Need To Stop Regional Price Abuse

[Vicky]

So I am seeing that some people are using vpn to buy games in cheap price and bypassing their current region. This is bad because my online friend lives in Argentina and he was trying to buy a sonic game in Argentina but he couldn't buy because the devs has raised its prices and this problem is because people are changing region so we need some new security.

[nullable]

Valve has done a lot to address people region hopping or otherwise abusing the system. But the only way they can completely stop it is to get rid of user. No users, no problems. Of course it's not a reasonable solution. But ultimately that's the needle to thread. Having a system that allows users to do things invariable allows users to abuse things.

[Brian9824]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

@brian9824 that was the devs of Sonic Mania who raised the price.

Again, says who? Where is your source. Where did you see the DEVELOPERS saying they raised the price for that specific region because people were changing to that region to buy it?

[Vicky]

@brian9824 just check it yourself and it was my friend who told me that. I know that it is on discount rn but he was trying to buy it when it was not on discount.

[Brian9824]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

@brian9824 just check it yourself and it was my friend who told me that. I know that it is on discount rn but he was trying to buy it when it was not on discount.

I checked, your friend lied to you. Don't see any developer's saying that. It looks like they just stopped bothering entering regional prices for their games as it went up for multiple regions, so nothing at all to do with your specific region.

Tell your friend to stop making up false claims

[Vicky]

@brian9824 ok

[Draeka3]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από cinedine:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Draeka3:

I don't understand the issue. Can't you make an account tied to another region to begin with ?

You can, but in order to buy something you need a regional payment method.
For example you cannot use a credit card registered at an US address , use PayPal tied to an Australian bank account, nor a wallet card in Euro.

I'm not using that. Gift cards unless i'm in a hurry...

[Mad Scientist]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

but they use google to get billing address of that country and then they use the same billing address to purchase games in cheap. Hence, regional pricing abuse flourishes.

That is not how it works. After seeing the further replies, your friend is either lying, misinformed, or is going based off of very old information.

Banks for payment methods use billing addresses, which is what is used when charging you, so Steam charges based upon the billing address on the card. You cannot use some random Argentina billing address as it will not match the card, and could cause your bank to lock your card for Fraud Prevention.

[crunchyfrog]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

but they use google to get billing address of that country and then used some prepaid card which they bought for cheap maybe 1$ they use the same billing address to purchase games in cheap. Hence, regional pricing abuse flourishes.

The mistake you seem to be making is that some problems CANNOT be fully fixed. The best they can do is be mitigated.

ALL security works this way. You have to balance the amount of cases you're restricting that are bad actors versus inconveniencing those genuine actors.

So you cannot get round this proplerly.

Do you have a means to tighten this up? If you can't think of one then that's the problem isn't it?

Also, as Mr Gentlebot says above, this info is either outdated or a lie. It doesn't work like this.

[Vicky]

@crunchyfrog if it's outdated or a lie, then why should I find and explain the trick to change region? So anyone who sees this post can change region?

[KalGimpa]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

@crunchyfrog if it's outdated or a lie, then why should I find and explain the trick to change region? So anyone who sees this post can change region?

put it this way

do you think that steam is not aware people are trying things like this and that they are doing nothing?

as has been said, there is only so much that can be done. if you can think of something that does not inconvenience the rest of us, steam would love to hear from you. so would other companies

[crunchyfrog]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

@crunchyfrog if it's outdated or a lie, then why should I find and explain the trick to change region? So anyone who sees this post can change region?

Because that's how the internet works. Data gets refined. Seriously?

You can find any scientific papaer online that has since been updated. They don't remove the old one. Same goes with new reports or anything.

As I said what's YOUR solution, because if you are assuming it can be fixed but you don't know how then that's a massive argument from personal incredulity fallacy - ergo, I don't know how this works so it must be wrong.

[Ducks on Fire]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

@brian9824 that was the devs of Sonic Mania who raised the price.

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

@brian9824 just check it yourself and it was my friend who told me that. I know that it is on discount rn but he was trying to buy it when it was not on discount.

Do you have actual proof that they raised the price because of that reason and not just because they wanted to raise prices? As far as we know your friend could have just assumed that to be the reason for no other reason then that's the first thing they thought.

And as said you need a valid address AND a valid payment method from that region. I couldn't for example us a VPN to change my region to Argentina, use an address that I got from Google, and then just pay with a card I got from Walmart.

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από RestrainerPizza:

@crunchyfrog if it's outdated or a lie, then why should I find and explain the trick to change region? So anyone who sees this post can change region?

You could just be wrong. Just because someone gives information that was false doesn't mean they were lying.

[Chaos]

Not to necro this thread because it's about a year old, but everyone's arguing over why and how people can or can't abuse the system. Unfortunately, it's stupid easy and with a few properly formatted google searches you can figure it out.

