entr0py wrote on Nov 2, 2011, 17:59:
jacobvandy wrote on Nov 2, 2011, 17:35:
Origin does NOTHING but launch and I guess update the game (hasn't been a patch since the first day, though they have maintenance and server updates daily it seems), as mentioned it doesn't even provide friends list functionality... But if Battlelog can check whether your game is updated and tell Origin to launch the game, why couldn't it apply patches and launch the BF3 .exe itself? The only reason to require Origin for BF3 is to force people into "using" it.
Sure it has a friends list, that's pretty much the only point of the Origin overlay if you have it enabled. Or, on the Origin client, you can click the add friends button in the lower right corner. Unlike Steam I think the friends tab doesn't display if you're friendless.
I certainly agree Origin is required, not actually to provide the users with benefits, but to add a layer of DRM and install a games store. But the same is true of every game that requires Steam. Otherwise they wouldn't require it, they'd just let people use if if they choose.
The Origin friends list doesn't do anything for BF3. Wouldn't matter if you have 100 friends there, you still have to add them to Battlelog in order to see where they're playing, invite them to your game, group up, voice chat, etc. That's where Origin fails big time compared to Steam; it's not an API used by games for a standardized friends list, achievements, stat tracking, and all that good stuff, it's just DRM and a store.
They're trying to strong-arm an audience into using a service
before the service is there. That's not how it works. When Steam launched as a requirement for Counter-Strike 1.6, they already had all of the friends list and server browsing and whatnot implemented and [mostly] working. They didn't make you go use another service that did all of that and just called on Steam to launch the game.