Why should anyone bother responding to someone who instantly discounts all of the well-documented miserable things that EA has done to videogames in general and PC games in particular?
I buy EA games in spite of the company but sometimes sometimes being interested in a game isn't enough. Origin is that line for me. I don't trust a company that likes to shut down multiplayer servers ~2 years after release to handle a digital distribution platform. Not to mention the way they lock people out of installing games though Origin because of in appropriate forum posts.
Okay, that's a fair comment, but the point I'm making is this:
By and large, corporations do evil. They also happen to produce products that I wish to consume.
If I started playing the OMG-ethical card over EA, then I'd also in good conscience have to take a long hard look at how many electronics I own that were manufactured by Foxcon who treat their employees a gazillion times worse than EA. I'd then look at whether I really should be buying Nestle products, drinking Coca Cola products or using Gillette razors. It's a never ending spiral which would probably only end with me either going insane or becoming a mormon.
So, with that in mind, I don't have any more of a problem with EA than I do with other companies. That's not to say I don't have a disdain of EA, but I have already set out the reasons why it's impractical to completely boycott around 95% of modern society.
Now: What I do have a
really hard time wrapping my head around is why someone would justify their dislike of Origin by playing the "OMG EA are the devil" card, but still be perfectly willing to play a game that is made by.... wait for it.... THE DEVIL, AKA EA. That is just massively hypocritical and I honestly don't know how these people can take themselves seriously. By all means, justify your decision by saying you're a Valve fanboy and you love Gabe. That's cool, but at least be honest about it rather than trying to dress it up with a "saving the world one programmer at a time" reasoning, because it is entirely illogical and makes PETA look like a bastion of well thought out arguments.
Whilst Steam-only people irritate me to no end (especially when they deprive themselves of a good deal from another site if it's not a Steam key), I think it's fair to not like Origin per-se.
I certainly won't buy a game that's Origin only, and I'm reluctant to buy an EA game out of principle, unless it's really good (my thing against them is that EA is a shit company, and their games aren't very good either -- just generic crowd-pleasing mush that has no value to me whatsoever).
That's a perfectly reasonable assessment. You gave a reason to not wishing to use Origin other than "OMG IT'S EA111!!!111" which is fair enough. I, however, don't see what the fuss is about, because I am already resigned to being forced to use Steam when I don't want to (I want my games to be self contained on their media, not tied to an internet connection and some dressed up in achievements DRM), so if I'm already being forced to use Steam against my will, I can hardly get all snippity when being made to use Origin, especially as to date, being entirely distribution method agnostic, I've encountered MUCH BETTER customer service from Origin than I have from Steam.
At the end of the day, when you order a game online, you're not receiving physical content. You're being permitted to play the game for a finite amount of time for cash. And that's renting, whether it's through Steam, Origin or Impulse/Gamestop. No matter how friendly the method, how many achievements or cheap sales it offers you, or how nice and cuddly you think your bestest buddy Uncle Gabe is, you are still receiving fundamentally less product and rights than you were five years ago when everything was physically distributed.
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tl;dr - if you're going to boycott one product on the basis of "EA being evil", then don't be a hypocritical pussy and boycott
every product made by EA.
