Origin IDs - Some gleaned information

Sin_Chase · 4 Oct 2011 at 23:15

So after my huge Origin ID issues and not being able to pick what I wanted to I managed to go straight to an escalated Support Chat guy based in the US and had a good old natter, for quite a time actually.

Special characters are accepted in an ID selection but DO NOT COUNT TOWARDS UNIQUENESS.

That is, as far as Origin is concerned these are all identical:

OverClockers
Over-Clockers
Over_Clockers
-OverClockers-
_-OverClockers-_

Etc etc, you get the point.

In testing I asked if I could set it to something random to prove the systems methodology and afterwards, change it to something meaningful. He seemed happy to do this, so it would seem that it is not beyond the realms of possibility to have an ID changed, whether they will allow you to however is a different question. While I did ask, and it was agreed, I decided to pick a variation that was accepted right off the bat and not get a retrospective edit on my ID.

This is not ammo for you guys to go spamming Chat Support for ID changes, just that, hopefully - changes will be supported in the future, perhaps?

When I was bashing my keyboard like so > dnsnjdnjsdnj and it said "Taken" it actually was. My support guy indicated the sheer numbers of Origin ID signups JUST for the Beta is insane, to the point where mashed IDs are in use. Nuts.

would have been nice to get the ID I wanted. I gave the chap my emails I COULD possibly have the ID registered under and he confirmed none of them matched the person using the ID.

A little unhappy I do not get to use, what is, a very unique ID but that's life. He gave me a free copy of any game available for download from Origin - cannot complain I guess. I tried to blag SWTOR but no luck, settled for something available instead

There are some proper stand-up people in escalated support and this particular guy had, literally, an hour to spare answering my waves of questions. While Origin itself deserves plenty of abuse, and some of EA's other areas guys like this are not deserving of a hard time in chat!

TL;DR

IDs are unique in alphanumeric characters only (Special chars accepted, do not count towards uniqueness).

It is technically possible to change an Origin ID, does not mean someone will do it for you.

Pighardia · 4 Oct 2011 at 23:43

Good post. I have had mixed experiences with EA support. At times i have been in such a rage with them that i have uninstalled Origin about 3 times and vowed never to buy an EA game again! 3 times a few weeks ago i was in a queue for an hour and wa then cut off with the message "no advisors available"

Occasionally you do come across a very helpful CS who will do their best and can be of great help. I shall be trying to merge 2 accounts tomorrow, so i'll see how i get on...

Werewolf · 4 Oct 2011 at 23:53

Well, that's possibly going to go well, especially given that if you had a UO account your username got changed from myuousername to myuousername_uo, and likewise Warhammer online names got changed from mywarhammername to mywarhammername_eu recently as they merged the accounts for all their online games to the EA "master" system (with it's 9 game account limit...).

EA are well and truly making a mess of this, as the main reason they've killed off the old EA/Mythic etc accounts (with zero information given at the time) was to turn them into EA accounts, which in turn will become Origin accounts (and people were getting billed multiple times, not billed at all, billing information seemed to be getting carried across at randon etc), and by the sounds of it when they turn them into the origin accounts people are going to have even more problems.

EA, they can't even organise how to bill their customers.

I've already pretty much decided I'm not buying another EA game, I'm only barely hanging onto my old UO account mainly because sometimes I log in and see old friends/what's going on.

I actually feel quite sorry for a lot of the EA dev's and support people, it seems they get the stick for changes that the management have decreed, and I suspect they often don't have any more warning of what is happening than the customers.

Pighardia · 5 Oct 2011 at 00:38

Well i am hoping i can sort something out, as i have 6-7 games on one account and BC2 in the other. That is the only thing i need to transfer. Never kow they might give me a new code. They offered me a new DA2 code when all i needed was to transfer some dlc.

Werewolf said:
I actually feel quite sorry for a lot of the EA dev's and support people, it seems they get the stick for changes that the management have decreed, and I suspect they often don't have any more warning of what is happening than the customers.

So do i, there are so many problems where they can't do anything. I imagine they get a lot of abuse. Occaionally though you get one who goes the extra mile and is very helpful.

Bane · 5 Oct 2011 at 21:14

Warhammer log-ins now end in _eur. Spent ages trying _eu before finding out.