Can someone in California go to EA and slap them in the face for me?
http://simsvip.com/?p=2937
...
Okay, WTF, EA? You just pretty much told your most profitable PC game you have under your ownership that you WON'T fix their DLC content if it conflicts with their existing game or even other DLC in your inventory. You've pretty much stated as well that your DLC may or may not be virus free.
Bottom line is that you're pretty much admitting to your Sims customers that you don't care about your product anymore. All you care about is their money.
I know this is a libabity clause designed to prevent the sue happy, but it's coming off as if you're saying that you don't care about your Sims 3 players as much as you care about their money.
And as someone who just got into The Sims franchise? That's off-putting enough to make me quit the franchise and not feel bad about it.
/rant
For those of you who do have Hidden Springs and have noticed a lack of animations and “glitters” from the Fountain of Youth (and spell book), need to know that there is an issue with Premium Content conflict.
We all know the Sims team will probably never fix this issue (what else is new) and more so because of their newest updated Simpoint/Digital Services Agreement you have to abide to.
15. Disclaimer of Warranties. THE SIMS ONLINE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” BASIS. EA MAKES NO WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE SIMS ONLINE SERVICES, THE SIMS 3 CONTENT OR SIMPOINTS. TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, EA DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND NON INFRINGEMENT.EA DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE FUNCTIONALITY OR OPERATION OF THE SIMS ONLINE SERVICES, EA ACCOUNTS OR SUPPORTING SYSTEMS AND WEBSITES (COLLECTIVELY, “EA SERVICES”) WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR FREE FROM ERROR, THAT ANY DEFECTS IN THE EA SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE EA SERVICES OR THE SERVERS THAT MAKE THOSE EA SERVICES AVAILABLE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL CONDITIONS OR COMPONENTS.
EA is basically letting us know they never have to fix anything we purchase. Basically they can give you a flippin virus and it is not their problem.
...
Okay, WTF, EA? You just pretty much told your most profitable PC game you have under your ownership that you WON'T fix their DLC content if it conflicts with their existing game or even other DLC in your inventory. You've pretty much stated as well that your DLC may or may not be virus free.
Bottom line is that you're pretty much admitting to your Sims customers that you don't care about your product anymore. All you care about is their money.
I know this is a libabity clause designed to prevent the sue happy, but it's coming off as if you're saying that you don't care about your Sims 3 players as much as you care about their money.
And as someone who just got into The Sims franchise? That's off-putting enough to make me quit the franchise and not feel bad about it.
/rant
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No that's the USA for you. All they are doing is preventing the worst should there ever be a virus.
Again, I only know from their sports titles, but they usually keep 3 years running there.
I'm pretty impartial to EA by the way. There's a couple things they've done/havent done that have pissed me off lately.
Meanwhile, they treat Sims players like myself as if we are some kind of money printing press. They haven't fixed long outstanding bugs, but rather would have their mod community do the patch work for them. It's bad business practice, and it's making their Sims Developer team look like a bunch of incompetent programmers who just got out of college and don't know how the core game code functions.
I mean, there's a bug that's almost two years old now that a Modder has fixed for EA, and they couldn't bother to look at what the modder did and then put it in an official patch? Why should I download a third-party mod just to fix a game?
I'm talking about Origin, the new DRM-made nightmare Electronic Arts has unleashed on the (almost) unsuspecting PC players with "Battlefield 3". I was pretty sure that no one could surpass Ubisoft, but EA makes that kind of devilish malware look harmless compared to its latest "your PC is ours"-program.
Now, my stance towards DRM is rather strict, as many of you know (as I'm not even using Steam), but even after its revision yesterday, EAs Origin-EULA must still be considered illegal/void under German law. The corresponding malware still looks into and scans every folder EA wants to. It's an element of control that effectively makes your PC someone else's.
Any experiences with this game in here?
No. Even if I could run it I would not play it because I don't need Origin. I have Steam and am happy with it. I don't need another store for games on my PC. Especially since there are only EA games, which I had no interest in for years now.
I mean, sure, I understand that EA wants to make money on their games, and I understand that selling the games yourself instead of through a service earns you more money. But why do such companies think their own service is what the consumer want? The consumer obviously doesn't want Origin, and it's a fact that Steam is just that popular as an online service. So why in heaven's name are game publishers so stubborn they need to create their own service? Do they really expect people to just buy these games through their own service?
