You ever feel like Origin is Steams' lil brother that was bashed in the head with a brick?

[Callate]

Tired of dealing with the reflexive "you just hate Origin because you hate EA, and you only hate EA because it's popular to do so." Not worth anyone's time. You want to believe that, enjoy the delusion, everyone else can talk around you.

As far as Valve/Steam having a monopoly, it's hard to credit that while services like Green Man Gaming, GOG, Impulse, and UPlay exist, let alone Origin. I grant that Steam has more of the market, and perhaps people are more comfortable with that than they should be because it's seemed a relatively benign overlord. I appreciate that Steam has allowed me to play a lot of great games that I wouldn't have otherwise at a much lower cost than I would have paid for hardcopies. Generally speaking, I welcome competition on the market, but I have a problem with the uniquely unpleasant way EA presumed to leverage their properties.

And they haven't come out with anything I shed bitter tears about losing out on since the introduction of Origin, so from my point of view, they bet they had something I couldn't do without and lost. 'Course, we'll see what developer/assets they absorb and scuttle this year...

Regarding Linux and as yet hypothetical Steamboxes, I increasingly suspect that it amounts to Valve's leadership having a unique point of view on the possibility of Microsoft imploding. Despite their stature on the digital distribution scene, Valve is still a relatively small company compared to many software houses (seriously, they have less than a tenth the employee roll of Ubisoft and about a twentieth of EA), but I suspect their long-term plan is to attempt to make a viable space for PC gaming if and when the wonderful world of the Windows PC collapses. I don't know if they're up to that task, but it would certainly be interesting to see them try.

 

[Olas]

SNIP

So due you are arguing logging in through a browser and finding individual installations for DLC for individual games is easier than downloading a single piece of software handling this stuff? Usually that piece of software would just be incorporated in the game anyway if there isn't a distribution software available.

Logging in through Bioware's website may have been a little more work than logging into Origin. But here's the thing: I only had to do that once, just to download the DLC and then I was done for good. And if I hadn't bought any DLC for ME2, like most games I own, I wouldn't even have had to do that. I didn't need to log into something every time I wanted to play ME2. I could click on the ME2 icon on my desktop and it would start running. Presto. Simple.

How does having to open Origin and log into it every time I want to play something (even if I didn't buy any DLC) improve upon this in any way?

First of all that is a lie. You log in though the Cerberus network as well. I am assuming you dont know this because. Either way you are back to square one. You DLC will not work without the service running. To answer you last question here, you think having an internet connect is to much trouble to have DOWNLOADABLE content to work.

Sigh, I know about the stupid fucking Cerberus network, I also bought the Digital Deluxe version of the game which came with it's own separate passcode and content as well because I'm a chump. The reason I have trouble remembering this stuff is because I only had to mess with it ONE TIME to download the DLC installation files and then I was done. Logging into the Cerberus network was just to INSTALL the DLC not PLAY it. It was a 1 time affair as DLC should be. If the service had to be up and running for me to use the DLC I never noticed, probably because it never required an additional program with a login screen, it just ran with the game.

Again, the content was optional and as such so was logging into Cerberus Network, if I hadn't wanted to log into it to download the DLC I could still have played Mass Effect 2 as it came on the disk. Nothing about Origin was ever optional.

Yes and I have been playing multiplayer before you very likely through serial connects. Here is a fact for you. Mention those 3 games that have online multiplayer that doesn't use a service of some sort and Ill give you this. Otherwise it is just a case of what I have been saying. Logging in through the individual game. Think off it this way. Blizzards battle.net lets you get the individual programs by themselves, but still collects your account as a single service. If you have to edit anything with your games you have to do it through a browser. Not easier than a client.

Logging in through the individual game is exactly what I was talking about. Having you log in inside the game keeps everything in one place, it doesn't require me to log in if I just want to play campaign mode, it doesn't require me to log in if the game happens to be single player, logging into the 'service' is only required if I want to do what the 'service' actually exists for: playing online multiplayer. That's the way every PC game I own has operated until ME3. (I'm sure Team Fortress 2 requires Steam also but I bought it through Steam so it seems only fair)

Origin requires you to login to their service before you even decide what game you want to play. That's because it isn't for helping simplify multiplayer, it's to sell you crap. Advertising and selling software is the only significant features it adds that games weren't already capable of handling on their own inside the actual game itself.

