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[HP_Wuvcraft]

EA's customer service also takes a giant shit all over Valve's.

I've seen and heard horror stories from both sides.

Bottom line: customer service is customer service.

 

[grendelrt]

Oh well didnt buy BF3 because of this, wont buy ME3 either.

 

[Wthermans]

If I can pick it up for $5 like I did with ME1 & ME2, then I'll bite, until then that franchise just isn't worth the $60 premium and the headaches I've had with BF3 on Origin make me wary to even spend $5 on it.

 

[RukusProvider]

I was planning to buy it on the superior platform anyway (360) so no worries.

 

[Snuggles]

I was planning to buy it on the superior platform anyway (360) so no worries.

Haha

 

[AzureNightmare]

I was planning to buy it on the superior platform anyway (360) so no worries.

I dont know is this is Naivete, ignorance, or a combination of the two.

 

[epmode]

I've seen and heard horror stories from both sides.

Bottom line: customer service is customer service.

Valve's customer service is very slow. EA's likes to ban your entire Origin account for quoting someone who said a bad word on their forum.

 

[kswiston]

I AM NOT ALONE. I feel so happy.

Game is offered for pre-order on Direct2Drive/future GameFLY. I know GAF hates that company as well, but it looks like I can get Mass Effect 3 for $45.86 with my membership discount. Will probably bite.

EDIT: GameFly, not Gamestop. Mixed up my buyouts.

 

[RukusProvider]

I dont know is this is Naivete, ignorance, or a combination of the two.

carrying over my character from the previous games + achievements towards my gamerscore.

Steam and Origin should sync up with Live for achievements.

 

[DTKT]

So, it's been confirmed that I need Origin to run in the background in order to play ME3? I can't just activate ME3 with Origin and uninstall it after?

 

[AgentP]

And everyone will buy it anyway. Nothing to see here.

I'm not, but because I think the series is not worth the time, ME2 was snore inducing and it is clear it is just a shooter in RPG clothes.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Valve's customer service is very slow. EA's likes to ban your entire Origin account for quoting someone who said a bad word on their forum.

Trust me, I know. I was banned from the BioWare forums for saying piracy is bad news bears.

 

[Cheech]

You have got to be fucking shitting me. This is objectively, demonstrably false.

Nope. Valve's customer service is nonexistent. You will wait days for any kind of response, your account is stolen tough shit, and when they used to use a payment house that would lock your credit cards? Shit.

EA, you can have a live person on chat/phone in a minute. Never had an issue with them.

I own a couple hundred games on Steam. I'm well versed in their shitty customer service.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

I see no problem with EA wanting all the money for their game. They have no personal hatred for steam or anything. If steam never updated their policy when they added f2p mmos, EA would have no problem putting their games on steam.

Did you deal with the DLC for Mass Effect 2 - going through EA and Bioware funbux? I want Steam to handle ALL of my DLC. Why should a dev use Steam as a trojan horse to sell DLC through their (inferior) system? I am sure that with Origin, ME3's DLC will be handled in a better manner but yeah this is bad news all around.

 

[WanderingWind]

Nope. Valve's customer service is nonexistent. You will wait days for any kind of response, your account is stolen tough shit, and when they used to use a payment house that would lock your credit cards? Shit.

EA, you can have a live person on chat/phone in a minute. Never had an issue with them.

I own a couple hundred games on Steam. I'm well versed in their shitty customer service.

Having slow service is absolutely non-comparable to the metric ton of crap EA has done to their customers. It's not even a point of honest contention. It's one thing to play devil's advocate. It's another thing entirely to just flat out ignore reality. There are hundreds of data points that prove EA, and in specific their service surrounding Origin, is terrible. It's a false equivalency of epic proportions to even compare the two at this point.

 

[Volcynika]

Nope. Valve's customer service is nonexistent. You will wait days for any kind of response, your account is stolen tough shit, and when they used to use a payment house that would lock your credit cards? Shit.

EA, you can have a live person on chat/phone in a minute. Never had an issue with them.

I own a couple hundred games on Steam. I'm well versed in their shitty customer service.

Valve's customer service has always been pretty prompt to respond to me and I've had no issues. Everyone's had different experiences.

