Notch Calls Origin "a Good Thing"

[Aeonknight]

... Yeah... he hasn't read the EULA which lets them monitor EVERY aspect of EVERYTHING that you HAVE done, ARE doing and WILL EVER do on ANY computer that you have has he?

Have you read Steam's that lets them do the same?

And don't forget google! And just about every other place that wants to use people as market research.

Yeah, but if they actually did that then their position would be invalid, and they couldn't shout anymore. And boy, do they love shouting!

You sir I like. Don't know if that's a good thing for me or you.

 

[5t3v0]

Well the only thing I love about origin over Steam is that Downloading from the EA servers in Australia doesn't take for-Fucking-ever. Other than that, its just another Digital Distro. I use steam more because most of my games are on it and so are quite a few of my friends, but its not like just because I use steam I only have to use Steam and if I try to run them at the same time my PC will explode (in fact, my clan uses steam chat while playing BF3 to VOIP chat).

Basically, Origin is still not the end of the world. Apart from occasionally popping up when Starting BF3 its not real issue. I use it when I need it, and use steam when I need it. No issue.

And to the guy who said tons of people hate the Battlelog system, That hatred has actually died down. Battlelog actually gets you into games far faster than any of Dice's other messes of Server browsers (Battlefield 2 often would not load half of the available servers, you had to keep refreshing to get the one you wanted, BC2 Made downloading in Australia look like a breeze to simply log in to the game...). I still can't believe people interpreted the lack of ingame browser as having no browser at all...

 

[lacktheknack]

Calling Origin "competition" is a bit of a laugh. It does NOTHING that Steam doesn't do as well or better, and if you don't want the Origin exclusives, there's no reason to use it.

A better "competition" would be from gog.com, which has some drawbacks and some advantages over Steam (ie. no DRM). Thus, it's a product someone might actually want to use.

 

[Scabadus]

Notch Calls Origin "a Good Thing"

No he didn't. I'll be blunt: that right there is not only a miseading title but aslo putting words in Notch's mouth.

Notch calls Origin's (and other digital distribution platforms) existance a good thing, he does not say the Origin, specifically, is good. It's a big difference: one is saying that monopoly as a buisness concept and practice is bad, the other is a small developer and very popular person weighing in with support of a specific and extremely unpopular product.

I know that this could be a simple mistake, it does happen, but this looks like using a very out of context quote by Notch to provide a sensationalist title in order to get more views. Not something I expect from the escapist.

 

[Marik Bentusi]

I still don't see how Origin is hailed as the big Steam competitor when their biggest support is exclusive titles.

You can't compete with someone if only they are allowed to ship a certain product, thus no healthy competition.

 

[MPerce]

By principle, yes. Competition forces services to get better.
The problem is that Origin is an astonishingly bad service. It's not a train wreck, but given the amount of time they've had to study what Steam is doing, things should be a lot better.

 

[shintakie10]

Notch Calls Origin "a Good Thing"

No he didn't. I'll be blunt: that right there is not only a miseading title but aslo putting words in Notch's mouth.

Notch calls Origin's (and other digital distribution platforms) existance a good thing, he does not say the Origin, specifically, is good. It's a big difference: one is saying that monopoly as a buisness concept and practice is bad, the other is a small developer and very popular person weighing in with support of a specific and extremely unpopular product.

I know that this could be a simple mistake, it does happen, but this looks like using a very out of context quote by Notch to provide a sensationalist title in order to get more views. Not something I expect from the escapist.

This happens every once in a while with Escapist articles. They'll take somethin out of context or even completely make up somethin to give the title more pop. Its unfortunate, but they've been doin it as long as I can remember and don't seem to care what people think of it.

The fact that tons of people come into these threads and respond only to the thread title ensures they'll keep doin it too.

 

[minimacker]

"Origin does a couple things badly compared to Steam," Notch admitted, "which is impressive since they had eight years to study Steam."

Good enough.

 

[kouriichi]

I love how Notch thinks.
"Origin is a good thing! But its amazing how hard EA failed when they had all that time to plan it! But its a good thing they at least tried and failed!"

I dont know why, but i dont think theres anything Notch could say that wouldnt make me chuckle.

Oh, and F*CK YOU pizza hut! Its 6am! D:< why are you teasing me with your amazing pizza and bread sticks at an affordable price when i cant go out and buy it! Now im gunna be in the mood for it for another 4-6 hours.

 

[skellboy]

I can't help but remember back to the Games For Windows Live ridiculousness back in 2009-2010. The market did benefit from the competition, and steam prices for the likes of Warhammer 40k games and most titles carrying the service were lowered accordingly.

It started off nice, it was the first time that a big name had taken on steam with any proper chance of success, injecting the service straight into the games Microsoft made or produced, or just when the developers were looking for an alternative to DRM and Matchmaking.

But the complete and utter lack of updates and customer service were what broke that service, and I really hate to see the next big contender against Valve do the same thing. Broken implementation upon release. Updates loading incorrectly. Profile limitations. Often counter-productive customer service.

Now I'm not saying that Valve and Steam is in anyway flawless, and they suffered the exact same problems I listed above and more. The difference is that Steam has now got those problems (mostly) resolved, and apart from localisation and pricing issues, Steam has for the most part knocked all the competition out of the water.

Origin and EA has a chance to beat Valve at their own game, but they need to bridge that gap between the service and the customers, integrate better community options, and literally create the one-stop shop for gaming with competitive regional pricing and support.

...and it's EA, so that probably won't happen. Which is a shame.

 

[Bigeyez]

Sorry Notch, gotta disagree with ya here. It's a piece of intrusive shit on a stick wanting to be steam without the ethic or goodwill to users. How much did they pay you? Better yet...who killed notch and replaced him with an Origin OS robot?

