why would anyone use a vpn to activate gifts outside their region?
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Because you can get certain game at 80% off instead of being humiliated by savage developers/valve and pay the full price for shitty games.
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that's a nice excuse. i wonder what valve would reply back.
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a nice excuse? it's not Valve! Steam just let's the devs/publisher have regional prices and restrictions. they are almost free to set prices.
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what I say is this: why do people think Valve is responsible for different prices? it's the devs/publishers who do it. they got the right to do it. they got a good reason to do. 60$ is not a good price for a Mexican when they earn much less than US residents for the same job/service. I see people talk about freedom but stand against the freedoms they don't desire! who ever makes a product/game got the right to sell it at any price he wants. if you think the price is too high just don't buy it. there is no copy-right rule in my country and I still don't download/buy pirated games for dirt cheap prices. I wonder why people are mad about prices for RU games.
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ah, so you missed the sarcasm.
that's a "nice excuse"
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What about those that work on the other side of the boarder? Its not all that uncommon for people that live close to the boarder...
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well I feel sorry for them. if U want to be more accurate, U should say what about that disabled guy with no parents. they should consider a specific price for each human on earth then! that's not possible! currently, they can just set different prices for different countries. not cities
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you compare not only the price of the game. see more.
wages and the price of everything.
how much your of salary in 1 month? I have a $ 80 per month
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Valve banned some of them. But there're too many of them to be banned. And I believe some cases could be, technically, hard to detect for them. For example, our corporate network has exits(proxies) in almost every country. If I used one of the Russian proxies for my traffic, Valve would have no way to detect my actual location, would they?
I don't do that because games are very cheap* already in China, but I heard a lot of people do that because of the -60%.
*: When I say cheap, I mean comparing to their prices in US. It's still a luxury for many families in China.
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and pay the full price for shitty games.
Stop buying shitty games.
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I'm from Poland and game for $60 cost me 220zł (my currency) so it's like 220 euro for French, German, 220 pounds for British or 220 dollars for American... and what i am doing with it? I'm pissed off and i'm waiting for some sales or i'm waiting couple years when the game will be cheaper. Then i buy it. Legally!
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Because regional pricing is questionable mess and make people confused.
All should pay US prices imo. Since cost is the same, why customers have different treatments?
EU retarded digital tax aside...
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The developer can decide how much they ask for in each region. Of course you can make them all the same price, but I doubt you would gain anything in RU/CIS/SE-Asia/China etc. I'd spend my money elsewhere.
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Because living expenses and the average income are different in different countries, and thus the common household budget for luxury items is different. If everyone would have to pay US prices, games would become unaffordable for the average citizen in many countries.
So some people wouldn't be able to enjoy the best hobby there is and that would make me sad ;_;
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So... why am i earning 1/5th of what my german neighbors do, but i pay same price for games on steam?
Aren't they called luxury goods for a reason? Shouldn't production/transport/other costs dictate price?
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Regarding Luxury items. You miss that people in other countries (with cheap game-prices) do the same work as people in north america or europe do. Still they earn less money as we do. Why shouldn't they enjoy something as enjoyable as video games, just because they live in a different country. And why would i want to lock people out from having fun with games, anyway?
If you want to change how the world turns then go out and do something about it, but making games unaffordable for people because you can't afford them either doesn't really do much about it.
Shouldn't production/transport/other costs dictate price?
I mean I get your argument, about production cost of digital goods. But there's more to pricing and how it works than that. The times, where a price of a certain item is measured by it's quality and the cost of their parts, seem to be long gone.
However what actually happens with digital goods is, that games do become cheaper as you can just buy your games on g2a and sites alike. As Re-seller don't have any transport costs, they can give you a discount on their wares. So when you can't afford the games that your neighbour can, then I buy from them.
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That's what i meant by confusing mess ;)
But I guess your're right, I just find it hard to admit it.
Cost no longer matters when it comes to price, only how much ppl are willing to pay.
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1/5 is still nice pay xD (same situation here).
Imagine you earn 1/100 of their pay or less (like in those "special" regions).
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Sure ok, but why would dev agree to charge 1/100 for his work just because his customer can't afford luxury good?
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Because 1/100 is better that 0/100?
Remember that in some regions there are no anti-piracy laws - or nobody cares about them.
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Sorry I'm no longer interested.
I stand by my first statement. This whole shit is confusing mess where everyone is right yet there is no clear solution.
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So... why am i earning 1/5th of what my german neighbors do, but i pay same price for games on steam?
Aren't they called luxury goods for a reason? Shouldn't production/transport/other costs dictate price?
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so is that 3-month thing universal, or a one-off?
Anyone else able to verify?
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I asked that once here, when I realized this had happened to Sleeping Dogs. I didn'T know that it had a geolock when I bought it, so I was quite happy that the geolock just vanished one day. Well, other people confirmed that they experienced this with various titles. I don't think that there is an exception to this 3-month rule.
It's just weird that it exists in the first place.
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I heard on other forums that this 3-month thing is universal (didn't bother to try that myself). Means you can make a purchase via Russian VPN, add it to your account with the same VPN, wait for 3 months, and then you don't have to play it with vpn anymore.
