My thoughts on Origin after extensive use

[marfin_]

Well hello and welcome to my thoughts on EA's new digital distribution program, Origin. Well first off I got an email from EA inviting me to try out there Alpha testing of Battlefield 3 (which I was thoroughly reminded was NOT a demo). After making an account it took about 10 minutes for Origin to download and now currently I am downloading the Alpha version of BF3. My first thought of Origin was that ?Oh, its going to be a lot like steam? and then after fiddling around with it, going through all of it's dark corners I started thinking ?Oh, I wish it was a little more like steam?. The biggest problem is the time it takes to navigate through Origin. I was waiting for about 30 seconds whenever I clicked on ?Find Friends? just to bring up a window asking whether to find them through xbox live, playstation network, facebook or by typing their email in a search box. It's cool that you can find your friends from the consoles, which is something steam does not have. There are other minor problems like the program's weird organizational skills. You have all of your options right in front of you... and I mean ALL OF THEM! Don't be too overwhelmed it's not that much, but still. All your tabs and options and friends and cart items and everything is displayed on the home. Origin keeps your list of purchased games under the My Games tab and then it has the Store tab. Those are the only two tabs (so far) on Orgins. Steam's tabs are organized this way, Store (all the games you want), Library (all the games you own), News (constantly updated list of product updates, press releases, blogs, ect.) and then Community (your profile, friends, upcoming events for your groups, ect.). Also With Steam it actually feels like a community and I can't really explain it but there is a good feeling staying connected and talking to people compared to the dark, emotionless, communtiy-less (if that is even a word), void that is Origin. I don't hate Origin, I'm just ?meh?. Could be better and I understand that it is still just the Beta, but this is suppose to be very close to the finished product. My final thought is that Origin will succeed only because of it's amazing games. Mass Effect, BF3, Dragon Age to name a few will be the Titans holding up the Origin and will be doomed to do so until the end of time Steam is better organized, larger and overall better games available for purchase and a great community with millions of users.

Feel free to ask me any questions concerning this post!

 

[im-white]

u got in bf3 alpha stage u lucky dog u

 

[marfin_]

u got in bf3 alpha stage u lucky dog u

Yeah no clue how I got it either. ...just the weirdest thing.

 

[Valiance]

It's just a Beta. I don't expect much. I'm sure they'll change the organization and UI a little later on. Obviously Steam will be better organized - it's been out since 2004 and they've been refining it daily.

Also, I'm not sure how long it will take EA to get contracts to distribute whatever they're distributing. It's probably tough to convince people to put their games up on a Beta of a distribution platform. Give it some time and it might have a similar selection to Steam.

And of course, the community with millions of users...To be honest, I didn't even know Origin was available, and I doubt most of the world does. And many users will just continue using Steam since it was here first and that's where their friends were. I don't see it catching oin much unless people are specifically pushed over somehow, with certain big blockbuster games. Everyone got Steam due to HL2, and maybe a bunch of people will get Origin due to BF3/ME2/DA, like you said. I agree that its only chance is with exclusives and some big updates to the UI. It might be sort of like how everyone had a myspace before a facebook, and then maybe people will be pushed to twitter or google-plus, heh.

I'm hopeful that the software will be better than the EA Download Manager which I had to deal with a while ago for BFBC2, but I expect most users to continue with Steam. Even people who hate Steam will probably hate Origin as well for the same reasons. While there are many people who are reluctant to use Steam, most of them see Steam as a necessary evil, and they'd rather go with the devil they know, so to speak, than to download another bloated piece of software to run in the background of their games.

Also, props for your avatar...And maybe you could write a little bit about the BF3 Alpha if you're allowed to? Once you've tried it a bit, of course.

 

[EdwardOrchard]

I'm...a bit disappointed. I had no intention of getting/using Origin, but I figured that if EA was really planning on taking down Steam, they'd have an insanely good product on their hands. I was expecting a well put together feature driven app, that would make a Steam fanboy like myself actually think about switching over.

I understand that it is still Beta and that more features may/will be implemented in the future...But if they had anything groundbreaking, I thought they would've had it up and running by now, for proper beta testing.

Then again...Maybe they do have something up their sleeves that they are keeping under wraps until it fully launches... Who knows.

 

[Cronq]

Steam is successful because they know how to run promotions.

EA thinks giving you 10% off a $60 game is a HUGE sale.

Origin will NEVER compete with Steam. I will now purchase all my EA games retail so EA will eternally end up giving 25% of their margin to another retailer.

 

[dyre]

Thanks for the review, though breaking it up into paragraphs would be nice xD

I'm sure they'll work it out to be at least user-friendly and good-looking within a few months, but I'm not so confident that the community will be nearly as large as Steam's, or the sales nearly as exciting.