In Defense of Origin

[kilenem]

Oh I love Origin because when it was first started it was completely broken. I use to Play Need For Speed World, free to play need for speed, the price of currency is based on your country. If you wanted Cheaper in game currency you just switched your country and pay with pay pal. Technically fraud but what ever. I know it devalues the game having cheap currency but that was probably the most I ever spent on a Free to Play game because I thought what I was buying was worth it. Me and my friends felt like millionaires in the game.

Also there was another Glitch for a 20 dollars off coupon for a game for completing a survey . Except it was suppose to be a one time use code per person, only for U.S citizens and it wasn't suppose to work on games lower then 20. You could use the code twice per user, sometimes it glitched and processed the order twice. If you got in game currency for Need For Speed World you got double. I had two Origin accounts and I got about 120 dollars worth of games. Plus for other people in different countries they gave me there log in info and I did the glitch for them. I helped about 5 other people get 300 dollars worth of games. Some dude figured out if you clear the browser's cache you could get more he said he got 3000 dollars worth of Need for speed World Currency.

My best origin story is one I actually feel bad about because I got a physical copy of a game for free. Digital stuff is almost free and I was a regular customer of EA. I didn't feel that bad. I preorded SSX Deadly decent, I sold my PS3 so I canceled it. I got a email that my shipment was still in the Mail. I called up Origin and asked if the game was canceled because I didn't want to get Charged for it. They said yes. The game came to my house. My roommate had a PS3 so I just played on that. To make it worse I sold the game to gamestop. Also EA payed extra for day one shipping.

 

[Something Amyss]

Origin doesn't need defending as its attackers are for the most part really big Valve marks.

Yeah, it's even funnier when the complaints spent a lot of time revolving around stuff Steam did, too.

Also a little funny that game selection has only become a huge "drawback" now that Valve's coming under fire for putting up shitty, broken game.

 

[DoPo]

Just so you know, they actually are giving away free games.

Erm, so does Steam. Most recently (as in last week), they had Sniper Elite V2 free for grabs.

yes origin does not let shovelware in, they also hardly let any good games in, steam has tons more of games than origin, so of course, they are going to have more shitty games, i dont see how the existence of shitty games can affect your enjoyment of good games

Mostly what I think. I've looked through Origin's catalogue several times (as in, in differents points in time) and they hardly have anything appealing. There is Mirror's Edge, Spore, Mass Effect 3 before, now there are slightly more (Darksiders 2, for example) but by the time they got on Origin, I already had them. And that's saying something, since I very rarely buy games at launch or close by. And out of the initial three? I already had two of them, ME3 is something I can live without but I still plan on playing one day, it's just such a low priority, I haven't bothered getting it. And now it's 2.50, and it'd still be too much of a hassle to go fetch my wallet and buy it. Partly because of the DLC situation.

WILL EA CEASE ITS EVIL WAYS?

Well given that I still, apparently, need to purchase Bioware points in order to buy Mass Effect 3 DLC I'm going to go with 'No' with regards to your question. It's also worth noting (and I may just be retarded) but one has to go through either the game OR through Bioware Social in order to actually purchase the DLC. At the very least Steam streamlines the add-on process to the extent that it embarrasses EA in this regard.

You can buy it through the client. You choose which DLC you want and if you have the Bioware points it'll go straight through or it'll show you the points bundle instead. That's how it worked for me, didn't have to go through the game or Bioware social.

You still need 1. BioWare points (which is a bullshit concept) and 2. the client. I cannot buy the DLC directly through the website, hence why it'd be too much of a hassle. If you are telling me I have to go download a piece of software, so I can just make a purchase through it, and in order to do so I also need an imaginary currency which fuck knows how I can acquire (it's going to be more than 3-5 clicks, so it's really too much) then you can just forget that transaction.

I don't have anything against Origin[footnote]well, aside from apparently that thing with the DLC being buyable through the client but not on the website. Until I read that comment, I thought they didn't offer the DLC at all, which, in hindsight, seems better[/footnote] but it seems to just not have anything for me. Sure, Steam may have a lot of games but at least some of them are interesting.

 

[El Luck]

It doesn't really need defending to be honest, its a decent client and while on launch it had a lot of issues it still had a few things that at the time Steam didn't, specifically the ability to set a path for your game to install to.
They also have a refund policy and yes I know what the events were that lead to them getting said refund policy, but you know what? at least they've got one which is more that can be said for Valve

Though one thing I will be extremely critical of EA for is their fucking pricing structure. £50 quid for a new release of a digital game? Yeah I don't think so.

 

[Username Redacted]

WILL EA CEASE ITS EVIL WAYS?

