News Stardock slams Games For Windows Live

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/10/05/stardock-slams-games-for-windows-live/1

Stardock boss Brad Wardell has slammed Microsoft's GFWL system.

 

um... correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Stardock the inventors of SecureROM? Isn't that pot calling kettle black a bit?

 

he's right, it's a stupid consolification of PC gaming.

 

Absolutely. GFWL is such a mess and the business strategy is seriously flawed. It's even flawed on the 360. Look at the difference between support for L4D on PC and 360. As soon as the Survivor pack was released, there was a bug where Tanks stopped spawning. The PC had this patched right away as there was nothing stopping them. They had to live with it on the 360 as they had reached their free update limit within a certain time or something stupid like that.

Chaos - I think Sony developed SecuROM (could be wrong) but Stardock have used it in some of their games.

 

Well i can't say that i like SecureROM But i cant stand Games for Windows Live! i really think Microsoft need a slap they really are the worse thing to happen to pc gaming but at the same time the best where would we be with out direct x.

I hate Microsoft and i never use gwl i just crack any game with it on.
Now if only they would just leave it to valve the true pc heroes

Steam for life!

 

Being able to get automatic updates for games rather than have to search out specific updates for game is certainly a good thing.

Games for Windows Live sounds like Microsoft is trying to tighten it's grip on PC gaming out of fear that perhaps the open source movement might one day soon offer 100% compatibility for all new games and it is a day I look forward to.

I love the PC platform and find consoles little more than a novelty.

 

Stardock are the dudes famous for NOT using DRM at the height of the Bioshock SecurROM palaver.

 

Games for Windows LIVE has improved quite a bit over the last year or so from an end-user's perspective. Having a unified system for friends and such in all your games is a nice touch, and I have to admit that I like the draw of achievements. However, the thing is still clunky, poorly-coded, and more likely to cause stability issues in the game than not. It's also missing a large number of features, to the point where it's actually quite hilarious. I'm actually rather convinced that Games for Windows LIVE is a somewhat elabourate ruse to get PC gamers to move over to consoles. Not having proper avatar support is a big one - I should not need to own an Xbox just to customise my own personal Mii knock-off. There's the ability to create and join parties, as well, yet when you try to use those features, you're greeted with a message that essentially says "go buy an Xbox 360". Well gee, thanks for supporting the PC so well, Microsoft.

From a developer's perspective, I can understand why playing to Microsoft's requirements would be extremely annoying, especially when you're used to having total freedom over the software you create. Having to go through Microsoft's certification, a process which most developers have some variant of themselves, just prevents you from issuing updates as quickly as you should be able to, and sucks up money that could be better spent elsewhere.

Anyway, Steam still does it better, so Microsoft has nothing.

 

You're thinking of Starforce.

Stardock are a developer and publisher, with their own digital distribution platform called Impulse. Their games include Sins of a Solar Empire.

 

Stevo I never said stardock did anything i only said i don't like SecureROM

 

If microsoft had there way you would have to spend £16.99 to get 2100 Points to spend 300 points on changing your profile pic ummm no!

 

ah, starforce must have been what I was thinking of

and this is probably what got it confused in my mind...

 

like, is this guy like, 13?

Anyway, the point is made. I tried playing a legal copy of Dawn of War 2 the other day. It uses both steam and GFWL,
I just wanted a quick tryout of the game, but instead GFWL just kept prompting me to hand over my email and my shoesize and whatnot. Why should i have to give microsoft my personal data before i'm allowed to play a game i own? Insult to injury, the system seems to assume that i like all these features, and keeps spamming me with great friendfinders and profile pages. Instead of helping me, it pulls me out of the game menu (it warns me for crashes when doing so, lol) and opens a web page, for which it forces IE. This to me is VERY annoying, because i despise IE and never even finished the setup wizard for it, meaning i get prompted to go through that too! It's also a good revealer of what GFWL is: Microsoft's ruse to control the platform.

Sure enough, if you know how it all works, it could be done in a few seconds, but i dont know what it is, and i just want to get rid of it, because it's stopping me from playing the game. It's intrusive, really unhelpful, and the tone of the whole thing is completely wrong. I don't WANT a facebook for my games. I want to play games. Get outta my face.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

[/rant]

 

doublepost, plz delete

 

Greetings!

You are incorrect.
Securom => Sony => console company => best way to kill PC gaming

PS:

No.
Stardock didnt want to use Starforce in its games.
A forum moderator from Stardock then posted a link to a pirated version of Galactic Civilizations II to show how wrong Stardock was for not using Starforce.
If Stardock

 

Sounds like they need to make GFWL more optional from the gamers point of view. Steam is a great platform for tracking friends, buying games and updating them.

 

Wait, stardock makes videogames? I always thought they're the guys that make that windows app that gives you a Mac-style icon dock.

On topic, GFWL is horrible.

 

GFWL really annoys me.
I bought Batman Arkham Asylum on Steam the other day and had to spend far too long jumping through hoops to satisfy MS before I could actually play.

I like the idea of centrally-managed updates for games, and a central friend list and even the achievements GFWL offers aren't too bad, but I don't like they intrusive way in which its implemented and forced upon you.
It should be optional.

Also, we should have an open framework for developers to use that takes all the features we like and offers them to users without being tied to steam or GFWL etc.
I would sign up to that no problem.

 

Imo, GFWL is just awful. I much prefer Steam as a matured platform for buying games and keeping in touch with friends.

 

GTA4 is awesome, but Rockstar Social Club and Games for Windows Live are a nightmare.

I created both the above accounts, registering with false email addresses that i hoped would convey my hatred of the unnecessary travesty of intrusive DRM product registration.

From the first moment the game would not run from the shortcut, nor from the social-club splash screen, instead i had to reload the disk, ignore the autoplay prompt, and then use the splash screen to start the game.

I decided that if i ever had to reinstall the game it would induce rage that would destroy any pleasure to be had from this 'leisure' activity.

However, the day arrived when windows strangled itself thus requiring a reinstall, but i thought; what the hell, the game was so good i'd reinstall that too.

I had recorded the username and passwords for RSSC and GFWL, but the former would not accept it.
So i duly created another RSSC username, but on attempting to login was informed that the application did not exist.
The files were in the install folder on the harddrive, but what the hell so i popped the disk back in an re-installed the game to the same folder, which took a suspiciously short time to copy two DVD's worth of data.
Then it asked me for a CDKEY, so i looked in the DVD case and manual and found no sign of a CDKEY, did the game require one when i first bought it.............?
For the hell of it, i tried using the get "authentication key" function, but to no avail.

So with the surety that i had at least completed the game previously, I took the game downstairs and struck a cleaver through the whole package, which then went in the bin along with any enthusiasm for buying similarly infected Rockstar products in future.

Games for windows live actually reduced my gaming experience.