You are lying, and have been caught.
You are lying, and have been caught.
I am not lying, nor have I been caught. You have simply found a topic by yet another person in this situation. Congratulations. Now stop trolling.
Oh boy. Unless you have a steam account, an ip address, an email address or something else concrete tying these two users together you have nothing.
I've said everything I need to regarding the OP and I can see this line of conversation is destined to go no where very slowly, so peace out. Hope you can get some satisfaction IHaveNoIdea.
last two messages from me.
Japan is quite popular place for western people. Jumping to some silly conclusion just because we have two posters who have problem with KoA, something which is not unique to this game as it happened before, is not very mature (especially with the approach you had)
and
good luck OP. Hope everything resolves to your liking.
Edit: what Nalano said. I don't condemn piracy. but you own the game. so downloading 'illegal' copy because your legal one is broken is perfectly aright imo.
Also there's no risk of losing your Steam account by usual cracking. Didn't 30% of users have utorrent installed last hardware survey Valve did? I can't believe all they used it for were Linux distros and whatever else legit uses it has.Originally Posted by Nalano
Just having utorrent installed doesn't mean you're using it to fuck with Steam distributables. You can pirate loads of shit without mixing the two.
Like so-called "Intellectual Property" rights? Yeah...
Nah. Loads of people used VPN to unlock DX:HR early through Steam when it was released a few days before in the US vs Europe and I never yet heard about Valve/Steam revoking anyone's account because of it. There's no gain in it for Valve to do so. I mean after all who exactly is going to complain?
The Japanese government?
Why yes you're right I'm deliciously evil
Tradition is the tyranny of dead men
Steam:Kadayi Origin: Kadayi GFWL: Kadayi
Probable Replicant
*blush* I'm flattered by the attention boys, but please let's not make the thread about liddle old me
"When people play your game, they're not buying domestic products like creepy dating sims or JRPGs with emo leads. We have standards to uphold, damnit."
Hypothetically: A game dev/publisher trying to negotiate release with a Japanese publisher/distributor who would be very interested in the exclusive right to sell the game in the territory?
Although the facts of the case now show that it was a gift and thus there's no case here at all, what you've said misses the point of my post. I never claimed region locks were unusual, just that this situation is clearly distinguishable from the other cases you listed where a person has bought an out of region game to bypass censorship or for cheaper sale prices. Those cases didn't result in a block. They are quite clearly different to this case (as I stated) where an out of region purchase (or gift as it turns out to be) is taken to a region where the game is not released.
If you bothered to pay attention you'd notice I agree with you that in this case Valve haven't done anything wrong.
Again, please note that I am not the user Ben Wah linked to on the Reckoning forums. I purchased my copy of the game in the UK. It was not a gift. The only reason I mentioned gifting is that I knew DLC would be released for the game while I was not in the UK.
That said, why should gifted copies be treated any differently? There is no warning on the store page that gifts are blocked in certain countries, nor any attempt by the gift/trading system to block such gifts to countries where they cannot be used. Why do you consider it acceptable for someone to purchase a gift, using the system provided by Steam, only for that gift to remain unusable?
I'd also like to mention that I've found examples of people who use specific region stores while in different countries -- by Valve's instructions -- due to their billing information. In one case someone from France is in Japan, needing to use the French version of the Steam store. Now, Amalur is available to them on the French store. In their case, would you find it acceptable for them to purchase Amalur from the region store Valve have instructed them to use, only to then find the game unusable from their Japanese IP address? (Here's an example of someone needing to use the French store instead of the Japanese one, despite being in Japan: http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/...uying_on_steam)
[Disclaimer: I am not any of the people in the linked topic, although I'm sure some here will assume I am anyway]
I've gifted games to people in Aussieland before, but when I did it was an explicit attempt to circumvent their Germany-like restrictions on game violence. If Valve were so inclined, they could have nipped that in the bud. Just because I (we) got away with it doesn't mean it's a condoned action.
Apologies then, but again - as it stands on the basis of the information provided, Valve aren't required to unlock the game for you. I don't agree with the region locks (neither do some jurisdictions incidentally) but taking games out of their region will run the risk of them not working in the new region.
