Alright, so I've finally decided it's time to buy an Xbox 360 and I would like to ask a question that's really important to me.
 
One of the main reasons I'm buying an Xbox 360 is to play the copious amount of arcade games that I can't get on a PS3.
I looked at the Xbox website and it said you can download new games and add ons if you don't pay for Xbox Live ( 
http://www.xbox.com/en-CA/live/joinlive?xr=shellnav ) and I was wondering if this was true as to what my mind thinks it is.
 
I've read things from Microsoft before and it turned out I didn't read between the lines or some bullshit.
 
So my question in a nutshell: Will I be able to play great games like Super Meat Boy, Limbo, Comic Jumper, Shadow Complex, and many others if I just buy an Xbox 360 and Microsoft points?

Yes you can still download stuff from the market place without paying for the Gold Membership. 

id seriously consider paying for live though. even if multiplayer isn't really a huge priority, i cant begin to explain how much i love things like last.fm and netflix and espn. my xbox has succeeded in officially making my cable box obsolete.

" id seriously consider paying for live though. even if multiplayer isn't really a huge priority, i cant begin to explain how much i love things like last.fm and netflix and espn. my xbox has succeeded in officially making my cable box obsolete. "

In a nutshell, the Gold membership lets you play online. Even if you have the free (silver) account grade, you'll still have full access too the marketplace.

Gold just enables online play and the use of party chat, pretty much everything else can be used with a Silver account.

Wait till live is on sale (in fact I think it is right now), and then get it. It goes on sale all the time, so I'd suggest it if you'll get anything out of it, like if you know people with the service. Just being able to party chat is worth a few bucks a year for me. Plus there are other bonuses, some exclusive features depending on your region, and some of those have alternatives in other regions, so make sure you look into it. 
 
But your totally good on buying stuff. They want the market to be as accessible as possible.

On the other hand, having Gold enables you to take advantage of the "Deal of the Week" promotions. If you're going to invest heavily on Arcade games, it may pay off purchasing a Gold subscription.

you can still buy things off of the market place. the thing is that if it is new you have to wait like a week then get it. gold is just alright, i don't have it anymore as i have a ps3 to play online.