Why do people hate GFWL so much?

[SheepBeast]

GFWL sucks imho but I understand that if you have xbox friends it might bring some value.

There's still no excuse for the limited installs and all the other stuff that they have going on. Similar to origin.

 

[Daichin]

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?

It's pretty simple for the most part, actually does it automatically to an extent. If you go to the settings (click the little cog, press settings) look on the general tab. Check "Keep game installers after games have been installed". Next time you download a game it keeps the installer in the game installer folder.

Dumb thing is that you can't backup installed games so far as I'm aware. It means that, if your internet is slow, you have to check that button before you start downloading things.

Also I'm pretty sure you can just copy paste the Downloaded Games installer too. Origin then I assume will just fix any missing files and associations just like Steam does.

 

[AWPC]

Did I miss something?

When did collecting games with GFWL on them become some sort of 'thing' you could brag about? Is it like collecting artwork or pottery with flaws in them?

Flaws you must be seriously confused mate there are no flaws in my games they all work using GFWL 100% as expected perfectly. I never ever had the problems others got but again I never used a cracked windows 7 OS, xliveless or tried to pirate the games (not that I am suggesting for 1 moment you did either but many did which is where the most common problems started).

But like I said earlier in this thread all GFWL talk is academic MS got the hate message loud & clear the haters won they beat MS & GFWL was quietly dropped in summer 2011 when they merged the gfw & xbox forums & domain's into one & fired or re-assigned the entire GFWL dev & support team(s).

You only have to endure Dark Souls & 3 more Capcom games in 2013 before GFWL will probably fade away forever.

Xbox LIVE For Windows 8 (not getting back ported to Windows 7 either) will bring a new DRM level to PC gaming that makes GFWL look very attractive you forget your Windows 8 username/password trying to logon to the OS will become interesting for instance as will anyone who assigns the game to the wrong gamertag (you lose it forever) but worse still is how MS are actively bribing publishers & indie devs to go exclusive to windows 8 & blocking a Windows 7 release (Skulls Of the Shotguns is the first title to do this there will be others). MS are trying to force XBLA titles to go W8 only if they want MS support this will either mean less XBLA games if devs are smart enough to stick to PC & Steam & blow XBLA out or the opposite & less quality indie titles on PC due to MS marketing tricks to force Windows 8 adoption (Which will fail miserably but MS will try regardless like they always do & waste serious money on the doomed from the start project ).

 

[AWPC]

GFWL sucks imho but I understand that if you have xbox friends it might bring some value.

There's still no excuse for the limited installs and all the other stuff that they have going on. Similar to origin.

Installs have never been limited the activations for the first wave of GFWL games which ended in Sept 2009 was 15 then you had to contact support. Eversince Sept 2009 on SSA titles (where it askes you onscreen about binding the game serial number to your gfwl account) they have unlimited activations. Some games have securom activaton limits as well as using unlimited GFWL but that's all down to the publisher (Bioshock2 for instance 2k removed the securom limit ages ago in a patch from gfwl).

Batman Arkham City has a securom activation lmit which is in real world useage 50 times before you need to contact wb games (10 different pc's 5 activations on each one).

 

[AWPC]

I'm not sure how Microsoft making something even worse makes GFWL any better. Too many companies these days are exploiting their position in the market to force gamers to become another tick in the "yeah, we own them" column in their annual report.

I don't really have a problem with software like this (as unnecessary as I think it is) but when it fails to add anything worthwhile to my experience, and I'm given no choice as to whether I use it or not, it becomes an annoyance and I think I should be quite rightly allowed to express dissatisfaction.

Its does everything steam does & sits quietly in the background so its as useless as steam is but its all academic GFWL was retired in summer 2011 the games using it recently are only doing so because it saves a lot of time & money to port the 360 code (you only need 5 api calls for gfwl to work & have the same network services as the 360 version which is why so many games used it in the past many ports only came to pc because gfwl existed to cheapen the dev process).

 

[AWPC]

Ok; I was going to report the posts in here because I found some peoples 'debate' on the topic to be a bit too much like bullying.

Since Vorhees didn't take to it too badly then I thought I'd just make my first forum post (in ten years) to try and slide myself into the community with just a passing comment. The internet has changed a lot in that time, shame the attitudes of some people hasn't.

Rant over, that's an impressive collection! I've seen a few niche videogame collections but this was by far the least expected I've seen so far. Did you have to find out about those rares yourself or are there a group of gamers who collect these also?

