Mass Effect 3 PC will require Orgin

[mad825]

This is what my last thought was on the Origin being "spyware":

Spoiler: Valves private policy

"Aggregate information" is information that describes the habits, usage patterns, and demographics of users as a group but does not describe or reveal the identity of any particular user.

"Individual information" is information about a user that is presented in a form distinguishable from information relating to other users but not in a form that personally identifies any user or enables the recipient to communicate directly with any user unless agreed to by the user in advance of such communication. This information may be used to improve Valve's products and online sites, for internal marketing studies, or simply to collect demographic information about Valve's users.

Valve may use customer contact information provided by users to send information about Valve, including news about product updates, contests, events, and other promotional materials, but only if the users agree to receive such communications. Except in the cases described below, Valve will not share personally identifiable information with any third party unless the user agrees to such disclosure in advance. "Personally identifiable information" consists of a user's name, email address, physical address, or other data about the user that enables the recipient to personally identify the user. While Valve collects personally identifiable information on a voluntary basis, for certain products and online sites, Valve's collection of personally identifiable information may be a requirement for access to the product or site. Personally identifiable information will be processed and stored by Valve in databases situated in the United States. Valve may allow third parties performing services under contract with Valve to access stored information but such access shall only be to the extent necessary to provide those services. In those instances, the third party will be bound by the terms of this privacy policy. In some situations, personally identifiable information you input in connection with Steam may be made available to other users of Steam. For example, during registration of Steam, Valve collects a user's email address and nickname, and at the user's option, first and last name. Some of this information is searchable and available to other users within Steam. Valve has no obligation to keep the privacy of personally identifiable information that a user makes available to other users via Steam or other Valve software, such as in multiplayer or other public functions.

Personally identifiable information protected under this privacy policy and collected from users may be done in conjunction with associates under agreement with Valve. If an associate of Valve is collecting such personally identifiable information within one of our products or online sites, Valve will make users aware of this at the time the information is gathered. For example, product registration data for Half-Life is collected by Sierra Entertainment. If a user does not want to provide this information, the user may choose to opt out of providing this information. Additionally, if providing the information is a requirement of usage, the user may decline to use that particular service or product. When possible, Valve will make a reasonable effort to direct users to the privacy polices of these associates. Valve's privacy policy does not extend to associates of Valve.

Furthermore, external websites and companies with links to and from Valve's online sites and products may collect personal information about users. Valve's privacy policy does not extend to these external websites and companies. Please refer directly to these companies and websites regarding their privacy policies.

Like any policy, it's fairly obscure and never really says what kind of information and when it's collected is never mentioned in a specified manner.

Really, if you are so much as scared as information being gathered from you which may or may not be indefinable and in a unsecured or secure manner then the internet (World Wide Web) is not for you. Many if not all companies do this including the likes of Microsoft or Apple collecting data off people using their OS. Get this, they can break the rules without you knowing.

What makes any kind of data mining/gathering software malicious is entirely subjective and what's it's programmed to do. Some people don't mind having their lives being recorded (Take Facebook and Google/Youtube for instance).

For starters, I have yet to hear people's Origin accounts from being banned because they've pirated/cracked it. Same goes with Steam and GFWL.

Hey you, Escapist. Stop collecting information off me...And my posts. Just because I accepted the Terms & agreements and it's your database doesn't mean you can gather data off me.

Not much has changed but I'm not going to remain like Richard Nixon.

 

[PlowmanMk]

I think the word boycot is wrong to as it may not make any difference. I am just taking a personal stand that EA will get none of my hardware and software data without asking for it. The only way I can do that is by not having Origin. Which means no BF3 or ME3...

I do think the sypware claim while hyperbolic, is still fair. Spyware takes without your permission. All the other software you listed takes with you permission. That make Origin closer to spyware than anything else you mentioned.

That is perfectly fair. I'm just pointing out that the information is non-identifiable information about your pc. Actual identifiable information can be (and is) taken from anywhere. That kind of information is usually given to companies anyway, whether it be your ISP, your phone company, or any other place of business where personal information is required. Im starting to think its a lesser evil in fact. Although if an individual takes a stance against a specific act, that's perfectly reasonable.

I still dont believe it is spyware, as it does have your permission as you would have accepted the EULA.

