Games for Windows FAIL
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
Notice how they hardly ever fail to bill you, even if everything else crashes and burns.
Come to think of it, you can say that about a lot of services.
Come to think of it, you can say that about a lot of services.
Damn.. Really? I actually bought it on Steam also a while back because I reformatted my hard drive and didn't feel like bothering with GFWL (it was on sale). As long as the install is done through Steam it's okay I guess but that kinda sucks.laryri said:
My experience:
Click link. Go through TOS crap. Agree.
My parent's Live account is required to agree as well. I am over 18, but I wasn't when I made a quick throwaway xbox account (I don't own an xbox) 2 years ago for a school project.
I try to delete my account. I cannot.
I register a new email JUST to make a live account. I go through all the process, finally go to buy my game and...
THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED.
Click link. Go through TOS crap. Agree.
My parent's Live account is required to agree as well. I am over 18, but I wasn't when I made a quick throwaway xbox account (I don't own an xbox) 2 years ago for a school project.
I try to delete my account. I cannot.
I register a new email JUST to make a live account. I go through all the process, finally go to buy my game and...
THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED.
The worst thing? Some very good games are being ruined with GFWL. And I still can't think of a reason for developers to be insane enough to put it in. It's like you're buying a game and on the box there's a large fleshy tumor sticking out. That tumor is the GFWL logo.
Not really. I'm sure some pirates like that they DO circumvent this crap, but probably not many actually intended it for that purpose. It just sounded like something good to shout. Maybe some dunce at Microsoft will spring to action because we're all afraid of piracy now.Zachary Amaranth said:
I've been really itching to play a new simulation/4x type of game recently and when I saw this sale mentioned I was thinking it would be a great way to try a new one without putting up much cash without knowing whether I would enjoy it or not.
I got as far as three browser restarts(I had it change languages on me and got in the ToS loop too), then finally got to the purchase screen and it hiccuped trying to accept my payment when I gave up.
I had some frustration before with GFWL not liking to log in correctly for arkham asylum, but after my experience here I am done making any purchases through them and if I spot that a game runs it then that game is probably going to have a lot higher of a bar to clear for me to pick it up.
I got as far as three browser restarts(I had it change languages on me and got in the ToS loop too), then finally got to the purchase screen and it hiccuped trying to accept my payment when I gave up.
I had some frustration before with GFWL not liking to log in correctly for arkham asylum, but after my experience here I am done making any purchases through them and if I spot that a game runs it then that game is probably going to have a lot higher of a bar to clear for me to pick it up.
Yeah GFWL is a mess but at some point somebody is going to have to counter Steam for control of the market. It's only out of the goodness of Valve's heart that Steam isn't screwing us all and leaving us to take it due to their dominance of the market and the necessity of their platform.
Funny thing, my problem wasn't with the actual client, this time. For once, the client runs smooth... Mostly. Still eats up bandwidth like a *****, but it let me get to the download and back with relatively little trouble.
But then the game... OHHH THE GAME. I've played it very little, on account that there are times when it just refuses to start up. At all. It literally stops responding, no matter how many attempts or restarts I try. And the only way to get it running again is to completely wipe it, reinstall it(Which keep in mind, means having to re-download GFWL after I kicked its buggy ass off my computer) and then wait for the whole damn download to get itself done again.
But then the game... OHHH THE GAME. I've played it very little, on account that there are times when it just refuses to start up. At all. It literally stops responding, no matter how many attempts or restarts I try. And the only way to get it running again is to completely wipe it, reinstall it(Which keep in mind, means having to re-download GFWL after I kicked its buggy ass off my computer) and then wait for the whole damn download to get itself done again.
Microsoft make many good products. They make many more horrifically doomed projects that are usually euthanized quickly, but this is just a side-effect of making such a sheer quantity of products. GFWL is a product that should have been put out of it's misery quickly and ONLY redone from scratch IF the execs really still wanted to wheel and deal with the big publishers. As it is: it's perpetually broken. After three-ish years I think that's pretty much proof that it CAN'T be fixed without scrapping everything currently in place, FINALLY acknowledging the systemic flaws, and leaving those flaws out of GFWL2.
Microsoft are just aweful at this, (I swear they seem to operate on the basis that THEY know what the customers want, (and don't actually ask them!)).
