[SUGGESTION] Military Members exception to region-locked games and relase dates.

[L1TTLE3AGLE]

As the title says, I'd like to suggest some sort of "exception to policy" in which a Military Member can apply and potentially receive a coding on their Steam account allowing them access to the American Steam store and region. I can't count how many games I've had to request a refund from Steam and re-purchase through Amazon or the game company directly simply because I'm an American Military Member stationed overseas. My IP address is still coded as "American," and I can order from Amazon using my APO box address, which leads me to believe these are the main reasons I have access to earlier release dates on sites other than Steam...

How could it be done?

Well, I've had some sites request a copy of the front side only of my CAC (Military ID card) along with my stateside driver's license. Both have to be current and not expired for those sites to acknowledge their validity, which may become an issue for some Members stationed overseas as many states forgo the need to renew your Driver's License while a Military Member is stationed overseas; i.e. you, the Military Member, must not allow yourself to be lazy and instead renew your license before it expires via mail or other appropriate channel. Alternatively, I have been requested to provide copies of my PCS orders with my personal information (families names, social security numbers, physical addresses of the installations etc) all blacked out. In short, they wanted an official document with my full name on it and the name of the base I was assigned to, all other info was blacked out. To be fair, though, this situation was one I opted out of because I didn't want the risk.

There are other options too, I'm sure. I just haven't thought of them. It just seems to me this is a potential money-loss for Steam with quite an easy fix.

Final note: Many Military Members like to stream to Twitch or record gameplay commentary for a YouTube channel. I do. And region-locked, or delayed release games, have the potential to inhibit those members' views/earnings (if they have a large enough channel to earn money off of; which I don't).

[76561198001062896]

sadly or thankfully this is unlikely to happen simply because people would start faking military documents, we all know it would happen

plus I very much doubt we need Valve to have even more additional workload at their hands verifying documents, plus they would need to ask publishers and devs if they are okay with that.

if were at it they may well give exceptiosn for disabled people, for retired people, and so on and so forth, its a quite slippery slope where once you give an exception for one group everyone else will demand they get the same treatment.

[L1TTLE3AGLE]

Thank you for that. Guess I never thought about fraudulent requests and whatnot. I don't have any problem with exceptions for people with disabilities and such; kinda like Make a Wish Foundation in my mind. However, I do see your point about the possibility for fraud, as well as the additional workload... Guess its up to the gamer to go the extra mile and purchase off Amazon or elsewhere if they/'we want the game that bad... hmmm, worth the thought though. thanks again!

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Isn't your purchase region determined by your usual purchase region, or your credit card address, or something like that?

[cinedine]

Originally posted by Quint the Globular Springtail:

Isn't your purchase region determined by your usual purchase region, or your credit card address, or something like that?

Should be, yes. Don't actually get the OP in this regard.
A friend of mine is often in the States and had to ask support to unlock the American store for him, because he would only be able to use his original one.

[L1TTLE3AGLE]

Originally posted by cinedine:

Originally posted by Quint the Globular Springtail:

Isn't your purchase region determined by your usual purchase region, or your credit card address, or something like that?

Should be, yes. Don't actually get the OP in this regard.
A friend of mine is often in the States and had to ask support to unlock the American store for him, because he would only be able to use his original one.

I am stationed in Japan. I have access to the American store, but games that release regionally are locked to me. For example, Far Cry Primal would have been an additional 60+ day wait for me, so I requested refund and purchased directly from uPlay. Although this allowed me to play the game, I suppose I'm just lazy and want one place to access all my games from. Yes, I attempted to add the uPlay version of Far Cry Primal to my Steam list and the Steam shortcut only opened the uPlay widget thing. Does this explain a little bit better?

TL;DR I want access to the North America region-locked games and region release dates.