Greetings Gogenizers (Did that sound German?)

Yep, that will be one of those topics, happy to join the circle.

I had been hearing how terrible STEAM support and forums were for years but I was always thinking they were overreacting. If you behave, they will be nice right? Until I had a very simple problem, my first problem in 10 years, that I tried to seek answer for.

My question was simple. How can I gift to someone outside my region? Maybe you know that Steam considers Turkey as a region on its own and the games you buy as "gifts" can only be played by people living in Turkey. My friend lives in Sweden. I want to gift her. I am willing to pay the full price. I have money. But how?

So I searched their forums and found a few topic that was similar to my own problem. There was no answer but i still replied to them hoping maybe they found a solution. Next day, they were gone. poof! The whole topics were deleted with my own messages. It disappeared from post history as well.

So I created an other topic, again explaining my problem, and also wrote to their support to save time since her birthday is closing in. My topic was deleted again. My simple mind cant comprehend how asking for such a simple question can be a bad thing. It says "Help and Tips" in the forum title.

Ofcourse I still dont have an answer from support except a few automated messages leading me to articles explaining how to gift to someone in your own region.

Why am I writing this? Because I understood GOG's value more with that experience and I wanted to share it. I would write it in their forums but it would again get deleted without an explanation so why bother.

I LOVE YOU GOG. Always stay that way please.

Engin.

You can't. Plain and simple. Region locking prevents that.

I'm not saying this was necessarily the case, but, just to theorize here, maybe there's a lot of people who ask that question and they deleted your topic so that there's not a bunch of people flooding the forum about it. I mean, you see how upset this forum gets whenever a GOG Connect thread is made. I imagine your question is one which is asked a lot, so just imagine how many of these same threads spring up. Of course, this could easily be solved if they had this in an FAQ section or something similar, but it is what it is.

Steam forums are different from Support, there's only community moderators there. Seems surprising your topics would be deleted on a question like that though (depending on tone of course).

Seems more surprising that you wouldn't have been able to find an answer on your question on the forums.

Basically if your region gets games cheaper than other regions or has other restrictions you're simply not capable of gifting outside of your region. Steam restricts cheap gifts to within the cheap areas, contrary to GOG where the game will be US price (expensive) if you try to gift it, regardless of how cheap the game might be where you live.

Simplest ways you can manage this on your own is to either send money as a gift, gift a Steam Wallet card, or buy the game as a key from a third party site (Assuming there's no region restrictions if you buy those locally)

GOG is definitely a vastly more easy-going bunch. Steam, putting aside the toxicity, is kind of aggressive in general. Mods are on a mission to be just ban, delete and shut down stuff or being snarky, derisive and generally unhelpful. I get that there are some latent trolls around, but most tend to forget the person behind the computer.

At times, a person's question may sound counter-intuitive, but if you could actually see the person face to face, you'd realize that they are genuine, and all they really want is some help or knowledge with their issues/questions, and they will be content. It's just that, some people can't express themselves well online, resulting in sounding weird, when in person, they'd sound a lot more normal due to visual expression.

For gifting outside your region, there a few methods around.

1 - Go to the humble bundle store and see if the game you wish to gift is on there, purchase it, then send the key over to your friend. Be careful with Greenmangaming, as last I read, they were introducing region-locking for their purchases, where the keys are locked to a specific region, if you are from their locked regions.

2 - Create a "spare" steam account. Make sure the region is set to the United States. Add your friend to your friend list.

2a - Google for an online retailer that you are comfortable with that sells Steam gift/wallet cards. If your local store sells them, all the better! Purchase the amount the you need or want.

2b - Redeem the code on the spare account, then use the value to purchase a game. When purchasing a game, make sure to pick the option to send the gift directly to a friend (don't pick the one that stores the game in your inventory!). Pick your friend from the friend list, fill in the gift note if you like, then send the game.

Now that I think about it, if he was specifically asking for ways to circumvent the region block, then that would probably get his topic deleted. So it really depends how he was asking it.

And it might also be the case that those threads attract scammers? Like you know, "hey don't worry, I'll gift the game to your friend for you, just send me the money first over paypal" or something.

I have a rich Nigerian uncle who can sell you a bridge.

If the item is region blocked your topic would of been deleted. Doesn't take a genius to work that out.

How? I am considered a genius with an IQ of 172. I cant understand that so please explain me in details why my topic should be deleted? Before doing that, let me correct you that I am not talking about a specific item, since there is no item yet to be gifted.

For others, thank you all for your awesome answers. Like I said in my post, I first searched the forums and couldnt find an answer.

@Nicole28, I will consider your suggestions for my next gifting adventure. For now I solved my problem in a different way. I gifted her something else instead of a game.

I can make excellent pancakes. Does that count?

I am calling you out on this one!!!!!!!!!!

Are you claiming that TinyE from GOG is the person you mentioned in your post?

That is at least how it sounds like!!

You know that false accusation is a crime? And in this case a serious crime?

You can buy her The Witcher 3 here. No need to buy it on steam.

And your reply just showed me, that YOU do not know anything about your country at all!!!!

Or you just pretend to be from there!!!

You have just proven you know shit:

Ever heard of section 314 crimes act?

No? didn't think so, so from which collapsed nation are you? Dreamland? Troll-land?

Before spouting this nonsense you might want to check your facts!

Hey even this moderator you mention could get you for your statement!

And as this is a capital crime, you could even face extradition......

My experience of Steam support and Community moderators is horrendous, no other company on Earth could get away doing the things they do.

Purest display of corruption from power I've ever encountered. Having a cast iron monopoly over PC gaming gives them Carte Blanche to treat you however they want. Normally Good Customer service is what ensures customer loyalty, far better than low prices (which Steam doesn't have). But VALVe's near absolute control over PC gaming, means they don't even have to bother, and since to bother costs money they don't.

VALVe's attitude towards their customers and their abusive monopoly make me sick, but less so than those which support and defend VALVe with blind religious devotion.