Oh and the games were Halo: Combat Evolved, Spore, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II, Lord of the Rings online, and a few Dawn of War games. All of these run entirely on their own. No popup adds trying to sell me other games, no marketing bullshit. Maybe I had to jump through a few hoops to first register with their online services, but afterwards I could run them like any old game, and I wasn't locked out of the single-player campaigns if I didn't register for the online service. It was BETTER.

First of all stop trying to move the goal-post. It is not about always on DRM. So your "gotya question" is completely besides the point. Stop wasting time with this.

The point is collecting game management into a single service and client allows for easier support as well as management by the user. This is a fact you cannot get around.

Fact of the matter is making individual netcode and payment security for each game, and then running support for them individually increases the workload exponentially. There is a technical aspect here you seem to keep not wanting to see because you are to focused on you not liking Origin as a piece of software.

You know what "the point" originally was? It was that I was forced to download software I didn't want to play a game that didn't require it. That was the point. Let's just call Origin what it really is, it's a store, I was forced to install a store on my computer to play a game I had already bought on disk. I don't know what you mean when you say "service", I don't know what a "netcode" is, if all you're talking about is how Origin simplifies online multiplayer for EA you're totally missing the point.

If Origin was required for you to buy DLC or to play ME3's multiplayer then fine, I could understand that, I don't understand why it's suddenly necessary when it never was before, but at least I can see the vague logic behind it. If it makes things easier for EA to operate things by requiring users to run additional software on their computer then guess they're free to try and lay that on us. That was never my real issue with Origin.

When you first login to Origin it by default opens on the "store" tab, not the "my games" tab. It occasionally generates popup adds for new games it's selling on your desktop like a cheaply run website. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Origin is, among many things, a marketing mechanism. I'm more likely to buy crap from EA if the only way to run a game is to first have advertising thrown in my face. EA knew lots of people were going to buy ME3, so why not use it as a chance to force their new digital store onto millions of people who otherwise wouldn't have downloaded it. It's a sound business tactic, I have to give them that.

But for people that aren't interested in participating in all these wonderful offers and services Origin provides it simply creates an annoying drawbridge between us and the games we've already bought. Origin should have been optional, I should have been able to opt out of it when I was installing ME3. But instead it was made mandatory, install it or return the game to the store. So I begrudgingly installed it. Then when I was done playing ME3 I uninstalled it.

Also, there's [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.308724-EAs-Origin-is-creepy-and-watches-you-sleep"]this.[/a]
Though in EA's defence that's true of Steam and practically every other bit of software we install these days, so I'm willing to overlook it.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

I've basically hated it ever since I was forced to download and install it to play my Mass Effect 3 disk. Of course I'm not allowed to run my installed game unless I have origin running in the background too for no reason. It then went on to interrupt me with a message every time my internet connection went down while I was playing the singleplayer campaign. Thanks for doing that without asking or anything Origin.

I don't even care if it's a good store or what have you, anything that does this kind of crap isn't getting my money. Steam FTW I guess.

Every steam game also requires you to download the client and have it running in the background.

You don't have to have Steam running once you start the game; if you're playing a single-player game and your internet goes down you can at least carry on playing.

 

[Rednog]

I've basically hated it ever since I was forced to download and install it to play my Mass Effect 3 disk. Of course I'm not allowed to run my installed game unless I have origin running in the background too for no reason. It then went on to interrupt me with a message every time my internet connection went down while I was playing the singleplayer campaign. Thanks for doing that without asking or anything Origin.

I don't even care if it's a good store or what have you, anything that does this kind of crap isn't getting my money. Steam FTW I guess.

Every steam game also requires you to download the client and have it running in the background.

You don't have to have Steam running once you start the game; if you're playing a single-player game and your internet goes down you can at least carry on playing.

You can do the same thing with Origin, it doesn't kick you out of the game, it just tells you that you've been disconnected from Origin. Steam just would just disconnect and not tell you in a single player game. At the end neither really functions differently in this case.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

I've basically hated it ever since I was forced to download and install it to play my Mass Effect 3 disk. Of course I'm not allowed to run my installed game unless I have origin running in the background too for no reason. It then went on to interrupt me with a message every time my internet connection went down while I was playing the singleplayer campaign. Thanks for doing that without asking or anything Origin.

