Origin (not the shard) Discussion Thread

[Llewen]

What is Origin? Origin is EA's new content delivery system, which in my opinion is really what the recent upgrade to UO's billing and account management is all about. I think EA has looked at the success of Steam and has either realized that this is the way of the future in terms of content delivery, or that it wants in on the third party distribution market that Steam currently owns in terms of electronic games, or both.

So what do I mean by "content delivery system"? Well, if you look at Steam, Steam is a way of purchasing and downloading games, and keeping them updated, and while it had one of the worst launches in the history of electronic gaming, it has become wildly successful. Beyond that it is a social network capable of connecting gamers, with built in voip, and instant messaging. However, what is most important to me personally is that Steam has built in, robust and effective anti-cheat functionality.

So what could it mean for the future of UO? I'm not sure exactly, as we have had no formal announcements, but I foresee that in the not too distant future we will have to launch UO from the Origin content delivery system, and that system will handle updates and patching. It might also mean that illegal third party applications such as E****O and R***r will no longer function, and regrettably, unless UOAssist is somehow incorporated into the system, it might no longer work either.

So what do you think? Is this something that frightens you? Is this something you feel positive about, or negative about? For myself I see this as a much faster and more robust and secure account management system with expanded payment options, as well as built in advertising for the game in the sense that you will be able to purchase and download the game easily through the system where it will be easy to find because it will be a part of the software's search engine. The publishing and patching process should also be much more robust, seamless and efficient.

As for the negatives? Potentially the loss of third party applications, and unfortunately perhaps the legitimate along with the illegitimate.

 

[Raptor85]

So what could it mean for the future of UO? I'm not sure exactly, as we have had no formal announcements, but I foresee that in the not too distant future we will have to launch UO from the Origin content delivery system, and that system will handle updates and patching. It might also mean that illegal third party applications such as E****O and R***r will no longer function, and regrettably, unless UOAssist is somehow incorporated into the system, it might no longer work either.

A pipe dream at best, at the most those two will require a patch for the new architecture. Just like with steam the content delivery system doesn't somehow mean it's not running on your machine in your machine's memory. Barring major rewrite of the UO 2d client (unlikely) all 3 of those applications will work just fine for the foreseeable future. If a major rewrite were to happen...it would probably completely break UOAssist and the other two would be replaced or re-targeted to the newly reformed client within a week.

Steam having a "robust" anti-cheat functionality is laughable at best also.

 

[Woodsman]

I do like having all of my accounts accessible through one page rather than repeated logging in and out. It remains to be seen if the new system overcharges me by hundreds of dollars over the years like the old one did. I've never had problems with purchases on EA.com though, and it's basically Store.EA.com turned into Origin.com.

I don't know about the anti-cheat stuff - I think you are getting way ahead of things when it comes to UO.

Now Star Wars...I could see them having the anti-cheat stuff built in from the start, and if you purchase Star Wars digitally, it's only available through Origin (which will be a huge boost to Origin).

As a heavy Steam user, I love Steam, and if EA does the same level of service, I would be happy.

I don't want EA's service to be like Ubisoft's service where they try to keep you from selling games and where they force you to remain online even in offline games, but I think anybody buying a digital copy of a game these days is aware that the used game market is being killed off.

 

[Woodsman]

One thing that may have happened, is that EA may have ended easy account sales/transfers between UO players.

That would be bad. I've now got all of my active and inactive accounts linked, and some are from a friend who left a while back. If she came back, I'm not sure how I could transfer the account to her without involving EA somehow.

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

and regrettably, unless UOAssist is somehow incorporated into the system, it might no longer work either.

So what do you think? Is this something that frightens you?

Not in the least. Never used UOA in the first place, and the UI enhancements are internal in the EC, so this little tidbit doesn't bother me in the least, and really if the new system DOES enhance the security of the UO client(s), that is all for the better.

Remember that for all of its acceptance, and let's admit for most 2d users, reliance, UOA is and has always been a client hack. Yes, it's a "legalized" program, but it's a hack nonetheless.

Granted all of this remains to be seen, but the loss of external programs such as UOA doesn't bother me, especially if it means the loss of other external hack programs as well.

Edit: It's good to see the ability to swap between accounts without having to log out of a master account. Now if only we could see that in the UO client(s) in our UO accounts by Log Out sending us back to the character selection screen instead of back to square one having to log in, select server, select character.

