![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Well that was exciting.
I had an exercise in...frustration today that at one point left me wanting to murder EA, burn down their HQ, and salt the earth on which it stood.
It started innocently enough.
I finished Mass Effect 2 last night, complete with DLC. Seeing as how I'm already heavily invested in the series, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase ME3 for PC via digital download. Now, this is where things get complicated: a few months ago, roughly around when Dragon Age II came out, Steam and EA had a little...difference in opinions regarding DLC. The end result is that EA pulled all their new releases from Steam and no longer distributes with them. Instead, they've launched their own proprietary digital distribution service called Origin. And the only way to play ME3 on PC is to have Origin installed.
Origin is, to put it kindly, in very obvious beta. It has neither the polish nor library of games that Steam has. It has a few very critical bugs.
I remote desktopped into Bahamut from work and downloaded and installed Origin. That was fairly painless. I logged into my account and clicked through a couple of pages to find where the heck I could purchase ME3. (Which took longer than it should have, considering on Steam, you are never more than 2 clicks from a "Buy" button if you can find the name of the game. Or the search bar.) Found it, and then the following occurred:
Me: *types out CC and billing information, clicks submit*
Origin: Processing...whoa! Problem with your bank info! ABORT.
Me: Huh, that's odd. *re-types information, clicks submit*
Origin: Incorrect!
Me: *tries again*
Origin: I don't understand! CANNOT PROCESS REQUEST WITH BAD BANK INFO.
Me: Is my CC bad? *opens Steam, tries to buy Waveform*
Steam: Hey, thanks! Here's your game! Have a nice day!
Me: What the deuce?
Origin: No.
Visa: What the fuck is going on? Do you have possession of your credit card?
Me: What.
Visa: Yeah, we have one transaction for EA/Origin, and a bunch of denials.
Me: \ldots{}
Origin: *has failed to send a confirmation of purchase. Or a game.*
Me: Yeah, okay, thanks Visa. EA, what the shit?
EA Rep #1: How can we help you?
Me: I'm trying to buy this game. You keep denying my card, except Visa says you have my money.
EA Rep #1: *line has mysteriously gone dead*
Me: *stares at phone* You are fucking kidding me.
EA Rep #2: How can we help you?
Me: I'm trying to buy this game. You keep denying my card, except Visa says it went through.
EA Rep #2: What.
Me: Yes.
EA Rep #2: The fuck is with this system? Okay. *tries things* Wait, why is it giving ME the useful error message and not you?
Me: \ldots{}
EA Rep #2: Can you hold while I go and yell at billing/coding? *does that* Okay. Let's try this...Wait, what the hell? I see you've purchased stuff with us before...using...this...same...card.
Me: Yeah. First time using Origin.
EA Rep #2: What. Can you hold again? *goes off to yell some more* *comes back* Can you try it now with a different card?
Me: Uh, sure. *tries* Success!
EA Rep #2: Great! Wait, I'm not seeing it show up on your account, oh man, I'm sorry, I don't know--
Me: Um, it showed up in my client.
EA Rep #2: --what the problem is, wait, it did? Great! Yeah, I have no idea what happened. We don't have a record of taking the other payment, and we shouldn't. Anything else?
Me: You are a rockstar.
Basically, that one guy saved EA from never receiving any of my money ever again.
Look, I am not a Steam apologist. I like the platform. I like it because it works and is the best currently out there that I've used. I would like it just as much if Steam had an actual competitor. (Things were great when AMD and Intel were hugely competitive.) But they don't, not really. And Origin is almost 10 years late to the party, does it worse than Steam, and acts like it's going to win this fight. I'm just not impressed by it. I wouldn't use it if I had a choice.
At least I have the game now.
It started innocently enough.
I finished Mass Effect 2 last night, complete with DLC. Seeing as how I'm already heavily invested in the series, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase ME3 for PC via digital download. Now, this is where things get complicated: a few months ago, roughly around when Dragon Age II came out, Steam and EA had a little...difference in opinions regarding DLC. The end result is that EA pulled all their new releases from Steam and no longer distributes with them. Instead, they've launched their own proprietary digital distribution service called Origin. And the only way to play ME3 on PC is to have Origin installed.
Origin is, to put it kindly, in very obvious beta. It has neither the polish nor library of games that Steam has. It has a few very critical bugs.
I remote desktopped into Bahamut from work and downloaded and installed Origin. That was fairly painless. I logged into my account and clicked through a couple of pages to find where the heck I could purchase ME3. (Which took longer than it should have, considering on Steam, you are never more than 2 clicks from a "Buy" button if you can find the name of the game. Or the search bar.) Found it, and then the following occurred:
Me: *types out CC and billing information, clicks submit*
Origin: Processing...whoa! Problem with your bank info! ABORT.
Me: Huh, that's odd. *re-types information, clicks submit*
Origin: Incorrect!
Me: *tries again*
Origin: I don't understand! CANNOT PROCESS REQUEST WITH BAD BANK INFO.
Me: Is my CC bad? *opens Steam, tries to buy Waveform*
Steam: Hey, thanks! Here's your game! Have a nice day!
Me: What the deuce?
Origin: No.
Visa: What the fuck is going on? Do you have possession of your credit card?
Me: What.
Visa: Yeah, we have one transaction for EA/Origin, and a bunch of denials.
Me: \ldots{}
Origin: *has failed to send a confirmation of purchase. Or a game.*
Me: Yeah, okay, thanks Visa. EA, what the shit?
EA Rep #1: How can we help you?
Me: I'm trying to buy this game. You keep denying my card, except Visa says you have my money.
EA Rep #1: *line has mysteriously gone dead*
Me: *stares at phone* You are fucking kidding me.
EA Rep #2: How can we help you?
Me: I'm trying to buy this game. You keep denying my card, except Visa says it went through.
EA Rep #2: What.
Me: Yes.
EA Rep #2: The fuck is with this system? Okay. *tries things* Wait, why is it giving ME the useful error message and not you?
Me: \ldots{}
EA Rep #2: Can you hold while I go and yell at billing/coding? *does that* Okay. Let's try this...Wait, what the hell? I see you've purchased stuff with us before...using...this...same...card.
Me: Yeah. First time using Origin.
EA Rep #2: What. Can you hold again? *goes off to yell some more* *comes back* Can you try it now with a different card?
Me: Uh, sure. *tries* Success!
EA Rep #2: Great! Wait, I'm not seeing it show up on your account, oh man, I'm sorry, I don't know--
Me: Um, it showed up in my client.
EA Rep #2: --what the problem is, wait, it did? Great! Yeah, I have no idea what happened. We don't have a record of taking the other payment, and we shouldn't. Anything else?
Me: You are a rockstar.
Basically, that one guy saved EA from never receiving any of my money ever again.
Look, I am not a Steam apologist. I like the platform. I like it because it works and is the best currently out there that I've used. I would like it just as much if Steam had an actual competitor. (Things were great when AMD and Intel were hugely competitive.) But they don't, not really. And Origin is almost 10 years late to the party, does it worse than Steam, and acts like it's going to win this fight. I'm just not impressed by it. I wouldn't use it if I had a choice.
At least I have the game now.