And yes, the answer is obviously "yes", because if they didn't think that they wouldn't have created the service. I'm already anticipating these smart-asses who think they're being smart.
The point is, you solely go for your own distribution service, which is your own right, but don't expect all those people to flock to you to do their business. Yeah, I know that came out wrong.
Almost the same here - I focus on on only five or six games a year, which matches about the time I have to play games. But Mass Effect 3, which has Origin without a doubt, was next year's highlight, even so much that I would have considered Steam for a second (*shudder*). But I'm wiping this off my schedule now. There simply IS no Mass Effect 3. The series has ended with part 2, so nothing will come between FemShep and Liara.
Origin is hardly a "service". It's spyware that scans your entire computer for anything that EA might or might not like (while Steam reliably keeps its fingers in its own folders). Virus programs justly identify the software as malware.
Unfortunately, retail editions have the same crap on them, and not only that, they still download a dozen GB from EA's servers for whatever reason. I do not see what makes these boxed editions "retail" now. It's some DVDs with nothing on them obviously.
On Monday, after serious customer protest, EA Germany has meekly revised its EULA to "clarify" things; but the spyware remains completely unchanged. They claim that only file names are scanned, but they'd not look into the files themselves. In other words: Don't worry that EA fondles your genitals, they won't plug their fingers anywhere. :rolleyes:
Okay then, perhaps it's more appropriate to say that it's like an STD-ridden prostitute who "services" your PC.
I'm seeing this comment a lot on The Sims 3 Forums now, especially when it was discovered that UK consumers are getting Limited Edition DLC for buying the standard version from a store that charged them 7 pounds more than the retail price because of the Limited Edition label. Supposedly, the UK has very strict false advertising laws.
My question: If these international laws are being broken, why haven't the international consumers sought out legal actions yet?
I actually went to the trouble of checking this out myself. Checking what it actually scans, and also what it sends from your computer.
Conclusion? It's just a very poorly programmed piece of software. It grabs the BASIC information about files in your ProgramData folder meaning nothing is read inside, checking for any other EA games when Origin first loads up. Following that, it just accesses it's own files until you shut it down. The only stuff it sends is the usual stuff, your login information and the occasional heartbeat to check you're still online.
Even in its revised form, the German EA EULA reserves the right to extensively check and send your system data (to look for piracy activities and the like). It has become clear that Origin already checks file names, but I trust you and others that at the time, it doesn't send that information anywhere. However, you don't just write that in your EULA without explicit intent to do this, if not today, then tomorrow. Origin is capable to do it, if not exactly in its present form, then undoubtedly after only a minor automatic update. The customer has already given permission for this, and it has become clear that it is the main reason for Origin to exist.
Origin is certainly not a "copy protection mechanism", that much has become clear. The only other thing it can be is spyware. I actually don't smile at what happens in Germany right now. The protest is oh so necessary, but the damage to the PC as a gaming platform that Electronic Arts does right now is breathtaking. But the information EA wants to collect, and the uncontested control over their customers' hardware, that is something that will not only apply to PC gamers in the long run. The future generation of consoles will provide that technology as well, it is the only logical yet perverted step of the industry.
Even Steam has some very questionable parts to their ToS. I mean it said that they were allowed to share demographic/usage patterns/habit information with other parties. I don't really like the sound of that either. While EA said they'd gather the information, they said they wouldn't pass it onto third parties. Also more interestingly. Anything you say in any Steam related chat, be it a private friend chat in the program, or on their forum, Valve own it. Which effectively means they could snoop in on your chat and steal your idea for a game or something and you couldn't do anything about it(Not that they have the man power for that, but still!).
The early days of Ubisoft's game launcher, however, yielded some heated protest also. "Assassin's Creed 2" had an interesting 420 one-star reviews on Amazon.de. Try to find mine.
It's nothing compared to the present turmoil, though. A lot of customers go a little overboard, confuse and exaggerate the facts. That of course gives EA the window to "clarify things", finding a confirmation for themselves that everything is OK and their customers are just stupid Germans who can't read normal EULA stuff.
I'm not sure where we are when the dust settles. Could be anywhere.
:rolleyes:
What this e-mail doesn't say is the context in which I posted the video.
