Mass Effect 3 is forcing consumers to install Origin

[paulbagz]

For BF3 i have to log onto origin every-time i want to play it, you can't just log on once and not play it. The worst part is when i move it to another computer my saved game data is lost. i mean if you are going to make me log onto the f*cking internet to play a game, you better store my freaking game data on there as well. Stupid EA. i only use origin for reviews to play BF3 which I think sucks anyways, i only like its SP.

Not sure if trolling or serious?

The single player laster a handful of hours (like MW3) and was almost a standardized cut paste of the plotline that we see from a lot of modern FPS nowdays (like MW3).

Great gaming single player masterpieces have been gone for a long time now and the longevity of modern games are boosted by their multiplayer aspects.

When it comes to BF3s MP, all you have to do is just use BL. I only ever see Origin when it opens the game and I see that short splash screen.

-PB

[Stewie007]

Edit: I won't worry, since I'll have for Xbox

[defect9]

Vote with pride, vote often, vote with your wallet.

[BababooeyHTJ]

yeah, seriously. this will be the case with (almost?) every future (blockbuster?) ea game. what did you guys expect?!

furthermore, these screens look pretty old. origin does not scan these subfolders anymore. and it was only used to index non-origin ea games to show up in origin. after the complaints ea updated origin and they now use another way to do that (no idea how, though, and i don't really care as long origin stays inside its own folders etc, which it now does).
i don't like origin that much (especially its eula), but that's no reason to spread fud.

QFT

I love all of the uninformed comments in this thread. Whaa, whaa, whaa

[[XC] Oj101]

2009? Those screens are over two years old, I missed that.

[lizardmech]

I won't buy it because of origin. EA's lack of responsibility when banning accounts and regional price gouging are my main concerns.

[Hoboclese]

I didn't buy BF3, even though it was one of my most wanted games, and I won't buy ME3. The problem is I feel as though i am one against millions, and it scares me how readily people throw away their freedoms for a few insignificant hours of pleasure.

[Stewie007]

I hear a lot about spying, but I am not seeing any evidence; just emotional reactions. So, what evidence is out there that they are spying on you?

Before you jump to conclusions, realize that I am interested in facts, and not taking sides.

[THX1138]

No thanks, I'll give my money to Steam.

[Bobsama]

Once a cheater always a cheater they say.

So in Lucas's Jedi Outcast series, you never used "g_saberRealisticCombat 1"? In Oblivion/Skyrim/Fallout 3/New Vegas, you never spawned debug items on yourself or random crap just to have fun with? You never played a L4D(2) game on a private server and started spawning extra hordes & bosses--just for kicks and giggles? And in Grand Theft Auto, you never put in a cheat to spawn a specific car or weapons? And in Civilization, you never entered World Builder just to make sure your spawn area won't have you raped? And have you never installed custom content in any game?

Once a cheater, not always a cheater. I've had a lot of fun screwing around in single player games. Having not-100%-stock game files while playing Single Player is NOT reason to ban me or anyone else--so long as those hacks don't carry over to multiplayer. I think that EA or whoever should have separate data sets for SP & MP games, so that someone cheating or modding in SP isn't flagged as such in MP. Banning players for expressing their opinions is not okay with me--EA's out of line there. I realize they're trying to keep their site safe & orderly, but then the solution is to ban their forum account but leave alone their Origin account.

[Caparroz]

Like others already said, for SP games like ME3 buy the game and play the cracked version. Much less hassle, just install and play...

[SKYMTL]

For BF3 i have to log onto origin every-time i want to play it, you can't just log on once and not play it. The worst part is when i move it to another computer my saved game data is lost. i mean if you are going to make me log onto the f*cking internet to play a game, you better store my freaking game data on there as well. Stupid EA. i only use origin for reviews to play BF3 which I think sucks anyways, i only like its SP.

Absolutely not true at all. You can set Origin to "Launch in Offline Mode" and your network cable doesn't even need to be plugged in to launch Origin or play any games on it. I have 23 games on Origin and the only one it won't allow me to run when not online is Crysis 2 due to Crytek's idiotic authentication routine, NOT EA's.

Personally, I've come to appreciate Origin. Especially considering the dog's breakfast Steam's servers have turned into as of late...

