How about:

• Lack of an interface without starting up a game (No single startup program to chat, see what everyone else is playing, list all your games including non Steam/GFWL)
• locking saved games and forcing you to sign-in for access plus you can't save without logging in
• a poorly designed user interface for PC (looks like it was designed for low res
• a range of connections issues rarely encountered with Steam
• bloated and buggy client with visible slow down and process heavy compared to Steam
• activation limits
• poor and unclarified DRM policies
• slow to update and patch
• region locking PC games
• uses MS points for purchases instead of direct cash
• less games on Live than available on Steam
• No user-mods for download

Perhaps there is an issue with that game in general. And I do believe some games allow mods.

Adding to this GFWL is only available in 26 countries, if someone buys a game that uses GFWL for online and does not live in one of those 26 countries, they can't play that game online.

That's exactly what I don't want. Competition is good, locking games to a single account would make me a very dirty pirate.

I'm not denying Steam is superior. I just don't find Live particularly bad.

I agree the interface needs work. But I'm not crazy about Steam's interface either.

You don't need to buy games with MS Points. Every game (except Kane & Lynch) is list by $ amount. During the purchase process you can choose to pay with a credit card or MS points.

It has considerably less games, always will, but it has a few solid games you can't find on Steam. Most notably Gears of War. There's always potential for MS to add more exclusives.

Why? Its linked to an account, but not limited to a single PC. You can take your games anywhere your going without worrying about limited licenses (unless specified by individual publisher typically using SecuROM DRM).

snicker. I remember that GFWL was just XBox Live put on Windows. Ooohhhh the dread that brought the mature gaming community. Developers jumped on board. Gamers gave a big fuck off. Heck the fuck off was so big that MS dropped the idea of charging for Windows Live.

Thank you developers for growing a brain. Now we just wait for the rest of the community give Live a shove off.

It ties my to an online server nonetheless, and it limits (read: eliminates) my ability to buy used games or sell my games. And like I said, competition is good.

The only full-priced game I've bought on Steam is Half-Life 2, and that was when HL2 was released and I had no idea how Steam worked. Since then, I've bought a few smaller games when there's been a great sale. In those cases, it won't be a big loss if something happens some day. I'm sure I'll be a gamer much longer than Steam exists in its current form, and I have a tendency to return to older games.

The way I see it is, like XBL & PSN, you have one standard area for everything to be implemented. This would be achievements, leaderboards etc. When you have an exclusive title on either XBL or PSN, then there's no competition there too isn't there? So I see it being no different when you have one service for PC. If you have a multiplatform title, there really should be no reason to charge higher on the PC just because there's one online service there. If you DO have an exclusive PC title, the reason for charging higher there should be no different than a reason to charge higher on an exclusive title for PSN, or XBL.

Here is the thing. Its all digital so obviously used games or selling your games went out the window. Its what happens when things modernize and become easier for the general user. Things must be sacrificed which I would much rather lose the ability to sell and buy used games rather then keep the ability to lose a physical disc or damage it.

Also lack of competition is a joke. There are at least 3 other services that offer similar to Steam and tend to have the same publishers of titles. First party titles stay exclusive and so does some 3rd party titles, but overall the majority stays open and competitive like the console market.