What makes Origin so terrible?

[Trololo Punk]

As a sorta related note, this is one of the funniest things I have read in a while.

Team Fortress 2, EA Style - A Horror Story http://imgur.com/a/qjFlr

OT: For me it would just be a nuisance to have to have another completely separate program just to play one or two games. Plus the Origin library really is nothing when compared to steam.

 

[Windcaler]

As for EA scanning your computer, they were probably scanning it to sell you games. Why the hell else would they want to do that? They're a game publisher, out to make money, the idea that they're going to compromise some personal information is silly and unjustified.

Its not that they want to scan it, its that they want to scan it and sell information they gather on the mass market which is what they originally were going to do before their EULA change. Its also the fact that you cant opt out. Then its the fact that I dont trust them. The whole thing is spyware, and I wont have spyware on my machine

 

[azukar]

It's a false religion which empowers the evil Ori in their quest to...

...

Oh wait.

 

[Joost Klessens]

Besides it being a cheap knock-off of Steam, which is no reason to hate it, but is a reason not to want to use it, the reason I actually hate it is the brand segregation. I would have welcomed an honest competitor of steam, but in my eyes, if you want to compete with Steam, offer more/different features, or cheaper prices. Don't force me to use your cheap knock-off if I want to play a certain game. And although I do understand their reasons for only distributing EA games through Origin, it is ridiculous that I have ME1 and ME2 on Steam, but have to have Origin installed to play ME3!

In my opinion Origin should prove that it is a worthy competitor to steam, and worthy of space on my pc, by being better, cheaper, or by offering features Steam doesn't. Not by artificially creating a necessity of having it on your pc just to play one or two games. It wouldn't even bother me as much if all EA games were cheaper on Origin than on Steam, that's ok by me, but just give me the choice.

 

[Yopaz]

As others have stated already, a part of it is because it's not Steam, some of it is because it's from EA. Everything that's not Steam is shit, everything that is EA is evil. We hate EA.

However I don't feel anything in regards to EA and I still don't like Origin. I wont say I hate it, but I rather not use it if the option is there. For one I don't like the design of the main windows or the library menu. I don't like the update system they use, I have already installed it, do I really need to repeat the process? It requires more memory to run than Steam despite the fact that it doesn't offer anything more.

As for sales I quite like Origin. There's not as many as them as there is for Steam. Steam kinda makes me think of an abusive relationship, it keeps pounding you day after day with some escalations in the weekends and a massive one during the holiday season. Also EA offered me a 50% discount on Need For Speed Most Wanted before that was released, I'd say that's quite good.

 

[Rednog]

Chalk up another "because it's not steam".
Honestly it's one thing to be "I don't like EA and it's practices", but it's another thing to be "OMFG THIS GAME ISN'T ON STEAM BURN IN HELL!" Sadly I think more people fall into the latter, there are just countless examples of this all over the place. Take for example when Dark Souls was announced for the PC and it was going to use GFWL, the cry wasn't ewww GFWL please make it not use GFWL maybe go the Witcher 2 style and have no DRM; instead the cry was "STEAM OR FUCK YOU!" I mean how sad is that, gamers should be calling for no DRM.
And then there's the whole sale thing, this still baffles me. It seems to be Valve's carte blanche, any criticism you bring against steam people are like "but what about the sales?!" And it just makes me scratch my head because places like Amazon, GreenMan, GOG, etc have sales that rival or even beat steam yet no one is worshiping them and even in some cases people will pay more to buy from valve.
Honestly I just wonder if Steam is just the "evil people have come to know" and just accept it blindly.

 

[Orks da best]

Because there is a Ea logo on it and gamer are nothing but whiney crybabies.

(yea bite me but honesty gamers sorta deserve that rep in my reguard.)

 

[Cry Wolf]

TL;DR
Why is Origin so hated?

In the begining, it had some fairly draconinan clauses in it's EULA, the most significant of which was the "Hey, we're going to scan your PC without notifying you!" that everybody got up in arms about. It was removed, some other feature weren't - it wasn't that big a deal. Add the common, justified, EA hate and most people don't want to touch it.

Why I still hate it is a different matter. It's overcomplicated, unreliable and has horrible customer support. This is EA after all. I can't play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer - that I paid the full $100 Australia Tax for on release - because of some error when registering with it which I still haven't managed to get fixed. Fuck Origin.

EDIT: Modding Origin Singleplayer Games will also get you a ban. Fuck that.

 

[Something Amyss]

Because it's not Steam. People even jumped on things Origin did that were already in the Steam ToU.

 

[Levethian]

Because Origin Systems is a company that EA completely destroyed years ago. This bastardized online service with its name is a joke.

