[PATV] Monday, August 5, 2013 - CheckPoint Season 3, Ep. 8: Sweet Treats

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[PATV] Monday, August 5, 2013 - CheckPoint Season 3, Ep. 8: Sweet Treats

Before you jump into the latest dating sim, watch Kathleen's handy primer.

Read the full story here

Ophenix

Go Cathleen! I want this as a regular segment. Also, you'd give up on the pink Uni student? Come on, he looks like a show-er and a grow-er.

bruceski

Did you just give the top rating to your uncle?

Benno

Hooray for Aussie content! Great show BTW, I heartily endorse gift a game to an aussie day!

Hrugner

I expected to be more annoyed by the man rating. Instead I found myself wishing she picked beastorizer.

Whyroon

I'm not sure you've got the hang of this objectification thing, you're not supposed to take a broad look at their personality, sense of style and career prospects...

Women, can't even reduce someone to a single physical attribute properly am I correct?

Sterling7

Fair is indeed fair. And Kathleen is hilarious.

BaloogyMcBoy

Go go team Australia! As an Australian who already owns a ludicrous number of games, I need nothing gifted, but please keep us in mind when you spend your money and know that there are many here who can not afford the $100/game we are often asked to pay.

digital_ronin

Seeing a female ranking of unrealistic -male- dating sim characters is really refreshing for a change. For someone who plays a lot of Visual Novels, that's as mind-twisting as a trip into the Negative Zone. A really hilarious one, too.

Amarsir

Australian game pricing is well-known and it's nice to see it getting some publicity. But dare I suggest that politicians saying "it's not our fault" deserves just a little skepticism? Australian games are HIGHLY regulated, many are unavailable at any price, and please don't act like "regulation" is a magic word that automatically makes things better! Especially since their statement was "there's no reason" and even if you believe that, it DOES NOT mean "corporate conspiracy". It means "no reason".

Trust me, I would love little more than for EA and Sony game execs to be outed as the incompetent hacks they are. I just get a little annoyed when people who make a ton of rules say "the only possible flaw here is not enough rules".

So on top of your (very nice) gift a game idea, I suggest that Aussies be encouraged to support Indie game developers. (And non-Aussies for that matter.) Good value, goes to hard-working people, big game publishers get nothing, and ultimately maybe the competition pushes prices to more reasonable levels?

Crokoking

Cathleens segment was great but she definitely needs to work on her seductive look ;-)

CameronJey

Wait, is this 'Gift a Game to an Aussie Day' for real? Because the only reason I haven't gotten 'The Last of Us' is due to it being a hundred bucks.

TheTurnipKing

You know, I've never actually seen a guy rank dating sim characters like this.

On the other hand, this seems uncomfortably close to exactly what women to do men in virtually every form of media known to mankind.

greeniekin

I am an aussie and it does really annoy me about the prices. All I can do that I am already doing is not buy expensive games. Not necessarily by choice. So apparently we are just screwed and no ones going to do anything. My birthday was yesterday and my gift to myself was going to be bioshock infinite which is $80 on steam and I am not going to pay. It is absolute bull crap.

Everyone spam steam support with a link to this video. Maybe they will have the balls to do something if no one else does.

greeniekin

That $80 USD for bioshock infinite did not include the dlc which is $44.97 USD. For some reason they can make special pricing for use in australia yet they the do not even bother representing it in our currency.

likalaruku

Aussies, go ahead & pirate to your hearts content; it's the best way to "protest with your wallet."

You're too generous Kathleeen; not a single one of those men looked effeminately hot enough to pique my interest.

MoltenCherry

When it comes to game prices, it sucks a little bit to be Australian. I work in a game store and sometimes my boss will ask me to work for games rather than money because we don't have the payroll to spend (It's a little bit dodgy). I always jump at the opportunity because I get to pick the games I want and were going to buy anyway-so I technically save money. It is cheaper for me to work a full work day and get a new game title, than to get paid and buy the game with that days wage...plus a part of another days wage as well :P.

ozzcoz

As much as the pricing issue annoys me, it's still the complete inability to purchase some games (through legitimate means anyway) which really irks me. It's sometimes a ratings issue, yes. But more often it's the publishers decision not to make a game available to the Australian market. And the problems aren't limited to steam; PSN, and I assume XBL are as bad, or perhaps worse? Come on, it's not like they need to localise these games. Or even print them onto plastic discs and ship them here. Just let me buy the same games you offer to US/UK gamers...

Brainleech

Don't come to Australia, the evil spider overlords will...shower you with gifts and praise! Glory to the spiders!

RatherDashing89

I don't know how the local stores in Aus even stay in business. Are there enough Aussie gamers who don't know how to use the internet to balance out the fact that every gamer who does know how to use the internet will be shipping from the UK?

DuelLadyS

I actually have Sweet Fuse on preorder- for the novelty. I mean, it's a female-centric dating sim, starring Kenji Infaune's fictional niece, for the PSP- in fact, the last release slated for the PSP in North America. How can I pass up that kind of nonsense?

I'm leaning toward mystical BS man and suit guy... although I wouldn't rank anyone higher than a 6, tops- where's a Basch Von Rosenburg lookalike when you need one?

Mic_128

@RatherDashing89

Part of it is that some people are simply unaware (Think parents, non-gamers) some are lazy/impatient (It's too hard to import or use a proxy/I don't want to wait for it to ship from the UK) and others simply don't care.

