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Denver, 6:47 PM
Sun Dec 6
17 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/21/09
But Activision also knows that nobody will take a $40 purchase to the court. Which is why they get away with it playing dirty. Somebody should really sue them for some killer punitive damage for stepping on customer rights like that.
11/20/09
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11/21/09
If Valve set the prices, you only need to look at Valves past release history to see that they wouldn't fuck over the consumer with the price gouging that Activision is doing.
11/21/09
11/21/09
11/21/09
Btw does anyone know why speakup is appearing at the bottom of all my comments?
11/21/09
Let's just say that until Valve enforce worldwide pricing on the games they distribute and there is a live price conversion system that pulls its numbers from say xe.com, we are all gonna get ripped off sooner or later.
11/21/09
11/21/09
@StressedOutCat: Left 4 Dead 2 is a Valve game, what I meant was they don't set the price on the third party games they sell like EA games or THQ games, on their own games of course they set the prices, as for it being $74 where you live I have no idea why that would be.
11/21/09
#speakup
11/21/09
Just look at the other games on Steam, most are inline with the American pricing, only a few stand out, the main offender seems to be Activision.
I remember back when CoD4 came out, it was $84 US then the market crashed and it was still that price, once you converted it, us Aussies ended up having to pay $140 AU for that game. It only went down to a decent price once the market recovered (here is Australia anyway).
Another offender is 2K, how they removed Borderlands from the Australian store only to put it back up at the discounted price of $80 US, almost double what it was originally on there for.
11/20/09
I personally wouldn't buy from the site G2play after looking at it, they're not even a trusted site, but there are those who are just looking for a great deal and don't know anything at all about the internet. Those people would see the price on g2play and say, hey that's great.
Before you call them idiots you just have to remember that not everyone is on the computer as often or as internet savvy as other people, and also everyone falls victim to idiocy at some point in their life time.
There are people who walk in to black markets and don't know it's a black market. In the software world it usually comes down to piracy. If they really meant to cause harm to IW and Activision they would have just pirated it. I may be reaching here, but would someone trying to do bad to IW/Activision or any other company trying to cheat the system by purchasing the product, especially at the price g2play is showing (52 usd is it?)? Or did they mean to really support IW in their purchase?
Is the reason IW/Activision won't do something simply because it is cheaper for them to just simply get at the consumer rather then get after the company, or is the company, such as g2play, doing their business legally and the only way they can stop it is to get at the consumer? I really do want to know the answer if anyone can enlighten me.
11/20/09
On the other hand, your argument that people may not be internet savvy seems a little absurd considering we're talking about people who play Modern Warfare 2, a game typically linked to people who are seen as far more than just casual gamers and who probably build their own gaming computers. If you can build you're own gaming rig you're probably more than intelligent enough about the internet to know when something is underhanded.
11/20/09
Seeing as the pc version of the game did sell more then then the first MW in it's first week of release, the audience for the game has to be bigger then just the crowd that builds computers. We could be talking about people who have converted from Live or Psn but don't do much pc gaming and just bought an alienware rig. Or those that simply have to play it in some way because all of their friends are talking about it.
It seems that this game could become as mainstream as Starcraft is in Korea. The audience is just that huge considering the first week sales, and those will just going to keep growing.
11/20/09
Every single time I start thinking "Hey, maybe Digital Distribution isn't so bad!" some company fucks it up, and I snap back to reality.
My Half-Life 1 disc still works just fine, thank you.
11/20/09
If this is the case then they should totally ban every PS3 and 360 owner who got their copy for £26 in Sainsbury's... Dicks.
11/20/09
11/20/09
Next time, crack down on the resellers and not your customers.
11/20/09
So? If the asking price has been paid and everything is above board and legal (i.e. no piracy, stolen copies etc.) then how can Valve even begin to think they have the right to remove access from paying customers?
The reality is they don't. They're just hoping that no-one will start a lawsuit.
11/20/09
Properly focus your rage or you're just another rampaging ill-informed ape.
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
They are the ones who opperate the service that banned the copies and they will be the ones targeted for any lawsuits (although both of them may be to be fair).
11/20/09
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11/20/09
Say I go an buy a toaster in China. It's exactly the same toaster I could buy in the UK but because its for the Asian market its a bit cheaper. When I get back and try to use it my electricity is cut off and I get a phone call from the supplier saying my toaster has been banned because I bought it in China. It conforms to all the EU safety laws, an identical model is even sold here in the UK. But because of where I bought it I'm treated as a crook.
No thanks. See you in court, EDF energy.
11/20/09
Buy from Steam or a recognized retailer, not the sketchy dude who "finds" the stock that he distributes over an equally sketchy website and you wouldn't have this problem.
Oh, and before anyone goes off on a tangent about how immoral of a move this is, business is immoral (or, at least, profitable business usually is) and you're the one who clicked agree on their ToS without reading it. Cry me a river when you don't screw yourself so thoroughly.
11/20/09
11/20/09
Wait, we're living in Bizarro World, right?
11/20/09
grabban keys.
11/20/09
11/20/09
The beauty of a ToS is that if perfectly written you can have your way no matter what.
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
functional for people who pirated it.
I think it's deliciously ironic. IW gimped the PC version to stop piracy/sell maps, but instead more people are pirating their game than ever before. God I just LOVE the way that works out. Makes my heart all warm and fuzzy. :3
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
#speakup
11/20/09
11/20/09
I wonder if having the disc is part of an license agreement or whatever when you buy it off steam? I don't own that version of MW2 so I'm curious.
11/20/09
Activision and Valve know who can and cannot sell their product. If they say that G2Play.net is not allowed to sell their product, they have the right to block that product from working. Why?
Because it's in their damn Terms of Service. Duh. With a proper ToS they can do this all they want and it's perfectly legal for them to do it. Dumb complainers and dumb key-resellers (who usually steal their keys anyway) are dumb.
11/20/09
Let's change the perspective here, I think only a dumb fool would bend over for such an easy reaming.
Good thing I also know legalese in parallel importation laws, and also how to operate VPNS. Still, gotta love services that allow remote cancellation of licenses for consumers whom atleast try to pay (albeit less).
11/20/09
Oh and don't get me started on the price gouging dependent on region. All kinds of fucked up going on there...
11/20/09
11/20/09
That's like saying it's OK to just keep a tricycle that a bully stole and sold to you, because you didn't know the bully stole it. It's called fraud and pretty much everyone gets screwed somehow in the process.
11/21/09
That's like saying it's NOT OK to keep a tricycle that a foreign friend sold to you because he got it in Japan, and no Japanese tricycles are allowed here. It's called extreme region control and it's going to destroy DD.
11/21/09
11/21/09
#speakup