Fallout 3 DLC + Windows Live = Fail!

[Laughing Man]

Is anyone else as annoyed about the fact that you ave to install Windows Live to get Fallout 3 DLC as I am.

Let's face it MS wants Live to be the next Steam. I have Steam, I buy games via Steam, I use Steam to keep track of the games and I use Steam to automatically update the games as well as manage any on line gaming activities via those games. The weird thing team also uses this strange stuff called 'money' their items are displayed in 'monetary' values and when you purchase a game they take that amount of money and then you download the thing you bought.

The problem with Live and the major major fail in this situation is that I never needed Live to install Fallout 3 in the first place, I don't need Live for any other games beyond Fallout 3, I don't need Live to keep track of the games updates since they can all be downloaded from the Fallout 3 website and Fallout 3 has no online content so I don't need Live to keep track of my favourite gaming servers.

The worse aspect of Live though is because it is a spin off of the morontard XBox live market place it can't use something as strange and complex as 'money' no instead it has to use the kid friendly monopoly money style 'point'. I have to buy a pre set number of 'points' and then purchase the game using these. Two flaws with this.

1). I am not five, I have a credit card I want to use cash I am sure MS knows what cash is they have enough of the bloody stuff
2). You have to buy points in pre set values and funnily enough the number of points I need to buy is more than the cost of the DLC so for my electronic exchange I end up with a DLC and a handful of useless points I will never use.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

I know it's a total pain in the ass (what the hell? I can't just PAY for the DLC? I have to buy "points"?), but a good work around I found is to go to a physical store (like Gamestop or Best Buy) and purchase a MS Points card. For some reason, they sell points online in 500 point increments, but in the real world they're sold in 800 point increments. Yep. It makes so much sense, I think I'm gonna short-circuit.

 

[Cousin_IT]

Microsoft paid alot of money for that DLC as I understand it. You'll need a crowbar to pry it from their cold dead hands if u dont wanna use Live

 

[geldonyetich]

Once again, the PC platform has been relegated to an afterthought. Pretty brazen we're talking about Microsoft themselves dropping the ball on their super duper Windows portal to the future of Windows gaming. Somebody wants to sell more X-Boxes, methinks!

In this case, Bethesda lost an impulse sale. I was going to shell out $12.50 I barely had for the necessary points to buy the expansion, but because Windows Live was unable to allow me to register a credit card, I was stopped right there.

Now, I'm thinking I should probably wait until they release a collection [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Nine] or something. From what I heard, Project Anchorage is as short as a typical side mission anyway. Those who have finished it says it's not worth what they're charging for it. It's Oblivion Horse Barding all over again.

 

[Zac_Dai]

Paying for what looks like something a normal skilled team of modders would release for free = fail.

 

[lornb]

M$ just thinks everything has to be exclusive

Was that supposed to be ironic?

 

[Grenbyron]

I'd like to meet the person who started the trend of using "fail" as a noun; then I'd like to kill that person. Slowly.

Funny enough it was Microsoft that started "Fail" as a noun. "Abort, retry, fail?"

 

[Seydaman]

I'd like to meet the person who started the trend of using "fail" as a noun; then I'd like to kill that person. Slowly.

As for the issue at hand, either get the DLC or don't. Microsoft made some kind of deal to get the DLC exclusive to Live and if you want it you have to play by their rules. Sure it sucks, but complaining about it (at least here) isn't going to change anything.

FAIL
?verb (used without object)
1. to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved: The experiment failed because of poor planning.
2. to receive less than the passing grade or mark in an examination, class, or course of study: He failed in history.
3. to be or become deficient or lacking; be insufficient or absent; fall short: Our supplies failed.
4. to dwindle, pass, or die away: The flowers failed for lack of rain.
5. to lose strength or vigor; become weak: His health failed after the operation.
6. to become unable to meet or pay debts or business obligations; become insolvent or bankrupt.
7. (of a building member, structure, machine part, etc.) to break, bend, crush, or be otherwise destroyed or made useless because of an excessive load.
8. to stop functioning or operating: The electricity failed during the storm.
?verb (used with object)
9. to be unsuccessful in the performance or completion of: He failed to do his duty.
10. (of some expected or usual resource) to prove of no use or help to: His friends failed him. Words failed her.
11. to receive less than a passing grade or mark in: He failed history.
12. to declare (a person) unsuccessful in a test, course of study, etc.; give less than a passing grade to: The professor failed him in history.
?noun
13. Stock Exchange .
a. a stockbroker's inability to deliver or receive security within the required time after sale or purchase.
b. such an undelivered security.
14. Obsolete . failure as to performance, occurrence, etc.
?Idiom
15. without fail, with certainty; positively: I will visit you tomorrow without fail.

 

[Laughing Man]

The issue is two fold, we have touched on the stupidity of having to buy the monopoly kids money the 'point' the other issue is that too download the DLC I have to download and then install another program to do so. A program that serves no purpose to me other than on this one occasion. The thing is I am not the only one that is irked by this requirement to install what is, for the most part, a Steam wanna be useless waste of my hard drive.

Like Geldo said my purchase of this expansion would have been purely impulse had a direct link to a website been provided chances are I would now have the plugin and Bethesda would now have my £10.00. Instead I am forced to find the Live client, install the client, make an account, buy the points, buy the download, install the download, find the location of the download on my hd, move the plugin to the Fallout 3 folder, activate it as a plugin in the Fallout launcher, and finally uninstall live.