 

[Joccaren]

Am I surprised? No
Do I care? No
Should I care? As far as I'm concerned, no. I'm not concerned about Steam being on my PC, I'm not concerned with being a part of Facebook, I'm not concerned that one more program among the rest is going to try and figure out what kind of consumer I am, so that they can try some useless marketing ploy against me. Really, its not a big deal.

 

[Worgen]

Well my saves are stuck on the the 360 so this doesn't really affect me but it does mean I wont be getting the new dragon age since it will probably require the same thing, and fuck ea and origin.

 

[AT God]

I bought battlefield 3, I dislike Origin and keep it cordoned off unless I want to play Battlefield. I love the ME series but I can wait on ME3, I don't want to spend full price anyway. I'll wait until it goes on sale, ON STEAM SALE.

 

[shado_temple]

Sweet, a competitor to steam's monopoly appears.

EA is shooting itself in the foot by not releasing it via Steamworks. -snip- If they had any faith in their Origin, they wouldn't make it mandatory to play their games, and they wouldn't exclude Steam. Fuckin' imbeciles. Instead of not releasing their games on Steam they should draw people towards Origin by offering exclusive bonuses for Origin version.

Oh, you mean just like Valve offers alternative non-steam releases for their Source games?
Yeah, that's so awesome, I love being able to choos... Oh wait.

I think it's funny how many people hate Origin, and then turn around and praise steam for being exactly the same.
I guess people forgot how buggy and hideous steam was in the beginning.

Yeah, I find it extremely odd how no one seems to remember how Steam was back when it began. And, if I remember correctly, many people were having similar knee-jerk reactions to it, declaring it spyware (which many people still do), dirty DRM, etc. (By the way, have any of you actually tried to see what Origin "takes" from your computer? These guys did. [http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/7804065.page?ClickID=annw0wzlw5znaz5wv0ot5pa59s0550yvksrn&ClickID=dz0zrcwxthnkhbtx2corbbxstrmssrc0tyxk])

Whether or not people like it, EA has seen the writing on the wall. They know that physical retail won't be around for much longer, and decided that they want to be the first of the big publishers to get into the digital market, with the PC side being their test area. Over the course of the next couple of years (or perhaps even by the end of this one), they'll move their digital distribution to different platforms, with the eventual goal of drastically reducing or even eliminating physical sales of their games.

They also are aware that these first few years are not going to be pretty. Gamers, as they have shown in the past, are crazy averse to any changes in their hobby; a fact, of which, EA has been made aware of more times than you can count. They're betting that, like Steam, it will slowly ease into a space within the digital market that makes the service profitable, once the doomsday naysayers stop believing that EA is out to get them.

EA is only the first. Within the decade, I envision at least 2-3 other big-name publishers releasing their own digital distribution systems, as well as removing any and all support from Steam. It was fun while it lasted, but Valve won't always have the monopoly on the digital market. There will be legitimate competitors who will attempt to take a slice of that delicious digital pie that Gabe has enjoyed all on his own.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Meh, I'm getting it for the 360, so the whole Origin business doesn't matter to me.

Every time peoples rights to piracy is degraded it is always by a small amount, so it is death by a thousand cuts.

I think you mean privacy. People have rights to that, but nobody has the right to piracy, and they never should.

 

[isometry]

I've been expecting this since Battlefield 3 went Origin exclusive. I made the decision to give up on the Mass Effect series and Bioware in general.

Mass Effect 2 has some good voice acting and good graphics, but the gameplay got boring and repetitive, and the story didn't hook me into feeling like I need to see the conclusion to the series, so it's just as well to let ME 3 go.

My prediction is that the PC version will flop (ME 1 and 2 sold less than 500,000 each on PC already) and piracy will be blamed for pulling future games in the ME franchise away from PC -- even though Skyrim sold +1.8 million copies on PC, EA will blame the pirates instead of looking within.

 

[xPixelatedx]

God guys, just bite the bullet and get it for your Xbox/PS3. You should have one of those in this day and age unless you are somehow trying to avoid 90% of games made in this century. And this is Mass Effect, not BF3. You aren't going to see a night and day difference in graphics by using a console.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Well, that bumped ME3 off my 2012 games list. Now I have $60 to spend on books or something. Thanks, EA!

 

[Tayh]

OT: Welp, there goes my purchase. I read the leaks anyway. Without spoiling too much for you guys... If you pass on ME3, you wont be missing much.

Truly, you'll only pass on the Grand Finale and Showdown of a, so far, epic game series.

