OnLive

[sn0wb0arder381]

Anyone else here use OnLive? If you don't know what it is, courtesy of Wikipedia:

OnLive is a gaming-on-demand game platform, announced at the Game Developers Conference in 2009. The service is a gaming equivalent of cloud computing: the game is synchronized, rendered, and stored on a remote server and delivered online.

I was a big skeptic before because of the input lag, but it's actually really minimal even on my connection and playable. The games are more expensive, though and if the service goes belly up then you lose all the games you bought on it(as you don't technically own them apparently). You can also rent games, which is what I'll probably end up doing. I've played pretty much all of the demos and it works well. All in all I really like it because now I can actually play new games.

[Lingus]

What bothers me about this is that it's a service you pay for and then you have to purchase the games... Seems a bit odd to me especially if the cost of each game is more than the retail cost. It'd be fine if the cost of the games were cheaper than regular to make up for the service fee. Of course, this is all assumption. I didn't see anything about pricing on the website. Is the service even available yet?

[Scotty]

I signed up for it the other day, waiting to see if I get in.

Now I'm just going to sit back and wait for Chaos to come in here with his hair on fire and hemorrhoids at full inflammation!!

[ARTgames]

Yeah I have been hearing good reports from this. I think this could replaces consoles one day. Maybe one day even the at home PC's and cell phone. All we will have is a small devices that does the thin client stuff. Scotty say something when you get it.

[Cactuscat222]

I got accepted into the "Early adopters" program or whatever - just haven't signed up, because I don't have the money to buy any of the games right now. Haha.

[sn0wb0arder381]

What bothers me about this is that it's a service you pay for and then you have to purchase the games... Seems a bit odd to me especially if the cost of each game is more than the retail cost. It'd be fine if the cost of the games were cheaper than regular to make up for the service fee. Of course, this is all assumption. I didn't see anything about pricing on the website. Is the service even available yet?

Yeah, there was some Beta sign up that I did in school one day that gave me one year subscription free, and cheaper monthly rates when that runs out. They probably wouldn't make a profit if they didn't upsell everything due to bandwidth and server costs, but I don't know. I'm gonna check out renting but it involves me getting out an ethernet cord(doesn't run on Wifi, obviously).

Yeah I have been hearing good reports from this. I think this could replaces consoles one day. Maybe one day even the at home PC's and cell phone. All we will have is a small devices that does the thin client stuff. Scotty say something when you get it.

You're going to have to wait a helluva lot of years until you can get the net connection on a cellphone... I'm not quite sure where you're getting at with the rest, but it is for "at home PCs." It's a program that you download. There's also a console coming out that hooks up to your TV.

I got accepted into the "Early adopters" program or whatever - just haven't signed up, because I don't have the money to buy any of the games right now. Haha.

They give you 30 minute demos of all the games, and if you don't sign up within a certain number of days your activation is taken away and given to someone else and you lose your free year and the perks.

[Lingus]

What bothers me about this is that it's a service you pay for and then you have to purchase the games... Seems a bit odd to me especially if the cost of each game is more than the retail cost. It'd be fine if the cost of the games were cheaper than regular to make up for the service fee. Of course, this is all assumption. I didn't see anything about pricing on the website. Is the service even available yet?

Yeah, there was some Beta sign up that I did in school one day that gave me one year subscription free, and cheaper monthly rates when that runs out. They probably wouldn't make a profit if they didn't upsell everything due to bandwidth and server costs, but I don't know. I'm gonna check out renting but it involves me getting out an ethernet cord(doesn't run on Wifi, obviously).

Well, no, I get it. I just don't see the point unless you don't have a good enough computer. If your computer can already run these games, there is absolutely no incentive to use this service. And the other problem is they aren't going to have every game. So for the games they don't have, you would have to get them separate (through steam or get a physical copy). And for that you would need a good enough gaming PC... which means you don't need the service in the first place. If you are going to get ANY games that this service does not provide, you might as well not get this service. Unless I'm wrong in assuming the price of the games are separate (and not less expensive than retail) than the subscription.

But yea, I could see how this could potentially save you money and hassel with not having to pay for and put together a decent gaming PC, but even then it's not that much incentive... This kind of thing has a long way to go before it's viable in my opinion.

Edit: Just realized I totally butchered the quote.

[Chaos]

Now I'm just going to sit back and wait for Chaos to come in here with his hair on fire and hemorrhoids at full inflammation!!

No.  I think everyone knows my feelings on the subject at this point.

