More Origin heresy

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kebab4you

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Jan 3, 2010
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Stall said:
Yeah, that's because Origin is just the new, slightly more glorified version of their download manager. Of course the account you once had for their download manager is going to become an Origin account.

CD-R said:
That was awhile ago. And besides they changed the Origin EULA to something less stupid a few weeks ago. Seeing as how it's now essentially the same as Steam and Adobe's I wouldn't worry about it.
You're expecting people to view things rationally and coherently. Sure, Origin's EULA is pretty vanilla now, but that doesn't matter "because it's EA".
Well they did include a line which pretty much let them change it back to what it was before(if I remember correctly), will quote it if I find it.
 

Wicky_42

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lacktheknack said:
Cid SilverWing said:
GreatTeacherCAW said:
WHAT?! EA TOOK MY EXISTING ACCOUNT AND TURNED IT INTO AN ACCOUNT I CAN USE FOR FUTURE ONLINE GAMES?!?!?! HOW FUCKING DARE THEY!!!!!!!!!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
That was out-and-out retarded. I don't want a DRM that installs spyware on my computer, I don't care how many games I get in return, I'm not submitting my PC to an electronic cavity search.
Um, did you read this?

CD-R said:
That was awhile ago. And besides they changed the Origin EULA to something less stupid a few weeks ago. Seeing as how it's now essentially the same as Steam and Adobe's I wouldn't worry about it.

http://bf3blog.com/2011/08/ea-updates-origin-eula-after-criticism/
"EA would never sell your personally identifiable information to anyone, nor would it ever use spyware or install spyware on users' machines. We and agents acting on our behalf do not share information that personally identifies you without your consent, except in rare instances where disclosure is required by law or to enforce EA's legal rights."

Your point has been dashed.
Did you understand what you quoted? They tacitly admit to collect personally identifiable information from your machine, which includes usage information about any program and, IIRC, internet browser history and possibly more. They just won't pass on these detail in a 'personally identifiable' form, though since the US thinks IPs can't be personally identifiable (which is bollocks) even that's not an assurance. How much do you trust EA? How do you define 'spyware', because everything I've seen of Origin smacks of it. Just 'cos you don't call it such doesn't mean it's not performing exactly the same function...

The key difference between it and Steam or Adobe, is that for those two they ASK before gathering anything. Adobe is an optional opt-in. Steam gathers statistics for its games, but it doesn't browse your internet history or look at anything non-Steam without explicit permission. It will even tell you exactly what it will gather and what it will report. Origins wants a carte blanche to access ANYTHING it wants to, whenever it wants to, without telling you what, when or why it's doing it. To that I say fuck off. Right off.

If you're not happy with this complete violation of your privacy, well, you shouldn't have bought that game you've been waiting for for two years then, should you?

"But I don't care - I've got nothing to hide!" Try following someone around all day every day and writing down everything they do - see if they take offence or call the police. As far as I can see, this is exactly the same, and it pisses me off.
 

BlastedTheWorm

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Jan 26, 2010
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Wicky_42 said:
lacktheknack said:
Cid SilverWing said:
GreatTeacherCAW said:
WHAT?! EA TOOK MY EXISTING ACCOUNT AND TURNED IT INTO AN ACCOUNT I CAN USE FOR FUTURE ONLINE GAMES?!?!?! HOW FUCKING DARE THEY!!!!!!!!!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
That was out-and-out retarded. I don't want a DRM that installs spyware on my computer, I don't care how many games I get in return, I'm not submitting my PC to an electronic cavity search.
Um, did you read this?

CD-R said:
That was awhile ago. And besides they changed the Origin EULA to something less stupid a few weeks ago. Seeing as how it's now essentially the same as Steam and Adobe's I wouldn't worry about it.

http://bf3blog.com/2011/08/ea-updates-origin-eula-after-criticism/
"EA would never sell your personally identifiable information to anyone, nor would it ever use spyware or install spyware on users' machines. We and agents acting on our behalf do not share information that personally identifies you without your consent, except in rare instances where disclosure is required by law or to enforce EA's legal rights."

Your point has been dashed.
Did you understand what you quoted? They tacitly admit to collect personally identifiable information from your machine, which includes usage information about any program and, IIRC, internet browser history and possibly more. They just won't pass on these detail in a 'personally identifiable' form, though since the US thinks IPs can't be personally identifiable (which is bollocks) even that's not an assurance. How much do you trust EA? How do you define 'spyware', because everything I've seen of Origin smacks of it. Just 'cos you don't call it such doesn't mean it's not performing exactly the same function...

