Why so much hate for Origin?

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poppabaggins

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May 29, 2009
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There have been a lot of threads about Origin, and everyone I've read has been filled with overwhelming hate for the platform and statements of what a terrible idea it is.

My question is: Why? Why so much hate for another distribution service?

Lots of people love Steam. I get that. I love Steam for the sales and catalog, but it's far from perfect. For example:
[ul]
[li]Slow download speeds (I get up to 1.2 megs/second VERY rarely, compared to 2.1 megs/second frequently on Impulse)[/li]

[li]Server problems ("Steam servers are too busy to handle your request")[/li]

[li]Required internet connectivity (yes, it has an offline mode, but that has been less than stable for myself and for people I know. Sometimes I lose my connection and still want to play games, Steam generally prevents that).[/li]
[/ul]
Some reasons for hating Origin that I've read:
[ul]
[li]"I want all my games in one place" -- Steam let's you launch other games from Steam. Hell, you can launch Microsoft Word from Steam if you want to.[/li]

[li]"I don't trust EA" -- Fair enough. But EA actually SEEMS to be trying to get better. They stopped using their draconian DRM (at least for their digitally distributed titles, and they have been publishing more varied games lately). I mean, it's not Activision or anything.[/li]

[li]"It won't have all the great features that Steam has, like voice chat" -- Your friends being on Steam, I can understand. However, Steam's voice chat is terrible (cuts out during load screens, at least during Portal 2).[/li]

[li]"It's a dumb move, Steam provides a bunch of customers for EA" -- Blizzard doesn't sell their games on Steam. EA's high-profile games will not hurt for attention.[/li]
[/ul]
With that said, even if you never want to use Origin, competition is still an essential part of capitalism and absolutely necessary for improvement. Valve is going to experience some amount of pressure from Origin, which will cause them to make Steam even better.

So why do you think Origin has so much stigma surrounding it? Are you excited to see Valve's response? Do you just hate EA for some great wrong they have done to you? What are your thoughts?
 

Jamboxdotcom

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poppabaggins said:
[li]"I don't trust EA" -- Fair enough. But EA actually SEEMS to be trying to get better. They stopped using their draconian DRM (at least for their digitally distributed titles, and they have been publishing more varied games lately). I mean, it's not Activision or anything.[/li]
That's my problem, right there. And saying "EA isn't Activision" is sorta like saying "Stalin isn't Hitler". They may not be awful in exactly the same ways, but that doesn't make either of them remotely good. EA is a big, bloated, committee-run corporation, which means everything they do will be at least somewhat inflexible and misguided and interested only in short-term profit.
 

indiangrunt91

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Aug 5, 2009
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for me its all about EA sucking at what they do. do you remember EA's download manager thing?
terrible piece of software
i would much rather use steam which even with its flaws is evolving and is being bettered update after update
 

thiosk

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It smacks of the douchebag corporatism that seems to be taking over these days. Dick moves "na na na you can't sell our games anymore because" aside, whats happening is that each publisher is making their own digital distribution network, and before long we're going to have to have 6 clients to do the distribution. Activision will start their own service, blizzard will complain and somehow keep theirs separate, bethesda will start The Elder Services, 2k has to get in on the action too. I find it akin to having to shop at a lettuce store for lettuce, going across the highway to get to the vinegar store, then having to go to a third store for the bacos and the olive oil.

and at the end of the day you still have a pretty shitty salad.

So thats what I'm pissed about.

And your three dings against steam-- I pay for my own internet, so I don't pay enough for anywhere NEAR 1.2 mbps. Time warner cable sucks. But I've never once had a connectivity error, and I've never had a flaw with offline mode either, so thats just more of the same antisteam propaganda that we see on every single antisteam post. Add in that steam is quite good to the little guys-- indie publishers have never done so well.

So yeah, long story short, EA are a bunch of dicks, have always been a bunch of dicks, and will likely always be a bunch of dicks. If you think Steam has horrible drm, you've forgotten the spore debacle.
 

