PSU: International registration petition.

[AnamanaAU]

http://204.155.67.105/psu_board/viewtopic.php?t=1866

This thread has been going on for a while today. Do your part for the community and let Sonic Team & SEGA know that this is not on. Considering the server is for everyone outside of japan, not JUST Americans.

This is going to give Americans an unfair advantage and waste a lot of importers time & money.

If you have a SEGA Board/PSOBB Board account, they will work with the PSU Board.

[Mikaga]

As mentioned in the thread, another notable presence you can have is by filing a query to the "Contact Us" section of the PSU website (http://phantasystaruniverse.com/support_contact.php).

If you're an importer, you can say so. If you're not then we'd all be immensely appreciative if you helped us out by filing a "letter of concern" anyway. ^.^

Some basic details:

• Correspondance Issue: Combo box. Select either "General Inquiry" or "Billing and Accounts".
• Platform: Select your platform. If a helper, select either PC or PS2 since they're the same problem.
• Game ID: Needs to be non-empty. Possibly just enter "Non Applicable", or if you actually have an ID, use it http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

For the comment itself, it shouldn't really matter so long as you ensure the message is calm, clear and reasonable.

[Nash]

Contected them via the website.

I really hope they listen to us.

[infected]

They won't its not up to the admin that takes care of the community. Its up to Sonic Team and Sega.

[krika]

/signed

[Feelmirath]

Signed it and sent a (rather extensive) form yesterday.

[BrandonBa2]

I'm pretty sure they did this to stop a bunch of countries from signing up at once.

[Kent]

That and, technically, you're not supposed to be importing game hardware/software, in the first place. Fortunately, companies are pretty lax about this, save for the recent Sony v. Lik-Sang case.

[infected]

Why would sega let other regions that they plan a full release, sign up to the US version. Thats not going to be good for the Europe version, resulting in less units sold in that Region when it does come out.

Just wait it out .

[Ryudo]

On 2006-10-25 01:32, Kent wrote:
That and, technically, you're not supposed to be importing game hardware/software, in the first place. Fortunately, companies are pretty lax about this, save for the recent Sony v. Lik-Sang case.



Wrong. That doesnt apply to PC games

PC games have no territory and the game is advertised as having shared US/EU servers, sega are completely in the wrong :/

[Mikaga]

Why would sega let other regions that they plan a full release, sign up to the US version. Thats not going to be good for the Europe version
Except the servers are shared, so basically Europe/Australia/etc are deliberately being handicapped. SO FAIR.

[AnamanaAU]

On 2006-10-25 01:40, infected wrote:
Why would sega let other regions that they plan a full release, sign up to the US version. Thats not going to be good for the Europe version, resulting in less units sold in that Region when it does come out.

Just wait it out .
A lot of us have ALREADY imported, we can't wait it out.

[infected]

Well, Sega is doing it for a reason. I think they are afriad if they release it in US and EURO in the same time.....

CRASH...

then USA and Europe will be http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[Chronosv2]

I've got a few friends from Europe that are stuck in this situation now too, unfortunately.

I understand why Sega did it (buy the US version? The EU version isn't going to get bought), but at the same time, as I'm missing out on some good friends playing online (without SEGA resolving this issue (which I don't see happening until Nov.14) or a workaround), I don't appreciate it.

[Mag_Launcher]

It's like companies actually go out of their way to make sure EU doesn't access to something when it comes out until their own stupidly delayed date. Also LOL Sony's way of dealing with those "nasty" importers.

[infected]

.... Mag, They don't want the servers to crash like they did in Japan.

Can't you just wait?

[daylight129]

You know, when you think about it. It IS only one month.

[Mag_Launcher]

Well, actually, I'm US so this doesn't apply to me, but it would seem that just keeping people away is somewhat of a wasted effort.

And as for the servers, it would be what they get for not having a US PC/PS2 server test, but hopefully they were smart and used some of the knowledge from overseas.

