Dear Origin, You Stink

[Lord_Gremlin]

It feels like EA CEO and people running the company in general just don't get how digital service is supposed to work.
But they will learn in time. Remember how they gave a free Mass Effect 2 copy to everyone who got Dragon Age 2? It's not like they never run any promotions. They simply failing at Origins, for now.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

It's so tremendously odd that I've had such a polar opposite experience of digital download platforms than most other people on this website seem to have.

I've never once had a problem with Origin, I run two games through it (three if you count the now shutdown Battlefield Alpha) and I find it runs them smoothly, doesn't really get in the way and I quite enjoy using the service. I haven't tried downloading any DLC so maybe that'll screw up for me if I ever decide to buy some Sims 3 expansion packs online.

For that matter, GFWL has always worked perfectly for me as well... considering I have around 6 games that require it I really haven't experienced any noticeable trouble.

But Steam has given the most hassle out of any platform, to the point where I avoid Steam at all costs, if I see a game I want I go to GamersGate long before I'll try Steam.

Ah well, to each their own and whatnot.

I hope EA and Microsoft one day do fix up and improve their platforms, I enjoy using them and it'd be nice to see them become more popular and not suffer from the many bugs people seem to encounter.

 

[Duskflamer]

I mean no serious disrespect, but if you can't forgive a new system of digital distribution it's early mistakes and trials, then you can't be an objective writer that deserves any acknowledgement. If you can't get past your seven year old monopoly, then all your doing is preaching to the fanboys. Sure, you'll get a response similar to your own, but what's the point? Do you really think ORIGIN is going out of it's way to piss you off? Really? Sigh...

You expect everything, for less, from a new online system that has had nothing but petty rage sent against it for the last 6 months or so.

I think you're overlooking something with that "7 year monopoly," namely, that it's set the standard for judging things by.

It's the same reason why no MMO can hold a candle to WoW, it's because WoW set the industry standard by being the first truly popular MMO, anything that tries to compete with it directly will never get near the same level of success if it's in any way a worse game, or even an equal game when you take player inertia into account ("I keep playing WoW because it's the game my friends play.")

In the exact same way, for anything to hold a candle to Steam, it needs to be not close to, not even comparable to, it needs to be in all possible ways BETTER than Steam. Steam has been around for 7 years, and for a large portion of that time it was the only online retailer in the game.

Mistakes are easy to forgive and work past when there isn't an alternative around, and when Steam was getting its legs there really wasn't any other option for people who wanted to try out digital distribution. But in those 7 years, Steam has made itself into something very reliable, very trusted, and very big.

Origin is a newbie to the field that seems to think it can overcome it's competitor by starting where the competition did 7 years ago, instead of modeling off of where it is now. The mistakes that we forgave Steam because we didn't have an alternative? For Origin, Steam is that alternative. If we don't like how glitchy the client is, if we don't like what they tried to pull with the ToS, if we aren't content with the small number of games for high prices, we can just ditch Origin and go right back to Steam.

As it stands right now, Origin has no ability to compete with Steam. It has the potential to do so however, and that's what this article is about. This article is not saying "Origin sucks and it should feel bad about itself," it's saying "Origin sucks, here's why it sucks and what it could change to become a real competitor."

In a free market environment, there would be as much logical reason to use Origin over Steam as there would be to buy a Model-T over a Ford Fusion. The only reason anyone is using Origin right now is because of the games that require Origin to use. EA's counting on that even, but their mistaken if they think luring people in with BF3 and ME3 will keep them around while they get their act together.

The only way Origin could be considered a success right now is if you think of it as a DRM platform for EA games that happens to sell games, as opposed to Steam being an Online Store that happens to have some DRM integrated.

 

[Darks63]

Damn fine article sir usually i skim most of the news articles on this site but i read yours completely full of damn good points as well it would be nice if steam did get a proper competitor so then the steam sales like the christmas one would become the norm.

 

[ben-]

I havent used origin myself, but my cousin has battlefield 3 with it, what a PITA to watch him have to join games from the internet then the program opens for him to play. He complains a lot about lag and the interface not working with him. He has a really modern PC (he has $$ i have brains). At the time of this writing he has pretty much stopped with the BF3 due to origin itself. (he is a big fan and user of steam)

/shrug

 

[Animyr]

EA was probably counting on getting congress to pass a law that will outlaw steam.