Nalgas D. Lemur

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I'm mostly indifferent toward Origin and wouldn't really care one way or another if they weren't also pulling stuff off of Steam. Actually, I'd be in favor of having more options, as long as it meant I really did have more options. The future it currently hints at, where you're required to get games from each publisher's own store, is pretty grim. Then you have no competition at all, and they can charge whatever the hell they want and include whatever restrictions they want, because you can't go anywhere else. On the other hand, if I could choose between getting EA's games from Origin, Steam, and any of the other online or physical stores, based on whoever has the best price or extra stuff included or least crappy DRM or whatever concerns me the most, that would be the good kind of competition I would welcome.

I would still probably be wary of Origin after how awful the previous incarnation of the EA Store/EA Download Manager was, but they only have themselves to blame for that. Well, I suppose I'd also be wary of it after how awful my experience with the BioWare Social Network and the DLC for DAO and ME2 has been, too. Ok, I guess they have a long way to go to convince me they're not going to screw it up completely. Heh.
 

Harbinger_

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Apart from some very nice customer service reps I've had the opportunity to speak to I have a large amount of distrust for EA and a lack of respect for alot of the things they've done.
 

Rauten

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Apr 4, 2010
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poppabaggins said:
Some reasons for hating Origin that I've read:
[ul]
[li]"I want all my games in one place" -- Steam let's you launch other games from Steam. Hell, you can launch Microsoft Word from Steam if you want to.[/li][/ul]
It does allow you, but if EA really go down the war route, they're likely to program their games to prevent the Steam in-game interface from being available inside their games. Yes, they could not do it, but I can honestly imagine EA going that far.

[ul][li]"I don't trust EA" -- Fair enough. But EA actually SEEMS to be trying to get better. They stopped using their draconian DRM (at least for their digitally distributed titles, and they have been publishing more varied games lately). I mean, it's not Activision or anything.[/li][/ul]
EA still has much to atone for as far as I am concerned, however, this is a rather subective point that's going to vary way too much depending on personal opinions of each user. Nothing to say here.

[ul][li]"It won't have all the great features that Steam has, like voice chat" -- Your friends being on Steam, I can understand. However, Steam's voice chat is terrible (cuts out during load screens, at least during Portal 2).[/li][/ul]
I've been using steam voice chat for years, and I effin' love it. And that's not the only service they have. Their recommendation system seems pretty nice to me, and the 1GB to store pictures taken ingame and automatically file them under the game they were taken in, as well as the youtube linkage are rather nice services; Not useful to all, sure, but still nice extra services.

[ul][li]"It's a dumb move, Steam provides a bunch of customers for EA" -- Blizzard doesn't sell their games on Steam. EA's high-profile games will not hurt for attention.[/li]
[/ul]
Difference being, Blizzard intended to open their own online store from the very beginning; Not only that, but they went as far as to modify their WoW code to properly allow the Steam in-game interface to work (something for which I was personally grateful).

EA, on the other hand, has had it's products on Steam for ages, and now all of a sudden, Steam's terms aren't to their liking, and are removing their latest releases, which to me seems like a childish attitude. You want to open up your own online store, and thus be the only place where your games can be bought? Ok, perfectly understandable, but don't go around removing items that YOU made available at another platform while claiming said platform's conditions are abusive.

The whole thing just reeks of "We're EA, and we're gonna be a bunch of asshats, just like we usually are".

So why do you think Origin has so much stigma surrounding it?
Because it's EA.
 

psicat

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Feb 13, 2011
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People just automatically see anything from EA as something that must be hated and Valve as some paragon of gaming or something. Which is completely irrational, but then that's human nature, and fanboy logic, for you. Valve is in it for the money just as much as any other company, they offer crappy customer support like many other companies, and have screwed over many customers over the years like many a big company. Personally I don't trust Steam, but that doesn't keep me from using it once in a while for a game I want, and I don't have to love Origin to use it if they have an exclusive I want to.
 

loc978

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For me, I've chosen my one download-service-application-thing, and that's Steam. I just don't want more of this crap to keep track of. More things to run (and trying to run when I start windows. I didn't like it when Steam did that, and I don't like it when other programs do it. When I start windows, I want antivirus, anti-spyware and essential system files firing up.. and that's all), more logins to remember, et cetera.
 

