It was announced to the public yesterday advertisements would be coming to the Xbox LIVE, something which sparked a lot of debate and controversy amongst gamers and journalists alike -- comments like "on Live it makes no sense if we have to pay a yearly fee and ON TOP of that have to deal with ads", and "They better have those ads for Silver accounts only" made up the general consensus of opinion on GameGrep.

Certainly valid points, especially when Wii and PS3 owners get most of the same services for free, and without ads -- sure, some argue it's an inferior experience, nevertheless, Microsoft's decision does raise an eyebrow or two.

The bright side, in any case, is the ads won't be obstructive, at least not much so -- Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson reports:

I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion today about how we’re bringing Silverlight ads to LIVE in the future.

I need to let you know that you don’t need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard. One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the LIVE community. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we’ve done with some of the NXE slots in the past. No one on the team wants to turn the dashboard into something that looks like like Shibuya Crossing. That’s just not good for anyone.

So at the least they're somewhat reasonable. 

PC World's Matt Peckham responds:

"[Nelson] seems like the nicest guy in the world, but "enhance" is one of those words that drives me crazy. As far as I'm concerned, anything that's designed to entice me to buy more stuff while I'm reading a book, listening to a music CD, watching a DVD, or yes, even playing a video game, is interfering with my [...] experience. The question is, how much interference is too much interference?"

The advertisements will be using Microsoft's Silverlight technology, which is designed for animation, vector graphics, and audio playback -- though it's not precisely clear at this point what the content will consist of, Microsoft  held a demonstration at Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009 recently which used the latest Harry Potter film as an example of how advertisers could use their tools to increase profit, with the Xbox 360 as one component.

Since the "Xbox Experience" is already heavy on movies, seeing minorly intrusive and relevant content like this, particularly with the options of buying tickets, say, seems like a sensible enough idea to us, provided the animation and audio are left out of the picture. But as Peckham says, there are lines which can be crossed; respect should be in the highest order:

"Gamers buy game systems to play games, not be advertisement receptacles. In a smarter, more imaginative world, companies like Microsoft wouldn't need to gild the lily to lure advertisers and bolster revenue."

You're a dreamer, Peckham -- but you're not the only one.