"Steam is infringing on EA profits by using illegal business tactics like sales that hurt legitimate companies that sell ten-year-old games for 20 bucks and expect people to buy them. Also, steam is actually run by Russain hackers who are attacking American jobs."

Seriously, EA is blundering through this. No wonder they made ME3 origin exclusive; it's the only trick they've got.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I wonder; why is this posted now, in late January, while the whole Origin spiel went on almost three months ago.

It's sort of, y'know, not really relevant. We all complained about it long before, the EULA was changed (really, an article from August 2011?) making it only a bit more harsh than Steam, feature-wise it's a bit pointless but other than that it doesn't do much at all and hardly affects your actual gaming experience.

I've felt this way about Shamus' last few articles. He's always a few months late on these sorts of things. I understand he's a busy dude, but if you can't get your rant out there in a timely manner, it really shouldn't be front page material. Especially if you're referencing outdated material that's now straight up wrong.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Seriously, EA is blundering through this. No wonder they made ME3 origin exclusive; it's the only trick they've got.

Which is different than what Steam does with Valve games how? Please, try to explain.

It's how they even got people to use Steam in the first place. Because it was required to play their completely offline, single player game, Half Life 2.

 

[DTWolfwood]

From the trailers and videos I've seen of ME3, I am not impressed. Sorry, the whole thing seems to be too human focus for my liking.

Since it was announced that it's origin required, the decision to not bother with ME3 became abundantly clear and easy.

I will no longer support any game that require Origin. (Still holding strong against UBISOFT's always online garbage too.)

 

[DTWolfwood]

Seriously, EA is blundering through this. No wonder they made ME3 origin exclusive; it's the only trick they've got.

Which is different than what Steam does with Valve games how? Please, try to explain.

It's how they even got people to use Steam in the first place. Because it was required to play their completely offline, single player game, Half Life 2.

they offered all of their previous valve games in 3 simple packages to get your Steam library going. Its too long for me to remember the exact specifics, but valve offered something like the Gold, Silver and Bronze packages. for something like $60 it included, HL, HL2 and episode1 , Richochet, Team Fortress1, Day of Defeat and DOD Source, Counter-Strike and CS Source, that single player CS (blue something). if i miss something i forgot. So yes they are doing the same thing as EA, except they seem to be giving the customers more options to start with and use steam. Where as EA just seems to want to strong arm ppl into using Origin.

Also the ORANGE BOX. HL2, HL2 ep2, TF2, and Portal for $60... yeah where is EA's multigame bundle for $60?

is EA going to give BF3 away for free so ppl would want to use Origin? You know like how Valve gave TF2 away for free after about a year of its release.

 

[karloss01]

after the bullshit i went through with EA's DRM and GFWL from microsoft, i make sure the only service i need for a game is Steam. otherwise its a console purchase. and so far thats worked out fine for me.

 

[jovack22]

Steam needs competition?
Perhaps to keep them on their toes, but at the moment, they are awesome.
I've bought so many triple A titles for $5 it's ridiculous, not to mention the other awesome deals.
I think steam is doing a great job.

 

[Animyr]

Which is different than what Steam does with Valve games how? Please, try to explain.

Steam has more tricks. Come for their exclusive games, stay for the other stuff. From what I can tell, Origin has no "other stuff" that Steam doesn't do better.

 

[Irridium]

A very good read.

Thing that gets me though is everyone is going apeshit over games requireing Origin, but at the same time, many games require Steam. Now I dont like either service much, I dont work with funds over the internet, currently, much, and I hate having memory used for a background service that only stands to suck up ram for me.

When I go out and pick up a hard copy of Shogun 2, I dont want to be forced to install ANYTHING besides Shogun 2, regardless of what service it is.

Now dont get me wrong, I respect Steam much more than Origin, and I completely agree the ladder is a shit service, but it seems hypocritical to me that the arguement has been made on this forum many times that Origin is overstepping its bounds by forcing itself to be used with EA games. This seems to me to be one of the few cases where it's either all wrong, or none of it is.

Well, for me, it's because Valve has a track record of improving their service, and generally being (relatively) consumer friendly.

