I hope they don't "improve" Steam too much

[Kargor]

I've recently taken a look at Origin -- I did finally decide to buy that Origin bundle, which gave me a bunch of steam keys (admit it, you did NOT expect me to mention that!) -- and a few more Origin keys.

Originally, I thought I would find my old Dragon Age Origins Ultimate there -- didn't quite like it, didn't play it for long, but it's still something I might try again with a savefile editor and/or a decent guide. I'm not even sure I'm using that Origin client and/or website correctly, but it appears that my Origin login works on some Bioware website which seems to know I have that game, but Origin itself doesn't, and I can't seem to download it (I do have the DVDs, of course).

I sort of expected Origin to be "like Steam, just with another logo" -- but apparently it's not.

And of course, even Origin has "3rd party DRM" -- by EA itself? The origin bundle gave me a "Sims" key (I haven't registered any of these yet, though), and comes with a description of how you have to register at some Sims-website before registering with Origin.
Granted, Steam has it's share of "3rd party DRM" as well, but even though I don't have Valve games I believe they only use Steam. Just like many other publishers trusting Steam enough to not require additional DRM -- but EA doesn't even trust their own platform?

Does that tell us something about the future of Origin, when even the creators don't commit to it? When "EA subcompanies" (or whatever Bioware is these days) accept Origin logins, but aren't really a part of it? When a presumeably modern online platform requires you to install games from DVDs?

One day I will continue to play around with the client, and maybe even use my keys. I still tend to believe that using them will not give me a coupon that I have to send to some shop to get installation DVDs, but frankly, I might not even be TOO surprised if that happens :-)

Compared to the Steam client, I've always had the impression that I'm just looking at a store, not at a piece of software to manage my games that just happens to have a store attached. The fact that (being in germany) I found no way to switch the Origin website to english didn't exactly improve things for me either -- I've been "gaming in english" for decades, alongside "TVing in english" and "movie-watching in english", and I don't intend to change that. The client has a setting, though.

Maybe it's also the somewhat decent, "no-frills" design of the Steam client and website. In a world of flashing and beeping and shaking and rotating and pop-upping websites, Steam almost feels like a clean, functional website, and it extends that to the client software. I'm not such a big fan of the store frontpage, but that's about it -- and it's still comparatively ok.

Thus, if you ask me -- don't improve Steam to be more like other popular platforms :-) Or at least a certain other platform; I don't currently have keys for any halfway recent Ubisoft or Blizzard games.

[Τhe Rolling Cheese Wheel]

There are platforms that are more popular than steam? If not, they have nothing to copy from.

[76561198106129707]

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[2point4]

Oprindeligt skrevet af The Rolling Ham Cheese:

There are platforms that are more popular than steam? If not, they have nothing to copy from.

LOL! That's so short-sighted it's funny.

What you're saying is that unless a platform has as many users as Steam they won't have any better ideas. Pretty absurd. Origin has less users but they have a much better refund policy. GoG has less users but they work on older games to make them run better than the same game sold on Steam. The list goes on...

If Valve were ever to share your viewpoint, they'd drown in a matter of years. It's possible they are currently in the midst of it.

[Τhe Rolling Cheese Wheel]

Oprindeligt skrevet af 2point4:

Oprindeligt skrevet af The Rolling Ham Cheese:

There are platforms that are more popular than steam? If not, they have nothing to copy from.

LOL! That's so short-sighted it's funny.

What you're saying is that unless a platform has as many users as Steam they won't have any better ideas. Pretty absurd. Origin has less users but they have a much better refund policy. GoG has less users but they work on older games to make them run better than the same game sold on Steam. The list goes on...

If Valve were ever to share your viewpoint, they'd drown in a matter of years. It's possible they are currently in the midst of it.

Origin's refund policy sucks as it only works only on EA games, gog's old game polishing would not work for Valve as the steam platform encompasses way too many game for such a system to be profitable and sustainable.

If steam copied every single feature to ever exist in every platform, they would be bankrupt due to bad ideas. They are far better off inventing new ideas or taking old ideas and giving their own spin on it.

[Kargor]

Well, I'm not saying that Steam is perfect as it is -- in particular, I would like them to add some form of game library sharing targeted to famillies and/or LANs.

I was more conerned about the "appearance". There is a tendency to want to "modernize", and "modern", first and foremost, is being different from before (even if "before" was perfectly ok). On the Internet, "modern" also means more "web design" and less information -- some companies make it very difficult to find anything useful on their sites amongst all the modern "web design".

Origin might not be that bad -- I don't know yet. The first impression, however, was very "modern" in the bad way, flashy and confusing, maybe even annoying, and not particulary well thought out.

I've had my Steam account for a while, but never used it until recently; it merely existed because I had a Steam game bundled with my graphics card that I never had any success with so I gave up soon, and a free Valve promotion game that pretty much sucked. However, when I picked it up a while back due to receiving some more Steam games from an Amazon order, it felt very different from the Origin experience that I described -- it wasn't flashy, it "just worked".

