Why do people hate GFWL so much?

Rigsta · 21 Jul 2012 at 19:44

Why do people hate GFWL so much?

Because it's carp.

It was part of either Fallout 3 or Bioshock, I don't remember which one. What I do remember is that when the game got an update and got Windows Live-ified, my save games mysteriously vanished and that damn overlay kept popping up. No, I don't want to sign in and broadcast my gaming activity to the world at large, that's why I closed the sign-in prompt the last 3 times.

One No-CD crack and and some anti-GFWL registry/.dll hack later and oh look I can actually open the game and start playing it again, and oh look my save games are back.

Antar Bolaeisk said:
It offers nothing of value to the gamer, repeatedly gets in the way of gaming and, worst of all, treats us as xBox users.

Witcher1979 · 21 Jul 2012 at 20:27

ignore

james.miller · 21 Jul 2012 at 20:35

kedge said:
I hate them all really, steam, gfwl, origin, uplay, rockstar social club and any others, i just tolerate the rubbish. Bring back the days/times when you just popped out, buy game, get home, install (i don't mind one off activations), play game, simple. What a farce.

yeah it's so much easier than buying games on steam. I mean it takes what, 3 clicks to buy a game on steam? maybe even 4 ??? madness. :mad:

Aesir · 21 Jul 2012 at 20:45

I think the worst thing about gfwl is that it's not available in all countries so if a game is released with gfwl then in those countries not covered you can't play it, which is so stupid in the age of internet. :rolleyes:

Witcher1979 · 21 Jul 2012 at 20:58

Aesir said:
I think the worst thing about gfwl is that it's not available in all countries so if a game is released with gfwl then in those countries not covered you can't play it, which is so stupid in the age of internet.

Sorry for a silly question, but does GFWL cover the same countries as Xbox Live? I assume it would

lewism · 21 Jul 2012 at 20:59

Because Zone was awesome.

mufc802 · 21 Jul 2012 at 21:46

I have a better question, why do people like GFWL? I really don't see any reason or need for having it, it just adds restrictions.

ak22 · 21 Jul 2012 at 21:47

There is no need for it thats why people hate it

Tute · 21 Jul 2012 at 21:54

When I buy a game from Steam I don't want additional things installed that offer me nothing over what Steam does. For example, Steam does DRM, content delivery, achievements, DLC, all that jazz. So why do I also need GFWL?

Add into that that it takes ages to sign in and can't seem to update itself in one go (often downloading multiple patches slowly) and treats me like an XBOX user, and I feel that GFWL is the equivalent of a gaming industry tumour.

Steam need to add a rule banning all this **** like GFWL, uPlay, Rockstar social club from their games unless they specifically add something to the product. At least with uPlay it's only a window that pops up quickly on the way into the game.

Omaeka · 21 Jul 2012 at 22:03

Tute said:
When I buy a game from Steam I don't want additional things installed that offer me nothing over what Steam does. For example, Steam does DRM, content delivery, achievements, DLC, all that jazz. So why do I also need GFWL?

Add into that that it takes ages to sign in and can't seem to update itself in one go (often downloading multiple patches slowly) and treats me like an XBOX user, and I feel that GFWL is the equivalent of a gaming industry tumour.

Steam need to add a rule banning all this **** like GFWL, uPlay, Rockstar social club from their games unless they specifically add something to the product. At least with uPlay it's only a window that pops up quickly on the way into the game.

Servers mostly mate, except Fallout and Elder Scrolls, but they are such blatant console ports they probably need GFWL to run.

CaptainRAVE · 21 Jul 2012 at 22:14

Antar Bolaeisk said:
It offers nothing of value to the gamer, repeatedly gets in the way of gaming and, worst of all, treats us as xBox users.

This is the problem. If it actually added something to the gaming experience, I would be all for it.

I_M_Weasel · 21 Jul 2012 at 22:28

Antar Bolaeisk said:
treats us as xBox users.

Really annoys me, especially when it asks if you'd like to be signed up for the xbox newsletter - surely that im using gfWINDOWSl is a give away that I'm using a PC not an Xbox. Or at other times when bits of it aren't working it tells me I can still use whatever broke by going to my xbox dashboard, again using gfWINDOWSl only dasboard I have is in the car!

cosmos55 · 21 Jul 2012 at 22:31

The words hoops and jumping come to mind.

SheepBeast · 21 Jul 2012 at 22:38

smogsy said:
Let me think
1) extra bloat i don't need i gain no benefi for either if i have steam why do i need to load GFWL after?
2) Login Problems
3) says it downloading profile & save games yet it doesn't actually backup your saves anyway?
4) its quite buggy Has issue with steam overlay in certain games (batman)
5) i personally don't like all the extra steps just to play a GFWL game specially if you forget your password there emails take ages!.
6) runs extra services & automatic on startup if you put on manual you cannot play your games it HAS to be on Auto

only benefit GFWL gives is the game must support the Xbox Controller & thats nothing to do with the GFWL software!

Pretty much this. It's just annoying. Why can't I launch the game and just start playing? I have to do all this extra login **** and it doesn't benefit us gamers in the slightest.

Aesir · 21 Jul 2012 at 22:59

voorhees1979 said:
Sorry for a silly question, but does GFWL cover the same countries as Xbox Live? I assume it would

AFAIK it's the same for both

ZombieFan · 21 Jul 2012 at 23:05

Tute said:
Steam need to add a rule banning all this **** like GFWL, uPlay, Rockstar social club from their games unless they specifically add something to the product. At least with uPlay it's only a window that pops up quickly on the way into the game.

Steam doesn't care. If it brings in the cash, then anything goes.

d_brennen · 21 Jul 2012 at 23:06

mufc802 said:
I have a better question, why do people like GFWL? I really don't see any reason or need for having it, it just adds restrictions.

I'm anti GFWL. I don't hate it, it has been fine for all but one game I have played that included it. It does nothing appreciable, there's no value add like you get with Steam (or even Origin :rolleyes:

) just intrusion to your experience - and that is when it works right. When it has a wobbly that's that, "**** you, customer"

HangTime · 21 Jul 2012 at 23:13

Tute said:
At least with uPlay it's only a window that pops up quickly on the way into the game.

Not in my experience, to play Assassin's Creed 2 I have to launch it through the uPlay interface, and the game doesn't even show up unless I sign in to uPlay in online mode (not listed under offline mode). Not a massive hardship but another hoop to jump through more mouse clicks and more waiting around before I'm into the game itself. Compared to the good old days where you didn't need uPlay, Steam etc loaded, single click on quick launch icon, job done.

Witcher1979 · 21 Jul 2012 at 23:17

The guy above a few posts:

GFWL you can set auto login, so you launch the game and GFWL will auto login and game will start, nothing extra needed to be done. You can also create an offline profile you can set to auto login, you can save with it but no achievements. So no extra mouse clicks needed for any GFWL title to play, apart from the very first time you load GFWL.

d_brennen · 21 Jul 2012 at 23:20

voorhees1979 said:
The guy above a few posts:

GFWL you can set auto login, so you launch the game and GFWL will auto login and game will start, nothing extra needed to be done. You can also create an offline profile you can set to auto login, you can save with it but no achievements. So no extra mouse clicks needed for any GFWL title to play, apart from the very first time you load GFWL.

Or... they could shove their achievements where the sun don't shine and not even need auto login? Like I said, no value add