Will I be buying ME3? You betcha. Why? Because I support PC gaming and want to encourage the continued release of games on this platform.

[lizardmech]

Absolutely not true at all. You can set Origin to "Launch in Offline Mode" and your network cable doesn't even need to be plugged in to launch Origin or play any games on it. I have 23 games on Origin and the only one it won't allow me to run when not online is Crysis 2 due to Crytek's idiotic authentication routine, NOT EA's.

Personally, I've come to appreciate Origin. Especially considering the dog's breakfast Steam's servers have turned into as of late...

Will I be buying ME3? You betcha. Why? Because I support PC gaming and want to encourage the continued release of games on this platform.

EA's poor customer service is more of a concern than potential origin spyware. The first thing EA did after they pulled games from steam was dramatically increase the price of games in my region. Why would I trust this company with anything? They need to treat customers like customers not potential victims.

[El Mano]

So in Lucas's Jedi Outcast series, you never used "g_saberRealisticCombat 1"? In Oblivion/Skyrim/Fallout 3/New Vegas, you never spawned debug items on yourself or random crap just to have fun with? You never played a L4D(2) game on a private server and started spawning extra hordes & bosses--just for kicks and giggles? And in Grand Theft Auto, you never put in a cheat to spawn a specific car or weapons? And in Civilization, you never entered World Builder just to make sure your spawn area won't have you raped? And have you never installed custom content in any game?

Once a cheater, not always a cheater. I've had a lot of fun screwing around in single player games. Having not-100%-stock game files while playing Single Player is NOT reason to ban me or anyone else--so long as those hacks don't carry over to multiplayer. I think that EA or whoever should have separate data sets for SP & MP games, so that someone cheating or modding in SP isn't flagged as such in MP. Banning players for expressing their opinions is not okay with me--EA's out of line there. I realize they're trying to keep their site safe & orderly, but then the solution is to ban their forum account but leave alone their Origin account.

You got me wrong. I meant that EA might not be spying their customers right now (might) but they did it and therefore I can't trust them.

I wasn't thinking about mods or even cheating in games

[El Mano]

Will I be buying ME3? You betcha. Why? Because I support customer's rights raping, privacy surrender and console ports and want to encourage the continued release of games on this platform.

Re-Fixed.

SKYMTL, you normally write sensible posts. Such an statement coming from you was... surprising, to say the least.

[ColonelCain]

Why is anyone surprised by this? The most depressing part is their heavy-handed approach is going to work. Origin could not have come at a worse time for PC gaming IMO; fragments the platform when it really doesn't need it.

[STEvil]

Absolutely not true at all. You can set Origin to "Launch in Offline Mode" and your network cable doesn't even need to be plugged in to launch Origin or play any games on it. I have 23 games on Origin and the only one it won't allow me to run when not online is Crysis 2 due to Crytek's idiotic authentication routine, NOT EA's.

Personally, I've come to appreciate Origin. Especially considering the dog's breakfast Steam's servers have turned into as of late...

Will I be buying ME3? You betcha. Why? Because I support PC gaming and want to encourage the continued release of games on this platform.

No steam server issues here?

Guess no ME3 for me.

[zanzabar]

what i really dont like is how EA is claiming its steam, steam let them do dlc stores Cerberus in ME2 and the one in dragon age, steam did not want them using origin DRM in the game as its a game store

I hear a lot about spying, but I am not seeing any evidence; just emotional reactions. So, what evidence is out there that they are spying on you?

Before you jump to conclusions, realize that I am interested in facts, and not taking sides.

it scans files on all HDDs, it embeds its self into system32 and it has strange upload patterns when the computer is in idle mode with the screen off or locked, then the EULA is also troubling. from what ive seen they know people dont like it and in games that they care about pc sales and not just how to get nice graphics in an ad were they can say "actual gameplay" like SWTOR they made it so origin was not needed

[generics_user]

last EA game i bought was BF:BC2

i'm not going to support any developer using this service (origin) and that's why i'm going to use a copy from an unofficial source, i don't care if they go down because it's their own fault

[s1nykuL]

Does anyone running Origin care to run Wireshark and capture some packets?

If packets are encrypted and you cannot see what information is transmitted to their servers, I would be highly suspicious of using Origin.

