the logisitics behind xbox,ps2,etc online connections..
 

someone explain. how does it work. is there a central gaming server?

with ms they run their own gaming servers, thats why there is a charge for the service per year. as far as ps2 goes the gaming is done ip to ip. the main reason why EA hasn't made any online games for xbox is because MS is making everyone go through their servers to use the xbox live service. EA doesn't like the fact that MS is charging for the ability to play games online(pretty sure EA planned on doing this at some point in time and its jsut a conflict of interest).

sony leaves online play up to the game developers. the game developers have to run/maintain their own game servers.