Widescreen Gaming Forum

[quote][quote]I think I bought Bronze. I don't really remember but 70 seems too high for what I paid. But I do have Half-Life Source so I guess it worked out for me.

Maybe you bought that when it was $0.50 or whatever.

98 cents because it came out in 1998, that was to celebrate 10 years of half-life :)

No it was 97cents cause it came out in 1997!

[quote][quote][quote]I think I bought Bronze. I don't really remember but 70 seems too high for what I paid. But I do have Half-Life Source so I guess it worked out for me.

Maybe you bought that when it was $0.50 or whatever.

98 cents because it came out in 1998, that was to celebrate 10 years of half-life :)

No it was 97cents cause it came out in 1997!

whoops, my bad, it's really been that long?

whoops, my bad, it's really been that long?

Naw, you were right. He was just taking things off topic with his Half-Life discussion. Some people have no respect for the sanctity of threads.

http://kotaku.com/5409642/valve-bans-gray+market-modern-warfare-2-keys

That's pretty horrible. If you have a legitimate key there should be nothing that they can do to you. It doesn't matter how you acquired it.

That's pretty horrible. If you have a legitimate key there should be nothing that they can do to you. It doesn't matter how you acquired it.

Define legitimate. :P

That's pretty horrible. If you have a legitimate key there should be nothing that they can do to you. It doesn't matter how you acquired it.

Define legitimate. :P

A key that was generated for use by Activision. Apparantly they are buying bulks of keys legally sold on the cheap in asia and then reselling them for half the price of the game overseas. (Someone that makes less than a US dollar a day is obviously not going to be buying MW2 for the $60 that it costs stateside)

That's despicable. Those cocksuckers should be shot. Well... tortured.

Anyone who bought a "discount" download key for a brand new game from a shady looking site that is clearly not affiliated with the developer or any authorized distributors and got screwed does not have my sympathy.

And although I'm rather pissed off about the MWF2 situation, regional pricing is Activision's right, and I see no reason they should be obliged to honor keys that were sold in a manner that bypassed this right.

regional pricing is Activision's right, and I see no reason they should be obliged to honor keys that were sold in a manner that bypassed this right.

and I see no reason to screw the user because he's caught in the crossfire

that's not good consumer practice in my book but I guess they don't care with the volumes sold ...

Anyone who bought a "discount" download key for a brand new game from a shady looking site that is clearly not affiliated with the developer or any authorized distributors and got screwed does not have my sympathy.

define "shady looking site clearly not affiliated"
In this article nothing says the originating websites were shady or unaffiliated, on the contrary they were described as "import resellers" which means legal keys, rightfully bought from activision.

In the end, from my point of view they could do what microsoft is doing : legalize their purchase with an additional charge . and one should note that microsoft is doing that for 100% pirate copies, whereas activision is doing that to 100% legal keys which were just not sold at the "right" price.

Basically I just don't like how it really shows a move towards the games as a service thing. They can now control WHERE you can play a game. (Consoles have region protection, but that just requires you to own a console of the same region. PC's have never been affected by this until now...)

and I see no reason to screw the user because he's caught in the crossfire

The user isn't that innocent. It's not so different from buying a gold watch from a shady looking guy in a dark alley for a cheap price - the rightful owner might just take your cheap purchase away from you without compensation, and there's nothing you can do about it.

define "shady looking site clearly not affiliated"

I can't define it, but I know it when I see it, and so should the hypothetical reasonable person.

In this article nothing says the originating websites were shady or unaffiliated, on the contrary they were described as "import resellers" which means legal keys, rightfully bought from activision.

Rightfully bought, yes. Rightfully resold, no. And buying stuff in bulk doesn't make one affiliated with the seller.

Basically I just don't like how it really shows a move towards the games as a service thing. They can now control WHERE you can play a game.

They're not controlling "where" you can play a game. You can still buy MWF2, no matter where you live, and play that copy no matter where you go. They're just preventing you from purchasing games at prices meant for a region where people make a tenth of your salary.

