Witopia and Steam

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sidefx

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#100598 14-Apr-2012 08:05

Has anybody used Witopia and Steam lately? Doesn't seem to work for me any more (I've personally never used them together, but see reports that it should work) - it just gives me an error when trying to pay for anything. :(

(What is it with companies that think 90USD is a fair price for kiwis for a game that's 50USD is the US\EU... exact same product and I'm paying for the bandwidth to DL it so WTH?)

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sidefx

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#609334 14-Apr-2012 16:49

Apologies for replying to myself, but how about Astrill; has anybody used them with steam recently?

And would it be at all likely that upgrading to the witopia plan with openVPN would give better results?

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
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Ragnor

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#609467 15-Apr-2012 03:07

I'd advise you only run traffic though the vpn for things that need to be vpn'd for (regional) access like Hulu, Netflix etc and just have Steam use your normal internet connection.

You're adding a lot of latency to everything if you're going via the vpn for everything,

Usually the vpn providers app will give you some facility to choose what applications use the vpn.

sidefx

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#609603 15-Apr-2012 15:22

Ragnor: I'd advise you only run traffic though the vpn for things that need to be vpn'd for (regional) access like Hulu, Netflix etc and just have Steam use your normal internet connection.

You're adding a lot of latency to everything if you're going via the vpn for everything,

Usually the vpn providers app will give you some facility to choose what applications use the vpn.

I'm not using vpn for everything, just an attempt to pay a reasonable price for an item that in most places (US\UK\EU) seems to be around 50USD (30GBP, 40 EURO, etc) - I would happily pay a little extra, but 90USD just because I live in NZ\AU seems excessive (80% markup...?)

So I'm not running all steam traffic through VPN - just created a new account over VPN, then attempted to purchase and gift to myself... which I had heard worked. But perhaps not any more.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

Ragnor

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#609776 16-Apr-2012 01:24

Ah ye olde regional pricing, hate that crap too..

I assume you were using the Steam client via VPN, try using the website to make the gift purchase
http://store.steampowered.com/

If that doesn't work I'd assume their system is smart enough to know when you are using a NZ credit card number regardless of your connection via VPN appearing to be from the US etc.

So you'd need a US based way to pay.

sidefx

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#610012 16-Apr-2012 13:43

hmm, I hope I'm not violating FUG here (I actually want to pay for it just not the crazy inflated price they're trying to charge NZers... can't help but think it would be easier to download it from another site free...) but here is what I tried:

Los Angelees VPN through steam client with NZ credit card (a card that works on google music though...)
London VPN though website with NZ credit card
London VPN through website with UK credit card

the 3rd one not working was a surprise, though admittedly since coming back to NZ from the UK I changed my billing address to NZ address... so I guess I need a current card with current billing address in US or UK to use. I suppose I could get a friend in UK to gift to me, but TBH I think I'll just find something else without regional pricing to buy! :)

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

Ragnor

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#610416 17-Apr-2012 11:14

What game is it? Some games you can just buy from other online stores and activate the key in Steam to add it.

Otherwise yeah get a mate overseas to gift it to you.

sidefx

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#610910 18-Apr-2012 00:40

Civilization V: GOTY... the really funny thing is that if you get the Civ V Demo for it as I did, then on the news page it shows each time you select it in your steam library the first item is an announcement for the GOTY saying that is priced at $49.99 - which is made me think WTF is going on, why does it show me 89.99USD...

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Ragnor

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#611221 18-Apr-2012 15:43

Yeah that's crap $40 USD more for the same game, delivered digtally it's complete BS. I got a mate to gift it to me.

In hindsight I wouldn't bother, I don't like the changes.. I live Civ IV better, still doing play by email with some mates overseas.