What do I do if I am a new user that is currently traveling?

You might encounter region lock, if yo do that, but that differs from game to game.

AquilaSPQR wrote:

I can only hope the devs won't go the "paradox style" with DLCs.

This is my concern.  The amount of DLCs that Paradox releases for their games is absurd, and they tend to gouge you on the DLC prices while making the base game cheap.  Hopefully that won't be the case with Humankind.

If Amplitude tries to copy Civ's DLC strategy or at least fall in line with Sega's Total War DLC strategy, then based on historical releases for those series we can probably expect the total price of the Humankind DLCs to be around 2x the price of the base game.  I believe that the total DLC prices for Endless Legend and Endless Space 2 are slightly less than 2x the launch price for the base game (though may be misremembering the launch prices) so there is a chance that the Humankind DLCs won't be too costly.  However, the fact that Humankind's launch price is so high makes me wonder if the DLCs for Humankind are also going to be more expensive than the Endless Space 2/Legend DLCs.  I guess time will tell.

Foliacea wrote:

Sublustris wrote:

Actually, it's CK3 that follows suggested Steam pricing the closest, spare of Euro price. But their base price for Royal Edition is in different price category, 25% more expensive US base price ($75).

I was not going to buy CK3 as I already spent hundreds and hundreds of Euros on CK2 and I am kind of tired of being robbed. When they finally get CK2 complete, CK3 is coming out. But looking into the price difference that you posted it really blew my mind.

Price difference is just too much in regards to Hong Kong, China, etc.. But looking at the difference between USD and EUR is even more nerve wracking. It makes absolutely no sense. And it is not just STEAM. Humble bundle with their new regional pricing is the same nonsense. USD1 suddenly becomes EUR1 as if the currencies had the same value...

I travel to Brazil a lot. Does anyone know if I buy from my Steam account in Brazil if I can play it in Europe? Or if I create a new account in Brazil if I can play those games with that account in Europe? Has that been tried by anyone?

Unfortunately I have only tried my Steam account in several other EU countries.

Cheers

I can't see why You shouldn't be able too.

However another way would be to then simply make a Brazilian account and then buy something as gift to Your main account while You are still in Brazil. Anyone can buy a game and chose to make that a gift for someone else account as they check out the purchase (it's an option on steam). So I guess people could go around price difference that way. I'm not saying You should. Nor would I recommend it. Way too risky and possiblities to get scammed. I'm just saying that hypothetically it might be possible. Like have a friend from a country where it's cheaper. They buy it using their account, but as a gift for Your account and then You transfer them then money/price they paid. If You know and trust each other enough to do it that way. I would not trust someone I only know from Internet to do that. It would have to be someone I know irl that happens lives in another country. Personally I would not bother and just pay the price that is listed for my country. Feels like too much of a hassle, too risky and way to much work to just to buy a game, but each to ones own of course.

With the way You suggested You have to remember that it could also be that the CC You pay with might need to be issued by a Brzilian bank to someone living in Brazil on a Brazilian address for it to work. It's not always enough to have like a VPN and an account created in one country if let's say then use Your CC and address for You on that CC is still issued by a German (or whatever other country) bank and Your address is in Germany. You might still have to pay it in Euro then even if You create Your steam account in Brazil. I'm not sure exactly how Steam determines what country Your steam account is from, or Your purchases is being made from, but a VPN, or even creating an account when in Brazil might not be enough to keep buying things as if You were from Brazil, if Steam also looks at where Your CC was issued and to whom in what country. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I have no idea.

