Do the Revolution?

That's a misleading title. Is a 360 not one full revolution? Steven Levy writes in his article at Newsweek about the experience of the 360 and the joys of worldwide communication that it brings. Okay, so that's not really the only thing he says, but it's one of the things I took from the article. He does, however, start the article with a great description of racing through New York at 100MPH. Wouldn't that be fun?

So what about this global network the XBox will bring? Well, the point he so casually make about a stalker interrupting him to play a network game in Project Gotham Racing 3 is what bothers me.

"But getting that message to chat from Westerby—the nom de joystick of a friend across the continent—illustrated Xbox 360's other big advance: being online is built directly into the experience."

Is it okay to not know you're online with your XBox? And random people are finding you and annoying you in the middle of your game? I'm sure that there's a way to turn off Live when you're playing, and I definitely don't blame Mr. Levy for not knowing he was connected and being bothered at the moment as I hear that the "Blades" are annoying to deal with and impossible to find anything in. So where does that leave the average player such as myself? Being bothered by people who want to challenge me, that's where.

I suppose after the first time I would turn off the option, but it's annoying to know that unless you're aware of every feature the new XBox has, things like this may happen. I know a lot of guys (yes, and gals) who would never bother reading a Getting Started flyer, never mind the user manual. I'm one of the odd ones that actually reads all that stuff before I digg (sic) in. I want to know what I've gotten myself into.

Of course, it's easy to be bitchy about a feature which you haven't experienced first hand, and while I'm racing through the streets of New York at 100MPH+ and having the time of my life, I'm sure a little notice popping up to announce a challenge isn't going to kill me. I'm probably bitter because I don't have one yet and probably won't in the foreseeable future because of the following reason:

"Making a commitment to Xbox 360 is expensive: $400 for the "premium" model, which is really the only logical one to buy. (The $300 version has no hard disk, a component fairly essential to the system.) That only begins the spending. Before most people leave the store, they should probably get a second wireless controller ($50) and, if they have a Wi-Fi household, a wireless Internet connector ($100). And, of course, games, for $50 to $60 each. (The premium Xbox 360 plays many but not all legacy Xbox titles.)"