EA and Origin screw me again

So coming off my last EA/Origin rant, I had hoped that they might have cleaned up their act and made things a little bit nicer for the user come Star Wars The Old Republic. Sadly, it seems I’ve been screwed by EA and Origin yet again. Surprisingly though, their screwing me was actually accomplished months ago and I didn’t even realize it until today.

Bought on Origin, but not activated on Origin

Back in the summer when the SWTOR pre-order’s came out, EA came up with the brilliant idea of allowing people to get early access to the game if they pre-ordered it. It isn’t a bad policy in itself, and is a great way to drive early sales.

Like a good nerd, I bought the game very early on so that I could get not only early access which started today, but also get the neat collector items for my account and avoid having to go to a store on release night. Tonight, I had hoped that I would get my early access email since I was expecting to be in right away considering how early I pre-ordered, but that email never came.

It seems that I never actually Origin activated my copy of the game I bought via Origin.

Yes, I bought the game via Origin itself, but that doesn’t mean a damned thing in terms of if the game is activated or not. It seems that I had missed the little detail in my receipt that notes I had to enter in my serial code for the game to register my pre-order. As such, my game was never activated until tonight (where I wait in the end of the pre-order early access queue), despite the fact that I bought the game months ago.

Now one could argue that the mistake lies in myself, which would be a valid argument. I make no claims that I am not at fault for not reading the very bottom of the email receipt where it notes, in a fairly plain block of text, that I had to go to a specific link, copy my serial code out of said receipt, and then register my game on Origin. Never mind that I actually bought the digital game via Origin itself, though its own system.

Origin Login meet SWTOR Login

I’ve noticed this odd tend with some of the newer Origin games now. When I first was playing BF3, I noticed that there was seemingly two completely separate, yet half-ass interconnected, login systems for BF3-Battlelog and EA-Origin. There are two logins, two friend systems, and two chat systems, none of which really talk to each other and all of which seem completely redundant. Likewise, the segregation continues with SWTOR where Bioware merely links into EA’s Origin user name and password system, with little regard for the actual Origin system. SWTOR was designed by Bioware as a completely independent system, with its own independent logins.

Now I cannot fault Bioware for this approach, as they had started development of SWTOR long before Origin was involved (as BF3 likely was also), but I do have to wonder who is actually in control in this symbiotic relationship.

SWTOR’s password requirements are obnoxiously much more stringent (yet in reality less secure, which is an article for another day), than Origin’s, requiring me to update my SWTOR password, which in turns updates my Origin password. Sadly, that back and forward update link doesn’t quite happen right away, with SWTOR updating and Origin remaining on the old password for quite some time.

I had actually noticed this issue weeks ago during the betas. It had become quite confusing as I kept assuming one password would update the other, yet I’d constantly run into password issues between the two systems as I attempted to keep straight what login system I was working with.

Amazingly, tonight I was no longer able to log into Origin, noting that my password from SWTOR finally overwrote my Origin password.

My question, though, is why is there even a separate launcher system and login for SWTOR in the first place if Origin is the back end. Why does SWTOR’s password system take precedence over Origin, when Origin is the supposed launcher of the game? Changing my password in SWTOR (which is only done in SWTOR) updates my Origin password instead.

Who knows what will happen if I go into Origin and change my password back into a less complex, yet more secure, password that doesn’t meet the complexity requirements? Will SWTOR (as I suspect), complain and force me to change it back again? Or will it let me continue using the Origin password. Who is in control anyways?

Why am I even surprised at EA’s failure?

I guess it was too much to assume that buying an Origin game via Origin would automatically register and add said game to my account. I mean, Valve’s Steam had only accomplished that feat since it’s inception in 2003. I should know better than to believe EA and Origin would have gotten something so simple correct.

I guess the general rule about Origin and EA is as such. If someone else has already done it the correct way that works, EA must find a way to mess it up and do it the complete opposite way.

Origin, to me, seems to be the evil twin of Steam. They’ve consistently shown their ability to seemingly take every single rejected bad idea Steam ever had, and actually implement it into their own product.

I don’t know if its just EA being completely out of touch with how the real world or their competition works, or if they are just explicitly a bunch of clueless idiots.