Changes to the Xbox Live Subscription Experience

The launch of the new eighth generation game consoles rapidly approaches with November and December promising to be very interesting months indeed!

As a result of this our attention has once again been drawn to happenings via Microsoft's Xbox Live service, and the need to draw reader attention to those changes.

Due to changes in the Live subscription schemes as well as the elimination of the Microsoft Points scheme, and some contest-related items, it is time for us to remind you that it is time to review your preferences, your account information, and to verify that your account(s) have received the three free months subscription!

If you are confused or did not know about some of the changes taking place, well then read-on and we will enlighten you.

Regular gamers will doubtlessly be aware that Xbox Live is a paid-service that has a well established and very basic subscription scheme with two levels of access: Silver and Gold.

Silver Live -- Gamers who do not pay the monthly fee are grouped into the category of Silver Subscribers. At this level the gamer has registered a Gamertag (the name by which they are identified to the service), and has provided basic contact information to Microsoft.

Silver subscribers have very basic access to online gaming when that service is not hosted by Live or that offers free online play from publishers and studios who do not require a subscription fee,

The online aspect at this level is limited to being able to access the Live Marketplace, where games and game add-ons might be obtained using Microsoft Points (the MSP system has been converted to use real-world money, more on that in a bit).

Gold Live -- Gamers with a Gold Level subscription pay a modest monthly fee for which they are granted a number of worthwhile services, abilities, and resources. Gold subscribers get access to premium entertainment services like Hulu, with basic access to movies, tv, and music, and are offered a free video game each month via the Gaming with Gold promotion -- for October the free game is Halo 3 which is a very tasty treat for gamers who do not already own it.

Most games with an online and pvp mode require a Gold subscription for access to their servers and online services, and in addition to having access to the online modes for popular game series, Gold members have access to special promotions such as Free-to-Play Titles exclusive to subscribers which can be found in the Games Menu on Live, via the �featured� blade.

With all of those obviously valuable add-ons available for Gold Members it is clear that some care should be taken to ensure that their membership account is maintained properly, and with the changes taking place on the service and the conversion away from the now eliminated service schemes to the new schemes, now is the best time to review your account(s) to be sure that the conversions were done properly.

Changes Taking Place in Fall 2013

Much of the change that has taken place -- and that continues to take place -- is a result of Microsoft seeking to normalize the various aspects of its subscription services, particularly as they relate to Xbox Live and its interactions with online-aware games.

Beginning in August 2013 Microsoft began the process of converting subscriber accounts for its Live service -- particularly subscriptions that were part of service plans that have been phased out, altered, or that are no longer available. Depending upon the region of the world a gamer lives in a fairly wide variety of such plans were available.

Following changes that began in early 2013 whose aims are to revise and streamline those offerings, significant and even popular choices such as the Xbox Live Gold Family Plan and the Extended Gold (card-based point-of-sale) plan have now been removed from the list of subscription options.

The former was widely used in North America, while the latter saw its most popular use in other regions such as Central and South America and Australia. Both types of subscription scheme have been withdrawn from active use, and they can no longer be used to obtain new service via Xbox Live or to maintain the current level of services enjoyed by subscribers.

The point to both of those subscription plans was to offer gamers a significant discount on extended subscription or multiple subscription plans. The card-based system was widely used in regions where the use of credit cards and/or the automated subscription schemes available via the Xbox 360 Dashboard were either problematic or not available.

The Family Plan, used by gaming households in which multiple gamers resided, offered customers the ability to pay a single and deeply-discounted fee to provide Gold-Level subscriptions to all of the gaming members of the family. For the price of two standard per annum Gold subscriptions gamers who chose the Gold Family Plan were granted full Gold access for up to four Gamertags, along with a number of additional features unique to the plan.

Regardless of which specific plan -- Family or Card-based -- the subscriber opted for, each was stack-able -- that is to say that the customer could purchase multiple cards for the same service and redeem the codes for each so that the length of their Live subscription was extended per annum based upon the number of codes that were redeemed.

It was also possible to mix the different plans together to obtain a measure of services, subscription lengths, and discounts that were not originally conceived of as mutually compatible by Microsoft, and this may have played a role in the initial decision to restrict their use and, ultimately, to withdraw the subscriber programs from the market.

