Poll: OnLive: Your Opinions

[Dexter Willett]

Being a PC gamer lacking, well, a good PC, I viewed OnLive as the promised land, honey and milk included. However, due to the CoD/XBOX fanboyism present (not saying the 360's a bad thing), I can't seem to get it started up. I know it's growing, but if you have to have someone plan out when you can play ACB multiplayer, you need to get more people into it. I'm sure this has been asked before, but if this post gains an audience, tell people about this amazing service. Oh, and I'm serious about my PC being absolute crap; Minecraft still only has <30 FPS on LOW settings.

 

[Worgen]

I dont like cloud gaming, I dont like the idea of it at all, it puts too much control in the companies hands and it also means you dont own your games not to mention that if a license runs out that means your games are gone, we have seen it a few times already

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

What is OnLive?
For those (probably just me) who don't know.

 

[Erana]

I have a Mac, but I am still avoiding any streaming game service on principal.

Honestly, the day gaming goes from a product to a service is the day we can say good bye to single player games. MMORPG-like aspects will become a must for games, because there's more money in making people spend more time on a game, rather than simply making it desireable enough to make an initial purchase. MMOs are nice and all, but the extent to which it would dominate all aspects of gaming in a service-based gaming industry would be outrageous.

Not to mention, it would seriously hinder or even downright destroy game modifications.

 

[Dexter Willett]

What is OnLive?
For those (probably just me) who don't know.

OnLive is esentially a PC/Mac-based service that streams games to you over your internet connection. And while what Worgen said is true, I am not one of those people who apparently has I-don't-own-my-games-phobia. I couldn't play any of the games in my OnLive library on my computer with a physical copy, so OnLive lets me without having to spend $300 on an Xbox plus $60 for games AND an additional $60 a year for online play (doesn't count for PS3, obviously). Website is http://onlive.com

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

What is OnLive?
For those (probably just me) who don't know.

-snip-

Does that mean it allows people with crap PCs to play high end games?

 

[Kapol]

There are a few things that I don't like about it. One of the main ones is the fact that I don't actually own the game. That means that, in the case of the service being knocked out or going out of business, I'd be screwed. I have the same problem with services like Steam as well, where they can really take away all of your games if they wanted. But at least in the case of services like Steam, I don't think they'd actually be able to remove the game from my HD. With systems like OnLive, my game would be gone for good.

There's also the fact that you have to have a good internet connection to play it, and even then it uses a lot of bandwidth. If I lose internet connection or can't get online for whatever reason, I can't play my game. I just don't like that system. That's also why I don't buy many XBLA Indie games, as that has the same rule in place.

Then there's the fact that how well it works will depend on your area. The further away you are from a center, the worse the times are.

 

[Dexter Willett]

Guys, I look at this knowing that unless I have 1000's of dollars, I'm no where near getting a gaming PC. This isn't a replacement of Steam (sorry if I sounded like I meant that), this is merely for the games you could get on Steam but couldn't play. Plus, your progress is saved in the cloud so you can go from one computer/Micro Console to the next and keep playing.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I'm surprised that it still exists. I thought it shut down already.

 

[kasperbbs]

I gave it a try a while ago and it lagged a lot since i live in Europe. Playing a shooter was annoying and dirt 2 was just unplayable. So it might be the future, but we need to improve internet connections first and mine is 11mb/s, not that this matters when there are no onlive servers nearby.

 

[MisterShine]

As a PC game rental service?

Since its really our only option, I dig it

As a purchasing service, eh... I wouldn't recommend it. Too dependent on the company to keep playing a game you bought.

 

[]DustArma[]

Yeaaah, I don't recommend it unless you either live in the US or have a high speed connection, or both...

I live in Chile and have a 6mbps connection and foolishly tried it.

Saying that a 6mbps connection is not enough is an understatement.

 

[andeve3]

It's a good idea for a service, though i can not imagine it competing with the consoles or normal PC gaming, in terms of users, at any point in the future.

 

[Omechron]

I have amazing internet and I still get terrible control lag in onlive.

It's a good idea for a service but I'm afraid it's probably only practical for people living in really major cities.

 

[Judgement101]

I love the idea and want to see it become more evolved. I genuinely think it can be a good think if the companies are a little less controlling and if they work out the lag issues. I honestly could see this becoming a major thing in the gaming world.

 

[Cronq]

They did snag me with some of their more recent deals:

-75% off, picked up Homefront for $12.50
-Spend $10, get a 100% off coupon, bought AC2 for $20, got F3AR for free

I've actually been pretty happy with the service once I upgraded to 15mb internet. <5 is definitely not doable. They seem to have ironed out quite of the input lag that I did notice early on. The games look ok, but they only stream at 720p and they games seem to be set on medium'ish settings on their end.

I'm definitely not interested in switching to it as my main platform, but if they keep dishing out free and $5 games then I'll keep biting. I'm also very interested in their potential for mobile streaming, already tried their viewer app on my Nexus S today and it looks awesome!

 

[Dexter Willett]

Okay, about the Europe/South America problems: OnLive is a growing service. They're trying to make everything perfect for North America, then their going to expand. Here's a link they're E3 2011 Press Conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoX0bs10-Vs

This is essentially what their going to do in the future.

 

[Veylon]

I'm kind of surprised this thing is still around. I would've thought that the lag due to the speed of light would've stopped it cold, but apparently not. I'm not particularly enthusiastic about it, but if it allows people who can't afford games normally a chance to play them, why not?