Well given that I still, apparently, need to purchase Bioware points in order to buy Mass Effect 3 DLC I'm going to go with 'No' with regards to your question. It's also worth noting (and I may just be retarded) but one has to go through either the game OR through Bioware Social in order to actually purchase the DLC. At the very least Steam streamlines the add-on process to the extent that it embarrasses EA in this regard.

You can buy it through the client. You choose which DLC you want and if you have the Bioware points it'll go straight through or it'll show you the points bundle instead. That's how it worked for me, didn't have to go through the game or Bioware social.

OT: I haven't really had any problems with Origin, and I like the whole "On the house" program they have. I don't think they have reached Steams level of sales but I'm not sure this sale is a Summer Sale, just one they put on for E3 seeing as it ends on June 16th, but it's a start. Hopefully one that leads to bigger sales.

To be fair I had kind of hoped to make it through this discussion without opening and updating Origin and you are correct about the process*. That said my objection lies mostly in the having to use real money to buy fake money in order to buy the stuff I want, a practice that even Microsoft has discontinued. This practice is annoying because it can inflate the price of a product and/or waste your money by forcing you to buy more points than you need.

I also hope that eventually EA figures out what they need to do to get Origin into a competitive state. I don't think they'll manage this but it's worth hoping for. That said if what's currently going on is their idea of a sale then they might be further away from competitive than I thought as their current sale price for Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition is currently double the price of what I paid for it when it went on sale on Steam a few weeks ago. EA seems to have some weird ideas about pricing and value that simply shouldn't and/or don't apply to digital distribution**.

*I was originally looking at www.origin.com which does not, as far as I can tell, list DLC content for Bioware games for some reason unless said content comes as part of an 'Ultimate' edition or something, i.e. no 'Leviathan', 'Omega' or 'Citadel' DLC for ME3.

** XBLA and PSN have this too and it's highly irritating. Why is something that came out years ago still the full retail price that it was at when it was released? I want to download the game because I want it now and I invested in a large hard drive for this reason. I don't want your game badly enough to pay 2-3 times what the disc copy now costs. I actually just checked and the 'Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate' XBLA digital download is actually closer to ten times more expensive than buying the game used and about six times what a new copy costs (per Amazon.com). That's unrelated, mostly, to the current discussion but it's also fucking sad.

 

[Worgen]

Ea has shown itself to be perfectly willing to shoot itself in the head so I have no trust for anything of theirs that is digital unless its protected by another service not run by them.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I have Steam ofr deals, Desura for obscure things, GOG for older things, and..

Origin for EA games. Ok. That works. Dragon Age and The Sims. I suppose I do have a use for it.

The use, however, does not justify its existence in any way.

 

[ExtraDebit]

I'll be honest, I have nothing against origin. It does what it does and it works, what more can be said? What I have is a personal grudge against EA for fucking up games I love, every franchise they touch turns to fast food games.

My stupid friend couldn't stop talking about titanfall so I finally caved and bought the game, origin works fine with it and in a way it's even more customer friendly being it doesn't permanently ban cheaters like steam but instead put them in the same room with other cheaters.

The game itself however, reeks of the touch of EA, it's a $60 reminder that renewed my hatred for the company.

 

[Zontar]

Personally the only reason I even use Origin is due to the fact that I bought the Origin Humble Bundle. It's not because I do't like the system, I'm just not that interested in the games EA releases.

While I use Steam for the bulk of my games due to the sales which come around pretty often and the fact most of my friends use it too (though in all fairness I was one of the first to use the service in my circle of friends due to buying the Orange Box) or GoG where I get my good old games that I love, or Humble Bundle where I get games which in 90% of cases I wouldn't otherwise be interested in them. Or Uplay, which I loath due to the inability of it to function properly to this day coupled with the fact I need it for some games I enjoy.

Origin to me is just there. It's taking up a small part of my hard drive, but I don't turn it on that often, and at this point I really couldn't be bothered to hold an opinion of it other then, as competition, it fails to accomplish much from my perspective.

 

[Ticklefist]

"Steam sales" isn't the strong argument in 2014 that it was in 2011. Gamestop Digital, GameFly Digital, Gamersgate, Get Games, Green Man, GOG, and Amazon regularly have better deals going than Steam.

Example: Get Games has Borderlands 2 GOTY Edition on sale for 10 bucks this weekend. Steam has never put it lower than $20.

OT: As far as Origin goes. I like it. It's small, has a few QOL features missing, but I like it. I've even re-registered most of the EA games I bought through Steam and now play them through Origin. I'm now able to get DLC and bonus content I didn't have access to before.

 

[Ticklefist]

Double post

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Te only 3 things that bug me about Origin is the fact that to start a match on BF3 the game opens the match making in a web browser which counts as an added resource hog (To me anyway), although I got by this by killing the one tab the moment I find and get into a game so that's technically a half issue as the app works anyway.

