Are you forced to use any awful "services"?

[lRookiel]

I myself am forced to use the dreaded Games for windows Live if I want to play some of my games (Dark souls, Bioshock 2 and Dawn of war 2) and the damn thing cannot stay connected for longer than 10 minutes. There is no excuse for having something this bad attached to your otherwise good game like a fucking tumour. It makes all online play pretty much impossible.

So yeah...Do you have to use anything you don't particularly want to?

 

[ChupathingyX]

Dawn of war 2

The Retribution expansion uses Steamworks instead and features everything from the previous games/expansions except the campaigns.

 

[Heronblade]

Cisco NAC and Symantec Endpoint

Two of the worst system security programs I have ever wrestled with, and my university's network is impossible to use without them installed and running.

 

[krazykidd]

Nope not forced to so anythig , that's not how life works . Then again , i live in Canada , so most services are competent at worst .

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

Not so much in regards to gaming but I hate the software I have to use at work.
It's all cheap, clunky rubbish which is need of an update and a kick up the backside.

 

[Alfador_VII]

My ISP.

I'm in the UK, where I am the only choice is BT Internet (supplied by the lragest telco) or someone else's branded service which is just using the same BT ASDL connection, only I'd have to go through 2 lots of customer support, blaming each other for any problems.

I don't like the proliferation of online game services on the PC. I like Steam, but I hate GFWL and Origin. The most annoying games are Steam games that then also use GFWL at the same time.

 

[lRookiel]

My ISP.

I'm in the UK, where I am the only choice is BT Internet (supplied by the lragest telco) or someone else's branded service which is just using the same BT ASDL connection, only I'd have to go through 2 lots of customer support, blaming each other for any problems.

Oh god I know that feel, I have BT aswell. I made a thread [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.401452-Your-internet] a few weeks ago about it, everyone did a speedtest and scored atleast a rating of C to A+then there is me sat there with an F- rating..... I hate BT so much.

 

[Psykoma]

Nope not forced to so anythig , that's not how life works . Then again , i live in Canada , so most services are competent at worst .

I dunno, our internet services are pretty awful.




OT: My accounting training program website. It takes (on average) a minute and a half to load a page.
Sometimes it'll go down for a six hour scheduled maintenance, and stay down for almost a week.

 

[an annoyed writer]

My ISP. Here in the US it's not uncommon for us to have shitty, slow internet, which makes simply playing a multiplayer game a chore.

 

[norashepard]

I have to use Origin to play Mass Effect 3 which really grinds my gears because I can't take screenshots without either printscreening over and over again or using Fraps which slows everything down (oh look another service I don't like!)

Also my ISP currently is rather trash, but luckily for me I don't mind just playing with bots in multiplayer. Because I'm boring.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Nope. That's not to say that I haven't had to use anyone's proprietary game service, only that I've never had a problem with them. Hooray for being luckier then all you miserable bastards!

 

[Tufty94]

Just from games I have to use GFWL, Uplay and Rockstar Social Club. Aside from that everything is good. Also, I like Origin.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I don't like any Steam-like system besides Steam, but it's not because I think Steam is the best. I just don't want to have any more clients to start up before I can run my game. I already have to wait a minute or two to start steam and it takes resources away even tho I don't need it. Now if we add Origin or GFWL, it's extra resources and time waster. I already started with Steam and have a big-ish library. If some other client wants me to move on to it instead of Steam, it needs to be something extremely special because being the same as team or just slightly better won't cut it.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Dawn of war 2

The Retribution expansion uses Steamworks instead and features everything from the previous games/expansions except the campaigns.

It's just a shame that the matchmaking is still horrendous, and that half the players have switched over to the admittedly awesome Elite Mod. Makes finding a fair game outside of Last Stand really annoying.

 

[thesilentman]

I'm forced to use Windows, as only some of the programs that I absolutely need work here. And my games, which is a no brainer.

 

[Lunar Templar]

nope

while i have games that require GFWL, i don't have them installed anymore, and i generally avoid games tied to useless and terrible crap like that

 

[Esotera]

Probably a program written in the 80's for Unix, I had the misfortune of having to use it at university last year. The usability was just awful and I'm really not enjoying the prospect of having to use it again...

 

[PeterMerkin69]

Well, I guess I'm being forced to breathe if I want to live. Nature's mean.

 

[Fluffythepoo]

hey i had the exact same experience with those 3 games xD also bulletstorm. its fine if you have a lovely perfect internet connection, but those games are the kind u play when you dont have a lovely perfect internet connection.. sept maybe dw2, but ret doesnt use it

also for this one etextbook i bought (actually rented) i have to use "CourseSmart"'s proprietary reading interface, which is just awful. if you dont make sure to turn off the app before you disconnect from the internet (so that when you restart the app you can login in offline mode) it will delete the book from your tablet. So basically if you walk out of wifi range it deletes the thing that let you still read the book if you were to walk out of wifi range. Then do you just redownload it? no of course not, you only get 1 download per device, so you have to call tech support to have them reset your download limit to be able to download the book their shitty app deleted in the first place. Thats not even touching on the fact that the actual reader itself is just a crappy version of ibooks' pdf reader, that uses twice the power. Ive never burned through a full battery charge with ibooks, but itll last 12+ hours of continuous use at 100% brightnes; the coursesmart app is 6 hours tops

i ended up just getting the pdf version of it (not from the publisher) and reading it through ibooks, so i can just read the book i paid for instead of going through all the publisher's bullshit

 

[hermes]

Most services in my country are provided by monopolies (water, electricity, phones, Internet, etc), and they are pretty awful...

So, yes. All the time.