Now I have a nifty PC that can run modern games, I’ve been exploring the convenience of the Steam store – PC games that’ll run without having to download a nodvd crack and disable your ability to play them online.
Only I’m in Australia, which means Steam insists on making me pay a penalty for many titles. Take Civilization 5, now taking preorders – they want $US80-90 from us (in US currency, bizarrely), where if they don’t manage to automatically detect your location and think you’re in the US the price is $US50-60. That’s right, we’re paying almost double for NOTHING. They don’t ship anything here, they don’t have any increased costs, the Australian distributor is not involved – so what the hell is the justification for robbing us blind? They’re even charging MORE than in the shops, for less – no packaging, no distribution, no middle men costs, but prices at retail level Australian dollar figures with the currency changed to the more expensive US dollars.
And whether we just blame the publishers for being discriminatory parasites, or assign some blame to Valve for giving them the tools to do it, the situation is both offensive and absurd.
Do they REALLY think we’re going to cop it? Do they REALLY think we’re going to pay double for no reason? Do they REALLY think that people who are considering handing over money are going to just bend over and take being ripped off so outrageously? There’s a reason Australia is known for high levels of piracy, and THIS SORT OF GARBAGE IS IT.
Screw you, Steam. Screw you, Valve. Most importantly – Screw you, publishers. If you’re going to treat your paying customers like this you deserve to lose sales to piracy.
If you have an IP product and you
- refuse to sell it to people in certain countries;
- refuse to sell it for particular periods;
- refuse to sell it in particular formats;
- insist on adding anti-consumer garbage like DRM that limits paying customers’ access to the content for which they’ve paid;
- charge some customers more than others;
- charge unreasonable amounts for content
…Then you do not deserve the protection of OUR courts, OUR governments. IP is not an intrinsic natural law, it’s something we the public grant you in order to encourage you to create. If you’re not going to live up to your end of the bargain, and enable us to access those created works reasonably, then why should we live up to ours? Why should we send the police we pay for to chase after your imaginary “property” rights? Why should we respect them at all?
I will NEVER buy a download game (such as via Steam) at a higher price than they’ll sell it to an American customer. NEVER. I may try to work around the restriction by using a US paying account and a US proxy, but if that doesn’t work I will not buy it at all. THEY WILL GET NONE OF MY MONEY. There is ZERO chance of me paying them more for less.
Get stuffed, you discriminatory arseholes.
ELSEWHERE: What a publisher that’s thinking straight does about “piracy”.