 

[Dice]

It's official. EA is dead to me.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

bad news all around.

The only thing this will do is spark competition. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

[charlequin]

So does it have Spyware on it or not?

As much as I disapprove of Origin in general for other reasons, no, it unambiguously does not contain spyware.

As the absolutely terrible customer service of Origin has shown us, companies like Valve that actual try to be customer friendly are far and few between.

Valve has significantly (significantly) better customer-facing policies than EA, but I think the consensus is pretty much that the Origin CS staff are more responsive and helpful by a good margin than Steam's.

That's part of what really gets me here, too. Cut out the disingenuous "oh we're pulling our games but it's Valve's fault, boo hoo" routine and EA's litany of terrible policies and they could be on to something here -- they certainly release enough good games (and have a few cool policies, like registering previously-bought EA games on Origin) that the net effect of Origin on PC gaming could be very positive.

I just find the "We want to communicate better with our customers" line laughable bullshit.

It is laughable bullshit. I think it's only right to call EA out on it here the same way we would if they stopped putting DLC up on PSN tomorrow as part of some similarly petty and foolish pissing match with Sony.

The only thing this will do is spark competition. There's nothing wrong with that.

Competition in a content-locked, network-driven market like gaming has both upsides and downsides. If the market fragments and everyone's stuck with digital collections spanning twelve different download services, that's a bad thing.

Similarly, sometimes changes in an industry can trade one form of competition for another, to either positive or negative results. Right now in PC gaming there's a ton of competition between different games on each service, as well as between different services selling the same game, both of which encourage pricedrops, sales, and other bonuses that directly benefit the consumer. If that's replaced by competition between services with their own exclusive libraries, that removes almost all the incentive to do big sales or otherwise compete on anything besides library; it'd be "creating competition," sure, but it'd be removing a different (and more beneficial) competition at the same time.

 

[Cheech]

Having slow service is absolutely non-comparable to the metric ton of crap EA has done to their customers. It's not even a point of honest contention. It's one thing to play devil's advocate. It's another thing entirely to just flat out ignore reality. There are hundreds of data points that prove EA, and in specific their service surrounding Origin, is terrible. It's a false equivalency of epic proportions to even compare the two at this point.

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. My buddy had an issue with his BF3 key, and he got sorted within minutes over the phone. Old Republic, different buddy, same deal. Personally, never had an issue with them either.

Not only is Valve unreachable over phone, but their online support has been terribly slow over the years. I appreciate the other dude who they actually responded to in a timely manner, but within my circle, that has not been the general experience with Steam's support.

 

[PerZona]

Not surprised at all, although i still think that Battlefield 3 on Origins is totally useless, considering the fact that Battlelog handles EVERYTHING for Battlefield 3.

Screw EA on their Origin program, hope they decide it's a waste of time and scrap it in the next few months.

 

[Emitan]

When your FAQ has to specifically mention why it's not on Steam because you know it will come up, YOU HAVE A FUCKING PROBLEM WITH YOUR BUSINESS PLAN.

 

[WanderingWind]

Valve has significantly (significantly) better customer-facing policies than EA, but I think the consensus is pretty much that the Origin CS staff are more responsive and helpful by a good margin than Steam's.

That's part of what really gets me here, too. Cut out the disingenuous "oh we're pulling our games but it's Valve's fault, boo hoo" routine and EA's litany of terrible policies and they could be on to something here -- they certainly release enough good games (and have a few cool policies, like registering previously-bought EA games on Origin) that the net effect of Origin on PC gaming could be very positive.

I would agree with responsive, but absolutely not with more helpful. I don't really feel it necessary to link the the dozens (hundreds?) of posts of EA support chat conversations that ends with "This is now counterproductive, goodbye." Not to mention the bannings that deprive paying customers of their games because of unrelated forums. These are inextricable parts of customer service.

Valve, on the other hand, has a lengthy and documented history of providing excellent service (when they get to it).

It's a matter of speed of response versus quality of service. It's not even comparable.

 

[EDarkness]

Anyone who lives in Japan have any problems with Origin? I'm worried that if Origin is required I won't be able to play the PC version. Origin in Japan always goes to the Japanese site and won't let me view the page in English.

