Why do you hate Origin?

[sparx1981]

This is something I've been wondering for a while... so many people seem to be against using Orgin but why? I use it and dont really have any problems. That said though. Two things I dont like are;

1.) Unable to easily back up the entire library like Steam. With Steam you can simply copy the entire Steam folder to another drive and use it as a backup.
2.) Stupid game keys on Origin only allow a certain number of activations. If I upgrade my PC and need to re-install Windows, it means I have to download the games again and generally activate them again. Eventually the activations run out. I then have to contact EA, explain that I reformatted and the game is only on one PC.... and eventually I can play.

So... What about everyone else? Why do you hate Origin?

[Skid]

The EULA..

[sparx1981]

The EULA

What do you mean by this?

[Skid]

The EULA

What do you mean by this?

*smacks you round the head for not googleing it yourself*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-user_license_agreement

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/24/eas-origin-eula-proves-even-more-sinister/

[Gimpylung]

Is the Origin EULA all that different from the Steam EULA. I've read neither to be honest.

Edit : Well, I've just read the Origin one from the previous post

Edit2: Similar thread over on Escapist...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.338236-Steam-vs-Origin-EULA-privacy-and-whatnot

[Bumpinthenight]

Because EA made it and I don't trust EA at all anymore. Much like Ubisoft, EA has taken the 'everyone is guilty of piracy' approach to their IP protection methods, I for one don't like that policy and vote with my wallet to not support a company that treats its customers like that. Its also a culmination of the little things like how by virtue of having the EA download manager installed (which is insistent upon having any EA products installed) it will push you to install Origin every time you boot your computer, doesn't explain why or where it came from, I don't like those tactics. I also don't need yet another 'game management app' running on my system, I've already got Steam.

EA has a track record for treating their customers badly and I don't care for the thought of having some over-seeing app running on my system 24/7 that's sole purpose is to enforce EA's policies of IP protection on it.

[dopefish]

I do not like Origin for many reasons.

It's EA. I despise their company, their business practices, and everything they do to and for games. Every great development studio they've gotten their hands on they've turned to dust. Every great franchise they have they've milked to death.

Aside from that, here are more reasons:

• They pulled their "blockbuster" games from Steam while continuing to sell games they see no value in on Steam. They're doing this to maximum profits on their end. Games that they know will be blockbusters and sell ridiculously well they're selling only on Origin, while games that they're iffy about will be sold everywhere. This just shows that they're not concerned about the customers or users at all and only on profit. While they are a business and this is goal of all businesses, you also have to treat your customers right to maximize sales as well.


• The Origin client has a sluggish-feeling interface.


• The Origin client is currently consuming 172MB of memory sitting in the system tray; Steam is consuming 13MB sitting in the system tray.


• When I bring the Origin client forward it's still consuming 172MB of memory. This means that they are doing absolutely nothing in regard to memory management, releasing resources, etc. When Steam is brought forward, it will continually grow in size as more resources are cached, but upon minimizing it to the tray it will free all of the resources and drop back down to 13MB.


• The Origin client is ugly and the game list organization is terrible. You either get a giant icon view where the icons don't scale with the window size, or you get a list view that has a lot of redundant information. I don't need to see the purchase date of every game right on the game list. That information does not help me. It could be shown elsewhere upon request. A giant "READY TO DOWNLOAD" button is shown next to each game not installed, while at the same time showing "Ready to Download" under STATUS. This information does not need to be shown twice. The same goes with a game that's installed and it showing "Ready to Play." On top of that if I switch from "All Games" to show only games that are "Ready to Play" then I shouldn't have to see that their status is marked as ready to play.


• The Origin client just has so many design flaws and issues that the whole user-experience is just terrible. Some people might think that the Origin client is a new thing and has a lot of catching up to do to compete with Steam. However, the Origin client is just a reskinned/rebranded EA Download Manager, which is a reskinned/rebranded EA Link, which is a reskinned/rebranded EA Downloader. This goes all the way back to 2005, which is just two years after Steam debuted. They've had plenty of time to get their software together to make a great competitor to Steam.


• They're using the Origin name, desecrating one of the greatest game developers in history.

I'm not going to go into the EULA here because both Origin and Steam have pros and cons to their EULAs.

[sparx1981]

Cheers for the smack Skid....

I knew what EULA meant, just wasn't sure what it was about the EA one that you didn't like.

Personally I've thought of another couple of hates about origin and EA....