[Nash]

The amount of people this effects is tiny in the scale of things, if the servers are going to crash they would crash it wouldn't be the small amount of importers that did it.

And it may only be a month, but if you could play something now or in a month's time what would you prefer?

[Ogni-XR21]

Anyone who was in the golden days of PSO knows that it might only take a month before everything goes to hell.

And since a lot of importers did so because every PSO in the past had no restriction, this is a first...

[Mikaga]

The "extra people = server crash OHNOES" argument is invalid.

Importers do not materialise their own copies of the game. They purchase an existing copy from America, that could and would have been bought by an American player had we not done so.

So this is no reason to prevent importers from being able to subscribe.

[Cross]

On 2006-10-25 01:43, Ryudo wrote:
Wrong. That doesnt apply to PC games

PC games have no territory and the game is advertised as having shared US/EU servers, sega are completely in the wrong :/



PC games don't have region locking, but that's mostly because they really can't. That doesn't mean that they support importing. It's not in Sega's interest to have people importing the game to different regions, because Sega has different branches distributing the game to different regions, and importing screws up their numbers.

Retarded? Yes. Absolutely hostile to consumers? Yes. But it still makes sense from a business standpoint, and the fact that DVDs have had region encoding for years and years now probably means it's not going to get changed.

You'd have a better chance at having things changed by saying "I'm from the UK living in the US and now I can't play your game because my credit card doesn't work with the version I can buy and I can't buy the version that does." By which I mean to say, I wouldn't hold my breath.


Of course, I completely empathize with European/Australian importers who can't play the game, and I think that saying that region-locking (in any way) is shady is an understatement, but at this point, if you're not in North America, I'd be either looking at getting a NA friend who you can pay to use their credit card or trying to offload your game to somebody else to try recouping your losses by reselling the game or something.

[AnamanaAU]

On 2006-10-25 03:16, Cross wrote:
PC games don't have region locking, but that's mostly because they really can't. That doesn't mean that they support importing. It's not in Sega's interest to have people importing the game to different regions, because Sega has different branches distributing the game to different regions, and importing screws up their numbers.

Retarded? Yes. Absolutely hostile to consumers? Yes. But it still makes sense from a business standpoint, and the fact that DVDs have had region encoding for years and years now probably means it's not going to get changed.

You'd have a better chance at having things changed by saying "I'm from the UK living in the US and now I can't play your game because my credit card doesn't work with the version I can buy and I can't buy the version that does." By which I mean to say, I wouldn't hold my breath.


Of course, I completely empathize with European/Australian importers who can't play the game, and I think that saying that region-locking (in any way) is shady is an understatement, but at this point, if you're not in North America, I'd be either looking at getting a NA friend who you can pay to use their credit card or trying to offload your game to somebody else to try recouping your losses by reselling the game or something.

The Australian branch of SEGA (Ozisoft) did a terrible job of bringing PSO Ep1&2 here. We got around ONE THOUSAND COPIES FOR ALL OF AUSTRALIA. Thats roughly one copy per store. Maybe if we were looked after by our own "Branch" we wouldn't be importing.

Us Australians are sick of being neglected. We miss out on a lot of decent games, yet we got flooded with crappy "Mother Market" games like MARY KATE & ASHLEY. Game availibility should be based on the gamers needs, not on business needs.

[daylight129]

So move to a real country.

(kidding) http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

[BrandonBa2]

On 2006-10-25 03:33, JubeiSaotome wrote:
[quote]On 2006-10-25 03:16, Cross wrote:

Us Australians are sick of being neglected. We miss out on a lot of decent games, yet we got flooded with crappy "Mother Market" games like MARY KATE & ASHLEY. Game availibility should be based on the gamers needs, not on business needs.




But it will never be like that because gaming is just a business nothing more. The company is just in it for money.

[AnamanaAU]

On 2006-10-25 03:37, BrandonBa2 wrote:

On 2006-10-25 03:33, JubeiSaotome wrote:
Us Australians are sick of being neglected. We miss out on a lot of decent games, yet we got flooded with crappy "Mother Market" games like MARY KATE & ASHLEY. Game availibility should be based on the gamers needs, not on business needs.