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Yes that geolock is common, but it's the same in every region: You have to wait 3 months. It's actually unkown why that lock vanishes after 3 months as you are not supposed to play a region-locked game in the wrong region at all.
But jeah, waiting 3 months might still be worth it for some people. For example when a game is not available in one's region.
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No, it's not the same for every region. Some regions only limit where you redeem that game, but not where you play it.
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That depends on the game, not on the region. There might be exceptions, because there are a bunch of new regions, I don't know about.
But it's not only a RU/CIS thing.
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So let me get this straight. If i activate a cheap RU gift through vpn, i can play it normal after 3 months? Cause if so, russian sellers here i come :)))
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This is also against Steam's ToS. If you get caught, they will ban your account.
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hehehe vpn - valve got owned - cheap games - I'm smart
*BANNED*
OMG STUPID VALVE WTH THIS IS UNFAIR I HAVE RIGHTS GONNA SUE GABE PLS UNBAN MY ACCOUNT *CRY*
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Still, owning a lot's of RU copies, while your account is sited in a different region, might make valve suspicious one day. So you might risk your account altogether. Well, I have no idea, if valve actually bans people for this, but I think it's a risk.
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well, i already own a couple of games from mother russia, but they worked without vpn on day one. 3 years later and no bans or suspensions. But back then, not everything had geolocks.
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Jeah, I'm not really sure how valve deals with this, but maybe they'll change how they handle things one day :/
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Games before region locks came may have been allowed but post that I doubt will be. Not worth the risk and account ban bro.
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You can play the game with your RU VPN on, couldn't you? I never tried that, but that's what I heard.
Other regions don't have this because they do not limit where you play it. They only limit where you activate it.
Notice: Purchases made in Russia are only playable in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and EstoniaOther regions:
This is a restricted gift which can only be redeemed in these countries: ChinaComment has been collapsed.
Yes he could play it with a vpn. I actually don't really get the point of this thread :D
Other regions don't have this because they do not limit where you play it. They only limit where you activate it.
No it's not only a thing for RU/CIS locked games. One thing is a region-locked game, which you can't activate without a vpn, but play.
the other is a geo-lock game, which you can't even play without vpn. Well unless you wait for 3 months.
You can find the same text:
This is a restricted gift which can only be redeemed in these countries: xxxxx
on Ru/Cis gifts, too.
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Are you really going on about this :D?
Again, my point is, that this is not only applicable for RU/CIS. I doubt that China doesn't have a geo-lock at least for some items, but it doesn't really matter.
What I'm solely arguing with is, that not only RU/CIS items have a geolock. I know that because I have to deal with those in the germany region
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I don't know, I traded 3 coals for Fallout New Vegas gift back then and didn't watch for restrictions and ended up with RU version and it still has different UID and shows regular ROW FNV as not owned and I can't get any DLC to this date... And that was couple of years ago (I could install and play immediately though).
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Isn't it strange that all this vpn thing always ends with a "may valve ban your account". But no one has the real experience of it. Always it's the friend of a friend who happened to be banned or some shit like that. I think this whole thing is just a mouth a mouth legend. A steam urban legend. Long live ru :v
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Well it`s not profitable for valve to ban people.... they lose customers :D
And I'm certain that they'll never do that just because ysomeone bought one or two copies in a different region when they have dozens of others games in their library. This could also be problematic as this could go against consumer laws in some countries, so valve would run into legal problems, which would cost them money.
But people should be aware of the TOS, when they decide to use region-locked games. It's then up to them, what they do with that information.
I also think that it's more of a legend, but jeah, maybe one day valve does something about it :D
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after 3 months lock you can play the gam but still with vpn?
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Edit: You can play it without VPN after three months.
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You just edited the OP, right?
I don't know, I have never heard of such a problem and was previously puzzled what the point of this whole thread was. Normally even RU/CIS gifts should work with a vpn, that's at least my knowledge.
Maybe the problem lies somewhere else?
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The problem lies in people breaking terms of service they're using and getting shocked when it doesn't go the way they want.
It's like robbing a bank and being shocked when security shoots you in the head.
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Hum, there wouldn't be much time left, to be shocked.
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Yea maybe but LATAM and other copies work fine for me :)
Tested: Dying Light
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Seriously you didn't know until now? This ACRTAG restriction has already been put in place for over a year, plus it's against Valve's ToS for doing so.
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Because when you activate a game, 3 months later it will remove the lock
If you ask me that is a mighty fine incentive to buy games in the cheapest region activate them over VPN and play
them without after 3 Months ... but i doubt most are that calculating and patient to do so regularly.
On the other hand that might be exploited and resold (the entire steam account made for the very purpose).
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So after activating 10 different gifts from random places in the world
I have found out if you activate a RU gift. Your vpn will not work when you try to play the game :(
The game will be greyed out even though you have it installed
You will have to wait 3 months to it to fix
Because when you activate a game, 3 months later it will remove the lock
Other regions don't have this problem at all!
So basically I recommend to get any region lock game as long it's not Russia
I wasted GTA V, Fallout 4 and other games because of this :(
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