Xbone online status.

[BlasteroidAli]

The Critic touched on this on this great review of Rare revealed.

Okay it is an online console and that is fine if you are online all the time or have a steady internet connection. I normally have a great one but recently there has been days it has not been working. Guess what? It plays hell with the bone. I set it up so it will play offline but that does not matter to the bone. Everything needs to be sinked with the online saves. I have not even enabled them. I thought that was the reason for the 500 gig hard drive.

If I can point to one thing I do not like about this system it is that. Really they need to think outside of the box. Not everyone wants to be connected to the mighty cloud. Not everyone thinks it is a good thing. Esp not for console gaming.

Now I am waiting for the Nintendo announcement of their next console. If they get it right I could be back to buy Nintendo. Or I might just junk the bone and get a ps4.

[Tron]

I don't have the One or the PS4, but from what I've read it appears that the PS4 is a more offline friendly console. Can anyone confirm or dispute that?

For me what it's all going to come down to is which system handles Fallout 4 better. Last generation the Xbox won that fight. I'd prefer PS4 wins this time though as I don't want online dependence.

[VideoGameCritic]

I can definitely confirm the PS4 is a more offline-friendly console. I've had both consoles online, but I prefer to keep them offline.

The Xbox One has an offline mode but its software seems to ignore it. When you get a new game it tells you you must go online to install the updates, as if it's mandatory. You don't really need to, but you'll deal with a lot of strange error messages and navigate menu options. Likewise if you choose the "help" function on a game, it will immediately spring into "helping to get you back online" mode. It seems like the games all tend to assume you're online, and behave poorly when you're not. Rare Replay was a prime example - it was truly crippled by not being online. And there's no good reason why a collection of old games should be like that. That's why I docked the grade.

My PS4 works fine offline, although the games do tend to complain "Online features will not work!" Well no kidding.

[ptdebate]

There's a lot of back and forth about this on the forum--probably too much--but I was just struck with one question. Why do you keep your consoles offline? Do you have a metered connection? Is it just a matter of principle--that new consoles should behave exactly the same as consoles from the 80s and 90s? I'm not challenging anything, just genuinely curious why you'd prefer to keep them offline.

[Rookie1]

I have no real reason to keep my PS3 online. I don't play online games, and if I'm logged in I have to sit through endless updates every time I turn it on. If I want to play GTA V for a few minutes to blow some stuff up, I don't want to sit through 15 minutes of updates first. I shouldn't have to have an online connection to be able to play a working game or even to just work my system. Hell, my PC doesn't even require an online connection to function. The standard of requiring an online connection is just silly.

[VideoGameCritic]

There's a lot of back and forth about this on the forum--probably too much--but I was just struck with one question. Why do you keep your consoles offline? Do you have a metered connection? Is it just a matter of principle--that new consoles should behave exactly the same as consoles from the 80s and 90s? I'm not challenging anything, just genuinely curious why you'd prefer to keep them offline.

I don't mind the back-and-forth. I like your question. Here is why I like to keep my consoles offline:
1. I prefer to review a game in its original unadulterated form.
2. As soon as I put my console online, I'm bombarded with time-consuming updates. And here's the thing - I don't want or need them. But they become mandatory when your system is online. When offline the games fire right up. Plus there are a lot less annoying notifications popping up (new update available!).
3. I don't want to be pestered to buy DLC or microtransactions.
4. I have no interest in sharing my gaming activity with Microsoft, Sony, or social media. Don't want to be targeted by advertisers.
5. Some games blur the line between online and off. For example, you might get dropped into a shop screen that lets you buy items with real money. When you're offline you don't have to worry about stuff like that.

I guess the question is, why do people keep their consoles ONline? I know the only reason I do that with my PS4 is to play my friend in another state. Otherwise it would not be worth the effort for me.

[David]

I guess the question is, why do people keep their consoles ONline? I know the only reason I do that with my PS4 is to play my friend in another state. Otherwise it would not be worth the effort for me.

I keep all of mine connected for multiple reasons. One, I want the updated version of the games I have installed. Yeah, I wish they were error-free out of the box, but that's unrealistic with how large games have gotten with sometimes hundreds of people worming on them. Two, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have all updated their respective system's OS in meaningful ways since launch, so having that is nice. Three, I'm a PS Plus and Xbox Gold member, so I frequently download "free" games/discounted games.

