Who's the anime girl than?

That happens sometimes. :)

Oh... thought you got some info on BioWare points or the future of Mass Effect and Dragon Age DLC... Origin Access is ok I guess, not available in my country though.

Maybe EA can get rid of other points altogether so the reign of spambots and accounts can end.

Quite fun to see this thread surging from its ashes.

Having completely ignored Origin and Uplay, I won't say I care a lot about EA's (or UBI's) commercial practice. Still, went check Origin. Had a look at mass effect 3. saw the price of the base game (9.99). Then of the N7 edition (19.99). then of the N7 extension (4.99). then wondered why the N7 edition was more expensive than base game + extension. Couldn't spot why. saw what was in that N7. Had a laugh at the concept of a "digital lithography" , the at a "sweatshirt" DLC.

Ok, going back to my cave and will keep ignoring Origin ( and Uplay for that matter)

Cow milking simulator...

Another funny thing: buying Bioware points on Origin makes even less sense when buying them via the Bioware website is actually less expensive and gives you more options as to how many of the damn things you want.

And that is what vsr should have done. He should have just ignored the games and be done with them. What sense in complaining about the existence of games he won't play anyway?

Actually the best would be in my eyes if devs would be kind of flexible and make a bit more flexible games where the user can select what kind of content he wants like more/less of violence and sex (hetero/homo kind of). That way everyone would be able to play more games.

Off the record: My preferences would be: More sex of all kind, less violence.

Regarding the topic: Origin is not really catching up to Steam (or even GOG). I wonder if they have any good idea how to improve and get more popular?

Doubtful. EA Downloader/Origin has been around almost as long as Steam and the only major jump they made is when they made their games exclusive to their client.

"Complaining" (expressing what you don't like) is kind of important. Things won't change if you won't let people (devs/publishers) know that you don't like something. I complained a lot about the Tomb Raider reboot, because parts of it felt like a shooter, because the puzzles were too easy, because the "tombs" were too small and because of the white paint on every wall that was climbable (and that it was smeared all over the entrances of "hidden/secret" caves). Why did I do this? Because I liked the game despite of its quirks. Yes, I know, Square doesn't read on GOG's forums or in the comments of some unimportant, German gaming magazine. But Squre reads the articles about the game. And you won't get a "Fans of the series didn't like that puzzles were too easy and that there was too much shooting" in those articles if you "just ignore" the game and "don't complain".

Okay, Bioware gets a lot of praise for allowing homosexual relationships (I still think it's badly implemented and feels completely tacked on), so you won't reach anything in this case... But generally, "complaining" is the right way. That's the only way to give feedback.

Origin won't improve (regarding market share). The client is okay-ish (I think it's less annoying than Steam), but gamers love their Steam and don't want their games spread over various "services". Even if EA would release all of their games DRM free, people would still complain about them being Origin exclusives. It's "No Steam, no sale!" for most people these days...

On the consumer's side, there aren't really many reasons to move to Origin, other than the few EA games. Both are DRM and Steam still has most of the games. What I don't understand is why game publishers don't move there. Do they take a much bigger cut than Valve?

Valve has a higher market share like you said. I don't know about the cut but I wouldn't be surprised if they gave the same reasoning as to why they don't bring games to GOG. (Maintaining 2 versions is difficult, etc.) On the other hand it could be that those stores curate their content and some games which apply don't pass their requirements.

my avatar

The girl is Mari Makinami Illustrious.

Still waiting for the final movie.

I still don't understand why one would complain in this case. It's not as if playing homosexual relationships is necessary to enjoy these games. They are completely optional (tacked on in a way). So why complaining about something you do not have to do anyway? It's more like he actively wants to deny this possibility to others while at the same not suffering himself at all - which is not really nice. Also he didn't just complain about single games but about a whole company suggesting that all their games should deny certain things to others while he/she doesn't really have to suffer anything right now from any game because it is all optional.

Bioware is in many ways like I proposed - make games that have optional things, so the customer can choose.

So in my case I would like to have more sex and less violence but I would not mind if others want the opposite as long as we both can have it in the same game (or some of these things in some games and other things in other games). This is maybe what tolerance is about. Maximizing the freedom for everyone not just for a single person or a specific group.
They would be stupid if they had. If you are not the market leader you either need really good service or really cheap prices to compete.

I guess EA and Origin only have a chance if they focus on more features of Origin and make all their own games Origin exclusives.

Maybe it would also be a possibility if Origin and UPlay would fuse and both would offer their respective games not on Steam and they would focus on creating a simple to use but powerful client and to get other games there too. That way they might be able to compete.

What about OPlay or Urigin or simply Play or Ice (better than Steam)?