I recently had to restore my computer, and reinstall some software.

When I went to reinstall Battlefield 3, I discovered they message from Origin, "No Games in your library".

I looked at help FAQs, and this is A COMMON PROBLEM apparently. I tried the fix they suggested: no help. I uninstalled Origin, cleaned my registry, NO HELP. I am boned, and it's been 3 days and no reply from customer service.

EA Origin STOLE MY GAMES and now I can't play them.

FUCK YOU EA, I will never buy one of your products on Origin again. I will play them though, just not buy them.

All other people who I have talked to about this got their games back again rather quickly, sucks to be you. 
And congrats on being a pirate, you're so almighty and wise and stuff :p

That sucks. Hopefully it gets sorted out. I feel like companies need to understand that with this type of service, good and fast customer service is a must since people are losing access to things they actually bought. The only time I had to deal with EA Customer Service though, they were really helpful and had my problem fixed by the next day.

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

Obligatory and futile comment that pirates are guys who make ten thousand copies of a product and sell it for a profit.

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

@Branthog said:

Obligatory and futile comment that pirates are guys who make ten thousand copies of a product and sell it for a profit.

Well written and insightful wall of text about how copyright will be the main reason for stagnation in technology, how it only serves the wealthy, the danger it poses towards prosperity for both culture and ideas, and how it will ultimately lead to the demise of mankind, but derails into talk about chemtrails and the mayan calendar.

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

That sucks, here's hoping you can get them back. Also piracy sucks, don't do that.

@ZeForgotten: So was the pirated copy, just... he let a lot of people borrow it.

Just stop paying for EA games.

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

The borrowed copy was paid for by the friend at one point, though. .

Oh, so as long as the guy that uploads his copy to pirate buys it first it's ok? The only difference between the two is how many people they share it with.

I'm actually kind of envious. My Origin account has two demos and the BF3 beta still, even after a reformat and hardware change. Kind of a huge oversight, making betas and demos permanent additions to your Origin account with no way to remove them.

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

The borrowed copy was paid for by the friend at one point, though. .

Oh, so as long as the guy that uploads his copy to pirate buys it first it's ok? The only difference between the two is how many people they share it with.

I'm sure you'll get a respond from the customer service after the weekend. EA tend to use a good amount of time on each of their tickets. I haven't experienced Origin too much so I can't help you here, but have you tried to log into Origin manually instead of auto? Unless you've tried that? If it is a common issue of syncing then it's probably high on their service update list.

Is it really piracy when you're just taking back what you've legitimately purchased? According to the BSA and ESA it is, but we know that their definition of, well, anything is so far divorced from basic ethics and morality that I don't really care what their opinion is.

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

The borrowed copy was paid for by the friend at one point, though. .

Oh, so as long as the guy that uploads his copy to pirate buys it first it's ok? The only difference between the two is how many people they share it with.

So you don't know the difference between me lending you a copy of a game and you making a copy? That's fine, carry on living that way. Good luck, not in the mood to argue with someone like you about this stuff since it would be like talking to a wall.

You know what, I am with you in spirit. I think it's wrong to download games without paying for them. Really, the only thing I think would justify such a thing is idiotic DRM procedures which make the product worse if you buy it rather than download it. Such as Ubisoft's dial-home stuff (which made Heroes VI a bloody hassle for me since my internet was being shifty at the time) and, apparently, Origin. In Heroes VI I'd lose 40 minutes of progress because my internet connection would go down randomly for a couple of minutes at a time, preventing the game from phoning home so it would dump me back to the main menu without so much as a quicksave before doing so. WTF Ubisoft, I'm a paying customer.

Why should I pay money to get a product that is worse than the one I could get for free? That is not a sensible business model, is it?

Now take Steam, instead. It's a DRM system, but it feels more like a service. You can play your games offline if you want and the DRM generally isn't intrusive. Good old games is an even better example, where there is no DRM at all. Putting something you downloaded from GOG on Piratebay would be wrong without question.

So yes. Shitty DRM is the one and only reason I would consider downloading a game rather than buying it. I never do though, I just don't buy the game. Like Battlefield 3, a game I had been looking forward to since Battlefield 2. And I won't touch another Ubisoft game until they remove that stupid DRM which by itself managed to stop me from enjoying Heroes VI. I refuse to pay for a product only to be treated like I'm a criminal, when I could download it for free and just play the game and enjoy it for what it is.

That sucks. I had no problems at all. I registered Mass Effect 2 on the old EA store and when I downloaded origin recently I still had it on my account and I just clicked on it and it installed.

They have to have some records of your purchase or if not then you must have some emails or something and then they should be able to tell that your account should have such and such games on it.

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

The borrowed copy was paid for by the friend at one point, though. .

