[MP-Ryan]

I swear, the next game that I want that requires this **** from Microsoft is getting immediately struck from my buy list.  I buy games from Steam for convenience and its relative unobtrusiveness - if I wanted Microsoft's awful, awful semi-clone, I'd buy games from them.

Seriously, I know some of you think Steam qualifies as malware, but GFWL is like a system-ending virus.

Good thing Arkham Asylum was a good game and worth the pain and suffering.

[General Battuta]

GFWL is the worst thing ever.

[Mongoose]

It wasn't exactly my favorite thing in the world getting it set up for Arkham Asylum, but I already had a Live account from my brother's 360, so it wasn't a massive deal.

[Turambar]

Everyone hates GFWL

[Klaustrophobia]

never encountered it.  is it microsoft's attempt to charge for internet usage on the PC as well as Xbox?  if it's worse than steam it will never touch my computer.  i've only got steam because the evil piece of **** has even infested physical DVD games.

[SpardaSon21]

When G4WL first came out, yes, you did have to pay MS to make use of basic features like matchmaking.  It is worse than Steam because it attaches itself to Windows.  You may even be forced to restart your PC if G4WL updates itself.

[Angelus]

never encountered it.  is it microsoft's attempt to charge for internet usage on the PC as well as Xbox?  if it's worse than steam it will never touch my computer.  i've only got steam because the evil piece of **** has even infested physical DVD games.

That's why i do a lengthy research before buying games. It saved me from buying AC2.
I also avoid in General games that require an internetconnection.

[Nuke]

ive been known to not buy games that i really wanted because of drm. im just as pissed off with pay for play games, mindless mmorpgs that bill buy the minute. if they try to push that crap into other genres il just stick to open source gaming. these days if i see games for windows anywhere on the package i quickly rethink buying it, merely because i dont want games that use ms's apis over more standard ones that are more stable. i can still play 10+ year old opengl and even glide (YES GLIDE!) games, but i have so much trouble playing dx 5,6, and 7 games that are not as old. gfwl? **** that. just another way to screw gamers out of their money.

[Thaeris]

I pretty much share your exact sentiments on the matter, Nuke, though I'm not as seasoned with dealing in any code related issues pertaining to MS software. I felt installing FC2 was like pulling teeth, and in fact I've never got around to really flying the sim anyway. Adding to the fact that it can only be activated so many times, it also needs to be DE-ACTIVATED to uninstall? Never. Fracking. Again. The sim was a gift, but rest assured that I'd never buy it of my own volition.

I'll stick with open source, old, and abandonware, thank you.

[MP-Ryan]

The worst part about GFWL is that it will actually prevent you from saving your game if it goes offline - which happens ALL THE ****ING TIME.  The most unstable piece of **** bloatware product I've ever seen.  To add insult to injury, even if you buy the Steam version of some of these games (arkham Asylum, BioShock 2) you STILL have to dealt with GFWL on top of that.

Fortunately, it seems that only a few studios tried this **** and a lot of them re-thought it later or made it optional.