Does the Origin T&C or EULA specifically state exactly what data is collected and transmitted to EA? If not again I would be highly suspicious of using this software.

If they have nothing to hide they should be completely open and honest with end users. Any kind of reticence on their part to disclose such information would indicate that they have something to hide and should be avoided at all costs even if that does mean one cannot play a console port on their PC.

Of course the sheep and the average 13 year old will ignorantly submit to such a potential invasion of privacy.

It is no business of EA's what games or software one has on their PC, it is no business of EA's what hardware is installed or operating system one is using.

It is your PC, it is your software, EA have no rights to this information. I have not read the EULA with Origin, so please correct me if I am wrong, but from what I can gather accepting the Origin EULA removes the end users rights to certain aspects of their privacy and grounds for complaint. This in itself should ring warning bells, this is itself is enough for me to never agree to the Origin EULA.

[Vardant]

Like others already said, for SP games like ME3 buy the game and play the cracked version. Much less hassle, just install and play...

Sorry, but that is stupid. That's telling them it is ok to push crap like Origin on us, because we're either stupid or desperate enough to put up with that.

[XSAlliN]

EA, Blizzard and Valve are among those that can "afford" to ignore the opinions of their customers.

So - no mater what some old customers say, they can read your post and show you the finger (in their mind) - since they're aware that a change like that is more profitable for them on the long road... EA and Blizzard don't feel like sharing some of the profit from their own games with Valve... which is why Blizzard has Battle.net and EA wants to promote their games exclusively on Origin - was made with this idea in mind (as an alternative for Steam which they control) and if they keep on selling their titles on Steam... Steam user don't see any reason in trying Origin ... and that's like a waste of resources for EA.

[SKYMTL]

EA's poor customer service is more of a concern than potential origin spyware. The first thing EA did after they pulled games from steam was dramatically increase the price of games in my region. Why would I trust this company with anything? They need to treat customers like customers not potential victims.

I'm not going to defend EA as a company because they've done things we all can't stand.

However, I think the whole "spyware" debate is a non starter since no one has effectively proven what's being sent to EA's servers. What has been shown is that it is relatively benign. Is it sending credit card info when not asked to? Logging keystrokes? Will it send intimate pictures of you and your girlfriend to a proxy site? Will it install malicious software on a computer? No, no, no and no.

Don't get me wrong here, I ALWAYS disable Origin services when not using the launcher and usually launch Origin in Offline Mode (unless I need a patch). Yet I do that not because of this "spyware". Rather, I do it to avoid other services like GFWL logons and whatnot while minimizing the memory footprint of installed applications. But will that cause me to avoid playing one of the most anticipated games of the last two years? Heck no.

[Aberration]

Does anyone running Origin care to run Wireshark and capture some packets?

If packets are encrypted and you cannot see what information is transmitted to their servers, I would be highly suspicious of using Origin.

Does the Origin T&C or EULA specifically state exactly what data is collected and transmitted to EA? If not again I would be highly suspicious of using this software.

If they have nothing to hide they should be completely open and honest with end users. Any kind of reticence on their part to disclose such information would indicate that they have something to hide and should be avoided at all costs even if that does mean one cannot play a console port on their PC.

Of course the sheep and the average 13 year old will ignorantly submit to such a potential invasion of privacy.

It is no business of EA's what games or software one has on their PC, it is no business of EA's what hardware is installed or operating system one is using.

It is your PC, it is your software, EA have no rights to this information. I have not read the EULA with Origin, so please correct me if I am wrong, but from what I can gather accepting the Origin EULA removes the end users rights to certain aspects of their privacy and grounds for complaint. This in itself should ring warning bells, this is itself is enough for me to never agree to the Origin EULA.

I would actually prefer that any information transferred from my computer IS encrypted.

I have been running Steam for ages, and Origin since BF3 launched. What exactly am I supposed to be looking out for? What invasion of privacy am I actually experiencing here?

The sky is not falling Chicken Little.

[hazardous]

I don't like Origin either, but it's not like we didn't know this was coming - ALL EA games are moving towards Origin. I had to just bite the bullet and install it when Battlefield 3 and SWTOR were on Origin. I could boycott the games...but then most likely it wouldn't make any difference and I would just miss out on some of the top pc games.