Origin: Roadblock to Gaming or Service to Gamers?

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Seems that EA wants to rethink Origin's role in the next generation of gaming. According to this interview on Gamesindustry, right now they seem to be pleased with the underlying plumbing installed into the service but are dissatisfied with the direction it took over the years. The overwhelming success of it as a store is shadowed by it's failure as a gaming service that you want to install to connect to your friends.

In this quote on PC Gamer, Wilson plans to take Origin back to its very roots, thinking about how the service will serve players rather than EA. “I think the transaction component of that service has taken a disproportionate amount of the communication and mindshare of what we really try and provide, and the barrier that that puts in between you and the game that you want to play.”

After reading both articles, what do you think of Origin today? Is it as good as Steam as far as connecting you to your friends? I use Steam all the time to voice chat, text, text by cellphone, watch videos on games before I buy them, links to reviews, discuss the game with others in the forums, learn about other games in the genre that I'm playing. I even use Steam to buy games. :)

What does Origin do for you besides sell you the next copy of Battlefield 3? Does anyone even know you can stream video to Twiitch.tv using it? Basically a free version of FRAPS as you can download those videos or put them on Youtube. When has EA ever advertised that feature? Does it care about social networking and keeping your friends together? The only EA game popup I've ever seen from an Origin friend has been for Battlefield 3. Do the rest of them even exist? Well I get popups detailing what I can buy from them. But why would I want to be there otherwise?

Gabe Newell mentioned Origin in an interview around April. He thought they could pull it off but were certainly behind at this point.

Discuss but please read the articles first. :)


Edited to include the Gabe Newell interview.
 
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I only use Steam and Origin (only rarely) to start up my games. Steam I also check for deals while Origin I try and ignore as much as possible.
 
the road blocks are certain games are on a single client only.

all games should be on all clients.
 
my main criteria is that my games work...Origin does that...easy to use interface (love the large game icons)...I knew about twitch but never use it (noticed it while going into the Origin settings to customize)...I'm sure the IM works fine...Steam is great but is becoming a bit bloated with everything they are adding to it (do we really need trading cards??)
 
Nobody so far keeps track of in game friends using either service? Keep up with what your circle of friends is doing? Use it to organize gaming events or just a friendly match? If so how does it compare?
 
So hey HOW ABOUT NOT HAVING SEPARATE FRIENDS LISTS FOR ORIGIN AND BATTLEFIELD. Fucking twats.
 
TheBuzzer said:
the road blocks are certain games are on a single client only.

all games should be on all clients.
Click to expand...
The outcome we want is for there to be a single, open client. This really needs to be a service where publishers pay for the resources they use (compute and bandwidth), can implement achievements, in-game features and community features in a non-proprietary way.

It isn't just about getting games on all clients. That's more of a "step 1" to what we really need, which is an open platform.

Valve is kind of gravitating toward this, by transitioning Steam away from a game storefront-type thing but to a more generic storefront, but it's not really a full solution.
 
wonderfield said:
The outcome we want is for there to be a single, open client. This really needs to be a service where publishers pay for the resources they use (compute and bandwidth), can implement achievements, in-game features and community features in a non-proprietary way.

It isn't just about getting games on all clients. That's more of a "step 1" to what we really need, which is an open platform.

Valve is kind of gravitating toward this, by transitioning Steam away from a game storefront-type thing but to a more generic storefront, but it's not really a full solution.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting idea. But I wonder if they would use said service to hunt pirates instead of make gamers happy? Like the MPAA and RIAA do now. Would a lack of competition allow one service to become too powerful? That's the first thing that popped into my head when I read your comment. :)

Also contrary to what gamers think, gaming isn't really mainstream yet. There are huge segments of the population that aren't exposed to it. Nothing like the movie industry. Thus I pose this question. What would an all inclusive service have to do to bring all walks of life into it? Just something to ponder.
 
TheBuzzer said:
the road blocks are certain games are on a single client only.

all games should be on all clients.
Click to expand...

Wrong.. All games should be on no clients. Including Steam.

polonyc2 said:
my main criteria is that my games work...Origin does that...easy to use interface (love the large game icons)...I knew about twitch but never use it (noticed it while going into the Origin settings to customize)...I'm sure the IM works fine...Steam is great but is becoming a bit bloated with everything they are adding to it (do we really need trading cards??)
Click to expand...

