I think it's heading in the right direction, albeit very slowly. XBL is still in it's infancy if you really think about it. It has certainly matured since the days of the original XBOX, and I think that in a few more years it has the potential to be an amazing service. The two biggest problems are 1) Price: They need to work on the price a little more, I think most of the things on there are quite expensive for what you're really getting, though I do like how they tie what you buy to your Gamertag so if the unthinkable happens to your 360, you don't have to rebuy all the same crap over again. The second problem is that it is the first service of it's kind, so we are really beta testers. XBL is the first console internet service. MS does not have another person who has already done it that they can follow in their footsteps, kind of like what Sony is doing to them, which is a big reason why they are experiencing so many problems when content and such is released. This is the first of it's kind, and, as such, there are going to be many many more bugs. Sony and Nintendo are smart by following with a similar, very watered-down version of XBL, and they have the upper-hand because they can look at what MS has done, see what caused problems, and how/if MS fixed them, and release their own product free of the original problems MS had. I think XBL is awesome, but there is certainly room for improvement, and if it continues in it's current direction it has the potential to be an absolutley amazing product. MS just has to keep an eye on the bandwidth and realize when enough is enough in order to keep the experience fun, and not a lagging piece of crap...for lack of a better phrase.