Notch shoving his own right foot down his throat. Again.

There is NO value in Crapigin. None. Maybe in 10 years there will be, but for the foreseeable future it'll remain an intrusive POS.

If you want to compete with Steam you have to offer something that it doesn't have and I'm not talking about titles. That's just being unfair to those who don't want to use that crap.

GOG has oldies, Desura and others have Indie games and other stuff. They each have their niche, but EA wants to flood the market with their shitty app that offer nothing of value. No service that isn't offered on Steam. So, why would I get it? To get "exclusive" titles? Nope. I don't want my games here and there tied to this or that other application. For me it's Steam or nothing.

Did EITHER of you even read the article? He seems to not really care that it's specifically Origin. He just wants some, scratch that, ANY competition against Steam to exist, because Steam being the only game in town is "theoretically" bad for consumers.

 

[ph0b0s123]

... Yeah... he hasn't read the EULA which lets them monitor EVERY aspect of EVERYTHING that you HAVE done, ARE doing and WILL EVER do on ANY computer that you have has he?

Have you read Steam's that lets them do the same?

And don't forget google! And just about every other place that wants to use people as market research.

Not the same as Steam, as it is not a mandatory component of using the service that you have to share access to your system with Valve.

So the EULA may read the same, but in practice the two systems implement their data collection from your system differently.

And Google are different as they are collecting your browsing habits rather than poking around on your system. And have institutions like the EU on their back for doing so.

-snip (already quoted above)-

Yeah, but if they actually did that then their position would be invalid, and they couldn't shout anymore. And boy, do they love shouting!

No, for the reasons above which have been explained may times, as to why the services are different....

 

[Waaghpowa]

Which is why they're currently having a huge 50% off sale, including stuff like BF3.

While that's true, they need to be more consistent. Steam has something going every week and a daily deal as well as free weekends.

 

[rvdm88]

the thing is, competition is good.

but then origin doesnt even remotely compare with steam.
so there's no competition...

conclusion:

EA stop screwing around please!

 

[masticina]

The only good about origin existence is that it might .. have some influence teaching others not to do such things.

Steam needs concurrent yes.. but lets be fair Origin probably isn't a good path to follow. Don't make your customers mad.. Origin breaks that easy rule!

 

[grigjd3]

I agree that it's good to have competition, however, I don't think Origin qualifies. It's 9.3 million users sound an awful lot like the number of people forced into it because that's the only way to play a PC game from EA these days.

 

[mad825]

Competition is a good thing, but Origin doesn't seem to be big on competition. EAs own titles are Origin exclusives and if successful could easily be used to lock-in consumers on that platform, in effect preventing competition.

Funny, I thought you was talking about Steam there for a second.

I never liked Steam from the second it was released because of this, it also prevented me from playing Steam games because I was on a 56k connection in the early-mid 2000s.

In fact, I prefer Origin right now.

And Google are different as they are collecting your browsing habits rather than poking around on your system. And have institutions like the EU on their back for doing so.

Google collects data when and where its applicable.

For example, downloading and installing Chrome would mean that they would collect data about your system and when surfing web pages, they collect data about your habits.

Is there a reason why they know the optimal temperature for HDDs?

 

[Moagim]

My problem with Origin is exclusivity. We all know their excuse for pulling all their games off of Steam of "we want to provide customer service that Steam gets in the way of" is bullshit, since we all know EA doesn't provide customer service, no other developer or publisher has ever complained about the things they criticized, and they just wanted a reason to force people to use Origin. That's my biggest problem with it, EA is using exclusivity to attempt to steal customers from Steam rather than do it by providing actual quality service. Now granted, all Valve's games are exclusive to Steam, but the difference is Valve actually made those themselves. EA doesn't make games, they buy out developers that would have probably wanted to sell their games on as many platforms as possible, and blackmail them into exclusivity contracts or refuse to fund their development. That's the other huge difference, Valve CAN'T buy out developers and force them to use Steam, EA can and does. If EA hadn't come out and lied about why they pulled all their games from Steam, and were in fact still doing business with Valve, I would probably be much more receptive of Origin, and might even purchase a few things from it. I only use it now because I have to to play ME 3.

I believe the more Origin gets used, the more EA will continue with this practice until they've effectively set themselves up a monopoly, which would empower them to continue with their price gouging and poor customer service. Even if Valve did hold a monopoly (they don't, check out Beamdog and Impulse), Valve seems to want to promoted a pleasant, accessible environment for gamers where mutual benefit and awesome sales drives customer relations, whereas EA would probably just continue to be greedy and force the $60 price tag and defile gaming culture with tone-deaf publicity stunts like they always have. Notch seems like a reasonably smart guy, but when you trumpet catch phrases about free markets and competition like they are universal, infallible truths without taking into consideration the specific players involved, you just look dumb.

I realize a lot of what I said is speculation, but I don't think any of it is much of a stretch considering how long EA has been around and in the spotlight for their reprehensible business practices.

 

[lord.jeff]

I've felt this way for a while, Steam does need competition, preferably competition that can stand toe to toe with it.

 

[ph0b0s123]

And Google are different as they are collecting your browsing habits rather than poking around on your system. And have institutions like the EU on their back for doing so.

Google collects data when and where its applicable.

For example, downloading and installing Chrome would mean that they would collect data about your system and when surfing web pages, they collect data about your habits.

Is there a reason why they know the optimal temperature for HDDs?

Do you have any evidence of chrome collecting data about the software on your computer as Origin does?

Myself, I don't use Chrome. Fortunately there are other non invasive browsers that let me get to the web pages I want. If only there was a less invasive client that would let me play the EA games I want to.....