But it will never be like that because gaming is just a business nothing more. The company is just in it for money.

Without their customers, the gamers, these businesses would be nothing. About time they start thinking of who they're making money off of.

[krika]

Nice, This is the way they threat their true fans.

[BrandonBa2]

They go by sells. Japan/US/Europe/Australia in that order. It's a simple supply and demand. Aus and Europe just does not have the same sells as America or Japan does so they are released before instead of taking another 2 months to make copies for every country at the same time which also could overload the servers.

[Tystys]

The servers could be overloaded at any time. The response for PSU is generally huge in both areas of the world (US/EU), so in a sense, it doesn't really matter if EU gets it later because there is always that one possibility that that new influx of people will overload our dear servers, O_O

EDIT: This doesn't mean that I don't want EU/AU players, I'm just telling Brandon that it doesn't matter who you release it too first, you'll always still have the possibility of overloading the servers

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Tystys on 2006-10-25 04:00 ]</font>

[Mewn]

Already signed that petition and sent in an extensive (and if I may say so, eloquent http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif) form about it to Sega. Will we change anything? Who knows, but let's keep the dream alive anyway for those who can't get round this.

[BrandonBa2]

Having all US and Europe going to billing and acceessing the server = bad bad bad. After the influx of US people play it online and some leave and there is a more stable number of people Sega can asses and add another World if needed.

[Mikaga]

But an importer is no different to the guy who would have bought that particular copy had the importer not done so.

[Guilty-Mirage]

I sincerely doubt it has anything to do with "Europeans crashing the servers", Brandon.

Though I doubt a petition will speed the process along, I do think that repeated actions like this might have an influence in the future on the gaming market as a whole... if more groups of fans from other games do the same thing. As much as it sucks waiting what seems like forever for games to come from Japan to the US (where I live), I can't imagine how it is elsewhere.

On the other hand, because of the nature of content updates, EU won't really be far behind if you think about the fact that as more updates come out, people starting then will have it "easier" when it comes to catching up. It's not like people will be starting at square one, per se... since drops and the like will probably be easier to come by when it's released.

Still, sucks though. See you all soon, either way!



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Guilty-Mirage on 2006-10-25 04:40 ]</font>

[Mikaga]

On the other hand, because of the nature of content updates, EU won't really be far behind if you think about the fact that as more updates come out
Another one who doesn't know how this is all working.

EU won't be behind the US on content. Because we share the same servers. The only effect of blocking payments from EU, AU, etc. is to artificially give all US players a one month headstart on levelling, and exclusivity to the Halloween event.

[Guilty-Mirage]

You misunderstood the point of what I was expressing.

Also, the fact that you'll miss out on a month is a "duh", as I'm aware of that and said so in my post. However, I sincerely doubt they did it to "artificially" give US players some kind of... perk. That just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It could be a distribution issue. It could be a production issue. No one knows. But I doubt it's somehow done to slight EU gamers on purpose. If that's not what you're saying (and I doubt it is, unless you're suggesting a conspiracy), then all you can do is let them know your feelings... then sit back and wait a month.

Aside from the fact that you have to wait a month for the game, though, it doesn't exactly hurt you. It's not like this is a PvP game and higher level Americans are going to slaughter European players with twelve star weapons as soon as you log on and ruin your gaming experience.

Levelling up in PSU isn't some kind of race between the continents, after all.

[kassy]

Hypothetically, consider if the roles were reversed….

The EU game is released a month before the NA version.
Although EU and NA users will share the exact same servers, Sega decide to block NA importers from signing up for a GL.
When the game is finally released a month later NA users must pay up to $3.10 more a month than EU users, a full 3 months more a year than EU users for the exact same internet based product/service.
This is the current situation for EU users.

