Well, I bought AoE Complete for 10c on GFWL so definitely nothing againt it :)

Everything.

Someone has a problem that I haven't had.

WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM MAN.

Tone it down? "What kind of problems do people have with GFWL? I haven't experienced any myself"

The simple response to the revised question is that it's a very finicky program that suffers from many downfalls including optimization issues. (Network mostly.) Having read an article in PC Gamer years ago in which the lead creator of GFWL described logistical issues, the poor implementation and the lack of resources in the project.. it's even a sub-par product from the eyes of the creators.

GFWL can lack basic functionality all it wants, and that's cool- whatever. However, it's required to play GFWL games. A single player game doesn't need this overhead, and neither does a multiplayer game.

What GFWL essentially is: DRM.

What they intended it to be: Steam like service. (Background DRM- non-intrusive)

As someone who has had various GFWL errors over the years, it's never the same thing and the error is very descriptive. Using google for the non-basic errors results in Microsoft support basically saying, "Dunno man, you're on your own". At which point it's the community's responsibility to create it's own technical support. Usually a convoluted and barely related fix is the answer.

I envy that many of you haven't actually had these issues, but you might one day. Mandatory unnecessary overhead isn't the way. Have some empathy, it might be your turn next.

I can't play Batman: Arkham City and Dirt 2 because of that shit.

Dunno, I use xliveless :>

Haters gonna hate, eternal Internet law. Maybe we are Steam fanboys a bit, senselessly praising it and hating all other distribution systems. 'Stop Origin' could be most known example.

Myself, I like the fact that (example) just by playing Bioshock 2, I can get all it's DLCs for free. Okay, logging in may cause lags but ain't Steam laggy the same way when launching?

Its crap, but to show some examples. Until recently online wasnt supported in my country and even now it doesnt support all games. It erased my savegames several times. Not even week ago it took me 4h just to start up Fuel because GFWL was causing it to show error that my hardware is not supported (which is bull, cause I already played it). There is no anti-cheat in MP games with it. It was randomly disconnecting me from live in middle of MP sessions. Updating sucks cause you have to start game, download it, close game, install and whole thing over again (some people say they had to do it 5x, 10x or even more times). But yeah because you are one of the few people with no problems we are just whinny morons with delusion.

1. In some countries GfWL was not supported yet it was possible to register the game. As a result of this, whenever you started multiplayer it told you that this service is not supported. You couldn't register the key on another account, you couldn't change your country in settings, basically many gamers had up theirs.
2. It looks as if it was designed for consoles
3. Who likes additional DRM?

You have been disconnected from LIVE ... whut ok I can still play so I do not care! 5 minutes later. Dirt2.exe stopped working.

I have installed it and wanted to plaz Section 8: Prejudice. It didn't work. I had to update my windows and that took good an hour for 167 updates. That's not avaible for some countries, Poland for example. And that is freaking annoying if you have no net and wanna play game with that crap.

Because it's not Steam. And probably some minor stuff. I also never had any problems with GFWL other than that "not available in my region" error Steam gives me.

Because it is shit. Simple as that. Random disconnects and many other things. Hate that.

I like how OP doesn't acknowledge any of these issues from other people just because "they never ever happened to him", i guess they're all figments of our imagination. Flawless logic right there

Strange thread .. Asking why people don't like GFWL and then on every answer that has logic writing "Never happened to me", "never experienced that" or something like that.. well you are a lucky guy if you didn't experience any problem with you GFWL.

I hate GFWL because it corrupted my saves for GTA 4 and for Gears of War.

I've had a few problem with it, but not too bad. What bugs me the most is; why the hell do i even need it when the games are already using steam drm? Making legit games more complicated and annoying than pirated ones are not the way to go -_-

GFWL=PERFECTION

Good question. I heard many people complaining about it but I don't see why. I never had any problem with it.
I know it has some issues especially in countries where GFWL is not supported so you couldn't play multiplayer games.
But I guess the main problem is that GFWL is basically a DRM. But so is Steamm UPlay and Origin. And of course, it designed by Microsoft, the evil company, Umbrela corp bla bla bla.
But personally I don't have more problems with GFWL than I have with other platform-like DRMs. And from my own experience, Steam is buggier. But then again, I have more games on Steam than I have on GFWL.

metoxys i cant tell if you're trolling or not. I'll assume your not.

You keep saying it works for you, you can confirm that it does this this and this, etc. Just because it works well for you, does not mean it works for the millions of other people who use it. Yes it works for the majority of people, but for the people it doesn't it makes games completely unplayable. So they are entirely justified in not liking it.

Personally I've only had minor problems that don't bother me(download trouble mainly), but i know many people who have nothing but trouble, it makes games they've paid for COMPLETELY useless. For people like me and you it's great, for others its the worst thing they've seen when it comes to their games.

So that's what their problem with GFWL is.

Over the past 2 years I've used it for (Tinker, Game Room, Bioshock 2, Viva Pinata, Age of Empires 3), I've had no problems whatsoever with it, and I'm not seeing the problem either OP.

Unavailable in my region= no Bulletstorm(and other games) when it was cheap= it can go to hell. :)

And I don't think faking my ip to run it would have a happy ending...

Over the past 2 years I've used it for (Tinker, Game Room, Bioshock 2, Viva Pinata, Age of Empires 3), I've had no problems whatsoever with it, and I'm not seeing the problem either OP.

Tried to play MicroSoft Flight... free game... After 8 reinstalls GFWL kept giving me corrupt files. I uninstall the whole damn thing and hated it ever since.

I haven't had any real problem with it yet, altough I've seen the horror stories. I do find it intrusive though in the few games that uses it. It also suck big time when a game bought on Steam uses GFWL for achievements. The interface for it is also a pain to use and it shows that they tried to extend their xbox platform on the PC without any real tought into it.