 

[Cheech]

Not to mention the bannings that deprive paying customers of their games because of unrelated forums.

I can't be the only person who sees these stories and wishes that not only would Internet badasses get their games taken away, but also a kick in the ass for being a forum jerk.

I'll stop short of saying "good on EA", because I haven't been following the story super close.

 

[WanderingWind]

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. My buddy had an issue with his BF3 key, and he got sorted within minutes over the phone. Old Republic, different buddy, same deal. Personally, never had an issue with them either.

Not only is Valve unreachable over phone, but their online support has been terribly slow over the years. I appreciate the other dude who they actually responded to in a timely manner, but within my circle, that has not been the general experience with Steam's support.

Man, this is just the tip of the iceberg. To say there has been a deluge of complaints would be putting it mildly.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/15/biowhere-ea-working-on-fixing-game-bans/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/05/ea-origin-bans-update-edition/
http://www.customerservicescoreboard.com/Electronic+Arts
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/t...-permanent-Origin-bans-through-content-filter

I can't be the only person who sees these stories and wishes that not only would Internet badasses get their games taken away, but also a kick in the ass for being a forum jerk.

I'll stop short of saying "good on EA", because I haven't been following the story super close.

Yeah, okay. We're done here.

Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post.

What a badass.

 

[epmode]

I'd probably feel a tiny bit better about EA if they didn't name their DD program after the one of the all-time great developers... which ended up being bought and murdered by EA, like so many others.

I can't be the only person who sees these stories and wishes that not only would Internet badasses get their games taken away, but also a kick in the ass for being a forum jerk.

I'll stop short of saying "good on EA", because I haven't been following the story super close.

Oh look, another Everything Has A Defense Force example.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Oh look, another Everything Has A Defense Force example.

He said he was posting from an uninformed perspective. What the fuck.

 

[Pureauthor]

lolwut

best bioware game in years.

That says more about Bioware than it does SWTOR.

Anyway, fuck Origin and anything that needs to do with it. Not that I was going to buy ME3 ayway, but moral support.

 

[Htown]

Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content.

Everybody else seems to be able to figure it out, EA.

We're not stupid. We know why you're not putting it on Steam.

 

[Rufus]

"WTF what a horrible opinion to have indeed" or "WTF, lay off, the guy doesn't know"?

 

[Eusis]

Someone brought up whether Ubisoft or EA is worse... and honestly, yeah, I'd lean toward Ubisoft being way worse. EA's offering a weaker Steam essentially, but Ubisoft combines the negatives in full form (online connection required, but no offline mode), and few to none of the positives; if you're running a service like uPlay I should be able to redownload games I own through you, not get them through DIGITAL-FUCKING-RIVER and need to back them up or else. Hell, you greatly reduce the risk of being affected by the single worst part of Origin (universal ban) just by not posting on their forums, and given the screencaps of at least Bioware's forums that seems more something to watch from a distance anyway.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

"WTF, lay off, the guy doesn't know"?

This one. I could have been more clear on that.

I was about to post informing him, but then I saw that other post. It annoyed me.

 

[WanderingWind]

He said he was posting from an uninformed perspective. What the fuck.

Then spend the 30 seconds necessary to Google the topic at hand, rather than just inserting some pithy nonsense about how these people (that I don't know about) in this situation (that I have no understanding of) are being little "badasses" (even though I know literally nothing about what's going on) and how they probably deserved it (whatever "it" entails) because of what they did (whatever that was!)

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Then spend the 30 seconds necessary to Google the topic at hand, rather than just inserting some pithy nonsense about how these people (that I don't know about) in this situation (that I have no understanding of) are being little "badasses" (even though I know literally nothing about what's going on) and how they probably deserved it (whatever "it" entails) because of what they did (whatever that was!)

I get that you're upset at his ignorance, but come on. Not everyone "knows about EA". And quite frankly, people get banned for being asshats. So he assumed. So what? He said he didn't know, and that he was shutting up.

 

[natethegreat409]

EA is dead to me. I'll play my friends copy of Mass Effect for 360. I've felt EA has been wrecking gaming for years now, and it's gotten even worse the past year. I'm done with them.