 

[Trillovinum]

It just seems I can't go without being forced to install these programs.
I really love mass effect and have already preordered the collectors edition :c

This will probably make me feel like I did when I was forced to install steam after buying a retail copy of Modern warfare 2

 

[Bradeck]

No. A monopoly is never good for the consumer. Unless their is a fair market standard, then it is horribly unfair. For instance, EA does not have to lessen the price of it's games, because the only place you can get it is through EA. They don't have "weekend sales" or "Holiday deals" like steam does. They don't have to release their product to anyone, or bend in any way for the consumer. This type of totalitarian practice hurts the consumer, destroys the market, and makes tons of money for the producers. Thats why they are doing it.

Imo a company can decide where to sell their products and where not. They are not obliged to have any sales if they don't feel like it. It is a luxury product after all and if you don't like what they have to offer you can purchase many similar products (games) on the market. Ultimately it is the consumer who holds the power and votes with their wallet. You must remember they have to compete with piracy as well. If they make a sucky platform for games that will hurt their sales in the long run.

I appreciate your opinion on this issue, but I cannot allow you to say the "consumer" has the power here. In my day, if I wanted to play battletoads, I would head to the nearest store, buy a copy of battletoads, and I could play that game as long as I wanted, whenever I wanted, so long as I had the actual physical paid for copy of the game.

Now, consumers pay for the product, which they don't technically own, they rent the ability to use, according to EA, and do not maintain any ownership of said title whatsoever. ALSO, we do not have any say in how we choose to play said game (Patches, balances, updates), when we can play (DRM, always online, etc) or if we can play (EA reserves the right to ban you from using it's games at it's discretion at any time, or to just remove the ability to play the game whatsoever.)

Also, I have a hard time believing we could even get 15% of the people on this site to hold off buying this game, to protest EA, for 1 year. Whatever "power" you seem to think the consumer has, is often rapidly upset by our need for space boobs and Big Brother EA telling us where to sign.

 

[Xan Krieger]

1. Buy physical copy of Mass Effect 3.
2. Throw it in the bin.
3. Download cracked version.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT!

AFAIK, in most countries it's legal to download a backup copy of any game you own, so it's not even piracy.

My solution as well, I want ME3 but I try to keep spyware out of my system.

 

[Tayh]

Sweet, a competitor to steam's monopoly appears.

What about GamersGate,Greenmangaming,Direct2Drive and so on? I think it would be much better if they made a service like that instead of doing what steam does.

Buy Fallout:New Vegas/Civilization 5/Saints Row 3/any other steam-exlusive game through GamersGate etc... Hello! Still requires steam to run.

The funniest part in this topic, is, that you could take all the complaints people have against Origin, replace Origin with steam, and they would still be valid - or just equally wrong.
Fanatism, and the inability to judge things objectively, is an ugly thing.

 

[Arina Love]

Don't have any problem with origin so if i were to play it on PC (and one day far far away, i might play it, when i get gaming PC) i would gladly install origin. But as of now will buy ME3 on PS3.

 

[ph0b0s123]

Meh, I'm getting it for the 360, so the whole Origin business doesn't matter to me.

Every time peoples rights to piracy is degraded it is always by a small amount, so it is death by a thousand cuts.

I think you mean privacy. People have rights to that, but nobody has the right to piracy, and they never should.

Oops, Freudian slip. Thinking about another thread I am commenting in....

 

[Erttheking]

I am so glad that I'm getting it for the 360.

 

[Kahunaburger]

The funniest part in this topic, is, that you could take all the complaints people have against Origin, replace Origin with steam, and they would still be valid - or just equally wrong.

You generally don't see Valve having to constantly backpedal because of government scrutiny. [http://www.vg247.com/2011/11/01/german-claim-origin-eua-allows-ea-to-spy-on-battlefield-3-players/]

Also, as someone who already owns steam and impulse, I don't see much of a reason to get a third version of the same thing that may or may not also be spyware.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

1. Buy physical copy of Mass Effect 3.
2. Throw it in the bin.
3. Download cracked version.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT!

AFAIK, in most countries it's legal to download a backup copy of any game you own, so it's not even piracy.

My solution as well, I want ME3 but I try to keep spyware out of my system.

Or you can simply install the game and use a crack. No need to download it entirely. Hopefully. As I'm not interested in multiplayer at all, this may be my solution as well.