The Battlefield 3 Beta launched recently and for the majority of PC gamers, this will be the first time they'll have used EA's new digital distribution system, downloader and online store - by the name of Origin. For those who aren't too familiar with Origin, it's EA's answer to the popular Steam network. Following the high profile public spat between EA and Valve, EA pulled all of their popular titles from Steam and created their own download service. EA and Origin is now in direct competition with Valve and Steam. But, competition is good, right? Right. As a PC gamer, I love Steam - even with a monopolised online market they continuously offer fantastic deals and provide excellent support. A competitor in their market-place could well have been a good thing, ensuring that Steam maintains it's quality of service, value and keeps it on it's toes. Unfortunately, that competitor is EA and as a PC gamer I do not like EA. They have a bad reputation of rushing out release after release, unfinished products at full retail price, poor support, milking the DLC market dry and are responsible of crushing many aspiring small developers.
Yet it is with Origin that the masses are in uproar over. Quite simply if you want to play an EA game you have to use Origin. Case in point, if you want to play Battlefield 3 you have two choices: either buy a digital copy and download from Origin or buy a retail disc and register it online through Origin. Regardless, you'll have to use Origin and in doing so you must agree to their EULA. We've all agreed to hundreds of User Agreements and I'd say that most of us have never read anything of what we are agreeing to, but one thorough denizen over at the Escapist Forums stumbled across a quite extraordinary clause, one that ensures that I will not be installing Origin and may well make you think twice about downloading the software onto your PC. Under the paragraph titled "Consent to Collection and Use of Data", the EULA reads:
To summarise, Origin's:
- is always on, not just when you're playing an EA game (and it is a memory hog)
- scans your entire system and reports back everything you have installed
- monitors your internet usage and tracks your browsing history
- sells all gathered information to 3rd party advertisers
EA also has plans to launch Origin's for your mobile device and integrate social network hooks so not only will they be selling the data from your hard drive, but also the data from your phone and your friends list.
The simple fact is that by playing any EA exclusive such as Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3, you have to agree that EA will continuously distribute your personal information to make money on you by selling the contents of your hard drive, your browsing history, or anything else. Why should I be a cash point vector in their business plan? Once I've paid for my game, that should be the end of the one-time transaction, my money for their game. There is simply no other industry in which this would be acceptable, other than gaming.
Given the high profile security collapse at Sony and their own controversial EULA revision, I'd rather that Sony, EA or anyone else do less data mining on me given the recent track record of gaming company IT security. I quite frankly do not trust them as nothing is ever truly anonymous on the internet.
As some of you might be aware, popular sights such as Google and Facebook track your cookies to personalise your Google ads or search results, but what Origin is doing is different as this is me playing a game in my own privacy. I would have no issue with providing them data on how I played the game that I bought from them, but they have no right to any other data of mine.
It's obvious that EA doesn't think they can make enough money by just selling and distributing games, so they have put an unethical business plan in place whereby they continuously make money by selling any customers data to the highest bidder. I want to support gaming and in particular PC gaming, but I frankly refuse to sign up to Origin's so that they can extract whatever data they please for free so that an EA executive can drive a new Ferrari.
Yet it is with Origin that the masses are in uproar over. Quite simply if you want to play an EA game you have to use Origin. Case in point, if you want to play Battlefield 3 you have two choices: either buy a digital copy and download from Origin or buy a retail disc and register it online through Origin. Regardless, you'll have to use Origin and in doing so you must agree to their EULA. We've all agreed to hundreds of User Agreements and I'd say that most of us have never read anything of what we are agreeing to, but one thorough denizen over at the Escapist Forums stumbled across a quite extraordinary clause, one that ensures that I will not be installing Origin and may well make you think twice about downloading the software onto your PC. Under the paragraph titled "Consent to Collection and Use of Data", the EULA reads:
To summarise, Origin's:
- is always on, not just when you're playing an EA game (and it is a memory hog)
- scans your entire system and reports back everything you have installed
- monitors your internet usage and tracks your browsing history
- sells all gathered information to 3rd party advertisers
EA also has plans to launch Origin's for your mobile device and integrate social network hooks so not only will they be selling the data from your hard drive, but also the data from your phone and your friends list.
The simple fact is that by playing any EA exclusive such as Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3, you have to agree that EA will continuously distribute your personal information to make money on you by selling the contents of your hard drive, your browsing history, or anything else. Why should I be a cash point vector in their business plan? Once I've paid for my game, that should be the end of the one-time transaction, my money for their game. There is simply no other industry in which this would be acceptable, other than gaming.
