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It's no big secret that Games for Windows Live sucks. While the name is comically bad, it's the most minor problem facing the fledgling service. It misses much of the mojo that makes Xbox Live for the...um... Xbox awesome. Once you're in an actual Games for Windows Live-compatible game, it works OK, but even starting a game and getting connected to Live can be a big problem.
If Microsoft is serious about helping PC gaming, Microsoft has to get on the stick and, at bare minimum, bring Games for Windows Live to the same level as the Xbox version. That means we need an always-on application that monitors our friends list and lets our pals send us game invites while we aren't necessarily playing one of the few games that actually supports Live. Creating this app should be Microsoft's number 1 priority.
Shared listen servers may be acceptable for console gamers, but PC gamers demand the better connection that only a dedicated server can provide. While Games for Windows Live includes some support for dedicated servers, games played on dedicated servers don't contribute to your achievements or ranking online. That's just unacceptable. A killer online service for the PC must include fully-fledged support for dedicated servers. Hell, making this work would be of huge benefit to PC and Xbox customers--with dedicated servers, Team Fortress 2 would have stood a chance on Xbox 360.
Games for Windows Live is plagued with connection problems, odd error messages, tricky-to-install updates, and a host of other problems make GfW Live more frustrating than fun. Some games suffered from epic matchmaking queues. Some seem to work, but never connect. Some rigs won't connect on the same network that work perfectly with an Xbox. Sure, once the connection is working, it's great. Until then, it's frustrating as hell.
Call me a whore for commerce, but I actually like Xbox Live Marketplace. It's really swell to be able to go out and purchase games, movies, and TV shows for play on my Xbox then download them on the spot. While there's a lot of crap on the service--I'm looking at you, card game genre--there are some legitimately wonderful games available or soon to be available for download. With downloadable demo version of every single game, Marketplace is a no-brainer. Why isn't there a PC version? Hell, we don't even mind converting our perfectly fungible US tender into goofy Microsoft 'points' in order to make purchases on Live Marketplace.
As of my last count, there are precisely seven games that support online play using Games for Windows Live. Seven. For the privilege of playing Halo 2, Shadowrun, Gears of War, Viva Pinata, Juiced 2, Kane & Lynch, and Universe at War online with my friends, I have to pay $60 a year. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem paying for Live as an Xbox owner. I have tons of games to play, and I like that people actually have something to lose by being asshats. But, the value proposition for Live for Windows is out of whack if you don't own an Xbox, and the arbitrary limitations that Microsoft has imposed on free Games for Windows Live accounts (you can't use your friends list for matchmaking, can only play in random matchmaking games, and can't collect multiplayer achievements) don't make much sense.
Comments are closed on this article
Snoman
January 29, 2008 at 5:44pm
Valve has now released Steamworks. Newell and CO. are providing developers a free SDK that will easily integrate not only features such as anti-piracy and server browsing, but also the social community backbone that the Steam Community rides on. Utilizing Steamworks, developers can implement friends lists, matchmaking, stat tracking, and even achievements into their games. Sorry Games for Windows Live, but I see no reason for a developer to come knocking on your door.
Snoman
January 29, 2008 at 5:55pm
If Games for Windows Live ever gets it right, it will still mainly support games that, with the possible exception of Universe at War, cater to the console player. If the option screen on my PC game shows an Xbox360 controller and I don't even have one plugged in, I already do not want to play that game!
onebxr
January 25, 2008 at 8:32am
I tried playing Gears of War on my PC and due to the inadequacy of Windows live, it will not run on my computer. I have random boots back to desktop and total shutdown of Gears, hell I have never seen past the firs 2 minutes of the game. Very disappointed with Games for Windows. I will not purchase another game made by microsoft because of the bad taste left by Gears of War.
-Rich
Nycromes
January 25, 2008 at 7:06am
GfWL is obviously a long way off of what steam offers. I didn't get to use steam until I purchased the Orange Box. About 1.5 months after my purchase there was a steam update and guess what. The update would progress to 80% and throw an error. I uninstalled and re-installed from the web to find I was getting the same error. BTW, if you can't connect to steam, you can't play the games! It took me about 4 days to track down the fix to this particular issue. But from what I read about steam, it frequently goes down causes problems for it's users. When it works, its a great experience.
Also, lets not forget that this is Microsofts way of developing things, they release a kinda working product that really leaves alot to be desired. The competition isn't threatened at all, MS's next rollout is on par with the competition and then the next rollout tends to be great, not perfect but great. Sure it has it's problems, so does steam. I am a big fan of Steam, I like the interface and features. Right now, I wouldn't use GfWL, but 2-3 years down the road, it will most likely be a viable competitor to Steam.
Dewflop
January 25, 2008 at 6:42am
Wow, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would see the day that Steam is used as the example for others to follow. I am use to it now, because I was forced to be, but I remember the uproar when it first came out, nobody wanted "them" to have that much control over "us". But now they do, and like lemmings we all conform without question. Sure it has some useful features, but for the most part I hate having that thing on my PC at all. Having the service that provides me the ability to play my game ROB my game of system resources while I am trying to play my game is ridiculous. Update news? What update news...every other day or so I get a big window pop up saying Update News!! Excited, I look to see what they have fixed on my favorite game.....and what do I see instead? Steam is pimping yet another crappy game that I don't want. I PAY for the Privelege of having the Spamware installed on my PC. Most websites ask you to become a paying member so the Spam will stop.....not Steam.
Darth Ninja
January 25, 2008 at 4:19am
Seems like Microsoft has to
fuck something up, err, fail at something, so someone else can do it right... then Microsoft makes a knockoff of the thing that worksI'm a Xfire junkey myself, and frankly I wouldnt consider switching / sharing my CPU cycles with another app that doesnt do as good a job in as simple a package.
If you havent heard, Xfire's adding video capture to it's arsenal, take that Microshaft!
ProtoJMB
January 24, 2008 at 7:17pm
Anyone remember the old MSN GameZone? I thought that worked out pretty well. It had an "always on" friend list, and I myself never had problems playing on their overall setup. It was perfect for Age of Empires II: Age of Kings! IMO, MS had a good thing going and should have just stuck with it. If they wanted change, just expand it, not dump CD ROM matchmaking support for some of the most popular games of all time! Also, as far as I know, the latest AoE incarnation isn't even ON GfWL. What's up with that?
I myself use Steam since I bought the Orange Box, and love it! I actually have Xfire as well, and it works almost as good actually. I use it to find servers for the original HL and TFC since Steam doesn't accept my keys.
Marcus_Soperus
January 24, 2008 at 7:14pm
Bravo, Will - you've concisely diagnosed the problem and pointed out a great solution that's already been proven. The biggest barrier is Microsoft's old "not invented here = not doing it" mentality. That was a lousy idea even when they ran everything - and it's absolutely disastrous now that their de facto monopoly is under attack from MacOS, Linux, OpenGL, and so on. If they want to stop the bleeding, cooperate!
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It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
dethdeks
January 24, 2008 at 6:15pm
just like MS to always be behind on everything like normaly. anywhere from there os to there games. doesnt any one see the pattern they are creating here? when windows came out they had usb support in what os's? non up till windows 98 SE, mac? had it from day one. now dont get me wrong i aint a mac user nor am i a windows user but i just kinda find it funny how windows is always the last one to get into the gam and when they do do it they always seem to do it sh!tty and have a billion and a half updates to fix it that usly cause nothing more then more headaches and wasted hours of tinkering. any one else think maybe for a company thats suppost to lead the world in os usage would step up and start doing things first rather then taking others ideas n murdering them to sh!t in the process of "trying" to make it there own.
