The Alternatives

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19 responses to “The Alternatives”

1. 

   tmihai20

   March 14, 2009

   @Morning: your whole idea is wrong from the start. Prices are 40%, not 0.4 euros more expensive!!! 40%! How about you walk into a store, the clerk looks at your face and decides you should pay 40% more just because he wants to? Or if your name begins with a T… And right next to you another customer would pay the normal price. What would you do then? Would you still support your idea? If so, then you must be a millionaire and you don’t care about money and you should give us some of that money too, since you don’t care about money.

   Reply
2. 

   Pyro Gourmand

   March 14, 2009

   What’s wrong with you Morning ?! oO

   maybe g2play is pile of communist-satanist-criminals eating foetus, but do you really need to tell it with that bitchy tone ?
   (+1 Rhonin the wizard, you’re right on the “somehow superior to the rest of us”)

   —

   “If it’s a nice deal, you buy, if it’s not, you don’t.” => So why are you on steamunpowered ?
   steamunpowered is not about “OMG MY MONEY, I NEED IT FOR WOW AND PIZZA *WAAAA*” (see how “all caps” can be bitchy).

   Since the 90′ (even the 80′), european countries have “special” pricing policy (Nintendo *paid* 149M € for that =D), they officially said “packaging extra-cost” (it was lie, anyways).

   Then we thought digital distribution would change this *, because there wouldn’t be any “packaging”, stores, storage hangar, employees, etc (the “cause” of higher prices), only servers.

   Steam worked fine with USD for years, then they decided right before Christmas to force people to buy in € (whenever they were using € in their country or not, super-cool for “troubled area” not using €).

   “Devs/publishers that decide the prices on Steam.”
   => lurk some moar, you’ll know indie do not decide the prices on Steam, only big publishers (like EA) can do that.
   + No one at Steam warned the devs/publishers about the € case (that’s why some of them forced Steam to lower european prices AFTER receiving emails about the “1€=$1” sh**), Steam is not “neutral” in this case.

   nb : cracked games cost 0€/$0/£0 = best deal ever ? -_-

   Reply
3. 

   benjiro

   March 14, 2009

   Other sites for the list:

   Game rental ( pay a monthly subscription, and you can play all the games based on your subscription package ):
   http://www.metaboli.co.uk/

   Game buying?
   http://www.gametap.com/

   Key site:
   http://directgamekeys.com/

   Reply
4. 

   merolen

   March 14, 2009

   I also started a thread about reasonably priced non-region-locked games at online stores (like D2D and GamersGate) since they both have region locks on most of the games. Sometimes they have sale on region free games and it would be of much help to others if you would post your findings here:

   https://steamunpowered.eu/forums.php?m=posts&q=101&n=last

   Reply
5. 

   merolen

   March 14, 2009

   Have to say that morning has a point there. Personally I would never buy from G2play.
   But on the other hand I agree with the full boycott, even for weekend deals. Going for the weekend deal is just like saying that as long as the price is low enough I’ll do anything.

   I only check two sites, D2D UK and GamersGate. I bought Civ4: Col from gamersgate and it worked perfectly. I do really miss the convenience off steam, but I manged to live before it came so I’ll mange to live without it now (except for the games I already have there)

   Reply
6. 

   Rhonin the wizard

   March 14, 2009

   @Morning
   Do you have any proof whatsoever about your accusations of Go2Play?

   When we contacted the publishers, does who bothered to reply, they said we should take it up with VALVe.

   Can you find any reasonable explanation why people in the UK can pay £26.99(€29,06) for GTAIV, while Europeans pay 49,99€, with a few exceptions, this applies to the majority of games on Steam.

   About GamersGate, it looks good, haven’t tried to buy anything from them. They seem to have regional restrictions.

   And in my opinion people would talk to you if you didn’t act like you know everything, generalize so much and behave like you are somehow superior to the rest of us.

   I have an idea, how about creating a site, or use this one, for a list that compares prices between multiple digital stores for Europe.

   Reply
7. 

   Morning

   March 14, 2009

   FredWP, you may have an easier time understanding what it is I come here for if you actually took the time and effort to read my posts.

   I’m not sure what you did, but it sure as hell wasn’t reading considering your post is not a proper reply to any of my posts. Read. Learn. Think.

   Reply
8. 

   glubbar

   March 14, 2009

   I see Morning’s point there, and I agree with him/her.

   That’s why I buy elsewhere, not on Steam. :/

   Reply
9. 