Second complaint would be that Origin for some reason does not like my Visa Debit card, it lets me enter all the other details but putting in my card details to pay for something I want causes an error that doesn't seem to properly indicate a possible easy and simple solution that doesn't involve me doing anything with my bank (because that would be steps backwards if it were me).

Third and final issue would be that there's not enough sales, there needs to be more throughout the year and the store here in the UK really needs to be in £'s, not Euros, I really hate having to go to a currency converter site each time in order to properly calculate to find out if I'm going to have a good deal or not with my actual currency.

Apart from those 3 Origin works fine for me, even lets me easily change the cover art too which is a nice touch.

 

[AdagioBoognish]

The problem with origin is that it's selection is so tiny. It's really hard to justify bothering with downloading and managing another DRM service when I can get at most one or two games off of it. I mean they could be giving away games and I still would want to be bothered.

You can delete it after your done playing the games you want (which is what I did)

Just so you know, they actually are giving away free games.

https://www.origin.com/en-ie/store/free-games/on-the-house

EDIT: Replied to the wrong person, like an idiot.

If you delete origin, do you still get to play the game(s). As annoying it is to maintain a drm program. It's more annoying to have to re-download everything after you delete it.

I do know about the free games thing. Plants Vs zombies is rather tempting actually. I still don't think I will bite the bullet though

What exactly are you having to do to maintain origin?

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

The problem with origin is that it's selection is so tiny. It's really hard to justify bothering with downloading and managing another DRM service when I can get at most one or two games off of it. I mean they could be giving away games and I still would want to be bothered.

You can delete it after your done playing the games you want (which is what I did)

Just so you know, they actually are giving away free games.

https://www.origin.com/en-ie/store/free-games/on-the-house

EDIT: Replied to the wrong person, like an idiot.

If you delete origin, do you still get to play the game(s). As annoying it is to maintain a drm program. It's more annoying to have to re-download everything after you delete it.

I do know about the free games thing. Plants Vs zombies is rather tempting actually. I still don't think I will bite the bullet though

What exactly are you having to do to maintain origin?

I assume the same thing I have to do with steam. keep track my id and password, run it every now and then, download patches and patches, or and quietly worry about how I have let a third part stand between me and my game collection. I guess origin might be a first party though.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Just so you know, they actually are giving away free games.

Erm, so does Steam. Most recently (as in last week), they had Sniper Elite V2 free for grabs.

Never said Steam didn't. But V2 was (unless I'm mistaken) made free by the devs rather than as part of any kind of Steam deal.

Steam does offer free trials of games for days at a time, but once the time's up you can't play it anymore. With the Origin deal, the game's yours for good.

 

[Bat Vader]

If I was asked a month ago which one I liked more I would have said Steam. Now, I would have to say that I like both Steam and Origin equally. Sure, Steam has an entire community and market to it which is nice but I never visit any groups and only use the market to get rid of trash in my inventory.

Plus, Origin has had some good deals over the past couple of weeks. Goth both The Saboteur and Mercenaries 2: World In Flames for about eleven dollars.

 

[Jiffex]

WILL EA CEASE ITS EVIL WAYS?

Well given that I still, apparently, need to purchase Bioware points in order to buy Mass Effect 3 DLC I'm going to go with 'No' with regards to your question. It's also worth noting (and I may just be retarded) but one has to go through either the game OR through Bioware Social in order to actually purchase the DLC. At the very least Steam streamlines the add-on process to the extent that it embarrasses EA in this regard.

You can buy it through the client. You choose which DLC you want and if you have the Bioware points it'll go straight through or it'll show you the points bundle instead. That's how it worked for me, didn't have to go through the game or Bioware social.

You still need 1. BioWare points (which is a bullshit concept) and 2. the client. I cannot buy the DLC directly through the website, hence why it'd be too much of a hassle. If you are telling me I have to go download a piece of software, so I can just make a purchase through it, and in order to do so I also need an imaginary currency which fuck knows how I can acquire (it's going to be more than 3-5 clicks, so it's really too much) then you can just forget that transaction.

I don't have anything against Origin[footnote]well, aside from apparently that thing with the DLC being buyable through the client but not on the website. Until I read that comment, I thought they didn't offer the DLC at all, which, in hindsight, seems better[/footnote] but it seems to just not have anything for me. Sure, Steam may have a lot of games but at least some of them are interesting.

So on Steam you have to add the item to the basket, then go to checkout, the click buy for myself/ as a gift, then put your security code (At least I do for the UK) then click the steam agreement and then click buy. On Origin it's basically the same thing except if you need Bioware points and you have none then it asks you to buy those first (without going to a separate page). Also, don't you need to download Steam to download the games as well?

