Origins of Misunderstanding: Is EA’s storefront so evil?
Look, I love Steam as much as the next guy. Hell, I probably love it a little bit more than the next guy having spent a few hundred dollars in digital doodads since its launch. As far as online platforms goes, it’s far and away the best.
But Steam won’t be #1 forever. It won’t exist forever.
Just like every online giant, competitors will appear. And while EA Origin may ultimately fail in the same way Games for Windows Live failed at toppling Valve’s monolithic structure, we as gamers need to recognize that ultimately, something will. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Does anyone actually want a monopoly?
The fact of the matter is that as much as we love Steam and want to trust Valve, leaving their platform to exist in a nearly unchallenged monopoly for more than a decade isn’t ultimately going to be good for gaming. Yes, they’ve been benevolent kings so far, but how long will that last? And where will you, the gamer go, if Valve changes its tune, or you find issue with one of their practices? As of now, you don’t have a lot of viable options. Unless you actually like GFWL.
Competition breeds innovation, yes, but it also creates a social safety net. As it stands, Steam is surely “too big to fail” for many PC players who have stored dozens (if not hundreds) of games in Valve’s digital space. What would you do if you were banned from Steam ? Or Valve went out of business and took its virtual content with it? Or if the company introduced something like a “Steam Gold” premium membership you couldn’t afford? For most of us, our entire basket of electronic eggs would be cracked, fried, and served in a heaping pile directly into Gabe Newell’s coffers. And while I find all of these scenarios currently unlikely, one of them will eventually happen.
The next best thing all over again
EA Origin, along with other download-only gaming storefronts, may not be comparable… yet. They don’t have the robust infrastructure, the fully integrated achievements and stat tracking – all the bells and whistles Valve has tacked on over the years. But neither did Steam when it launched. Anyone around for Half-Life 2′s hotly contested digital release will remember the fire and brimstone being rained down on Valve for introducing always-on DRM to the PC gaming world. Back then, Steam had almost no upsides and a few humungous downsides, including the games didn’t fucking work half the time.
Personally, I have had absolutely zero problems with Origin. I downloaded the software and installed it, agreeing to its very Steam-like End User License Agreement. I purchased Battlefield 3 Limited Edition on Amazon, granting me an Origin download code, which I redeemed for the game with no issues. When I ran the game for the first time, the file executed flawlessly, throwing me instantly into the campaign. Yes, the game has frozen a few times since then, but anyone who uses Half-Life 2 or even Team Fortress 2 as their benchmarks for software stability can’t really complain here. Overall, my experience has been quite pleasant.
Ulterior motives and hidden machinations?
If there’s supposed to be a part where Origin deletes all my personal information and Tweets my porn collection to all my friends, sorry, it just didn’t happen. Origin itself runs quietly in the background, using up less RAM than does Steam, and let’s me play Battlefield 3, which is all I wanted from it.
“But WiNG,” you might squeal, “Origin is spyware! It just has to be, because Electronic Arts is evil!”
While a few initial reports from my fatherland, Germany, may have fanned the fanboy flames in this regard, continued testing has repeatedly shown that EA’s Origin isn’t spyware, at least not any more so than Valve’s client is. The data it collects isn’t personally identifiable, isn’t reported to EA, and isn’t considerably different from the stuff Steam does to your computer. If there’s some NSA-level security breach Origin is capable of, it hasn’t been found yet, which should speak volumes considering just how many computer-savvy hackers out there hate EA.
It’s only fair to conclude that until proven otherwise, Origin is a benign digital storefront.
Let’s go back to the beginning
Is EA Origin better than Valve’s Steam? No.
At least, not yet. But neither is it spyware, and neither is it wrong for a company to want to opt out of feeding into Valve’s near monopoly on the PC digital storefront market. If we want the industry to move forward, part of that is going to be accepting competition among the big publishing players. You shouldn’t be surprised to see other companies do the same, though their success will depend as much on their implementation and game libraries as did Steam’s.
It’s part of the natural business cycle. And eventually, one of Valve’s competitors will succeed at dethroning the company, either by beating Valve at its own game, or by rendering Steam obsolete with something new, better, and leaps beyond what we can imagine today.
Until that time comes, it’s up to you to decide what games you’ll play on which platforms. But I hope you can open your mind, give Origin a chance, and meet me on the battlefield.
Origin burned our crops, poisoned our water, kidnapped our children, stole our women, and took our porn!
STEAM NEVER DID THAT.
Origin, for all the bad reputation it’s gotten, doesn’t seem evil. I wouldn’t be surprised though if steam got replaced by origin.
Well, I would be. But still.