Can you imagine how disappointed NA users would feel had the roles been reversed? How disappointed NA users would be that Sega had said nothing at all about this prior to the shipping date.

[Mikaga]

It could be a distribution issue. It could be a production issue.
Neither of which have anything in the slightest to do with billing.

This has come about because while they are using the same systems as Blue Burst, they've disabled most non-United States regions from the "subscribe" ability. If they enabled that, things would be okay.

[Guilty-Mirage]

The price difference issue is one that I (and I don't think anyone here) is really entitled to evaluate, though it could just as easily be from the laws being passed in some European countries regarding extra taxes toward online services. But like I said, I don't know, and lumping all EU countries together like each of them have the same situation would be genuinely silly of me.

So, all I can say about the price difference situation is... "I don't know what's up with that, but I'm going to assume they have some kind of valid reason for doing it... even if it obviously sucks." Then again, I'm used to that kind of thing. Sometimes JP games and other things that come over to the states subscription-wise cost more in translated USD than it would in yen, so I can emphathize at least. I've never figured it out.

If I understand you correctly, though, I will say that it seems a bit odd that they waited until shipping time to reveal the delay and the pricing changes, although that also suggests a last minute decision by Sega instead of something they've been planning. Hopefully they'll explain the reasons for it soon.

I'll be happy to play with you all when you do get online, though. The guild I had the longest and had the most fun with in EverQuest had quite a few European gamers.

And Mikaga, I do know that online services are treated very differently from one nation to the next. The billing issue might certainly be a result of that, though it'd seem to me that they'd assign seperate billing changes from nation to nation (similar to how you'll often see commercials in the US advertise that extra tax is required from certain states for certain services.) But maybe this only came up recently, and at crunch time they just decided to settled it all with a universal EU price adjustment.

All you can really do is write them an email and ask for a response as to why it happened, which by the sound of things, you may have already.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Guilty-Mirage on 2006-10-25 05:33 ]</font>

[Diablohead]

I'm sure they could open EU billing if they wanted, 360 has the upper hand here, In a way its like they want importers to buy their 360 port...

I would feel much better about this if a sega rep or someone said something instead of hiding behind, well, nothing.

[Neith]

Signed it, and detailed where I feel the problem lies.

It's totally out of order that the US gets a month on us Europeans, but it's always been the same. Europe never has, and never will be as important as Japan or America to gaming companies, it's totally unfair.

[Feelmirath]

On 2006-10-25 04:47, Mikaga wrote:
Another one who doesn't know how this is all working.

EU won't be behind the US on content. Because we share the same servers. The only effect of blocking payments from EU, AU, etc. is to artificially give all US players a one month headstart on levelling, and exclusivity to the Halloween event.

Can't agree with you on the first point, I'm afraid. The level cap seemed to have been hit by a lot of people within the first couple of weeks over on the Japan servers.

You're right about the Halloween event, though. I had to ask someone to save me a pumpkin rod http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_disapprove.gif

[drakkula]

hum......if i could reach lvl 50 within a month that would be awesome, i mean after the second month i believe there will be an update allowing players to reach lvl60 so we would have time to catch up with american players

[AnamanaAU]

On 2006-10-25 06:40, drakkula wrote:
hum......if i could reach lvl 50 within a month that would be awesome, i mean after the second month i believe there will be an update allowing players to reach lvl60 so we would have time to catch up with american players

It's not really the catching up I'm worried about, it's the fact that they've locked out half the world.

[SpishackCola]

Seems to be a new trend. Sorry my European friends http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[Iduno]

On 2006-10-25 05:02, kassy wrote:
Hypothetically, consider if the roles were reversed….

The EU game is released a month before the NA version.
Although EU and NA users will share the exact same servers, Sega decide to block NA importers from signing up for a GL.
When the game is finally released a month later NA users must pay up to $3.10 more a month than EU users, a full 3 months more a year than EU users for the exact same internet based product/service.
This is the current situation for EU users.

Can you imagine how disappointed NA users would feel had the roles been reversed? How disappointed NA users would be that Sega had said nothing at all about this prior to the shipping date.



