Microsoft Joins Steam/Impulse/et al » Forum Post by Mellowe

in ten years, i'm going to have games on 30 different freaken download distribution companies...

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I hate GFWL...

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Here's some fun things to consider:

Dawn of War II is a GFWL-enabled title (and is therefore eligible for the new store), but it uses Steamworks. Thus, it forces Steam on buyers regardless of where they purchase the game. Will Microsoft refuse to sell the game because it forces customers to install a competing platform?

Red Faction: Guerrilla uses Stardock's GOO as well as GFWL. It will be sold in the new store. Will the version sold in Microsoft's store contain GOO, as all other versions of the game have before it?

What is Stardock's take on this? Can this possibly be a good thing? More pressure against Steam to perhaps create more opportunities for other services? A push for platform-independent services, such as GOO and Impulse Reactor, to deal with the growing number of digital distributors?

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Dawn of War 2's good..but that damn "must be registered/online with Windows live to play EVEN IN SINGLE PLAYER made it one of the most dissapointing thing in the last year.

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Quoting LEADER MkII,

reply 4

Dawn of War 2's good..but that damn "must be registered/online with Windows live to play EVEN IN SINGLE PLAYER made it one of the most dissapointing thing in the last year.

I found the Steamworks components far more offensive. GFWL is at least portable and built into the game, while Steamworks requires a heavy external client.

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True that...but when I got to install Stema to play it, and then got to register with windows live to just play the damn thing...WTH?

I mean- i'm an adult now, my mom ain't watching over my shoulder now....but some faceless corporation can and does? sure software protection...they should go back to a CD-Key; it worked well back then; not to mention..let's say I don't ahve internet, but I want to paly DoW 2 single player...I'm double screwed.

I don't have internet; can't install Steam, nor can I get Windows Live, nor cna i return the product because the box's open and most store either can't accept it back or will trade it for the same game.

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louist

Join Date 09/2005

+15

Quoting Melchiz,

reply 5

Quoting LEADER MkII, reply 4Dawn of War 2's good..but that damn "must be registered/online with Windows live to play EVEN IN SINGLE PLAYER made it one of the most dissapointing thing in the last year.

I found the Steamworks components far more offensive. GFWL is at least portable and built into the game, while Steamworks requires a heavy external client.

If you find Steam offensive, try D2D. It will make you cry.

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Given the GFWL "experience" thus far, I'd rather have a rabid badger shampoo my crotch than buy a game off of the service.

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On GFWL you can ALWAYS make a Offline profile to play single player. You don't need to be on-line to make it work. I haven't ran into a game yet that uses GFWL that I couldn't do that with and that includes DoW2.

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Quoting TatertotEatalot,

reply 1

in ten years, i'm going to have games on 30 different freaken download distribution companies...

And they will all demand to be startup applications. Seriously though, I've been complaining about this for a bit, and guess what, all of them are going to have exclusives which makes having each of them necessary. They're already bundling clients and other unnecesary files with discs so that isn't going to help either. And privacy, heh, forget that, with all this companies mining your information and selling it to the highest bidder.

(aka, not saying Stardock does this but EA and company I am sure)

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I don't think MS can really compete. They have no exclusives. They have no driving force for their client. Just because it's Microsoft isn't going to make people buy from it when for all anyone can tell they've abandoned PC gaming (aside from DX and GfWL.)

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I hate GFWL and steam, so no thanks. I stick with Impulse for the moment. (Least intrusive right now.)

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Given the GFWL "experience" thus far, I'd rather have a rabid badger shampoo my crotch than buy a game off of the service.

Agreed. GFWL can just go away.

Seriously though, I've been complaining about this for a bit, and guess what, all of them are going to have exclusives which makes having each of them necessary.

Strong, but I can dig your annoyance, I think of it like a filter...I was very excited about DOW2 but the GFWL invasion made that decision for me. It would have to be a phenomenal don't miss game for me to resort to installing GFWL. Dragon Age perhaps, likely Elemental, though thankfully that's not going to be a problem.

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I don't think MS can really compete. They have no exclusives.

The advantage MS has is certainty that if you buy a game from them in 10 years time they should still be standing. You can't say that with as much confidence about any of the others out there.

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Quoting aeortar,

reply 14

The advantage MS has is certainty that if you buy a game from them in 10 years time they should still be standing. You can't say that with as much confidence about any of the others out there.

I'm more concerned with a company discontinuing support for its download servers than actually failing.

See: Walmart's mp3 store (DRM servers were taken offline)

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people, if you bought the game, and for whatever god forsaken reasons the drm measures are hindering you from playing our game, get a crack from the internet. problem solved. If you don't have internet, go bug someone else that does, it is a simple google/bing search.

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Quoting elias001,

reply 16

people, if you bought the game, and for whatever god forsaken reasons the drm measures are hindering you from playing our game, get a crack from the internet. problem solved. If you don't have internet, go bug someone else that does, it is a simple google/bing search.

I think that people dislike the idea that they must modify legally-acquired games in order to "unlock" them. Shouldn't paying customers have access to the best experience?

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Quoting Melchiz,

reply 17

Quoting elias001,
reply 16
people, if you bought the game, and for whatever god forsaken reasons the drm measures are hindering you from playing our game, get a crack from the internet. problem solved. If you don't have internet, go bug someone else that does, it is a simple google/bing search.

I think that people dislike the idea that they must modify legally-acquired games in order to "unlock" them. Shouldn't paying customers have access to the best experience?

Agreed. Cracks are not a solution for overzealous DRM and/or the potential problem that digital distributors might have down the road. Please, no one get on here and tell me how Steam is too big to fail, hmmm where have I heard that before, or that Brad is too smart for that. I don't think anyone sees failure coming out of any of these particular companies now, except maybe for the handful of stores like EA's that require you to pay for access to your games later. The thing is, industries are dynamic. No one knows what is going to happen 10 years from now, rewind 10, 15 years and there are some major players in the gaming industry that are just gone now.

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