Gamespy: GAFWL is doomed

My biggest complaint is Microsoft's insistence on layering Gfwl on top of DRM platforms like Steam. Gabe did this big presentation on why not to do that but moneys money. He's not gonna turn it down.

The GFWL Bioshock 2 and steam are not compatible. The patch versions don't match and cause shit tons of problems.
 
I never really thought about how big of a problem it actually was until now. I just liked getting achievements through some of the games. But I agree with the article, rebooting after updates and losing my save in Dirt 2 along with some of the achievements being stupid. Though I had spent a lot of time getting achievements in the past, I just don't whore it out like I used to.
 
Microsoft recently brought over some games like Age of Empire 2, Age of Empire Online, and the latest Microsoft Flight to Steam platform. The exact opposite of what EA is doing, which leads me to believe that Microsoft probably don't care much about GFWL or their online store for PC games as they are not even trying to promote it with their own games.

So its probably for the best. Microsoft can focus on their xbox platform while developers stop using GFWL and everyone is happy.:D
 
Between Steam and Origin (whether we wanted Origin or not, EA's huge and it's getting shoved down our throats) I'd agree. GAWFL is doomed.
 
I purchased a pc game that required GFWL once. It turned out alrgiht but all the time getting it set up to run I'm thinking what a convoluted mess just to play the darn thing. I am surprised it hasn't gotten any better but this is MS, they are the kings at talking but not implementing...
 
In all honesty the GFWL platform is going away and being replaced by Xbox Live for Windows in Windows 8. They are focusing all their attention there, so Live isn't going away in Windows, its going to be built into it.
 
GFWL needs to DIAF with the hottest flames possible. :mad:

I've sold most of my GFWL games to Amazon or Abunda Trade just because I got tired of the BS (& they were games I didn't care for either). I'll keep some of them but my preference is to use circumvention around GFWL's DLLs.
 
Microsoft recently brought over some games like Age of Empire 2, Age of Empire Online, and the latest Microsoft Flight to Steam platform. The exact opposite of what EA is doing, which leads me to believe that Microsoft probably don't care much about GFWL or their online store for PC games as they are not even trying to promote it with their own games.

So its probably for the best. Microsoft can focus on their xbox platform while developers stop using GFWL and everyone is happy.:D

To me it is obvious that Microsoft is not interested in PC gaming. The platform could die for all they care -- every time someone purchases a game for their Xbox 360 Microsoft gets a cut through licensing fees. This is not the case with the PC platform. Considering this, why would they feel concerned?
 
Ah Crapcom...... of course they would be the last ones to drop it......
Resident Evil 6 is using this? Even after huge threads on capcom-unity.com on just about every release.
idiots...

Hope Namco drops this for Dark Souls. They just might do it...... or not. (One look at Namco's Steam game list should tell you why.)
 
The only comment I have regarding this... Gamespy still exists? I haven't heard of them in years.
 
I like the idea of it, it's just buggy as hell. Getting achievements and being able to chat with my XBL friends is pretty neat...but whatever DRM they have built into the program is a complete mess and it has gotten worse with subsequent revisions. The newer ones that force you to to go to their store in a separate browser and corrupt your save files are absolutely horrible.
The first revisions (Bioshock 1 era) weren't nearly as bad or buggy.
 
Gamespy criticizing GFWL seems a bit like that story about the pot and the kettle. I forget how that goes. Lmfao.
 
This is just one of many things that Microsoft tried to compete in and failed at or became completely irrelevant. They should just stick to doing operating systems and business software.
 
Between Steam and Origin (whether we wanted Origin or not, EA's huge and it's getting shoved down our throats) I'd agree. GAWFL is doomed.

Speak for yourself, Origin is only being inserted into the throats of people who let it.
 
Between Steam and Origin (whether we wanted Origin or not, EA's huge and it's getting shoved down our throats) I'd agree. GAWFL is doomed.