Oh, so as long as the guy that uploads his copy to pirate buys it first it's ok? The only difference between the two is how many people they share it with.

So you don't know the difference between me lending you a copy of a game and you making a copy? That's fine, carry on living that way. Good luck, not in the mood to argue with someone like you about this stuff since it would be like talking to a wall.

You know what, I am with you in spirit. I think it's wrong to download games without paying for them. Really, the only thing I think would justify such a thing is idiotic DRM procedures which make the product worse if you buy it rather than download it. Such as Ubisoft's dial-home stuff (which made Heroes VI a bloody hassle for me since my internet was being shifty at the time) and, apparently, Origin. In Heroes VI I'd lose 40 minutes of progress because my internet connection would go down randomly for a couple of minutes at a time, preventing the game from phoning home so it would dump me back to the main menu without so much as a quicksave before doing so. WTF Ubisoft, I'm a paying customer.

Why should I pay money to get a product that is worse than the one I could get for free? That is not a sensible business model, is it?

Now take Steam, instead. It's a DRM system, but it feels more like a service. You can play your games offline if you want and the DRM generally isn't intrusive. Good old games is an even better example, where there is no DRM at all. Putting something you downloaded from GOG on Piratebay would be wrong without question.

So yes. Shitty DRM is the one and only reason I would consider downloading a game rather than buying it. I never do though, I just don't buy the game. Like Battlefield 3, a game I had been looking forward to since Battlefield 2. And I won't touch another Ubisoft game until they remove that stupid DRM which by itself managed to stop me from enjoying Heroes VI. I refuse to pay for a product only to be treated like I'm a criminal, when I could download it for free and just play the game and enjoy it for what it is.

@ZeForgotten said:

@Anund said:

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

The borrowed copy was paid for by the friend at one point, though. .

Oh, so as long as the guy that uploads his copy to pirate buys it first it's ok? The only difference between the two is how many people they share it with.

So you don't know the difference between me lending you a copy of a game and you making a copy? That's fine, carry on living that way. Good luck, not in the mood to argue with someone like you about this stuff since it would be like talking to a wall.

You know what, I am with you in spirit. I think it's wrong to download games without paying for them. Really, the only thing I think would justify such a thing is idiotic DRM procedures which make the product worse if you buy it rather than download it. Such as Ubisoft's dial-home stuff (which made Heroes VI a bloody hassle for me since my internet was being shifty at the time) and, apparently, Origin. In Heroes VI I'd lose 40 minutes of progress because my internet connection would go down randomly for a couple of minutes at a time, preventing the game from phoning home so it would dump me back to the main menu without so much as a quicksave before doing so. WTF Ubisoft, I'm a paying customer.

Why should I pay money to get a product that is worse than the one I could get for free? That is not a sensible business model, is it?

Now take Steam, instead. It's a DRM system, but it feels more like a service. You can play your games offline if you want and the DRM generally isn't intrusive. Good old games is an even better example, where there is no DRM at all. Putting something you downloaded from GOG on Piratebay would be wrong without question.

So yes. Shitty DRM is the one and only reason I would consider downloading a game rather than buying it. I never do though, I just don't buy the game. Like Battlefield 3, a game I had been looking forward to since Battlefield 2. And I won't touch another Ubisoft game until they remove that stupid DRM which by itself managed to stop me from enjoying Heroes VI. I refuse to pay for a product only to be treated like I'm a criminal, when I could download it for free and just play the game and enjoy it for what it is.

I've never had a problem with Ubisofts DRM (or Origin for that matter) since the Ubisoft one is usually "Just stay online" and since I get what I pay for I have a connection all the time (why would I pay for something that I can't use, right?) But that doesn't mean I don't find whatever DRM Ubi puts on their game totally nuts. Anno 2070 had some weird thing in it that took away one of your activations of the game just because you changed your GFX Card! Stuff like that I find fucking weird.

I think the issue with some people justifying themselves pirating certain products such as ones with extremely intrusive DRM policies is that we as consumers lack a just and effective channel to voice our grievances with regards to the exploitation of legitimate paying customers. As long as there is a continued overly aggressive and ill advised method of DRM, this segment of potentially legitimate and loyal customers will be lost and more on the way as well as perceived good will amongst us continues to erode.

Smart and fair digital distribution platform is the battlefield (pardon the pun) in which forward looking enterprises should be looking to compete in. Case in point, compare Steam and Origins.

weird because i just ordered a new PC and when i checked my origin account in preparation i still have mass effect 2 and burnout paradise listed and ready to download

Don't you just love how every thread about PC gaming ends in a discussion of piracy?

