 because a lot of it depends upon your internet speed, 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:45.320 your broadband speed, as well as how far away you 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.000 are from the server center that the online server center. 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:55.600 The further away you are in general, the poorer your uh, 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:59.880 your experience could be. Now poor is a given, you know, 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:04.400 that's subjective, right For one person may say if if 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.679 there's even a flicker, like even a hint of an artifact, 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:11.000 then that the situation is terrible and dire and you 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:12.600 should never do it and you should just get it. 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:14.520 You should just spend all the money for a gaming 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:18.000 PC or a console and stick with that. Other people 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.600 would say, you know what, I'm playing for the experience, 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.800 and an artifactor to every now and then because of 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.040 internet speeds or whatever isn't gonna bother me, and they 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.800 wouldn't call it poor at all. So your your mileage 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.560 may vary, is what I'm getting around to here right now. UM, 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.320 when you were talking about artifact basically, UM, if you've 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.439 watched digital video, UM, I find it true for DVRs 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:46.480 especially UH and something is moving very quickly on screen 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.440 for example. I'm just saying this as an example, UM, 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:53.599 but you might see blocky things look blocky or pixelated. 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:56.720 That's essentially what we're talking about. We're talking about artifacts right, 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:58.960 that the you would have problems with the images. They 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.760 wouldn't look smooth and crisp. It would look uh, there 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.920 might be some lag time on on the screen. And 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:08.880 by latency too, I realized I hadn't explained what that means. Um. 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.040 That has to do with your connection, whether or not 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.839 you're making a a fast connection with the servers, if 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:19.240 the packets of data are being held up on one 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:21.600 or more of the servers along the route between you 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:24.480 and the game center. That's what we're talking about latency. 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:29.080 So um by by compressing the video in the games, basically, 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:33.320 they're hoping that there will be fewer problems seeing the video. 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.760 The video will look smooth and you won't have a 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.320 lot of issues with the speed of the information because 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.280 a lot of these games that they're they're talking about 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:45.120 talking about Assassin's creed Um, these are games where being 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.240 behind by just a little bit is going to hamper 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.360 your ability to play the game significantly. Yeah. I've read 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:55.360 reviews and I have played some online games. I played 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.599 the I played the the PC based ones. Actually I 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:00.440 think it was a MAC based one was about an 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.040 E three. Uh, they had several stations open and I 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.640 got to try a couple of the things out. Um, 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:10.120 the lag issue is one that can initially be a 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.559 little irritating. And lag, of course as when we're talking 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.680 about the time between when you tell the computer to 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.679 do something and the time it actually does it. So 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:20.920 let's say you hit that jump button and there's a 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.680 very short lag. I mean usually the lag is we're 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:28.000 talking less than a second in most cases. Um. Even 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.000 so we can perceive that that less than a second 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:34.320 is easily perceptible, and it can throw you off at first. 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:36.600 But a lot of the reviews I've read have said 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:39.120 that once you get used to it, it's really not 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.760 that bad, Like you start to adjust for it without 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:46.360 even thinking about it, So the gameplay doesn't really suffer 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.000 after at least after you've gotten acclimated to it. So 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.079 you can still have a really good gaming session despite 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:54.719 the fact that there may be a tiny bit of 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:58.000 lag involved. Um. And I mean I've even played console 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:03.959 games where controls did not see incredibly responsive. So this 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:06.640 is not limited to just the cloud. We actually see 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.960 this on native machines sometimes as well, But it's one 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.599 of those things people worry about. Also, you mentioned the 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.800 subscription there there are actually two different models on Live. Uh. 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:23.240 They call it the play pack plan. Because play pack plan, 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:25.959 it's gonna be impossible for me to say that it 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:29.440 is too many ps and els. Okay, so play pack 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:36.520 plan and the play pass plan, and these two plans 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.880 are one of those subscription based is the play pack 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:45.559 where it's nine dollars a month to play any of 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.280 the games that are within that play pack library. Yes, 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:52.640 and and I should also hasten to add that that 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.160 will not be all the games that are actually on 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.040 on Live. It's just gonna be the ones that are 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.160 available in that library. And that's pricing licensing problems there. 