I don't even care if it's a good store or what have you, anything that does this kind of crap isn't getting my money. Steam FTW I guess.

Every steam game also requires you to download the client and have it running in the background.

You don't have to have Steam running once you start the game; if you're playing a single-player game and your internet goes down you can at least carry on playing.

You can't quit steam while in a game. It must be running in the background online or offline. Origin does the same.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'm personally more upset that the great name once associated with Ultima and Lord British is applied to any of this nonsense. I wonder though, if Half-Life 2 wasn't such a juggernaut with guaranteed mass success...how many people would have willingly decided to get Steam on their own? How many more people would still be buying PC games on disc today? It honestly just occurred to me that Steam's success today was predicated on people being willing to suffer though it en mass because you didn't not play Half-Life 2.

As for Origin, never had to use it and it's never been on my computer. I'm gonna look at the UI and everything for it now out of sheer curiosity (and maybe scan the infamous EULA)...

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Origin is a way for EA to enforce their pricing and marketing tactics, and also of trying to belittle Steam. But it's not as if they put any effort in. They find it easy enough to just leverage their grip on games to force people into using it. The hidden crap it installs on your computer and the EULA are reason enough to steer clear, even if you don't dislike EA on principle.

 

[munx13]

I feel more like Origin being Steams little brother that has so much potential, but is too lazy to get off his ass and do anything.

I mean it's a good client, but the library is just so much smaller and the sales on Origin are so rare and marginal compared to the ones on Steam.

Also, why is EA charging me 50 Euros at launch for their own games on their own service? At least Valve has the decency to launch their games at 37 Euros.

 

[nightingale]

Origin works fine, in fact their cloud for savegames in every single game is a feature Steam should emulate, everything else, but the hour tracking and a decent way to backup the games, work flawlessly over here.

I agree. Cloud saving it's EA's one redeeming quality.

 

[Athefist]

I've never even heard of Origin until reading this thread, and I've been using Steam since practically launch. I clearly remember many of Steam's growing pains, but Valve's policy of making the community part of the development process made those pains more bearable. Steam is still in beta in a lot of ways, and Valve's willingness to continue evolving and experimenting shows a great deal of dedication to the entire system. That's not to say they couldn't do things better. TF2 is rapidly turning into a Frankenstein's monster that only works when it wants to.

 

[Zenka]

The Australian price gouging on Origin is the prime reason I stay far away from it. They sometimes charge more than what it costs for the physical retail version, which is insane,

 

[Griffolion]

I don't like it, but it works. I'd sooner just have them on Steam, it would make sense and be a lot easier. But EA has never ever been about making sense, or making things easy. It operates fine, and serves its purpose. However it really needs to go down less, the amount of times I can't load battlefield because Origin has gone down and the cloud service won't let me go into battlefield because of that.

I can't remember the last time Steam went down, I don't think it ever has.

 

[Yopaz]

Steam fanboys really have short memory's, god i remember trying to get Half Life 2 to work, that was an infuriating experience. Origin is much better after 3 years than steam was at that point in its life.

Now here's something that doesn't make sense. Origin is good because Steam used to be bad? Steam used to be bad and there simply had to be made some improvements. Now the reason Steam could do this was that they weren't competing against a better service the way Origin is now. Valve has shown us the mistakes that we should avoid in a digital distribution service. EA is trying to compete offering a service that isn't as good.

OT: Meh, Origin is OK. It's not great, but I can live with it for those rare games I want to play that EA publish. It's certainly seen improvements since its start, though I don't like the design. It's been a while since I've used it, but I remember the updating being quite clunky.

 

[JazzJack2]

Let's amend that to "If you willingly use Steam, you're not allowed to complain about ANY DRM.

OT: You know what OP? At least the only games that require Origin are made by the people who made Origin. When Steam starts locking Non-Valve games to it's client, Steam can fuck right off.

Companies choose to put their game on Steam and Valve doesn't force them to be Steam exclusives, plenty of games found on Steam can be bought from alternative sources without the need for Steam.

You can log into Origin WITHOUT an Internet connection and any games that are already installed will boot and run just fine.

You can do that with Steam.