EA’s online distribution service Origin is required to properly play Battlefield 3, with Battlelog giving the ability to browse servers and join a game direction from the browser itself. DICE’s Daniel Martos has said that Origin is required to play if the game is bought in a retail store. It’s not clear how it will be handled if Battlefield is acquired from another digital download service but might just be the same knowing how EA is.
Some games have clients running in the background, especially multiplayer games like League of Legends for multiple reasons, and this has more or less become accepted. However, even if only a handful mind having to use Origin which honestly isn’t a big deal, the fact that you can only have one soldier is going to ruffle some feathers.
Previously, someone could have multiple accounts for Battlefield, and have several profiles or soldiers to play as, but Matros has said that your Battlefield soldier is tied to your Origin account. The soldier’s name can’t be changed, and you can’t delete them either or start afresh for whatever reason.
The inability to start over is the same controversy that caused Capcom to be the center of a controversy involving their Resident Evil game on the DS. Hopefully EA doesn’t get too strict on this policy and gives players some leeway before they themselves get targeted for the same thing that Capcom was smacked around for a few weeks ago. The fact that in Alpha testing, gamers were only able to pick their Origin profile as a name can really irk some, especially if they’re stuck with it or Heaven forbid they get wiped in the process.
Matros said on his twitter that “your name is linked to your origin persona” in response to the question “Will it still be possible in BF3 to freely choose your ingame nick(soldiername),like it has been with BFBC2?”. However, on EA’s profile page for your Origin account, you can create a large amount of usernames that you can choose from before starting a game. Whenever you can change it afterwards is not exactly clear.
