Short memories - Steam was so broken on day one it's not even funny.
It's too bad you're having issues, as it seems many people are. For what it's worth - I haven't, so pointas for the other team. Origin has allowed me to register and play BFBC2 without issue, add my Spectat kit purchase at a later date without issue, and twice representatives have given me 20% off for issues stemming from the "can't change your Origin ID" issue (before a fix was released).
The largest bug I've run into is the third person glitch that happens from time to time ingame, and/or the fact that EA Personas from previous generations of account management cannot be used for BF3.
The fact that this service has EA stuck to it gave it a huge target from day one, I get that. But understand where Steam started (seriously, it was an absolutely atrocious mess that 100% broke my favorite game: Day of Defeat) and allow them to build off their issues before throwing stones.
1) Steam was the first of it's kind. No one had attempted anything like it before so Valve didn't necessarily know what the pitfalls would be. EA should have learned from Steam's mistakes. Instead they seem to be repeating them.
2) EA has far more resources than Valve did to get it right in the first place. They still failed to do so.
Of course, that's just the opinion of someone who has no intention of using Origin, or buying another EA game so long as they suck at life (which will likely be forever).
Unless they stole the entire development team, I fail to see how they would have nailed it out of the park on the first pitch. Has it left all of Origin users out in the cold? No. Has it left a majority of Origin users out in the cold? No. You can just as easily argue they did learn from Steam's mistakes and pitfalls. Otherwise, you're basically arguing you know how to develop the perfect shoe because I've worn them before and you know what works.
I don't disagree about point two, but as anyone who knows about rolling out new projects knows, they're always underbudget, overreaching and are under high scrutiny from both management and consumers alike.
I'm not an Origin apologist, I'm just trying to present another side of the coin. All across the greater weberspace, Steam has been held up on this pillar and can do absolutely no wrong. It's surprising to me that people are quick to pull the trigger on a few select issues that Steam has/had as well.
I've been trying to do some things on Origin. First of all, just logging in to get the update off the EA site was hard, it kept timing out. I'm sure the servers are hammered with the release of BF3. I tried to stream a free demo, it was buggy and slow, thought my connection has been just fine for everything else. I attempted to re download Bad Company 2 and had some trouble getting it to load and authenticate properly. I'm chalking it up to their servers being overwhelmed, but I just don't know. I will not be buying BF3 until this is worked out.
I had some problems this afternoon getting the game to launch and when it did launch, most times it crashed before I got into the game.
My solution: turn off computer and do something else for a while, come back to patch and/or less demand. Worked great for me. Also do the manual PunkBuster update will help with getting kicked once you do connect.
I am a little irritated at the prospect that we are on the game maker's time not our own. If I pay for a game or service, I expect said service to be working when I wish to us it, not down the road when they have found the time to allow me to play it...
I have stopped playing 3 different games of very high quality and review simply due to the multiple failures of game devs (making the game work without some game breaking bug), repeated downtimes and more...
This is one of the reasons I am so apprehensive to do anything related with EA's Origin.
There's a clarification to make here, and that is: if Origin had just said "we're having activation issues" in big bold letters inside Origin when I began, I'd understand it. It's a huge launch, sure. But to be essentially mislead for an hour and a half because EA told me it was my fault - my install was bad, my password was wrong, I didn't link the game to my account properly - is the much more frustrating part. I could have stepped away and been just fine doing something else for the night. Instead, I did every manner of client-side troubleshooting I could before Origin popped up the "we're having activation issues" screen.
I don't at all disagree that this is the same level of issue Steam had at its inception. I do think it could have been better handled. EA's been deleting threads talking about the activation issues over on their forums. Just a little more communication would have been primo.
They should have left their games available to those who prefer Steam.
It would be one thing if they had never been on Steam, and now EA was finally getting a download service, but they were on Steam, and they forced people who were used to EA games working well on Steam to use Origin instead, which is a dick move. It sacrifices customer ease and satisfaction for a couple extra cents per sale on titles which are already overpriced. Plenty of other game publishers have their own service, but also allow their games on Steam for their customers who like Steam, and they're not going out of business.
It's made doubly worse that they did this while Origin is still in its buggy infancy.
I personally don't want yet another branded game experience management system. EA could have just as easily made the game downloadable with in-game updates without this big Origin thing wrapped around it if they wanted to save the money that Valve would have got a cut of. But no, we have another also-ran service that at the end of the day doesn't make things any better for gamers.