Lastly (and this is the biggest reason), if I wasn't always online, and waited weeks or months to connect my console for any of the above reasons or to play online with a friend, I would be innundated with updates because I neglected to keep my console updated. Most of my updates and downloads happen when I'm not playing. Rarely do I have to wait to play anything, and if I do, I can generally start a game and have it download in the background.

As long as someone doesn't have a data cap with their ISP, I don't see too many positives for not having their console connected.

[ptdebate]

I don't mind the back-and-forth. I like your question. Here is why I like to keep my consoles offline:
1. I prefer to review a game in its original unadulterated form.
2. As soon as I put my console online, I'm bombarded with time-consuming updates. And here's the thing - I don't want or need them. But they become mandatory when your system is online. When offline the games fire right up. Plus there are a lot less annoying notifications popping up (new update available!).
3. I don't want to be pestered to buy DLC or microtransactions.
4. I have no interest in sharing my gaming activity with Microsoft, Sony, or social media. Don't want to be targeted by advertisers.
5. Some games blur the line between online and off. For example, you might get dropped into a shop screen that lets you buy items with real money. When you're offline you don't have to worry about stuff like that.

I guess the question is, why do people keep their consoles ONline? I know the only reason I do that with my PS4 is to play my friend in another state. Otherwise it would not be worth the effort for me.

I can only speak for myself. First of all, I play games online with my friends a lot. We all have busy schedules so very seldom do I actually get to host game nights. I also like online competition in games like Halo and Killer Instinct. Some games, such as Bloodborne, Monster Hunter, and Dark Souls, are designed with that online multiplayer experience in mind.

But the big reason? The one that actually undermines any potential reason for keeping my console disconnected?

Being online with the 8th-generation consoles is actually the only way to avoid sitting through updates. This is due to one critical feature that the 7th-gen consoles lacked: a standby setting. If you only connect your console to the internet every now and then instead of leaving it connected, you'll more than likely be hit with multiple updates to sit through. I've heard that it can add a dollar or two to your electric bill, but I personally have not noticed a change. I keep both the PS4 and Xbox One in this setting at all times when not in use.

This is how it works: when it's not in use, the console goes to sleep and performs background tasks, kind of like the "Power Nap" function that Macs have. If you keep them offline, you're going to have to connect to update eventually when you start to lose basic compatibility with certain titles (one of the reasons why the Xbox is so aggressive about updates is that they released an OS revision that actually allowed devs to utilize 10% more GPU power by disabling Kinect), on the odd chance that you want to play a game online, or when a publisher unfortunately ships a broken game and has to fix it. When you only connect to the Internet *sometimes* is when you're hit with a tidal wave of updates all at once. Kind of like when you try to do a fresh installation of Windows 7 SP1 and your PC takes days to catch up to the latest version.

It sounds like being offline has presented more difficulty with your Xbox One than otherwise precisely because all the game software seems to expect an internet connection. You've mentioned before in this thread that you get prompts for updates even when your console is disconnected. Nintendo has a really smart way of handling these situations where they actually put the latest system software version on the actual game discs so you don't have to go online to secure proper functionality. Xbox, however, does not play nice off the grid.

Perhaps it's because I've gotten used to it (and because of how it's still leagues easier than PC gaming, which I do also engage in), but none of these things you list have ever been a nuisance for me. The only targeted advertising I ever see on the Xbox One come in the form of suggestions from Microsoft regarding games I might like. They don't really help me in any way since I only buy games when they're on sale and mostly in-store rather than digitally, but they're hardly an annoyance. I barely even notice they're there.

Although I've never actually seen a real-money store inside a console game, I can think of one example from last generation that a friend told me about--namely, Crysis 3. I thought that sounded ridiculous, but if you don't store your credit card information on your console (and I know you don't), then why is it so scary? And how does being disconnected from the internet change the fact that that game was designed with in-game microtransactions? That's a problem that's fundamental to the game. The fact that those microtransactions even exist throws the whole thing off balance. If they want to encourage people to spend money for powerups, they'll slow down the character progression curve or artificially increased the difficulty in some way in order to drive purchases, which is precisely how a lot of MMOs work. That's the game's fault, and cutting out the internet connection doesn't do much to remedy it.

[Atariboy]

Yet staying offline doesn't seem to help any with much of that, judging by your posts. I think that's where the confusion rests since it's unclear exactly what conveniences you're enjoying by going this route with your modern consoles.

