I've been asked by a few people about how xbox live actually functions. Well basically this is how it works.  When you turn on your xbox you have to sign in using your gamertag, which is essentially a like screen name that lets other players know who you are when you enter a room. Also like an instant messenger, you can have a friends list that lets you see who's online and what they are playing. You can choose to load a game, or you can go to the xbox live marketplace which is a virtual store that lets you buy online movies, games, and tv shows. The xbox dashboard is kind of like the desktop/control panel on a computer and the games are like programs you run.  Each game has a different user interface that controls how you access and play the game online. Another cool idea Microsoft implemented was the use of gamer points, which result in an overall gamerscore. Your gamerscore is a tally of all the points you have received for completing certaint tasks in games. For example, you might get 100 gamer points for beating a game, but only 20 for beating one level.
