Re:EA is File Snooping with the Origin Client
by Semaphor on Sunday July 13, 2014 @12:49PM
(#8027865)
> Sure Origin has had its' share of bumps
Still has. I can't even visit origin.com without either enabling my VPN or having it in German.
Region locking fun. The worst part being they say in the eula that you can not use VPN services with the Origin shop. So the choices is between either play guess the interface with real money or having them be able to say we blocked your account you no longer have access to your games.
Re:EA is File Snooping with the Origin Client
by Semaphor on Sunday July 13, 2014 @08:23PM
(#8029046)
Well, as a German I don't have problems understanding German, I just prefer having it like everything else in English. But it is a reason for me not to use them.
Re:EA is File Snooping with the Origin Client
by Omniusaspirer on Sunday July 13, 2014 @01:34PM
(#8028016)
Steam's current client is basically terrible in all respects, try playing with SteamRE or one of its variants and it's insane how much better it is. Only a matter of time until someone drops a full featured open source client that performs much faster, more efficiently, and probably offers a better interface besides.
Re:EA is File Snooping with the Origin Client
by joshschreuder on Sunday July 13, 2014 @07:47PM
(#8028946)
Sending a one-way hash of a hack phone-home URL only AFTER the hack was detected is far less disturbing than sending a ROT-13 list of recently used programs indiscriminately.
Re:EA is File Snooping with the Origin Client
by Cameron_D on Sunday July 13, 2014 @09:29PM
(#8029188)
It isn't sending ROT13 encoded data anywhere (Well, it may, but the screenshots do not have any evidence of this), all the screenshots show is Origin reading registry entries that Windows stores about opened programs.
Here is some info on what the UserAssist keys are: http://www.aldeid.com/wiki/Windows-userassist-keys
And this is perfectly okay, but looking through a list of start menu entries isn't? In fact I'd consider shipping off lists of URLs and domains I've been to worse than looking through installed programs.
> In a perfect world EA would just use steam and give up on Origin.
I disagree, competition is a good thing. By this same argument we should all ditch every other operating system because most users run Windows, so using others isn't necessary. Sure Origin has had its' share of bumps, but so did Steam in its early days, now look at it - Steam is adored by gamers and anything else is immediately shunned.
> would be less than they spend on their own anti-cheat
I'm not sure about this, but from my understanding Steam doesn't really offer much anti-cheat, mostly just DRM. Valve games all have VAC, but I'm not sure how widely used VAC is for non-Valve games.
> It would definitely be worth it to the user as the Origin software is horrible.
I partly disagree with this. The Origin interface really isn't that bad, I actually find it a lot faster/more responsive than Steam's. Steam's interface is also far from great - although they do have great cross-platform consistency, it is at the expense of being inconsistent with the users operating system.