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When I played Mass Effect and Dragon Age on PC, they were not subject to any sort of proprietary portal or platform. And when Steam emerged as an important NON-proprietary platform, Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2 were all available on Steam, no EA gateway required.
At some point between these releases and that of Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age Inquisition, EA introduced their proprietary platform/gateway, Origin. This was part of a series of such releases by major publishers in what was presumably an attempt to claw back some of the revenue that was being siphoned off to Steam.
Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age inquisition were released on Origin but not on Steam, owing--presumably--to irreconcilable differences between EA and Steam. The predecessor games, however, remained available on Steam--again, presumably--because they were "grandfathered in."
For several years this continued until finally EA and Steam came to some agreement under which it became possible for ME3 and DAI to appear on Steam, as long as the EA gateway--Origin--was "part of the package." I do not know when this happened, but I did wind up buying both games on Steam after already having bought them direct from EA.
Quite a long time later, EA/Bioware announced the release of Mass Effect Legendary Edition, which I also purchased on Steam. Obviously MELE came out after the original ME3 and thus was subject to the same conditions as ME3 itself.
The requirements for MELE and these other games are clearly outlined on the games' store pages and it is incorrect to argue that people were somehow tricked into accepting Origin (or what is now generally referred to as the "EA App") as part of it. When you bought MELE, you agreed to this.
To be clear, I find the EA App annoying and often an obstacle. But to call it "evil" and "robbery" is slanderous, and wishing ill on EA for imposing it--frankly--disgusting.
That is all.
"But troubleshooting is just a regular part of PC gaming!"
True, but this isn't a 20-year-old PC port that needs fan patches to be compatible with modern hardware. This is a major AAA release from only 3 years ago that people will rightly expect to Just Work™ when they want to play it. More to the point, Mass Effect is a singleplayer game that requires an internet connection just to run. That's inexcusable. The EA App here provides no benefit to the customer that couldn't be accomplished with Steam. It's just an extra point of failure that EA introduced to control the software on the user's machine. When a pointless app interferes with someone playing the game they bought I can't point the finger at them for complaining about it.
The problem with this reasoning is that EA had the Origin app up and running long before the games that require it came to Steam. In fact--as I've already pointed out above--for a very long time you couldn't buy any EA game that required Origin on Steam at all.
And since if I were EA and I'd finally reached an agreement with Steam about that, I'd be totally unmotivated to rewrite the games I was generously offering Steam to sell. Ergo, those games would always have to be launched through Origin/EA App, whether directly or through Steam.
As to "How much elbow grease...?" I don't have this issue, as is also true of the vast majority of the players, who--as you might realize--aren't flooding the forum with reports on how they're not having problems. So for the vast majority the answer is "none," because it's not an issue for them.
If you hate proprietary launchers that much, play the games on console. That'll solve your problem!
I'm aware. That's why I didn't buy the games on PC until they released on Steam.
Except, after ME:LE released, they scrapped their existing Origin client entirely, created a whole new one, and updated their releases to include it. So EA are clearly willing to rework their past games, but not if it means letting users out of their ecosystem. (And there's nothing "generous" about selling your games on the #1 PC game platform. EA needed Valve, not the other way around.)
The old "Works On My Machine™" line. "Well, MY appendix didn't explode so maybe the problem is you."
I'm sure you had no issues with the EA App. Good for you and all those other people. But when I and everyone else runs into issues with it, we're left asking why we need an extra launcher and an internet connection just to play a singleplayer game. Then we have people like you come along and say it's not a real problem that the game you bought is unplayable because of it.
You're right, the correct amount of elbow grease is "none." That's not because it's never necessary. It's because there is no reason someone who bought an offline game on Steam should have to troubleshoot an online 3rd-party launcher.
I played the ME:LE on Xbox. Got 100% of the achievements, too. I wanted to do the same on PC and only realized after redeeming my key that the EA App was required. I solved my problem by forcing the game to use Origin instead, but the point is that it never should have been necessary. Once again, there is no reason the user should have to fix the problems EA introduced.
The "generous" statement was meant as sarcasm, in the context of "If I were EA..." Nevertheless, contra your claim that EA needed Steam more than Steam needed EA, clearly Steam cared more about this than EA, since (1) EA's games did not appear on Steam for quite a long time, and (2) when they finally did, they required the use of the Origin launcher.
But changing out the launcher clearly was evidently far less effortful than getting rid of it completely. Presumably the interface between the games and the launcher remained the same on both sides: only the actual launcher app needed to be changed.
You're completely missing my point. It's clear that some people have these issues. No one could deny that. The issue that you don't seem to take in is that (1) EA perceives a benefit to requiring a launcher (2) that outweighs the small number of people for whom it causes issues.
Now, it is clear that for those people, the downside outweighs any possible upside. But...it's a requirement. You may as well complain when a game won't run on your system--or crashes a lot--or runs very slowly--if your system doesn't meet the specs required. That's a requirement too. Your only logical choice is to avoid buying games whose requirements you can't or won't meet.
There is no reason from your point of view. Clearly EA thinks there's a reason, and--guess what?--they don't have to do it your way no matter how loudly you complain.
As to whether "...the user should have to fix the problems EA introduced," allow me to introduce you to Sevareid's Law: "The chief cause of problems is solutions." That's the way things are. The perfect app is just one patch away. Can't be helped.
But I for one am happy that there is an active user community modding away. And that EA tolerates this, since not all companies are so willing to let modders do something that--as you might be aware--actually is a violation of the terms of the license under which you buy the game.
And frankly you should be happy about it as well.
Instead of doing a quote heavy response to your post (because if we keep at that it'll swallow the whole thread), I'll put it to you another way that might let you see where I'm coming from.
If EA patched the game tomorrow to remove the EA App and integrate the game with Steam (for things like cloud saves) would you miss it? I'll guess that you're probably not that attached to it. But why not? Why wouldn't you care about EA reversing the decision you're defending?
Simply put, you wouldn't miss it because the EA App doesn't benefit the end user in any way. ME:LE doesn't rely on it for any critical functionality (like the multiplayer they removed). At best, it's a tiny thing the user never uses or notices. At worst, it prevents them from even launching the game they bought. Sevareid's Law isn't a justification for adding pointless bloat to game that does nothing but sit there like an appendix waiting to burst. To that point, I'd direct you to the KISS principle.
When EA forced Origin (and later the EA App) into a singleplayer game, they made a business decision that came entirely at the expense of the customers. They're not obligated to remove the EA App, but I think you can understand why it behooves a business to listen to the people who give them money. And if they don't, I think you can understand why those same people would complain about being sold something they can't use.
You know what? You've convinced me. I'll start writing my 'thank you' note to EA for graciously allowing me to fix the game they broke AFTER they took my money. I'll put that on my to-do list, right after I finish the love song for the lady who ran over my dog.