So yeah, make REAL improvements. Just don't "modernize'" it :-)

[Dream is destiny.]

Oprindeligt skrevet af 2point4:

Oprindeligt skrevet af The Rolling Ham Cheese:

There are platforms that are more popular than steam? If not, they have nothing to copy from.

LOL! That's so short-sighted it's funny.

What you're saying is that unless a platform has as many users as Steam they won't have any better ideas. Pretty absurd. Origin has less users but they have a much better refund policy. GoG has less users but they work on older games to make them run better than the same game sold on Steam. The list goes on...

If Valve were ever to share your viewpoint, they'd drown in a matter of years. It's possible they are currently in the midst of it.

EA has a return policy... but only for Electronic Arts games, so not that good really, pretty much the same as Steam (unless you want to return Hl2. GOG not only works on games, but offers them Completely DRM free... Alot better than Steam.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Antiquated Bear:

EA has a return policy... but only for Electronic Arts games, so not that good really, pretty much the same as Steam (unless you want to return Hl2. GOG not only works on games, but offers them Completely DRM free... Alot better than Steam.

Though you won't find many of the newer games on gog.com, Steam also host servers for multiplayer, while gog.com does not.

Every company has their advantages and disadvantages over another. It's good for the industry and the consumer to have those options.

[Ultrapwnd]

OP, try activating the CD key on origin. That should work, the one from the DVD from Dragon Age.

[TheWebDoctor]

The features that you just listed on other platforms suck so yeah...

Oprindeligt skrevet af 2point4:

Oprindeligt skrevet af The Rolling Ham Cheese:

There are platforms that are more popular than steam? If not, they have nothing to copy from.

LOL! That's so short-sighted it's funny.

What you're saying is that unless a platform has as many users as Steam they won't have any better ideas. Pretty absurd. Origin has less users but they have a much better refund policy. GoG has less users but they work on older games to make them run better than the same game sold on Steam. The list goes on...

If Valve were ever to share your viewpoint, they'd drown in a matter of years. It's possible they are currently in the midst of it.

[TheWebDoctor]

Here we go with the DRM haters...

Oprindeligt skrevet af Antiquated Bear:

Oprindeligt skrevet af 2point4:

LOL! That's so short-sighted it's funny.

What you're saying is that unless a platform has as many users as Steam they won't have any better ideas. Pretty absurd. Origin has less users but they have a much better refund policy. GoG has less users but they work on older games to make them run better than the same game sold on Steam. The list goes on...

If Valve were ever to share your viewpoint, they'd drown in a matter of years. It's possible they are currently in the midst of it.

EA has a return policy... but only for Electronic Arts games, so not that good really, pretty much the same as Steam (unless you want to return Hl2. GOG not only works on games, but offers them Completely DRM free... Alot better than Steam.

[2point4]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Lord Revan:

The features that you just listed on other platforms suck so yeah...

That's a very thoughtful response. It's always refreshing to see the VDF state that no return policy is far better than a limited return policy. And that a company putting in effort to ensure older titles that they're charging their customers for run on modern systems is dumb when you can just get the same product, only broken, that you can spend your own time getting to work.

But how dare I suggest that anyone but your beloved Valve can have better ideas and better policies from time to time...

[Raven Wolfe]

I don't know, man. I just install game, see client service pop up, nod my head and say hmmmm, then I click play. That's usually how it goes. I couldn't even tell you where the log out function is or how to add friends on clients like Origin or Uplay. That's the best way to get through life. Don't give a care and play a game. It doesn't matter to me if Origin gives a pink teddy bear to orphans every time I log in.

[Uueerdo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Ultrapwnd:

OP, try activating the CD key on origin. That should work, the one from the DVD from Dragon Age.

Of course, if he's like me and has the ultimate edition, he might have to download a patch outside of Origin to actually get the Origin copy to recognize any and all dlc's as legitimate.

[KillerKoala78]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Uueerdo:

Of course, if he's like me and has the ultimate edition, he might have to download a patch outside of Origin to actually get the Origin copy to recognize any and all dlc's as legitimate.

That shouldn't be required. Once he uses the key, Origin should know exactly what product he has and confirm it with him before adding it to his account.

OP, you don't need DVDs with Origin. You redeem a key on Origin, it knows what it is, and allows you to download it. Just like Steam.

[Uueerdo]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Killer Koala:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Uueerdo:

Of course, if he's like me and has the ultimate edition, he might have to download a patch outside of Origin to actually get the Origin copy to recognize any and all dlc's as legitimate.

That shouldn't be required. Once he uses the key, Origin should know exactly what product he has and confirm it with him before adding it to his account.

OP, you don't need DVDs with Origin. You redeem a key on Origin, it knows what it is, and allows you to download it. Just like Steam.

That was all I did. Redeemed a key for DA Ultimate on Origin. Don't get me wrong, Origin does download all the DLC I am entitled to; it is just that the latest version it installs needs patched outside of Origin to recognize the DLC as legit in game. Yes, that is mostly the game's fault, but my point is that Origin should be providing that update; I should not have had to hunt around for it online.