I frigging hate that we have to have yet another service to play our games. Multiple sign-ins are annoying.
Spencer raises a great point. One of my biggest frustrations with the reliance we have on all of these services is that we cannot always control when and what we play. "Working out the bugs" is no excuse. If it's not ready by gameday, you don't deserve the money of consumers. It's crappy to everyone who dished out money for a product.
It's the exact reason why Jimmy and I were so pissed when we dicked away 45 minutes just trying to connect to a server together through Battlelog, failing the entire time.
Lynx and Snark: y'all seem to be having way more problems than most people. Besides a couple hours of no go yesterday, Origin/Battlelog/BF3 have been fairly stable for me, with a few random disconnects.
If you don't like the way (or things) you need to play games, how about this? DO NOT PLAY THEM AND SHUT UP. simple solution.
If you don't like the way (or things) you need to play games, how about this? DO NOT PLAY THEM AND SHUT UP. simple solution.
I totally don't buy the "if you don't like it sod off" argument. Examples:
I don't like US politics. MOVE TO CHINA.
I am frustrated that few new cars are sold with manual transmissions. RIDE A BIKE, GET 21 SPEEDS.
The rent is too damn high. LIVE IN A BOX UNDER A BRIDGE.
I think the point he was trying to allude to in the most irritating and vague way possible is that you should vote with your wallet. If you feel that Origin is unnecessary and a burden, then don't buy the game. As long as you buy the game anyway, EA has no real reason to listen to your gripes. This is exactly why I will not buy EA games anymore.
Right, I agree with the 'do not play them' part. That's cool, that's what I'm doing, in fact, but no need to also 'shut up'. We can all feel free to gripe when we don't like the way a company treats us.
Absolutely. I never threw the 'Shut Up' out there, nor do I agree with it. If my lack of repudiation implied that I condone that part of the argument, I do apologize.
but the point is it's not just another icon. It's another service. Another password to remember. Another company with your credit card number and other personal info just waiting to be hacked. Another risk.
Weighed against the risk of the single service, with every game you've purchased, being wiped clean and locked once one errant issue with your credit card arises.
I don't see it as a multiplied risk, I see the same level being spread about more evenly between various accounts.
I am a little irritated at the prospect that we are on the game maker's time not our own. If I pay for a game or service, I expect said service to be working when I wish to us it, not down the road when they have found the time to allow me to play it...
I have stopped playing 3 different games of very high quality and review simply due to the multiple failures of game devs (making the game work without some game breaking bug), repeated downtimes and more...
This is one of the reasons I am so apprehensive to do anything related with EA's Origin.
yes, logging in to WoW and waiting 20-30 minutes for a spot on the server was fun times
I sympathize with those who have experienced issues, but really: another password to remember? You really don't use auto-login on a game management system, on your own computer? Snark hit two nails: it has been a much bigger problem for non-US players, which totally sucks, and they could have handled it differently (our servers are getting pounded in all the wrong ways).
Origin is going to have growing pains as they figure out scaling and HA, Battlelog is weird, but the whole experience (for me) has been vastly better than say, trying to play Borderlands with friends. Their in-game system (to my knowledge) remains useless. Having to third-party with Hamachi or gamespy is idiotic, as is opening 20+ ports on your firewall just to allow playing with friends.
I sympathize with those who have experienced issues, but really: another password to remember? You really don't use auto-login on a game management system, on your own computer?
No I don't. I haven't in a long, long time. I use a different password for every platform as well.
No I don't. I haven't in a long, long time. I use a different password for every platform as well.
As should everyone. Otherwise, as soon as one careless site you are subscribed to gets hacked, someone could have your password for everything. All of a sudden you find people are buying games with your CC info, your accounts get hijacked (or locked), your personal information is stolen which means you'll likely be dealing with a stolen identity (which I can attest is not fun), etc.
As for the argument that having more than one service is "spreading the risk more evenly," that argument is laughably false. The more companies have your personal info, the greater the probability one of the companies with your info will be hacked. Yeah, sure, if you only buy games through Steam there's an extremely remote chance all your games could be locked. The odds of that happening are incredibly small (provided you're not doing something illegal). If it did, sure it would suck, but it would suck way less than having your identity stolen because you opened an account with every shady e-vendor out there so that you could buy your games from as many places as possible.
If you don't like the way (or things) you need to play games, how about this? DO NOT PLAY THEM AND SHUT UP. simple solution.