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:02.800 I would imagine that's the big issue because you know, 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.600 keep in mind Online is not making these games, they're 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.920 just making these games available, and they have to license 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:13.160 these games from the other companies. So you've got that one. 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.360 So you've got the subscription based service nine dollars nine 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.200 nine cents for all you can Eat, But it's from 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:20.520 like it's kind of like a restaurant all you can eat, 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:22.840 where the buffet does not have everything that's on the menu, 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:25.280 but you can eat everything that's in the buffet for 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:27.120 as much as you want for as long as you're 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.040 there until they throw you out. Now I'm hungry, you've 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.720 been have full hour the the Hey, that's a classic 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:40.160 comedy routine. The play pass plan is where you purchase 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:45.880 games and you usually you can purchase them for a 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.160 given amount of time, so three day pass or a 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.080 five day pass, or you can outright purchase the game 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.800 so that every time you lug into your online account, 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.000 you have access to that game. And you may wonder, 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:57.920 why get a three day pass or a five day pass. 0:14:57.960 --> 0:14:59.280 There are a lot of games out there that have 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:05.120 a RelA atively short uh a short session involved in 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.760 in completing the game. It doesn't mean that the game 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:09.640 is bad, it doesn't mean the game is not fun, 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.000 but you can you can get through it within you know, 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.960 ten hour gaming session. Yeah. So let's say that you 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:17.840 get a long weekend coming up. You may want a 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.440 three day pass to play through that one game and 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.000 just have that experience. And you know it's not going 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.520 to take you all weekend to do it, so there's 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:27.720 no point in and you know, you know, like maybe 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.880 there's not a lot of replay values to that game, 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:32.440 so you know, I'll just do this three days. Like 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:36.600 renting a game, um for others, like you know, really 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:38.520 really in depth games, you may want a full purchase 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.040 so that you can play it whenever you like. Yeah, yeah, 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.160 well it sort of depends on the games to what 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.840 the shorter games the story arcs versus you know, and 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.440 on something like a World of Warcraft which is not available. 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:53.520 But there are first person shooters that are and first 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.000 person shooters are are some of those games, like especially 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.160 the ones I have online play elements to them. You 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:01.680 can continually play. There's no end to the game. Yeah, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.720 you may want to you know, maybe a slow afternoon 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:06.520 and you're like, I want to jump online and and 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.240 you know, snipe some people. So that might be a 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.640 full purchase. So yeah, they've got these these two different plans, 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:15.800 and not all the games are going to be available 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:18.520 on each plan, so you're gonna have some overlap where 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.280 games are gonna be available under either and then you're 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:22.960 gonna have some games that are gonna be unique to 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.560 one plan or the other. So you've got a shop carefully. 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.720 Uh speaking of games, um, the last I read, there 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:33.320 was something like forty titles available, So that doesn't you know, 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:35.160 it doesn't sound like a whole lot I mean, you've 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:37.800 got game systems that launched with fewer titles than that, 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:39.680 But then on Live has been around for a little 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:43.600 while at least in the PC and Mac. Uh iterations. Yeah, 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.400 I'm sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, if 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.320 you think about it, though, if you compare it to consoles, 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.760 for example, you know, the we the three sixty, the 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.360 Xbox three sixty, or the PlayStation three, I would think 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:58.920 of these sort of his launch titles for a new 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:02.880 console system, like it's sort of proving that it works. 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.880 And I have the feeling that as more people sign 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.080 up to the services, that as marketing takes hold and 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.320 more people understand what online is, and uh, they get 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:14.120 some more reviews in it about because the reviews I've 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.639 read have been generally positive. Um, I think I think 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:20.159 there may be more titles added to it in the future, 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.359 you know, and they plan on it. They say that 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:26.440 there are a lot more titles coming already. But um, 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:28.760 and you make a good point. I mean, forty games 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.240 that launch, especially if if you're looking at the consoles, 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:35.160 specifically the console online console that just launched out as 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:39.000 of the recording of this podcast, Um, I mean forty 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.600 titles is is great, especially when you look at some 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:44.399 of the titles. I mean there there's some big name 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.040 titles in there. There are, um whereas when you look 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.400 at some of the consoles when they launched, sometimes sometimes 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.119 they launched with fewer than twenty titles. And so you know, 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.560 you you buy into it with the knowledge that for 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:59.800 a little while at least, you're gonna your options are limited. However, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.320 being said, a lot of those reviews that said positive 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:07.160 things about Online came with a lot of qualifications. Yeah. Uh. 