AmaterasuGrim

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Valve are gods in pc gaming :D it's much easier to buy from steam & the steam sales & features & fact that everyone on pc has steam make's it a easier service to have/use for pc whilst origin is just out of the way, personally stick to steam just means for me i won't be getting any ea games for pc.
 

yuval152

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Jamboxdotcom said:
poppabaggins said:
[li]"I don't trust EA" -- Fair enough. But EA actually SEEMS to be trying to get better. They stopped using their draconian DRM (at least for their digitally distributed titles, and they have been publishing more varied games lately). I mean, it's not Activision or anything.[/li]
That's my problem, right there. And saying "EA isn't Activision" is sorta like saying "Stalin isn't Hitler". They may not be awful in exactly the same ways, but that doesn't make either of them remotely good. EA is a big, bloated, committee-run corporation, which means everything they do will be at least somewhat inflexible and misguided and interested only in short-term profit.
thiosk said:
It smacks of the douchebag corporatism that seems to be taking over these days. Dick moves "na na na you can't sell our games anymore because" aside, whats happening is that each publisher is making their own digital distribution network, and before long we're going to have to have 6 clients to do the distribution. Activision will start their own service, blizzard will complain and somehow keep theirs separate, bethesda will start The Elder Services, 2k has to get in on the action too. I find it akin to having to shop at a lettuce store for lettuce, going across the highway to get to the vinegar store, then having to go to a third store for the bacos and the olive oil.

and at the end of the day you still have a pretty shitty salad.

So thats what I'm pissed about.

And your three dings against steam-- I pay for my own internet, so I don't pay enough for anywhere NEAR 1.2 mbps. Time warner cable sucks. But I've never once had a connectivity error, and I've never had a flaw with offline mode either, so thats just more of the same antisteam propaganda that we see on every single antisteam post. Add in that steam is quite good to the little guys-- indie publishers have never done so well.

So yeah, long story short, EA are a bunch of dicks, have always been a bunch of dicks, and will likely always be a bunch of dicks. If you think Steam has horrible drm, you've forgotten the spore debacle.
Main reasons ^,I personally don't use it because I don't trust EA enough because they have a past(and now too) of being assholes to their consumer,its like they're forcing peoples to bypass their restrictions(if you have Alice:madness returns on steam,you can't get the DLC officaly but you can edit the .ini or .config file to enable the DLC,basically forcing people to use their DRM)

And steam actually cares about their consumers,Look at the free weekend,crazy sales,free games they do it for their commuinty.Now look at EA,bunch of assholes who don't give a fuck about their consumer and will do anything to cover their their asses,They don't do sales,they charge extra for pre-orders,nothing is free if you got no money you are not welcomed there,so basically bunch of assholes who wants money.

Also they onle have EA games,No Indie games or games from other companies,just their games.
 

SilverKyo

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Apr 15, 2009
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I stayed away from buying anything online with EA when I heard you can get banned from playing the single player game you bought and installed on your computer for being slightly less then friendly on a forum. While I am a generally courteous person in these situations, it still reeked of nonsensical bullshit to me, so I just decided to avoid anything digital distribution even remotely related to EA. If they can just pull out dick moves like then whenever they feel, they don't deserve my service.
 

Kahunaburger

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May 6, 2011
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Because everything EA touches turns to fail. Also, people would like to continue to buy games published by EA from Steam, and are irritated that they have to set up a new account to do that now. Also, EA has a proven track record of being hacked by script kiddies, so it's probably not a very good idea to give them your credit card number.
 

SinorKirby

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May 1, 2009
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I think this can all properly be summed up as such:

Steam is more than just a digital distribution platform. It's like if you took a digital distribution platform, and stuck a slightly slimmed-down Xfire onto it. If Steam were not, well, Steam, and was missing all of the other features besides the ability to purchase and download games, we would all be using Xfire, and none of this would be a problem. Origin would just be seen as another platform for distributing games, and we'd all be cool with it because Steam would be DRM free like the rest, and there would be no problems with feeling compelled to purchase games from Steam because they sync better with our friends and everything.
 

