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[alexandros]

Gamers are abusing a system set forth to allow people from poorer countries to buy games. This is wrong on so many levels and it needs to stop ASAP.

 

[zlatko]

I do not like this sam I am. Will Valve finally fall out of GAF's holy circle of love like Blizzard has?

Who's next? :O

 

[JaseC]

The hilarious thing is that GAF actually banned discussion of out-of-region CIS/Russia/India VPN purchasing many months ago. EviLore posted a stickies announcement thread about it and everything

Well, technically, the ban applies to "Region-exploiting CD key reseller websites". I'd like to think that everybody is wise enough to assume that circumventing regional stores is likely to be a big no-no, though (I certainly haven't seen anybody whimsically recommending it).

 

[SolsticeZero]

Well, technically, the ban applies to "Region-exploiting CD key reseller websites". I'd link to think that everybody is wise enough to assume that circumventing regional stores is likely to be a big no-no, though (I certainly haven't seen anybody whimsically recommending it).

Indeed. They should really add VPN purchasing to the TOS.

 

[Glass Rebel]

So Valve actively tries to make the indie game situation better and this is how you guys thank them

Valve/Steam hate threads are the new Ninten/Vitadoomed threads it seems.

 

[kamspy]

Well, technically, the ban applies to "Region-exploiting CD key reseller websites". I'd like to think that everybody is wise enough to assume that circumventing regional stores is likely to be a big no-no, though (I certainly haven't seen anybody whimsically recommending it).

I personally don't see a difference. Both methods are just circumventing regional pricing/exchange rates.

 

[Glass Rebel]

I personally don't see a difference. Both methods are just circumventing regional pricing/exchange rates.

I thought the sites in question were reselling stolen keys? I only used one once because I thought they were legit and I'm still scared that my copy of Rage will be removed one day. Never again.

 

[kamspy]

I thought the sites in question were reselling stolen keys? I only used one once because I thought they were legit and I'm still scared that my copy of Rage will be removed one day. Never again.

Speculation. Most of my family is in Russia and every time I've visited you can walk though a mall and see new release PC games for what amount to ~$10-$15USD. No reason to steal them when you can make a $10 profit per game just legally buying and selling them.

 

[wutwutwut]

Speculation. Most of my family is in Russia and every time I've visited you can walk though a mall and see new release PC games for what amount to ~$10-$15USD. No reason to steal them when you can make a $10 profit per game just legally buying and selling them.

The sites were banned after one of them was caught red-handed selling stolen keys, if I remember correctly.

 

[water_wendi]

Hilarious raging from some of the resident Steam haters...

Random Steam complaints in thread...

Pure, unadulterated entertainment.

lol

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

you know guys, if you don't mind bending the rules and like cheap games, why don't you just pirate them?

I can't help but feel exploiting the price discrepancies between developed and developing economies is more of a dick move than outright piracy.

There was a thread recently by a guy from India where EA had just jacked the price of games up to a (comparative salary) $1000 or so cost per game, and as a result had basically killed off legitimate purchases, just because some suburban american kids could save themselves $20 pocket money or so.

 

[Salsa]

See now this? This really rustles my jimmies.

yup.

but didnt this come up before? like right after the summer sales, not sure if this is news


main thing is the VPN business anyway, I doubt they'll do much beyond a warning for people just gifting and recieving gifts.

 

[kamspy]

If you owned a software shop in Russia or a country with a similar exchange rate, would you try to get some extra cash flow selling games in such a manor?

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

If you owned a software shop in Russia or a country with a similar exchange rate, would you try to get some extra cash flow selling games in such a manor?

Given the short-termist thinking of most businesses, sure.
I'd probably have second thoughts when publishers stopped bothering selling games at a reasonable cost for my relative cost of living and I was out of business though.

 

[Salsa]

I think a mod should intervene here. Mention in the title or OP that this is from a pretty old Reddit thread and that there hasn't been any evidence to support this otherwise.

