Origin Devs respond with Why Origin is not optional for ME 3

[Monkeyman O'Brien]

EA so needs to go the Sony route of getting all their employees to shut the fuck up and just hire another Kevin Butler type to handle all public relations so they do not end up looking like morons and/or cunts.

 

[lapan]

Why are people still defending a company that doesn't give a fuck about them and uses bully tactics to force needless & useless DRM down their throat?
Why are they defending a company that stifles creativity and abuses their employees?
Why are they defending a company that is trying to waste their time, harddrive space, and destroy their privacy rights, just to appease their stockholders?

Why are people so keen to jump to the defense of the bad guy, and throw all their self respect out the window?
Even if other people do it, it doesn't justify EA doing it.
For the record, I don't support Activision either, I agree, people should take a stance on those knobs as well.

Ohh. Heh. Thought you were talking about steam.
Because. You know.
They do the same thing. Except they also take all your game stats and publish them for the world to see.

So many months after origin was released, the blatant hipocrisy is still oh-so-entertaining.

At least valve doesn't ban you for using their forums or contacting support for legitimate reasons.

 

[mooncalf]

They want it on Origin because... ORIGIN. Yeah it exists now. People keep determinedly ignoring this orange newborn elephant in the room like EA's gonna say "Whoops!" and foot-shove it back into the closet, but that's unlikely now that BF3 has turned a healthy profit and Origin's game list doesn't look quite so anemic next to big brother Steam.

 

[MrPeanut]

I guess ill have to skip the last average game of Bioware before they go totally into the EA shitter.

 

[tzimize]

Why are people still up in arms about Origin? It records some system data and sends it to EA. Guess what? Probably 50% of the software on your machine is allowed to do that. Why does no one care that Blizzard can see what programs you're running while playing World of Warcraft?

Okay, Origin isn't a great service, and EA should try to get people to use it via sweet promotional offers, not by forcing you to use it. But seriously people, it's not worth passing up a game you want for.

Actually it is. I gave origin a chance with BF3. Its shit, and worse than shit. I am not supporting it, so I wont buy any more games on it. I am just one person, but if enough people vote with their wallet instead of being pushovers we'll get rid of Origin pretty quickly.

That probably wont happen, but it wont keep me from trying. There are other games.

As an example of how to do it: Steams workshop with Skyrim.

You bring MORE VALUE to the table. An easy service, you browse mods (MODS FFS! A GAME HAS MODS AND MODDER TOOLS!!!), and click a single button to add it to your game. Your game downloads and installs at startup, and updates them and itself automatically. Its a fantastic system and something that brings MORE VALUE to people buying the game. THIS is how to do it. Origin brings NOTHING to the table, and is in fact a hassle. Fuck it.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

From the same guy: "DRM (e.g. SecuROM) restrict how, where, what and when you can use and do with the software, authentication does not fall under these categories and Origin doesn't restrict your fair-use rights to the software like DRM does."

I'm sorry but what? ok, I will play ME3 without the internet. NOPE. I can't play it when my internet isn't working, if I go somewhere without internet, sound a lot like restricting how, where , when etc. In fact, just having to use Origin immediately restricts it, because I can't play it with Origin off, which is HOW I want to play it.

 

[Tayh]

While Origin is taking your computer stats (including all the programs you run and when) and selling them for third parties to see, and you can't sue them for it. At least with Steam's stats (which aren't in every game), you can show off.

No.
You are misinformed.

At least valve doesn't ban you for using their forums or contacting support for legitimate reasons.

Neither does EA.
You are misinformed.

The difference between Origin and Steam:

Steam sells games a hell of a lot cheaper.

Yeah, that's enough for me to not hate them. EA wants to stop using Steam so they can make sure no game ever goes for under twenty bucks, even if it's ten years old and barely functional.

The price is in the eye of the beholder.
Some games are cheaper at steam. Some are cheaper at origin. Most release-day games are cheaper in retail.
Origin does, infact, have sales too.
Just to check, I checked Origin's website. The first game listed was 'Orcs Must Die' for ~15$.
I found the same game on steam's website, it's ~18$,


I'm in no way a defender of EA or an origin-fanboy, I just think the hate from steam fanboys towards Origin is hypocritical, baseless and out of proportions.