Not to mention that when we talk about VPN's, alot of IP Adresses that well known VPN's services use, are often blocked, or flagged as a proxy connection, by various sites like Netflix and others (maybe by steam too, not sure ???). Big sites quickly learn which IP ranges various VPN's services use and simply add them to block lists (or their servers hosts does). Often as many scams, phising attempts and malicious actions are used from people using those VPN services to try to hide their tracks. Like most of Nortons VPN IP adresses in US and UK are blocked by Netflix. A while back I could accces Netflix in US even from Europe using Norton VPN, not possible anymore for me. However some IP adresss that Norton uses like in Japan etc still works, but no real point to acccess Netflix Japan really, as Netflix Japan has even less movies and series than Netflix Europe do. It's possible that if I got another VPN service, like "ExpressVPN", "Surfshark", "Private Internet Access", "NordVPN" etc, their IP adresses could still be able to access Netflix US, but it probably will not take long until those IP adresses are eventually blocked too if many people use them frequently to access Netflix.

Netflix US have alot of Movies and series Netflix Europe do not have. I really miss being able to access that.

I also tried using a Norton VPN's UK IP addresses to access the UK State controlled public service TV web-site a.k.a. BBC/British Broadcasting Corporation, as they have Dr Who etc (and no streaming services have them here, so I can't watch them), but BBC also blocks the IP address from Nortons VPN service. BBC simply detects that You are surfing via a proxy server and blocks it. Don't forget that VPN services are basically glorified easy to use proxy servers. You even get a message telling You that You are trying to access their site via a proxy as You try, that it's not allowed and You must access them without going via an extra proxy server. That's to prevent anyone outside UK to watch their shows. Again maybe some other VPN servives IP ranges are not blocked by BBC yet, but I don't know which ones that would be.

So sometimes it's as easy as using a VPN to fool a site into thinking You are from any country. Other times it's not as easy. No idea what systems Steam has in place to prevent that ???

Sublustris wrote:

I see Lord_Funk has habit of writing long sheets of texts with little meaning, as his long post can be condensed into

Lord_Funk wrote:
Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I have no idea.

Ok I'll bite the bait. The easy choice would have been to just ignore Your reply.

Such a shame that You constantly seem to feel the need to snap at others and belittle others. Apart from that in Your posts they could be very interesting and informative. However that attitude is very off putting, at least to me and as I can see in earlier replise off putting to some others as well. If that is the way You feel You have a need to come across then that is Your choice of course. I'll keep doing me if You don't mind. I'll stick to my style of writing.

As for how I post or what I claim to know or not. I am human and I'm not perfect. Unlike "some" people online I have no need to pretend to be some self-proclaimed know-it-all internet expert on every subject. Way too many Condescending "experts" on internet. If they are all that knowledgable one can only wonder how come they are not busy being experts irl ??? They would probably be sought after and make a fortune if they truly are as clever and as much of experts as they claim they are, but instead can find the time to sit and type in various forums and YouTube comments, obviosuly having the need to "prove" something to feel better about themselves by being condescending to others. Do I like to discuss topics I find interesting. Yes. However that does not make me think I'm an expert on every topic. I often discuss to hopefully learn new things. Write something, add what I know and explain that and maybe discover that I was either right, only half right/half wrong or completely wrong and instead learn something new or better. Improve my knowledge.

Personally I have no issues saying when I'm not 100%. I don't always have the time or energy to do extensive searches on every single topic and just add the parts I know, or thoughts on how it could be. Then learn something from others replies. Especially when the replies seems well thought through and presented in a mature and polite manner. Sometimes I do search, sometimes I do know (or think I do), but there is always a chance I could be wrong even then. Even if I can feel I'm 99% sure about something, I know that since we are on internet there as so many various laws and regulations in different countries that what be a fact where I live might be different somewhere else. I  also keep an open minde and to realize that no matter how much I think I know and no matter how certain I feel, I could have missed some facts that would have altered my opinion or make what I think I know not to be 100% true in every scenario. That does not mean I can not share my thoughts around a subject or various opinions with the addition "as far as I know" or "I might be wrong of course". I simply don't feel the need to claim my view is the only correct way and everyone else not agreeing is inferior. Insult others for not agreeing, or just because I happen to know something they don't. I'm not some know-it-all superior being. You chose to highlight  "I have no idea". That's how You see it. A weakness. Something to latch on to, even "quote" and use as a weapon to belittle someone. I was brought up to see it as a strength, necessary to evolve, open to taking in new ideas and learn new things. That it's simply called being "open-minded" and "humble" in a discussion.

