Uggggg.  Sorry, but Facebook is as bad as Steamworks in my book.  I (and many others, more and more everyday) refuse to use Facebook due to privacy issues.  Might have missed that in the news.  Yea they are "addressing it".....just like they have before and nothing really changes.   Guess I'm lucky I'm not a big multiplayer gamer because I'll never use any multiplayer from Impulse Reactor if it uses Facebook.

Plus, what are you going to do when Facebook gets replaced by "the next big thing" in a couple years?  Can you take the Facebook Connect out of it and plug in something else?  These social sites always go this way.  Yea FB is the biggest so far, but the social networking core audience is a fickle one and they will go to the next cool thing once someone creates it.  Already hearing buzz about Google's version in the techie world as a possible FB replacement option.

If there was anything I'd tie to, I'd go with Google since it will be around a lot longer then FB will.

Facebook is simply a way to login and find friends playing the game.  If you don't have Facebook, you won't be required to use it.

IIRC, Facebook Connect is just an option, and you don't have to use it. When they talked about Reactor before, I think they said that you could use Facebook to login, or you can create a new (non-FB releated) account.

EDIT: ID beat me to it

That's perfect then.  It wasn't clear from the article. Sorry for my rant.

So basically you could log on with FB and import your friends list and play mutliplayer *or* you could log in with your Impulse account and do the same?
How do the two different accounts interact? 
I take it that Impulse Reactor doesn't care where the login came from (FB or Impulse) but can match people up using either.

And in either case neither is required at all to play single player, unlike Steamworks which is required even single player.

Again, sorry for the rant.

It seems to be that at first these are optional choices, then the switch gets flipped and we are forced to use it. 

Perhaps in most cases, but as facebook is unassociated with Stardock in anyway, I dobut that will be the case here. Besides as you most likely have an impulse account already I'm pretty sure that Stardock will be supporting their own service.

As long as its optional for Facebook I'm good. Cause I don't use it. Other than that sounds good!

For games published by Stardock, the Facebook thing is quite useless if you are trying to minimize accounts. Stick to Impulse account as that will be the one needed for updates. For the rest, options are good. I wonder if it'll evolve to allow developers to include their own systems (Paradox using their own instead of Impulse or Facebook, for example).

Of course, when The Big Google owns us all, these kind of debates will be useless.

If I understand correctly, the idea behind FB login with Impulse::reactor is to ensure that an Impulse::reactor game DOESN'T require an Impulse account for Multiplayer, contrary to a Steamwork game

Yes, that's it. Frogboy explained in another interview that they will do it to let people choose how they connect to impulse::reactor.

So if you already have a fb account you'll be able to connect through it. If you don't have a fb account you'll be bale to connect with a twitter account, or an impulse account.

You have the choice. Moreover impulse::reactor doesn't need anything else to work. No third party software. The only thing a game designer need to do is to let stardock sell it on impulse. So someone who also want to sell it through steam will be able to.

(if I understood everything well)

You are correct. Moreover, I recall Brad mention that Stardock plan to add support for Windows Live ID and OpenID eventually.

I'm wondering whether any developers/publishers have already shown some degree of interest in Impulse::Reactor.

An interesting option. Since I have an Impulse account, I guess it's no big deal for me to use it. I suppose someone who has FB and not Impulse might find it as a worthwhile choice. Impulse Reactor still makes me hesitant though, mostly because I haven't seen it at work yet. I am skeptical about claims made only to find out the reality of winds up being so different. I mean if you listen to Ubisoft, gamers should be excited and thrilled with their DRM choice (no, I am not saying Reactor is anything like that). Just saying it's hard to believe the company line. I can't wait to see this stuff in action.