 

[Stallion Free]

The amusing thing here is that if Cheech had posted that exact post about dudes getting banned with the word "badass" in it on an EA forum he would have been banned from his EA games for using the word "badass."

Sooooo much irony.

 

[GorillaJu]

Damn so much for buying the PC ver. I hate fracturing my collections.

 

[WanderingWind]

I get that you're upset at his ignorance, but come on. Not everyone "knows about EA". And quite frankly, people get banned for being asshats. So he assumed. So what? He said he didn't know, and that he was shutting up.

But come on...what, exactly? Being ignorant of a subject is just fine. We all are. Holding firm to a position without doing basic research into what you're professing to support is not.

...and once again, regardless of what you think about EA's forum policy, if you (not the you, in specific here) believe that saying bad things on a forum about a game should give the company unilateral power to revoke your right to play the games you purchased, then I reserve an equal right to not think very highly of you or your opinion.

 

[charlequin]

I would agree with responsive, but absolutely not with more helpful. I don't really feel it necessary to link the the dozens (hundreds?) of posts of EA support chat conversations that ends with "This is now counterproductive, goodbye."

Yeah, admittedly that position was formulated based on samples of customer service reports from before the forum-banning thing came to light.

 

[faceless007]

Ubisoft combines the negatives in full form (online connection required, but no offline mode),

I don't think that's true for all their games. AC:R does have a functioning offline mode, I think AC:B does too. The always-online DRM was removed from AC2.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Holding firm to a position without doing basic research into what you're professing to support is not.

But he, in his personal case and the case of others, had no bad interactions with Origin Support.

So, while he was coming at it from personal experience, you and others were coming at it from "But this happened!".

Of course he will side with EA, because he has had great experience with them. It's not like he was saying "EA never banned anyone ever for anything they didn't do".

So yeah.

Come on. Don't try to act like he was condoning EA's mass bannings, which he didn't know shit about.

 

[CecilRousso]

Not suprising, but not buying. I dont trust EA, I dont like their way of handling bans, and I just dont want to support Origin.

 

[Sinoox]

Offer the first two on Steam and the third only for Origin? What the hell, EA?

 

[Brazil]

Eh. Origin is not that bad.

 

[WanderingWind]

But he, in his personal case and the case of others, had no bad interactions with Origin Support.

So, while he was coming at it from personal experience, you and others were coming at it from "But this happened!".

Of course he will side with EA, because he has had great experience with them. It's not like he was saying "EA never banned anyone ever for anything they didn't do".

So yeah.

Come on.

...you don't even believe what you're typing anymore. It's not even an approximation of a valid defense to say "well, yeah, we was using his personal experience and you were using easily verifiable facts! Come on!" You know this, man.

We can discuss other things, if you just feel like debating. This is beneath both of us.

Don't try to act like he was condoning EA's mass bannings, which he didn't know shit about.

...

I can't be the only person who sees these stories and wishes that not only would Internet badasses get their games taken away, but also a kick in the ass for being a forum jerk.

I'll stop short of saying "good on EA", because I haven't been following the story super close.

...

 

[Rufus]

He does condone someone losing access to all their EA games for being banned from their forums, that much is clear (to both him and everyone else). That's the entire point of the 'defense worse' comment and other reactions.

 

[Eusis]

I don't think that's true for all their games. AC:R does have a functioning offline mode, I think AC:B does too. The always-online DRM was removed from AC2.

As long as I can boot offline (or more accurately when their servers are offline) I'll be OK with uPlay being there, but they're showing why the idea is completely terrible. Valve MIGHT be able to reliably offer it as long as the user themselves are online, but Ubisoft clearly can't with how long some of these dry periods have gone on for.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

...you don't even believe what you're typing anymore. It's not even an approximation of a valid defense to say "well, yeah, we was using his personal experience and you were using easily verifiable facts! Come on!" You know this, man.

You're right. If you are going to start assuming that you know who I am or why I say the things I do, then we should end this.

 

[WanderingWind]

You're right. If you are going to start assuming that you know who I am or why I say the things I do, then we should end this.

The only real assumption made there is one you really couldn't take offense to. If it did offend...well, my bad. I guess.