Its just life lol us europeon gamers get screwed over all the time lol not fair but thats how we get treated with more expensive games later http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif
(and some games never even reach our shores http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif Had to import curstom robo for the gamecube and bleach ds)

[Killuminati]

I do agree americans do get an unfair advantage by starting a month before you guys considering we all are going to be on the same servers. Sucks for you guys but I think this petion is hopeless it's only a month wait afterall.

[Slashkun]

/signed

trully unfair on us importers, why do the americans get all the glory SEGA?

man i though you were cool....

[Slashkun]

/signed

trully unfair on us importers, why do the americans get all the glory SEGA?

man i though you were cool....

[qoxolg]

errr.. the only reason EU gets it later is bacause SOME countries don't learn the kids enough english... and SEGA don't want negative publicity because some people buy a game that they don't understand.

Prices in EU and US are almost the same.. US prices are ALWAYS without taxes, because every state got it's own tax-stuff. Here in the Netherlands we pay 19% over most products (except food and stuff is 6%).

[AnamanaAU]

Apparently non AVS countries can subscribe with their CCs.

[Yoiyami]

I'm seeing people complain about the US having a headstart but... The last I checked, PSU wasn't a PvP oriented game nor is it a competition, so how will the EU players be at a disadvantage? The only way for that to happen is if something were at stake... Yes, you'll be behind but everyone will still have SOMEONE to play and run missions with. I'm sorry the importers wasted money, though. That really stinks, Sega could've said that they'd be rejecting international credit cards ahead of time. -__-;

[Mikaga]

Online service-based subscriptions are not often given taxes, it's worth noting.

It doesn't seem to have been mentioned in this thread, but a lot of the importes can already subscribe without much hassle. Here's the how:

1) Sign up a new PlaySEGA account using the region "United States" or get your existing account changed (see the website's FAQ).

2) Now you can choose to start a PSU Network Mode subscription. For your address, use a generic address with (presumably) a working zip code.

3) Use your card details as normal.

This works for most places. But some regions and/or cards (read: pretty much the UK) use an authentication system known as AVS, or Address Verification System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_Verification_System). This checks your entries for Step 2 and 3 above and if things don't match, refuses to accept the subscription.

Judging by the way that works (by the numbers), it might be possible to tweak your details in step 2 so it passes the AVS check. I plan to wait a day or two extra before trying.

[AnamanaAU]

I dunno dodging AVS seems really iffy.

[-Shimarisu-]

On 2006-10-25 17:23, Yoiyami wrote:
I'm seeing people complain about the US having a headstart but... The last I checked, PSU wasn't a PvP oriented game nor is it a competition, so how will the EU players be at a disadvantage?


Trade markets.

Oh trust me. They'll be at a disadvantage. I've seen jp players make millions of meseta knowing what they were doing early on, and they really have got a stranglehold on the markets. Only US players will have the opportunity to do similar.

[Phenril]

hi, i'm about to import the game, but i have a nice little problem, i'm from latin america (Argentina), and as far as i read it only accept us credit cards, so here goes, does any one knows if there's another way to play it online, or if it ACTUALLY accept international cards?

sorry if i look like a newb, but i truly want to import the game, eventually, not before to be sure that i'll be able to play it online, thanks!.

[JaiBlue]

On 2006-10-25 05:02, kassy wrote:
Hypothetically, consider if the roles were reversed….

The EU game is released a month before the NA version.
Although EU and NA users will share the exact same servers, Sega decide to block NA importers from signing up for a GL.
When the game is finally released a month later NA users must pay up to $3.10 more a month than EU users, a full 3 months more a year than EU users for the exact same internet based product/service.
This is the current situation for EU users.

Can you imagine how disappointed NA users would feel had the roles been reversed? How disappointed NA users would be that Sega had said nothing at all about this prior to the shipping date.



Wow, god forbid if I can't afford the extra $3.10. >_>