Modding single player Mass Effect 3 bans you from Origin

[Raesvelg]

/shrug, given that the guy clarified his answer to state that they would not ban you for modding the single player game, so long as the mods had no effect on the multiplayer, I don't see what people have their panties in a bunch over.

Excepting the fact that I doubt one person in twenty even bothered to click the link in the OP, or those that did theoretically before the rep clarified his position, probably not one in a hundred bothered to check back.

 

[tangoprime]

With thinking like that I don't see why people find it so surprising that game companies are trying increasingly worse forms of DRM.

Yeah, I'm sure it has nothing to do with people like you bending over and taking it. Are you hoping that if you're a good little consumer and apologist all year EA will give you a reach around for Christmas?

I, for one, just don't buy products with retarded DRM and insane EULAs. If I find later (that is, after purchase) that this is the case, I get my money back.

We shouldn't be supporting publishers who are furthering this bullshit of taking more and more rights and privileges away from their customers.

 

[thahat]

im i the only one thinking 'why hasent ea/bioware shot their decision maker in the head yet?'
seriusly they only make bad calls. ever.
ea/bioware: oh noes! dont pirate our games!
pirates: give us a reason not to?
ea: lets see, lets ruin all the official guys funsies!
pirates: sure ea, but we'l release a version without bullcrap, with fixes, hell if its fun enough with working multiplayer with some ad hoc local or if they are ballsey enough they host their own damn server.

comon EA/bioware, step up your game, you USED to be goodish at least. and i dont want you messing up the future command and conquer generals 2 >.<

 

[Athinira]

You say that like modders are criminals.

I cant say it like anything because text does not have tone nor my typing something = me "saying" anything because text =/= spoken words.

Secondly I never once stated or implied that they are criminals because they are not, at least so long as the developers has said it is ok for them to mod.

Actually, the law of some countries specifically preserve the right for the user to mod software, regardless of what the EULA says, or what the developers think.

 

[Dryk]

If the problem is that the modded ini files are causing problems in the multiplayer why don't they just force a redownload of the files before entering multiplayer instead of banning people?

TBH the era of games being made by gamers for gamers is gone (apart from the indie scene) and we are seen as walking wallets who should just be silent and buy the Corporate stamped out games and be happy to pay $10 for the hair style DLC that some modder would have done for free and often better.

I miss the days before gaming was mainstream more and more every day :\

 

[lapan]

EA is making it harder and harder for me to even reconsider buying games from them anymore.

 

[Lord Kloo]

If you're modding multiplayer to the extent that players have unfair advantages, I could maybe forgive EA..

But modding the fucking single player.. this smacks to me of EA not wanting free, user made content when they intend to sell you $50 worth of DLCs by the end of the year.. especially as said user based content will actually address issues and be better and popular

 

[franconbean]

If they ban modding and enforce it, PC gaming will come full circle.
If this becomes a trend, people will turn to the indie developers, who will become financially powerful and just like the old corporations... and that cycle will repeat itself.

Ok, that's unlikely to be true, but I think it's a cool theory.

Edit: Oh, and i guess the people who argue against modding haven't played "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines". The game was unplayable without fan-made patches. Sometimes games need player base support. Big companies will never recognise this: They will just sweep it under the rug every time.

 

[xDarc]

Someone with time and money needs to start taking these types of issues to court to legally bar publishers from doing this type of stuff on the basis of consumer rights.

 

[Raesvelg]

If you're modding multiplayer to the extent that players have unfair advantages, I could maybe forgive EA..

But modding the fucking single player.. this smacks to me of EA not wanting free, user made content when they intend to sell you $50 worth of DLCs by the end of the year.. especially as said user based content will actually address issues and be better and popular

And I quote, from the guy whose off-hand response started this shitstorm and who corrected it long before you posted in this thread, and thus should know better if you'd bothered to actually click on the link in the OP...

"As mentioned by Scylla, you will not be banned
for modifying your files *unless (and this is where my intention was)
they give you an unfair advantage in any multiplayer aspect of the
game."

 

[Nargleblarg]

If you're modding multiplayer to the extent that players have unfair advantages, I could maybe forgive EA..

But modding the fucking single player.. this smacks to me of EA not wanting free, user made content when they intend to sell you $50 worth of DLCs by the end of the year.. especially as said user based content will actually address issues and be better and popular

And I quote, from the guy whose off-hand response started this shitstorm and who corrected it long before you posted in this thread, and thus should know better if you'd bothered to actually click on the link in the OP...

"As mentioned by Scylla, you will not be banned
for modifying your files *unless (and this is where my intention was)
they give you an unfair advantage in any multiplayer aspect of the
game."

Nice to see I wasn't the only one who actually followed the link and read the forum. I was confused why we had 14 pages saying the opposite of what the OP link said.

