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Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
9 years ago
Solved

Origin Access: Timer or time played?

When I start playing a game granted via trial and get 10 hours, does it start a timer that ticks down even if you are not in game or does it tick down based on actual time played?
  • JamieK81's avatar
    JamieK81
    9 years ago
    @sirphobos1983 wrote:

    When I start playing a game granted via trial and get 10 hours, does it start a timer that ticks down even if you are not in game or does it tick down based on actual time played?

    According to the EA guy, the timer only ticks down while the game is running, so you can play 5 hours on the day it unlocks and another 5 hours the next day or 3hrs per day and the last hour the following day.

    I am gonna do a 3hrs per day type of thing, so that will be 3 days of playing this game....though i might get carried away, you know us and new games. lol

JamieK81's avatar
JamieK81
9 years ago
@sirphobos1983 wrote:

When I start playing a game granted via trial and get 10 hours, does it start a timer that ticks down even if you are not in game or does it tick down based on actual time played?

According to the EA guy, the timer only ticks down while the game is running, so you can play 5 hours on the day it unlocks and another 5 hours the next day or 3hrs per day and the last hour the following day.

I am gonna do a 3hrs per day type of thing, so that will be 3 days of playing this game....though i might get carried away, you know us and new games. lol

afrocowboy23's avatar
afrocowboy23
7 years ago
Why does it tick down when ur in the game even thou ur just sitting in the menus???? I spent 1 hour searching cause we couldn’t get a game and then only played 1 game of nhl 19 and now got 9 hours left......that’s kinda stupid
  • JanePhoenix's avatar
    JanePhoenix
    Seasoned Veteran
    7 years ago
    @afrocowboy23 It's not a smart timer that knows what you're doing in-game, so it's up to you to ensure you get the maximum time from your trial. It starts counting from the moment the game executable is launched, and stops counting only when it's closed. So even if you Alt-Tab out of the game to somewhere else, it will still count the time from the game running in the background.
    • afrocowboy23's avatar
      afrocowboy23
      7 years ago
      I understand what ur saying.... but why is the 10 hour trial like that?? Why have ea made it so the timer starts like that and not base it on time in game playing???
      • JanePhoenix's avatar
        JanePhoenix
        Seasoned Veteran
        7 years ago
        @afrocowboy23 The coding for that would likely be quite complex, as the timer would have to be updated all the time to support new games, and be able to recognize what you're doing in-game. It's probably not worth all that effort, and much simpler just to count application runtime. It's game time that you're getting for free, so it's your own responsibility to ensure you get the maximum value out of it, not EA's responsibility. I've heard sometimes that EA Support added extra time to the trial again if the situation merits it, so you're welcome to try, maybe they'll give you some more. Just go to https://help.ea.com and click Contact Us to get started.

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