Keava said:
Vrach said:
That's not the problem. Origin IP blocking regions of the world. That's the fucking problem. If this is the case, I quite literally won't be able to play the game. Really hope there's something amiss here cause fuck knows you don't need a DRM to protect an online game with an authentication system.
Steam has region IP locks as well. Point being?
Everyone saying "everyone loves Valve", but what if that's not true? Really the only game i liked from Valve was first Portal, and that's about it.
I applaud them for bringing indie devs into the spotlight but currently they are loosing even that, since other digital distributors do the thing better.
I dislike Valve for not letting me pay in my country currency, forcing me to use euros, and thus making me pay 30% more for a game, despite the fact other DDs do not have such nonsense, including the "oh so evil" EA.
The famous Steam Deals? They are still more expensive than my local retailers deals and those don't vanish over the weekend with odd timing, because 11am for Valve is different than my 11am. I can get a game for as little as 0.25 euro/0.33$ at a normal media shop here with some of the deals...
Sorry, personally i just treat those services as patchers/launchers, like many of online games do have, especially MMOs. I don't buy a game from a certain place only because i like or dislike given distributor, i buy it where i get the best deal, the logo on a shop means nothing.
Steam has region locks, sure, but I have never had a region locking problem that has required anything more than a ticket with support in order to fix. I live in Japan and my Steamworks games are bought boxed from other countries like the USA and the UK. I don't buy online via the Japanese Steam store. I buy from the Australian store, and all that required was myself to inform Support of my circumstance, they then opened my account to access the Aussie store.
The games themselves are very rarely region locked. I have never had a problem. The locks that do exist are when some publishers wish to control global launches, or uphold censorship in certain countries. On the other hand, if a Steam user receives a 'gifted' game, it will override all those locks, bar time-based ones, and the region of origin for the gift will be the region of the game installed. Thus, Aussies can play uncut games.
EA on the other hand, have been totally unreasonable with myself and the rest of the foreign PC gaming community here in Japan. Origin forces users to the geographic store of their IP address, and there is no other option beyond that. EA's official word is that it's "impossible to allow access to other stores".
This highlights the major difference between the two businesses, and in fact, so many of EA's business practices also support it: EA don't really care about what we consumers do, as long as they walk the fine line between beating us so we don't come back, and beating us just enough that we still think they're redeemable. Battered spouse syndrome 101.
In EA's mind, gamers like me and the millions out there living outside of the regions we 'should be living in', don't exist, and nobody has the authority or care to set aside the rule book and adapt to our specific consumer needs. They even deliberately strip the bilingual options from many of the Japanese releases of their PC games, only so that the game unattractive to non-Japanese. Yet they also bar the non-Japanese residents here in Japan access to the other Origin stores. What are we to do? We are not the problem. The absolutist application of arbitrary rules, is.
Valve, however, recognise that the customer is still king, and while they still must chase a bottom line, they chase it far more fairly than EA has ever done. The world of digital distribution is a global one, thus, weighing it down with 'old world' limitations and protectionist measures, is defeating the purpose and promise of the medium.
I sold my Xbox 360 because MS and EA were making it virtually impossible to guaranty that I'd be able to play and maintain the games that bought from them. I moved to the PC because it was, at that time, relatively boundless. I am satisfied with Valve because though they do have restrictions, I know that they aren't unreasonable, and when I move back to Australia, an email to Support will be all I need to allow my Japanese purchases to cross the border.
Now, EA has done very little to instill me with similar confidence. And if you want to complain about pricing, check the Japanese Origin store (if that was possible). The average game there is 9,000 yen, though on Amazon, the same games, redeemable on Origin btw, are half that or less. Sure, Steam's pricing is not going to be perfect for all, but honestly, by undertaking certain strategies and prioritising my purchases, I have never felt ripped off by a single one of the tens of games I have bought for the service.
