Games for Windows FAIL

[whaleswiththumbs]

Microsoft is really bad at this stuff.

At making software. Like Operating Systems. Which is their job. That they are paid for. Does Not Appoint.

OT:
I can only shake my head in disgrace. Microsoft, since I know you have some form of Big Brotehr on my computer, you better be very happy i haven't gone to Linux... Like a virgin in a strip club happy.

 

[SP MeaslyBinkie]

I've got six games that use GFWL sitting infront of me, and I've never had a single issue apart from forgetting to update graphic card drivers. But Steam on the other hand I've had 3 or 4 games that I've never been able to play. Fun, huh?

 

[SenseOfTumour]

1)Newer use anything other than Steam on PC.
2)NEVER believe Microsoft and try avoiding their products.
Most sane people learned that long ago.

What if I want a hard copy? I know that games you buy on Steam are tied to your account, not your computer, but I just don't like not physically owning something.

Then you best hurry up and go buy one, because most retailers seem to be giving up on stocking anything but the latest FPS, and some copies of WOW.

My theory on GFWL running out of keys, would be that they'd decided on a set number of keys as a promotional idea, having some insane concept that they'd be losing X amount of money on each sale, and therefore wanting to limit it, being stuck in the bricks and mortar sales mindset, that stock costs something. I'm sure they're not actually idiots, but I'd guess the percieved 'loss' was seen as greater than the genuine gain of getting thousands of customers to install the GFWL client.

What GFWL needs is regular big sales, like Steam, I log into steam at least 2 or 3 times a week even if I'm not playing anything, to make sure I'm not missing out on some crazy deal (like now with indie packs of 5 games for £4, or ten packs of Freedom Force for £5).

 

[Dakommy]

HAHAHAHA

Just for giggles, I decided to open up the GFW Marketplace in windows, where it asked me to sign in using my live ID, so I did, and it tells me 'There is a problem with your account that you need to resolve before signing in. Click here to resolve the issue'

So i click it.

It takes me to the xbox profile page (i also don't have an xbox).

It tells me NOTHING else. It's JUST my profile page.

Based solely on this article I went to the terms and conditions, but it didn't want me to accept anything...

So now I have a thing that I can't log into and that microsoft doesn't want me to log into yay!

 

[theSovietConnection]

Wow, I must be rather lucky with GFWL then, the only "problems" I experienced with it were the TOS on XBox page and the keys, but for a 10 cent copy of AoE3 when the cheapest copy around here is $30, I was willing to wait.

 

[LoganN]

Ugh.

A lot of people still don't know they had gotten everyone a key before the end of the very next day. You had to wait less than twenty hours to get your key. It isn't that big of a deal, especially compared to bigger services like Steam. Risen buyers didn't get their key for four days.

 

[Double A]

1)Newer use anything other than Steam on PC.
2)NEVER believe Microsoft and try avoiding their products.
Most sane people learned that long ago.

What if I want a hard copy? I know that games you buy on Steam are tied to your account, not your computer, but I just don't like not physically owning something.

Then you best hurry up and go buy one, because most retailers seem to be giving up on stocking anything but the latest FPS, and some copies of WOW.

My theory on GFWL running out of keys, would be that they'd decided on a set number of keys as a promotional idea, having some insane concept that they'd be losing X amount of money on each sale, and therefore wanting to limit it, being stuck in the bricks and mortar sales mindset, that stock costs something. I'm sure they're not actually idiots, but I'd guess the percieved 'loss' was seen as greater than the genuine gain of getting thousands of customers to install the GFWL client.

What GFWL needs is regular big sales, like Steam, I log into steam at least 2 or 3 times a week even if I'm not playing anything, to make sure I'm not missing out on some crazy deal (like now with indie packs of 5 games for £4, or ten packs of Freedom Force for £5).

"Most retailers" doesn't include Amazon

I usually preorder all my PC games at Gamestop, though, and if it's a "big" game and I forgot to, I'd still be able to get it at Bestbuy.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Good point, mail order still works, tho as I say, the 'real' stores are slowly giving up on PC, as all the profit seems to be in consoles, and of course they don't have to deal with clueless people buying PC games as gifts then trying to return them because of not understand about recommended specs etc.

That's where Game and the like can be good, explaining stuff to those not in the know, and advising on a good game or system to buy as a gift, however, it does all depend on the staff and the ethics of the company, from what I've heard of Gamestop they'd recommend MS rail simulator to someone with a phobia of trains if it made them an extra dollar's profit for the day.

 

[Sporky111]

I was actually surprised by all this. I never heard of GFWL (I thought it was something new) before this sale, so I downloaded it fine. I didn't have nearly as many problems as you. Provided, it downloaded at about half the pace I typically expect from Steam on a good day. I never had any actual crashed, but it did lock up my computer twice. A simple Ctrl+Alt+Del was all it took to fix that (but that's hardly an excuse).

I never really planned to use it any more. I'm not much of a PC gamer, and I prefer physical copies (though Steam sales are AWESOME), and I really had no need for it. Microsoft has been disappointing time and time again in it's first-party software, so I hardly gave it much thought.

