Why so much hate for Origin?

[Atmos Duality]

1) Origin will be the new DRM system for all future EA Games on PC. Expect SecuROM-grade DRM to return via this new system.

Besides, it's EA. I'm disappointed that people still blindly support that horrible fuckbag of a company. Why would I want to use their new proprietary system? Why would I ever want to support them?

2) EA seems to be deliberately trying to create excuses to not do business with Valve (Steam); whose DRM is probably "Too soft/weak" for their tastes.

What I don't get is if they are going to self-distribute, then why play all of these legal+PR games with Steam? They already have the copyright and licensing ownership for all of their products; if they don't want to distribute via Steam anymore, they can just pull out either by canceling their agreement directly or through arbitrary violation (which usually includes a penalty/fee as a measure of enforcement).

So far, they've tried twice now to paint Steam in a bad light by forcing their existing Steam-distributed titles to be pulled from Steam's online store. The problem with this ploy is that NO OTHER PUBLISHER IS HAVING THESE PROBLEMS WITH STEAM; only EA.

On paper, it would then seem that EA is smearing a competitor to make their own new product/service look better in comparison.

Yet, it makes no sense to treat Steam as a competing distributor when EA can legally monopolize the distribution of their own products already!

There exists an alternative motive: Origin won't just be intended for EA's games.
So either EA is acting colossally stupid, or they are trying to goad other, non-EA developers (and possibly publishers) who use Steam into coming to Origin. If this is true, then it's a genuine reason to not just ignore EA's games and Origin, but to fight Origin lest we give EA any more control over the market.

 

[Stammer]

I'd be perfectly satisfied with having Origin for my EA games (which are probably about half of my games anyway), except... well, Origin sucks. EA can't make one of these things without screwing it up somehow.

(sarcastically) I'm really looking forward to uninstalling Origin, reinstalling it, updating all of my games, and then restarting my computer EVERY SINGLE TIME I WANT TO PLAY MASS EFFECT 3.

Besides, Steam's been around for a lot longer. It knows the ropes already. Even if it was a piece of crap, it's a polished piece of crap. It's had more time to iron out the wrinkles and eradicate the bugs. Origin is like someone trying to make a World of Warcrap clone and expecting it to succeed.

 

[winter2]

What I would like to know is how come Steam/Valve is being so quiet on this. Or did I miss something? Some sort of statement from them would be welcome I think.

This strange silence quite frankly irks me. And I'm a steam fanboy with close to 300 titles under my belt.

 

[Frostbite3789]

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.

So you're bitching about what Steam already does with their games? They have all their toys in their box, I have no problem with EA wanting to take their toys home. Or do you want Steam to have a monopoly? Yeah, they have great sales now, but if they don't have to, to draw in customers, why would they?

I'd love to think of Valve as some company that loves us as much as we love them. But they aren't. They are just as in it for the money as any other company out there. I used to think Blizzard was golden, then they went off and joined forces with Activision.

Does every publisher needs it's own digital distribution platform? No, but it's nice to have options. Just like I enjoy having 20 different stores I can choose to go for groceries in a 10 mile radius. Do I ***** about how one of them doesn't carry something I don't have? No, I drive to the one that does, or the one that's having a sale.

That's the difference between gamers and people dealing with stuff in real life. We ***** about nothing. Or even something that could even be viewed as good. Don't even want to give it a chance, just want to demonize EA so we can scream and swing our torches and pitchforks around before we even see what the thing does, and it's capabilities or what all they plan on doing with it.

It could flop just like GFWL, or it could rival Steam. At least give it a damn chance to be released before you ***** and whine about it.

 

[DementedSheep]

[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 issue with origins, tho I don't really trust valve either but I trust them more that EA. EA in my experience is pretty bad with their downloads. I don?t want to be giving out my credit card details to them. Whether or not I consider using Origin will depend on whether other people get good service and have issues.
I also don't want have to install another bloody download service on my computer.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

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.

At least with console exclusives you can buy them anywhere you want, whether it's Gamestop or Amazon or Best Buy or the increasingly rare local, non-chain stores (well, at least assuming it's something that's available in disc form, not XBLA/PSN titles). That still gives you plenty of options to shop around, and I see things like XBL Gold subscriptions and MS Point cards discounted on a regular basis, too, so there's even competition for those.

PC games almost might as well not exist in physical stores. I guess they still make boxed, retail copies of the really big name games, but good luck finding much else. If the only place you can get stuff online ends up being directly from the publisher, that might be the only place you can get all but the most popular stuff, because it's already been nearly impossible to find anything else in most stores for years.

 

[chstens]

Let me give you the best reason to avoid Origin like the plague: THEY CAN TAKE YOUR GAMES AWAY AFTER ONE YEAR! If you buy a game on Origin, it's yours for one year, then EA can just take it away as they see fit.

 

[VanTesla]

Is there not a clause that states after a few years they will not let you redownload the game even if you paid for it? If so, then that is total BS. I would be worried as well if they give DRM restriction that make it impossible to play offline. I have had bad service when trying to contact EA support as well...

 

[MorganL4]

Download limitations

Origin guarantees download availability for at least one year after purchase.[9] There is no limit to the number of times a game can be downloaded through the platform. When Origin retires a game, it can no longer be downloaded. As of June 2011, Origin has retired "around 10 games".[9] According to EA's terms of service,[10] an account may be canceled after 24 months of non-use.

thats a quote off of wikipedia, so yes someone could have maliciously altered the page, but I doubt that it is false.


So yeah, for me...."that's why all the hate"

I buy something then it is mine, end of story.....none of this "well sorry you had to do a complete reinstall of your system we don't have that game anymore", or "Yeah.... you didn't log in for two years so........ all your games are belong to us."

 

[Atmos Duality]

I'd love to think of Valve as some company that loves us as much as we love them. But they aren't. They are just as in it for the money as any other company out there. I used to think Blizzard was golden, then they went off and joined forces with Activision.

To be fair, Blizzard was bought out and forcibly merged with Activision by Vivendi Universal.
Blame the investors; not the guys who actually make the games.

Believe me, I'm totally with you in agreeing that it sucks ass knowing that if you buy a Blizzard game you are also supporting another unethical douchebag corporation.

Vivendi ruined so much for me with their meddling. They put greedy assholes like Activision on top of the mainstream market, turned Blizzard into gaming's biggest cash-cow (and kept them from putting out ANY real games for 5 straight years; including forcing HUGE arbitrary delays on Starcraft and Diablo) and killed all of Sierra (which had SWAT and Tribes, two deviations from the shooter market that never had a chance to evolve).

Does every publisher needs it's own digital distribution platform? No, but it's nice to have options.

You do realize that if every publisher had their own distribution platform, you would have ONE PLATFORM CHOICE for any of that publisher's games?

Why would they allow other publishers to carry their games? Short answer: they wouldn't. Never. Ever. Can you imagine EA being legally obligated to distribute Call of Duty 4.x? That would be like 1993 Nintendo publishing Sonic the Hedgehog.

Before you counter-argue with "Valve is a publisher", they are only a publisher in name.
In practice, Valve doesn't own multitudes of developers; they self-publish and have protected themselves from the meddling of these other Big Publishers because of it.