Yes, let's conveniently ignore the fact that Origin is a mandatory non-optional requirement to play almost every current EA title much like games that obnoxiously require Steam even for retail copies.
Origin's problems also can all be anticipated and there's no excuse for not having anticipated it. This is EA, a multi-billion dollar behemoth with nearly two decades of game publishing under their belts. This is not their first huge launch, nor is it their first foray into online systems. Simply put: EA halfassed it because they knew full well they could quite literally take a shit in players mouths, and they would eat it up. Why bother to get it even half right when people will forgive you anyway?
If it did, sure it would suck, but it would suck way less than having your identity stolen because you opened an account with every shady e-vendor out there so that you could buy your games from as many places as possible.
Yes, good thing Sony is worth trusting...
I wasn't talking identity theft, I was talking about the loss of a complete catalog. You're comparing two different things.
1) Steam was the first of it's kind. No one had attempted anything like it before so Valve didn't necessarily know what the pitfalls would be. EA should have learned from Steam's mistakes. Instead they seem to be repeating them.
Actually, two points. One, you never saw the very first Steam. Which was in closed beta about a year before the official release happened, with typical 6 month closed beta cycles thereafter. Then Valve realized they could just 'fix it in a patch' and stopped bothering to beta. Even during closed beta, servers got broken frequently. Not that Valve would ever admit that their product isn't flawless and perfect, much less the Steam Fanboi Brigades.
Two, EA has no reason to learn from Valve, because EA is bigger and has handled all of this before. And then some. Analysts have downgraded EA as a result of this fiasco (that would be: the people who advise on stocks for a living,) citing the downward trend in quality and poor execution. But I digress; this is not new stuff to EA. Some properties with online components in the tens of thousands (if not more) immediately at launch include: DAOC, NASCAR series, Warhammer Online, Spore, and The Sims series. Origin has been an ongoing disasterpiece since day one that they basically appear to be refusing to fix, because, "trolol, we don't have to, you can't go anywhere else now."
Comments
Have not had a single issue with origin yet.
I had many issues with steam for the first year.
It's too bad you're having issues, as it seems many people are. For what it's worth - I haven't, so pointas for the other team. Origin has allowed me to register and play BFBC2 without issue, add my Spectat kit purchase at a later date without issue, and twice representatives have given me 20% off for issues stemming from the "can't change your Origin ID" issue (before a fix was released).
The largest bug I've run into is the third person glitch that happens from time to time ingame, and/or the fact that EA Personas from previous generations of account management cannot be used for BF3.
The fact that this service has EA stuck to it gave it a huge target from day one, I get that. But understand where Steam started (seriously, it was an absolutely atrocious mess that 100% broke my favorite game: Day of Defeat) and allow them to build off their issues before throwing stones.
1) Steam was the first of it's kind. No one had attempted anything like it before so Valve didn't necessarily know what the pitfalls would be. EA should have learned from Steam's mistakes. Instead they seem to be repeating them.
2) EA has far more resources than Valve did to get it right in the first place. They still failed to do so.
Of course, that's just the opinion of someone who has no intention of using Origin, or buying another EA game so long as they suck at life (which will likely be forever).
I don't disagree about point two, but as anyone who knows about rolling out new projects knows, they're always underbudget, overreaching and are under high scrutiny from both management and consumers alike.
I'm not an Origin apologist, I'm just trying to present another side of the coin. All across the greater weberspace, Steam has been held up on this pillar and can do absolutely no wrong. It's surprising to me that people are quick to pull the trigger on a few select issues that Steam has/had as well.
My solution: turn off computer and do something else for a while, come back to patch and/or less demand. Worked great for me. Also do the manual PunkBuster update will help with getting kicked once you do connect.
I have stopped playing 3 different games of very high quality and review simply due to the multiple failures of game devs (making the game work without some game breaking bug), repeated downtimes and more...
This is one of the reasons I am so apprehensive to do anything related with EA's Origin.
There's a clarification to make here, and that is: if Origin had just said "we're having activation issues" in big bold letters inside Origin when I began, I'd understand it. It's a huge launch, sure. But to be essentially mislead for an hour and a half because EA told me it was my fault - my install was bad, my password was wrong, I didn't link the game to my account properly - is the much more frustrating part. I could have stepped away and been just fine doing something else for the night. Instead, I did every manner of client-side troubleshooting I could before Origin popped up the "we're having activation issues" screen.