I've used all the digital download services, (barring getgames), and this is how I rate them:
1. Good old Games. (good customer service, no DRM, a lot of titles have plenty of extras)
2. Steam (Lots of offers, and steam program isn't too invasive)
3. Gamersgate (have some good offers, no steam-like software involved, blue coins is a fairly good bonus)
Then the best of the dregs:
4. Direct2drive (not very good deals, only beats impulse due to no steam-like software requirements)
5. Impulse (not very good deals)
6. Green Man Gaming (pretty awful. same games always on "sale". Trade-in incentive is a good idea in concept, but in execution not so important. Not a lot of games on there also)
7. Games for windows live, (Awful. The fact you can pay for some things using Points makes it just barely tolerable)
I've used all the digital download services, (barring getgames), and this is how I rate them:
1. Good old Games. (good customer service, no DRM, a lot of titles have plenty of extras)
2. Steam (Lots of offers, and steam program isn't too invasive)
3. Gamersgate (have some good offers, no steam-like software involved, blue coins is a fairly good bonus)
Then the best of the dregs:
4. Direct2drive (not very good deals, only beats impulse due to no steam-like software requirements)
5. Impulse (not very good deals)
6. Green Man Gaming (pretty awful. same games always on "sale". Trade-in incentive is a good idea in concept, but in execution not so important. Not a lot of games on there also)
7. Games for windows live, (Awful. The fact you can pay for some things using Points makes it just barely tolerable)
I'd rather there not be any DRM at all.
Steam's fine and dandy and all that, but in the end, it's still yet another program that you have to install and sign into just to play your games.
For example, got a new computer, and decided to install a few games on it to see how it ran. Oh, Left 4 Dead sounds good!
Oh wait, I gotta download steam first. That's fine, it's like 50 MBs, right? Download that, sign into my Steam account.
What?
I have to download the goddamn game off of Steam's servers? On a dial up internet connection? You're fucking joking, right? What's the disc for?
Steam's got plenty of good deals, and it's not very invasive at all, but we're getting farther and farther from "Pop and Play" gaming, something I'd really love to see make it's way to PC gaming. And the bigger hassle a game is to play, the less chance I'll have of reinstalling it in the future, especially when gaming is supposed to be an "Escape" in the first place.
Steam's fine and dandy and all that, but in the end, it's still yet another program that you have to install and sign into just to play your games.
For example, got a new computer, and decided to install a few games on it to see how it ran. Oh, Left 4 Dead sounds good!
Oh wait, I gotta download steam first. That's fine, it's like 50 MBs, right? Download that, sign into my Steam account.
What?
I have to download the goddamn game off of Steam's servers? On a dial up internet connection? You're fucking joking, right? What's the disc for?
Steam's got plenty of good deals, and it's not very invasive at all, but we're getting farther and farther from "Pop and Play" gaming, something I'd really love to see make it's way to PC gaming. And the bigger hassle a game is to play, the less chance I'll have of reinstalling it in the future, especially when gaming is supposed to be an "Escape" in the first place.
In my personal experience... the only problem out of all that I had was the CD-Key. Certainly thought it absurd that a digital download product was referring me to the Key 'printed on the back of the case' but what really pissed me off was seeing a newly purchased product show up as having NO KEY. This was resolved within 24 hours, but still - WTF. This alone constitutes a major failing of the system if it really intends to compete with Steam. All that other shit you went thru in the article, well... I just consider that part of the rich experience of owning a Windows machine. 
You know, I don't hate Microsoft. Despite what some people claim, they've done a lot of really good things for the computer industry and put out a lot of good product. Don't get me wrong, they've screwed a lot of things up and done things that have hurt the computer industry as well, but overall they really have done more good than harm.
Anyway, the point I got completely sidetracked from there is that it seems to me like since Bill Gates has given up his position as CEO and taken a more hands off approach to running Microsoft, the whole company has gotten a lot stupider and more dysfunctional. I realize that Shamus's experience here is atypically bad, but there is simply no excuse for GFWL to be as broken as it is. It's pure incompetence, and that's really not a problem Microsoft has had until quite recently.
Anyway, the point I got completely sidetracked from there is that it seems to me like since Bill Gates has given up his position as CEO and taken a more hands off approach to running Microsoft, the whole company has gotten a lot stupider and more dysfunctional. I realize that Shamus's experience here is atypically bad, but there is simply no excuse for GFWL to be as broken as it is. It's pure incompetence, and that's really not a problem Microsoft has had until quite recently.