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:12.080 For example, it depends very heavily upon the speed of 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:16.240 your your broadband access. That's true, and we have mentioned 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:21.080 many times in this podcast that, uh speeds are relative. Um, 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.720 the United States is not a country with the fastest 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:28.520 broadband speeds in the world. Actually have some figures are yeah. Um. 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:34.400 According to it depends upon which experts or which which 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.200 company you you look at to see what the average 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.199 speed is. Yeah, and speed we're talking about megabits per 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:44.760 second here. Uh. Now Online suggests that to play the 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.000 really intense games, the ones that are really graphic intensively, 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.600 you know, Assassin's Creed, that kind of thing, you want 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:54.720 five megabits per second downstream? Yeah. Uh that's pretty fast. 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.080 That's faster than my internet access. But then I don't 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:01.080 use my internet access to do online gaming. True for me, 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.399 I could upgrade to a faster service if I wanted to, 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:09.679 I just don't need it. So, according to net Index, 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:13.359 the average megabets per second speed in the United States, 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.080 I can't believe this is true. It's ten point oh seven. 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:21.879 Now at the beginning of two thousands, yes, ten point 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:26.160 oh seven. The information I've seen from other three point nine. 0:19:27.240 --> 0:19:30.960 That was the beginning of the big the average was 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.800 three point nine eight. But according to now this still 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:40.320 has the United States ranking thirty second worldwide as far 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:42.879 as speeds go. And I think the reason why that 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:44.959 number is so high is because you do have a 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:51.680 few select markets that have insane data transfer rates, like 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.359 in the fifty megabits per second range. So we're in 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.160 some places megabets per second, which are that's throwing off 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.520 the average because I can tell you that I've never 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:06.040 seen a speed faster than three megabits per second. Yeah, 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.760 and I just get that, I just get three that Yeah, 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.800 that's my maximum. I've never gotten that high, right, I've 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.560 never even gotten to three. My my tests tend to 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.600 be actually tends to be like one point five. But 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.119 there's some regions that get really fast service. Now, that 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.119 was net Index saying ten point oh seven. Uh, speed 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:28.359 test dot net is slightly different, but not by a 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.280 whole lot nine point eight nine megabits per second. I'm 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:38.520 living in the wrong neighborhood using the wrong I s P. Yeah, 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.800 and well, while the net Index has the United States 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:47.360 at the thirty second ranked globally, um speed Test has 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.560 US at thirty three, so we actually drop a place 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.160 in that one the top. Do you want to take 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:57.880 a wild stab at what the top nation is as 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:03.440 far as as data transfer rates? Iceland, No, darn would 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:05.400 have to be South Korea. Then there you go. That's 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:09.440 it South Korea. I know Iceland is as pretty fast 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:13.800 broadband too, but yeah, yeah, I mean Latvia is up there. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:18.960 So Latvia is smaller than the United States. That is true, Chris, 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:23.440 thank you for that input. So South Korea, Yeah, that's 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:25.960 that is also true. So at any rate we're talking 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:28.479 about these these uh, you know, you have to have 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:30.879 about five megabits per second to have a really good 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:34.080 experience on online, and according to these figures, there are 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.600 plenty of laces of the United States that do have these. 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:42.200 It's not US, but some people apparently do. Uh So 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:46.280 if you do have that high speed broadband and and 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.359 it's it's you know, reliable at at those speeds, like 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:55.200 you you reliably get five megabits per second downstream or better, 0:21:56.280 --> 0:22:00.880 then this might be a good approach for you. Um yeah. 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:03.840 I also I think it's interesting when you sign up 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.639 for an account with on live um. There's no fee 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.320 to sign up for an account, and in fact there's 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.160 no contract. So once you sign up for account, then 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:15.320 you you choose one of these monthly plans or you know, 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:18.280 for a for a play pass for a few days. Um. 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:20.679