[Jake]

What bothers me about this is that it's a service you pay for and then you have to purchase the games... Seems a bit odd to me especially if the cost of each game is more than the retail cost. It'd be fine if the cost of the games were cheaper than regular to make up for the service fee. Of course, this is all assumption. I didn't see anything about pricing on the website. Is the service even available yet?

From what I've gathered, it's 5 dollars a month, and then games aren't purchased but rented.

[Cactuscat222]

I just signed up and was playing through some of the demos. It is a pretty dang nice service, thus far.

@Lingus: One of the incentives is that you have "instant-access"; IE As soon as you pay for the game, you click "Play", and bam, it is all set up and you can play right away. No installation hassles or any of that jazz. It also has video recording set up so you can take clips. You can even view play sessions of people - when I was playing Just Cause 2, a notification popped up that someone was now viewing what I was playing. Kind of creepy, but I'm sure you can turn it off. It also has Friends and messaging and all that jazz, and the entire UI is nice.

I completely understand the idea behind just buying it if I already have a good enough PC. It was why I was skeptical, but the convenience of the OnLive system is quite nice, and it runs very well. There is a very very slight delay between what you do and what happens, but it is very small and hardly noticeable, and would only affect big 'hardcore' players.

@Jake: You can pay for full access for the game permanently at the standard price of the game, OR you can rent the game for several days for a much smaller price (like $5).

I'll post in a bit my full impressions, but for now I'm going to enjoy those demos.

[ARTgames]

Yeah I have been hearing good reports from this. I think this could replaces consoles one day. Maybe one day even the at home PC's and cell phone. All we will have is a small devices that does the thin client stuff. Scotty say something when you get it.

You're going to have to wait a helluva lot of years until you can get the net connection on a cellphone... I'm not quite sure where you're getting at with the rest, but it is for "at home PCs." It's a program that you download. There's also a console coming out that hooks up to your TV.

Oh what I was tying to say is maybe one day we all may be using clowd computing (of this kind) for other things then gamming. Like you rent a fast pc so you can edit your videos on it.

[Lingus]

I just signed up and was playing through some of the demos. It is a pretty dang nice service, thus far.

@Lingus: One of the incentives is that you have "instant-access"; IE As soon as you pay for the game, you click "Play", and bam, it is all set up and you can play right away. No installation hassles or any of that jazz. It also has video recording set up so you can take clips. You can even view play sessions of people - when I was playing Just Cause 2, a notification popped up that someone was now viewing what I was playing. Kind of creepy, but I'm sure you can turn it off. It also has Friends and messaging and all that jazz, and the entire UI is nice.

I completely understand the idea behind just buying it if I already have a good enough PC. It was why I was skeptical, but the convenience of the OnLive system is quite nice, and it runs very well. There is a very very slight delay between what you do and what happens, but it is very small and hardly noticeable, and would only affect big 'hardcore' players.

@Jake: You can pay for full access for the game permanently at the standard price of the game, OR you can rent the game for several days for a much smaller price (like $5).

I'll post in a bit my full impressions, but for now I'm going to enjoy those demos.

Yea, that does not make anything better. That's kind of what I was seeing. The thing is, with Steam, it's nearly instant. Sure you have to download and install the game, but it's a couple of clicks of a button (basically, purchase, install... that's it) and it really doesn't take long to download and install as long as you have a decent connection speed. And that's a one time process for each game. So a minor convenience like instantaneous play really doesn't do it for me. Especially if there's any noticable lag that convenience is out the window. I'd rather have the files on my hard drive to eliminate any lag than to save 30 minutes of installation that I don't even need to be sitting at the computer for. Oh, and Steam is completely free. And they are constantly having massive sales (such as the summer sale going on right now you can get some games for 85% off) so I never pay retail for any games.

In conclusion, this is a great service for a casual gamer who wants the convenience of being able to play some of the current games out for a short period of time (assuming you go with the affordable rent option) without the hassle of having a gaming PC. The micro-console actually seems like it would be pretty cool. But I don't see this competing with either PC or console gaming since those both already have much of the same features that this has with no extra cost as well as a lot of other features that this system does not have.

[sn0wb0arder381]

@Lingus

The problem is that some of us don't have thousands of dollars in disposable cash to blow on a computer, and then even more money to upgrade it every few years. Gaming is expensive. I don't have the money for all that, but I can spend 5 dollars on this and beat a game during the rental period.

[Scotty]

but I can spend 5 dollars on this and beat a game during the rental period.

... Hence the reason you don't have thousands of dollars to buy a computer?

ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

[ARTgames]

Lingus would you try onlive?