Guide To The New Origin Beta Client

[Tina Small]

While checking the EA Support site for the umpteenth time to see if there were any new replies from EA for my outstanding issues, I found some information about some new "stuff" we should be seeing in the near future in connection with our EA Accounts.

Woodsman and I have been debating for a few days just how complete or incomplete this account migration is. I say the transformation from EA Accounts to Origin Accounts is not nearly complete, and this Q&A seems to bear that out.

To get to the page, go to Support Home Page and then look under the "Hot Topics" heading on the right side of the screen and click the link that says, "What new features come in Origin?" I tried to incude a direct link and it just doesn't work, so that's as close as I can get you to it. Doesn't look like you have to be logged into the Support website to view hot topic pages.

Some of the new features look interesting, but several concern me, such as the answer to what in the world is going to go on that darned public profile page, as well as the social notifications and chat functionality. I'd also very much like to know when or if we will be forced into downloading the Origin application software in order to download publishes and patches. Seems like we will undoubtedly at some point have to use it to purchase expansions, boosters, theme packs, and other stuff that we previously purchased through the UO Gamecode store or the EA Store. And then, once we've downloaded it, are we going to be stuck using it every day to play UO?

It sure would be nice if someone, anyone, at EA that is actually somewhat familiar with UO would step up and start spilling the beans for us on some of this stuff so we don't have to learn about it in the same way and with the same short notice that we learned about the account migration process which they started working on eight months ago. Continuing to be ignored and left in the dark about "upgrades" like this until they're actually hours away from being sprung on us doesn't, in my opinion, bode well for retaining or increasing UO's active subscriber base. It's very frustrating to feel like we have to do our own research to learn about this stuff and then never feel like we're being given a straight or complete answer when someone from EA does finally deign to make an official announcement or post in a forum.

 

[Flutter]

Doesn't seem like much to me.

 

[Tina Small]

Well, well, well.....

Surprise, surprise.

Doing more poking through the Origin site. Found that the UO information that used to be in the Knowledgebase on the Support website seems to have been migrated to the Origin Help Center. If you type "Ultima Online" in the search box for the Help Center, you get a multi-page listing of what looks like the old UO entries in the old Knowledgebase.

Also found out that the "persona" we had to come up with as part of starting to use our EA Accounts to manage our UO accounts is going to be used for the built in chat and social features of the Origin client. Version 8.0 apparently added functionality to change your persona but that might also change your persona for "certain games."

Why oh why weren't we told stuff like this before we had to stumble our way through using the EA Account Center??

Grrrr.

 

[DevilsOwn]

with all the anger and frustration while doing those pages I can only imagine what some of those names will be...........

 

[Slayvite]

I just really really really want them to remove any links to facebook from inside my account or attatched to my account at any level. That site is not safe and should be nowhere near my account/billing or email addresses.

 

[Woodsman]

Well, well, well.....

Surprise, surprise.

Doing more poking through the Origin site. Found that the UO information that used to be in the Knowledgebase on the Support website seems to have been migrated to the Origin Help Center. If you type "Ultima Online" in the search box for the Help Center, you get a multi-page listing of what looks like the old UO entries in the old Knowledgebase.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of EA.com content, help and otherwise, gets eventually migrated to Origin.com. That's surprising that UO's knowledgebase was already migrated. Somebody cares about UO?

Somebody I talked to brought up that they might have migrated us into some kind of holding database that's identical to what is behind Origin.com, but it's just for UO, Camelot, and Warhammer, and once everything is working smoothly, then it would easy for them to move us on over some night. The problem is getting things to a point where they are compatible. UO and Camelot are both having problems with certain things.

 

[Bazer]

couldent find the new information aywhere i looked. but sorta found something interesting reading on the role of the game master on the question site

Quote" In fact, we believe the less interference from the Game Masters, the more rewarding a game Ultima Online will be. We want to encourage players to solve problems on their own, within the community. We firmly believe that the more players come together and form a community, the less they have to worry about anti-social behavior. However, certain times a Game Master must step in and clear up misunderstandings or remove harmful players. We ask that at those times you respect that a Game Master is only doing what is best for the game."

 

[Aurelius]

The more I look at the 'features' of the Origin software, the more it reminds me of a pretty much complete copying of what Steam does - which isn't too great as far as I'm concerned, since I am a Steam customer and thoroughly unimpressed with them.

 

[Aurelius]

couldent find the new information aywhere i looked. but sorta found something interesting reading on the role of the game master on the question site

Much of what's there is, as mentioned, lifted wholesale from the old support site - complete with hopelessly outdated information (I've a strong feeling what you quoted has been part of the information about GM roles for a long, long time), and many links to pages that do not exist any more and have not for a several years..