And that the action Valve is mainly taking is against those who use VPNs. People getting confused up in here, specially after the latest TOS stuff.

 

[double jump]

Gamers are abusing a system set forth to allow people from poorer countries to buy games. This is wrong on so many levels and it needs to stop ASAP.

corporations do the same thing everyday by outsourcing jobs and using cheap exploitative labor but that's called capitalism. But when the consumer finds a way to get the best deal possible it's labeled as a abuse and wrong wtf ? lol.

 

[SolsticeZero]

corporations do the same thing everyday by outsourcing jobs and using cheap exploitative labor but that's called capitalism. But when the consumer finds a way to get the best deal possible it's labeled as a abuse and wrong wtf ? lol.

Nobody says we weren't labeling the corporations as wrong, either.....

 

[Glass Rebel]

Speculation. Most of my family is in Russia and every time I've visited you can walk though a mall and see new release PC games for what amount to ~$10-$15USD. No reason to steal them when you can make a $10 profit per game just legally buying and selling them.

The sites were banned after one of them was caught red-handed selling stolen keys, if I remember correctly.

This is what I heard as well.

If they're legal I'd have no problem obviously but it seems we have close to no real information on the situation.

 

[kamspy]

This is what I heard as well.

If they're legal I'd have no problem obviously but it seems we have close to no real information on the situation.

Some sites post pictures of shipping boxes with all the cases.

 

[Glass Rebel]

Themoreyouknow.jpg

I'm still not too hot on using them, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Boss Doggie]

This just shows how awesome GAF's regional gifting thread is.

 

[kamspy]

Themoreyouknow.jpg

I'm still not too hot on using them, just to be on the safe side.

Yeah me neither, and I have the convenience of actually being able to email my cousin and have him pick me up a game when he's at the store. Just not worth the risk.

 

[ashrafazlan]

I don't have a problem with this. As long as gifting is still allowed i'm happy

 

[Chinner]

I can't help but feel exploiting the price discrepancies between developed and developing economies is more of a dick move than outright piracy.

There was a thread recently by a guy from India where EA had just jacked the price of games up to a (comparative salary) $1000 or so cost per game, and as a result had basically killed off legitimate purchases, just because some suburban american kids could save themselves $20 pocket money or so.

pretty much, but hey valve taking away our freedoms oh ma gawd

 

[Conan-san]

Telling VPN for cheap games people to fuck off, I'm cool with.

Just as long as people are not being punished for using the those services to, say, buy games locked out of their region (like You Don't Know Jack) then it's all gravy.

 

[Drencrom]

so gifting is fine but VPN abusing is not? and the source isn't confirmed?

I gotta say, this forced anti-valve movement that's developed this last month is just hilarious.

what's this? half life3 has been announced? wow how terrible of valve why rush this product for a quick cash-in?

you know guys, if you don't mind bending the rules and like cheap games, why don't you just pirate them?

what's that? valve makes you pay for games? THOSE BASTARDS.

pretty much, but hey valve taking away our freedoms oh ma gawd

this just in:

valve involved in child pornography ring. gabe newel in hot speed pursuit by police.

source to be confirmed .

 

[VALIS]

Valve's image seems to have been tarnished quite a bit on GAF over the last week or so.

It's about time. Not that Valve is bad, but more like they do business on roughly the same level everyone else does business. A couple things they do better, a couple things they do worse (like customer support!), but the idea they were somehow the good guys in a sea of villainy I think mostly came from people being really enamored with the client and the sales.

Fun times on the NeoGAF. Reminds me of when GAF's previous darling, Sony, started showing cracks in the armor 6-7 years ago.

 

[Exuro]

It's about time. Not that Valve is bad, but more like they do business on roughly the same level everyone else does business. A couple things they do better, a couple things they do worse (like customer support!), but the idea they were somehow the good guys in a sea of villainy I think mostly came from people being really enamored with the client and the sales.

Fun times on the NeoGAF. Reminds me of when GAF's previous darling, Sony, started showing cracks in the armor 6-7 years ago.