Microsoft made some kind of deal to get the DLC exclusive to Live and if you want it you have to play by their rules.

Really surely experience has taught us that if you make something harder than it has to be to obtain then a lot of people will quite happily take the less legal route to obtaining the thing they want? Spore is an example of this.

 

[D_987]

M$ just thinks everything has to be exclusive,DLC now their shelling out loads of $$$ for DEMOS......M$ just give it up pathetic money WHORES

Yes how DARE Microsoft spend money on their customers...

 

[TOFUM4ST3R]

Doesn't FO3 have a "Downloads" section in the most recent update? Or was I just suffering from Jet when I played it yesterday?

 

[sheic99]

M$ just thinks everything has to be exclusive,DLC now their shelling out loads of $$$ for DEMOS......M$ just give it up pathetic money WHORES

Yes how DARE Microsoft spend money on their customers...

But it completely screws anybody with a PS3.

 

[Zankabo]

Umm.. wow.. you guys really complain about a lot.

The Games for Windows Live thing has been around for awhile, though Microsoft has not made heavy use of it yet because of some stumbling blocks early on. Because the system is finally starting to work how it was suppose to, and is now available in XP because so many people avoided Vista, the games that are released on both Xbox 360 and PC will finally benefit from the DLC.

Yeah, you need to install the client.. which is pretty darn minor. Also, I am pretty sure if I took a look at most of your machines you already have plenty of crap running that does a lot worse stuff to your OS than the Live client will.

PC regulated to the background? No.. if that were the case then Microsoft would not have bothered to get a live client together for the PC at all.. they would have told you to buy and Xbox and stop using a PC for anything other than work.

Content that the modding community could make? Yeah.. I can see that.. except that I more often than not see rip-offs of Star Trek (or I guess this world would be Mad Max?) rather than anything approaching original content. I am sure there are great mods available.. but digging through a metric ton of manure to find that one diamond isn't really worth my time.

The 'Play Money' issue. I honestly do not know why all the game communities use this... but this is just part of 'doing business' in the console world. I realize most of you are PC gamers and would never stoop so low as to touch a console.. but right now more games are being developed on consoles than on PCs. We all know the various reasons for this I am sure...

Exclusive to Live content? Well.. this is a game made for the Xbox 360 and for Windows PCs. Not for Macs, and the PS3 was an afterthought. Microsoft has already made a system that works for delivery of these kinds of expansions. The Xbox 360 version of the game would already have this built into it, so why not use the same system for the PC version? Logically this is how you would want to do things. This Live client also allows PC and Xbox players to play games together, which is a nice touch considering that while I am mostly a PC gamer, my brother tends to mostly play on the Xbox 360. Personally I look forward to more games integrating the Live support, and allowing DLC for both PC and Xbox and cross-platform play.

I lost my train of thought in there..

So, in closing.. be cool, stay in school.

Unless.. you know.. the school is on fire.. in which case.. I suggest you exit the building in an orderly fashion.

 

[Grenbyron]

My thought would be to write Bethesda. The only way they will ever know it was a bad idea or get the hint to offer it on their own site is to let them know. I do not expect great things but at least I wrote and told them how disappointed I was in the path they took.

 

[geldonyetich]

PC regulated to the background? No.. if that were the case then Microsoft would not have bothered to get a live client together for the PC at all.. they would have told you to buy and Xbox and stop using a PC for anything other than work.

I'm not sure it counts as having "get a live client together" when the very payment mechanisms aren't working yet. But, it's a fair enough assertion that they probably wouldn't have even started if they planned not to get in on a slice of Windows Gaming action. Perhaps they're being half-hearted about it because they know Steam has a big jump on them.

I will say that it's always worried me about how much of a conflict of interest it is for the company that makes your PC's operating system to also make a console that competes with the PC platform for gaming dollars. Even if they intended to support both platforms, out-of-control PC piracy makes it awfully tempting for them to shift priorities in the direction of consoles.

 

[D_987]

M$ just thinks everything has to be exclusive,DLC now their shelling out loads of $$$ for DEMOS......M$ just give it up pathetic money WHORES

Yes how DARE Microsoft spend money on their customers...

But it completely screws anybody with a PS3.

[sarcasm]Yep, because Sony don't have any exclusives on their system...[/sarcasm]

 

[Fightbulb]

M$ just thinks everything has to be exclusive,DLC now their shelling out loads of $$$ for DEMOS......M$ just give it up pathetic money WHORES

There are two things I don't understand:

What you're saying. Always.
Why you haven't been banned yet. Seriously, every topic I go to, you're typing incomprehensibly in capitals like you're on fucking Gamespot.

But it completely screws anybody with a PS3.

That is the idea of exclusivity, yes.

 

[sheic99]

M$ just thinks everything has to be exclusive,DLC now their shelling out loads of $$$ for DEMOS......M$ just give it up pathetic money WHORES

Yes how DARE Microsoft spend money on their customers...

But it completely screws anybody with a PS3.

[sarcasm]Yep, because Sony don't have any exclusives on their system...[/sarcasm]

Well, no good exclusives.

 

[geldonyetich]

Fuggit I say. I'm sure some bright-eyed hacker will release by next tuesday.

Considering plugins don't have much in the way of copy protection, it's probably being bandied about as we speak.

 

[NeedAUserName]

I'm still annoyed that the PS3 doesn't get anything... I mean, I assume selling it to all the companies would mean more profit... instead of a PS3 owner angry enough to punch a kitten.