I particularly like the answer to "How do I apply an upgrade code to my Ultima Online account? "

Starting off with the really up to date "If you have recently purchased an upgrade code (Such as Mondain’s Legacy) from www.uogamecodes.com or you have a retail box with an existing customer upgrade code and would like to apply this or another upgrade code...."

It then directs you to the (nonexistant) UO account management page at

https://www.ultima-registration.com/en/index.html...

 

[Lady Storm]

oh I can see the the future..... its guna be hell to use Origin... Called and got Star Wars on the intro to CS... I guess that says alot of where this is going.
How hard can it be for Cal or any Dev for that matter to drop in and give a heads up on progress. I worry more when they Dont talk, i get the feeling something underhanded is going on. Call me suspicious of athority.. but in this case I think my suspicions are warranted.

 

[Willard]

I just really really really want them to remove any links to facebook from inside my account or attatched to my account at any level. That site is not safe and should be nowhere near my account/billing or email addresses.

I could not agree more!!!

 

[Hoffs]

How hard can it be for Cal or any Dev for that matter to drop in and give a heads up on progress. I worry more when they Dont talk, i get the feeling something underhanded is going on. Call me suspicious of athority.. but in this case I think my suspicions are warranted.

I think it is quite unforgivable that they are not giving more updates on what exactly is going on. We are talking about something that is affecting people's ability to even pay for their product, yet we are being treated like dirt as usual. I don't care whose fault it is, SOMEONE should be posting about what they are doing and how long they estimate it will take to get it fully working.

The Dev team seems to have vanished from site the past few months. Only rarely do we hear anything from then, particularly Cal. It makes you wonder whether the team has been cut down again.

 

[Capn Kranky]

You will be required to use Origin as I believe the game and patches will be managed via that. Also other PC games EA has will be managed via that - for DRM and so forth. Steam does that job better according to a lot of forum folks at ArsTechnica.

HOWEVER, I am NOT having a download manager from EA, Steam or anyone else on my system. My system is sometimes used for handling sensitive information from work. I will NOT allow EA any more access to my PC than they already have and I think the Origin s/ware will do just that.

My accounts do not have billing data. All are closed except one and that dies 10/01/11. EA will never have my business again due to this mess ... it was the straw on the camels back.

 

[HD2300]

... learn about it in the same way and with the same short notice that we learned about the account migration process which they started working on eight months ago...

You are wrong Tina. A certain person have repeatedly posted that this process was rushed and only started at the beginning of this month.

Remember it is not the fault of anyone in involved in UO, because they arent responsible at for making sure logins work properly, character slots work, user manuals, testing, the smooth operation of UO etc. It is all the fault of EA management.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

go to Support Home Page

thanks, I was waiting for instructions, w/ Links
went there, trying to follow along as I read, it was a 404 type page
.com/app/error/error_id/404 <- or is it Supposed to do that?
maybe they're not done yet? I'm sure it'll be 'soon'

 

[Woodsman]

You will be required to use Origin as I believe the game and patches will be managed via that. Also other PC games EA has will be managed via that - for DRM and so forth. Steam does that job better according to a lot of forum folks at ArsTechnica.

I never have problems with Steam, but I also won't be running into the 9 account limit because Steam doesn't work that way - MMOs are different. When I have to use Steam, it's not like I'm signing into multiple accounts for Team Fortress 2 or Portal or anything. Unlike Origin.com where I could have several active UO accounts, an active Warhammer account, and an active Star Wars account or two.

HOWEVER, I am NOT having a download manager from EA, Steam or anyone else on my system. My system is sometimes used for handling sensitive information from work. I will NOT allow EA any more access to my PC than they already have and I think the Origin s/ware will do just that.

I'm not even going to touch that one, other than if it's that sensitive, it should not have any computer games loaded on it.

oh I can see the the future..... its guna be hell to use Origin... Called and got Star Wars on the intro to CS... I guess that says alot of where this is going.

BioWare's new customer service center is located in Ireland, so if you are getting anybody with an Irish accent, they probably know less than the normal CS since they just started.

How hard can it be for Cal or any Dev for that matter to drop in and give a heads up on progress. I worry more when they Dont talk, i get the feeling something underhanded is going on. Call me suspicious of athority.. but in this case I think my suspicions are warranted.

The Camelot and Warhammer devs are being even more silent, although a Warhammer dev did pop into a thread and said they would pass concerns along to Origin.com rolleyes:

I think your suspicions are justified - I don't think it's a coincidence that all three teams are being very silent. Warhammer doesn't seem to be having the in-game problems that UO and Camelot are having but people are still having problems with gametimes and account management.