I even think it was my father (who sadly is no longer with us) who taught me a quote supposedly from one of the ancient Greek Philosophers that went something like "The more I know, the more I realize I know nothing", or something to that effect anyway. Who acctually said it, if it's translation has changed some over time, or it's exact original wording is not the important thing to me. It could have been made up fairly recently in the 1900's (as that is when my father introduced me to it) for all I care, as it is still a good saying or quote. It's the self-insight, or self awareness it provides and awakes, or the humilty it teaches that I personally find interesting and important. 

Same with advices. To point out that an advice is only an advice coming from ones own opinions and knowledge and not some ultimate truth. That in the end the one reading the advice has to make up their own mind and take their own responsibility if chose to follow that advice. Like a disclaimer kind of, or caution. That is especially important if giving technical advice. Even most Tech YouTubers for example do that. Even when they say that they still they often end up being flamed when some advice they gave did not work on some persons set-up. A Tech advice that works on one specific system and set-up might not work on another. Due to millions of variations in hardware and software etc.

Also, for most English is not their native language. It's definetly not mine. It's not always easy to be clear in what You try to explain, especially hard in a foreign langauge. It's hard to grasp all the nuannces and that some words might be more "charged" to others being native in that language. Trigger a negative reaction not intended or misunderstanding. It's why I rather write extra and longer (sometimes repating myself) and try to make it as clear as possible to try to avoid such things. That's my choice. No one is of course forced to read it. Others prefer to write shorter, sometimes ending up in misunderstandings and replies back and forth and in the end have written just as mcuh as I do, just in a ton of shorter comments.

As I said, online it's also very easy to be misunderstood or misread. Taken out of context etc. Hence it's even more important to put an emphasis on that some opinion or fact is only to ones own best knowledge. Not to be taken as gospel or the ultimate truth. Again what I would call humility and knowing that one is not superior to anyone else.

Here is a search link to the meaning of: humble in case You need to look it up. Another link for open-minded.

See what I did there ??? A very childish act. Resorting to cheap condescending sarcasm. I just did it to demonstrate that it's very predictable and easy to resort to being sarcastic on internet. Anyone can do it. Personally I think it's just childish and not very original and it doesn't make the person doing it look any smarter. At least not to any mature person. What's next ??? Start belittle each other for typos to show our own superiority ??? Naaa, now if we can set aside the personal need of any "pride" or "ego", any need for a peeing contest and bragging rights as to who is the smarterst and knows the most and continue in a polite manner that would be more productive. 

At first Your whole tone or attitude acctually made me simply want to ignore Your reply, ignore the bait, but then I thought to myself that would also only be childish and small-minded of me and instead decided to reply and hope we can move on. I would be happy to simply have a normal conversation with You and appreciate any insight You might share.  

Sublustris wrote:

How Steam determines country and what can you do about it is explained in the article I linked previously (Steam Store Country).

Very interesting information. I had missed that link in Your replies. It was in the section of a reply to someone else. I even included that link in a quote, but my reply was aimed at the other person and I did not look closely at the part that was Your reply to them. My bad.

Sublustris wrote:
Because some games with Steam DRM component might have regional lock. It is often placed in "cheap" regions, like Brazil. Otherwise, you are only limited by Store Country local payment options for that account, i.e. you can continue to make new purchases only with said options, but should be free to play your existing library. 

Ok, so that is hwo Steam handles that. Good to know.

Lord_Funk wrote:
However another way would be to then simply make a Brazilian account and then buy something as gift to Your main account while You are still in Brazil.

Sublustris wrote:
And that whould not work either, because you can't send cross-region gifts to regions with more then +10% price difference. 

