Modding single player Mass Effect 3 bans you from Origin

[TotalerKrieger]

Also gaming has ALWAYS been about the money, always. the only difference is now they have more way to bleed you. Much like EULAs we are only now having to suffer through actions that have been building up over 20 years.

This is probably true. Why should the consumer be passive about it though? If breaking a EULA circumvents one scheme or another I`m gonna do it.

Minecraft lets you mod, Portal 2 is getting mod tools soon, Rage has mod tools, there is Skyrim ofc, I would not be surprised if both DOTA 2 and CS:GO have mod tools, there is the never ending series of Sims 3 mods, the civilization game genre is still modded like mad etc. etc. Modding is far from being cracked down as you imply.

I never said that modding was dead. Minecraft is an independent title while Portal 2, Rage and Skyrim are all associated with Valve and/or Steam in some way. Valve/Steam is one of the few remaining enterprises which respect modding. Indeed, Steamworks is a fantastic development.

That said, EA and Blizzard/Activsion control a huge share of the gaming market. Both companies have recently (as in the last 5 years or so) taken a hostile stance towards modding. I think that is cause for concern, that is all.

 

[Conza]

I think the simple answer here is, someone will crack the game so it doesn't require Origin/EA propoganda/ect, and even those that bought the game will download it, then mod that version.

Or, an extremely unlikely possibility, is EA remove their hear from inside their arse, and realise 'geez, there's nothing wrong with mods, sorry about all that' and unban people who modded the game.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Your gaming experience is based on the technology of the Unreal Engine, our technology(on loan from Epic). By using it, your experience develops along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of whiny fanboy infested forums . Mass Effect exists because we allow it, and your Origin account will end because we demand it.

 

[poiuppx]

Can't see how this sort of thing makes sense to EA. ME3 is already a massive lightning rod. Why surround it with more animosity and hostility? Truthfully, if I was EA, I'd be considering washing my hands of the game, not trying to draw more attention to it. There comes a point where there really IS such a thing as bad publicity...

 

[SajuukKhar]

I suppose that it voids access to quite a few games for instance you need Origin to play SWToR and that you did not mod an online part of the game yet got banned from an online service.

I mean i get the point that they have the right but it sound like shitty business ethics, still if we handle this as bad as the ME3 ending it get hard to blame EA.

Valve needs to change Steam in this regard also.

It is a shame that several people have had their accounts closed because of things paypal did.

So what do you think the primary reason for this change is exactly?

A number of things including
-The increasing inherent insecurity of data in general
-People's illicit acquiring of said data
-The need to assure stock-holders that at least some action is being taken to secure the companies games
-The ever increasing merger of the single-player and multi-player aspects of games
-and yes some of it is so prevent other from making possibly better content

There's probably other things I am forgetting, the list of reasons why companies would use DRM, and restrictive EULAs, and other such things is quite long.

I never said that modding was dead. Minecraft is an independent title while Portal 2, Rage and Skyrim are all associated with Valve and/or Steam in some way. Valve/Steam is one of the few remaining enterprises which respect modding. Indeed, Steamworks is a fantastic development.

That said, EA and Blizzard/Activsion control a huge share of the gaming market. Both companies have recently (as in the last 5 years or so) taken a hostile stance towards modding. I think that is cause for concern, that is all.

Beyond Bioware's oldest games, and even then Bioware really stopped caring about modding around the time of Jade Empire, and Blizzard I can't really think of the other game series they have that had these super massive modding groups that Ea/Activison have been stamped out.

 

[Blizzard36]

Dunno about ME3, haven't bought it myself yet, but the problem in ME2 was that Bioware did such a shit job porting it to PC. So, I went into the files and finished the port job and allowed myself much more keybind options. For example I split the context sensitive command back up into its separate parts and bound them all separately. Gameplay wise I made it not use ammo when reloading, because you didn't have to worry about ammo in the first one and there were lore reasons for that so it was part of the world to me, and made a button that automatically gave me 200k of the minerals for research so I could skip the ridiculously tedious mining process. I really enjoyed it the first couple times I did it, but by the 5th planet I was very much saying "NO MORE!"

The gameplay things I'm less worried about in ME3, the new scanning mode doesn't sound nearly as tedious and from what some commentators have said ammo is plentiful enough that I won't have to worry about running into a situation where I?m stuck picking my weapon based on what small arms ammo I have left and not what enemy I?m fighting against again.

But the port job, that sounds just as terrible as before. I shouldn?t be banned from Origin just because I set up a control scheme native to PC or run some fan made outfits or the like.

 

[NiPah]

Look up the painting L.H.O.O.Q., a painting that sold for $104,500, you're crying foul on someone making a modification to a game when the art community praises someone adding a mustache to a painting.

If Da Vinci doesn't like it, he can sue.

Oh, right.

So you're saying if Da Vinci was alive today and able to sue... what Duchamp did would have been wrong? How about the urinal that he signed, should the Sloan Valve Company sue him? he used their IP without a signed letter of contract stating he had the right to use their product.

Duchamp is a horrible person! IP THEFT IP THEFT...

Bullshit.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Relax. I understood your joke. It's misguided in the fact that Sarah over there will not get it. It wasn't mean to attack you.

Its actually Alita, I don't see how you can get Sarah and Alita mixed up.

 

[NiPah]

...snip...

IP theft may be old news, signing toilets is kewl for some people, praise can cancel out laws, mods might make money or a name for themselves by stealing IP, but it's all okay if you get some joy out of it? Really?

Great philosophy dood! Keep on keepin on!

The whole 'It's okay if I like it!' mentality makes the world go round!

