Online vs Live

So I'm newer to the site, particularly when it comes to doing a blog and I'm sure this discussion has been brought up previously but I'm very interested in what my fellow players think of online vs live poker. I've played online for close to two years with marginal success playing a variety of levels. Freerolls to 100 buy tournaments. Obviously the competition gets better as buy in levels increase but at the same time, I find some truly horrible players at all levels. I started at the $1 level with a $50 bankroll, was winning and or cashing regularly so I moved up and got to the $10 levels and still found myself cashing about 18% of the time. All of a sudden the bankroll I had gotten to nearly $500 in about a month was depleted and I couldn't win at all. Cards were always falling to my opponents no matter what the % looked like pre or post flop, turn or river. The tide had seemed to turn again began winning just about every tourny I was in or cashing high and I cashed in my first $100 gm taking 4th. Big money for me probably not to some though. Then I started busting out early or mid tournament just every time playing $10 gms. I lost $300 very quickly. When I play live games it seems as though the cards are far more random, less monsters vs monsters. I won my first $100 gm in Vegas and it was just so different. Is there any thought that online is somehow geared for action so that tournaments end quickly? Is there such a thing as a truly random card generator? I see so many runner runner draws or one or two outers that people hit it seems improbable. But then I hear guys who just run over the online game and make great money. I want to give up online because it just seems so luck driven rather than anything else. Any thoughts?