I have gone through three Xbox 360's. With all the uproar over people getting banned, how come no one here is talking about the failure rate of the console itself? It is criminal what MS has gotten away with this time around, and believe me cheating on Live has nothing to do with modded consoles. I play online on both services (Playstation Network and Xbox Live) and there is no requirement for your console to be modded for you to glitch in an online video game.
You can cheat just fine with a lag switch and no chip in your Xbox.
The first time my Xbox 360 failed, (RROD) I sent the box in with no argument. The second time I sent it, I got an Xbox belonging to someone else that RROD'd after TEN MINUTES of play. Ten minutes out of the box and it was useless. The third time it happened, I started to think how this console has over a fifty percent failure rate. Guess what? It is cheaper to have it repaired and modded at the same time. The last time I called Microsoft about the repair, I asked them to send me a new unit out of the box, or I was going to have it repaired by a competent technician and have the console modded. They sent me a cardboard box with an address label, I modded the console. Nothing has yet happened, I have a modded console and play online all the time.
Why are people here defending a company that put out something as badly designed as an Xbox 360? I have yet to hear this part of the argument and I am pretty damn sure most people who have one have either had this happen to them or know someone who does. To be completely honest, I pirate games all the time and could care less if I got banned or not. If I truly like a game, I buy it for Playstation. I simply will not support Microsoft after all the frustration and feel just fine about that decision. Has anyone here had to go through one RROD or more and had to deal with calling up the Microsoft Voicemail Helpline only to hear, "Well, to be honest, even though our failure rate was scraping 85 percent when we first shipped them, the numbers are significantly less now. If you want an extended warranty, that is $49.00".
"Well, If I got it modded...." Before anyone starts in on me. I have a lot of games I bought legitimately and play often, I never cheat and still use Xbox live primarily for private matches with just a close circle of friends and the Xbox for streaming media from my computer. When Microsoft starts using single use codes so legitimately block you from selling your disc back to a brick and mortar store a lot of people might see my side of the argument.
It's on it's way.