Evil Top Hat

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I don't like the idea that I'm going to be forced to install yet another program that I don't need just to play games. If this trend of publishers/developers releasing their own digital distribution platforms catches on then eventually we'll end up needing to download a ton of different platforms just to play games.

I hate the idea of having to clog up my computer like that.
 

Tanakh

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Jul 8, 2011
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My reason:

"It doesn't support indies"

That's actually the whole reason for me to be on Valve, go there and anything from 1/2 to 1/3 of their main page and deals are on indies. Go and google the story of Cuthulu on steam compared on XBLA. I have seen no other mainstream supporting indies like at all, hence i go with steam.
 

aeroz

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Dec 14, 2008
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I like it because I hate monopolies and Steam is pushing it. I do not like the idea of all my games linked to a single service that could screw up my entire system. Like that story escapist did about the guy that thanks to a paypal error of a few dollars was denied his entire collects because they were linked to steam. What if some dick jumps onto your account and causes problems and the account is banned, boom every game gone.

Secondly Valve is a corporation, and they do what they believe will make them money. They found what makes them money is carefully making games, experimenting, and fostering good customer relations. TF2 going free wasn't to be nice, its because they learned microtransactions make them alot of money. All those new players jump on and see the variety of weapons, ones that getting normally would take months, so they buy them. They buy just one hat and making it free just paid for itself. Plus its no like they lose money when people download it, and it forces them to have steam which pimps out other games that each purchase earns them more money

I am not saying they are evil, or that this is bad for the consumer. I just wish people would stop being so naive and realize its still financially motivated.
 

Wolfram23

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I don't mind it. In fact I think it has some benefits over Steam. For example, you don't have to have Origin running to play a game you have on it. I got ME2 free since I bought DA2, and to redeem ME2 I needed to use Origin. Signed up and downloaded the game, no problems. I haven't played the game much yet, but I remember not having Origin open when I did test it out. Steam, on the other hand, has to be on.

Now, resource wise it doesn't matter to me very much as these are relatively small programs and I have a very good gaming PC. Still, I like to be optimized so the less, the better.

Anyway I have Origin now, and I've had Impulse for a while (for Demigod), and I've used Direct2Drive as well. Actually, I wish D2D had a store app as opposed to just the website. I hate their Comrade app and it doesn't have any store portion to it, it just shows you your previous purchases.

I think it's worthwhile to see where Origin goes. At this point there's not much reason to like or hate one more than another. If I can get a game for less then I'll go there, or if only one place offers it, same thing. As long as it's a painless process to purchase, download, install, and play then I'm happy. So far I'd say that's been the case - except for the games that use Games for Windows Live. FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!

*captcha: dead cat bounce??? WTF!
 

MurderousToaster

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I don't want it because I don't need it. Lets say I have Steam, and in context of the stupid metaphor I am about to thrust at you, Steam is a hat. It's a functional hat, fairly stylish and never gives me all that many problems.

Then someone gives me Origin, another hat. It might be the same sort of hat and might work just as well as the Steam hat, but I already have a hat. Wearing two hats at once doesn't improve on the hat function. I am perfectly fine with my one hat, and wearing two hats is redundant. Why would I want this second hat, even if it is, in fact, a hat of equal value?

To extend the metaphor to a ridiculous extent, I am a magician. I keep rabbits in my hat. I already have a lot of rabbits in my Steam hat. If I decide to wear this second hat (aside from the obvious problems with pulling a rabbit out of a hat which is already on top of a hat) I will have no rabbits inside my hat ready to pull out. And, if I do get some rabbits to go into my hat, I will have to look through both hats in order to find the rabbit I want to pull out. I would rather just get all my rabbits in one hat. Rabbits referring to games, by the way.
 

poppabaggins

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Nalgas D. Lemur said:
The future it currently hints at, where you're required to get games from each publisher's own store, is pretty grim. Then you have no competition at all, and they can charge whatever the hell they want and include whatever restrictions they want, because you can't go anywhere else.
You raise a good point here. But I see it more like console exclusives. Still, I guess most PC gamers don't want to have to deal with the problems that causes.