So I can't like how they do big sales anymore? Being "enamored" by their sales is no longer just about cheap prices, it's about the community events they include. I don't see many competitors do this.

 

[Palette Swap]

It's about time. Not that Valve is bad, but more like they do business on roughly the same level everyone else does business. A couple things they do better, a couple things they do worse (like customer support!), but the idea they were somehow the good guys in a sea of villainy I think mostly came from people being really enamored with the client and the sales.

Fun times on the NeoGAF. Reminds me of when GAF's previous darling, Sony, started showing cracks in the armor 6-7 years ago.

The only cracks ITT are from people who can't read for shit and are upset over something that's been frowned upon for some time.

 

[jediyoshi]

but the idea they were somehow the good guys in a sea of villainy I think mostly came from people being really enamored with the client and the sales.

No one was enamored by the client.

 

[VALIS]

So I can't like how they do big sales anymore?

I love the sales, too. I certainly have the Steam library to prove it. But I said that I think a lot of people conflated fun sales with "Steam cares about me more than the others," and I can't think of any way that's true.

The only cracks ITT are from people who can't read for shit and are upset over something that's been frowned upon for some time.

I didn't say anything about this thread, I was responding to someone talking about the general tone about Steam lately here. I've been here for 9 years, GAF has always tended to be very love/hate, black/white, good/bad. It's nice to see Steam down on a reasonable level now, getting questioned when it seems appropriate rather than excessively praised for everything.

 

[jediyoshi]

I love the sales, too. I certainly have the Steam library to prove it. But I said that I think a lot of people conflated fun sales with "Steam cares about me more than the others," and I can't think of any way that's true.

Sales and caring are mutually exclusive? Did you already forget how every other DD platform is functionally?

 

[Exuro]

I love the sales, too. I certainly have the Steam library to prove it. But I said that I think a lot of people conflated fun sales with "Steam cares about me more than the others," and I can't think of any way that's true.

Well when they provide more entertaining ways of doing releases and large sales it's hard to think/believe they're on the same level as competitors in my opinion. It would be interesting to hear why there are sale discrepancies between Steam and Amazon when they're both up at relatively the same time though.

 

[Chinner]

this just in:

valve involved in child pornography ring. gabe newel in hot speed pursuit by police.

source to be confirmed .

 

[Glass Rebel]

of all the posters in this thread... he needs to relax? :lol

cmonson.jpg

 

[Tobe]

This is fucked up. Gave really needs the talks about this issues and the logic of them.

 

[bj00rn_]

I was so pissed off when valve artificially jacked up the prices in europe this way that I uninstalled Steam and never bought a game through it again. I buy my games elsewhere now, and I'm happy about that.

 

[Karishin]

I was so pissed off when valve artificially jacked up the prices in europe this way that I uninstalled Steam and never bought a game through it again. I buy my games elsewhere now, and I'm happy about that.

Thats not valves doing, publishers set the prices.

 

[~Kinggi~]

Valve is getting all the bad news out of the way now so when they release Half Life 3 everyone loves them again. Its genius.

 

[markot]

Well, it sucks, but if you want regional pricing... then what?

If they let it happen, companies wont do regional pricing, because everyone will just go around it.

 

[alexandros]

It doesn't suck, it's completely logical because people around the world have different levels of income and couldn't in all likelyhood afford a single price worldwide. A few guys trading games on a GAF forum thread isn't a problem for Valve's partners, but specialist sites selling russian Steam keys to everyone certainly is a problem, a huge one at that. It needs to end as soon as possible, before people in Russia and other countries are forced to pay the same price as much richer regions.

The region I live in has very high Steam prices. I don't use VPNs or shady steam key dealers, I wait until the price drops to a level that I'm comfortable paying. And everybody needs to remember that Valve doesn't set the prices. Publishers do.

 

[Dunan]

Question for Valve/Steam/PC gamers in general:

I don't have a PC, so I have no experience with this, but do different regions typically sell games only in the main languages of those regions (like, say, the PS3 does), or can you install your games, or patch them, in any language you like?