1.) Battlefield 3.. you need to use origin... which in turn loads up your browser to show the battlelog or whatever... which in turn loads the game??? WTF?????
2.) Battlefield 3 Beta... Yes I took part. No it's not available anymore. So why is it still shown in my library? Surely EA... the Beta is over... hide or delete it from Origin. It's just makes extra mess in my library.
3.) Games cost too much on Origin. Most of the time I can find the same game elsewhere for cheaper. It really annoys me that companies complain about piracy but continue to rip customers off. With digital downloads, production costs are reduced and costs can be passed onto the consumers.... therefore reducing piracy.
4.) More of an EA gripe than Origin.... BUGS!!!!! God, dont you guys fix things? I've been waiting to play Need For Speed The Run since it came out. Sadly though, despite a HUGE forum filled with bugs, I am still unable to play this in eyefintiy due to being blinded. PB Bug forum

[Davros]

Having to rely on a publisher running a server so i can play my games
e.a have a history of shutting down servers as soon as they can get away with it
I bought mercenaries 2, 3 days later e.a posted a message they were shitting down the servers so no multiplayer for me

Previously Shut Down Online Services for e.a games
Arena Football™ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
Arena Football™: Road to Glory for PlayStation 2
Armies of Exigo™ for PC
Army of Two™ for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Army of Two™ Demo for Xbox 360
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat™ for Xbox and Xbox 360
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat™ Demo for Xbox 360
Battlefield 2142™ Demo for PC
Burnout™ Revenge for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
Burnout™ Dominator for PlayStation Portable
Burnout™ 3: Takedown ™ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
Def Jam® for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
EA SPORTS™ Fantasy Football 09 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
EA SPORTS™ FIFA Manager 10 for PC
EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 2 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
EA SPORTS™ Fight Night Round 3 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Xbox
EA SPORTS™ MMA (Live Broadcast Feature only) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Facebreaker™ for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
FIFA Soccer 2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
FIFA 06 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
FIFA 07 for PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360
FIFA 08 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC
FIFA 09 for PC, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
FIFA 09 Ultimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
FIFA 10 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
FIFA 10 Ultimate Team for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
FIFA Street 3 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
The Godfather™ The Game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
GoldenEye: Rogue Agent™ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
LITTLEST PET SHOP Online for PC
The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ for PC
The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ II for PC and Xbox 360
The Lord of the Rings™, The Battle for Middle-earth™ II, The Rise of the Witch-king™ for PC and Xbox 360
The Lord of the Rings: Conquest™ for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
MVP Baseball™ 2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
MVP™ 07 NCAA® Baseball for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
Madden NFL 05 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
Madden NFL 06 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
Madden NFL 07 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
Madden NFL 08 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360
Madden NFL 09 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Xbox
Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation Portable (all regions), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
Marvel Nemesis™: Rise of the Imperfects™ for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
Medal of Honor Airborne™ for PlayStation Portable
Medal of Honor Heroes™ 2 for PlayStation Portable and Wii
Medal of Honor Pacific Assault™ for PC
Medal of Honor™ Rising Sun for PlayStation 2
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames™ for PC
MySims™ for PC
NASCAR® 05: Chase for the Cup™ for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NASCAR® 06: Total Team Control for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NASCAR® 07 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox and Xbox 360
NASCAR® 08 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NASCAR® 09 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NBA LIVE 05 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NBA LIVE 06 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
NBA LIVE 07 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
NBA LIVE 08 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Wii
NBA LIVE 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
NBA Street (2007) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NBA Street V3 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NCAA® Basketball 08 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA® Basketball 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA® Basketball 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA® Football 05 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NCAA® Football 06 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NCAA® Football 07 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Xbox
NCAA® Football 08 forPlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NCAA® Football 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2
NCAA® Football 10 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NCAA® March Madness 06 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NCAA® March Madness™ 2005 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NCAA® March Madness® 07 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360
Need for Speed™ Carbon for PlayStation Portable
Need for Speed™ Most Wanted for PC, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
Need for Speed™ ProStreet for PC and PlayStation Portable
Need for Speed™ Undercover for PlayStation Portable
Need for Speed™ Underground for PlayStation 2
Need for Speed™ Underground 2 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NFL Head Coach 09 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NFL STREET 2: Unleashed for PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NFL STREET 3 for PlayStation 2
NFL Tour for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NHL® 2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NHL® 06 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
NHL® 07 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
NHL® 08 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PC
NHL® 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
NHL® 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Pet Society™ Vacation for iPhone
The Simpsons™ Game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
SimSocial on Facebook
The Sims Carnival
SKATE™ for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 05 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 06 for PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 07 for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 08 for PC, PlayStation 2 PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and Xbox 360
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 09 for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 10 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 11 Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
TimeSplitters 3: Future Perfect™ for Xbox and PlayStation 2
Total Club Manager 06 for PlayStation 2
UEFA Champions League™ 2004-2005 for PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox
UEFA Champions League™ 2006-2007 for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable
UEFA Champions League™ 07 for PC and Xbox 360
UEFA EURO 2008™ for PC PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
2006 FIFA World Cup™ for PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox and Xbox 360
2010 FIFA World Cup™ South Africa for PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360 and Wii
2010 FIFA World Cup™ South Africa Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

[sparx1981]

Wow :O

[AussieTimmeh]

My one and only experience with Origin is BF3, and I plan to never use it again. I will simply not buy EA games that force me to use it.

I don't have anything new to add to the lists of reasons given by the previous posters, but only to agree with them.

[OzHuski]

I dont hate Origin but I dont love it either. Right now it works, it does what its meant too and im sure it will improve, and im downloading games up to 3x faster than on Steam. I have a gripe with not being able to backup my games but once again - a work in progress I would hope. And the fact I cant run steam over the top of a game using Origin (yet to try and remap the steam keys to see if that works).

