Thoughts On GFWL (Games For Windows Live)

Here are my thoughts. Its absolutely useless just like all the other proprietary BS that we have to install like Rockstar Social Club. Its just another thing I have to install and never use. My question is, why do developers implement it? Do they get paid by Microsoft? It definitely doesnt prevent piracy.

And please do not confuse this with XBL. This is strictly a PC thing.

Teh cheevos pad out my 360 GS.

i swear i have no idea what's the point of it. fallout 3 is supposedly a "Game for Windows Live", and i have no idea what it is.BrunoBRS

I think its Microsofts version of Steam but its so useless that I just use Steam. Every time I play GTA 4 or Fallout 3, I have to login to GFWL. And your save data is connected to that account. Stupid as hell.

GTA 4 requires me to log into Steam, then Rockstar Social Club, then GFWL. WTF???

It's not steam therefore it sux, basically it doesn't integrate your friendlist on steam, and everyone's getting their game on steam anyways, making GFWL an unworthy choice.

I think the publishers do get a kick back if they go with GFWL but I'm not 100% sure on that. I do know it is pretty useless and doesn't offer anything really except for achievement things and allow your 360 buddies to see you online.

I have a feeling that in the early days when Halo 2 PC launched they wanted Live to eventually be cross platformed with xbox and PC but as most of us know that idea got scraped when they found out with internal testing PC players where cleaning house.

gfwl:steam::bing:google - a crappy little wannabe brother.paullywog

LOL. Bing is useless as well. I just free load off their cashback.

I've stopped hating it since I found out I could get the thing to sign in by temporarily turning off my firewall. Which is still an inconvenience. And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get out of it in return. But at least it's now possible to tolerate.

Oh yeah, save data being tied to your account is really dumb. If it's to stop people from poisoning the integrity of achievements, then **** the achievements. I'd rather be able to do whatever with my save files.

I love it!

I love it!

KillerJuan77

Why?

It is not the greatest service, but it is free to play online and that is the most important thing.

It is not the greatest service, but it is free to play online and that is the most important thing.

Valiant_Rebel

Online PC gaming is supposed to be free. Microsoft tried making people pay for GFWL at one point but failed.

[QUOTE="Valiant_Rebel"]

It is not the greatest service, but it is free to play online and that is the most important thing.

erglesmergle

Online PC gaming is supposed to be free. Microsoft tried making people pay for GFWL at one point but failed.

I remember that and I remember some of the rage Microsoft received from it. My theory is that the initial subscription fee for GFWL is what hurt the sales of Gears of War 1 on PC. Every other game after GFWL removed their required subscription fee has sold well.

What is funny about GFWL is that it used to have an annual fee until only recently (a year or two ago), much like XBL, but due to PC owners essentially boycotting it, it's now free. lol.

Compared to Steam,it isn't that great. If M$ hadn't been so greedy in the beginning for trying to PC charge users the same they charge console users ($50 a year), they may have fared better against Steam. However, now it's too little too late, and they lost huge marketshare. The 360 is a closed platform, so people have no choice, but charging on the PC, and open platform full of competitors was a huge and horrible mistake. The greed goggles blinded them, and now Valve enjoys great profits because of it.

What is funny about GFWL is that it used to have an annual fee until only recently (a year or two ago), much like XBL, but due to PC owners essentially boycotting it, it's now free. lol.

SolidTy

And thats where PC gamers and 360 gamers differ. Principle and moral. I wish 360 gamers could have the balls to boycott XBL but its a snowball now and its pretty much normal to pay for console P2P gaming to them.

[QUOTE="SolidTy"]

What is funny about GFWL is that it used to have an annual fee until only recently (a year or two ago), much like XBL, but due to PC owners essentially boycotting it, it's now free. lol.

erglesmergle

And thats where PC gamers and 360 gamers differ. Principle and moral. I wish 360 gamers could have the balls to boycott XBL but its a snowball now and its pretty much normal to pay for console P2P gaming to them.

could you go a full year without paying online?

[QUOTE="erglesmergle"]

[QUOTE="SolidTy"]

What is funny about GFWL is that it used to have an annual fee until only recently (a year or two ago), much like XBL, but due to PC owners essentially boycotting it, it's now free. lol.

ohthemanatee

And thats where PC gamers and 360 gamers differ. Principle and moral. I wish 360 gamers could have the balls to boycott XBL but its a snowball now and its pretty much normal to pay for console P2P gaming to them.

could you go a full year without paying online?

I wouldnt buy a 360 to begin with based on principle and moral reasons, but like I said, its a snowball and cant be stopped. Hopefully next generation, XBL fails miserably and P2P gaming becomes free like it should be.

[QUOTE="SolidTy"]

What is funny about GFWL is that it used to have an annual fee until only recently (a year or two ago), much like XBL, but due to PC owners essentially boycotting it, it's now free. lol.

erglesmergle

And thats where PC gamers and 360 gamers differ. Principle and moral. I wish 360 gamers could have the balls to boycott XBL but its a snowball now and its pretty much normal to pay for console P2P gaming to them.

GFWL fees were not the same as XBLs. You could always play GFWL games online for free since MS did not manage the severs needed for each game like they do for XBL the only thing you needed to pay for was achievements and cross-platform gaming and other features such as these which also became free for XBL when GFWL became free.

[QUOTE="ohthemanatee"]

[QUOTE="erglesmergle"]

And thats where PC gamers and 360 gamers differ. Principle and moral. I wish 360 gamers could have the balls to boycott XBL but its a snowball now and its pretty much normal to pay for console P2P gaming to them.

erglesmergle

could you go a full year without paying online?

