Last Tuesday, Dragon Age II came out. As you may have noticed, I haven’t posted an article in a few days. You would not be wrong to think that the two had something to do with one another. I am a huge fan of Bioware games, and have been for some time. Whenever I get one in my hands, I literally cannot stop playing. When Mass Effect 2 came out, I put 30 hours into the title within the first 48 hours of owning it. The word obsession comes to mind. So when my brown little box from Amazon came in the mail, containing my copy of the Signature Edition of the game, I squealed with joy. I tore into the package, opened up the game box, only to be confronted with several sheets of paper containing codes that needed to be entered. As a part of Project $10, EA has been including bonus content for all those who purchased the game new in a store, and so these codes were entered into the Xbox Live Marketplace to get access to that content. It is a hassle, but one I don’t really mind, having done this for multiple titles so far. I hopped online and entered the codes, but found I still had several codes remaining once I was finished.

Having pre-ordered the game very early on, I was upgraded to the Signature Edition, which contained its own exclusive bonus content. However, this content could only be unlocked by entering the codes into your Bioware account, which was online and basically an extension of your EA account. Annoyed, I headed over to Bioware’s page, logged in with my email address, and entered all the codes. But when I loaded up the game and checked to see if the material had been unlocked, I saw nothing. I tried refreshing the menu, restarting my system, but nothing changed. It took me some time, but I eventually noticed that the email associated with the Bioware account online was different from the one that the game was trying to load.

You would think this would be an easy fix. A quick jump to the account settings of either of the services, substitute one email address for another and we’re good to go. Well, you would be wrong. I have never had a more infuriating time trying to get a game working. I struggled for literally hours trying to change first my Xbox Live account’s email, then my EA account’s email, and then getting the two to sync up. I made phone calls to various tech support hotlines, scoured message boards for help with my problem, and feverishly wished to meet those responsible for this situation so I could deliver to their groin my own brand of sneaker-clad justice.

For some reason, companies are very adamant that their users create a new and separate account to access their content, regardless of whether or not the content actually deserves it. I struggle to see why Bioware needs their own accounts in order to access in-game items when methods of widely adopted distribution already exist, namely Xbox Live, PSN and Steam. I have created so many accounts over the years, using different login names and email addresses that I simply cannot keep track of them all. My problem with Dragon Age arose when the email associated with my Xbox live account, a Hotmail address due to the previous insistence of Microsoft, did not match the Bioware account I had just made and registered my game to. Apparently, when I purchased Mass Effect 2 and downloaded add ons for that game, an EA account (Bioware’s parent company) was created and my gamertag was locked to that entity. It took me some time, but I eventually convinced an EA employee to switch my gamertag over to the correct account.

It was a miserable experience and one that could have been easily avoided had Bioware and EA just given their customers some freedom. I had hoped with the emergence of encompassing services like Steam and Xbox Live, the days of having many accounts would be over. Even though I just had this awful experience, I think the industry is heading in that direction. Outside the world of gaming, Facebook has quietly been making itself the go to service for creating accounts on websites. With Facebook connect; one click associates your Facebook account with that website, saving you the hassle of creating yet another unique identity. Of course, Facebook gets access to some of your information, allowing them to target ads towards you, but to some this is a fair tradeoff. Apple is also trying to do this with their Game Center service. While it really hasn’t taken off as some would hope, it is supposed to be the center for gaming on the iOS platform, giving players access to leader boards and multiplayer gaming. This is basically the same thing as Xbox Live and the PSN, but in a much different, more chaotic sort of environment.

I think we are headed to a time where we will have one online identity that is used across every platform. Every game, every site, everything will be tied to this account. Whether this will be an anonymous persona or one that uses our real name remains to be seen, but I tend to lean towards the latter. But as we head towards this future, there will be holdouts like EA who will cause you to rip your hair out in frustration, but they will soon disappear. But enough of my ranting and mindless babbling to you all, a city requires the attention of a certain mage…