The Origin Great Game Guarantee

[Darkspire]

This is Origin of the Ultima fame? With Lord British and a throne room full of naked folk protesting at the MMO? Thought that had died moons ago?

Darkspire

[Nefaro]

Seems like a great customer service idea oddly enough from EA.  I am not sure it is enough to sway my current opinion about Origin but is certainly a step in the right direction.  I wonder how long until STEAM comes with something like this because that would be great especially for games without demos.

Heh!  Steam won't do this.  They're adamantly anti-refund right now, so it'd be quite a leap. 

I can fully understand a no refund policy for someone who just doesn't like the game as much as they had hoped.  But I'd say that technical issues should probably warrant one if the software in question doesn't work at all for somebody.  Of course, the first group would probably just learn to say it was the latter in order to get one since there's not much in the way of proof to be had through digital download systems.  Still, I've had one refunded (by Get Games Go) because it didn't work, so that doesn't excuse them.

[Nefaro]

This is Origin of the Ultima fame? With Lord British and a throne room full of naked folk protesting at the MMO? Thought that had died moons ago?

Darkspire

Perhaps that's where they took the name, since they gobbled up Origin long ago, but it doesn't have much to do with Ultima.  EA's Origin system is just DRM and multi-player matchmaking through web pages on your web browser (which organizationally suck in my experience with BF3). 

I believe Ultima Online is still running, but I seriously doubt it's player base is quite what it used to be.

[Windigo]

I still remember when they killed Lord British....

[Bison]

That's not true.  Battlefield 3 for example always takes you to the browser even to start a single player game.

[Herman Hum]

That's not true, for non MMO/on-line games you can play them without a Stream connection (off line mode).

Are you saying that for offline games, Origin essentially requires a one-time activation and that's it?  You can never open Origin again and be able to play the game forever?

If a game requires activation and the company no longer exists, it sounds as though you can never move the game to a new computer in the future.  Is this correct?

[Huw the Poo]

If a game requires activation and the company no longer exists, it sounds as though you can never move the game to a new computer in the future.  Is this correct?

Good point.  You're stuck with a sole installation on one PC.

[Bison]

That's not true, for non MMO/on-line games you can play them without a Stream connection (off line mode).

Are you saying that for offline games, Origin essentially requires a one-time activation and that's it?  You can never open Origin again and be able to play the game forever?

If a game requires activation and the company no longer exists, it sounds as though you can never move the game to a new computer in the future.  Is this correct?

I guess the question would be whether or not the company is willing to make a patch available to disable the check.

[jomni]

Don't kid yourself EA games that you want to play forever are very rare and few. 

[Herman Hum]

I guess the question would be whether or not the company is willing to make a patch available to disable the check.

That would never happen.  Any executive who tried that stunt would definitely face civil prosecution.

[Swatter]

The reason, for anyone not familiar with Origin, that they even have to do this is because they suck giant donkey balls.

The only time I bought a game from Origin it simply wouldn't run, period. Every time I loaded it up a message popped up saying it wouldn't run because of issue #xyz. When I did some research on issue #xyz, it turned out to affect dozens of games. It was some old Origin code causing the problem and anyone buying any of the games on the list was SOL. In a post more than a year old, they said they were working on this issue, with no updates since.

You then look up the refund policy, they don't offer refunds on games that won't run. They were basically selling games that they knew (at least some knew) wouldn't run at all, period. I don't think it was calculated evil or anything, just that EA is a lumbering giant where the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing.

Having dealt with customer service in similar situations, I wasn't about to waste my time trying to get these people to issue me a $10 refund. I simply uninstalled Origins and never looked back. I also tell anyone who will listen this story anytime Origins pops up as a topic.

I will never use Origin again, no matter what stupid marketing ploys they come up with.

[Arctic Blast]

I've never really had any issues with Origin, personally...I often get faster downloads through it than I do through Steam.

Just to clear up a few things :

1. Not every Origin game requires running through a web page. BF3 required it because that's how they set up the BattleLog system.

2. You don't need to run Origin games through Origin every time you start them up.

3. Note that this guarantee is FOR EA GAMES ONLY. So, no cover for any other publisher's games bought through Origin, which makes sense, since that other publisher would have to be onboard for the plan. At least this is a start, though.

4. The guarantee is for EA games only BOUGHT THROUGH ORIGIN. So if you buy it somewhere else for a discount, say at GreenManGaming, and plug your key in, you aren't covered.

[JasonPratt]

Christ, that sounds awful.  And primitive.

Purely out of curiosity I went to the Origin website today to browse the store...what a horrid experience!  It's as if they've deliberately made it difficult to find what you want and to filter the selection.  Even Desura's website does it better.

For some reason my mind erased "Origin" and replaced it with "PSN". ;)