Agreed.. It is beyond bloat now.
 
Dion said:
Wrong.. All games should be on no clients. Including Steam.



Agreed.. It is beyond bloat now.
Click to expand...

Well to be truthful I like being able to find others to game with. I live in a rural area and I'm an older gamer. So it's not like I'm going meet some cool people to game with in math class or out at the club. What Wonderfield was suggesting would be an universal client for social interactions amongst gamers.

Now the thing with buying digital games is that you need somewhere to get them if disaster strikes. Nobody plans for a fire to incinerate your home, but you should plan for a way to access your digital media in the event that happens. Game companies go out of business all the time so you can't rely on getting a backup if disaster strikes from them. Thus it seems that you need some form of repository for games.

The only one i can think of is The Pirate Bay and other similar services. But we know that's not legal for most games, even though they have the best unbiased reviews. :) So what would you suggest to rectify the situation? A Megaupload style digital locker?
 
cageymaru said:
That's an interesting idea. But I wonder if they would use said service to hunt pirates instead of make gamers happy? Like the MPAA and RIAA do now. Would a lack of competition allow one service to become too powerful? That's the first thing that popped into my head when I read your comment. :)
Click to expand...
The idea is that the platform's actual operations could be distributed among many companies, similar in some ways to the way Diaspora was supposed to work. There are a number of fine details you have to work out before that becomes a possibility, but it isn't out of the question that it could be done.

It'll probably never happen, though. We don't even have an open achievements platform, which is kind of the most straightforward component to these systems imaginable.
 
I bought Battlfeild 3 and played it a few times. It was infuriating having to use Origin for everything instead of having options through menus and server browsers in the game. I uninstalled it after a week and will never buy a game that requires origin again.

I love steam though.
 
I like all my games being in one place and not cluttering my house with hard copies and boxes. Minimalism :) Simplicity.
 
It does what it does fine, but we don't need more standards. I don't need another program that literally does the same shit Steam does running at the same time.
 
After reading both articles, what do you think of Origin today? Is it as good as Steam as far as connecting you to your friends? I use Steam all the time to voice chat, text, text by cellphone, watch videos on games before I buy them, links to reviews, discuss the game with others in the forums, learn about other games in the genre that I'm playing. I even use Steam to buy games. :)

What does Origin do for you besides sell you the next copy of Battlefield 3? Does anyone even know you can stream video to Twiitch.tv using it? Basically a free version of FRAPS as you can download those videos or put them on Youtube. When has EA ever advertised that feature? Does it care about social networking and keeping your friends together? The only EA game popup I've ever seen from an Origin friend has been for Battlefield 3. Do the rest of them even exist? Well I get popups detailing what I can buy from them. But why would I want to be there otherwise?
Click to expand...

Great thread btw. here goes
I don't think its anywhere near as good as steam, I don't use any additional features, to be honest i didn't even know it had any other features outside of self promoting and sales, i hated the fact that the only way short of pirating it Mass Effect 3 was to install origin. i really dislike having to wait for origin to open>update itself> force a sales popup that i have to click to close. then produce my library, (i just opened it again to confirm this too) then make me click on my game when i already clicked the game in windows game explorer. not to mention it occasionally bugs me to add friends (something i have no interest in doing) with no opt out option for it. there just really isn't anything about origin that i don't have in a familiar format already. so it only serves to frustrate me and take longer to launch my games. and im sure its wasting resources on my computer to provide and unwanted or liked function. I will say 1 good thing about it though is that it hasn't broken or cause any functionality issues with my computer. so i'll give them props for that although im suspect since the that while it was still beta they had a disclaimer in their EULA that they couldn't be held responsible for any damage caused since it was a beta, yet still forcibly linked it to a full retail version game.

finally i have never used there store and never will, i have purchased battlefield from the gamestop app and re-installed origin after removing it immediately after beating ME3, they have completely lost my trust as a service so i won't ever trust them with credit card info.
 
I may give them another chance if the changes mentioned in the interview pan out with the service working as a silent download and installer. but if not i may have to boycott ea as i have ubi-soft. and never play any of their games again either.
 
Roadblocks hinder progress. Steam hasn't hindered pc gaming. In fact steam has probably done more for pc gaming this past decade than anyone else combined.