Need to change your region? Just use a VPN - Its against Steams TOS so you hopefully would get banned for doing it, but vpn services even show you step by step how to do it:

https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/privacyhub/how-to-change-steam-region/

Here CyberGhost tells you exactly how.

But you need an address and card that matches that region too as so many people have said here. Well...good thing all the privacy junkies out there have gone out of their way to help with your "privacy" by allowing you to enter fake information to "hide your identity". There's a reason why this is horrible and why people abuse it. But don't take my word for it:

https://proprivacy.com/guides/pay-foreign-services-virtual-debit-card

The solution would be for steam to somehow detect if a real card is being used or if a virtual card is being used. I'm not sure how that could work but it's up to steam to figure it out.

Moral here is this: ITS NOT THE FAULT OF THE DEVELOPERS.

Does a thief blame a home owner for having a pickable lock on their door? Sure if they can get away with it. Is it right? ... If you think it is then you need your sanity checked.

Same concept applies here. People abuse the system to get lower rates and it means developers have to update pricing in areas that would greatly increase the price to combat this because steam hasn't fixed the issue and it's LITERALLY stealing from the developers. Its theft, plain and simple. It's why steam will ban your account if they can catch you.

"But they wont catch me!" Maybe, but if you're saying this to yourself, then you're the scum who's to blame for this issue. Not Steam for having a "weak lock", and not the developers. Its the thieves fault.

[ΛᄂΣIЯIП]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Chaos:

Not to necro this thread because it's about a year old, but everyone's arguing over why and how people can or can't abuse the system. Unfortunately, it's stupid easy and with a few properly formatted google searches you can figure it out.

Need to change your region? Just use a VPN - Its against Steams TOS so you hopefully would get banned for doing it, but vpn services even show you step by step how to do it:

https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/privacyhub/how-to-change-steam-region/

Here CyberGhost tells you exactly how.

But you need an address and card that matches that region too as so many people have said here. Well...good thing all the privacy junkies out there have gone out of their way to help with your "privacy" by allowing you to enter fake information to "hide your identity". There's a reason why this is horrible and why people abuse it. But don't take my word for it:

https://proprivacy.com/guides/pay-foreign-services-virtual-debit-card

The solution would be for steam to somehow detect if a real card is being used or if a virtual card is being used. I'm not sure how that could work but it's up to steam to figure it out.

Moral here is this: ITS NOT THE FAULT OF THE DEVELOPERS.

Does a thief blame a home owner for having a pickable lock on their door? Sure if they can get away with it. Is it right? ... If you think it is then you need your sanity checked.

Same concept applies here. People abuse the system to get lower rates and it means developers have to update pricing in areas that would greatly increase the price to combat this because steam hasn't fixed the issue and it's LITERALLY stealing from the developers. Its theft, plain and simple. It's why steam will ban your account if they can catch you.

"But they wont catch me!" Maybe, but if you're saying this to yourself, then you're the scum who's to blame for this issue. Not Steam for having a "weak lock", and not the developers. Its the thieves fault.

Valve implemented this regional price system to make games more affordable in various countries, especially outside the West. Kudos to Valve for doing that. It allowed many people around the world to buy the games they play at a fair price instead of resorting to piracy. However, it's up to Valve to make sure people won't abuse this system to pay less than they are supposed to. If Valve continues being this lazy and simply keeps punishing legit players for things other players in other regions did, then this regional price system starts to lose its purpose and many players may feel inclined to "sail the seven seas" again after a long time. You can't blame them. They are being unfairly punished, punished for things they didn't do.

I've already contacted Valve and suggested that they ask for documents when a user tries to buy a game from a different region as proof that this user actually moved to another country/region before allowing this purchase. Valve would also have to do this when a user tries to make their first purchase on their account. I know it's an inconvenience, but it's a one-time process for users who don't change regions (or one-time process after changing regions) and it's better than punishing entire regions for things people in other regions did. The Steam support agent told me she would forward my suggestions to the appropriate department and thanked me for the feedback. I really hope they do something.

Most games end up being part of a considerably/very cheap bundle at some point anyway, and developers/publishers don't call that theft. Quite the opposite, they authorize it and provide the keys. Many of these bundle keys end up for resale on those "infamous" websites we know very well. Why would anyone pay an exorbitant price for a game if they can buy it on these websites for a cheaper (or much cheaper) price? As it is, I rarely use the Steam store.

[Easy E]

All the people here in denial about region changing to get cheaper games are just mad because they haven't figured it out. Its not hard to purchase a prepaid debit card from Argentina, fund it with paypal, and plop a hotel address on it, hide location on pc, vpn to argentina, purchase games on steam, stuck for two weeks on argentina steam then move back to US