I wouldnt buy a 360 to begin with based on principle and moral reasons, but like I said, its a snowball and cant be stopped. Hopefully next generation, XBL fails miserably and P2P gaming becomes free like it should be.

ive been fortunate enough that i havent had to deal with anything that worrysom from it, i play dirt 2 and gta4 and fallout 3 on pc which are gfwl, but besies those ones most of my games dont require me to sign in to anything besides steam, minus starcraft 2

And please do not confuse this with XBL. This is strictly a PC thing.

erglesmergle

Best case scenario: It does'nt actually interfere much with your game other than binding savegames to your account which is stoopid imo.

It only goes downhill from there.

Worst online service in existance. I only tolerate it becasue of DoW 2 and Red Faction Guerilla (i might buy gears from its marketplace, but i won't be thrilled about it).

Worst online service in existance. I only tolerate it becasue of DoW 2 and Red Faction Guerilla (i might buy gears from its marketplace, but i won't be thrilled about it).

lordreaven

[QUOTE="lordreaven"]

Worst online service in existance. I only tolerate it becasue of DoW 2 and Red Faction Guerilla (i might buy gears from its marketplace, but i won't be thrilled about it).

ohthemanatee

The fact that we have to use it.

[QUOTE="ohthemanatee"][QUOTE="lordreaven"]

Worst online service in existance. I only tolerate it becasue of DoW 2 and Red Faction Guerilla (i might buy gears from its marketplace, but i won't be thrilled about it).

erglesmergle

The fact that we have to use it.

doesn't the same apply to steam?

[QUOTE="erglesmergle"]

[QUOTE="ohthemanatee"] what is so bad about it?ohthemanatee

The fact that we have to use it.

doesn't the same apply to steam?

Are you playing devils advocate or are you serious?

[QUOTE="ohthemanatee"]

[QUOTE="erglesmergle"]

The fact that we have to use it.

erglesmergle

doesn't the same apply to steam?

Are you playing devils advocate or are you serious?

i'm serious

It tries to impose a console-esque unanimity on an open platform, which bugs me. I don't like being //forced// to use a particular client to play a game, not on a platform run by nobody and everybody concurrently; it's almost like a platform within a platform which is just asinine. Same goes for steam, although Steam isn't as invasive of the game experience.

Also now that I think about it, the actual client is worse than others from a technical standpoint. It uses more system memory off the bat, along with memory leaks which have occurred to my client fairly often. The menus feel sluggish and the aesthetic does not appeal to me with the whole "woosh" ensemble between button presses (this part is subjective but the client still blows otherwise; it is similar to comparing iTunes to Foobar2000)

I like it, but I didnt like that my game is tie to only one of my XBL accounts.

[QUOTE="SolidTy"]

What is funny about GFWL is that it used to have an annual fee until only recently (a year or two ago), much like XBL, but due to PC owners essentially boycotting it, it's now free. lol.

erglesmergle

And thats where PC gamers and 360 gamers differ. Principle and moral. I wish 360 gamers could have the balls to boycott XBL but its a snowball now and its pretty much normal to pay for console P2P gaming to them.

wrong, it had to go free because of the compentition. XBL isnt like online gaming from PC, for gaming online on PC, the users own the servers and control it, its free on steam mostly due that users pay to have all the servers, if they didnt pay, there would only be like 100 servers with no mods, and no fun. PLUS Vent also costs as much or more than xbox live, which is a widely used software.

My thoughts are "Why?" Steam is the best online gaming service available.rcignoni

to me all it is, is a store

[QUOTE="KillerJuan77"]

I love it!

erglesmergle

Why?

1.- Achievements on my 360 GC

2.- Being able to chat with my 360 buddies

3.- Being able to trick my console buddies to think that Halo 2 has achievements XD

[QUOTE="erglesmergle"]

[QUOTE="KillerJuan77"]

I love it!

KillerJuan77

Why?

1.- Achievements on my 360 GC

2.- Being able to chat with my 360 buddies

3.- Being able to trick my console buddies to think that Halo 2 has achievements XD

Same here, esp #3 - I always get asked 'dude, howd you get Halo 2 cheevos?'. Its also nice to replay games like GTA4, RE5 and Fallout 3 twice for 2 times the GS!

Worst online service in existance. I only tolerate it becasue of DoW 2 and Red Faction Guerilla (i might buy gears from its marketplace, but i won't be thrilled about it).

[QUOTE="erglesmergle"]

[QUOTE="ohthemanatee"]

doesn't the same apply to steam?

ohthemanatee

Are you playing devils advocate or are you serious?

i'm serious

You only have to use Steam if you buy games on Steam. You have other choices like retail disc or D2D. Only Valve (owner of Steam) games and MW2 requires Steam.

GFWL doesnt do jack and MS wants to stick their big snout in our lives and spread their proprietary junk hoping it will blow up one day and make them money. Achievements and cross platform chatting are not important enough to force it onto the rest of us who wont use it.

[QUOTE="lordreaven"]

Worst online service in existance. I only tolerate it becasue of DoW 2 and Red Faction Guerilla (i might buy gears from its marketplace, but i won't be thrilled about it).

ohthemanatee

It was okay.

Much prefer Steam though. :)

GFWL used to be AWFL...

But now it's ok..

It was okay.

Much prefer Steam though. :)