As of September of this year those services have been completely or partially closed, and the notice of the closings was accompanied by an announcement that all current Gold-Level subscriptions would be fully compatible with the new Home Gold scheme that has been created for the upcoming Xbox One game console and its associated Live services.

In several of the emailed notices, Microsofts Live Team revealed that �Through the new Home Gold feature on Xbox One, a single Xbox Live Gold membership will allow anyone in your home to enjoy many Gold features like multiplayer, access to Gold entertainment apps, and more on your Xbox One.�

According to numerous email notifications sent by Microsoft to subscribers beginning in early 2013, current and active subscriptions for the various schemes were to be converted to the standard Individual Xbox Live Gold Level Subscription Scheme.

Customers with active accounts so converted were to be compensated with some extra time added to their subscription for the loss of the value-added services that may have been part of the now redundant schemes. Microsoft explained this as follows:

�As a bonus, we will give each converted individual Xbox Live Gold membership from your Gold Family Pack an extra 3 months of Gold in addition to the time remaining on your membership term.�

Doing Away With Microsoft Points

As Microsoft went about converting the existing memberships over to the new and streamlined plans for subscription services it also notified subscribers of both the Silver and the Gold levels that it was doing away with the Microsoft Point System -- that being the online alternative to the use of real-world money for the purchase of games, game expansions and DLC, and the plethora of avatar and Gamertag related accessories and services.

When the Live Team notified subscribers that their account would shortly be converted to one of the new and more streamlined Gold Plans, they also notified subscribers of the impending changes to the Microsoft Points system, revealing that as Gold and Silver memberships were converted �any Microsoft Points you have in your Microsoft account will be retired.�

As part of the process of doing away with the Points scheme and changing the Live Marketplace over to a cash-in-hand sort of service, the Live Team revealed that they would be converting any outstanding Microsoft Point holdings in player's online wallets on the Live Service into real-world currency.

�We�ll add to your account an amount of currency equal to or greater than the Marketplace value of your Microsoft Points. You�ll receive confirmation of that transition separately.�

The confirmation took the form of follow-on email after the conversation process was completed on an individual account basis.

Verifying Your Account

If your account has not yet been reviewed by mid-October it will be soon and certainly prior to late November when the new Xbox One console is released.

Reading between the lines it appears that Microsoft has some far-reaching plans for not only games and the platforms that we play them on, but for our gaming identity -- all of which appears to begin with making sure that we receive what they say we will.

Not Just Free Time

When you are notified that your account has been converted to the new scheme the first thing you should do is verify that you received the extra free months.

Accomplishing that is as simple as logging into your Xbox 360 and navigating via the Dashboard to the Settings Menu, which is at the far-right of the main Dashboard and contains the options for System, Profile, Preferences, Kinect, Account, Privacy, and Family -- and also has its own power button you can use to turn off your 360.

Subscription Time -- Once you have been notified that your account has been converted, verifying that you have in fact received the free time as compensation for any irritation you might feel towards the process is dead easy.

You get to that by following this path: Dashboard >> settings > Account > Your Memberships > Xbox Live Gold.

If you were previously an Xbox Live Gold Family Pack member you will notice that that option is still present in the 'Your Memberships' page, but it is only there for the benefit of members who still have an unused Family Gold Subscription Card who still need to redeem it.

Presumably if they were to do so -- the display after conversion has all of the various display lines tagged with �N/A� which means Not Applicable -- the additional one-year of Gold would be applied to all of the accounts that were part of the original Family Plan, hence the retention of that option in the Membership page.

Loading the Xbox Live Gold page should reveal the following (with our settings here, yours will be different):

Membership: Xbox Live Prepaid 1 month Gold (the default entry)

Member since: 10/11/2013 (the date ours was converted and not the actual join date)

End Date: 3/15/2014 (Prior to conversion it said 12/15/2013)

Renewal: Off (that should be the default for annual subscribers)

Renewal Price: N/A (this is a new line)

Payment: Payment Form (Either Credit Card name or Prepaid)

If you check this page and the End Date does not include the three extra months you were to be given, you should contact Microsoft's Xbox Live Support Department and bring that matter to their attention as soon as you conveniently can.

You can reach Support in any one of the following ways:

Via the Web: support.xbox.com (this page will load the default page for your language)

You have a number of options available from here, and you will note that a red-box and link is present at the top of the page that links to the FAQ on their site about the issue of the Microsoft Points conversion effort.