It kind of pisses me off, but it seems that the BioWare/Mythic community reps are in Germany at some conference talking about the new Warhammer MOBA game.

 

[Woodsman]

It sure would be nice if someone, anyone, at EA that is actually somewhat familiar with UO would step up and start spilling the beans for us on some of this stuff so we don't have to learn about it in the same way and with the same short notice that we learned about the account migration process which they started working on eight months ago.

They could have been working on it for 18th months, but they still spent no time preparing the players and they migrated all three games at the same time, which means somebody was in a helluva hurry to wrap it up.

This is a system that roughly handles $20 million for EA every year when you factor in all three games.

If they spent 8 months working on it, that could run into the millions of dollars just for salaries depending on how many people worked on it. Now they've got to spend money trying to fix in-game problems for UO and Camelot, and spend money trying to fix general problems for all three, and they've got the customer support costs.

They could have easily eaten up a quarter or a third of the yearly revenue from all three games on this migration. You'd have to have somebody pretty ****ing high up the EA food chain to be able to make the kind of decisions that could eat up a quarter or a third of the revenue from all three games on a back-end upgrade. I don't know how it is in EA, but wen I've worked in large corporations, when you make those kinds of decisions, you have to prove that what you're doing is either going to save a lot of money, is necessary for auditing/accounting or security reasons and so costs be damned, or is going to generate more revenue.

I don't think it's a coincidence that all three teams are being very silent and that the websites for all three games are silent and lacking in tutorials or more information about the migration. Somebody high enough up the EA food chain that could make the kinds of decisions that would eat up that much money from the three MMOs is probably high enough up to keep all three teams silent.

 

[Tina Small]

They could have been working on it for 18th months, but they still spent no time preparing the players and they migrated all three games at the same time, which means somebody was in a helluva hurry to wrap it up.

This is a system that roughly handles $20 million for EA every year when you factor in all three games.

If they spent 8 months working on it, that could run into the millions of dollars just for salaries depending on how many people worked on it. Now they've got to spend money trying to fix in-game problems for UO and Camelot, and spend money trying to fix general problems for all three, and they've got the customer support costs.

They could have easily eaten up a quarter or a third of the yearly revenue from all three games on this migration. You'd have to have somebody pretty ****ing high up the EA food chain to be able to make the kind of decisions that could eat up a quarter or a third of the revenue from all three games on a back-end upgrade. I don't know how it is in EA, but wen I've worked in large corporations, when you make those kinds of decisions, you have to prove that what you're doing is either going to save a lot of money, is necessary for auditing/accounting or security reasons and so costs be damned, or is going to generate more revenue.

I don't think it's a coincidence that all three teams are being very silent and that the websites for all three games are silent and lacking in tutorials or more information about the migration. Somebody high enough up the EA food chain that could make the kinds of decisions that would eat up that much money from the three MMOs is probably high enough up to keep all three teams silent.

I was browsing through the Origin.com site again this morning and clicked on the Customer Service link at the very top of the main page. The page it leads to happens to have a little blurb on the right side that asks, "Have Help Center Feedback? Connect with the EA Customer Experience team on Twitter or Facebook" and provides a button each for Twitter and Facebook.

If you click on the Facebook button, you get to the EA Customer Support page on Facebook. Lots and lots of angry posts about how people have bought games through the Origin client and can't play them and are having many, many accounting issues including being able to reset passwords. I suppose if you wanted to bother setting yourself up to look at the forums on Origin.com, you'd probably see more.

It does look like someone at EA that monitors that Facebook page (DaPrez) has been encouraging some people with issues to message him via Facebook with the e-mail address attached to their EA Account. (You have to click down at the bottom to see older posts. I was looking at posts from yesterday. This person probably hasn't started their day with Facebook just yet.) Can't say that I've seen any actual posts yet indicating DaPrez helped them, so I'd advise a whole lot of caution if you feel desparate enough about your situation to go that route. I did get to that page from a link on the Origin.com site though, so I have to assume there's some legitimacy to his posts offering to help.

I also browsed through the FAQ at the link they provided for ordering and payment information and noticed that, at least for ordering stuff through Origin.com, they accept payment through PayPal and Click & Buy. So maybe eventually those will also be payment options for our UO subscriptions.

 

[Woodsman]

Lots and lots of angry posts about how people have bought games through the Origin client and can't play them and are having many, many accounting issues including being able to reset passwords. I suppose if you wanted to bother setting yourself up to look at the forums on Origin.com, you'd probably see more.

Interesting that the problems are company-wide. I bet whoever runs Origin.com reports directly to the EA CFO. That would explain their ability/power to keep the individual teams quiet.

