I ripped this from another blog because it is an important topic that needs to be publicized I am not the author and unfortunately I am unable to find the URL, if anyone knows the URL of the blog in question please comment!__________________________________________________________________________________
As an avid video game player in this country, you can suffer quite a bit.
I'm trying to compile a list of games and companies to avoid in future due to their ignorance of us as South Africans.
For example:
Left For Dead (Published by Valve)
(the first one at least). If you purchased a PC version of the game, all that came on the disc you paid good money for, was the 'Steam' installer, which then forced you download the entire game via steam, which is about 3/4 gigs big.
Downloading that amount of data in a country in which bandwidth is freely available, instead of rationed out and as expensive as UN food aid on the black market, might not be a problem but it certainly is a problem here.
For all intents and purposes, it's unplayable in South Africa. I still have my copy on my shelf, completely useless.
Bioshock 2 (Published by 2K Games)
If you purchased the PC copy of this game, it forces you to register before you can play it. The server, obviously picks up your IP address and once it registers that you live in South Africa, you get one of these wonderful messages:
"You region is not supported."
There are work-arounds on this, which, as usual if you're a South African gamer, you're aware of: lie, lie and lie some more so you can actually get what you paid for but apparently none of these work and all involve creating several new Window's Life Identities and Gamer Tags.
How can a company sell a game in a country in which it can't be played? They might be making money off us but they're morally bankrupt in my opinion.
Apparently this is an issue with many 2K Games but I can't confirm it.
Assasin's Creed 2 (Published by Ubisoft)
This isn't a uniquely South African issue but it'll certainly affect us the most. Ubisoft's new DRM (Digital Rights Management) system is complete and utter madness.
In essence, if your computer goes offline AT ANY POINT while you're playing this game on your PC, it'll return you to the menu, you will lose any unsaved progress and you won't be able to play the game again until you're back online.
Going offline occasionally happens in the best of countries but it's not exactly an 'occasional' issue here.
This new buffoonery from Ubisoft (and this is confirmed by them) will apply to all their upcoming titles including:
Splinter Cell, Silent Hunter 5, Prince of Persia and the newly announced Ghost Recon.
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Please, send me other examples of game publishers and games which have decided that they'll take our money but wont give us anything in return, as I'll be approaching them directly for comment on behalf of all of us.
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