Does anyone else not hate GFWL?

[kmufc77]

The whole platform of GFWL has never ever been good and still has many issues.

You would think being a Microsoft product they would have sorted it out by now.

I still use it as lots of games still use/need the platform

 

[AWPC]

GFWL charges you something like £8 just to change your name.

Just for that reason alone, I think it's a pile of steaming horse-crap.

Its now free to change your email address. The charge for changing your gamertag is understandable as they have to pay someone to check it manually.

Last time I checked Steam does not let you change your Steam ID or Steam Account Name at all does it!

 

[gronf]

Wow, I see there's a lot of infidel scum in here. May Steam be upon you all.

Seriously, I dislike GFWL (just as I did with Steam early on), but to each their own, different strokes for different folks, etc.

As others, I've a handful games that use it, but I usually ignore it or apply a fix. I do have a few on my online account that I got via sales, such as the 10p AoE3 offer the other day. Will use it more if they improve it more. As it stands, GOG & Steam are my favourites by a country mile.

Last time I checked Steam does not let you change your Steam ID or Steam Account Name at all does it!

I've changed mine twice, iirc once a full change and another time a minor spelling change.

 

[Ravenger]

You mean you did not realise that in 1 maybe 2 button clicks you could make an offline profile

Well it's not like it actually goes out of its way to explain that, is it?

The option to create an offline profile is hidden offscreen as a hyperlink in the middle of a large amount of text that you have to scroll through and read to be able to find it.

It's exactly like the bit in HHGTTG where the demolition plans are found "in a basement in a locked filing cabinet with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the leopard" '

GFWL fails in so many areas.

It's disrespectful to PC gamers because it's so obviously tied into the Xbox Live system that it keeps on forgetting you're on a PC and asks you to go to Xbox websites to do vital stuff to get it working.

It encrypts save games so you can't use them on a different machine or OS.

It's slow, clunky and the interface is obviously designed for an Xbox controller.

The community features are laughable - email style messaging, no push-to-talk on the mic.

It has undisclosed limited activations on some titles, and the new marketplace doesn't tell you exactly what DRM is used on any given title.

Etc.

It really shows that Microsoft don't actually care about PC games - they're too busy with the 360, and GFWL is just a half-hearted attempt to appease PC gamers, but we can see right through it.

It's like they've come late to a party with half-a-bottle of flat low alcohol lager and expect us to think they're the life of the party, but instead we're all having fun drinking Steam's huge cases of assorted quality beers.

 

[Blue160]

I've never had any issues with it.

Had endless trouble getting steam to work though. Turned out my AV setup at the time didn't like it.

 

[AWPC]

Wow, I see there's a lot of infidel scum in here. May Steam be upon you all.

Seriously, I dislike GFWL (just as I did with Steam early on), but to each their own, different strokes for different folks, etc.

As others, I've a handful games that use it, but I usually ignore it or apply a fix. I do have a few on my online account that I got via sales, such as the 10p AoE3 offer the other day. Will use it more if they improve it more. As it stands, GOG & Steam are my favourites by a country mile.



I've changed mine twice, iirc once a full change and another time a minor spelling change. Easy and no charge.

Thats strange as according to Valve its not possible to do so!!

"Can my numeric SteamID and/or Steam Account Name be changed?
Your numeric SteamID and Steam Account Name can not be changed. Your Steam Community ID can be changed at any time in your Steam Community settings, under "Edit my SteamID page".

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1558-QYAX-1965

 

[gronf]

Ah, community ID it was

Why would you want to change the numeric identifier? And my account name is the same as my community ID, though I could've swore it was different before... Oh well.

 

[AWPC]

Well it's not like it actually goes out of its way to explain that, is it?

The option to create an offline profile is hidden offscreen as a hyperlink in the middle of a large amount of text that you have to scroll through and read to be able to find it. Agree its hidden & should be easier to find.

It's disrespectful to PC gamers because it's so obviously tied into the Xbox Live system that it keeps on forgetting you're on a PC and asks you to go to Xbox websites to do vital stuff to get it working. Agree but it uses the same backend as Xbox that's why but you know what without the X360 the PC would not have gotten anywhere near as many games in the past 4 years as porting games from 360 to PC is easy as the code is similar & MS provide a lot of dev support to help on this.

It encrypts save games so you can't use them on a different machine or OS.
It does this on only a few games not all & its only done that way by the developers not GFWL or MS its just how the devs chose to stop hex editing gamesave cheating when it has an online component like MP or Leaderboards.

It has undisclosed limited activations on some titles, and the new marketplace doesn't tell you exactly what DRM is used on any given title. GFWL forums have the DRM info & their staff will find out for you if you ask. Publishers set this DRM policy thought not GFWL as their default is unlimited activations but only 5 per month per laptop/pc then it resets for the next month so you always have 5 activations. As long as you use the gamertag it was bought or registered to you can log onto as many machines as you like.

It really shows that Microsoft don't actually care about PC games - they're too busy with the 360, and GFWL is just a half-hearted attempt to appease PC gamers, but we can see right through it. MS care a lot about PC gaming but TBH most of their 360 games would not sell on PC as they are poor & PC gamers demand a superior experience.

GFWL is not perfect no-one would argue with that but neither is Steam & the anti-GFWL BS on forums like this hurts PC gamers overall as some publishers drop GFWL so lose out on exclusive DLC like the upcoming Fallout New Vegas DLC will not come to PC for a very long time if ever. If they had retained GFWL it would be day & date with the 360 version.