I was asking if some of those elements could be present in the Sims 3 Division of EA. It would explain the long list of existing bugs and the lack of timely and effective patches. Things related directly to The Sims 3 franchise itself.
But the video was seen as trolling...
And I've been suspended indefinitely. Guess the Sims 3 is going to have to go without one of their most dedicated community testers now.:rolleyes:
So this is a permanent ban, seriously? For posting a video? Damn, I would have to ban so many people, it's not even funny any more.
The first one couldn't tell me anything I didn't already know. She didn't see any notation about the suspension being a temporary or permanent one. All she knows is what was sent in that e-mail I received. I was very calm and explained to her that I'm rather shell shocked right now because the ban came out of nowhere and I was about to buy some DLC. She asked me what forum this happened on, and I then explained to her that it didn't matter what title this happened on because the e-mail said my EA account as a whole. This meant that I couldn't purchase anything from Origins, access the online features of Spore, or buy DLC for The Sims 3.
That's when I found out from HER that if I were to buy Battlefield 3 right now and attempt to install it, I wouldn't be able to do so on the PC. According to her, the PC copy only has an authorization file and the installation files for Origins. It does not have Battlefield 3 on it anywhere. Once the DVD is in the drive, Origins looks for that authorization file, pings the Origins servers, and then the installation of the software begins. She then told me that if what I say is true, then I wouldn't even be able to get pass the pinging of the servers.
We just kind of sat there in silence as we realized the severity of the situation.
She offered to forward the issue to her supervisor and was very sympathetic that I ultimately lost my ability (again) to play all my EA titles without an explanation as to why the video was considered trolling.
A few hours later, I got a call from EA. It wasn't her supervisor, it was just someone who got the message she forwarded. They told me the same thing, only in a more abrasive way. I asked them to forward me to a supervisor like I was originally seeking, and they way this rep presented it to me sounded like I was submitting a court case that needed to be approved before anyone would even listen to it.
Supposedly I'll get an e-mail within the next 24 hours on the matter.
In the end, I still don't know if this is a permanent ban, why the link was considered trolling, or even the context in which this ban was issued. I'm stuck in offline mode for all the games I play that are EA titles, with no way to purchase the DLC I wanted to buy today. Because, despite me being treated like crap, yes, I wanted to give them some business because I liked what their artists made in the DLC pack this month.
EDIT: BTW, Vainamoinen, if you liked that video, you'll love this one.
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/an-open-letter-to-ea-marketing
Another thing that really bugs me with modern DRM. You buy games, but you don't seem to own them. It's paradox, frankly. That's why the Telltale end-of-season-DVD is an absolute MUST.
Apparently, their call center is not connected to corporate at all. That's right. When you call for customer support, you are not getting any kind other than technical help for specific game titles. If you have any questions about your EA account, they can't help you because EA accounts are considered corporate issues. Oh, and don't ask to be forwarded to them, because they won't do that. In fact, the person I talked to when I asked flat out told me "no."
*sigh* I need to find an effective and public way to complain about this, but the TTG forums will have to do unless I can find a corporate number where I can actually talk to someone who represents the company and not some outsourced call center.
Now here's the kicker.
That link that I was banned for? They are now saying that it is because it was an advertisement for another site and had nothing to do with the conversation at the time. I asked them, again seeking more information and not appealing the banning, how that was not relevant to the discussion at hand which I started by asking if anyone else thought those elements were present in the Sims 3 development team--thereby justifying the long list of existing issues that haven't been fixed, I was never given an answer. Instead I was asked "Is there anything else I can assist you with today?"
I don't condone piracy, but it is for that reason that I find such as file-sharing to be useful tools. I know someone here is want to argue in favor of the DMCA (DeLorean Motor Company Authority?
...of course that means they can't play online multi-player as a result because that action is a direct violation of the TOS, but hey! I got your game without the need for Origins!
You should buy Russian copies. Completely legal, and it means you punish EA's bad business practices because they don't get as much money from those copies. As an example BF3 is £12(14 Euro). Only downside is you have to download the english language files from somewhere to make it english, but it's easily done.
Pretty sure that's not just the US, but okay.
I buy my games then crack them. I then back them up on a seperate DVD. It looks like I went to China and bought a shit ton of games, but no. They're all legit copies I backed up to ensure I'd have them for good.