The key difference between it and Steam or Adobe, is that for those two they ASK before gathering anything. Adobe is an optional opt-in. Steam gathers statistics for its games, but it doesn't browse your internet history or look at anything non-Steam without explicit permission. It will even tell you exactly what it will gather and what it will report. Origins wants a carte blanche to access ANYTHING it wants to, whenever it wants to, without telling you what, when or why it's doing it. To that I say fuck off. Right off.

If you're not happy with this complete violation of your privacy, well, you shouldn't have bought that game you've been waiting for for two years then, should you?

"But I don't care - I've got nothing to hide!" Try following someone around all day every day and writing down everything they do - see if they take offence or call the police. As far as I can see, this is exactly the same, and it pisses me off.
Uh...yeah, what this guy said.
 

wooty

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Aug 1, 2009
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Yeah, I got the email too, didnt even know I had an EA account but apparantly I do.

Still dont know/care what this origin thing is, but do wonder what all the rage is about. I've heard it compared to Steam, and if its as bullshittingly annoying as that, I may have to look further into it.
 

Ralphfromdk

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Mar 26, 2009
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And this is why I don't play EA games on my pc, but instead play them on my console.
(yay for everything being cross platform)

Yes, that still means I have an EA / Origion account linked to my Xbox Live, but there isn't a whole lot of info they can get from my 360.
 

aPod

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Jan 14, 2010
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Wicky_42 said:
I'd also like to point out that the part of the EULA that was quoted only say that they will not use spyware to install more spyware. They may however install spyware from Origin still according to the quote that was put up.

So while they admit to not using spyware to install yet more spyware they have worded it in such a way that they still can put spyware on your computer.

Also, big corporations have a habit of stretching the law with these sorts of things. Microsoft has super cookies for instance that even though you delete them will restore themselves.
 

Stall

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Apr 16, 2011
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CD-R said:
That's the way it is with PC gaming now I guess. We all welcomed Steam into are lives so it was only a matter of time before other wanted to get in on that action. Still I suppose it's better than previous drm schemes, and that always on nonsense Ubisoft is doing. And it's probably for the best that Valve doesn't have an almost virtual monopoly on digital distribution and slightly less sucky drm anymore.
The thing is that I sincerely doubt EA wants to compete with Valve. Origin doesn't so much strike me as a massive, DD store like Steam, but more or less as a glorified version of the EA Download Manager and the EA store combined into one (like what I said).

The only reason for this Origin hate is so people can sit around and hate something together.

aPod said:
It's not spyware ffs -_-. Almost every big program collects user data. It's nothing unusual or out of place. The only reason you'd call it "spyware" was if you were blissfully ignorant of such a practice. The only way to get away from it is to go create your own OS with its own programs, because even some Linux programs collect user data like this.

It's a vanilla, common, and accepted practice. You're basically hating on EA for something literally everyone and their mother do (including Valve, yes). Seriously dude... every program does it. It isn't unusual, and it's something that near impossible to get away from.

And don't give me the "oh just because everyone does it doesn't mean it is right!" You clearly didn't even know this practice existed before I explained it to you, so it obviously has not bothered or offended you.
 

CD-R

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Mar 1, 2009
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Riobux said:
CD-R said:
Riobux said:
CD-R said:
Stall said:
Yeah, that's because Origin is just the new, slightly more glorified version of their download manager. Of course the account you once had for their download manager is going to become an Origin account.

CD-R said:
That was awhile ago. And besides they changed the Origin EULA to something less stupid a few weeks ago. Seeing as how it's now essentially the same as Steam and Adobe's I wouldn't worry about it.
You're expecting people to view things rationally and coherently. Sure, Origin's EULA is pretty vanilla now, but that doesn't matter "because it's EA".
Good point it probably would have helped if the Escapist did an article on it but I don't know. They might have mentioned it in the podcast but I haven't listened to it yet.