 

[Capn Kranky]

1. I do not use fb or twitter ... too open and I follow the axiom of "never post or email anything you do not want all over the web" These two are case in point.

2. UO support for me has ALWAYS been Stratics. Much better and more thorough than EA ever was.

3. What you are seeing in those posts about lousy Origin performance is EXACTLY what ArsTechnica posters have been stating for a couple weeks now ... spurred by Battlefield 3 release exclusive to Origin. They compare EAs handling of DRM and issues to Steam in many instances.

Again, I will not have/use Origin or Steam on my system. EA has intruded enough with the hardware detection they already do. Also, they have a crappy track record in my book with just UO.

 

[Tina Small]

Also, if you decide to register for and use the Origin forums (there's a Bugs and Issues section), be very careful with your language. I saw some posts there indicating a few people had their game accounts banned for using offensive language on the forums. Note you can also browse the Origin forums without actually logging in. I hesitate to go through the process of registering to use the forums because I think your forum name is the same as your persona for your EA Account and I'm reluctant to have it plastered anywhere until I can change it to something far more generic than what it is now.

Edited: Found a way to add another persona under my Origin Account that I think I can use for posting on their forums. Also found a place where I thought maybe I could link a few more of my as-yet-unlinked UO accounts, but it didn't work....

 

[Woodsman]

Also, if you decide to register for and use the Origin forums (there's a Bugs and Issues section), be very careful with your language. I saw some posts indicating a few people had their game accounts banned for using offensive language on the forums.

They aren't as sensitive on the BioWare.com forums, they just seem to lock the threads where people start cussing out EA.

Oh crap, what account do I link to my BioWare.com forums account??

Or maybe I shouldn't

 

[Deb]

What I do not understand and haven't for years is why all the secrecy
when it comes to UO? If a Heads up on this migration would have been
given to us, a lot of issues could have been prevented. I have played
other MMO's and I do not remember the secrecy level such as Uo has.

 

[Woodsman]

Well it's not just UO. The Camelot and Warhammer teams are silent as well.

 

[Ludes]

Got a hold of someone yesterday at EA.. I was trying to change the email on one of my accounts so they would all match.
After the guy tried for an hour I was givin an incident number and kicked up the ladder.

After another half hour I was told it can't be done till the account migration is over.
It's part of the information thats "locked" until that time.

I was directed to wait until account migration was over and call back.

 

[Tina Small]

They aren't as sensitive on the BioWare.com forums, they just seem to lock the threads where people start cussing out EA.

Oh crap, what account do I link to my BioWare.com forums account??

Or maybe I shouldn't

See, now, you just used a word that I think got someone's accounts banned because they apparently used it in a forum post.

 

[Woodsman]

I was browsing through the Origin.com site again this morning and clicked on the Customer Service link at the very top of the main page. The page it leads to happens to have a little blurb on the right side that asks, "Have Help Center Feedback? Connect with the EA Customer Experience team on Twitter or Facebook" and provides a button each for Twitter and Facebook.

If you click on the Facebook button, you get to the EA Customer Support page on Facebook. Lots and lots of angry posts about how people have bought games through the Origin client and can't play them and are having many, many accounting issues including being able to reset passwords. I suppose if you wanted to bother setting yourself up to look at the forums on Origin.com, you'd probably see more.

Welp, we can now add would-be Star Wars: The Old Republic players to the mix of confused UO, Camelot, and Warhammer players caught up in this migration:

i am having account login problems with my ea account i am getting pissed that i can't play anything i have talked to you guys on the phone twice already and you guys have told me to try resetting my password...and nothing happens instead i get this stupid message saying "The username or password you entered is incorrect. If you recently registered at SWTOR.com the password that you created there has become your new Origin/EA.com password." whats up with that i need explanations .........because i have preordered bf 3 and nothing is working now so if you can't fix it i want a refund on it and all my other games which i can't play anymore

Since they did some kind of migration with Star Wars pre-registers, I'm hoping this will get fixed faster, because that's kind of hard to ignore.

I also browsed through the FAQ at the link they provided for ordering and payment information and noticed that, at least for ordering stuff through Origin.com, they accept payment through PayPal and Click & Buy. So maybe eventually those will also be payment options for our UO subscriptions.

I would not do it through PayPal unless it was tied to my credit card. I've seen some crazy things with PayPal, and I've had my issue's with UO/EA overcharging me over the years, and I'd hate to have a bunch of money pulled straight out of my bank account over a mistake.

 

[Woodsman]

See, now, you just used a word that I think got someone's accounts banned because they apparently used it in a forum post.

Crap and Damn apparently can be said on the BioWare forums, but oddly enough, in Warhammer, swearing openly will get you a 5-day suspension and repeat offenses can get you permabanned.