That being said, Steam is doing little to keep me right now.. Games are getting slower and slower to download - especially on big sales. They are doing little to keep the prices down, more and more games in aus are launch at near retail prices which defeats one of the major things I loved about Steam. On top of that, ive had more issues with steam lately than I ever had. Games reinstalling themselves, then not working, then having to repair them resulting in more downloading. Steam is still pausing at times, atleast its not locking up anymore or stops responding.

That being said, I can even see advantages and like using Games for Live too! Right now, Steam is still my preffered PC platform, all my games and friends are there. It has a huge range and has generally good prices and decent sales. But I think its time they step up the game, Steam was no.1 for a lot of reason, now companies have taken notice and stepping in people are going to be looking for that hook that makes there service better than the others. Id preffer to keep using Steam and see it get better, but I dont want to see them lockdown the devs more and end up with an apple centric way of thinking.. I think Origin could be a good thing for Steam in the long run.

[ViciousXUSMC]

I do not hate Origin, as the program/software is concerned.

But I hate some of the business practices behind it.


Origin works very well at the software level its a bit more direct and faster than Steam. I think Steam has become a bit bloated over the years with more features than it needs and its just a bit slow sometimes probably due to a lot of that.

Still though I prefer steam by a huge margin and only get games on Origin because they are significantly cheaper or only on Origin.


More to come... Amazon is working on there own digital service now and I think even Game Stop is doing it or will be doing it soon.

[sparx1981]

I use games for windows (for about 2 games I think), steam and orgin... I also have games on DVD.

Now the problem I have with this is that I dont have 1 library showing all games. Windows 7 does have it's games folder but not all of my games automatically get added here. And if I manually add them, which is a pain in the ass, they dont contain all of the details etc that an automatically added one does.

One complete library that scanned Steam, scanned Origin, Scanned my games folder.... that would be useful.

Also... Seeing as some people are moaning about steam in here too... my only gripe with Steam is it's load times when booting the PC. Between Steam and Origin I just love waiting for them to load.

[Haldi]

Have you ever heard of X-Fire ?

Does the same like Origin / Steam. Just without the negative parts. Okay.. i didn't read the whole EULA... But if i want to i could just shut down X-Fire and still game everything! I don't need no Acitivation for Games, no extra programm running if i don't want to. Still get Ingame Chat /Video recording.
But hey... you can't buy Games in X-Fire... guess thats why all prefer Steam!

....., I for one don't like that policy and vote with my wallet to not support a company that treats its customers like that. ....

QFT!

[Davros]

I Windows 7 does have it's games folder but not all of my games automatically get added here. And if I manually add them, which is a pain in the ass, they dont contain all of the details etc that an automatically added one does.

Another problem with the windows game explorer is that it starts to become flakey after you hit about the 140 games mark

[BHawthorne]

It's pretty simple, they enforce exclusive distribution through them. Try buying any recent EA game on Steam... If I can't buy it or enable it via Steam, it's crap.

[jpdevers]

Here is a reenactment of what made me hate Origin as much as I do now:

Get home from work super tired, want to browse interwebs. Turn on computer and log into Windows. Have SSD, so have EVERY program possible launch at start up. Cute little Steam sits quietly in the background, runs updates automatically, doesn't nag me about it, only asks to restart when entire Steam client has been updated. Click Chrome icon and start browsing interwebs, see something super interesting go to click it and BAM! Huge windows blocking screen. Its Origin asking me if its cool to update. Sure I say, just take care of your business and get out of my way. Does Origin hide to the task bar and start updating in the background? NO! It opens up an Install Wizard. I click Next. It asks me to accept a new EULA. Now I'm upset. Click I Agree. Now its asking where I'd like to install it. WHY?!?!?!?! Sit and wait for Install to finish, the entire time ready to explode. Install finishes. Leaves a present for me. NEW DESKTOP ICON!!! Oh wait, there's more. The icon you pinned to the start menu no longer works! Verge of erupting like dying star. Maybe the update finally removed that BF3 Beta that is clogging my Origin window? Go check, its still there, I create a new black hole.

And that, dear people, is why I hate Origin. Sure the crummy business practices, the absurd EULAs, and the general bad taste I get as a PC gamer from them weigh heavily on it. But if you are going to force me to use some software to play a game, you better make sure it works. How hard is it to make a piece of software that just in place upgrades itself. People hated Steam in the beginning because you had to have it to play HL2. But, with the exception of the friends list, Steam worked fine. It was unobtrusive. Hopefully Origin figures it out, because I fear this is a piece of software that is around to stay.

[zezgamer]

Honestly, I'm surprised I dont hate it yet. I've had my accounts information- credit card, actual account, and games- breached twice and had zero compensation from EA from it. The security lady I talked to to have the account locked and changed said that there were two very different ips using the account, she just refused to tell me them to do a "cross check" (more than likely because of legal reasons behind ips and all that).

Other than that, I don't mind it. As long as my information is safe and it works, which download times are far slower than steams, then im ok with it.

[Slinky]

I hate origin because it sucks.

Love Steam
Hate origin