In this instance you want to choose the first selection on the menu, BILLING AND MEMBERSHIPS, and then from the menu that appears below that, select Account Management, and then Questions about my Microsoft Account, whereupon a selection of choices then appears.

You do NOT want to select the first box, which is to Chat with a Community Ambassador. The Community Ambassador program is very nice, don't take this wrong, but it is more about seeking help to solve common issues like connecting a keyboard, or finding the correct menu option to change a setting, and not dealing with the personal information related to your account, which the Ambassador cannot help you with anyway since they have no access to that side of the field.

Similarly the option for Twitter and for the Xbox Support Forum puts you in a similar boat -- none of the people you will interact with for those two options can actually help you solve the issue or address ANY account-related concerns. So it is best off you ignore those as well.

The options you do have and that will work -- eventually -- are as follows:

Chat with Microsoft Support

First point, there is a timer in the box that will give you an estimated wait time. This is generally pretty accurate, but bear in mind that this option has you chatting via keyboard and your computer, not on the phone. While you will be talking directly to a support person, it will be by text.

This is still a good option and probably the best if you have any difficulties understanding English with an accent -- just saying -- and should not amount to more than a few minutes of discussion since the problem you have is easy to verify and even easier to correct.

Based upon comments from gamers who had to seek this means of correcting the matter we have learned that once the issue is brought to the attention of support, and once you have a contact number (ticket) for the incident/request, you can expect that the actual resolution of the matter (the adding of time free time you are owed) can take anywhere from 3 to 5 days depending.

Basically if you ring them on a Friday you will not see the time added until, at a minimum, the following Monday -- unless a holiday falls on that Monday, in which case you should not expect that the matter will be completed until Tuesday.

Request a Call from Support

There is also a timer in the box here that will give you an estimate of the delay before someone from Support Services will ring you back.

The main advantage for this -- if you really want to have a voice conversation about the issue at hand -- is that you have the opportunity to describe for them the issue of your call (your problem) so they are not entirely in the dark about it.

While we cannot say this for certain, we suspect that the information you provide in requesting a call back is actually used to ensure that the best person from the best department for handling your problem is who rings you back. That being the case you want to be precise in describing your issue -- be too vague and you likely will not get the best person for the job. Just saying...

Since the issue of your inquiry is dead simple -- they only have to check your account and its subscription information -- you should not expect this to take all that long to be resolved. You get your free time, they get off the phone faster, and everybody is happy. Win-Win!

The important thing for you to remember is that you have the right to see that extra time added to your subscription -- after all Microsoft declared it would be giving it to you, so it is yours for the asking if they failed to do so!

In the Clouds -- After you have done all that, according to our source your next step should be to check your Storage Devices to make sure you have enabled the Cloud side of things -- even if you do not use it or plan to use it.

You get to that by following this path: Dashboard > settings > System > Storage > Cloud.

�For the Cloud you have 512 MB of free storage for game saves,� they explain. �So when you have games you will want to play with friends or at a friend's house, you can save your game progress to your Cloud in the Cloud Saved Games section,� they advise.

�Then when you visit your friend once you log into your Gamertag you have pretty much the same access to your game saves as you would at home, which means you can play their copy of the game as if it were yours..

This is not bad advice -- particularly when you consider that as long as you remember to save the game via the Cloud Saved Games option you will retain all of the progress you make while gaming away from home, thus ensuring that your gaming time was not wasted.

It happens to be especially good advice too if you plan on getting the new Xbox One, which we are told will be making extensive use of Cloud Storage for games and game saves. You may as well have this set up and right for your Gamertag now as wait until everybody and their Uncle are trying to do it following the official launch of the new console!

Information Security and Advertising

While you are in the account settings area anyway, our source says that it is a very good time to review the information that is presently associated with your account, and in particular the identifying information.

After the release of the Xbox One this is going to be very important; if you plan on participating in any of the plethora of Live-based contests we are told are in the offing, and more to the point, a wide variety of promotional offerings that will be made by game studios and publishers, and the providers of movie, TV, and music resources on the Live service.

Log In -- You should know your Account name (that is your email address) and your password as you will need to use them. We will keep this brief, and provide a list of the different areas on your account you should check below, but we thought you would like to know why you should be doing this first!

You may have noticed that every so often you see notices in little boxes on the Dashboard that urge you to download this Gamer Picture to enter this contest or that contest -- and if you are a Gold Member you will doubtlessly have heard about the new recognition program that can reward you with Microsoft Points (money now that they did away with points it seems) as well as free games or Avatar Items.