Edit: fixed quotes

 

[getoffmycloud]

I bet pirates will have no problem playing it and installing hacked DLC for it. They might even be able to play the multiplayer. And all without Origin.

Everyone knows why you don't want to release it on Steam. Cut the crap already.

So you don't want to use Origin but your happy with Steam even though they serve the same purpose?

 

[V8 Ninja]

When I see the abbreviation "ME", I am the only one that thinks of Mirror's Edge instead of Mass Effect?

OT: Either EA has been able to completely lie to its developers about Origin or the devs don't want to admit/realize that Origin is generally hated for legitimate reasons.

 

[Yopaz]

Origin is certainly a nuisance, but is it really a surprise that EA would make ME3 exclusive to Origin for PC? I mean, they want to advertise their (Still relatively new, if you don't count the old EA Download Managers) digital distribution service, and it makes sense to tie it to a popular game to force people into downloading it. There are a lot of games that can only be played on Steam too, despite buying the disc version, and they all aren't Valve games either.

Origin is certainly a subpar system, don't get me wrong, but it's not like EA is going to come out and say "It's Origin only cause we want more people to use Origin".

Origin serves as DRM as the same way Steam serves as DRM. Don't really know the difference, aside from one being better than the other.

Honestly I like Origin for what it is trying to do. Digital distribution did need more than Valve's almost monopoly with Steam. Sure we got other companies that offer digital distribution, but none have really done it at the same level as Valve. Now EA offers Origin which could be a great competition, but EA screwed up. They offer us an alternative to something we already have that isn't quite as good as what we already have. It's not as bad as people make it out, but there are several small annoyances that was there in Steam's feeble start too. The programming and design seems clumsy, but not a big thing on its own, a lot of PC software starts out like that. Then there's the update system that is far less convenient than what a PC users is used to, also not really a big deal on its own. I just got the feeling that EA is doing the same mistakes Valve has learned from rather than learning from Valve's mistakes and improve on them.
Perhaps the main reason for the hate Origin is getting is that those who have used Steam are among the most rampant fanboys you'll ever find. I am trying to keep an open mind myself, but seriously, I am a raging fanboy even if I got Origin installed.

 

[Keava]

So many months after origin was released, the blatant hipocrisy is still oh-so-entertaining.

The difference between Origin and Steam:

Steam sells games a hell of a lot cheaper.

Yeah, that's enough for me to not hate them. EA wants to stop using Steam so they can make sure no game ever goes for under twenty bucks, even if it's ten years old and barely functional.

No it doesn't. Not where i live. EA charges me in my country's currency, Valve charges me in euro. Difference? Euro prices are 30% higher than my local currency ones.
Let's do a quick comparison on a new game...

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. - Steam price: 49.99 euro = 210 PLN (local currency)
- Origin price: 150 PLN = ~36 euro.
14 euro difference, that's almost 20$ difference.

Now another game. Shank 2. Steam price 9.99 euro = 42 PLN. Origin price 29 PLN = 7 euro. 3 euro difference, about 4$ difference.

And an older title. Dead Space 2. Steam price is 29.99 euro = 125.50 PLN. Origin price is 54.90 PLN which is about 13 euro. 17 euro difference - nearly 23$ difference.

And still the cheapest way for me to buy games is at normal retailer, saving additional 10-20% on game.

 

[rapidoud]

I bet pirates will have no problem playing it and installing hacked DLC for it. They might even be able to play the multiplayer. And all without Origin.

Everyone knows why you don't want to release it on Steam. Cut the crap already.

You can play almost every single pirated Steam game THROUGH STEAM with mp.

So you don't want to use Origin but your happy with Steam even though they serve the same purpose?

Last time I checked, Steam didn't harvest all personal data short of the colour of your underwear, to be used and sold on for spamming purposes.

Last time I checked Steam didn't work for me.

Or the time before.

