I fail to see how this is MS's fault. You know you can create a new XBL account right?
I'd have to buy another copy of Dark Souls (which would require I create a new steam account) because my product key is locked to my 'child' account.
I'm not really sure why people are defending Microsoft here, except out of obstinacy. Why am I expected to know that my GFWL account is a child account? Seriously. There was no warning. I hadn't logged into that account in years. I wasn't even aware that it was a child account when I actually used it. You can say it's my fault for not switching account types, but jesus, Microsoft's who created these account subdivisions in the first place. When my 360 broke, I figured I was done with Xbox Live forever. Honestly, I never understood the hate for GFWL originally, but having experienced it firsthand, I can say it really is terrible. The sooner PC gaming can abandon MS altogether, the better.
launch game from preferred steam account then choose GFWL account in game.
This is an excellent solution, and probably what I'll wind up doing. It's kind of disgusting that this problem exists in the first place, though -- hopefully when GFWL finally keels over we'll be free from Microsoft's bullshit.
@jrad: Have you looked through the account settings on Xbox.com?
Yes, they all redirect to a sign-in page for the parent account. Even talking to the Xbox support guys, they told me I'd need to sign into that account to change anything.
I hate to be the one to say this, but...did you search for a solution? Anyway, the issue is that child accounts don't automatically upgrade to "parent" accounts. There are several easy ways to accomplish this...here's a starting point.
I did search, yes. There's no solution. Trying to access any account settings on my child account prompts me to sign into the parent account (i.e., my mom's account.). They've changed it since the 6 years ago that article was written.
You never changed your account. How is this anyone's fault but yours?
Why should I have to? No, serious question -- how does this make any sense, at all? Who is this protecting? What purpose does this serve? And why is it possible to lock a product key to a functionally useless account, without any warning that it's useless? It's just endless red tape.
I like 16:10, but aspect ratio isn't really what the deciding factor should be. For gaming specifically, you have two options:
Extremely fast refresh rate/low input lag (the "pro-gamer" route)
Huge, pretty screen
Option 1 is going to max out at 1920/X, and option 2 at 2560/x. Option 1 will be cheaper, but the image/color might not be as good as option 2. Option 2 gives way more screen real-estate for desktop applications, but is pushing so many more pixels that todays monitors will never have the input response-time of option 1.
I just bought a new monitor this week and was weighing those options. Some of the best in option 1 seem to be the ASUS VG248QE and one of the BenQ monitors. There's a lot more choices available for option 2, including some of the korean monitors that get quite cheap, but lack the fancy extras (they're essentially huge apple screens that weren't quite good enough for apple, so they throw the most basic components on and sell them).
Yeah, I ran into this issue while shopping for monitors. I wanted a fast 1440p monitor, which they don't actually make. So it was either blazingly fast 1080p 120Hz TN or beautiful and big 1440p IPS. I went with 1440p and I don't regret it at all. Maybe gaming at 120Hz is 'better', I don't know -- but the screen real estate 1440p offers is simply fantastic, the colors are amazing, and the games do look incredible. If your system can handle 1440p I think it's probably the best choice. I'm not a 'pro gamer' but I play a shit ton of Dota 2 and honestly you're going to be more limited by latency than the ~6ms difference in response times between good IPS and TNs.
Dark Souls is on sale on Steam right now for $7.49. I heard it's pretty good, so now's as good a time as any to pick it up, I thought. I bought it. It booted up and I needed to log in to Games for Windows Live. Okay, sure, whatever. I signed in using my hotmail account. This was also the account that was attached to my gamertag way back in 2004 or so, whenever I got the original Xbox. I think I was like 9 years old at the time, and apparently, it was created as a 'child account'. My mom's hotmail account was attached as the 'parent' account.
I bought a launch 360 and used that gamertag for years until my Xbox RROD'd in 2010 while playing RDR. I barely played console games at that point, so no biggie, it wasn't worth getting repaired. I wouldn't get to see the ending to RDR, but that's okay, because it'd come to PC eventually (right?). So I hadn't signed into my Xbox account in 3 years.
"Parental approval is required."
Now, not 3 hours ago, I loaded up my first GFWL game, signed into my hotmail account, and typed in my product key. My gamertag was what my 9-year-old self chose, and it was terrible, but that's okay, because I can change it, or so I thought. To actually change my Xbox gamertag, I needed to give Microsoft 800 points. I already had 250 points in the account (thanks, past me!), but I'd need to somehow buy another 550 to afford a gamertag change. Apparently they don't offer points in packages of 550 though so I'd need to spend $14.50 and buy a full 1000. Haha, okay Microsoft, whatever. I just got my first credit card a couple of weeks ago, having reached the age of majority and moved across the country, away from my parents. So I click to add a payment method.
Hahaha no of course that doesn't work. I need approval from my parent account to even attach a credit card. Except I haven't talked to my mom in months and we're on really bad terms (like she won't answer my calls kind of bad). So I can't even give Microsoft money to change my name. Let's promote my account, I thought! So I contacted support and they told me I needed access to the parent account and offered to help me 'recover' it. Well, I'm pretty sure my mom still uses it and accessing her account and changing its password without permission is illegal.
The funny thing is, I can't even make a new gamertag and play Dark Souls with that — the product key's already registered to my crippled 'child' account.
Sounds like a pretty decent situation, all told. I'm still in high school now but my goal's only to be able to make enough money to survive by myself and afford the things I want. I have good grades and could get into a decent university, but I'm heading to a vocational college instead. If you could survive off minimum wage in North America, I probably wouldn't even be going to college. I've always been an antisocial person, though. The things that make me happy (books, video games, photography, and probably travelling, though I haven't had a chance to leave the country yet) are all entirely affordable if I budget well. I don't need a car or expensive clothes, and I don't have expensive addictions like gambling, smoking, or drinking. $28,000 a year is what I'm aiming for, but I think I could be completely happy with as little as $22,000.
Just saying, how you're living isn't bad at all. It goes against the grain a bit and society might look down upon it, but there are lots of people in similar situations, and many people who'd be happy to be there. If you're content, that's really all that matters. Hopefully I'll be joining you soon.
Dota's the only game I've played that I can really see myself dumping thousands of hours into. It's really incredible once you start to go down the rabbit hole. I'd love to see some more Dota coverage on the site, honestly; be it a TNT or a new feature entirely.
My system's specs are identical -- 2700k, GTX670, 8GB ram; I get crazy slowdown on NFS and it's pretty much unplayable. The controls feel really unresponsive too.
I understand Obama bashing is in fashion now, but do understand the rest of the world is convinced both Mitt Romney's views and his voters are retarded. And they're right. Are you a bigot? Then onwards! Romney 2012!
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