Hello,

I have a question regarding giving away a region locked game. I have some cd keys that are region locked in such way they cannot be activated in germany, now if I wanted to create a giveaway, how should I proceed? I'm asking this because while I am aware of that there is an option to give away region locked game and it must be checked so that the potential winner is aware of that fact the game is region locked, I haven't seen any option that would specifically fit this category of a game that cannot be activated in Germany. Am I missing something? I would appreciate if someone could shed some light on this problem for me, thanks!

9 years ago

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You should give a warning at the giveaway description

like: This game is region locked and can't be activated in germany

9 years ago
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Thanks, that makes sense. I thought about this as a possible way too. Hopefully people would actually read the description so there's no misunderstanding.

9 years ago
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+1

9 years ago
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You should not do it because people don't read giveaway descriptions and you won't be able to reroll if someone like that wins.

9 years ago
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Until SG adds a correct 'region' for this then I would have to disagree that it is not grounds for a re-roll. That's a fault of the limitation of the system, not the giveaway creator. Germany is also a special case. If people had to do as you say for every single giveaway that conflicted with Germany then we might never see certain games as giveaways. The rest of world shouldn't have to compromise for some bullshit German law.

9 years ago*
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You are right that SG should have more regions to pick, and the entrant who ignores the description is at fault, but you're still not going to get a reroll in such case.
You raise a good point about the games not possible to activate in Germany; I can't think of any such games, but I can think of another game unavailable in another region that I have seen given away freely, so I'd like a support member to comment on it.

9 years ago
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Actually you can get a reroll if it's impossible to activate in a specific country, and not locked to a region.

9 years ago
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Thanks for the answer.

9 years ago
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You are right that SG should have more regions to pick, and the entrant who ignores the description is at fault, but you're still not going to get a reroll in such case.

As you can see, the reply from support staffer in this thread seems to indicate otherwise.

You raise a good point about the games not possible to activate in Germany; I can't think of any such games

Believe me, there are a bunch due to German restrictions. To a lesser degree the same goes for Australia. Also, from what I have seen before Dark Souls is not available in Japan. The bottom line is there are numerous cases like this where a game is not available in a specific country.

9 years ago
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That would depend all on how the re-roll actually works. I don't know how the re-roll process works (thankfully I never had to use that yet), well if it's more or less an automated process and you just need to choose reasons why you need to request re-roll, then I guess it's all fine and you would just choose this as a reason, assuming there is such option available.

9 years ago
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I've done it a couple of times. You submit a request (selecting a reason) then a staff member re-rolls the dice on their end and it picks another random winner. The requests for this particular thing are generally handled pretty quickly.

9 years ago*
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The only solution I can think of is picking one of regions that don't include Germany, such as SEA or South America, but it has obvious drawbacks.

9 years ago
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The drawbacks are indeed obvious because people outside the said region wouldn't be able to enter the giveaway at all which in turn would cause more trouble than not choosing any region at all and just putting this restriction into description. Bots from Germany that would enter the giveaway (and obviously wouldn't read the description) would be pissed. :-)

9 years ago
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I don't think so, this way only people in SEA, SA, or East Europe can enter the GA. The only option I can think of is giving a warning in the GA description, and in case people don't read them, check the winner if he's from Germany. If that is the case, TC can re-roll the GA.

9 years ago
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That's the obvious drawback I mentioned.

9 years ago
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Check before giving the key that the winner is not from Germany. If someone wins the key and they can't activate it they either agree to a re-roll or have a non-activated game on their list which means being blacklisted by a lot of people.

9 years ago
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Just do a private giveaway with specific rules/terms and the hint that the game has a region lock for germany.

9 years ago
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state that in the description, add the winner, ask if he\she is German, then show the key

That kind of block is not handled like a normal region-lock

9 years ago
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I wonder what's the rule to games that are cut in Germany. Like the Borderworlds Bundle was for example.

9 years ago
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Could you tell me which game it is?

9 years ago
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