Or the 2 years before that.

So I wouldn't know.

 

[getoffmycloud]

So you don't want to use Origin but your happy with Steam even though they serve the same purpose?

Last time I checked, Steam didn't harvest all personal data short of the colour of your underwear, to be used and sold on for spamming purposes.

Well it does take non-identifiable data the same as origin so your wrong on that one

 

[Chairman Miaow]

While Origin is taking your computer stats (including all the programs you run and when) and selling them for third parties to see, and you can't sue them for it. At least with Steam's stats (which aren't in every game), you can show off.

No.
You are misinformed.

At least valve doesn't ban you for using their forums or contacting support for legitimate reasons.

Neither does EA.
You are misinformed.

The difference between Origin and Steam:

Steam sells games a hell of a lot cheaper.

Yeah, that's enough for me to not hate them. EA wants to stop using Steam so they can make sure no game ever goes for under twenty bucks, even if it's ten years old and barely functional.

The price is in the eye of the beholder.
Some games are cheaper at steam. Some are cheaper at origin. Most release-day games are cheaper in retail.
Origin does, infact, have sales too.
Just to check, I checked Origin's website. The first game listed was 'Orcs Must Die' for ~15$.
I found the same game on steam's website, it's ~18$,


I'm in no way a defender of EA or an origin-fanboy, I just think the hate from steam fanboys towards Origin is hypocritical, baseless and out of proportions.

It would be nice if you put any kind of weight behind your argument other than "NO YOU ARE WRONG." And that price thing is really interesting, because I bought it on sale on steam for something like £3.99, so I just checked both sites, and they are both £11.99. So it's odd that they are differently priced for you. I don't hate Origin, I hate EA and their awful business practices, I just think Origin is a bit ugly.

 

[Dandark]

So are people surprised that ME3 is only avaible one Origin? I thought that would be obvious. I imagine EA will do this to all their games now.
It sucks since Origin is pretty terrible. It's not the anti-christ people make it out to be but compared to Steam, it is horribly inferior.

 

[Tayh]

Crap, messed up my quotes.
Why doesn't the escapist have a proper post editor? And if it does, how do you activate it?

Anyway, I don't have patience to discuss every little misinformed accusation against origin, and, those two in particular, have been thoroughly myth-busted already.

As for the prices, I guess if you live in a country that doesn't have the Euro or dollar as its national currency, the price differences apply - since, as a guy above wrote, origin will charge in your local currency while steam charges in euros/dollars.

I got origin for BF3 and ended up re-downloading ME2 & DA2 through origin. Worked flawlessly. Atleast origin doesn't try to become the facebook-equivalent(track ALL THE THINGS!) of the digital distribution market.

 

[madster11]

There's a reason i won't be purchasing this game until a perfect crack is released.

Which means i won't be buying ME3 when the price is the highest.
Nice way to screw yourselves out of money, EA. All because you think forcing people to install shit software they don't want is a good idea.

Learn from how many people still shudder at the words 'Real Player', twits. Make origin optional and make it better, and it might actually get downloaded.
Hell, make it mandatory only for if you want to play online and people will ***** less.

Or go the smart route and give people incentives to buy it off origin and use it. Like, purchase from origin and get the first DLC for free or something like that. Stop it from accessing things it shouldn't be allowed to and make it use lower background resources and an actual useful product.

People will then download it and use it without muttering 'kill all EA employees' under their breath every 5 seconds.

 

[Esotera]

Sort of looks like everyone in that thread is intentionally asking questions they know the answers to stir up shit. Yes Origin is bad, and so is DRM, but doing this isn't going to change anything.

 

[Bat Vader]

The funny thing about Origin is that it hasn't done anything to annoy me yet. I have not had a single problem with it. Steam on the other hand has given me some problems which have ticked me off. The very rare occurrences where my internet has gone down Steam won't let me play some of the games I have for it. Yet I have never had that problem with Origin.

Plus, I hate that all my Steam games get installed in the same folder. Origin actually lets me choose where I want to install my games. If Steam lets people do that I have not found the option.