 

[Llewen]

Steam having a "robust" anti-cheat functionality is laughable at best also.

Actually VAC works quite well, and catches a lot of fish in it's nets. The thing with VAC is that the process of having your account banned can take up to several weeks after an account is flagged for a positive detection of a cheat, so a lot of cheaters think they are getting away with it when in fact it's only a matter of the time it takes for them to double check the data and ensure that the positive wasn't a false one.

 

[Neutron Bomb]

If this takes away UOA support, it will be yet another nail in the coffin for my account.

 

[Ender]

I'm not a fan at all. Steam fan now and forever.

 

[Woodsman]

Edit: It's good to see the ability to swap between accounts without having to log out of a master account. Now if only we could see that in the UO client(s) in our UO accounts by Log Out sending us back to the character selection screen instead of back to square one having to log in, select server, select character.

That would be truly nice. I'm digging the whole accounts swap without logging out, but having that in the client would be awesome.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

Actually VAC works quite well, and catches a lot of fish in it's nets. The thing with VAC is that the process of having your account banned can take up to several weeks after an account is flagged for a positive detection of a cheat, so a lot of cheaters think they are getting away with it when in fact it's only a matter of the time it takes for them to double check the data and ensure that the positive wasn't a false one.

All such things have quite easy workarounds. I am not debating if it works or not, but you shouldn't either as you really only have a speculation as to how well it is working.

Proof of people being banned is not proof of a system that works. (It could actually be proof of a system that doesn't work, but that is another matter entirely and only really applies to the person who knows what they were doing and to no one outside of that one person.)

 

[Woodsman]

Does anybody here remember Punkbuster?

The ****storm over that was pretty amazing. People were flipping out and threatening to cancel their accounts over that.

I would like to see something that deals with the scripters, but given the ****storm over Punkbuster, and that people are even more set in their ways now, I doubt that something similar would be implemented.

They'll do it for Star Wars, and I think I read somewhere the HeroEngine has some easy ways to detect certain cheats like motion and some others, and it basically boiled down to how much of a performance hit a company was willing to take on both server and client side. Given Star Wars' budget, my guess is they aren't going to skimp.

And to be honest, if they won't deal with the scripters in UO that we see blatantly running around now, I don't see anything changing in the future. It's been six months since some of those search engine scripters were outted here on Stratics with names and everything, and they've been known about a lot longer than that.

 

[Ender]

Does anybody here remember Punkbuster?

The ****storm over that was pretty amazing. People were flipping out and threatening to cancel their accounts over that.

I would like to see something that deals with the scripters, but given the ****storm over Punkbuster, and that people are even more set in their ways now, I doubt that something similar would be implemented.

They'll do it for Star Wars, and I think I read somewhere the HeroEngine has some easy ways to detect certain cheats like motion and some others, and it basically boiled down to how much of a performance hit a company was willing to take on both server and client side. Given Star Wars' budget, my guess is they aren't going to skimp.

And to be honest, if they won't deal with the scripters in UO that we see blatantly running around now, I don't see anything changing in the future. It's been six months since some of those search engine scripters were outted here on Stratics with names and everything, and they've been known about a lot longer than that.

I still hold to my opinion that the only people that opposed PunkBuster were the ones that used unapproved programs.

 

[Larisa]

Not true..PunkBuster totally fubard my computer..I couldn't run the game AT ALL...I was seriously upset.

IF they found a utility that actually worked then I'd be fine with it, but I know ALOT of people couldnt' run the game with PunkBuster, I didn't threaten to quit...I was basically forced to if they'd kept it around, which I'm sure holds true for alot of other people as well.

 

[Raptor85]

Not true..PunkBuster totally fubard my computer..I couldn't run the game AT ALL...I was seriously upset.

IF they found a utility that actually worked then I'd be fine with it, but I know ALOT of people couldnt' run the game with PunkBuster, I didn't threaten to quit...I was basically forced to if they'd kept it around, which I'm sure holds true for alot of other people as well.

^ not only that, it didn't help at all either anyways, there was already a workaround to bypass it.

But then it was a technical solution for a non-technical problem, you'll never find a solution to block out the bots with a piece of code, the real fix is for GM's to actually reply to a page to come look at someone scripting, then ban them on sight.