EA has a track record of completely abandoning their products and services after a few months, and generally treating their customers with contempt, at best.

Could also be a case of gamers going "yeah, we're not falling for this shit again". I mean, we already need one service running to play games. Or two, if you're unfortunate enough to buy a game with GFWL. At this point there's just too many damn "services" out and another one, from EA of all people, isn't exactly a welcome sight. EA definitely has the potential to make it great, but they're track record suggests that isn't likely.

 

[Thoric485]

It's a perverse joke on EA's part to use the Origin name to distribute swill like DA2 and SW:TOR, on top of all the other disguisting crap they're pulling.

 

[Kroxile]

No, all of EA's problems are caused by used games and piracy...

duh

 

[Frostbite3789]

they offered all of their previous valve games in 3 simple packages to get your Steam library going. Its too long for me to remember the exact specifics, but valve offered something like the Gold, Silver and Bronze packages. for something like $60 it included, HL, HL2 and episode1 , Richochet, Team Fortress1, Day of Defeat and DOD Source, Counter-Strike and CS Source, that single player CS (blue something). if i miss something i forgot. So yes they are doing the same thing as EA, except they seem to be giving the customers more options to start with and use steam. Where as EA just seems to want to strong arm ppl into using Origin.

Also the ORANGE BOX. HL2, HL2 ep2, TF2, and Portal for $60... yeah where is EA's multigame bundle for $60?

is EA going to give BF3 away for free so ppl would want to use Origin? You know like how Valve gave TF2 away for free after about a year of its release.

Lets do this point by point shall we?

They offered none of those packages upon Steam's startup. Especially considering half the games you named weren't out when Steam originally came out (HL2 and episode 1, episode 1 didn't come out until 3 years after Steam's launch, HL2 a year later. Day of Defeat a year later. DoD Source just came out last year...)

The Orange Box was released in 2007. Four years after Steam's launch.

TF2 went F2P in 2011 if I recall. Late 2010 maybe. So either three or four years after TF2 came out and 7 or 8 after Steam launched.

But you're expecting EA to give away one of it's biggest releases of the year a few months after launch? I don't think you'd make it in the business world, guy. I really don't think you can compare TF2 and BF3 in terms of budget and all that. Not everyone can have Valve's lax release deadlines.

Anyways, back to the original point, Steam did none of this when it came out. When it came out and even now, it's just DRM. And this coming from someone who greatly enjoys Steam sales and Valve games. They're great, but people who want to damn Origin for the same crap Steam does are ridiculous to me.

"Derp I have to use Origin it to play EA games!" So? I have to use Steam for games that aren't even made by Valve these days.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Which is different than what Steam does with Valve games how? Please, try to explain.

Steam has more tricks. Come for their exclusive games, stay for the other stuff. From what I can tell, Origin has no "other stuff" that Steam doesn't do better.

I could look at it just like people are looking at Origin. Be forced into it because I want to play PC games. Dawn of War 2's xpacks. Dead Island. Saints Row the Third. Skyrim. Space Marine. And there are others.

Those aren't even Valve games but I'm forced to register them on Steam. Or else I don't get to play them.

 

[Frostbite3789]

This article is so smart. You can't come into a Steam world forcing people to use something that is way worse and expect them to grab onto it. Then again, maybe EA is just testing stuff out for now and will get it together later, like Nintendo with the 3DS price.

You can't come in and get users exactly how Steam did it when it launched! That's not fair!

Boy, I really enjoyed HL2's release day when I couldn't play my single player only game because Steam's servers went down. Just, so good. But gamers don't remember as far as back as '04 I guess.

Should consoles stop having exclusives too? Sony is only letting the Uncharted series be in the PS3? THEY'RE NEVER SEEING ANOTHER DOLLAR FROM ME!

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

I got Human Revolution on steam for 13 bucks. AAA title, amazing game, in my mind. If I wanted something like this on any other digital download, or even in store, I'd have to wait another year, maybe 2.
I got Garry's mod for 7.50 bucks. I've choaked 170 hours out of it, and I'm still not board of it. As far as I'm concerned, Origin doesn't even have games as intelligently simple as garry's mod. Why would I even bother to download it when steam has EVERYTHING I need?