Did you really just sum up an entire art movement with the above statement? That whole mentality came to being after your so called "world" was burned to the ground in WWI.

You can keep your black and white worldly viewpoints to yourself, I highly doubt you have much of a moral highground unless you got expressed written permission to use that Macross Avatar from Harmony Gold.

 

[SajuukKhar]

I don't see why you think I give a shit about your real name.

Sarah is the perfect fangirl name, thats why your name is Sarah.

I don't think you care about my real name.

Alita isn't my real name, and as far as I know isn't even a real name at all.

It was a joke based off of your childish attempts at ad hominem attacks by calling me Sarah.

god you're clueless.

 

[Saulkar]

EA can fuck all the way off with this.

I'll do what I want with the games I PURCHASED.

fixed that for ya

Fixed the typo you failed to fix.

HINT: It was the letter "D" after purchase.

My pro consumerism is showing.

Yeah no.

My statement refers to the present and the future.(not the past. I did not buy ME3) But the whole trying to correct my grammar thing was cute. Misguided but cute.

Er... what?! Who are you referring to as misguided? SajuukKhar was an asshat and modified your statement "I'll do what I want with the games I PURCHASE" and replaced it with something along the lines of "I'll do what I want with the license for a game I PURCHASE".

In your defense I made a backhanded reply to SajuukKhar, intentionally misunderstanding his/her rewording of your comment to fit his/her own image of how ownership of a video game should be properly worded and viewed as an attempt to fix a spelling error as is common when fixing comments (there is of course no spelling error, I just did an ass pull that was syntax correct (grammatically correct) but on the flip side context incorrect (past tense when you were in fact referring to past and future purchases)).

Though on the other hand from you mentioning that the comment was cute but misguided (which I still do not know if you are referring to me), I vaguely infered that you understood the nature of it. If that is the case I am not aware as to how this was misguided and if so, from an objective or subjective standpoint.

If you are in fact commenting about the line "My pro consumerism is showing". It is a meaningless statement in reference to how another escapist user commented that another user's (may or may not be SajuukKhar) "armchair lawyer(ism?) is showing", nothing more.

Call me oblivious because I cannot infer shit from a staggered sequence of comments, also I detest being called or having my endeavors labeled as misguided, even in jest, no offense to you of course.

Relax. I understood your joke. It's misguided in the fact that Sarah over there will not get it. It wasn't mean to attack you.

No problem, sorry for the Wall'O'Text, I cannot infer tone, recipient, or intention behind a written message unless specifically stated within it (no different than face to face for me) and so I tend to get a little defensive but I meant no attempt to attack or insult you back.

 

[tthor]

add to list of reason why I hate EA/Origins.. *scribble scribble*

 

[zehydra]

Sorry is single player that hard for you?

Do you need someone to hold your hand or make you invincible?

If you need to mod the game in anyway, I laugh at you.

It's easy enough.

modding goes farther then that it also includes new weapons,new mission,new equipment and probably free HD packs made by the community.
OT
another reason for me to boycott EA I BOUGHT the game files,they are on MY computer and if I want to edit them or modify them that,s my own choice not the choice of the company that produced them

I totally agree with you, although according to the EULA, no you didn't buy the game files. You bought the right to use them.

but who reads those things anyway? also they pull shit like this and think it,s strange people pirate?

I know it's kind of strange, but it's the result of a screwed up intellectual property system. They have to make sure that they aren't held for a million-and-one liabilities (which accounts for most of the EULA), and they also have to cover the licensing which prohibits you from making money off of their software and other pirating things.

But you're right. Most developers can just sneak something into an EULA without anybody noticing until it's too late.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

A number of things including
-The increasing inherent insecurity of data in general
-People's illicit acquiring of said data
-The need to assure stock-holders that at least some action is being taken to secure the companies games
-The ever increasing merger of the single-player and multi-player aspects of games
-and yes some of it is so prevent other from making possibly better content

There's probably other things I am forgetting, the list of reasons why companies would use DRM, and restrictive EULAs, and other such things is quite long.

So why should the consumer be passive about DRMs and restrictive EULAs? Clearly, companies like EA have no problem with being a bit underhanded in order to protect their own interests, consumers should do the same. DRMs are very easily broken and EULAs are largely unenforceable. Why fault someone for circumventing what is an annoying aspect of a product? Does EA really suffer any damages if I decide that I do not want Origin on my harddrive but still wish to purchase and play ME3? I don't think so.

Beyond Bioware's oldest games, and even then Bioware really stopped caring about modding around the time of Jade Empire, and Blizzard I can't really think of the other game series they have that had these super massive modding groups that Ea/Activison have been stamped out.

I agree with you to some extent about Bioware, but EA and Activision/Blizzard own quite a large number of titles that do have active modding communities.

Additonally, if we assume that all future titles owned by EA will require an Origin account and that any modding detected by Origin will result in the banning of said account, a precedent will be set whereby modding has been permanently eliminated from a large portion of the market. The active prevention of any possibile modding is cause for concern, regardless of how prevalent any existing modding communities are.

 

[Callate]

So I would suppose I have two questions, which perhaps someone could answer:

1. Is using a third-party program to import faces "modding"? Because as I recall, the PC version of ME3 had a serious problem with importing character faces from Mass Effect 2, and the suggestion that came back to get around it from EA itself... was to use a third-party program.

2. Is importing a ME3 save file from outside the game "modding"? I happened to have a discussion with a clerk at GameStop, and his suggestion if I wanted to transfer my game from PC to XBox 360 was the use of a "Mass Effect Saves" web site.

In any case, at first glance it seems like an gratuitous, customer-hostile act on EA's part... not that that's exactly new news.