Also even in the case where a website is supposed to be "shady" and "unaffiliated" , you can't expect everyone to be 100% aware of it,
for example when I was younger I was recommended a local store for buying computers. I bought from it, got a case which was damaged upon receipt, got it changed, got an AMD processor who burnt, which was replaced, and got an oem ATI graphic card 8500 which a few weeks later happened to be a 8500LELE (when I found the tools to detect frequencies). and then the shop owner just refused to take it back and said that I was the equivalent of a "small dickhead" in french. Got screwed & ATI support ignored my purchase because of OEM status, and a year after the purchase the 8500LELE stopped functioning (artifacts in the BIOS)


What I mean is that even though now I probably am old & wise enough to be very mindful of where I buy, it's not the case for everyone, and one shouldn't always be blamed for making the wrong decision. One shouldn't always assume that the user knowingly made a bad decision.

Basically I just don't like how it really shows a move towards the games as a service thing. They can now control WHERE you can play a game. (Consoles have region protection, but that just requires you to own a console of the same region. PC's have never been affected by this until now...)

ho yeah I so agree with that.
I think it's fine to deactivate 100% illegal keys, after all the devs/producers didn't get any money from the transaction, even though the one screwed is the user (in the cases where the user thought he bought something legal)

but in this particular case, it's a way to put pressure on the import resellers
whereas depending on country the producer doesn't always have the legal right to impose his price...
so in the end what activision's doing might just be borderline illegal

They're just preventing you from purchasing games at prices meant for a region where people make a tenth of your salary.

So basically what you are saying is that I go to russia buy a MW2 there from a completely legit big box store because i'm all like "damn thats cheap", bring it home find out that it requires steam, put my key into steam and now my key is useless because its meant for russia only?
God damn I better go back to Russia and start paying all of those restaurant and the hotel twice as much as I had paid in the first place!

I say this because that is the only way that I can feasibly see them disabling cdkeys. This happened from a ton of different etailers, its not like activision went disable all the keys that we shipped to X. Many of the keys disabled were bought in stores legitimately and simply placed on ebay for a few dollars more.

So basically what you are saying is that I go to russia buy a MW2 there from a completely legit big box store because i'm all like "damn thats cheap", bring it home find out that it requires steam, put my key into steam and now my key is useless because its meant for russia only?

Uh, no. What I'm saying is you *shouldn't* buy stuff at prices meant for regions not your own.

God damn I better go back to Russia and start paying all of those restaurant and the hotel twice as much as I had paid in the first place!

There are, in fact, places in the world where foreigners are expected to pay more. In many parts of China for instance, it's not uncommon for tourists to be charged four times the normal price of services.

Many of the keys disabled were bought in stores legitimately and simply placed on ebay for a few dollars more.

Note how the latter part is "simply" rather than "legitimately." That's why Activision has grounds for disabling the keys.

And I'd say all that is why we need 1 global currency, no more zone tripping.

Many of the keys disabled were bought in stores legitimately and simply placed on ebay for a few dollars more.

Note how the latter part is "simply" rather than "legitimately." That's why Activision has grounds for disabling the keys.

What is illegitimate about selling anything that you own no matter where it goes in the world?

[quote]

Many of the keys disabled were bought in stores legitimately and simply placed on ebay for a few dollars more.

Note how the latter part is "simply" rather than "legitimately." That's why Activision has grounds for disabling the keys.

What is illegitimate about selling anything that you own no matter where it goes in the world?

Haha governments, lawyers and corporations would get angry at that question... but it is true. Selling something of value for something is a free right. Fail illegal things and trade laws and etc.

What is illegitimate about selling anything that you own no matter where it goes in the world?

Nothing... unless it's in violation of trade laws, or embargos, or in this case, the distributor's terms of service. Buying a Steam CD key from an unauthorized distributor violates Steam's terms of service.

--Pre-launch marketing campaign--
Conceal radical design changes to product for as long as possible to minimize the potential for harmed sales figures resulting from customer disappointment.

--Post-launch support--
Customer buys a game but does not pay full price as designated for that customer's region.

Action: button is pushed, customer's product becomes permanently deactivated.


Customer Service, by Activision.

--Post-launch support--

Spend piles of cash hookers, drugs, and booze.

Not in that order.