Why do people hate GFWL so much?

It is pretty bad / unnecessary though, I'm not one to jump on the bandwagon and looking through my posting history I've not really stuck the boot into GFWL for a few years, reminded me I did have to manually download and update it to get GTA4 working though, not to mention Rockstar social club and all that nonsense.

In principle GFWL probably wouldn't be so bad if it was more over-arching, i.e. ALL publishers, developers etc had bought into it, there were no competing services, no uPlay, Steam, Origin, Capsule, Impulse etc just one generic service built into Windows that you could setup once and be done with it rather than having to faff about with different systems for different games.
 
Omaeka said:
I've been looking around Google and I honestly cannot say I've seen one person talk anything but bad about GFWL, yet I personally own several games on GFWL and haven't had a single issue, not one. Can anyone elaborate as to why its so hated? :confused:
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You are just lucky. When your luck runs out and you encounter a problem, you too will join the legion of GFWL haters. Just a matter of time.
 
Admittedly its awhile since I've used it as I've now taken to avoiding games that use it. The main problem is its just an extra layer between you and the game that means more effort to play a game (and usually I play a game to relax when I've had a hard day and really don't appreciate having to take even 1 extra unnecessary step) and doesn't give any additional value to you as the customer.

My last experience of it:

Tried to start game, black screen and nothing, read up on forums = manually update GfWL.
Started up again after updating, GfWL scrolls down from the top, I have to mess about with it for about 2 minutes because it doesn't have my account details for some reason (previously set them up with Batman AA).
After entering the details it randomly wants to restart the game.
Started up again, go through signing in which isn't a streamlined process.
Game finally starts up, about 2 minutes into playing GfWL popups with a "mandatory" update and won't let me continue til I restart yet again.

After that I just avoided any game using GfWL like the plague.
 
Daichin said:
Steam doesn't let you back up your games any more than Origin does. Origin lets you save the installers.
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Youll have to let me know how you do that, because ive never been able to back up games on Origin, where are the options to do it? Steam is a simple few clicks and i have the whole game on backup. Would love to know how. Is it as simple as Steam or is it fiddly?
 
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Although I ain't a big fan either, seeing complaints about something on the net i find more common than people praising it. If it works, you use it for whatever reason, and when it does not, you go onto the internet to rage... or get some advice to fix it.
So you will have to gauge it against how many are using it and how many are complaining about it.
 
Omaeka said:
Well 10 hours of SSFIV and 10 hours of GTAIV and I've yet to experience any issue, not even lag within servers. I think we're either lucky or people are doing it wrong. :p
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This ^^^

Also never had a problem across multiple systems and ISP's. It does what it is meant to do, also allows me to chat with my xbox friends. It just works, love it to bits. Currently collecting all the GFWL titles.
 
GFWL hate campaign is truly ridiculous & as soon as any GFWL title goes on sale on Steam it jumps to the top usually (AOE Online stayed there for almost 2 weeks). If people hate it that much surely no matter the price you would not buy it would you :rolleyes:

Its all academic anyway after 24th August when Dark Souls P2P ships & Batman Arkham City GOTY on 7th Sept there are no more GFWL titles confirmed this year. RE6 is a strong possibillity if Capcom can make it late Nov/early Dec but its most likely a 2013 title. After Capcom finish Resident Evil6/Lost Planet3 & DMC MS will most likely not allow anyone else to use GFWL as they have shifted their focus to Xbox LIVE For Windows 8 (you thought GFWL was bad wait until you see what tricks MS have up their sleeve for XBL4W8. Forcing publishers to use it by making identical code on all 4 supported platforms (W8/WP7/360/MS Surface Tablets) so MS can grab the indie market & XBLA from others by showing publishers if they only support Xbox LIVE For Windows 8 no need for other PC gaming services as the code does not change. This will take time to make some difference but it will as publishers are all about the bottom line on PC porting nowadays.

Most of the issues with GFWL were user related but like I said its all academic the entire dev staff were re-assigned to XBL4W8 or other MS divisions around the same time they merged it into xbox.com & shut the old GFW forums down in summer 2011. GFWL will just become another dormant gaming service once Capcom finish their current batch of PC games in Q1 2013.
 
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.
 
Neil79 said:
LOL I was waiting for AWPC :D

You should work for Microsoft ;)
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Mate they could not afford me ;) in time people will see the truth when they turn off their hate filters ;) now that its too late GFWL was much better than the alternative being lined up especially for the indie scene if they want to make their game for XBLA & PC it has to be exclusive to Windows 8 :eek: which will either stop XBLA from getting decent indie games or stop PC I suspect PC will suffer more as indie devs will take the bribe from MS as its a guarantee to get your game on the MS App Store :(
 
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