Worgen said:
its still another thing to start up and stop when I want to play, not to mention that doing a digital thing like this is hard, people dont seem to think it is, but it is, microsoft still hasnt got it right and games for windows has been out for years, steam started out pretty sucky also before they worked it out and they still have some trouble with big launches on it, origin is a brand new one of these and bf3 is shaping up to be a huge release so what are the odds it will even work when the game is released
Actually, it isn't. I just tested it. I purchased Mirror's Edge through Origin, so it requires it for DRM purposes, but that's it. I could launch Mirror's Edge directly from the Start menu without Origin launching. I even added Mirror's Edge to my Steam library and launched it from Steam, checked task manager and no Origin process was running. So as far as I can tell, it was only necessary to use Origin to download, install and activate the game. Given how people were complaining about the CD-key check and SecuROM, it ends up being a pretty reasonable DRM system, in that once the game is registered to your account, you can easily run it from multiple systems you own.
EA's certainly not doing the best job of communicating how Origin works, and they probably want people to think Origin has to be running so they get used to it and start using the features, just as people started getting used to Steam features, but the FUD has really got to stop.
For comparison, I can't even find an EXE to launch L4D that I have installed with Steam. So maybe, just maybe, people need to realise that the negative feelings they've got towards Origin really stem from Steam being such an intrusive "service", and that they should really be divesting themselves of Steam rather than sucumbing to Stockholm syndrome and defending it.