EA and Origin: or the beginning of the end...

[Thandal]

Interestingly, I just logged onto my Steam account for the first time in about three months. The first thing that popped-up was a (polite) request to "Participate in a survey" to help Valve "better serve its customers." After asking if I wanted to contribute, the next question was whether there was a micorphone attached to my system. Ummm... yeah... And I thought I was goign to be presented with a series of follow-on questions. And Instead, the next thing was a complete scan of my rig to identify all hardware, OS, and installed programs! :tongue:

 

(I looked at the result set, and hit "Cancel")

 

But the point is, ALL vendors want to know as much as possible about their current, and potential, customers. And they'll try to get that info every way they can. MOST of the time, it's a mutually beneficial relationship. Knowing one's customers is at the heart of any business. But the wild-wild-web means we all have to establish new boundaries of how we interact on both the comnmercial, and the personal levels. It'll take time... :thumbsup:

[brokenergy]

Interestingly, I just logged onto my Steam account for the first time in about three months. The first thing that popped-up was a (polite) request to "Participate in a survey" to help Valve "better serve its customers." After asking if I wanted to contribute, the next question was whether there was a micorphone attached to my system. Ummm... yeah... And I thought I was goign to be presented with a series of follow-on questions. And Instead, the next thing was a complete scan of my rig to identify all hardware, OS, and installed programs! :tongue:

 

(I looked at the result set, and hit "Cancel")

 

But the point is, ALL vendors want to know as much as possible about their current, and potential, customers. And they'll try to get that info every way they can. MOST of the time, it's a mutually beneficial relationship. Knowing one's customers is at the heart of any business. But the wild-wild-web means we all have to establish new boundaries of how we interact on both the comnmercial, and the personal levels. It'll take time... :thumbsup:

 

True. For instance many companies want to know about your specs so they can make better patches but the truth of the matter is that companies have been doing this for years and you are only realising this now. If you (as in everyone) has a problem then contact a lawyer, or a rep of parliament or a consumer group and talk about it.

 

@antonkr: The thing is, I don't do Internet banking, type my address or order anything online. Half the people here are getting over-dramatic while the other half don't care. If you care then don't post it in the first place or use the Interent for that matter, companies have been doing it for years and I see no case that they are going to stop now. Also do you know how long it takes to actually scan a PC? What does EA want with your entire hard drive for that matter? It's going to take hours and besides the only thing that its going to scan for is the same things that past EA games have scanned; your specs. I see no real reason of me flapping my arms up and down and frankly I don't care. Welcome to the real world people.

[CommanderCrazy]

I have never read an EULA. Not once.

Why? Dont care. plain and simple.

Let them scan my harddrive, i dont care.

 

And to the response of 'so youll let them go into your house', no i wouldnt. if there was a EULA on houses, then id read it, but it isnt. its a bloody game service not a home invasion.

[Halororor]

Interestingly, I just logged onto my Steam account for the first time in about three months. The first thing that popped-up was a (polite) request to "Participate in a survey" to help Valve "better serve its customers." After asking if I wanted to contribute, the next question was whether there was a micorphone attached to my system. Ummm... yeah... And I thought I was goign to be presented with a series of follow-on questions. And Instead, the next thing was a complete scan of my rig to identify all hardware, OS, and installed programs! :tongue:

 

The difference being that you can opt out in Valve's case. EA basically says 'either you let us scan your stuff or you don't play our games'.

 

True. For instance many companies want to know about your specs so they can make better patches but the truth of the matter is that companies have been doing this for years and you are only realising this now. If you (as in everyone) has a problem then contact a lawyer, or a rep of parliament or a consumer group and talk about it.

 

@antonkr: The thing is, I don't do Internet banking, type my address or order anything online. Half the people here are getting over-dramatic while the other half don't care. If you care then don't post it in the first place or use the Interent for that matter, companies have been doing it for years and I see no case that they are going to stop now. Also do you know how long it takes to actually scan a PC? What does EA want with your entire hard drive for that matter? It's going to take hours and besides the only thing that its going to scan for is the same things that past EA games have scanned; your specs. I see no real reason of me flapping my arms up and down and frankly I don't care. Welcome to the real world people.

 

EA's EULA has made it fairly clear that they're going to tailor advertising to your specs and installed games. I don't want that, because it's been done for years already. It's goes by the name of spyware.

