Arghmage: Welcome to the world of regional pricing. Europe is paying 25% more. There it is
€4.99 - roughly $6
One of the reason why many of us prefer. (Nearly) No regional pricing.
I can respect that, however when I think about the pricing of games my mind has great difficulty seeing how game pricing is or should be treated any differently than the price of cars, fresh drinking water, electricity, blue jeans, milk, eggs, pineapple, concrete blocks, hard disks, potatoes or anything else. None of those items all have a single price in a single global currency worldwide and nobody seems to ever seem concerned about that that I've observed personally. I'm all for the idea of "fairness" personally but I can't even begin to think of a single algorithm to define exactly what "fair" means as there are so many variables that vary from country to country, region to region and even person to person's situation.
I've said it in the GOG forums before but just repeating it briefly here - when it comes to the price I am being offered for a product I personally only care what the price is that is being offered to me and whether I think the product has value that meets or exceeds that price for myself. If I am offered product XYZ for $5 and I think "I believe I will get at least $5 of value out of that product and that is a good deal" then I might buy it, and if I think that the product is overpriced at that price I just wont buy it. If someone else in the world is told their price is $10 or $20, that is possibly unfair but I don't really know that for sure. Maybe the average wage in that other place in the world is double or quadruple what it is where I am. Maybe it is terrible, I don't know and it doesn't change the situation being offered to me personally. Maybe I am told my price is $20 but someone else elsewhere is told they only have to pay $10 or $5. Again, I must ask myself "will I get $20 of value from this, and is it a good deal to me for that price with my income and situation in my country?" and if the answer is "yes" then I might buy it, and if the answer is "no" or I think it isn't a great deal at $20 (regardless of the price someone else is offered), then I wont buy it. Either way, whether someone else pays more or less - what they do or don't do or what they're offered better or worse has no effect on the deal on my table. I'm not jealous or angry or upset about the fact someone else might be asked to pay more for the product or less for the product whether it is a pair of jeans, a bag of potatoes, a box of kleenex, running shoes, or a game from GOG or Steam. It's all the same to me, I either like the price I am offered and think the product is a value to me at that price and possibly buy it, or I don't think so and I don't buy it.
I'm not in any way suggesting that everyone in the world should see it the way I do. Everyone has their own feelings about it which are neither right nor wrong but just for them, and they're free to think or wish for what they'd like to have and express themselves about it too. I just find it easier to see things for the way they are and decide if it is of value to me or not and either spend my money or not and not be concerned about what kind of deal or lack of deal someone else might be getting better or worse than me because the whole world is "unfair" for the most part and those aren't the type of thoughts I prefer to occupy time and space in my mind personally.
For games, more and more I am setting a maximum price in USD (and I'm Canadian) of which I'm willing to pay for them, and if they go on sale below that price then it is a deal for me and I might decide to buy it. If they don't, then I probably wont. If the prices in North America were
unfairly doubled or tripled overnight so to speak, it would not be the most wonderful thing in the world but it wouldn't affect how much money I spend on a given game. It might take longer for a game to drop below the maximum price threshold I set in stone for the given game which I wont increase due to some regional price increase that might be in affect. I'll simply end up buying less games because less games will meet the price point I choose as fair. I set my own fair pricing. What I don't have control over however is whether or not a game will ever reach the price I set, and if so when that might be - but I'm ok with that too.
Just my own personal situation. I'm sure others are in a similar situation or feel similarly about it and I'm sure others are in a much different situation and feel quite different. Either way at the end of the day the prices are affected probably the most by what people are willing to accept and go ahead and spend I imagine. I just wont spend money at all if I think the price is unfair and it is something not required for survival.