Given the high profile security collapse at Sony and their own controversial EULA revision, I'd rather that Sony, EA or anyone else do less data mining on me given the recent track record of gaming company IT security. I quite frankly do not trust them as nothing is ever truly anonymous on the internet.
As some of you might be aware, popular sights such as Google and Facebook track your cookies to personalise your Google ads or search results, but what Origin is doing is different as this is me playing a game in my own privacy. I would have no issue with providing them data on how I played the game that I bought from them, but they have no right to any other data of mine.
It's obvious that EA doesn't think they can make enough money by just selling and distributing games, so they have put an unethical business plan in place whereby they continuously make money by selling any customers data to the highest bidder. I want to support gaming and in particular PC gaming, but I frankly refuse to sign up to Origin's so that they can extract whatever data they please for free so that an EA executive can drive a new Ferrari.
nice column Alan :)
This same EULA is used in all EA games afaik.
Besides, since PSN got hacked I dont think there's anyone stupid enough to leave personal information on his/her acccount.
- is always on, not just when you're playing an EA game (and it is a memory hog)
- scans your entire system and reports back everything you have installed
- monitors your internet usage and tracks your browsing history
- sells all gathered information to 3rd party advertisers
are you joking? this is spying
(not sure if in another tab or also in another browser window, but only when ur logged in)
(ie. learn to fucking sandbox/private tabs :L)
It's been in EA UELAs for years now. They also stated in an earlier version that they reserve the right to delete your account (= your game license) after 2 years of inactivity.
Seems like they backed down a little now though:
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/26/ea-revises-origin-eula-data-collection-is-still-in-collection/
Main reason I uninstalled was because it is a resource hog, doubly so because it requires your web browser to be running on top of the Origin app. Such a stupid management of resources. You will need like 4GB of memory minimum to get any sort of decent performance.
I hope that the content of their EULA is gonna be published on as many gamecommunities as possible because this simply cant be knowingly supported.
Well learning this, it also took away my entire interest in bf3
However (and flame on) I do not find this that bad. I mean, it's weird and for many a privacy concern that software such as Origin sends personal data to EA. But, what do you really have to hide? I know for sure I don't do anything else than play games on my desktop, and by games that's ET, TF2 and now BF3. On my laptop I have the rest of my stuff (not like I'm hiding plans to kill Obama or shit like that, just family pics and all of that crap). This is just my case though, I don't really know what kind of software are you guys using that are so afraid of letting EA know (jk ofc). And if you have such privacy concerns, maybe you should take a look at Facebook for instance and realize they might know more info than they should know...
Downloaded only one game from steam and that was bastion and after that havent logged in. Steam, valve, EA with there origin can suck maeh balls.
steam isnt just about valve and can help other games/companies, origin is EA only and for EA's greed
in my opinion steam > origin by a long long way on every level
Kinda scary. Won't install it.
fuck all this 2.0 shit & all the consoles imo...
P.S.
yes i am mad... it's a joke how paying customers are treated nowadays, and how less those bastards care about their PAYING customers privacy... and thank god my PC is too bad to run BF3 anyways, otherwise i might have given it a try...
Do you have an insurance policy in your name? Do you have a mobile phone contract? If the answer is yes, your personal details are already being sold to a multitude of companies.
Did you know that facebook automatically uploads your entire mobile phone contact list onto their servers? They didn't warn you about that one did they.
Obviously everyone would prefer for Origin not to collect this data, but anyone who thinks this is spying or immoral needs to wake up and join the modern world. Everywhere you go you are monitored, every single website you go to, you are monitored.
Battlefield 3 is absolutely awesome. Install Origin, lighten up, play some games and most importantly; have some fun!
while they may even monitor some things you do on your console, the email address registered to your online account and so forth, the only thing you do on a console is play games so what else can they find out, there's many many things a person can do on their PC which are not any of EA's business
This isn't spying, it's marketing. Nothing is annoying about it, Origin does not hog your computer's resources and EA certainly don't sit there watching you browse the internet.
You always have to agree to an EULA before using software and you always have done. Why are you now saying that agreeing to one is being forced upon you? You have the option not to agree to the EULA.
PC gaming is more desirable than ever and it will continue to grow in popularity until the next generation of consoles are firmly bedded into the gaming industry.
Just out of interest, has anyone moaning about Origin actually used it? It's bloody fantastic.
WHAAAAAA - Its bloody awful in comparison to Steam.
gg EA and Origin!
thanks baggiez
https://www.virtualbox.org/
and just use VB to run games.
simples..
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/battlefield-3/news/6331203/ea-changes-origin-eula
http://eacom.s3.amazonaws.com/EULA_Origin_8.24.11.pdf