Cracking and hacking group Razor1911 has found a way to allow owners of the PC version of Battlefield 3 to play online without using EA's Origin service. Battlefield 3 owners are required to have an Origin account to run even retail versions of the PC edition of the game. In the documentation to the crack (you can read the document here) the group laid out its reasoning for hacking EA's executables (besides doings it for the lulz):
"Razor1911 doesn't accept and support the online DRM "Origin" from EA.
This release is dedicated to our fans worldwide who bought this game on legal way and don't want to install the trojan from Electronic Arts to play online."
EA has not yet responded to this story publicly, but there's no doubt that it will inevitably be dealt with at the server level. How the company handles users who take the risk in using it remains to be seen.
Source: C&VG
Comments
Re: Razor1911 Cuts Origin out of the Battlefield 3 Online ...
It's called Civil Disobedience.
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Treat me nice, or you may end up in my next novel.
Re: Razor1911 Cuts Origin out of the Battlefield 3 Online ...
Where's this sort of response to Steamworks in retail, boxed games?
Re: Razor1911 Cuts Origin out of the Battlefield 3 Online ...
Most people take issue with EA Origin's Privacy Policy (and now revised but still horrendous EULA) and the habits of the executable which likes to scan EVERY other process running without explanation (Example video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQfW5PGuINs - higher quality ones available around YouTube).
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Papa Midnight
Re: Razor1911 Cuts Origin out of the Battlefield 3 Online ...
I guess Valve has garnered more goodwill and trust in the gaming community than EA has.
Re: Razor1911 Cuts Origin out of the Battlefield 3 Online ...
Not really as there is not one steam game that has be "de steamed".
I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/what-is-cigital-disobedience/
Re: Razor1911 Cuts Origin out of the Battlefield 3 Online ...
Err... on the contrary, there has been plenty of them (The most prominent of which is most-likely Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2). As for more details, I like my now 4+ year old account and plan to keep it....
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Papa Midnight
Re: Razor1911 Cuts Origin out of the Battlefield 3 Online ...
Also, your comment makes no sense. The fact that a release group hasn't done the same for Steam would mean Steam does have more support and trust from their user base. I trust the service enough to use it.
Anyway you can put Steam in a permanent offline mode if you want to, I don't think Origin allows the same thing.
I don't trust EA at all and will NEVER use Origin. Never.
Re: Razor1911 Cuts Origin out of the Battlefield 3 Online ...
Errr... ALL the Steam games can be obtained through one site I won't mention. If they have other protections, then they still keep those, but it downloads ALL of them without the Steam drm. Of course, you can't play with those that have Steamwork in their game as it'll flag you as a modified version.