I think that's not just BF3 but Origin in general. But then Steam probably has something similar, Origin's is simply ... worded a bit badly. That said, I know that steam only collects that info from surveys and they pop up on you and you can always opt not to participate with the click of a button.

With EA looking to add 3rd parties they're certainly setting up to be the next Steam, so clashes were bound to happen.
Personally I'm with Steam on this particular topic. I'd prefer to be able to buy every part of the game with the retailer I buy the base game at, rather than being forced to use my payment info at some other place as well to get the rest of it. (however ironic that may seem with Steam).

When you say steam collects from surveys, i have never had one pop up on me... do they come from the client or something?

Also honestly i'm not a big of the Origin vs Steam thing, if it was possible i would use neither and just stick to retail purchases and for indie games i would buy them from a DRM free retailer like Gamersgate. Unfortunatly because of the Steamworks thing, i'm forced to use Steam in order to play games like Total War, New Vegas, Deus Ex and now Skyrim which i find is very unfair to customers, wish they weren't tied to digital retailers.

Also the fact that to begin with i only owned 2 games on steam then thought 'oh it can't hurt to buy a couple of games on sale' etc and now my account has quite a few which means i can't boycott steam anymore.

Yeah, you'll get a popup like when a new game comes out or something, asking you if you want to participate, you can chose yes or no right there.

Doesn't really happen that often, can easily go more than a year without one.

@the steam versus Origin thing, that's kind of how it went for me too. Got my first games and then expanded from there. For me it's my main now, which makes me naturally opposed to Origin, not necessarily by how Origin is but rather that Steam already got me, and I really don't need two of those types of services. One of the conveniences is having it all in one place and Origin opposes that (although Base game with DLC's elsewhere would still cover that particular aspect)

If Origin had started it this way back when I'd be with Origin right now, but they didn't. That said, I do have a few games on Origin (my Steam keys activated there), and soon an exclusive in BF3 (which i bought before crap hit the fan since it was half price preorder here at Easter)

It's not so much the software's restrictions that bug most of us. It's a lot more EA's ( and any other competitor, really.) view on the how when and what you can do with what you bought.

The "you must log in within set amount of time or account deletion". Granted it's 24 months, but still. It says a lot about what they think, and how they see their clients. Clients that have purchased an item on steam can't have their accounts deleted after a while.

I know this does'nt amount to much but Steam was the first service to be fair and honest. Direct2drive had limited downloads and installs. Download protection insurance.

Gog.com faked a going under, I felt bad at the time for people who had spent some money here. Again, granted it was a publicity stunt, but it goes to show you how fragile this business is and why most of us "Steam users" enjoy clinging on to what works.

I've been with them since 2004 and never had a single bad experience...

I don't even need one of those types of "services" and in order to no become overwhelmed by one super-large service who might even destroy my niche here or elsewhere I rather vote for as many such services as possible.

Because as many of those services won't destroy that niche? Where's the logic in that?

On a sidenote. I hope that eventually, if more services like this do pop up (battlenet was supposed to go third party by now as well I believe) I hope some programs pop up which will give like easy install/uninstall/list function for all the diferent services. That'd be pretty neat.

You mean one client to get all other clients / services / whateveryoumaycallit under one hat? Of course there's gonna be competition for such a position, i.e. "we have the better / more stable / more compatible / convenient one... and i foresee at least Microsoft wanting to take that position with GFWL or something similar....

Short version: WE'RE ALL DOOMED!!!11

What I DO fear is, that more and more companies will go the Valve / Half-Life 2 way. Binding a specific blockbuster to their client / service / yada yada to promote it. Blizzard is doing so with Starcraft 2 / Diablo 3, I think Mass Effect 3 / Dragon Age 3 could be EA's spearhead and so on.
What companies do fail time and time again, is to give a reason to use their darn thing. They all marketing talk about better service / features for the customer, where there's really... none.

VAC does something similar. Try using sXe, a 3rd party anticheat stuff for Counter Strike, and you'd get banned by VAC. So Steam also SCANS your system for suspicious stuff.

The logic would be that many competing services can never become super-strong and push nice niches like here out of business just because of their sheer market power. And another argument would be that if people have an alternative than the tendency to develop user unfriendly habits will be largely decreased, because mobility of users is increased. This is just a general remark applying to many different situation equally.

You can surely argue about this but still it's kind of reasoning that I try.