THQ dropped GFWL but now they are saying it maybe fully supported again as MS are talking to most of the big publishers about including GFWL as it only takes 15% coding to get it working on PC when you have a 360 as 85% of the code is the same.

 

[Lunatic Dreyfus]

Only used it once for Dawn of War 2.

I didn't welcome its presence at all, and remember getting rather annoyed at going through all the faff of setting it all up, when all I wanted to do was unleash hell on my foes. I did grow to like the fact it was linked to 360 gamer tag, but once I flogged my 360 I swiftly grew indifferent to it.

I certainly wouldn't dream of buying anything off GFWL.

 

[Eddie]

I have to install GFWL whenever I want to play either Batman of Bioshock2. I hate having to install it, and then update it, configure it, remember my user name etc. Also, as I'm using a 60GB SSD space is limited as to what I can install.

It just all seems a bit unnecessary as it's through Steam anyway.

 

[marc1024]

i hate gfwl live because having it pop up aswell as steam is quite annoying. Especially GTA IV with that other program needed to run it. thats 3!! Steam GFWL and rockstar thingy.


used gfwl market place for the first time yesterday! Guess what for?....yes thats right aoe3 for 10p!

 

[modo77]

Never had any issues with it here, install it once setup username and forget about it.

 

[SeraphX]

yep it is trash, just done re-installing fallout 3 with GFWL, run game, update, exit game, run game, update again, exits game, runs game yet again, update urgh, bored now, close game and wave fists

 

[AWPC]

yep it is trash, just done re-installing fallout 3 with GFWL, run game, update, exit game, run game, update again, exits game, runs game yet again, update urgh, bored now, close game and wave fists

Why not just do this instead its far easier!

1: Install the newest GFWL client from the GFWL website.

2: Install Fallout3 (it will detect you already have the newest GFWL client & not try to reinstall it) then close Fallout3 & manually install the latest Fallout 3 patch as it contains all the others rolled into it.

Simple & does not take very long at all

 

[Antar Bolaeisk]

yep it is trash, just done re-installing fallout 3 with GFWL, run game, update, exit game, run game, update again, exits game, runs game yet again, update urgh, bored now, close game and wave fists

I don't understand why they can't piggyback on the Windows Update service, it runs automatically and doesn't require modification of NAT settings to work unlike GFWL which only checks for updates at launch and does require NAT modifications (albeit only the once and only a simple fix).

 

[FoxEye]

So true.

You can defend GFWL all you want. Say it's user error, or system incompatibility.

The fact is, end users aren't going to care +why+ it doesn't work; they're just going to be annoyed that it doesn't work.

Steam just works. Maybe it wasn't always as good as it is today, but that's irrelevant.

Steam = hassle free.
GFWL = some/many users having lots of problems.

Blame the users if you like. It changes nothing.

 

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

Thats strange as according to Valve its not possible to do so!!

"Can my numeric SteamID and/or Steam Account Name be changed?
Your numeric SteamID and Steam Account Name can not be changed. Your Steam Community ID can be changed at any time in your Steam Community settings, under "Edit my SteamID page".

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1558-QYAX-1965

I was talking about your in-game name. With steam, you can change it as many times as you like, with microsoft, they want to charge you money.

 

[orderoftheflame]

You can defend GFWL all you want. Say it's user error, or system incompatibility.

The fact is, end users aren't going to care +why+ it doesn't work; they're just going to be annoyed that it doesn't work.

Steam just works. Maybe it wasn't always as good as it is today, but that's irrelevant.

Steam = hassle free.
GFWL = some/many users having lots of problems.

Blame the users if you like. It changes nothing.

Whut? If it's users not setting up their firewall properly, it's still GFWLs fault?

There are hundreds of programs out there that will foul up with an incorrectly setup firewall, Steam will do it as well!

I'm not defending GFWL like some crazed fanboy, I far prefer Steam. However, I've never had a problem with it, and never seen an issue where the user had 0 blame for the problem.

 

[Final8y]

Whut? If it's users not setting up their firewall properly, it's still GFWLs fault?

There are hundreds of programs out there that will foul up with an incorrectly setup firewall, Steam will do it as well!

I'm not defending GFWL like some crazed fanboy, I far prefer Steam. However, I've never had a problem with it, and never seen an issue where the user had 0 blame for the problem.

Xfire would foul up setting up a GFWL account.
Had to close Xfire, set up the GFWL account, login then all was good but only had to close Xfire to set up the initial GFWL account & that was for Gears Of War.

 

[dillingerdan]

TBF I would say most of the problems are ****ty first impressions, from old versions of the system, but then the system still isn't flawless. The newest update installed a new version of the Live Sign In Manager of helper or soemthing which f-ed up my WDTV Live boxes, as it interferes with the network shares password, so always rejects the boxes, uninstalled they work fine again (Took me F-ING AGES to find this solution!! Thanks to some guy on the WDTV forum).

That's the only problem I have had with it personally. Much like DirectX I keep on top of updates as then when I need to play a GFWL game its updated, I only need to download any patches that might be available then (if I have not/can not download them manually anyway).

In-game I have no real problems with it, it's just the fact that outside of that, I don't really get why I am installing the program for something I never use (especially now I can't use it since I have no Live sign in manager thingy). I mean its nice to have the overlay drop down pressing the guide/home button, and being able to chat to Xbox pals, but otherwise, the program is mostly useless, and we could just use the GFWL site to download the files and buy stuff...