Chaos Rising is out... and I still can't enjoy it

I still have this bitter taste in my mouth 2 days later.

All of it thanks to this annoying screw-up with Games For Windows Live to get my free exclusive DLC. This Dawn of War release did not force you to pre-order like the original DoW2. Instead all you need to do is register your game at the publisher's site at http://www.thq.com - you'll need to sign up for a "MyTHQ" account, but that's free anyway and you'll never need it again afterwards.

THQ promises exclusive content and free stuff when you sign up, but in reality thus far I've only downloaded a free wallpaper JPG and a PDF for a print-your-own poster for Soulstorm. And that was two years ago. Lame.

Anyhow, the way it works is that when you register your game (it's listed under "W" for "Warhammer" so don't panic if you don't find it in the drop-down list under either "C" or "D"), a new code will appear next to your listing for Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising.

Then go to Games for Windows Live - you remember that applet from when you installed the first game and tried to get the exclusive pre-order content, don't you? I sure remember. But you know what's funny? GFWL didn't seem to remember ME!

That is, it would not recognize my password. No, I'm not some kind of computer illiterate. But I think I should be allowed to complain. I logged in before, and I'm not in the habit of altering the settings on my machine. So whatever between the installation of the previous game and this one, shouldn't be my fault in any way. I say this because...

Well, PC gamers tend to be somewhat elitist. There was a time when you had to know your way around an OS (DOS!) if you wanted to get into gaming. PC gamers had a certain right to turn their noses up at consoles because it honestly did take more effort than to pop a cartridge into a slot. But here's the thing: life just shouldn't be that difficult. The days of rudimentary interfaces requiring a knowledge of low-level configuration should be over.

I was appalled when my research into this login failure turned up forum threads (strangely, forums in the GFWL site but not linked to via the Help area) with dozens of users all in the same problem. Clearly others were having more difficulty (such as getting the game to run multiplayer), but I was one of many working all evening on GFWL. Even worse, making my eyes just about pop out of my head, were the suggested solutions like running REGSRV32 on a variety of DLLs or even resetting WINSOCK. I wanted to check my calendar to be sure it wasn't still 1995.

I think the point I'm really getting at is that GFWL is basically just a glorified browser. It shouldn't this complicated. There's another app out there doing something very similar... you may have heard of it. It's called Steam. And it does it well. I've never had a configuration problem with Steam. So I have to ask, why is the code in GFWL so low-level that it's depending everything from OS-level services to port-forwarding on your router?

For the record, I eventually did get GFWL working. I had to get into Vista's Network settings via IE6's Tools and Options menus. Then in Connections, I checked Auto-detect LAN settings, then unchecked it again. And suddenly (no this is not logical to me either), GFWL let me log in.

I haven't been much in the mood to play this game since Tuesday.