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[Vendayn]

(flaming removed)

[Lord Snow]

It's not THAT site you should worry about, you should question the integrity of the sites it links you to.
DLcompare doesn't sell anything itself...

Read carefully what is offered, try to find ratings for the shops.

i had no issues with: g2a, elitekeys.


Use your head, just like you do whereever else you go online without swamping your pc with shit and buying every fake product you see on offer.
And buy stuff while you can, western shops are still trying to figure out how they can stop this effectively.

[WealthyRadish]

Liberalism turned wild.

My understanding of Australian politics is that it's one of the most conservative Western nations out there, more so than the United States in some ways. I'm also pretty sure that the Liberal Party of Australia is actually their main conservative party, so you may be uh, confusing your ends of the spectrum there. Conservatism turned wild?

[Satarus]

Part of the reason prices of luxury goods in Australia is so high is because of their high minimum wage.  The wage is higher than what the market should have so there will be price distortions.  Tack on extra taxes and import costs and that price continues to be distorted compared to US, EU, and JP markets.

I feel bad for the Kiwis.  Since they usually have to us Australian distributors, prices in New Zealand are often distorted.

[Vendayn]

Well, it could be Austria news.au is the enquier of Australia. Some of what they report is wtf worthy and they were by far anti-liberal party. So much so it looked like the enquier magazine of how transparent it was. Like CNN lol.

Dunno if that is the big news group over there, but they did report how a law was going down about children. Maybe they are more enquier like and you just gotta laugh at them. Being in us, I was looking for different countries to move to. Australia was one so I kept eye on that news site there


Anyway, their internet sucks. Their prices suck and no thanks. Limited internet does me in. Plus I'd have to pirate games to play them since they get banned or edited for children.

[MarcAFK]

That website linked to in the post seems to have alot of games which say "Requires Russian IP" or something similar, so I would be dubious about the safety of your steam account if you're not actually russian.

[alamoes]

My friend found a site that seems to sell steam keys cheap.  I still don't get it, but it worked for me on that one one dollar game.  And then there is Men of War Assault Squad, which I got for free.  I still don't get how. 

http://www.fast2play.com/

http://www.tremorgames.com/

Of note, I don't use either anymore.  The adds for Tremor games don't work half the time. 
Both sites did give me legitimate steam keys though.  How do you make money in such a case?
I guess it is more obvious with Tremor Games, but on Fast2Play?  I have my idea that they are buying steam keys that are on sale, and then selling them for more later.  Still don't know, and won't do any research on this. 

[EuchreJack]

Honestly, if I was going to get CD-keys online rather than buy the game, I wouldn't bother paying for the CD-keys.

Game companies don't care if you bought the CD-keys or "found" them, so why should you?

I mean, if you're buying the CD-keys from the company itself in another region, that is legit.

As far as the game companies are concerned, paying someone for their CD-key is equivalent to just downloading an ISO of the game for free.

So if you're considered a pirate if you pay money, why bother?  Just be a full-bore pirate and download the game and use a fake CD-key/ CD-key generator.

And don't pay for the "extra download speed" on those filesharing sites either.  Be a Po' Pirate, Yo'.

EDIT: Ok, I don't work for a game company, so I probably shouldn't speculate on their philosophy, especially the indy developers.  I'm mainly referring to second-hand accounts of EA and the other big game companies, plus Steam's attempts to shut down the second-hand game market.  Oh, and several of the next gen consoles trying to disable the use of used games...that still burns. 
Still, my main argument is just not to pay for CD-keys from anyone but the game company, as the transfer of money doesn't take away all of the "problems" with software copying (the person who's CD-Key you're now using is under NO obligation to stop using that key, so the game is essentially being played on two computers with only one purchaser...assuming only you and not hundreds of people plus you bought that one key).

[jocan2003]

Honestly, if I was going to get CD-keys online rather than buy the game, I wouldn't bother paying for the CD-keys.

Game companies don't care if you bought the CD-keys or "found" them, so why should you?

I mean, if you're buying the CD-keys from the company itself in another region, that is legit.

As far as the game companies are concerned, paying someone for their CD-key is equivalent to just downloading an ISO of the game for free.

So if you're considered a pirate if you pay money, why bother?  Just be a full-bore pirate and download the game and use a fake CD-key/ CD-key generator.

And don't pay for the "extra download speed" on those filesharing sites either.  Be a Po' Pirate, Yo'.

EDIT: Ok, I don't work for a game company, so I probably shouldn't speculate on their philosophy, especially the indy developers.  I'm mainly referring to second-hand accounts of EA and the other big game companies, plus Steam's attempts to shut down the second-hand game market.  Oh, and several of the next gen consoles trying to disable the use of used games...that still burns. 
Still, my main argument is just not to pay for CD-keys from anyone but the game company, as the transfer of money doesn't take away all of the "problems" with software copying (the person who's CD-Key you're now using is under NO obligation to stop using that key, so the game is essentially being played on two computers with only one purchaser...assuming only you and not hundreds of people plus you bought that one key).

Well sometime some players want a cheap cd-key only for multiplayer parts, it is still a legit cd-key, sometime sold in bundle or given in bundle for promotion that they later resell while they shouldnt? In any ways, most of the time when asking for a cheap cd-key is to get what other means would not be able to provide. Im seeing these sites like pawn-shops or blackmarkets, some are legit, some are not, some are borderline.

