EA Accidentally Gives Away Free Games With Origin Store Coupon Glitch - Polidicks

(or: Forbes' reporters know jackshit nothing about the videogame industry, the internet, or EA) [IMG]http://blogs-images.forbes.com/erikkain/files/2012/10/EA-Origin-glitch.jpg[/IMG] [QUOTE]Multiple reports of a coupon code glitch at EA’s online Origin store point to an exploit which allowed customers to enter a coupon code and receive $20 off an infinite number of games. The loophole was first discovered on Slickdeals and quickly spread – as news of free games often does. So let’s contrast two interesting phenomenons. On the one hand, you have a glitch allowing users to essentially exploit EA and get a bunch of the games they offer on Origin for free, and unsurprisingly people jump at the opportunity. On the other hand, you have something like the Humble Indie Bundle, a pay-what-you-want service allowing gamers to get indie games on the cheap and support charity and the developers at the same time. The fifth installment of the Humble Indie Bundle raked in over $5 million. So what gives? Why do people rush to get free games on Origin while at the same time pay for games they could basically get for free in the Humble Indie Bundle? I don’t think this is EA-specific, but I do suspect there’s enough broad animosity toward publishers and sympathy toward indie developers that taking from the former feels justified while giving to the latter feels like the right thing to do. That’s clearly not solid ethics at play [update: I can see the logic behind this works - the coupon is EA-generated, users are just using the loophole from a legitimate coupon, etc.] but you can see how the logic plays out. The big, greedy corporation vs. the small guy is an old story doomed to be repeated. A story doomed to be repeated because, at its core, there’s some big truths in there. The bigness of EA makes them seem impersonal and out of touch compared to small studios. And more than just seem; they often are out of touch with their consumer base. Maybe that’s inevitable. This is the core driving factor behind something like Kickstarter, also. Strip away the bigness that creates a divide between content creators and their customers and make commerce personal in a way it simply isn’t with the big faceless entities like EA. I’ve reached out to EA about the coupon glitch and will report back if and when I hear something. No word on whether EA will take action against anyone who utilized it, though so far it appears no bans have taken place. P.S. One theory I’ve seen floated is that EA did this intentionally to grow its user base. I’m going to call this one as “not likely” in the “not a snowball’s chance in Hell” category. First of all, they wouldn’t take the coupon down if that were the case. Second, it’s just an enormous stretch to think that EA is running that elaborate of a scheme on the hope and prayer somebody figures it out and is then able to spread the news properly, etc. If they wanted to grow their user base, they could use all sorts of upfront promotions and sales to do that. As it stands, probably people who already have an Origin account were the most likely to use the exploit.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/10/14/ea-accidentally-gives-away-free-games-with-origin-store-coupon-glitch/[/url]

[quote] Why do people rush to get free games on Origin while at the same time pay for games they could basically get for free in the Humble Indie Bundle?[/quote] Free is so far from almost free.

Late.

[QUOTE]Why do people rush to get free games on Origin while at the same time pay for games they could basically get for free in the Humble Indie Bundle?[/QUOTE] A) because I don't give a shit if it's Origin or Steam, free is free B) because the HIB has incentives for putting actual money into it??

I did it simply to stick it to EA.

I don't really know why I'm getting lates since this is the first piece of news coverage on the whole thing

[QUOTE=lulzlalz;38041339]I did it simply to stick it to EA.[/QUOTE] I did it simply to get sim city 4

[QUOTE=latin_geek;38041345]I don't really know why I'm getting lates since this is the first piece of news coverage on the whole thing[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1217991[/url]

why not just pirate it at this point at least then you aren't mooching off their servers

[quote] Why do people rush to get free games on Origin while at the same time pay for games they could basically get for free in the Humble Indie Bundle?[/quote] Shitty-ass reporter, the purpose of the HIB is not so that people can say "Oh I can legitimately get this for free, guess I'll do that then"

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;38041387]why not just pirate it at this point at least then you aren't mooching off their servers[/QUOTE] You don't get original CD keys for multiplayer when pirating and the laughably low amount of users makes Origin downloads even faster than Steam.

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;38041387]why not just pirate it at this point at least then you aren't mooching off their servers[/QUOTE] Except then you don't get public multiplayer or updates.

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;38041387]why not just pirate it at this point at least then you aren't mooching off their servers[/QUOTE] EA games are hardly worth the bandwidth. I'm just glad that I have done my duty to help injure the company that murdered Westwood Studios, Pandemic, Bioware, Bullfrog, Ubisoft, and even Maxis to a degree. EA has flooded the market with lackluster content and pandering to casuals, destroyed the lives of great developers, and inspired worse companies such as Zynga to step in. Mooching off of their servers and forcing them to pay for bandwidth costs and damage control is exactly what I want. We are the colonists. EA is King George III. This is our declaration. As edgy as that sounds, this event is a major victory for the PC Master Race.

How did you miss it. [img]http://i49.tinypic.com/nosfom.png[/img]

[B]He was posting the news article. He was pointing out how hilarious forbes was. This is not notifying other people of the glitch. Seeing as the glitch doesn't work anymore.[/B]

God damn Forbes is in love with the HIB. Free VS Semi-Free always leads to free winning. I got a good amount of great games for the price of 0.00.

[quote]I do suspect there’s enough broad animosity toward publishers and sympathy toward indie developers that taking from the former feels justified while giving to the latter feels like the right thing to do.[/quote] That's pretty true. At least for me.

[QUOTE=Protocol7;38041300]A) because I don't give a shit if it's Origin or Steam, free is free B) because the HIB has incentives for putting actual money into it??[/QUOTE] that plus HiB sometimes has very very bad games and you have you pay above the average for more

I got copies of games that I have in physical boxes, so I can just download and install them at the same time, instead of popping disks. (Oddly enough, yes it does take me more time to install from disk! :v:) Oh and time to whore hearts. [IMG]http://puu.sh/1f1s4[/IMG]

[QUOTE=don818;38042939]Oh and time to whore hearts. [/QUOTE] Fine have your hearts.

[quote]Why do people rush to get free games on Origin while at the same time pay for games they could basically get for free in the Humble Indie Bundle?[/quote]What part of Humble [b]Indie[/b] Bundle is it they don't get?

Looks like I missed another chance for a free games. Once with Dirt3 and now this. At least I got two free copies of Dead Space 2 on Origin. As useless as that is...