Edit: Origin also has the Great game guarantee I think it's called where you can refund a game a week after buying it or 24 hours after first launching it unlike Steams policy of "We'll do it once but never again"

 

[Jiffex]

WILL EA CEASE ITS EVIL WAYS?

Well given that I still, apparently, need to purchase Bioware points in order to buy Mass Effect 3 DLC I'm going to go with 'No' with regards to your question. It's also worth noting (and I may just be retarded) but one has to go through either the game OR through Bioware Social in order to actually purchase the DLC. At the very least Steam streamlines the add-on process to the extent that it embarrasses EA in this regard.

You can buy it through the client. You choose which DLC you want and if you have the Bioware points it'll go straight through or it'll show you the points bundle instead. That's how it worked for me, didn't have to go through the game or Bioware social.

OT: I haven't really had any problems with Origin, and I like the whole "On the house" program they have. I don't think they have reached Steams level of sales but I'm not sure this sale is a Summer Sale, just one they put on for E3 seeing as it ends on June 16th, but it's a start. Hopefully one that leads to bigger sales.

To be fair I had kind of hoped to make it through this discussion without opening and updating Origin and you are correct about the process*. That said my objection lies mostly in the having to use real money to buy fake money in order to buy the stuff I want, a practice that even Microsoft has discontinued. This practice is annoying because it can inflate the price of a product and/or waste your money by forcing you to buy more points than you need.

I also hope that eventually EA figures out what they need to do to get Origin into a competitive state. I don't think they'll manage this but it's worth hoping for. That said if what's currently going on is their idea of a sale then they might be further away from competitive than I thought as their current sale price for Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition is currently double the price of what I paid for it when it went on sale on Steam a few weeks ago. EA seems to have some weird ideas about pricing and value that simply shouldn't and/or don't apply to digital distribution**.

*I was originally looking at www.origin.com which does not, as far as I can tell, list DLC content for Bioware games for some reason unless said content comes as part of an 'Ultimate' edition or something, i.e. no 'Leviathan', 'Omega' or 'Citadel' DLC for ME3.

** XBLA and PSN have this too and it's highly irritating. Why is something that came out years ago still the full retail price that it was at when it was released? I want to download the game because I want it now and I invested in a large hard drive for this reason. I don't want your game badly enough to pay 2-3 times what the disc copy now costs. I actually just checked and the 'Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate' XBLA digital download is actually closer to ten times more expensive than buying the game used and about six times what a new copy costs (per Amazon.com). That's unrelated, mostly, to the current discussion but it's also fucking sad.

Yeah, I'm not saying it's right or anything just that the option is there. I hate the whole points thing but I wonder if that's to do with Bioware instead of EA seeing as it's only their games that have points instead of actual money as far as I know.

 

[epicdwarf]

Everyone here seems to forget on thing when it comes the Origin. If you have no good games, then why download it?

Ok in all seriousness, the reason I will probably will not use Origin is EA's business practices relating to it. The sales are interesting, but there is a problem with all the games on sale. They are either extremely old or have a metric shit ton of DLC. Even the free games fall into this category most of the time.Steam sales on the other hand cover relevant games and usually have DLC/expansions discounted as well. Steam also has free games/free game giveaways of relevant games. The only things Origin really hold over steam is the return policy and the more frequent free games. In the end, it is better to just stick with another service other than Origin.

 

[AdagioBoognish]

The problem with origin is that it's selection is so tiny. It's really hard to justify bothering with downloading and managing another DRM service when I can get at most one or two games off of it. I mean they could be giving away games and I still would want to be bothered.

You can delete it after your done playing the games you want (which is what I did)

Just so you know, they actually are giving away free games.

https://www.origin.com/en-ie/store/free-games/on-the-house

EDIT: Replied to the wrong person, like an idiot.

If you delete origin, do you still get to play the game(s). As annoying it is to maintain a drm program. It's more annoying to have to re-download everything after you delete it.

I do know about the free games thing. Plants Vs zombies is rather tempting actually. I still don't think I will bite the bullet though

What exactly are you having to do to maintain origin?

I assume the same thing I have to do with steam. keep track my id and password, run it every now and then, download patches and patches, or and quietly worry about how I have let a third part stand between me and my game collection. I guess origin might be a first party though.

Okay, I suppose that makes sense. I don't access my games through anything besides my home computer and have all my passwords remembered by the programs I use, so its not an issue for me. I could see how one would get annoyed if using multiple computers or has to use a bunch of different password protected launchers. Origin is also minimally invasive for me, as I only play two games on it so far. Lately I've only been logging in for the free games.