So, I decided to install the new EA App, Electronic Art's
replacement/reboot for it's old Origin app.

First impressions: it's dark. Why do all modern applications seem to
use a black background? Steam did it first, GOG followed suit, Epic
was born in darkness, and now the EA App. It's all so monochromatic
and uninviting. Why can't we ever have any color in our apps?

I seem to remember Origin (which was automatically uninstalled when I
converted to EA App) had an option to start with the library
pre-selected. That seems to be gone now; it loads to a "Home" page
touting EA's latest sales and propaganda. Bah.

The library has been renamed from "My Games" to "My Collection". This
is possible just a rebranding... but the cynical part of me
immediately suspects this is meant to imply that I no longer own the
games; I've just a list of games I'm allowed to play... at least for
now.

The old library had smaller thumbnails too. I used to be able to see
20+ games before I needed to scroll. Now it's eight. What a waste of
space. Also, it's side-bar for social accounts ("friends") seems
permanently affixed to the right-hand side of the client. More wasted
space. No, Origin, I'm not giving you access to my social networks.
Search filters are gone too.

Huh, some of my games have disappeared. Well, sort of. For a variety
of reasons, Origin had booned me with a number of duplicate games; for
instance, I had both "Battlefield 3" and "Battlefield 3 Limited
Edition". Now it's just the one game.

Let's see what's missing: 1x Battlefield 1, 1x Battlefield 3 LE, 1x
Bejeweled, 1x Dragon Age II, and 1x Star Wars Battlefront II
Celebration Edition. Also, Bulletstorm got transformed into
"Bulletstorm Lite"

I don't know if I should be upset about this or not. On the one hand,
it's not like I could really get use out of the duplicates. On the
other hand, I /did/ pay for them and having them vanish into the
either seems a bit like theft, dontcha think? I think maybe I'll write
an email. It probably won't come to anything, but squeaky wheels and
all that, right?

All in all, the new EA App seems as threadbare and pointless as ever.
If anything, it's even less functional thanks to its lower information
density. It's even less useful than Epic's client, and that's an
impressively low bar clear. But it's not like I really have a choice;
it was either upgrade or lose access to the games I had on Origin.

Man, remember when we actually /owned/ the games we bought?

On Tue, 25 Oct 2022 14:40:59 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>So, I decided to install the new EA App, Electronic Art's
>replacement/reboot for it's old Origin app.
>
>First impressions: it's dark. Why do all modern applications seem to
>use a black background?

Light text on a dark background is easier on the eyes, especially if
you have your eyes on a screen all week at work, coming home to a
glaring white screen with blurry black letters doesn't scream "fun" to
most folks I think.

I'm sure exceptions exist.

I can remember even in the 90s and 2000s (before the mainstream caught
on), teammates would walk by my desk and go "how do you work like
that?" (referring to the fact I had reconfigured the environment for
light text on dark background). Now it's mostly par for the course. I
guess it may be a style trend for some folks, but its a matter of real
ergonomics for me.

Some people just have a weird emotional reaction to colors and think
dark looks gloomy. I never related to having my emotions manipulated
by unrelated environmental conditions (changes in light, weather,
sound, etc.). Even when someone says they can't listen to a band
because the music depresses them... it's hard for me to even relate.
To me it's either good music or bad music, it's not going to change my
mood one way or another.