Being pestered with ads for instance doesn't seem any less appealing to me than being pestered to constantly connect to a server (As you've complained about many times). Or your disinterest in time consuming updates that would be far less of a hassle I suspect were you to stay connected and allowed things like the OS to update when the system is turned off, since like it or not, you've clearly demonstrated with titles like Rare Replay that you can't escape the internet completely and still play XB1 titles.

Instead with the direction you've gone in, you can conceivably start a new XB1 game like Rare Replay and instead of just installing it and letting it download the files it needed, you could have multiple firmware updates to go through first before doing anything, that could've been handled in the background as they became available with no hassle on your part had you allowed it.

Staying offline just makes it all the more difficult when you're forced to connect.

Some games blur the line between online and off. For example, you might get dropped into a shop screen that lets you buy items with real money. When you're offline you don't have to worry about stuff like that.

While I've never encountered that scenario that you mentioned (I only own a Wii U for current gen console hardware), I don't see having an error message splashed on the screen urging you to connect to Xbox Live or diagnose a connection issue since you choose to stay offline, as preferable to what you're avoiding. You're still being annoyed about an aspect of modern gaming you don't care for, either way you go.

I guess the question is, why do people keep their consoles ONline?

I go online with my 360, PS3, Wii U, and recent handhelds since it improves my experience more than it harms it.

Sometimes I enjoy playing games online, I enjoy aspects like leaderboards in classic arcade games that provide an experience reminiscent of the high score screen of years gone by, I like keeping an eye on what some close friends of mine are up to, I like games like Afterburner Climax that wouldn't otherwise be available at home were digital distribution a non-option, I like functionality that sometimes is added via firmware updates, etc.

I hate the ads, I hate how some publishers willingly ship incomplete software and resort to huge day 1 patches (Or worse, never fix anything), I hate season passes, I hate stripping out content that traditionally would've been included from the start just to sell it via microtransactions, I hate what it's done to the classic compilation business model, etc.

Yet there's much that the online experience brings to the equation that actually does benefit my experience, which allows me to overlook within reason some of the annoyances it brings to the table and necessary evils like a reasonable form of DRM or user accounts.

And much of what I don't like, there's no real escaping it short of simply not buying a modern console. Going offline just yields more hassles than it solves.

[ActRaiser]

I don't mind the back-and-forth. I like your question. Here is why I like to keep my consoles offline:
1. I prefer to review a game in its original unadulterated form.
2. As soon as I put my console online, I'm bombarded with time-consuming updates. And here's the thing - I don't want or need them. But they become mandatory when your system is online. When offline the games fire right up. Plus there are a lot less annoying notifications popping up (new update available!).
3. I don't want to be pestered to buy DLC or microtransactions.
4. I have no interest in sharing my gaming activity with Microsoft, Sony, or social media. Don't want to be targeted by advertisers.
5. Some games blur the line between online and off. For example, you might get dropped into a shop screen that lets you buy items with real money. When you're offline you don't have to worry about stuff like that.

I guess the question is, why do people keep their consoles ONline? I know the only reason I do that with my PS4 is to play my friend in another state. Otherwise it would not be worth the effort for me.

1. Makes sense
2. True, but on the 360 the game updates are quick. And if you have PS Plus, the updates on the PS3 will occur in the background, you just need to configure your PS3 accordingly. The PS4 handles it the same way.
3. I'm not sure what games you're playing that pesters you with microtransactions. The only ones that I know of that do that on the console either do it clearly or were clearly designed around that business model. Short of being completely hammered while playing a game I can't fathom how someone could be pestered with DLC or microtransations to accidently purchase something.
4. After being a member of Xbox Live for 12+ years, this isn't an issue and has never once occurred to me on either Xbox or Sony's consoles. IMHO it's not a valid concern.
5. While I can appreciate the concern there aren't all that many games that have this that aren't already an online only game.

I had a thought, what type of wireless/wired connections do you have? If the updates are slow, perhaps, it's more of a network issue? For me Sony updates are terribly slow compared to the 360 updates. Outside of that the updates are pretty painless. There's an awesome wired connection you can get that will run over your electrical wires. Depending on how far away your Wi-Fi is it may help solve a number of issues. It solved my problem with our router upstairs and our gaming systems downstairs

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA4026-KIT-Powerline-Starter/dp/B010Q29KRK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445204268&sr=8-2&keywords=network+over+powerline

For me I keep mine online to play with friends, use Netflix, and listen to Pandora.