The fact that the investigation wasn't just for games, but also music and other software (photoshop, MS office, ect) hopes that one day something might change...

OzBenny

as an aussie that typically waits a few months after games come out for the prices to drop to a sane level, it's nice to have some love shown for us and our "no good reason" prices!

Holm

If publishers notice a dent in their margins at all, I suspect I know how they will react: draconian localisation and DRM.

Haapy

Kathleen's piece doesn't offend me at all - it's a dating sim, and she ranked each candidates attractiveness. It fits. On the other hand, some of the comments about her piece were... odd. So I'm just going to say my bit and be done with it.

I am tired of the 'gender in gaming' monologue. The game industry is very competitive; regardless of your demographic, you'll get your own set of games because there is money to be made there. Does anyone really believe that game companies are in a position to ignore fifty percent of the population? Seriously? Just as with any entertainment medium, a given title is going to target a specific subset of available demographics, and no game can target every demographic. You will never like all of the games on the market, no matter who you are. Buy the games you like to increase the number of games made for your blend of demographics.

Zachary Amaranth

Hey, I'm an unemployed b...I mean, Freelance journalist! I take great offense at our status as sex objects!

Zachary Amaranth

Haapy wrote: »

you'll get your own set of games because there is money to be made there.

I suppose that's technically true. However, in a culture where everything nto a shooter is slowly becoming niche, claiming that because of the occasional dating sim that happens to make it to our shores or the occasional "niche" title is worth less than worthless. Almost as worthless as the word niche.

Vangald

Now if I can just figure out how to do this whole game reseller thing for countries with shit censoring authorities and massive price gouging.

P.S.

Helpful info for those having the same thought here. And specifically pertaining to gifting to friends over seas as mentioned in the video. There is a risk.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=421931

Buzko

AWESOME AWESOME EPISODE. Thank you for providing a service to Aussie gamers and detailed insight into Kathleen's desires. Hope springs eternal, on both fronts.

Obstreperous

1) How can I find Australians on Steam?
2) How can I make sure he/she is an actual Australian resident and not someone from the land of reasonably priced games (i.e. Europe, Asia, the Americas, etc.) trying to sucker me into buying him/her a free game?
3) I'm not rich, so someone's getting, like, Cave Story or something. (And it's a great game, so shut up and like it)
4) To everyone else participating in this-- be sure to check their wish lists first, and at least get something SIMILAR to what they play. For reals.

Wrath89

As an Aussie, what I get annoyed about the most is collectors editions. Say I wanted a ridiculous collectors edition like the Saints Row IV one mentioned on CheckPoint, I would have to order it through Amazon or GameStop. Problem 1: There is no Amazon for Australia so I'm stuck with EB Games (Aussie branch of Gamestop) or the online stores. Problem 2: EB Games does not stock collector editions unless it's a huge release like a new COD or Battlefield game. Problem 3: Amazon does not ship games to Australia. Problem 4: $40 shipping from Gamestop.

End result: Screw it, I'll pirate it.

I think that the system should work so that if companies artificially raise the price of an object by agreement rather than competing for the consumer dollar, they are heavily fined or banned from operating in Australia.

Haapy

@Zachary: I feel your pain. I tend to buy a lot of indie titles, since my tastes seem to be less popular than the sports/fps ones are right now. (As a side note, check out Hanako Games for some good dating sims and general story-based games. I've enjoyed them. Also, Katawa Shoujo is excellent and, oddly, free.)

Kathleen_LRR

@theturnipking - that is some good sarcasm. Oh man, you've never seen women evaluated only by how much men want to have sex with them? Ha ha ha. Sigh.

Wrath89

Wow! I just checked and Gift a game to an Aussie Day is already on Wikipedia. That was pretty quick.

Faark

You have to love regional pricing. Steamprices.com is nice to show how evil you are ripped of. An Example: "Command & Conquer 3
EU steam shop: € 14.99
RU steam shop: 99.00 RUB (€2.27, -84.86%)

Yea, you really have to love regional pricing. The really sad part is that regional prices are a part of the problem... they get a low salary => can't spend that much => stuff is cheaper there => they don't have a reason to get more cash in the first place...

Eragon

It infuriates me the way that companies are allowed to discriminate against us Australians like this. The way geoblocking is used on sites like Steam is basically a digital apartheid. There are no oceans on the internet.

UNHchabo

@Wrath89
And now it's already been deleted. That was also pretty quick.

Ares

Hey! Us New Zealander's also have to pay the ridiculously over inflated prices too!
And we have less poisonous/killy wild life!
HALP US TOO!

Dedwrekka

@Eragon, not that I disagree with your sentiment, but there are actually "oceans", or in internet terms "limits to information distribution", on the internet.
Anything from distance from overseas server farms to the fact that the majority of information is sent overseas via semi-prone-to-fail, giant-ass cables that are under the ocean could be considered to be digital gulfs that make information travel through the internet difficult. Lag is basically the equivalent of transversing large distances and does correlate to distance in real life. Not that I have to tell any Ausies about distance from servers and lag.

TaboriHK

Beardcrumb.


BEARDCRUMB




beardcrumb

Tombfyre

I frequently buy and gift games for my friends in the land down under. Thanks to the wonder of Paypal and other such services, they can simply send me funds, and I'll send them the game at the North American price. Everybody wins! Well, minus the local retailers, but to hell with them.