Most of those games I just bought naturally as they were games I wanted when they were first released very few did I buy just to collect them (only Stormrise & that was like 99 pence in an amazon sale!!).

I have about another 200+ PC retail games as well going back to about 1992 (no pics it would take forever to line them all up!!).

 

[AWPC]

That is an impressive collection you have m8, I am jealous. One day I will have as many

Amazon & shopto.net are your friend m8 they have loads sub £5 all the time in sales or just cheap as old surplus stock you can buy any gfwl game made before approx sept 2009 (apart from Halo2 it uses a special unique MS drm) & even if its a used copy you can use another gfwl game circa 2007-2009 cd key it will work the cd key is just to access gfwl services its not drm as such on the earlier gfwl games only the post sept 2009 & digital games are tied to the account nowadays.

 

[Jarrastafari]

Nah i don't care, don't let them get to me. Funny thing is though they won't even say sorry for saying I made your account lol. It is the norm for some of them.

Didn't think they would, hah!

I hadn't known about the loss of GFWL and future move to Windows 8, this is interesting. Hopefully the changes will be progressive and they can provide a service that meets the high expectations of the opposed.

 

[Rezident]

Because it doesn’t work properly.

Because Microsoft has no excuse for such shockingly poor software.

Because when I bought a game, e.g. Bioshock, I was not allowed to play the game I had payed for because GFWL didn’t work properly.

Because it wasn’t even able to update itself, it would not allow me to play until it updated, ok so update, update would proceed maybe to about 70%, then stall and never complete despite countless retries. I tried to download the patch manually that also failed. And I was not allowed to play until it updated but it was unable to update. Unforgiveable.

Because it kicks it’s paying customers in the teeth, I heard that pirates have none of these problems.

Because once, twice, thrice, ok many many many times bitten so badly I will never willingly use such a broken, shameful piece of time-wasting rubbish ever again. Game over.

 

[reflux]

It's a bad piece of software that's unnecessary and poorly designed.

Also it hid my Arkham Asylum saves in a totally random place so I lost them when I formatted

 

[Spook187]

All worked fine with GFWL,until i built a new pc and tried to install Microsoft flight and now getting the error code 0x80070005 does anyone know how to fix this,can't play any GFWL games now.

 

[Shadez]

Sept' 2003 Steam started, I've been using it since Aug' 2004

So it's 9 years old

Nope it started in 2002 with cs1.6 beta. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28software%29#History

GFWL has a horrible interface its illogical and hard to use. Hell you cant even chose your own username. Its just a piece of bloat that offers no benefit at all.

 

[Witcher1979]

Nope it started in 2002 with cs1.6 beta. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28software%29#History

GFWL has a horrible interface its illogical and hard to use. Hell you cant even chose your own username. Its just a piece of bloat that offers no benefit at all.

What do you mean you can't choose your own username? Use your Xbox tag or make a new one with your own name, as long as it is not taken. Hence mine is Witcher1979

 

[Evilsod]

What do you mean you can't choose your own username? Use your Xbox tag or make a new one with your own name, as long as it is not taken. Hence mine is Witcher1979

I think he means 'at will'.

 

[PiKe]

GFWL works fine for me, I have no qualms with it.

 

[Shadez]

What do you mean you can't choose your own username? Use your Xbox tag or make a new one with your own name, as long as it is not taken. Hence mine is Witcher1979

Strange then why is it i have an auto assigned name despite choosing something appropriate? Not that i care as GFWL is totally useless.

Name one feature of GFWL that is any use to a PC gamer?

 

[WiZZyWiGG]

I am in the 'never had an issue with GFWL before crew' also.

I know some people who have had issues, I can understand if you have why they would hate it due to them... but for me I have no problem with it. I just see it as another friends list tool.

 

[Witcher1979]

Strange then why is it i have an auto assigned name despite choosing something appropriate? Not that i care as GFWL is totally useless.

Name one feature of GFWL that is any use to a PC gamer?

Ah yeah we all get those, but you get a one time option to change it. If you did change it and it did not stick then I have no idea, strange. You can even set a name for offline profiles as well.

 

[Evilsod]

Ah yeah we all get those, but you get a one time option to change it. If you did change it and it did not stick then I have no idea, strange. You can even set a name for offline profiles as well.

And yet, neither of those are changing your name as and when you want.

 

[Barry_H]

One day I will have as many

Ornaments that don't work.