they will get around to it eventually, lol probably about the time people get used to it and stop caring.

I love EA support. I'm a Steam fanboy, but waiting just an hour to get into a chatroom where a support member can automatically change account permissions is so much faster than the submit a ticket and hope they get back to you system of Steam.

Like I said though you are more the exception than the rule. Most people will never need to have the game on more than three machines. Also as has been said I'm sure EA support would be able to de-suthorise one for you if you are stuck.

I never had any problem with EA support .

but that's not the point.

it doesn't matter that only a small group of people is affected. it is a matter of principle. one step at the time they can remove your and mine rights. this time it is me. tomorrow it will be you...

so please don't say it is okay...

and frankly. i don't think the group is that small. changing a mobo is enough to make computer 'new'. jumping from xp to win7 is enough to make it a new computer.
adding a ssd might be also...
steam is seven years old. i ask you how many times did you change computer in that time (whether you used steam is not the point)
how many times an average gamer did that.

and how often did you uninstall every single game you had before formating a drive, leaving the computer for your siblings, parents, throwing it away...

i have 150 games on steam. i had a quarter of it installed on my old computer before scraping it just 2 months ago.
and i am NOT an obsessive gamer. half of my steam friends have bigger libraries than me and they play way more than i (not only per game but number of games)...
so at some point i will have to contact support 38 times...
not today, not next year but three years from now.


Can you see the problem?

Forgive me but no. This isn't 3 machines forever, it's 3 machines at the same time. If my PC goes belly up I contact EA support and ask them to deactivate it. If I want to upgrade I uninstall it. I really don't see the problem.

I get what you are saying about taking away your entitlements but it's all a bit tin-foil hat to me. EA are one of the few publishers that still support the PC which any semblance of effort. This restriction to me seems like they just dont want people installing their accounts on all their friends machines. This isn't even in the same league as Ubi-DRM or even Blizzards Starcraft 2 DRM.

it takes one hour to reset machine. therefore i would have to spend almost 2 days on reseting my games.

and i am asking you a question: how many times did you change a computer in past seven years? that includes new computer altogether. upgrading your cpu/mobo installing new windows, getting new primary harddrive.

and what about installing your game at friends place. that's another activation.

also really? you say you will uninstall it. 40-100 games? just so you can format your drive afterwards?

Forgive me also but you are not seeing the bigger picture of having just 3 computers at the same time limit.

Err.. no I would un-install Origin once. Or ask EA support to do it if I forgot to. You won't have to do it for every single game.

Also installing on a friends PC is something I wouldn't do, you are practically giving them all your games. I would hope you don't share your GOG account with your friends either. It's that kind of thing that is what Origin is trying to stop.

since 2003 I've rebuilt my PC three times, but two of them were lateral moves because I had to swap out the guts due ti "technical issues"

erm? that's something new. how do you know that's the case? its say you can install your game up to three machines. not origin. Sharing with your friends is bad? So you never have movie nights with your firends. you don't allow them to listen to your ipod?

i didn't give my gog account to anyone yet but i did install steam on my friends computer to show him HL game and few other things... so he had access to my games. and how is that bad?
I also lent and borrowed "hundreds" of movies, books and music to and from my friends.

that's what people do delixe. you know. sharing.

and why are you looking at the problem from your perspective? that's a bad habit. you should put yourself in others shoes to analyze the problem not going: "well i don't do that so why should i care"
so no uninstall i presume?

I'm not, I conceeded in my first comment that this would be an issue for some people but not the majority. I said most people won't need Origin installed on more than 3 machines. Now if you are talking about sharing your Origin account with other people that's entirely different from personal use isn't it? Do I lend people music or DVD's yes I most certainly do but I effectively lose my copy when I do that. What you are proposing is simply giving someone your account details and telling them to have as many games from your account as they like but at the same time you still keep your account and all your games. I'm not going to throw hyperbole in here and compare what you are doing to piracy but it's damn close if you ask me. Why do you share your Steam account with friends and not your GOG account? Surely it's the same thing isn't it?

nice. very nice. you say you won't throw yet you are doing that.
i also lost my copy. he was playing while i was watching. no different to giving a dvd with a movie isn't it?
and i did log int my gog account to show my sister the games. i also have GK: sins of father installed on my mom's computer. therefore she is able to play it. therefore it is damn close to piracy then.

and what about movies? a movie night? that is bad then? you are using your copy while your friends are using it too? same goes with ipod connected to speakers.

nevertheless. even if a single person is inconvenient why it should be alright for that system to implemented? you don't benefit anything from it as a customer. therefore you should oppose it. because no matter how small the chance it is possible for you to become second person to be inconvenient.

For the very reasons you mentioned the system is open to abuse. Forgive me, maybe it wasn't your intention but the way you presented your argument earlier was "DRM activations are unacceptable because I want to share my account with as many people as I wish". It's because of abuse of mutiple activations that these restrictions exist. For the normal user it won't have any affect on them whatsoever but for people who share their Steam/Origin/GamersGate accounts with 5, 10 or 20 different people then yes I can see how this would be a pain in the arse.

Again as I said before you won't share your GOG account because... you like GOG? You want more DRM free releases? You encourage your friends to buy from GOG? You share your Steam account because... fuck Steam?

I certainly did not. I said i want to install my games on as many computers as i want. steam is the biggest player and yet it has not activation limits. so what the hell are you talking here? i think you are misunderstanding me... or trying to hear what you want to hear.

i don't give out my steam account to everyone. i said i installed my copy of hl2 on two friends computer. back in 2005. because it was such a big deal back then i am allowed to do that btw. legally. at least under polish law and that was done in poland.
i also showed red orchestra to a friend of mine. then he bought it for himself so we could play against each other.

and yeah... i have 150 games on steam and ... fuck steam indeed. and i am going to throw money at them again this xmas or when goddamn ep3 is released. to just show them how i hate them.

and i shared my account of gog. GK1 is installed on my mom's computer. i am now writing from it. yeah. i am such a bad person.


the biggest point of mine:

Why does ea have to have that limit but not steam? is steam lack of that limit causes valve to lose money? Can't they grow without that limit?

and i am normal user delixe. a person who does not change his computer one way or another in seven years is not a normal user... and in ten years? a lot of people comes back to old school games. crysis 2 won't be that game. Mass Effect 3 might be (hopefully)