@Old_Corncob

'' Fuck you EA!!!"... but i'll still play your games!! '' ahahah, you made me laugh. Yes, go and pirate things if it makes you feel better. Because you know, screwing over people is always a good answer to being screwed over.

Cheers.

@ZeForgotten: I think the quality of your internet connection is remarkably irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Ubisoft is a company who are inconveniencing their customers in a futile effort to stop piracy. They need to get the message that they are, quite frankly, idiots. How do we achieve this? I guess there are two ways: either we stop buying their games, or we stop buying their games and download them instead.

Personally I'll probably take the first option but I am inclined to argue in favour the second. If you simply don't buy a game you aren't visible in the company's statistics. If you pirate the game, however, then you are (or so they claim). Imagine a world where consumers made it clear to companies that DRM which impact paying customers negatively actually increases piracy? What if people not only stopped buying Ubisoft's products but also started downloading them on a massive scale? Would that get the message through? I think so.

Ideally this would be coupled with much lower levels of piracy on games which completely lack DRM, to really drive the point home.

I'm sure once you get your videogames back, you'll play them and buy more, and get over this childish outburst

@Anund said:

@ZeForgotten: I think the quality of your internet connection is remarkably irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Ubisoft is a company who are inconveniencing their customers in a futile effort to stop piracy. They need to get the message that they are, quite frankly, idiots. How do we achieve this? I guess there are two ways: either we stop buying their games, or we stop buying their games and download them instead.

Personally I'll probably take the first option but I am inclined to argue in favour the second. If you simply don't buy a game you aren't visible in the company's statistics. If you pirate the game, however, then you are (or so they claim). Imagine a world where consumers made it clear to companies that DRM which impact paying customers negatively actually increases piracy? What if people not only stopped buying Ubisoft's products but also started downloading them on a massive scale? Would that get the message through? I think so.

Ideally this would be coupled with much lower levels of piracy on games which completely lack DRM, to really drive the point home.

I doubt that this will happen. Ubisoft would say: "Man! Piracy INCREASED... We need more DRM!"

Read the EULA again, or for the first time, they didnt steel them, you never owned it in the first place.

@MikeGosot: Yeah, and when that doesn't help they'll probably go "We need even more DRM!" and then when that fails... maybe that's when they start listening? It's worth a shot. Because all buying their games means is supporting their current strategy. And not buying the games will probably end up punishing the developers along with the consumers through the cancellation of good franchises.

The only way I can see for the consumer to send the message "we don't like your DRM, but the games are great" is by downloading the games until they stop being ignorant, DRM crazed madmen.

Throw a brick through EA's window.

@Fallen189 said:

I'm sure once you get your videogames back, you'll play them and buy more, and get over this childish outburst

Heh heh, he expects to be able to access things he bought, what a child. Damn, it feels good to be so mature.

@MikeGosot: Yeah, and when that doesn't help they'll probably go "We need even more DRM!" and then when that fails... maybe that's when they start listening? It's worth a shot. Because all buying their games means is supporting their current strategy. And not buying the games will probably end up punishing the developers along with the consumers through the cancellation of good franchises.

The only way I can see for the consumer to send the message "we don't like your DRM, but the games are great" is by downloading the games until they stop being ignorant, DRM crazed madmen.

@sopranosfan said:

Don't you just love how every thread about PC gaming ends in a discussion of piracy?

Yeah, when did Piracy get into this thread? OP never mentioned Piracy, and he never edited his post. Great job everybody for derailing this thread

@Old_Corncob: It's the weekend. Their customer service department is probably closed.

You know, I had the same problem the OP had about 7 months ago. Yes, it is a common issue, but as ZeForgotten mention, it's usually quickly fixed. I don't even remember exactly how I did but it was something so quick I had even forgotten that it happened. This thread seemed to focused on OP's cryptic last sentence and ended up turning this into "when it's ok to pirate?" and "EA just sucks".

@Old_Corncob EA didn't stole your games, relax. Yes, it makes you justifiably angry but it's not going to help you find a fix, so cool your head. IF you still want a fix, that is. I can't tell because it sounds like you gave up. EA support is REALLY bad, it's better to ask other users. Have you tried deleting Origin's offline cache? I might be there even if you uninstalled the program. On Win7 it's in C:\ProgramData\Origin\DownloadCache on a folder named after your e-mail. delete that, restart your system and restart Origin.

I wouldn't blame him for resorting to piracy...if it was only EA games that are exclusive to Origin. If he just started pirating everything, then no.

Fuckin EA!!!! it used to be activision i really hated, but now its EA god i hate them so much. all most as much as i used to hate activision last year (but i don't really remember why i hated activision so much when i think about it)

but yeah i really HATE EA now !!!!!