Origin got used for bf3 and that tanked pretty hard amongst hard users and my friends so it got uninstalled and I've not used origin for anything else since. Mostly due to how crappy origin was utilized.
 
cageymaru said:
Nobody so far keeps track of in game friends using either service? Keep up with what your circle of friends is doing? Use it to organize gaming events or just a friendly match? If so how does it compare?
Click to expand...

I use it to see what people are playing and as an im service for some

Edit: Steam that is
 
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The new mirror's edge will most likely require Origin on PC; On my PC it goes! Some things are just worth the hastle.
 
I vowed to never install Origin years ago. I have held to that promise. EA makes nothing I want anymore, there was one game that had the potential to get me to change my mind, and that was the new Sim City. That game was an awesome example of how to turn a great franchise into a total disaster. So yeah, it's really easy to just write off EA and Origin. They have no idea what they are doing over there, and I think it's a sinking ship. Origin doesn't have that many users, at the time Origin "launched", it was just a rebranded version of the old EA Downloader, which was their original digital distribution platform.

So when they claimed they had 4 million Origin accounts, what they were really doing was just including all the people who signed up for EA Downloader accounts.

So, for me, it's just been Steam because I like their platform, it just works, and I can get the games I want, and they are constantly improving Steam. To me, Valve just "gets it", and always tries to give us what we want. Features we ask for, we may not get them all, but they do listen to us and try to implement stuff we want.

So I see them as a "good monopoly" as far as having a single source of games in the digital realm. I have used Amazon to get games, and GoG as well.

I want to say that I agree with Climber, Steam has done more for PC gaming than most of us realize. I'm gonna go ahead and say it, Steam has made PC gaming what it is today.
 
So I have no issue with any of the DD platforms im using today. I have Steam, Origin, Uplay, and the BNet desktop client beta. As of late, the client that I have the most issue with is Steam. Although it has the biggest library, and my personal library too, steam is the slowest to load of all of them. Also for some reason I've been hit with numerous steam updates, which make the load time even longer, just to get to my list of games.

While I give a lot of respect for how much steam as contributed to the evolution of the pc gaming world, I think its such a silly thing to deprive yourself of a game you want to play just because it's not on steam. All of them are so close in speeds that the differences are so negligible and it trivial work to set up accounts on all of the platforms.
 
Steam has been updating a lot lately, but in the long run if you look at it it isn't that bad.

I just don't want another damn program that does the exact same thing. Everyone knows what Steam is. Even non PC gamers. I have friends I was able to get into a few games JUST BECAUSE they knew of Steam and how easy it is.


Also, having just recently built a new computer. Steam runs night and day different. I dunno if its going from 3gb of memory to 16gb or what.
 
I have no friends.:D Well, not anyone who are that interested in PC gaming anyway.

One thing about Origin that I dislike is they separate the store based on regions. It's cheaper for me to buy CD keys from other sites and activate it on Origin. So while I use Origin for Battlefield 3, I will never buy anything from Origin.

By the way, for some reason, my Origin download speed starts dropping beyond 90%. No idea why.
 
I dislike origin, mostly because I'm forced to use it. Look everyone has a game on steam. What it boils down to is, i don't want another damn client to worry about, with a different set of rules and a different log-in. If origin would of came out at the same timeish as steam and offered non ea games right off the bat then i wouldn't have such a gripe with it. But forcing me to use something when I'm already comfortable with another product is kinda bs. I know they want a larger cut of the money and that's why they did it. But i don't buy games on origin because I know steam. I understand its DRM rules and i know how to get around what i need to get around to meet my needs (IE i'm in Kabul with no real internet yet still playing my offline games for 15 months now). I'm not going to fuss with a whole separate system just because ea says you must have origin to play this game. I've bought 1 game on origin and thats it. Even though I LOVE battlefield i am probably not going to bother getting 4 because of all thee crap i have to go through with 3 and origin. I've got a million log ins and im TIRED of it.
 
I feel like steam becomes worse with every update. It's become so damn bloated.
 
Breath_of_the_Dying said:
I think its such a silly thing to deprive yourself of a game you want to play just because it's not on steam. All of them are so close in speeds that the differences are so negligible and it trivial work to set up accounts on all of the platforms.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, Steam is preferred but if a game is good and well-supported then I don't care what service I need to use to get it.

That said, Origin was uninstalled from my machine awhile ago because EA produces shitty games.
 
Aix. said:
I agree with this, Steam is preferred but if a game is good and well-supported then I don't care what service I need to use to get it.