 

[winginson]

Regardless of law, a developer not letting you mod a game for single-player purposes are massive idiots.

The arguement that "you wouldn't modify something you borrowed of someone" doesn't hold up here, because 1)The original doesn't change (as it would if I pimped a lent lawnmower) and 2) Even if they retract my license of the game, they do not take away my copy of the game in its changed state to use themselves (unlike the lawnmower).

Modding is more like taking a photocopy of a document and highlighting it to make it easy to read.

 

[Merrick_HLC]

If they ban modding and enforce it, PC gaming will come full circle.
If this becomes a trend, people will turn to the indie developers, who will become financially powerful and just like the old corporations... and that cycle will repeat itself.

Ok, that's unlikely to be true, but I think it's a cool theory.

Edit: Oh, and i guess the people who argue against modding haven't played "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines". The game was unplayable without fan-made patches. Sometimes games need player base support. Big companies will never recognise this: They will just sweep it under the rug every time.

I played VTM:B Unmodded actually.
But overall I agree.

This whole "You don't own it, you license it" BS is insane.
You want to cheat ONLINE? Then hell yes ban the a-hole.
You want to mod/cheat/whatever in the SOLO (affecting no-one-but-you) content of something you paid money for? Fine.
The thing that pops into my mind (since I just saw some while websurfing) is custom action figures.
Imagine you bought an action figure you wanted to sculpt/build into something you think is cooler, and then Mattel or whoever found out & took that toy away.

I think we'd all go "They have lost their damn minds".

 

[Guardian of Nekops]

This seems to be a case of Bioware punishing online cheating, being blown out of proportion to the point where people worry about them scouring their computer to detect any miniscule change.

Nothing to see here. Nobody's saying you can't scratch out portions of the book you bought and replace it with your own prose so it sounds better to you... it's all just paper/bits of data, and trying to regulate something like that would be insane and pointless. Unless you use programming skill to cheat in multiplayer, distribute the game for free, or modify their game into something slightly different that you intend to sell without giving them a cut, nobody's going to care.

And as long as nobody cares, it doesn't matter what the law or the EULA states, because nobody's going to bother enforcing it. Reminds me of the folks who worry about aliens or the government watching their every move, reading their thoughts or whatever... relax. That would be a LOT of work, even were it possible, and I guarantee that you the worrier are not that important to anybody with the ability.

 

[Robert Ewing]

CEO of EA.

"Hey, I know! Let's deliberately shorten the life of one of our flagship titles by making modding a bannable offence! And alienate a completely die-hard mass effect community that has done nothing but praise our efforts and is eager to expose the true untapped potential and replay value of the game! That'll get em' to buy more console units! God damn PC gamers, I hate them."

Seriously EA, just all of you jump off a building. Like, now. If you're reading this, end your life. Do it. Splatter you're warped and twisted remains on the pavement. Make sure your soul is blasted into the forming of the 8th circle of hell. The one especially for bullshit like Origin.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Bethesda: "Want to mod our games? Here's a toolset for you!"

Valve: "Want to mod our games? Here's a job for you!"

EA: "Want to mod our games? Here's a ban for you!"

 

[Raesvelg]

snip

snip

At this point I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the only way to correct people's misplaced vitriol over this issue to is reply to each of them individually to tell them that if they'd bothered to actually click the link in the OP, they'd see that the ban only applies if you mod the game in order to cheat at multiplayer.

That's it.

The same thing that just about every multiplayer game in the world does.

 

[Guardian of Nekops]

snip

snip

At this point I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the only way to correct people's misplaced vitriol over this issue to is reply to each of them individually to tell them that if they'd bothered to actually click the link in the OP, they'd see that the ban only applies if you mod the game in order to cheat at multiplayer.

That's it.

The same thing that just about every multiplayer game in the world does.

Though, to be fair, the title of the original post is misleading, as is the text. It's rather odd to have a hyperlink in your post that seems in no way to support the rest of what you write.

 

[Raesvelg]

Though, to be fair, the title of the original post is misleading, as is the text. It's rather odd to have a hyperlink in your post that seems in no way to support the rest of what you write.

Oh, I understand the confusion, I just expect (mistakenly apparently) people to perform at least a token amount of investigation before they start foaming at the mouth.

When the OP was written, the point was, at least on the surface, valid. It took several days for the guy who made the off-the-cuff remark to clarify his statement, and by then I'm sure the internet hate machine was in full swing.

But it's just... silly, most of the time, when people work themselves into a lather over something that seems too ridiculous to be true, and it of course turns out not to be.

 

[Kathinka]

Guys what about this?

Spoiler: The irony:

I found this on moddb after reading this thread.

this is the best thing i have seen today. thank you. thank you so much.