Interesting. After I had written my reply I acctually had a thought pop up in my head as how they handle that compared to physical goods and VAT. Like I was thinking to myself, if a friend in USA buys me a physical gift and send that to me, I would still end up having to pay my countrys VAT once it arrives here at the customs, which should be based off the value of the gift. I was curious as to how steam and others would solve that with digital goods. As it would be hard for each country to keep track of that and they would miss out on alot of VAT.

At the same time people in our country have been upset as if a friend does buy a physical gift and send that, they already paid VAT in their own country as they purchased the item and then we have to pay VAT once again resulting in double VAT and alot higher prices. That the VAT in the other country should be deducted from the VAT in our country and we should only need to pay the difference, well in some peoples opinions anyway. At one point they even talked about removing VAT for packages sent as "gifts", but as it's hard for them to know if a package is a purchase or a gift people could be abusing that. Smply label all packages as "gifts" to not have to pay anything ever. Not sure if it's been decided yet how they handle that.

A few years ago I bought a shirt from a site for myself and a cap for my son from a site located in US and that ended up costing almost twice as much as the price listed (even if that price read as vat included). The customs here withheld the package until I paid their VAT as well. What's even worse is, since the site sent them as 2 packages and not put them in one package, I ended up paying twice the amount of VAT as one package would have cost. As they didn't even bother to appraise the value of each package I paid the same tax (the customs instead labeled it as fee) for both packages even if the cap was alot cheaper than the shirt. They didn't even care to want to see any receipt and just said I have to pay the amount or they would whithhold the package. Last time I ever ordered from there. Just not worth it.

I know that there have been discussions in our country in the past as to how various regulations, taxes like VAT and such has a hard time keeping up with the digital age and online purchases. Sometimes ending up mking things too exepensive and ending up paying dopuble VAT. Other times getting away with paying no taxes at all. Like people selling game accounts via Amazon (or other such site, we have a few national sites like that as well) and then never pay any taxes. Some having put that into system. Bulding up for example WoW accounts with high level characters and then sell them. It was even on the news a while back that the tax government in our country had started cracking down on that. If they see a bank statements of some money arriving from Amazon or any such site and it's like a one time thing, they won't care much, but if they start seeing it regularly they would start seeing it as an income and a way of making a living. The person would have to set up like a business and start paying taxes and such.

Then in our country we have no limit to the amount that can be given as a "gift", as well as not any taxes on "gifts". Maybe not on topic but kind of related it's the same with taxes on inheritances here. That was removed some time back. We used to have taxes on all that, as well as limits on how much one could give or recieve as "gifts" in one year, but no more. While some other countries still have limits on that, as well as a very high tax on such things. Also that a gift from a relative that You could inherit in the future, should be seen as an advance pay out of that inheritance. That has resulted in many disputes over such things when married to a person from another country as to which of the spouses countries rules and regulations should apply. The country where they now live, or the country each spouse is originally from ??? The country they own property in ??? Then what if they have sddresses in two countrties and move around alot etc ??? Very complex. If not careful You could end up losing over half of Your inheritance. I think for example France has a very complicated inheritance system as well as a high inheritance tax. 

Yes that was a bit off topic but related to "gifts", taxes and such.

I'll gladly admit to not knowing every quirk or every fact about it, or every kind of taxes, potential loopholes and such, barely scraping the surface, but I still find it an interesting topic and try to read up on it once in a while, as well as if I find some info in posts others makes in forums like this on how it works where they live.

Like I said I appreciate the facts You supply. You're probably not a bad person. If only You could do it without the snarky attitude it would be really great. I'd see that as a win win for us both. At the end of the day that is Your choice of course. I'm almost expecting some sarcastic snarky reply like "wall of text", "go write a book" or the very predictable and unoriginal reply "TL;DR ", or whatever generic condescending reply some can come up with online these days. Being snarky, condescending and sarcastic seems to have almost become the norm online these days that some people resort to, but I hope I'm wrong. It would definetly make me more happy to be wrong in that than proven right. No hard feelings from me if we simply move past this and stop making every post being some kind of personal attack to try to pick some cheap points.

