Games for Windows Live was and is a peculiar endeavor, even for a giant company like Microsoft. It has attempted (and continues to attempt) to provide a suite of mostly redundant services to PC gamers and PC users. From match-making to messaging to voice-chat, most of GFWL’s vaunted “services” are incredibly easy to come by on a PC. Even when they aren't, Microsoft's ham-handed implementation serves as a major road block to many. In the age of Stardock and Steam, GFWL is aging badly.
Of course, the real problem with GFWL is that it has been consistently mismanaged. From the beginning, developers and publishers had to pay to benefit from Microsoft’s system and marketing clout. Likewise, until 2008, gamers had to pay for multiple parts of the LIVE “experience.” This was, of course, an untenable setup. Gamers could and did turn their noses up at such tactics.
Most PC gamers with any experience at all on a computer knew how to arrange for the services offered by GFWL – without ever using the service itself. Things like Xfire, various chat services and social services, and in-game server listings and rudimentary matchmaking all invalidated much of Microsoft’s vaunted power. The fact that most of these money-making policies have been guardedly, ruefully removed does little to blunt the sting of money exploited.
Even now, Games for Windows Live struggles to become meaningful in any way. If you look past the extreme redundancy of much of the service, there are a few interesting, mostly unique offerings on display. The main interface of GFWL runs in the background while you play games that require it. While this is annoying and intrusive (as are the constant, slow, mysterious updates the service receives), it does provide the kind of all-encompassing connectivity and sense of immediate community and online store that XBLA so adeptly leverages on the Xbox 360.
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