Greetings fellow Good Old Gamers.
It does happen occasionally that one of us wishes to play a newer game.
Say, a game from Steam, or Impulse or .. really any other major digital distribution retailer.
But oh my! Some retard monkey in a suit decided "Dis game no good for country XY! Lets restrict all sales to them for no particular reason other than to flex our all powerful egos and bask in the knowledge that we can do so! We don't need their money!"
Now, as a gamers we got two options:
1) Turn to piracy
2) Get a fellow foreigner who is trustworthy to buy the game for you, and re-imburse them via PayPal or any other payment option !
Now, I as well as many others would like to support the industry and thus dislike piracy. Hence, Piracy will not be covered in this topic - the other solution however will.
This is a topic for:
- Gamers requiring the aid of a foreigner to pick up a game they would like.
- Nice foreign gamers offering their services and perhaps make a quick buck for doing so =)
Note: This topic encompasses many a reason.
One is that the fact that, sorry steam but 1$ does not equal 1Euro! European customers might save quite a bit to have someone from the US make the purchase for them.
Another is the fact that some countries ( *coff* germany *coff* ) censor any game with just a bit of blood in it, and people like myself feel they are mature enough to play their games uncut.
And another is that the game simply might not be available for purchase for certain countries. All those cases are covered by this topic.
Rules:
To post a Request, please contain the following:
Games you want ( You can leave this away in case you would like to discuss this privately with a buyer - state so if that is the case! )
Digital Distribution Service ( eg. Steam, Impulse or whatever )
Your Email or your ID in said service ( eg. Email or Steam ID or whatnot )
Mention whether you are sure of the price or not ( Steam for example only displays Euro Prices for me, so I am not sure how much it is in USD )
List what country you need, if any particular. ( eg. US / Canada or Just-Not-My-Country )
List the bonus you are willing to pay someone for their help. ( eg. $3, $5, Sorry I can't spare you any extra but I hope you will do this out of the good of your heart etc )
Other things you feel important.
Once the deal has gone through, post back that the deal was a success so I can add a +1 to the helper
To offer your services:
Do NOT post simply "I can take care of things for country XY", instead wait for someone to post something that you can work with, reply to their post in particular and mention:
Your Country
If the game was mentioned, the complete price with tax that you will have to pay for the gift copy
Give your Steam ID / Contact Email
Ask the buyer if he is interested.
Now, if the buyer is interested, they should contact the seller via steam / email and get the thing going.
I will keep a list here of the people who successfully buy games for other people. This list is to build some sort of reputation and lower the chances of getting ripped off.
If I get reports of anyone ripping anyone else off, I will brandmark them for life in this topic.
Also, this is important: Do NOT talk about games themselve! I don't want to see anyone going "Oh don't buy that game, buy this instead!" We are here to get our game, not have people second guessing our decision.
List of Helpers:
Navagon (1)
Bio2hazard (3)

Great topic and +rep for you.
I want someone to gift me copy of GTA IV from Steam because I am living in Turkey and game is region restricted. Someone from UK or USA can gift me this game? I can buy a game from Steam or GOG.com or transfer $7.49 or £4.99 to Paypal account.

You know that uses GFWL don't you? Do you know if its required and can operate without it (or do you have a workaround)?

I don't have enough money in Paypal at the moment, but if you have your account setup so that you can make instant transfers, you could transfer enough money to my account and I use it to buy the game.
My email (and paypal) is lucibel_mel at hotmail dot com
In an hour, I am going out for about 4 hours (day trip, yay) so from 11.30ish til 5ish GMT I won't be available to buy the game, but before or after then I will.
Edit: yeah do check GFWL restrictions, tho I think you can play it offline.

Yes, I know but that price I don't care for GFWL. Also Navagon is buying the game now. Thanks to him. :)

I need someone from US or Canada to pick up some games for me in the steam holiday sale!
Games I'd like:
Company of Heroes Gold ( both CoH and Opposing Fronts )
Borderlands DLC Zombie Island of Dr. Ned
Jedi Knight Collection
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Thief 3: Deadly Shadows
Stalker
Service: Steam
Steam ID: bio2hazard
Not sure about the price since my steam store displays it in euro only.
Country: US / Canada
Payment service: Paypal
Bonus: I will send $5 more than the price of the games, paypal takes some fees though so expect $3-4 as a bonus.
Can anyone help ? :)
( edit: sorry for triple post. The GoG forums wouldn't let me post and I was not sure if it was a problem on my end or a global problem )
Edit: Added stalker, as I only have Clear Sky here and I'd like to give the prequel a shot as well

If I remember correctly, it's pretty firmly tied to GFWL - to save the game you need to be logged in...

Good thread. As for regional restrictions, I think that your own country's censorshit is causing most of your headaches in that department. If a publisher cannot release their game in your country for legal reasons then there's no way that digital distribution outlets can provide it to those regions without risking getting blocked/fined/otherwise put out of pocket.
It could be worse though. You could live in Australia.

Either that or the local arm of said publishers have an insane hatred for PCs and/or digital distribution.

Hey at least we're on Microsofts list of non-imaginary countries so we get xbox live & games for windows live
Well, I suppose these days its more like CENSORED games for windows live...

In my case its mostly getting fucked over by steams currency conversion and yes - censorship. But also the fact that my fiancee is from the US and as such does not speak german.
Getting someone from the US to buy the games for me means:
I give them a few bucks extra as a thank you and I still save money.
My games will be uncensored.
My girlfriend can take part in the story and understand what the game is about, and play if she so desires.
I've seen other people request this kind of stuff in random topics so I figured I would make a unified topic to combine all requests of this nature.
My request still stands and I apologize for the triple post, the GoG forums were acting really wonky for a good hour.

would this be a way to get Mirror's Edge in Japan? Does gifting work if the game doesn't show up on steam at all over here? I've been trying to get hold of it for ages, but it's pretty much impossible.
It'd be annoying if someone gifted it to me and then it got blocked/didn't work. Is it reliable?

It is reliable.
I have about 6 games that are not in the german steam store and it works just fine.
Steams policy on gifting:
- Recipient will receive the version of the game as it is released in the country of the BUYER. This means if I bought Team Fortress 2 for you, you would get a censored copy of the game. Likewise this means if someone from the US bought Team Fortress 2 for me, I would get the US version of the game.
- Even though the version received will be the one from the country it was bought in, it is still subject to local release dates. A buddy from the US gifted me Dragon Age Origins and I was not able to play at US launch - I was however able to play at EU's launch and my game is uncut.
- Language in steam can be in most cases changed around, but I recommend to get someone from a english speaking country to buy the game just in case.
Short answer is: Yes, you can play it if you get a gift copy of the game. :)
Edit: Figured I'd add proof:
Games I have on my german steam account that are not available in the store under my german IP address:
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto 2
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Max Payne 2

There's a censored version of the game? Only my copy is completely bloodless and that's not down to censorship. But rather the Pixar nature of the game.