That's the way it is with PC gaming now I guess. We all welcomed Steam into are lives so it was only a matter of time before other wanted to get in on that action. Still I suppose it's better than previous drm schemes, and that always on nonsense Ubisoft is doing. And it's probably for the best that Valve doesn't have an almost virtual monopoly on digital distribution and slightly less sucky drm anymore.
To be honest, I don't think it helps that EA still participates in shady business practices (e.g. their entire sports games collection) that people can't help but be fearful of EA when they're doing anything at all, drastic or not. Valve, on the other hand, has a pretty solid reputation (well, you can always try to accuse them of excessive hat selling or not releasing Episode 3). Gamers tend to hold grudges really easily.
True but any company can go from being ethical and beloved to shady and hated. Sure Valve seems good now but Gabe Newall isn't going to be around forever. Just look at Activision. Activision was founded by game developers who felt that developers should be better compensated for games that sold well and properly credited for their creation. It's now headed by a guy who stated "he was going to take the fun out of video game making". Seriously that's something a villain in a Disney animated movie would say.

Actually I take that back. Disney villains usually have more depth than that. That's something a villain in a Korean knockoff of a Disney animated movie would say.
Just out of mild curiosity, where did Bobby state that? However, I know Gabe Newell isn't going to be around forever, but we're still trusting because Gabe is still around and Valve hasn't done anything to question our trust. EA, Zynga and Activision though, has done everything to make people question their motives, although usually it can be boiled down to more money.
He said it a couple years ago at conference in San Francisco

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94711-Bobby-Kotick-Wants-to-Take-the-Fun-Out-of-Making-Games

The actual quote was

"The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."

He also said he tried to instill
"skepticism, pessimism, and fear" of the economic downturn into the corporate culture at Activision. "We are very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression,".

I had forgotten about that part.
 

aPod

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Jan 14, 2010
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Stall said:
Actually i am not bothered by this, I just felt like pointing out the way the EULA was worded what it does and does not admit to doing and not doing and what it can and wont do. I also never said it was spyware. Only that they don't deny the right to install spyware from the origin program. The only assurance they give is that the spyware they do install, if they do install it, won't install further spyware programs.

Just to put this in here because you told me not too: just because everyone does it mean it's something we want on our computer.

You seem a little presumptuous to assume you know what I did and did not know. It seemed as if i was in fact aware of these practices when I gave an example, i said "Microsoft has super cookies for instance that even though you delete them will restore themselves." It seems the only one being blissfully ignorant is you because you are somehow upset by whatever I said and feel the need to belittle my position by insinuating my head is too far up my ass to know what's going on. Unfortunately no, I was aware of this practice and no I don't think data mining is okay even if everyone and their grandma is doing it.

remember, when you assume you make an ass out of u and me.
 

zehydra

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Oct 25, 2009
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Yes, this does look like a predicament indeed. I received this email this morning too, and I will be very upset if EA forces me to download origin in order to continue playing games which previously did not require Origin.
 

jpoon

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Mar 26, 2009
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Sandboxie is what everyone running origin needs to be using. Keep Origin out of your ProgramData folder, where it's doing all of its snooping. It won't be able to spy on you so easily (which it still is doing, even with the revised EULA). There is a really good thread about this on the Gamespot forums, after someone ran some pretty in-depth testing on what Origin is doing.

Hint...they are still spying on you as much as they can without using overly invasive spyware.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/battlefield-3/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-60145714&pid=960869&page=0

Also read this.

http://www.sandboxie.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=4885
 

gabe12301

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Cid SilverWing said:
GreatTeacherCAW said:
WHAT?! EA TOOK MY EXISTING ACCOUNT AND TURNED IT INTO AN ACCOUNT I CAN USE FOR FUTURE ONLINE GAMES?!?!?! HOW FUCKING DARE THEY!!!!!!!!!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
That was out-and-out retarded. I don't want a DRM that installs spyware on my computer, I don't care how many games I get in return, I'm not submitting my PC to an electronic cavity search.
you do realize you would have to download such software then and give it permission to run right?
 

Duskflamer

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Nov 8, 2009
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Even if the terms of service have been changed, the fact that they contained such terms to begin with earns EA no trust from a good portion of their potential playerbase. Any action taken from EA at this point just looks like PR repair from a company that thought they'd get away with something, you do realize that the only reason the terms have been amended is because of the backlash about them right? If the "we can scan everything in your system and do whatever we want without telling you" clause hadn't been discovered, it would still be there, EA didn't amend it out of the goodness of their hearts, they were caught red-handed doing something they knew would anger people, and they're trying to control the PR damage. No company worth the customer's trust would ever be in this situation.
 

jpoon

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Mar 26, 2009
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This is exactly why you contain their garbage spyware inside a sandbox, so you can play the game you so desire to play and still avoid their snooping! =D