   Morning

   March 14, 2009

   I’ll summarize my previous points to break it down easier to you:

   -So games not in discount are more expensive in EUR. Big fucking deal. Buy elsewhere. No bullshit. Do you honestly think boycotting will do shit while they keep expanding their market at a stupendously fast pace? What the shit should it matter if the discount games are 0.4 euros more expensive in EUR while they’re still 20 euros cheaper than elsewhere? If it’s a nice deal, you buy, if it’s not, you don’t.

   -The European Commission spam fest failed. No one gave a shit about your “POST OUR EXTREME PAIN AND AGONY TO THE PRESS!!!!” cries either. Lick your wounds and strike where it matters: Devs/publishers that decide the prices on Steam.

   -That’s fucking all. You’re gamers, you want games, you want them without secuROM, you want them for a nice price. There is no “fighting for justice!!!!” involved when you’re being a hypocrite every other news post.

   Reply
10. 

    Morning

    March 14, 2009

    It’s not, and you’re being hypocritical.

    If it’s just about price, there shouldn’t be an issue with week-end deals that are cheaper than every other store. Instead you guys wanted to raise a boycott. Why? Principles.

    While whatever the hell g2play doing is worse on a larger scale. You don’t seem to mind a tick because it’s cheap. In that case if you’re only led by greed there shouldn’t be any mention of a boycott.

    Statements like pinning the title of crooks to Valve shows just how sad these comments here are and how no one would and should take you seriously. The guy from g2play has a criminal record. Valve has a tremendous list of achievements extremely beneficial to our industry and gamers alike. The 1 USD = EUR was a big misstep but with these ludicrous attempts at boycotts you’re only fooling yourselves.

    How about you go recommend gamersgate instead.

    Reply
11. 

    superdude

    March 13, 2009

    Valve also ripped a few guys off, namely all of Europe. Both Valve and G2Play are crooks but one of them got better deals than the other. It’s an easy choice, really.

    Reply
12. 

    Morning

    March 13, 2009

    So you guys try to convince gamers not to buy extremely cheap games from the Valve week-end deals (which, despite being 0.4 (zero point four) euros cheaper in USD store are still several euros cheaper than all other stores) but you instead suggest they should buy from g2play?

    Absolutely ridiculous. In case you didn’t know, the guy running g2play is ripping several people off. Valve, the international customer and the polish people. In order to leverage legal games to troubled areas (poland, russia, thailand ….) Valve sells cheaper licenses to these people. Why? Because it otherwise makes no sense to try selling the games there. People who want to buy legitimately are given a chance. Even now people in Lithuania have NO OPTION to buy several games because the publishers gave up on those areas.

    g2play sells these polish licenses for increased costs to international customers. Valve can’t do shit because of the EU rulings. But I find it completely irresponsible of you guys to condemn Valve and at the same time recommend something like g2play. You know what the answer would be from an aggressive publisher? No cheap licenses to those regions. Un freaking believable.

    So it’s wrong for Valve to sell week-end deals at 0.4 euros more expensive to Europeans, but it isn’t for g2play to sell licenses not meant for international customers for double the price.

    Reply
13. 

    glubbar

    March 13, 2009

    It would be nice to have TWO lists, one white list with fair stores, and one RED or BLACK list with unfair stores (like EA stores and, ahem, Steam Store).

    Reply
14. 

    Pyro Gourmand

    March 13, 2009

    That’s cool, thanks for the informations :)

    => maybe SteamUnpowered could “mutate” into a videogame digital distribution listing/review website too (but nothing too much “serious”, at least at start), why not ?

    Like you seem to mean in this news, it could begin with a “simple” html text+links page where are listed most important and respectful videogame digit-distributors, with pro/cons like the “DRM / Regional locks / Separate Shops” characteristics you already found.

    Why ?
    1) Because the Steam “special” pricing policy is not only related to Steam, it concerns all (videogame) digital distribution.
    2) => If we want real economic competition, it begins with good information. Let’s simply inform customers :)

    ps : it seems there’s isn’t such page/website on the web yet, true ?

    Reply
15. 

    tmihai20

    March 13, 2009

    I already nkew about G2Play.net, I bought the Orange Box from them maybe a week ago. I also knew about direct2drive.co.uk (their EU online store), but just like you pointed, the games have regional locks and sometimes are not available for all the countries at the same time. And about ImpulseDriven.com, when they will start releasing the games at the same rate like Direct2Drive, then I will consider them. About Valve, if there will be week-end deals with at least 66% discount (like Red Orchestra has this week-end), I will occasionally buy those games. Other than that, Valve can kiss my “you-know-what”. There is also Gamestop.com, but their games are exclusively for North America.

    Reply

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