[EuchreJack]

Honestly, if I was going to get CD-keys online rather than buy the game, I wouldn't bother paying for the CD-keys.

Game companies don't care if you bought the CD-keys or "found" them, so why should you?

I mean, if you're buying the CD-keys from the company itself in another region, that is legit.

As far as the game companies are concerned, paying someone for their CD-key is equivalent to just downloading an ISO of the game for free.

So if you're considered a pirate if you pay money, why bother?  Just be a full-bore pirate and download the game and use a fake CD-key/ CD-key generator.

And don't pay for the "extra download speed" on those filesharing sites either.  Be a Po' Pirate, Yo'.

EDIT: Ok, I don't work for a game company, so I probably shouldn't speculate on their philosophy, especially the indy developers.  I'm mainly referring to second-hand accounts of EA and the other big game companies, plus Steam's attempts to shut down the second-hand game market.  Oh, and several of the next gen consoles trying to disable the use of used games...that still burns. 
Still, my main argument is just not to pay for CD-keys from anyone but the game company, as the transfer of money doesn't take away all of the "problems" with software copying (the person who's CD-Key you're now using is under NO obligation to stop using that key, so the game is essentially being played on two computers with only one purchaser...assuming only you and not hundreds of people plus you bought that one key).

Well sometime some players want a cheap cd-key only for multiplayer parts, it is still a legit cd-key, sometime sold in bundle or given in bundle for promotion that they later resell while they shouldnt? In any ways, most of the time when asking for a cheap cd-key is to get what other means would not be able to provide. Im seeing these sites like pawn-shops or blackmarkets, some are legit, some are not, some are borderline.

From the moral standpoint, the question is whether the original purchaser can still use the cd-key: If they can, it's considered piracy.  If they can't, then purchasing the cd-key is the same as purchasing a used game (and I'm well aware of several mechanisms under which the original purchaser can't).  I'm not an opponent of either: I'm just calling it what it is.  Most key-selling sites seem more like when a random dude asks if you want to buy something from the back of his van: You might get legit stuff, you might get stolen stuff, or you might get raped.

[Grakelin]

I personally hate that different regions pay different amounts, I know it makes sense from a selling point of view and that's how markets work, but it seems kinda annoying really when it's all digital. This especially when they up the cost massively for places like Australia. I always wonder how much of the cut goes back to developers for these price fluctuations or how much just gets swallowed up in conversion taxes and whatever.

In Australia $10 is like half an hour wage, whereas in somewhere like Indonesia, it's like 15 hours wages. Yet the market in Indonesia is 10 times bigger, so they still have the potential to make lots of money by selling a game at $2. But a $2 game in Australia would get less sales, unless it's on a medium where game prices are low (like Google Play).

You've got every right to be annoyed by it, but that's how it is. From a value perspective, the game might give say... an hour of fun to an Indonesian or Australian, and if they paid the same price, it'd still be unfair to the person whose currency is worth less.

Still, it's nice that Steam and Google Play have been driving down prices for a while now. Software pirates selling pirated games in Malaysian shopping malls were abundant 10 years ago when I was a kid. These days, the price for an original game on Steam is about the same price as buying from a shopping mall pirate.

Is that actually how inexpensively they're selling games in Indonesia? Why isn't there a secondary market where people buy a $2 AAA title in Indonesia and sell it to foreigners for $20? They could make a killing!

[alway]

Sometimes the keys are from more nefarious things. Eg stolen keys from hacked databases on other stores.

As another dev, that's not even the worst thing that can happen.

Another common one is money laundering. Stolen CCs used to buy games from some service, which are then sold to 'trusted resellers' in those markets on the cheap. CCs are then eventually reported as fraud/stolen, then whatever purchases were made are charged back and the keys invalidated. So then you're left with an end user who paid money to someone for a non-functional key. So not only did they get shafted, but they inadvertently supported money laundering in the process. Meanwhile, us developers then get a chargeback. I'm not too familiar with dealing with that sort of thing myself, but it will almost certainly result in us losing time and money, while potentially harming any source of future funding (companies like Paypal will be less likely to allow you access to all your funds, ect). Basically, it's not worth it, and from a developer's point of view, everyone is better off even in the case of outright piracy.

Yes, let me repeat that. Buying keys from shady third parties is worse for developers than pirating their game.

[Shadowlord]

EuchreJack: I take it you've never been kicked off a multiplayer game network or lost a game due to some jerk with a keygen generating your key and using it to take your game from you? If you use a keygen with a multiplayer game, for multiplayer, you're a terrible person.

[rumpel]

I once bought a game on such a site, too. I didn't get my key in the promised ~12 hours, but 1 day later. And it wasn't even a key but given to me as a steam gift.

Actually, I'm thinking about trying out one of those websites again for Distant Worlds because 24€ is a lot better than 45€ but I'm still pretty unsure if I want to take the risk.

[Ochita]

EuchreJack: I take it you've never been kicked off a multiplayer game network or lost a game due to some jerk with a keygen generating your key and using it to take your game from you? If you use a keygen with a multiplayer game, for multiplayer, you're a terrible person.

Oh hey. This has actually happened to me, with a physical copy of Civ 5 which was a gift due to seasonal holidays so yeah. Its a pretty terrible thing honestly. I mean honestly, I wouldn't mind paying like the normal retail price of a game, simply because it means that it doesnt screw some random person somewhere in the world.