I'm going to take a stab in the dark and assume it was Blades of Time. In that instance, I would direct the gifter to the thread here about the CD Action keys being region-restricted. Then, inform them that as per the rules, I would have to leave it as not received, unless they were willing to gift a non-restricted copy directly from the steam store.
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Good stab. I knew there was a chance it was region restricted when I entered, but I thought, "Why the hell not, I'm not going to win it anyway, and even if I do, there is a chance it won't be."
So far I just reported the gift as "misleading" with a comment indicating that I received the key, but that the key turned out to be region locked. There didn't seem to be a region locked labeling option.
I guess I should probably send him an email too, explaining the region restricted thing. I just don't feeling like I'm punishing people for being charitable.
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I did, actually, but most of their profile was private.
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Silly question - how can you identify a key as region-locked anyway ?
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Was hoping if there was a different way, would be nice to know it before trying to redeem. Oh well.
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Exact wording is: "Sorry, but the following items are not available for purchase in this country. Your purchase has been cancelled."
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Region Locked games seem to be allowed here, as long as they're not locked out of the English speaking world. Most of the time a region lock either restricts the key to Russia, or restricts the key to everywhere BUT Russia. Replace 'Russia' or add a country or two for some keys.
If you are in a country that has a very different piracy culture than the USA, or your language uses an alphabet that does not match the one Steam Gifts uses, (english standard, whatever it's called) a special version of the game is usually made. This special version is region locked. The same holds true if the game is excessively violent or your country has banned it.
Depending on the content of the game, it could express views contrary to your government's views, and your government is oppressive enough to keep the game from being legally played in your country, regardless of how you obtain it. If you are lucky, you will see an edited/censored version of the game created for your country specifically which can't be registered outside of your country. Russia and Australia often see this happen.
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I think an important distinction is more that region-locked means that it's limited to a smaller area (such as one or a few countries). As you pointed out there are numerous restrictions for some countries such as Russia, Germany, etc., and it doesn't make sense to designate every single game that falls into that category as region-locked. If we did then there would be many things that wouldn't be allowed as giveaways on here that currently are, which obviously wouldn't be fair to the rest of the world outside of those areas.
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"English standard" alphabet is called Latin alphabet. Some people (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) don't use any alphabet at all. In most cases regional restrictions have nothing to do with language or alphabet, it has to do with price and censorship.
On the top of that games can be restricted to be purchased in certain region or to be played in certain region. I'm sure the former are (or should be) eligible for gifting here.
P.S. I don't remember a single game that has been edited or censored in Russia. You probably confused it with Germany.
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Hey KakitaKaiyo. Can you create a support ticket instead of using the User Report button? User reports don't work at this moment unfortunately.
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If that works, I'd be happy. But I doubt it would happen before I have to report the gift as "not received".
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Honestly, what annoys me more is that the game publishers and retailers don't inform customers of region locking. I could easily go buy a game on Amazon that has a key and while I know said key will activate on a US Steam account fine, nothing in the description tends to say if there are any restrictions on the game activating in other countries.
So often the gifter doesn't even have any idea until the winner of the giveaway tries to activate it and cannot. The gifter usually isn't intentionally trying to screw anyone over, they just don't know and if they knew, they would have mentioned it in the giveaway so people in those countries could know not to enter.
I really hate region locking personally, but I get that in some cases it is necessary. For example games cannot be legally sold in some regions, that is where locking makes sense. But some publishers and developers region lock for no apparent reason and won't inform customers of it, and that's a shitty practice that needs to stop.
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"Honestly, what annoys me more is that the game publishers and retailers don't inform customers of region locking. I could easily go buy a game on Amazon that has a key and while I know said key will activate on a US Steam account fine, nothing in the description tends to say if there are any restrictions on the game activating in other countries."
And I bet their excuse would be that buying a pc download game at all is already restricted to their US/Canada costumers only. It's clearly stated in their game pages. People are giving fake addresses when registering so they can buy PC downloads from us, you say? Why, we had no idea!
But for other game stores that don't employ these "region restrictions", there's really no excuse to not warning their costumers that certain game keys are region restricted.
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Yet with other region restricted items they do mention the region restriction. Just not for games. For instance, codes for things like Microsoft Points or other forms of online currency have region restrictions as well, Amazon is very clear about those (just many people fail to read).
But with games, they aren't clear. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if even Amazon doesn't know and the fault is indeed with the game publisher not informing them.
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"So often the gifter doesn't even have any idea until the winner of the giveaway tries to activate it and cannot. The gifter usually isn't intentionally trying to screw anyone over, they just don't know and if they knew, they would have mentioned it in the giveaway so people in those countries could know not to enter."
This. Which is why I wish there was more education about region locking. I don't enjoy (or even want to) report someone for breaking the rules when he was just trying to be nice.
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Yeah, and like stated by another user, there really isn't any way for anyone to know until it doesn't activate, and if it's not locked, then the code is used at that point. Seriously, we don't need to be deterring people from being generous, the game devs and publishers need to be required to inform about region locking so consumers can be aware of it.
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So I finally win my first game on Steam Gifts (not counting Galactic Arms Race), and it turns out to be region locked. I've already taken actions that I think are appropriate, but I'd like to know what you would have done.
I'd also like to know how much of a problem you think region locked (or censored) content is on SteamGifts. I personally suspect that many users don't ever realize that this could be an issue, and wonder what steps we could take spread awareness about region locked or censored games.
Thoughts?
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