 

If you ask me, this is just a way for EA to see who's pirating their stuff. Who's willing to put 50 bucks on there being a giant dispute in the next 6 months because EA found traces of pirated EA games on someone's PC and subsequently disabled the person's entire EA account?

[Vagrant0]

If you ask me, this is just a way for EA to see who's pirating their stuff. Who's willing to put 50 bucks on there being a giant dispute in the next 6 months because EA found traces of pirated EA games on someone's PC and subsequently disabled the person's entire EA account?

Some of this, yes... More of it is probably so that they can see what other games you own from other companies and get solid data on how popular it is before making their own clone or just buying out the trademark and driving it into the ground. All of that real market kinds of data would be invaluable to a company like EA or other marketing agency since they can get insight on what people are actually playing and when outside of their own service.

 

It's crap like this that makes me think that maybe, maybe piracy isn't such a bad thing. But then someone points out that most of these games probably aren't worth playing anyway.

[SpellAndShield]

It's really sad you see things this way. EA is just being honest about it? Would you like it if the Australian government just decided to come into your home any time they wanted to, rifle through your things jot down information? If you think that is ok, then that is sad news.

 

Honey, if I wanted to be private I would have lived in some third world nation rather than Aus and never use any technology again. There is a huge difference between stealing private info to what EA's doing. Besides, I don't use digital downloads nor want to buy BF3 so I have nothing to hide. If you're so up and arms about it, then talk to your rep in parliament or a consumer group but don't assume that I know nothing about it.

 

Also Thor, I think Crytek is still independent but working with EA, so they may not count.

 

Do you want ME3, it WILL need Origin.

[Arthmoor]

If you ask me, this is just a way for EA to see who's pirating their stuff. Who's willing to put 50 bucks on there being a giant dispute in the next 6 months because EA found traces of pirated EA games on someone's PC and subsequently disabled the person's entire EA account?

Do you seriously think Valve doesn't already do this on behalf of numerous other publishers when they suspect Steamworks infected games have been pirated? Because they do, and they disable peoples' Steam accounts all the time for this, even if there are 99 other legit games attached to it.

 

Valve's EULA is also far less direct about what they want, but read it carefully and slowly. It's the same boilerplate legalese they all use to try and grant themselves access they don't even legally have.

 

@Vagrant0: Aren't most of these games pure crap that isn't worth playing anyway? :P

[JimboUK]

It's really sad you see things this way. EA is just being honest about it? Would you like it if the Australian government just decided to come into your home any time they wanted to, rifle through your things jot down information? If you think that is ok, then that is sad news.

 

Honey, if I wanted to be private I would have lived in some third world nation rather than Aus and never use any technology again. There is a huge difference between stealing private info to what EA's doing. Besides, I don't use digital downloads nor want to buy BF3 so I have nothing to hide. If you're so up and arms about it, then talk to your rep in parliament or a consumer group but don't assume that I know nothing about it.

 

Also Thor, I think Crytek is still independent but working with EA, so they may not count.

 

Do you want ME3, it WILL need Origin.

 

And this is why I shall be buying it for the 360 or PS3, the Mass Effect games aren't mod friendly and don't make much use of the extra goodies the PC has to offer so it makes little difference what platform I play it on.

[SpellAndShield]

It's really sad you see things this way. EA is just being honest about it? Would you like it if the Australian government just decided to come into your home any time they wanted to, rifle through your things jot down information? If you think that is ok, then that is sad news.

 

Honey, if I wanted to be private I would have lived in some third world nation rather than Aus and never use any technology again. There is a huge difference between stealing private info to what EA's doing. Besides, I don't use digital downloads nor want to buy BF3 so I have nothing to hide. If you're so up and arms about it, then talk to your rep in parliament or a consumer group but don't assume that I know nothing about it.

 

Also Thor, I think Crytek is still independent but working with EA, so they may not count.

 

Do you want ME3, it WILL need Origin.

 

And this is why I shall be buying it for the 360 or PS3, the Mass Effect games aren't mod friendly and don't make much use of the extra goodies the PC has to offer so it makes little difference what platform I play it on.

 

Sadly I only have a computer. Not sure what to do, I mean ME+ is my favourite series but with this, I dunno.

[JimboUK]

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Sadly I only have a computer. Not sure what to do, I mean ME+ is my favourite series but with this, I dunno.

 

Especially with it tying up the story, I'm not sure what I'd do in your position. I had it installed for the BF3 beta but after a little research chose to remove it, I would have bought BF3 but not now.