Before people start bashing me for buying gray market keys, let me make this clear: I have no legal obligations. I'm from a third world country (Pakistan) like Russia, whose per capita GDP is less than a fifth of Russia's. Here, 95% of the people pirate. Pirated games and software are freely available and legit stuff is hard to find. Until now, I thought the consumers were screwing game and software devs. But is that really the case?
Games sell for much cheaper in Russia, India and Thailand. Most of these games are region free and work fine back at home in Pakistan. I used to pirate everything until last year. I realized that the devs put in much work into their wares and should get their share. I also felt that if I did not pay, it would hurt my hobby--gaming. Also, games are so much easier to buy now with digital distribution.
Steam now has a Russian version of their site which sells games for much cheaper. I can access the site (without proxy or VPN), but I can't purchase from them. I usually buy my games retail from India (where I visit often, or ask my relatives to send the keys). Skyrim was not available in India, so I decided to buy a Russian key. Morally, I feel that us Pakistanis have as much right to cheap(er) games as those people in Russia and India.
Apparently, the Russian version of Skyrim is region locked. I think it's pretty retarded of Bethesda to region lock SP games. If I really wanted it cheaply, I could just go to the CD shop down the lane and buy the game for a dollar (pirated version obviously). It feels wrong both not to give the devs their share and to overpay for a foreign game considering the state of my economy.
I don't mind paying the full price for games that are priced equally for everyone: I've bought Starcraft 2, the Witcher 2 and tons of indie games at full price (the new Russian Steam store has those for half the price now too. You can compare the prices here: http://www.steamprices.com/us). There should be a free market and I'll gladly pay for games if everyone is getting them at the same price.
I used to think that consumers and the government here in Pakistan are being cheap by encouraging piracy. The companies themselves are partly at fault for the high rate of piracy. There is no way our economy can afford full priced software and games should be sold for cheaper here like in Russia, India, Thailand... I speak not just for Pakistan, but for other poor countries where games are not available cheaply. It's not that we don't have a market... the piracy scene is huge here. Software (games, music and movies not included) accounted for a total loss of $217 million here accoring to Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/press/Pages/Article.aspx?id=848). Not a meager sum. Perhaps the combined losses exceed a billion dollars.
I think region locking is retarded. It's easier to pirate than be victimized by ridiculous DRM. This is the first time I've bought a key from a CD key store (and probably the last), and I've asked Steam to remove the game from my account. They might or the might not.
Does anyone else living in the first world think it's the companies that are screwing the consumers and not the other way round?
Games sell for much cheaper in Russia, India and Thailand. Most of these games are region free and work fine back at home in Pakistan. I used to pirate everything until last year. I realized that the devs put in much work into their wares and should get their share. I also felt that if I did not pay, it would hurt my hobby--gaming. Also, games are so much easier to buy now with digital distribution.
Steam now has a Russian version of their site which sells games for much cheaper. I can access the site (without proxy or VPN), but I can't purchase from them. I usually buy my games retail from India (where I visit often, or ask my relatives to send the keys). Skyrim was not available in India, so I decided to buy a Russian key. Morally, I feel that us Pakistanis have as much right to cheap(er) games as those people in Russia and India.
Apparently, the Russian version of Skyrim is region locked. I think it's pretty retarded of Bethesda to region lock SP games. If I really wanted it cheaply, I could just go to the CD shop down the lane and buy the game for a dollar (pirated version obviously). It feels wrong both not to give the devs their share and to overpay for a foreign game considering the state of my economy.
I don't mind paying the full price for games that are priced equally for everyone: I've bought Starcraft 2, the Witcher 2 and tons of indie games at full price (the new Russian Steam store has those for half the price now too. You can compare the prices here: http://www.steamprices.com/us). There should be a free market and I'll gladly pay for games if everyone is getting them at the same price.
I used to think that consumers and the government here in Pakistan are being cheap by encouraging piracy. The companies themselves are partly at fault for the high rate of piracy. There is no way our economy can afford full priced software and games should be sold for cheaper here like in Russia, India, Thailand... I speak not just for Pakistan, but for other poor countries where games are not available cheaply. It's not that we don't have a market... the piracy scene is huge here. Software (games, music and movies not included) accounted for a total loss of $217 million here accoring to Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/middleeast/press/Pages/Article.aspx?id=848). Not a meager sum. Perhaps the combined losses exceed a billion dollars.
I think region locking is retarded. It's easier to pirate than be victimized by ridiculous DRM. This is the first time I've bought a key from a CD key store (and probably the last), and I've asked Steam to remove the game from my account. They might or the might not.
Does anyone else living in the first world think it's the companies that are screwing the consumers and not the other way round?
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