That is, if you want to play some game in Russian but don't live in Russia, wouldn't it be the most natural thing in the world to buy it in Russian, whether the Russian price is higher or lower than your region's price?

Or does Valve take the shortsighted, minority-ignoring position that human beings only speak and read the primary language of the region in which they reside?

 

[alexandros]

Or does Valve take the shortsighted, minority-ignoring position that human beings only speak and read the primary language of the region in which they reside?

That is an excellent question but again, it's not up to Valve to decide which version of a game is available at a specific region. That's the publisher's call. Anyway, don't most games already come with in-built language selection?

 

[Frankfurter]

It doesn't suck, it's completely logical because people around the world have different levels of income and couldn't in all likelyhood afford a single price worldwide. A few guys trading games on a GAF forum thread isn't a problem for Valve's partners, but specialist sites selling russian Steam keys to everyone certainly is a problem, a huge one at that. It needs to end as soon as possible, before people in Russia and other countries are forced to pay the same price as much richer regions.

The region I live in has very high Steam prices. I don't use VPNs or shady steam key dealers, I wait until the price drops to a level that I'm comfortable paying. And everybody needs to remember that Valve doesn't set the prices. Publishers do.

Yeah, just eat whatever is being fed to you.

Steam (and companies in general) is taking advantage of globalization, yet tries its best to not grant the user the same opportunity. It's completely logical from the companies perspective, but it's certainly not in the best interest of the consumer.

 

[gdt]

Question for Valve/Steam/PC gamers in general:

I don't have a PC, so I have no experience with this, but do different regions typically sell games only in the main languages of those regions (like, say, the PS3 does), or can you install your games, or patch them, in any language you like?

That is, if you want to play some game in Russian but don't live in Russia, wouldn't it be the most natural thing in the world to buy it in Russian, whether the Russian price is higher or lower than your region's price?

Or does Valve take the shortsighted, minority-ignoring position that human beings only speak and read the primary language of the region in which they reside?

Region free games (most pc games are) usually have all the language packs. You just choose that in the game's properties in your library and you're good to go. You can also usually download whatever language pack you need if the game doesn't support it out the box.

This thread isn't about language packs at all, its about fooling Valve by making it seem that your IP is from Russia/India/etc to buy games from their store, where its vastly cheaper. And doing that with an alt account and gifting it to your main account.

 

[xJavonta]

I'm a huge Valve/Steam fan, but what the hell, Valve? You're going to taint your public image REALLY quickly.

 

[1-D_FTW]

Question for Valve/Steam/PC gamers in general:

I don't have a PC, so I have no experience with this, but do different regions typically sell games only in the main languages of those regions (like, say, the PS3 does), or can you install your games, or patch them, in any language you like?

That is, if you want to play some game in Russian but don't live in Russia, wouldn't it be the most natural thing in the world to buy it in Russian, whether the Russian price is higher or lower than your region's price?

Or does Valve take the shortsighted, minority-ignoring position that human beings only speak and read the primary language of the region in which they reside?

Steam is a store for publishers. And publisher's release cheap games in Russia because it's a poor country with rampant piracy. This is the solution to get people to buy legit copies. Cheap games with strict DD policies. If people can't live with this, publishers will simply abandon the market (or any store that's too stupid to understand and not enforce the policy).

 

[alexandros]

Steam (and companies in general) is taking advantage of globalization

The variable price points do not apply only to consumers but to Valve as well. Yes, they sell products worldwide but they still get less money from a sale in Russia compared to a sale in the US.

 

[gdt]

I'm a huge Valve/Steam fan, but what the hell, Valve? You're going to taint your public image REALLY quickly.

Good god, people still won't read the thread? Even after the thread title change haha.

 

[CosmicQueso]

this just in:

valve involved in child pornography ring. gabe newel in hot speed pursuit by police.

source to be confirmed .

Surprised this hasn't been added to the OP. I AM OUTRAGED!