I will applaud origin for having a good solution to promoting their platform. I wonder if it is entirely through generosity or if some part of it is to increase the player base because the bushiness controversy involved with battlefield 3's production.
I am not getting it even though its free for a number of reasons. First, its EA. Its not just a common lets hate ea circle jerk either. EA ruined a lot of game brands for me that I am personally attached too. RIP Maxis, Origin Systems. I also still consider origin a shovel-ware program that comes preinstalled on store bought laptops which actually takes a bit of effort to remove.
The free argument does not work well on me, yes the game is truly free on their platform, but that means being subjugated too their platform. I would probably still stick too tf2 even if I did get it, because that is the game i play with my friends the most.