Well id be fine with some regional pricing ...
So i dont have the lowest monthly avg in the entire EU , yet paying pretty much most on the entire fucking planet for games .
That would be fine 2 .
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Region-locking is annoying, as is Valve's new way of doing Steam gifting. :(
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Yep but unfortunately it is the way it is. Have a bump.
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Its becouse some countryes has waaaay lower prices and some greedy people use this to get profit. Or cv. So i dont mind
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I dunno, they are but they aren't.
Life's not fair, neither is the market, GDP, purchase power, relative value of the product... and we NEED regional pricing to enable people from less fortunate countries to enjoy the games in their licensed form with some money going to the developers. Unless we want people from let's say Argentina to pay full EUR price instead of regional, which would probably lead to what caused the regional pricing to be introduced in the first place - people saying "yeah right" and just pirating the games.
So, regional pricing good, region locks bad?
Okay, but... we HAD regional pricing with no region locks and what happened? People in the countries where $30 is equal to a fast food meal for two rushed to find a way to "save huge amounts of money" by buying in the regional stores meant for countries where $30 can feed you for 3 weeks. To cheat the system so to speak. Because, "why would poor people have it cheaper?" mentality. Or whatever. I dunno. And of course Valve/publishers couldn't stand for that. And thus we got region locks.
And even now, people who complain about them the most, excluding people here on SG who's issue is with gifting not being as easy as it used to be, are exactly those people from better off countries who are sad they can't get expensive games for basically free from some cheap regional store that was never meant for them. And they can't because of the massive abuse that happened. It's not like some people bought a few games for themselves, people were reselling games openly and everyone here knows that very well.
I myself live in a country where average net pay is EUR 370 officially, which means a lot of people work for less. And yet, we and all the surrounding countries which are not in a better position (and there's no way either of them is getting into EU before 2025, if even than), have the same EUR price as the countries where average net pay is 2000-4000 EUR.
Here's the map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage
Do you really think people in Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia and similar countries in the Balkans would complain if Valve said, "okay you're now a Balkans-USD region like CIS-USD or South Asia -USD and will pay games less... but will have a lock for it"? Heck no. Lock whatever you want, just enable us to pay for a game we like and reward the developers who did well without the need to choose between clothes and games (over exaggeration, but I hope most people will get what I mean).
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Could not agree more, you pretty much described the situation quite well.
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Yeah, recently i was shocked to see that literally every region is cheaper then our EU in price of one game (maybe it was exception), it would be fine if there wasnt difference of thousands of euro in salary between the countries which are in same price range. UK had it 15% cheaper, US had 10% it cheaper, literally every region. I seriously dont understand how Steam expect us to pay the maximum payment possible when we live in poorest countries in european union. Thats why 99% of my library is not bought on steam directly.
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There used to be EU2 in early days, which was like 10% cheaper and included Balkans and eastern Europe but was not locked. Then EU insisted that all EU countries should have the same price, and Valve shrugged, made CIS-USD and poor EU countries got f... including us that are outside of both EU&CIS with them.
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Yeah. I know why region locks and regional pricing exist. The 2 usually go hand-in-hand after all. (region locking also occasionally hangs out with censorship laws).
I'd actually want to see the wages worldwide being closer together. That would fix not only this, but also a number of far bigger and far more important issues.
Also I did exaggerate in my original post a lot, for the purpose of making sure a lame joke didn't fall apart completely. But I am sad that when I'm willing and able to buy these games at higher prices, I don't get to share them with people who can't.
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I'd actually want to see the wages worldwide being closer together.
That's some Blade Runner material right there ;) Probably wouldn't happen even with a world government in place. I mean, take USA for an example, one government for what, 50 states... and they all have different stats.
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Universal Wage is definitely coming, it's an inevitability. Work-for-a-living-wage is an outdated concept. As you note, though, there are going to be some serious growing pains to get there.
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Sounds nice, but, if you're not working for a living, are not afraid of losing your job, home, health... if you are free to stop and think... how will you be controlled? :p
Fear is what's holding us in the Plato's cave. You really think that humanity can overcome it? I hope you're right, as that would lead us straight to the Star Trek TNG setting instead of Blade Runner.
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I agree. They could outsource for cheaper workforce but when it's the consumers that take advantage of globalization?
boom. region lock.
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Because "free market" is an excuse for destroying emerging economies. Big money embraces protectionism when free market screws them.
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I understood this pun after reading OP post only two times!
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This is why we need heroes in modern day times.
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Region restrictions are an Injustice
Well, just so long as you're aware that injustice (which doesn't simply mean 'unfair') is a rather exaggerated term for the circumstances. :P
Injustice: The violation of another's rights or of basic moral principles; a lack of justice. / The mistreatment of an individual or subset of individuals in such a way that the individuals are affected by a significant hardship or loss, or by persistent hardship or loss in their day to day lives.
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As I mentioned above:
"I did exaggerate in my original post a lot, for the purpose of making sure a lame joke didn't fall apart completely. But I am sad that when I'm willing and able to buy these games at higher prices, I don't get to share them with people who can't."
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I officialy loathe region restrictions on steam keys.
It's hard enough already to find decent deals on fun games to give away here. And adding & double-checking the list of countries where the key will work is a hassle on top of that. But you either suffer that, or go for only region-free games. Problem with the latter is that you miss out on a lot of good stuff, and are left with subpar choices.
It's an Injustice I tell you! Just proves that no good deed goes unpunished.
Anyway, just needed to get that off my chest. Rant is now over. Please carry on.
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