How is it getting shoved down your throat? No one fucking forced you to buy BF3 or any other EA games. :rolleyes:
 
How is it getting shoved down your throat? No one fucking forced you to buy BF3 or any other EA games. :rolleyes:

Correct, but it's still being forced upon those who don't want to use it, but want EA games. There is no doubt that EA has released some very desirable titles, and they damn well know it. Lesser titles wouldn't sell so well demanding the use of Origin.
 
I feel about the same about GFWL as I did about "Gamespy Arcade" being a requirement for games back in the late 90's, god that software was such a POS.
 
Correct, but it's still being forced upon those who don't want to use it, but want EA games. There is no doubt that EA has released some very desirable titles, and they damn well know it. Lesser titles wouldn't sell so well demanding the use of Origin.

Yes and? It's a good business tactic one Microsoft tried with GFWL on titles like Halo 2 and Gears and Valve did successfully with HL2. Whatever you think about EA as a company Origin itself is not that bad.
 
Origin may not be that bad, but it doesn't really offer anything over and above what steam offers which would make me use it as anything other than a digital download platform. Still infinitely better than GAFWL though....
 
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What's wrong with GameSpy?

Implementation was pretty bad in a few games... but i still would rather have gamespy then gfwl. Plus gamespy still has servers up for many old games that probably just die out without it. So long live gamespy an a early death for GFWL i say :D
 
It is doomed. It doesn't even have it's own site anymore it's just a section of the xbox website, hidden in a sub menu, and will probably be called xbox live on the PC soon enough. Seems kind of pointless hobbling games with a stupid system to "enable cross platform play"...but having next to no games with cross platform play. Even the games that exist identically on both systems where it would actually work don't. The platforms have nothing to do with each other outside a pointless "gamer score"... It doesn't really serve any purpose for gamers or developers, especially since it's DRM service is low security.
 
GFWL can go fuck its-self. Hated it , always have. If it worked as it should have it could have been a pretty decent piece of add on software. Instead its bloated , annoying garbage that has prevented me from enjoying more than one game until many patches were released.

I can't wait for it to fucking die off.
 
If there's one thing I didn't expect to do tonight, it was to dredge up memories of me actually using Gamespy as a preferable alternative to ingame server browsing. Way to surprise me, thread.
 
If there's one thing I didn't expect to do tonight, it was to dredge up memories of me actually using Gamespy as a preferable alternative to ingame server browsing. Way to surprise me, thread.

I know what you mean. Gamespy was, is, and will always be horrible but I would still rather use it over GFWL.
 
Yes and? It's a good business tactic one Microsoft tried with GFWL on titles like Halo 2 and Gears and Valve did successfully with HL2. Whatever you think about EA as a company Origin itself is not that bad.

it's not a good business tactic. devious, smart, manipulative yes but definitely not good. actually not even smart, since it hasn't been remotely successful, it's pretty safe to say that majority of users are against rather than for it. origin is not bad at all in comparison, GFWL represents the pure evil side of MS, cannot even be compared to real clients like origin/steam. what they have in common is that players unwillingly have to use it in order to play the games they want, but otherwise completely different goals.

the purpose of clients like origin and steam are to provide incentive to use their platforms (be it from strongarm tactics or legitimate features), and distribute games of course. GFWL is the direct opposite, to steer users away from this platform while supporting and advertising another. the main functions of this "platform" for lack of a better term (must be real business directives from management, I refuse to believe otherwise):

1. advertise XBL/360
2. making porting from XBL/360 as easy as possible (not easy as in efficient, but easy as in the least amount of work possible, which obviously results in crap)
3. (if you believe in conspiracies) detract from pc gaming, give every function the least amount of appeal and the most hassle/complexity possible

these goals go against all that is good, so it's basically impossible for them to succeed. the article is pretty spot on, you really think the developers of both the most successful console and operating system on the market would have a problem with something so simple as game saves? community features? they appear to be making no attempt to compete with 3rd party clients at all, while also publishing direct, fake comparisons at the same time. what they actually have here is a layer of drm, and abstraction for porting with a few token features thrown in, that's it. should be easy no?