Also, Wing has a porn collection?
Knew it. It’s always the quiet ones.
Since when is a guy with a remarkably offensive YouTube channel considered “quiet?”
Touché.
I dunno. I always picture you as a quiet person, my mind is wonky like that. Makes me wonder, are you a quiet person IRL? Talk softly carry a big stick?
Hey look a rainbow made of Johnny Depp.
Love to know where this monopoly of which you speak is.
Direct2Drive
Gamer’s Gate
Impulse
3 competitors to Steam that all existed prior to Origin. I’ve used 2 of them to purchase games in the recent past and 1 of them is now my primary source of games, supplanting Steam.
Steam doesn’t need to own 100% of the market to be a monopoly, the same way Microsoft didn’t need to own 100% of the browser market to get in trouble for monopolistic practices.
And yet Origin is supposed to alter this how?
Refine your article. Either you’re cheering up Origin or you’re concerned about Steam having a monopoly. The latter is equally addressed by the services I’ve mentioned. The former, well, that’s something else entirely. But the two don’t conflate how you think they do.
But it’s not Valve! In Valve we trust!
EA is the evil empire.
VALVE
VOTE GABEN PRESIDENT OF VIDEOGAMES 2011
Steam has about at least 75% of recent games.
Origin has ONLY those made by EA.
Also, since when is your fatherland Germany? Or am I misunderstanding the article there?
Here in Germany, we’re talking about principles.
Origin’s EULA breaks our law.
Out of curiosity, what part of the Origin EULA breaks German law? From what I’ve seen, the EULA of Origin and Steam are near identical.
As I posted in the first BF3 article, here is a German article from a lawyer.
http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/battlefield-3/artikel/analyse_zur_eula_von_ea_origin,45612,2561554.html
Also, my questions then were and still are:
Does Valve allow itself to search every single program on the computer, collect the data, connect it with personal details and transfer them to other countries?
Even if EA doesn’t want to do this, why put it in the EULA in the first place?
Wouldn’t adding a fee be illegal since the content was already purchased? Wouldn’t the out of business scenario mean that steam would only be the launch and everyone would just need to download games from torrents?
Dethroning Steam would be similar to dethroning Windows. You wrote all your applications for that OS and everything works with it. You won’t switch to another OS since it’s more labor. Steam has lots of games you bought, and you don’t want to rebuy them.
If adding a fee to already purchased content was illegal, World of Warcraft would have gone bump long, long ago.
AFAIK you don’t pay for owning the content, but for the temporary right to use it. Maybe like leasing.
STEAM GOT HACKED.
TO ORIGIN! AWAAY!
The whole “monopoly” argument just irks me. Do we want one? No, but we don’t have one! There are plenty of other DD programs that do not do the egregious business practices EA has put forth. The fact that we’re just supposed to accept this as “friendly competition” when they themselves are looking to literally toss out Steam is just ridiculous.
I will never touch Origin, not after I saw exactly what EA is trying at. It’s literally an anti-VALVe program, and does not at all furnish good will of PC gamers. This sort of completely DRM driven service is not one anyone should support. I’ll be off with D2D, GoG, and OnLive.
People don’t like Origin for a very simple reason. It is run by EA Games and no gamer trusts them. There would not be any real problem if this was done by some other company *well except some of the other big ones, I wouldn’t want to see one by Activision either….*.
But what I like about Valve is that they DO add little bells and whistles to Steam, all the time. It’s iterative design, which is the reason that they’ve been ahead for so long.
For example, I feel like the only thing that could supplant them at the moment is cloud gaming, like OnLive. If there was mass adoption and internet infrastructure problems weren’t an issue, it could be huge. The thing is, Valve are going to do that too. Gabe Newell was talked about thin client architecture in an interview with PCG, and they could totally pull it off.
One word: Yes.
I am fine with their approach to the topic, despite the fact that they are obviously just trying to bash off Steam.
But: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/05/ea-origin-bans-update-edition/
Censoring obvious trolls or heavy swearing on the forums is “fine”, but just look at what they’re doing.
Somebody using a light swear and your username in the same post? Say goodbye to those 100$ you spent on their overpriced games!
And, of course, the data scamming without asking. Hell, I agreed for steam to give Valve my hardware information to feed Gabe, but without even asking?
Inb4 they will autoban you for saying “Steam sucks Origin is better” on the chat program of your choice (including WoW) because you used a swear word and Origin within 20 yards of each other.
I’d rather have my games on one account. Steam doesn’t scan my PC and doesn’t come from the people who gave me Securom. I hope there’s a non-orgin version of ME3. :D