Is live for Windows Dead?

[quackerww]

I realize that development takes time and some times products get pushed back. But what the hell Microsoft! UNO was suppose to come out last year and so far the service remains dead... So much for innovation.

Rant please, Has Microsoft lost faith in the PC gaming industry?

 

[destrekor]

Ugh. Live for Windows blows. I hope it dies.
Paying for content and services, that on the PC beforehand, was always free? Fuck that I say.

 

[RandomFool]

No it's just a bad idea.

 

[zorrt]

Isnt live on the PC free? Unless you want to play against xbox360 players that is.

 

[lupi]

After dealing with live for windows, I feel sorry for the schmucks that actually pay for live for 360.

 

[zorrt]

Yea I hate the idea of paying $20 a month to play a game I paid $100 for. But hey thats life.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: zorrt
Yea I hate the idea of paying $20 a month to play a game I paid $100 for. But hey thats life.

Fortunately, there are far better games than what appears on Live and you aren't forced to use that shitty service.

 

[emblem]

Originally posted by: lupi
After dealing with live for windows, I feel sorry for the schmucks that actually pay for live for 360.

no need to feel sorry for us, were enjoying it.

Originally posted by: zorrt
Yea I hate the idea of paying $20 a month to play a game I paid $100 for. But hey thats life.

WTF. How much is Windows live for you guys? it's only $50 a year on 360, and you can find deals easily for 35$ for 13 months.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: lupi
After dealing with live for windows, I feel sorry for the schmucks that actually pay for live for 360.

You are comparing apples and oranges.

 

[Drekce]

Originally posted by: lupi
After dealing with live for windows, I feel sorry for the schmucks that actually pay for live for 360.

Live on 360 works really well. It is absolutely painless to setup and play basically any Live enabled game. Speeds are fast and the service is very reliable.

 

[lupi]

I haven't played many multiplayer titles on my PS3, but to date I've spent $0 doing so. There is no getting around that the MS model for running live is to just have an excuse to tack on some bullshit fee to bring in revenue. If this is the kind of help they are b ringing into the PC gaming field, thanks but we surrender to what we already have.

 

[emblem]

What problems were people having with Live for Windows?

XBL really is insanely simple to use. Yea, maybe it should be free but it's not. I want to play 360 online games so I'll pay the measly $35-$50 a year for the service.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Originally posted by: emblem
What problems were people having with Live for Windows?

XBL really is insanely simple to use. Yea, maybe it should be free but it's not. I want to play 360 online games so I'll pay the measly $35-$50 a year for the service.

"silver" is free.

however, it sucks in comparison to anything offered by PC MP games. why can't i see the ping of servers? hell, why aren't there servers (i'm looking at you, gears of war MP).

VOIP works perfectly fine for my in every game with push to talk (CS, TF2, Crysis, as well as vent and skype), yet live's built in mic detection can't pick up a signal, more or less (gears of war MP).

live simply doesn't work as well as it should to be anywhere close to competitive, especially given how well steam has matured.

 

[lupi]

Not to mention simply creating an account was a nightmare when you were sent there from an in game menu.

 

[PingSpike]

Live for Windows is the answer to the question no one asked. We already have all the stuff it offers, most of it for a decade...and its free.

 

[emblem]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon

Originally posted by: emblem
What problems were people having with Live for Windows?

XBL really is insanely simple to use. Yea, maybe it should be free but it's not. I want to play 360 online games so I'll pay the measly $35-$50 a year for the service.

"silver" is free.

however, it sucks in comparison to anything offered by PC MP games. why can't i see the ping of servers? hell, why aren't there servers (i'm looking at you, gears of war MP).

VOIP works perfectly fine for my in every game with push to talk (CS, TF2, Crysis, as well as vent and skype), yet live's built in mic detection can't pick up a signal, more or less (gears of war MP).

live simply doesn't work as well as it should to be anywhere close to competitive, especially given how well steam has matured.