It doesn't matter how big it is, as long as it's in a niche genre from not so well known developer/series. So far sales in my country look horrible

Sublustris wrote:

It doesn't matter how big it is, as long as it's in a niche genre from not so well known developer/series. So far sales in my country look horrible

So basically you're arguing that it would make more sense for Amplitude to go for a lower price in your country in order to earn more money? If that's the point you're making I think there are two different argumentations mixed in this thread.

Yes, I believe so. You can combine both arguments into one: price probably shouldn't be well above median price for popular AAA releases in this region. Some regions might match it, but most don't and go far above.

kryton24 wrote:

Why are some people bringing up the current price of a brand new game to a game that released multi-year's ago, exact age pending what DLC you consider important if any. Does this seem fair or add to the general discussion as to the value of a game and what it is priced regionally when basing it off this un-even metric?

Shouldn't everyone in a discussion like this be basing it off of current new games vs Humankind to have a reasonable discussion on pricing / regional pricing? If the goal is to not attempt to have a conversation about this topic but to instead just troll or commence fisticuffs with people over here... strange things people do on their own time I suppose.

CK3 vs Humankind pricing is the only relevent pricing discussion anyone has mentioned that I can see so far on this topic..... because disputing Civilization series and many of these photos of much older games (let alone many that aren't even in the same genre or length of replayability) is questionable.

Yes, definitely. For example, here in Argentina is also quite pricey compared even to other AAA releases. For example, it's ARS$ 2.406,17 with the discount (ARS$ 2.899,00 full), while Cyberpunk 2077 is being sold at ARS$ 2.199,00. Crusader's King III Royal Edition here is going for ARS$ 799,99 (4 times less).

Personally, I wouldn't go as low as CKIII, but going higher in price than Cyberpunk 2077 (or many other AAA releases that use that pricepoint) is definitely not good in terms of buying appeal, as those games are seen as the "expensive full price" reference. Heck, I'm tempted to buy CKIII right now jajajaja

Lol whoa, no idea why they would be charging Humankind over Cyberpunk. I'd say that one is relevent regardless of it not being in the same genre to speak on since it's also coming out soon (presumably lol?) and it's a major hyped up game. Ultra mega chicken hyped. I have a hard time believing whoever is in charge of setting up regional pricings on Humankind within the company (whoever that even is if it's publisher or dev or ????) knows 100% what they are doing (lack of research) or perhaps fudged up some numbers when you see something like what you just pointed out in your country.

Foliacea wrote:

I travel to Brazil a lot. Does anyone know if I buy from my Steam account in Brazil if I can play it in Europe? Or if I create a new account in Brazil if I can play those games with that account in Europe? Has that been tried by anyone?

Unfortunately I have only tried my Steam account in several other EU countries.

Cheers

This practice, while arguably rampant, technically violates steam's end-user license agreement, ditto for the gifting from another account. Steam will never disable your account, they may however restrict its ability to purchase new products to the account or gift, although I've never actually met anyone who had this happen to them. I'd say do it if it works. Once the game is activated on your account it will work from any region.

And about Cyberpunk, it would be wise to remember that CDRed is, already, THE most successful single-player game developer, they have a lot of resources at their disposal, on top of which they aren't your typical corporate greed-bots, its hardly fair to make a comparison. Most other AAA games this year are priced roughly 33% higher and are sorely lacking in playtime. Humankind development looks very expensive and if you can't afford it full price you can always wait for sale. It is a bit cheaper than CP even off sale.

Personally I do think it is expensive, but I also think saying its overpriced is doing Amplitude a disservice, especially at launch. I haven't got a decent salary in a while thanks to corona so I will be holding off on purchasing it.

And also, guys, CALM DOWN! The game isn't releasing for another SIX MONTHS. If you want to support its development by all means do so! No one is forcing you to buy it RIGHT NOW!