Is Games for Windows Live a virus?

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Thread: Is Games for Windows Live a virus?

  1. #1
    Hammerhead Shark Geforce255's Avatar
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    Is Games for Windows Live a virus?

    Or worse than a virus?

    I picked up Dirt 3, which uses the steaming pile known as GFWL. Naturally it wouldn't log in to my account, this thing is krap, after all. I can log in to the account from the web site, but in games it refuses it. So I had to make a new account and lost all my Dirt 2, GTA VI and any other GFWL infected save files.

    GFWL has done more damage to my machine than any virus I've had.

    /rant
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  2. #2
    Awesome. Kamakazie's Avatar
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    Did you try to recover your password or anything of the sort? I've had problems with GFWL forgetting I had a valid key, but I haven't seen it refuse to accept my login details.

  3. #3
    Great White Shark Wurm's Avatar
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    Never had a problem with it... guess I've been lucky.
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  4. #4
    I don't roll on Shabbos! Timman_24's Avatar
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    I've never had a problem with GFWL. I'm actually one of the few that thinks its fine. It updates my games, lets me get achievements, and shows all my 360 friends. I think it is fine, but could use a little work.
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  5. #5
    Awesome. Kamakazie's Avatar
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    The only issue I really have with GFWL is that inviting friends into a multiplayer match requires way too many clicks. Aside from that and the few instances where I needed to enter my key again, GFWL just sits in the background not bothering me.

  6. #6
    Great White Shark
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    Ooh. I got paranoid about password security one time. Learned the hardway that despite the platforms sharing credentials, each one has it's limitation for password length.

    Code:
    Fun fact:
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    X-Box Live can take up to a 30 character password.
      Xbox.com can take up to a 16 character password.
           GFWL can only take a 14 character password.
    Found that one out the hard (and extremely frustrating way). Once I figured that out though, I've been golden across all platforms.
    Last edited by James; 01-20-2012 at 09:26 PM.

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  7. #7
    I don't roll on Shabbos! Timman_24's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by James View Post
    Ooh.
    Fun fact:

    X-Box Live can take up to 30 character password.
    Xbox.com can take up to a 16 character password.
    GFWL can only take a 14 character password.

    Found that one out the hard (and extremely frustrating way).


    Once I figured that out though, I've been golden across all platforms.
    Wow, so if you created a very secure password on your Xbox, you can't log into GFWL? Sounds like they need to do something about that.
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  8. #8
    "Watches You Sleep" Shark taggart6's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by James View Post
    Ooh. I got paranoid about password security one time. Learned the hardway that despite the platforms sharing credentials, each one has it's limitation for password length.

    Code:
    Fun fact:
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    X-Box Live can take up to a 30 character password.
      Xbox.com can take up to a 16 character password.
           GFWL can only take a 14 character password.
    Found that one out the hard (and extremely frustrating way). Once I figured that out though, I've been golden across all platforms.
    Fun fact #2:

    Muting your GFWL account will also mute your xbox 360 headset. To undo it, you have to deselect mute from your GFWL account.

    Found that the frustrating way.
    If we hit that bull's eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

  9. #9
    Awesome. Kamakazie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by James View Post
    Ooh. I got paranoid about password security one time. Learned the hardway that despite the platforms sharing credentials, each one has it's limitation for password length.

    Code:
    Fun fact:
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    X-Box Live can take up to a 30 character password.
      Xbox.com can take up to a 16 character password.
           GFWL can only take a 14 character password.
    Found that one out the hard (and extremely frustrating way). Once I figured that out though, I've been golden across all platforms.
    Wow, that is retarded.

  10. #10
    Mako Shark Snakespy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by taggart6 View Post
    Fun fact #2:

    Muting your GFWL account will also mute your xbox 360 headset. To undo it, you have to deselect mute from your GFWL account.

    Found that the frustrating way.
    Yeah I found that out too. Other than that I have had no issues with GFWL before. My worst gripe is it takes up more space on my xbox friends account, which I have no room for people. They really need to add more than 100 friends.
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  11. #11
    Great White Shark
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timman_24 View Post
    Wow, so if you created a very secure password on your Xbox, you can't log into GFWL? Sounds like they need to do something about that.
    Or the website. Like I said, I learned the hard way. Seems the backend can handle the long passwords just fine (from the fact that XBL never had an issue logging me in with the 30-char password), but the various interfaces (namely xbox.com and GFWL) only send whatever they consider the maximum # of characters to be. So sure, the backend is storing a 30 char. password, but you can't authenticate to it from xbox.com, because the web login is only sending 16 characters.

    It's extremely poor coding, and it irks me.

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  12. #12
    I don't roll on Shabbos! Timman_24's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by James View Post
    Or the website. Like I said, I learned the hard way. Seems the backend can handle the long passwords just fine (from the fact that XBL never had an issue logging me in with the 30-char password), but the various interfaces (namely xbox.com and GFWL) only send whatever they consider the maximum # of characters to be. So sure, the backend is storing a 30 char. password, but you can't authenticate to it from xbox.com, because the web login is only sending 16 characters.

    It's extremely poor coding, and it irks me.
    This is what happens to large companies with multiple programming teams. EA is the same way. The making of Origin has been a constant struggle. People that are banned on the BF3 forums end up being totally banned from Origin because of the way the back end works. They've been trying to fix that for months.

    There was a book that I still haven't finished that tackled this problem and it was written in 1975 titled "The Mythical Man Month." He notes that adding man power to a programming job does not add to productivity like it does in traditional jobs.

    The highlight for this case is, of course, communication. Having the message boards, EA store, Origin, security, and other program departments all try to come together and cobble their systems into a main front-end is almost impossible without rewriting the entire thing from scratch.

    I'm actually surprised how well some of these large platform amalgams run to be honest.
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  13. #13
    Great White Shark
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    Quote Originally Posted by Timman_24 View Post
    There was a book that I still haven't finished that tackled this problem and it was written in 1975 titled "The Mythical Man Month." He notes that adding man power to a programming job does not add to productivity like it does in traditional jobs.
    "Nine women can't make a baby in one month".

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  14. #14
    Hammerhead Shark Geforce255's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kamakazie View Post
    Did you try to recover your password or anything of the sort? I've had problems with GFWL forgetting I had a valid key, but I haven't seen it refuse to accept my login details.
    No, I didn't and the reason is that the original is tied to my MSDN account (Windows Live,) which still works. So I don't dare mess with it for fear it would screw that up, which is work related. My SQL and Exchange is through that account. (Software Assurance.)
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  15. #15
    Great White Shark Wurm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Geforce255 View Post
    No, I didn't and the reason is that the original is tied to my MSDN account (Windows Live,) which still works. So I don't dare mess with it for fear it would screw that up, which is work related. My SQL and Exchange is through that account. (Software Assurance.)
    I have this problem as well and I hate it.
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