On 10/25/2022 4:56 PM, Rin Stowleigh wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Oct 2022 14:40:59 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
> <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> So, I decided to install the new EA App, Electronic Art's
>> replacement/reboot for it's old Origin app.
>>
>> First impressions: it's dark. Why do all modern applications seem to
>> use a black background?
>
> Light text on a dark background is easier on the eyes, especially if
> you have your eyes on a screen all week at work, coming home to a
> glaring white screen with blurry black letters doesn't scream "fun" to
> most folks I think.
>
> I'm sure exceptions exist.
>
> I can remember even in the 90s and 2000s (before the mainstream caught
> on), teammates would walk by my desk and go "how do you work like
> that?" (referring to the fact I had reconfigured the environment for
> light text on dark background). Now it's mostly par for the course. I
> guess it may be a style trend for some folks, but its a matter of real
> ergonomics for me.
>
> Some people just have a weird emotional reaction to colors and think
> dark looks gloomy. I never related to having my emotions manipulated
> by unrelated environmental conditions (changes in light, weather,
> sound, etc.). Even when someone says they can't listen to a band
> because the music depresses them... it's hard for me to even relate.
> To me it's either good music or bad music, it's not going to change my
> mood one way or another.

I also prefer a dark background to work on. For a long time I have
_always_ set my monitor backgrounds as just a black screen. And given
that I'm having sleep issues these days I've found that it is a LOT less
jarring to my eyes if I decide to spend a little time at my computer
before trying to go back to sleep in the middle of the night.
--
I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
dirty old man.

On Tue, 25 Oct 2022 18:08:43 -0700, Dimensional Traveler
<dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:

>On 10/25/2022 4:56 PM, Rin Stowleigh wrote:
>> On Tue, 25 Oct 2022 14:40:59 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
>> <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> So, I decided to install the new EA App, Electronic Art's
>>> replacement/reboot for it's old Origin app.
>>>
>>> First impressions: it's dark. Why do all modern applications seem to
>>> use a black background?
>>
>> Light text on a dark background is easier on the eyes, especially if
>> you have your eyes on a screen all week at work, coming home to a
>> glaring white screen with blurry black letters doesn't scream "fun" to
>> most folks I think.
>>
>> I'm sure exceptions exist.
>>
>> I can remember even in the 90s and 2000s (before the mainstream caught
>> on), teammates would walk by my desk and go "how do you work like
>> that?" (referring to the fact I had reconfigured the environment for
>> light text on dark background). Now it's mostly par for the course. I
>> guess it may be a style trend for some folks, but its a matter of real
>> ergonomics for me.
>>
>> Some people just have a weird emotional reaction to colors and think
>> dark looks gloomy. I never related to having my emotions manipulated
>> by unrelated environmental conditions (changes in light, weather,
>> sound, etc.). Even when someone says they can't listen to a band
>> because the music depresses them... it's hard for me to even relate.
>> To me it's either good music or bad music, it's not going to change my
>> mood one way or another.
>
>I also prefer a dark background to work on. For a long time I have
>_always_ set my monitor backgrounds as just a black screen. And given
>that I'm having sleep issues these days I've found that it is a LOT less
>jarring to my eyes if I decide to spend a little time at my computer
>before trying to go back to sleep in the middle of the night.

Yeah there's always the blue light /sleep issue, dark themes help with
that too.

On Tue, 25 Oct 2022 19:56:13 -0400, Rin Stowleigh
<rstowleigh@x-nospam-x.com> wrote:

>On Tue, 25 Oct 2022 14:40:59 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
><spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>So, I decided to install the new EA App, Electronic Art's
>>replacement/reboot for it's old Origin app.
>>
>>First impressions: it's dark. Why do all modern applications seem to
>>use a black background?
>
>Light text on a dark background is easier on the eyes, especially if
>you have your eyes on a screen all week at work, coming home to a
>glaring white screen with blurry black letters doesn't scream "fun" to
>most folks I think.

No, I get that. But does /every/ app have to embrace maximum
blackness? And white-on-dark doesn't necessarily equate to
white-on-black either. Steam used to have a rather fugly green
background, but I actually prefer that to the current color scheme. It
has the benefits of a) not burning out your retinas, b) not being
depressingly monochrome, and c) actually standing out from the crowd
by having its own color scheme.

(Actually, the current version of Steam is probably the least
offensive of the digital game clients, since - while it's dark - it's
not as white-text-on-black like EA App/GOG/Epic are. I still wouldn't
mind a bit more chromatic distinctivness ;-)