That said, Origin was uninstalled from my machine awhile ago because EA produces shitty games.
Click to expand...

Well at least they produce games..unlike valve :D
 
I refuse to have Origin on my box, which sucks, because I think Skyrim would probably be fun.
 
Like a game on Origin, Steam, Uplay etc.? Buy it.
Everything else in-between is emotional masturbation.

Arguing that an extra 10 second step get's in the way of your 1hr+ gaming session seems a bit insignificant.
 
Origin let me play Battlefield 3.

Steam let's me play all other games and connect with my friends and to this day remains superior. I don't want another online game service when all my stuff and friends are on steam...

To me Steam is like Xbox Live for PC... Origin is a poor substitute with a fraction of the catalog and poor gamer acceptance and adoption.
 
Origin works as a game updating and downloading client. I prefer Steam as the installs tend to be quicker (not download time). Both of the IM clients are horrid, though with LIVE messenger dead Steam suddenly looks better. Nevertheless, Skype is far superior even with its shortcomings.

The uploading game save feature of both clients is great. Many games store the game saves all over the place and it is often impossible to find them. Likewise, uploading them to an offsite location is great for backup purposes.

I have not tried it on Origin, but I do know Battlelog features a Steam like "click on friend to join" feature which is great. Much easier than viewing their server and trying to find it.

Steam has a nice gifting and inventory feature which is something I hope Origin implements. Steam does have Steam groups and some other features, but most of them are worthless from a gaming perspective.

Overall Origin works, but Steam is better, IMO. I am not interesting in having any more client services though. Two is plenty.
 
I don't really care about any of the social or friends aspects of steam or origin.
I don't use them as Facebook or to hook up with friends. The worse part about steam is all the little douches and emo twats that think it's Facebook. Sure steam chat is useful but how is it different or better than origin chat?

I'm old school I play games online that have server run by groups or clans that also have a vent or TS.

All the other crap that steam or origin supposedly brings to the table is useless.
We did it that way before these were invented we still do and we will if they go away even.
 
Plague_Injected said:
Roadblock.

Steam is a roadblock, too.
Click to expand...

Any game service which includes publisher-based lock-in is a roadblock - that's far from unique to Origin.

What I like about Origin is that it has far less bloat than does Steam (bloat, to me, is a feature that I don't, won't, and will NEVER use). The majority of pro-Steam fans DO use those features - however, where I do use them, it's due to the developer leveraging them (Rockstar Games, for example, heavily leverages the Steam Community - more so than any publisher other than Valve from my experience).

Each service has unique features other than unique game titles - Origin, for example, includes support for in-game streamcasting - something Steam lacks.

Still, even with Steam's greater bloat, neither service is that much of a pig when run resident - I keep both resident on my Q6600 with a mere 4GB of RAM, and the impact of doing so is nearly nil - even when playing a game outside of both services (such as any of Blizzard's titles).

With more RAM being common, if anything the bloat impact decreases.
 
Steam all the way. Origin doesn't do anything as well as steam and as others have said.. Not as many people use it.
Only reason I have origin is BF3 and the only reason I would keep it is Battlefront 3.

If EA didn't yank their titles from steam and origin had to actually compete 1:1 with Steam. Origin would have tanked immediately.


As for the bloating. It's all how you look at it. Cards are dumb, yes. But instead of bitching about them just sell them on the marketplace and then you get cheaper or free games.
 
Games for windows live BRICK WALL

origin clumsy detours where every turn tries to take your money.

steam highway of manliness
 
Milkman128 said:
Games for windows live BRICK WALL

Not exactly a brick wall but a completly useless feature to add to a game

origin clumsy detours where every turn tries to take your money.

steam highway of manliness
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Some games on Steam and ill use any Ubisoft game for this requires you to use Uplay! So if i want to launch form steam then i have to go ahead and launch the game from Uplay just to play the damn thing.
 
Flogger23m said:
The uploading game save feature of both clients is great. Many games store the game saves all over the place and it is often impossible to find them. Likewise, uploading them to an offsite location is great for backup purposes.
Click to expand...

That is good if it is done for 'backup purposes'. Unfortunately when a newly released game uses a cloud storage as a primary save method it sucks balls. Deus Ex had 1 minute+ load times for about two weeks after the release and ~5 seconds 6 months later.
 
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