The issue is that gifting can circumvent region pricing... or censorship but as Nalano has said that seems to be tolerated. Again I refer you to that case with the Russian guy/games, where he was taking money and gifting games from cheaper regions. That practice is against the terms of service, and Steam can (and probably will, if you get found out) disable your account for it (or at least revoke trading privileges). Gifting is free of region purchase restrictions (i.e. I can buy a game in my local region and gift it to another region, and it is my region's game in my region's pricing) and thus makes it easier to circumvent things like region pricing. But it doesn't circumvent unlocking apparently. As far as I know, that's always been the case.
I know. Plenty of Australians exploited this flaw when Left4Dead 2 was censored to the extreme here in Australia (the censored version is almost unplayable since visual cues like Infected being on fire are absent). In all cases I've seen however it wasn't condoned and some methods were patched out. I am unaware of people being specifically told by Valve to use a foreign Steam region store. That thread you've linked does not have anything to do with Valve; it shows end users trying to circumvent region pricing and availability. Nowhere does it say that Valve instructed the user to use a foreign store to purchase the game and circumvent region availability.
If such a thing was proven to occur, it would entirely change the nature of Steam. Valve's region agreements with publishers would be worth absolutely nothing, and we'd either go regionless (unlikely) or publishers would flip their shit and pull out (more likely), or there'd be lawsuits and demands for Valve to fix the system (most likely).
As posted by the user in that topic: "That's strange, since my steam account is registered in France and when I connect to steam, the bundle disappears... When I go to Steam's webpage and select it, everything goes fine until I want to check out my cart, then Steam says there has been a problem with my transaction...
That happened to me before and Steam's customers service told me to connect on Steam's french webpage, which I did, but there was no bundle to buy..." (http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/...on_steam/post4)
And in reply to someone else: "Yeah, ironic, isn't it? I'm in Japan and I can't buy it! :D" (http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/...on_steam/post8)
Note that bundle was available for purchase in Japan. It was not available from the French store as one of the games in the bundle is restricted in France. But that user is in Japan but only has a France based billing address - meaning they have to purchase from the French store. There are other cases of people being told to do this too when they go overseas on holidays.
Have a look at the reply by not_vichyssoise here:
http://reddit.destructoid.com/r/gami...y_suggestions/
In which they say: They (Steam support) replied a day or so later saying they had lifted the locked and suggested that I make my purchases by going to http://store.steampowered.com/sub/469/?cc=US
As well as looking on the Steam forums, were it is also mentioned a lot although not always in as much detail.
Last edited by IHaveNoIdea; 26-05-2012 at 05:19 AM.
I did read that... and it doesn't have any relevance to this case. In both cases the users had an account registered in another region (where they were permanent residents) but were abroad for a limited period of time. In both cases the users wanted to purchase products that were unlocked in the region in which they were currently residing. In the first case (on GOG) the user's registered address (France) didn't have the pack available (but it was in Japan). In the second case, the user wanted to bypass region pricing but they weren't a permanent resident of China. These two cases are different from you purchasing a game in the UK, then going to Japan where it isn't released.
As you've said, it works on what region he signed up with. He can be in Japan and not purchase it because his account is registered to use the French store.
That changes things slightly in that Steam seems willing to allow permanent residents to continue using their home store while abroad for a period. But the issue with your case isn't purchasing something from your home store; it's getting it unlocked. In the cases you've cited, the product was available in the user's new region. In the first case it wasn't available from France, but it was available in Japan, hence there'd be no issues with unlocking. In the second case it was just pricing. In your case you've already purchased the game but then moved to a country where the game isn't unlocked at all. That's a pretty big difference.
Not sure that's always true.
I use Steam in Japan with a Japanese credit card tied to a Japanese address. When on holiday in the US last year I tried to pick a game up on Steam during a sale but wasn't allowed to.
The game I tried to buy was on my wishlist and had been available in Japan beforehand; I was just waiting for the price to drop.
It's since had a price drop in Japan and I bought it. It now keeps the other unplayed games company in the list.
Wait, did you try installing the game in Japan? Or the game won't activate in Japan, has offline mode work?
Retroactively? That's not quite how that law works. Plus he's already bought that game. VPN now and no one is going to give a shit. It's not even worth anyone's time (or money) to pursue the matter.
The dudes in a monkey trap. The solution to his problems is right there in front of him (namely VPN the unlock), be because he doggedly refuses to let go he remains caught.
Why yes you're right I'm deliciously evil
Tradition is the tyranny of dead men
Steam:Kadayi Origin: Kadayi GFWL: Kadayi
Probable Replicant
*blush* I'm flattered by the attention boys, but please let's not make the thread about liddle old me
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