gfwlol.png



note the clever use of the phrase "in-game/progress" to imply that steam has this feature as well, but does not work in game or party, which is obviously false. another blatant lie is their discrepancy between matchmaking/invites, which of course functions on different levels for both platforms on a per-game basis.

a huge clue that this article touches on is the lack of version information. sounds pretty minor, but hit that home button to bring up the ui and see what happens, where users are most likely to be looking for technical information when things aren't working. when you look through settings -> version information, where you will end up is a landing page sharing a domain with xbox, with zero information on what you are actually looking for. you'll get a nice kool-aid faq to tell you how great pc (xbox) gaming is, and why you should do it through GFWL (xbox). need help? have some publisher links, that will send you right back here when you follow them. on second thought this is pretty hard, maybe I should just buy an xbox?
 
it's not a good business tactic. devious, smart, manipulative yes but definitely not good. actually not even smart, since it hasn't been remotely successful, it's pretty safe to say that majority of users are against rather than for it. origin is not bad at all in comparison, GFWL represents the pure evil side of MS, cannot even be compared to real clients like origin/steam. what they have in common is that players unwillingly have to use it in order to play the games they want, but otherwise completely different goals.

the purpose of clients like origin and steam are to provide incentive to use their platforms (be it from strongarm tactics or legitimate features), and distribute games of course. GFWL is the direct opposite, to steer users away from this platform while supporting and advertising another. the main functions of this "platform" for lack of a better term (must be real business directives from management, I refuse to believe otherwise):

1. advertise XBL/360
2. making porting from XBL/360 as easy as possible (not easy as in efficient, but easy as in the least amount of work possible, which obviously results in crap)
3. (if you believe in conspiracies) detract from pc gaming, give every function the least amount of appeal and the most hassle/complexity possible

these goals go against all that is good, so it's basically impossible for them to succeed. the article is pretty spot on, you really think the developers of both the most successful console and operating system on the market would have a problem with something so simple as game saves? community features? they appear to be making no attempt to compete with 3rd party clients at all, while also publishing direct, fake comparisons at the same time. what they actually have here is a layer of drm, and abstraction for porting with a few token features thrown in, that's it. should be easy no?


gfwlol.png



note the clever use of the phrase "in-game/progress" to imply that steam has this feature as well, but does not work in game or party, which is obviously false. another blatant lie is their discrepancy between matchmaking/invites, which of course functions on different levels for both platforms on a per-game basis.

a huge clue that this article touches on is the lack of version information. sounds pretty minor, but hit that home button to bring up the ui and see what happens, where users are most likely to be looking for technical information when things aren't working. when you look through settings -> version information, where you will end up is a landing page sharing a domain with xbox, with zero information on what you are actually looking for. you'll get a nice kool-aid faq to tell you how great pc (xbox) gaming is, and why you should do it through GFWL (xbox). need help? have some publisher links, that will send you right back here when you follow them. on second thought this is pretty hard, maybe I should just buy an xbox?

Devious, smart, and manipulative is sort of the point of it though. Remember: A good move for a business is rarely a good move for customers. That's why I called it a business move and not something good for customers. Microsoft has tried to make GFWL a platform. They sell games through it. They have failed miserably whether through ignorance or intention. As for EA, eh I'm not sure exactly what to think of how they're approaching Origin yet. They're taking the wrong lessons from Valve, but I'm content to watch and see what they do before calling it either way.
 
GFWL was doomed from the start for the very basic reason that MS themselves would like nothing better than to eliminate PC gaming altogether. They are a monopolistic company so once they got into the console business,their goal became to dominate gaming. Sure,once they saw the profits Steam makes they wanted to get in on the action,but their anti PC mindset made it impossible for them to succeed.
 
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