I'm steamed.

Cid

So the following is an e-mail tag I played with Steam or Valve. The story is, I purchased the Orange Box in Japan, because I couldn't purchase it on steam. I worked there for a year, I played TF 2, Portal, and Half-life2 in English no problem.

I move back to the states and now, I can't play.

Reason given by the game? "This game is not available in your territory."

Now, normally, if I had bought a legal copy of something from someone I knew, and then one day because I move houses (albeit across oceans) the game stopped working, I'd find that guy and say "Hey, my game isn't working, fix it."

Well this is the e-mail exchange I've been enjoying with a steam representative:

Hello,

A staff member has replied to your question:

Hello Charles,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

The message "Steam Error: Game not available in your territory", indicates that the CD Key you have purchased is restricted to the territory where it was sold.

Territory restrictions are noted on the packaging of the game.

Please contact your reseller for a refund.

Note: Purchases made directly through Steam are not restricted by territory.

My reply:

Hello,

I purchased the game almost a year ago. I'm no longer in the same country. It is impossible for me to get a refund. I realize that CD key is specific to that territory. However I have moved and would like to continue to play this game. The game is available here, I don't really want to spend another fifty dollars on a game I own. Who do I have to talk to play the game I own?

Is it really that hard to give me another CD key to play this game in the US? You have my account information surely you know I have purchased the game. I didn't seem to have a problem playing a non-steam purchased version of the original half-life in Japan, so I'm a little annoyed that I can't play game I purchased.

Additionally, it wasn't clearly marked as being for a specific region when I bought it, at least not in a language I could read at the time.

If you give me a telephone number I'll gladly take up my grievances with someone over the phone.

Their reply:

Hello,

A staff member has replied to your question:

Hello Charles,

Unfortunately regarding retail versions of games available on Steam, we will be unable to assist you.

If the game will not work in the current territory, you will need to make a purchase of the subscription that is valid.

We will be unable to assist you with this issue.

My reply:

Hello,

You want me buy the game again? Why? What has changed from me living in Japan to living in the US? I paid more for it there!

How are you unable to assist me? You are quite plainly telling me that it is you who has made this a problem for me. All I want is for steam to let me play this game on the only machine I have ever played it on, now that I'm living somewhere else. Are you not the people who are preventing me from playing the game I purchased? If you aren't, please give me the e-mail and phone number of whomever made the game I bought so I can ask them, and I sincerely apologize for having bothered whomever you are.

I'm sure the game would work fine wherever I was if you refrained from breaking it when I moved.

So please, direct me to someone who CAN help me.

In conclusion, if anyone else is having this sort of problem I'd love to get on board a class action lawsuit. I'm rather impressed that a game available in both areas, capable of being installed on a PC regardless of where the PC was bought, is restricted to a country. It's not like I played it on a region 2 PC. Hell, I was perfectly able to play my original copy of Half-life before I purchased the orange box, and I even downloaded that through steam. If anyone has the ear of someone at Valve please let them know that if I can't play the game I bought, they can kindly go get violated a cat on fire.

cogell

Is there a question in there? This looks more like angry rambling than asking for help. In this situation, I'm going to recommend that you follow the Valve employees advice, and repurchase the game. Fifty bucks isn't that much. Also, most games available in Japan, regardless of origin, are only going to be playable in Japan. It sucks, but I doubt there's neither a way around this nor a reason for a class-action lawsuit.

see317

Here's the thing:
You didn't buy the game.
You purchased a license to use the game. The liscense was only valid in Japan.
You moved out of Japan, so the license is no longer valid.

It sucks, but that's the way it is. Getting pissy with customer service biscuits at Steam isn't going to resolve shit. And trying to get a class action lawsuit together because you didn't read the EULA before you clicked on "accept" isn't likely to help your case at all.

Cid

I don't have fifty dollars to spend on a game twice. If you do that's great, I'll give you a paypal account you can forward the money to me, but the email pretty much states that if I had purchased it through Steam I could play it anywhere. That includes Japan, it was available on Steam there, but you can't purchase things in Japan through Steam with an American credit card, and getting a Japanese credit card is not something I found easy to do.

It is a bit of an angry rambling, I rather liked those games, but would you pay for the same game twice if you didn't do anything wrong? I guess I'm asking if anyone has had any similar experiences and, if so, what did you do?

Thanatos

Write a letter to your congressperson, don't purchase any more Valve games, bitch about it on the internet.

There is pretty much nothing else legal that you're going to get anywhere with.