Ultima, System Shock - ah yes.

I think distaste for Origin arises because EA are reputed to be a bloated, creatively bankrupt swarm of corporate suits with the artistic integrity of Macdonalds. Valve has a business and creative ethos that commands (more) loyalty, and Steam Sales are scrummy.

 

[Naeras]

Aside from the EULA-bullshit(that they thankfully removed, but it shouldn't have been there in the first place), it's the fact that I can't be bothered to install another memory-eating game distribution platform on my computer, especially when the one I'm currently using(Steam) actually does most things better than Origin does.

It's not really much more to it than that. They had no goodwill to start with, and their competition is flat-out better. They could have launched this thing well, and thus given Steam a reasonable competitor, but they didn't. Which is kind of sad.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

What makes Origin terrible? The fact that it exists. Take Battlefield 3 for example, an Origin exclusive. I wanted an ingame server browser where I could click join and then start playing right away. What I DIDN'T want is a stupid fucking browser-based launch page (Battlelog) which can give me any one of 10 different errors when I try to join a server (that is, if it doesn't permanently hang on me) and a retardedly long launch process which involves origin booting up, signing in (auto, but still) and then launching the game. It's a stupidly long and complicated process.

I don't support Origin, I don't support Steam, I don't support any goddamn 3rd party client which claims it can "manage" my games for me because I learned to manage shit on my computer by the time I was 12 years old.

Just give me a DVD or digital download with my game in it, let me take care of the rest.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

It makes Steam look unstable and in some ways isn't functional at all. One time when I needed to re-install an Origin game I had to delete the game entries from the Registry myself.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

I personally hate Origin for the same reason I hate Steam: it stands between me and my game. Neither of them offer any service I require (I buy all my games in a retail store), forcing me to install some idiotic software to play my store-bought games is simply ridiculous.

I observed Steam for four years before I deemed it stable enough platform to invest time and money into, Origin hasn't been around long enough for me to even consider using it.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Just to be cleared, this is out of my personal experience with Origin. My bro got me the ME trilogy Boxset last Christmas. I install Origin and ME and when I try to run it, it won't start.

Several minutes of trying different ways to run it, I went to the forum and it seen it had happen to other people aswell. The thing is there was no solid solution to that problem so I felt like I end up with an unplayable game due to crappy service.

Granted it took days later for Origin to run the game (not sure how it sorted out the problem) but none the less I will be wary once I install the other two games on it.

 

[Bat Vader]

I use both Steam and Origin and while I think Steam is better than Origin, I don't hate Origin. It has always worked perfectly for me and hasn't given me any problems at all. I noticed I have a better download speed using Origin than I do Steam.

 

[laetificat]

I dislike Origin because I already have Steam, I want a solution so I'll have all my games in one place. But EA wants to be cool and create another service we already have, that and I generally just dislike EA because of their actions.

 

[Doom972]

It collects a lot of not gaming-related data from your PC for a yet unspecified reason. People have a hard time trusting EA already, and this doesn't help.

If you can ignore that, the service is fine. It has only the most basic features of Steam. I played Mass Effect 3 on Origin and had no problems with it, other than the fact that I had to start a new gaming library on a new service. It's also worth mentioning that some of the games that are region locked in Steam (For example, I can't get Dark Souls or Batman Arkham City) are available for all regions on Origin.

Bottom line: If you haven't had any problems with it up until now, you'll probably be fine with it.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Take for example when Dark Souls was announced for the PC and it was going to use GFWL, the cry wasn't ewww GFWL please make it not use GFWL maybe go the Witcher 2 style and have no DRM; instead the cry was "STEAM OR FUCK YOU!" I mean how sad is that, gamers should be calling for no DRM.

That was the day I decided that Gamers had become their own worst enemies.

They should have put it on GOG.com... although considering the shitfuckery Bandai Namco pulled on CD Projekt, that would've been highly unlikely.


OT: I don't like Origin for the same reason I don't like Steam (or UPlay or anything else like it), it's another layer of bullshit between me and my games and none of the services they offer make up for that because none of them interest me.

 

[Aeshi]

Seems to be more generic "EA is EVUL!1!" hate than anything. I use Origin to hold onto a few of my older EA games and it's not half bad.

Yes it may not have Steam's Workshop/Guides or stuff like that, but it also doesn't have Steam's several-minute loading times or Steam's habit of insisting that you can't play a game because another game (that you quit off a minute ago) is apparently still running. That's not even mentioning some of the other fuck-ups Steam has/had

Plus, unlike Steam, you don't actually need to have Origin open to play the games you downloaded with it.