All of those programs are advertiser-spawned, and all of them rely upon you having the best and correct contact information present for your account. That is why this has been added to the article.

Finally you will also need to authorize Microsoft to actually share your information with their partners who are sponsoring these contests -- that is actually a condition of your participation, and if you do not have these options already enabled, there will be contest offers you never see, since the system will not show them to you have not already �opted-In� you see.

Check and update your information for the following settings and entries -- each of which begins with the path to them:

Go to Dashboard > settings > Account Your Information > Billing Information

Selecting this will prompt you to log in even if your Gamertag is already logged into your console. That is normal, and you have to do it anyway as it is a sort of added step in system security so that nobody can come along while you are absent but otherwise logged in and change anything.

After you �Sign In� by entering your password you will be shown your Billing Information and given the opportunity to correct it. This is your proper billing address including postal code, your phone number, and your email address. Check each and correct any that are out of date.

Once all of the information is up to date hit the save button and the system will tell you that your billing information has been saved.

Above the Billing Information selection is the Account Security section - our source says to review your settings in case you want to change something or, more likley, they have added a new option that you have yet to configure, such as the Pass Code scheme. You can also decide whether you want your email address to be displayed at the top right of the Dashboard.

You may want to disable display of your email address in this fashion if you are participating in public tournaments or game play since it is also the email address associated with your Windows LIVE ID and thus is one of the elements that is required by nefarious characters if they want to try to hack you. Just saying...

Go to Dashboard > settings > Account > Account Management > Manage Payment Options

The first page of the Account Management options, if you have not reviewed this information in the past year or so or if you know that some of it has changed, now is a good time to review and change it as needed.

Accessing this menu, in addition to providing you with the various options you need to review, will also display for you the current balance of your Live Wallet, which as you now know has been converted from Microsoft Points to real-world currency.

You can now add your PayPal Account to your Gamertag, edit, update, or add debit or credit cards, and remove any cards that have expired or that you do not want associated with your Gamertag or Live Account.

If you do not ordinarily use PayPal to pay for Live stuff, there is really no good reason to add it here. The same goes for your credit cards! If, like many gamers, you use a specific card or debit card, for making purchases online or via Xbox Live, you are best off not adding additional cards and card numbers that you will not be using anyway. Think Information Security here mates!

Go to Dashboard > settings > Privacy > Change Settings

If you plan to participate in Gamer Picture and other Contests via Live or in promotions that come from third-party advertisers on the Live Service, you will NEED to go in here and change a few things. It is also a good idea to review your settings here anyway.

Open the menu (you should already be logged in from before) by selecting �Change Settings� and then select Customize. There are a number of settings you can change, but for the purposes of this feature article we are concerned just with the following:

Activity: Voice and Text -- Everyone

Activity: Web Browsing -- Allowed

Privacy: Profile Sharing -- Everyone

Privacy: Kinect Sharing -- Allowed/Blocked*

Privacy: Social Network Sharing -- Allowed**

Privacy: Game Activity -- Everyone**

Privacy: Online Status -- Everyone**

Contact Preferences: Xbox Marketing -- Opt In

Contact Preferences: Partner Marketing -- Opt In

* You can keep Kinect Sharing Blocked for day-to-day but as some contests will require you to share some Kinect generated content you may need to temporarily enable it later, as needed.

** How you set these is entirely up to you, but you should be aware that specific types of contests actually make use of these settings.

In particular the services that keep track of your participation in various games, Live activities, and media consumption either utilize these settings or anonymously monitor your activity on Live and online as part of the contest process. If you want to participate in those types of contest so you can win a free Xbox, or game, or game money, or Avatar thingy -- whatever! -- you basically need to share access to these with Everybody.

Finally under Contact Preferences there are two major must-do selections: Xbox Marketing and Partner Marketing. If either or both of these are set to Opt Out you will not be participating in ANY of the many contests and promotional opportunities that are present every day on Live. That is a simple fact of life.

Whether you really believe that the Zombie Apocalypse is coming, that the NSA cares what your Gamerscore is, or how many Achievements you unlocked in GTA V, or any other fact or element real or imagined, the above settings are still going to be a compromise for your online and Live activity privacy of you want to fully participate in what contests have to offer in the realm of the Avatar.