But this article was helpful. I was surprised to hear that it ran in the background invisibly even when closed, so I went right in and uninstalled it. I got my AoE for 10 MS Points (that was a nice surprise, actually) so I have no further need for this.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

I found the article humorous.

I disliked GFWL ever since I was forced to register in order to play games I had already purchased at the store (Bioshock 2). I won't start in on that form of DRM, but it was unpleasant.

And seeing as I complain enough about Steam as it is, I really am not inclined to go after a system that's worse than it.

 

[v3n0mat3]

Seriously. Horrid. The whole reason why my GT is "Aku San X" and not "Aku San" is because of GFWL, and played (and enjoyed quite a bit) Gears of War.

 

[Baldr]

I had no problems, I signed in and it recognized my Xbox Live information which made the sale easy and worked fine for me on Windows 7.

 

[CatinHat]

GTA IV and some other pc games I have use windows live. It's crap to the core, I can't log in which I can't save nor load a game. It crushes my pc every 4-5 hours playing one of this games with windows live.

With that, I love Stream and take stream over anything these ass hats can make.

 

[Worgen]

GfWL is seriously the shittiest piece of programming Ive ever come across, including some viruses.

I just got Dawn of War II on sale on steam. Whoohoo. After patiently wating for 3-4 hours for the game to download, I launch it, ready for action.

Then windows live happens.

Now, after half an hour, 3 different password reset pages and lots of teeth gnashing, I'm reduced to forum raging. I already have a windows live account, but the ingame login wouldn't accept the password. The windows live site is no help, neither is the ingame "forgotten password" link, and from experience I dread having to possibly go to Microsoft customer support, that dreadful heap of bull dung. AARRGH!

And this is on steam. Why the fuck put your game on steam if you're going to cram shit like GfWL in there with it?

End result: I cannot play the game I Just PAID MONEY FOR, because a group of retards is to lazy to do any quality control on a fucking program. FUCK.

/rage

-

P.S: this sums up my view of Games for Windows Live pretty nicely:​

they included steam and gfwl because at the time dow 2 was launched steam didnt really have that good a match making service for 3rd party so steam was the authentication and gfwl was the match maker but fortinetly steam has gotten better so dow 2 will drop gfwl with the next expansion and go purely with steam, I cant fucken wait

 

[Lorechaser]

My wife and I both had about the same issues. Less crashes, more install freezing at 5% and never talking to us again. I eventually had to reinstall IE and use it to do the ToS part. And I play on my 360 every day.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I amazed anyone at Microsoft knows how to write a line of code. I have had only a 50% (at best) success rate with GFWL.

When choosing between official Microsoft products and the open source variant, I always go Open.

 

[crazypsyko666]

I've only ever used GFWL for Batman Arkham Asylum, Dawn of War 2, Fallout 3 and its DLC, and GTAIV.

I never really had any problems with the marketplace. Maybe I just got lucky.

Hated the fact that I had to log in to play the DLC in Fallout 3.

delayed releases [AC Brotherhood release pushed to Q1 2011, Red Dead Redemption possibly never coming to PC]

Personally I's take a delayed release over a shitty port any day.

What is it with game developers these days?

Two reasons in my opinion.

HD graphics, because it seems thats what all console owners (to me anyway) care about first, and multi-player.

Since the release of the current generation of consoles the PC is no longer an exclusive power in online gaming, we can only really boast MMORPG's as consoles pretty much get everything we do in online functionality.

Consoles are the better market for games now especially for online multiplayer games where the average users seem perfectly happy to pay for the game, their internet service, a subscription to to play online and best of all for every map and content pack that gets released.

PC gamers, although will pay for the first two (and third for a MMORPG), have traditionally with the modding community and in some cases the developers, got alot of extra maps ands playmodes free.

Why does Microsoft insist on XBOX exclusives? Why not give PCs Kinect support?

The same with all exclusives and the motion controls. To sell the console.

I agree with your arguments. I also think that consoles are a good practice, a good way to just plug and play, but what pisses me off is that despite all of this, PC gaming is left in the dust. There is absolutely no reason why a game can't be multi-platform on the PC, especially since most games are designed on one.

With regards to the delayed release, I would be okay with the delayed release over shitty port argument if Ubisoft was a small developer with limited resources. As it stands, they are not. They are a giant in the videogames industry (whom I have a a great amount of affection for) with great capabilities and power. We've been seeing this everywhere. It's absurd. And why the hell won't Rockstar give me my Red Dead Redemption? I want it so bad!

 

[JackRyan64]

I only, ONLY use Steam for all my PC gaming. Deus Ex for 2.50? Fuck yes!

 

[SimuLord]

Microsoft has a major brand image problem with GFWL. By its very nature digital distribution is designed to appeal to gaming enthusiasts who play enthusiast games. These people tend to be very tech-savvy and very vocal on Internet forums.

Yet I have NEVER seen GFWL praised. It is inevitably (at best) unfavorably compared to Steam and (at worst) unfavorably compared to AOL circa 1999. Why would anyone even consider using it these days? Which is Microsoft's problem. They've got a severe case of cranium in recto and there's a whole lot of groupthink and Kool-Aid drinking afoot in their boardrooms. They think everything's great. It isn't. And it's going to hurt their bottom line.