Haven't read if it was fixed, but have fun trying to get anything usable at all from the completely useless customer support. They don't seem to comprehend english and are just completely fucking unhelpful. Tried explaining for half an hour once what I wanted them to do. He said he would fix my username in BF3, never did, and then he gave me an Origin coupon. Thanks.

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

The borrowed copy was paid for by the friend at one point, though. .

Oh, so as long as the guy that uploads his copy to pirate buys it first it's ok? The only difference between the two is how many people they share it with.

So you don't know the difference between me lending you a copy of a game and you making a copy? That's fine, carry on living that way. Good luck, not in the mood to argue with someone like you about this stuff since it would be like talking to a wall.

This drives me insane. Seriously.

@crusader8463 said:

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

The borrowed copy was paid for by the friend at one point, though. .

Oh, so as long as the guy that uploads his copy to pirate buys it first it's ok? The only difference between the two is how many people they share it with.

No the difference is that one person BORROWED the game. The other person made infinite numbers of copies of that game and gave it away for free. You buy ONE copy of a game. That copy can be played by any number of different people, but only one at a time. There is only ONE copy. The difference is that in piracy thousands or even millions of people are playing the copy at the same time. See the difference?

@Raven10 said:

@crusader8463 said:

@ZeForgotten said:

@crusader8463 said:

@Henny said:

@ZeForgotten: A bit too quick to assume he is definitely going to be a pirate, don't you think? Maybe he will just borrow the games he wants to play from friends?

*cough*

That's my favourite part when I see people running around screaming bloody murder whenever someone mentions they pirated something. If they had of said they borrowed the game from a friend and played it no one would give a shit, but because he obtained the game by clicking a few buttons on pirate bay it magically becomes this crime against humanity and makes him the scum of the earth. There's no difference in the two other then how he got the games in his hands.

The borrowed copy was paid for by the friend at one point, though. .

Oh, so as long as the guy that uploads his copy to pirate buys it first it's ok? The only difference between the two is how many people they share it with.

No the difference is that one person BORROWED the game. The other person made infinite numbers of copies of that game and gave it away for free. You buy ONE copy of a game. That copy can be played by any number of different people, but only one at a time. There is only ONE copy. The difference is that in piracy thousands or even millions of people are playing the copy at the same time. See the difference?

both break the agreement you agreed to in the EULA though.

It's amazing how much better Valve/Steam is than EA/Origin. The best way to avoid EA's incompetence and not fall victim to their illegal behaviour is to just not buy stuff from them and not use Origin.

@Dry_Carton said:

It's amazing how much better Valve/Steam is than EA/Origin. The best way to avoid EA's incompetence and not fall victim to their illegal behaviour is to just not buy stuff from them and not use Origin.

in my experience the difference between Steam and Origin are grossly overstated on the internet. i have experienced no problems with Origin at all and i use it for a number of games, BF3, Burnout Paradise, Alice, Crysis, N4S, Dead space 1 and 2 and others. and it works great. i've had to restore my PC also as the OP has and did not encounter the problem that the OP did. in fact the experience was flawless. just as good as steam in every way.

i have no weird love for either piece of software, they are just a means of me playing my games.

@ZeForgotten said:

@Azteck: I don't blame him, at least he owns up to it. Knows it's not ok but doesn't try to make a lame excuse. I'm sure his games will come back though, unless of course he just gives up, bends over and takes it hard instead of emaling and calling all the time.

How about the "lame excuse" that he already bought them? haha

Sorry bro, it sucks that Origin isn't giving you your products, I would suggest to keep hammering the customer service people until it gets resolved. I'm a very casual PC Gamer, I play TF2 and Minecraft mostly, but it sounds like Origin isn't very good, sorry man.

On to the piracy thing, if I was selling a product, I really wouldn't like it if one person bought a copy and then put it out for download for free. If one guy buys a copy and then gives/lends it to one friend after he's finished, though, I don't really have a problem with that because that one copy of that game would only be used by one person at anytime. I agree with Jeff's' "Compete with Piracy" speech, I just find it sad that you should have to compete with people stealing your shit.

From my Origin experience, EA CS is outsourced to ForeignCountryLand and can completely mess up understanding even the most basic English, replying in Ctrl+C Ctrl+V responses that jam XX% off Origin purchases codes in at the end.  If you're in the US though I recommend filing with the BBA, should wake them up like it does Microsoft.
 
And from experience, evidence and proof (that will be hard to get public without good people losing their jobs), EA QA is outsourced to several not-that-well-off countries, and ran terribly. They get paid per bug, and so their testers report the slightest little texture error, rather than reporting and trying to back-track actual bugs, glitches and exploits. Certainly the titles end up polished and sparkly clean looking, just not playing as good as they appear.