I don't at all disagree that this is the same level of issue Steam had at its inception. I do think it could have been better handled. EA's been deleting threads talking about the activation issues over on their forums. Just a little more communication would have been primo.
It would be one thing if they had never been on Steam, and now EA was finally getting a download service, but they were on Steam, and they forced people who were used to EA games working well on Steam to use Origin instead, which is a dick move. It sacrifices customer ease and satisfaction for a couple extra cents per sale on titles which are already overpriced. Plenty of other game publishers have their own service, but also allow their games on Steam for their customers who like Steam, and they're not going out of business.
It's made doubly worse that they did this while Origin is still in its buggy infancy.
Spencer raises a great point. One of my biggest frustrations with the reliance we have on all of these services is that we cannot always control when and what we play. "Working out the bugs" is no excuse. If it's not ready by gameday, you don't deserve the money of consumers. It's crappy to everyone who dished out money for a product.
It's the exact reason why Jimmy and I were so pissed when we dicked away 45 minutes just trying to connect to a server together through Battlelog, failing the entire time.
If you don't like the way (or things) you need to play games, how about this? DO NOT PLAY THEM AND SHUT UP. simple solution.
I totally don't buy the "if you don't like it sod off" argument. Examples:
I don't like US politics. MOVE TO CHINA.
I am frustrated that few new cars are sold with manual transmissions. RIDE A BIKE, GET 21 SPEEDS.
The rent is too damn high. LIVE IN A BOX UNDER A BRIDGE.
...wait, what?
I don't see it as a multiplied risk, I see the same level being spread about more evenly between various accounts.
yes, logging in to WoW and waiting 20-30 minutes for a spot on the server was fun times
Origin is going to have growing pains as they figure out scaling and HA, Battlelog is weird, but the whole experience (for me) has been vastly better than say, trying to play Borderlands with friends. Their in-game system (to my knowledge) remains useless. Having to third-party with Hamachi or gamespy is idiotic, as is opening 20+ ports on your firewall just to allow playing with friends.
No I don't. I haven't in a long, long time. I use a different password for every platform as well.
As should everyone. Otherwise, as soon as one careless site you are subscribed to gets hacked, someone could have your password for everything. All of a sudden you find people are buying games with your CC info, your accounts get hijacked (or locked), your personal information is stolen which means you'll likely be dealing with a stolen identity (which I can attest is not fun), etc.
As for the argument that having more than one service is "spreading the risk more evenly," that argument is laughably false. The more companies have your personal info, the greater the probability one of the companies with your info will be hacked. Yeah, sure, if you only buy games through Steam there's an extremely remote chance all your games could be locked. The odds of that happening are incredibly small (provided you're not doing something illegal). If it did, sure it would suck, but it would suck way less than having your identity stolen because you opened an account with every shady e-vendor out there so that you could buy your games from as many places as possible.
Yes, let's conveniently ignore the fact that Origin is a mandatory non-optional requirement to play almost every current EA title much like games that obnoxiously require Steam even for retail copies.
Origin's problems also can all be anticipated and there's no excuse for not having anticipated it. This is EA, a multi-billion dollar behemoth with nearly two decades of game publishing under their belts. This is not their first huge launch, nor is it their first foray into online systems. Simply put: EA halfassed it because they knew full well they could quite literally take a shit in players mouths, and they would eat it up. Why bother to get it even half right when people will forgive you anyway?
Yes, good thing Sony is worth trusting...
I wasn't talking identity theft, I was talking about the loss of a complete catalog. You're comparing two different things.
Actually, two points. One, you never saw the very first Steam. Which was in closed beta about a year before the official release happened, with typical 6 month closed beta cycles thereafter. Then Valve realized they could just 'fix it in a patch' and stopped bothering to beta. Even during closed beta, servers got broken frequently. Not that Valve would ever admit that their product isn't flawless and perfect, much less the Steam Fanboi Brigades.
Two, EA has no reason to learn from Valve, because EA is bigger and has handled all of this before. And then some. Analysts have downgraded EA as a result of this fiasco (that would be: the people who advise on stocks for a living,) citing the downward trend in quality and poor execution. But I digress; this is not new stuff to EA. Some properties with online components in the tens of thousands (if not more) immediately at launch include: DAOC, NASCAR series, Warhammer Online, Spore, and The Sims series. Origin has been an ongoing disasterpiece since day one that they basically appear to be refusing to fix, because, "trolol, we don't have to, you can't go anywhere else now."