With the Xbox 360 if you have it conected to the internet.. I do... Then you can play some games with people all over the world as well.. You can play arcade games you download off of the xbox live marketplace or you can play most of the games you buy in the stores online as well.  Plus with all the new xbox 360 games they have points for every game as you go though the game and complete levels or task you earn point usully 1000 max per game.  And they total up on your GamerTag so all your friends or people you are playing with can see your gamer points.  And what games you have been playing.  And can compare stats.  You can also have live voice chat in or out of a game.  Or regular message chat.  I can also access all of my music, pictures and video files off of my computer that is in another room and listen or view them on the TV in the livingroom... Or listen to my music instead of the music that is in the game.  And they have a forum for every game on the xbox web page that you can access through your computer..but not from your xbox 360 (dumb). Not that I know anything about any of this