Geeks! Explain XBox LIVE to me please...?

[WilfShelf]

I understand the XBox; I even understand the Kinect (though fuck knows what magic fairies live inside it to make it work so brilliantly, I dunno...)

And DS1 tells me there is something called XBox Live which he 'needs'. Or he will 'die' apparently.

Now. I'm assuming - what - this allows him to play stuff with other people who he doesn't know? Is this true with ALL XBox games, or only the ones he is NOT ALLOWED to play (COD, Halo etc... ) because he is only 11.

I feel a leeetle bit weird letting my son play with random strangers - presumably they don't chat? Or get to know stuff about you? Is it completely secure and parent-friendly?

And what advantages does it have?

Are there other things that people use it for: I have seen something called DLC but have no idea what this means...

Thanks, from a stooooopid mum who needs to know more.

Hmmmm, 11. It's a difficult one.

Mine's 9 and I won't get Live for him. It's not so much the playing with random strangers, no harm can come from playing with strangers over the Internet. It's the chat that bothers me.

Live is full of teenagers all swearing away. For me it's easier to just stand firm on "no xbox live" than try to enforce "Yes you can play online but no doing x,y,z" if that makes sense.

There are some good family controls. You can read about them here