I don't PC game but can someone explain VOIP and Ventrillo to me? Someone makes a voice room and other people join it?

Why is that so much better to use than ingame voice chat?
Wouldn't it alienate those who may not know the IP address of the Ventrillo server?

What do you mean it hasn't matured? In what other ways could it be better?

 

[BladeVenom]

I don't think the Xbox fans understand what they are paying for. You are paying Microsoft to use your own console.

You aren't getting dedicated servers. You are paying to be allowed to connect to someone else and use your own console as a host. That has always been free.

PC gamers expect dedicated servers for new games to be included in the cost of the game. Other companies and private users also set up dedicated servers. Xbox users are paying for a service that is inferior to what PC gamers expect to get free.

What next? Will MS charge you for ammo? Maybe you'll need to pay 25 cents every time you play a game?

"There's a sucker born every minute."

 

[emblem]

The price of XBL just has never been a problem for me I guess. I understand all that it offers and all that it doesn't.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom
I don't think the Xbox fans understand what they are paying for. You are paying Microsoft to use your own console.

You aren't getting dedicated servers. You are paying to be allowed to connect to someone else and use your own console as a host. That has always been free.

PC gamers expect dedicated servers for new games to be included in the cost of the game. Other companies and private users also set up dedicated servers. Xbox users are paying for a service that is inferior to what PC gamers expect to get free.

What next? Will MS charge you for ammo? Maybe you'll need to pay 25 cents every time you play a game?

"There's a sucker born every minute."

Except there a lot more to it than just that. You have over simplified things to make your point. Personally, I'd love to see Live be free, who wouldn't? But I think the real advantages for Live are how everything is integrated. Chat simply works... and it works across all games. I can be playing PGR4 and be in a chat with someone watching a movie or playing any another game. You can invite people to games at any time no matter what the other user is doing. You can voice or text message any time to any user. Etc, etc....

Can you do similar on a PC? For the voice chat, yeah, to a degree. You have to set up a voice chat program and convince all your friends to run the same. Then one of you has to run the server for it or find a decent public server. Then, if one if you is running the server you have to rely on that person keeping their PC up 24/7. Or you can try something like XFire. I tried XFire and thought it was a POS. I now run a voice chat server on my PC... but, of course, my friends are SOL when it's down for some reason.

Of course, a lot of games have built in chats, but then it's completely disjointed from any other game. That's the convenience of a service like Live. Yes, most of the games are actually P2P, but there'a lot more to it than that. Even with the cost you end up paying Like $4/month. Hardly a major expense. So far I think it has been worth paying it. I also have a PS3 and it's much more like the PC. Games are on dedicated servers, but the voice chats are limited to a game by game basis. It's inferior to Live in many ways. A lot of people though are hoping that Sony adds a lot of those services with the introduction of Home and keeps the service free. If that happens, MS may be forced to lower the price of Live.

 

[Modelworks]

The fact that MS is making Live the standard for new games for windows, logos, makes me ill.
A game that requires me to install Live for windows, and have an account to even play single player. ugh

 

[Duddy]

It was dead from the beginning, and it started with the crap Windows 360 controller driver.

 

[Piuc2020]

The thing is, Live for Windows thing was hurting PC gaming more than it was helping it so it's actually a blessing more than a curse.

It only takes one good look at Halo 2 PC to know just how many things are killing the PC gaming industry, from the very game, to the requirements to the horrible "Live for Windows" implementation.

 

[450R]

Originally posted by: Duddy
It was dead from the beginning, and it started with the crap Windows 360 controller driver.

Huh? I bought the wireless adapter for the 360 controllers and they've worked perfectly since day one. The only driver I have came straight from Windows Update. I don't have any Windows Live games, though ... are you talking about a problem inherent with those games?

 

[lupi]

Halo 2 pc wasn't a GFW killer, that was due to the requirement for dx10/vista during a period where you hear nothing but driver problems and people rolling back to xp.

 

[Jules]

I love XBL. Cant say the same the the Windows Version.