First off, love the game. Really enjoying it, as its definately the sort of game i love to play. So much so in fact, that i went out of my way to look into how to give you guys some cash. Afterall, i’ve bought some really crap games in the past, and given over my hard earned cash for them. So, why not do the same to support a game i really enjoy?
That being said, upon investigation, i’m finding some significantly different prices. The first place i visited, quite logically, was www.star-conflict.com. Out of the various prices, i thought $37.5 was the best representation of the sort of price i’d generally pay for a game. So, clicking the link, it takes me through to www.online.gaijinent.com. (Who are these guys, i think?) Only now the price is 37.47 EUROS. So in a single click the price has gone up to $48.81. Confusing? This isn’t even taking into account that i’ve mostly got Swiss Franc’s, as well as pounds sterling. Is it just that i’m located in the EU, and you guys looking to make the best amount of cash out of currency conversions?
So i thought i’d get some insight in the forums of the company that seems to hold the purse strings. I’ve previously had some bad experiences with free-to-play games that are run via companies, the main one being perfect world entertainment, who couldn’t give a **** about customer service. So, i thought i’d play it safe first, and see what i hear from the people who know.
I’ll be holding my breath for a responce. :sad:
Got the same issue here.
I wanted to give them a few bucks for this game i am enjoying right now,
but if you do the “1$ = 1€”-Thing, i must refuse to give you any money,
thats like a slap in the face for everyone who is able to count.
We, sir, are not dumb, so please don’t teat us like we were.
Offer us a real conversion for currencies and here you’ll get money.
Maybe the Devs won’t read the Offtopic-Section.
They hardly read the other Forums, so i guess we’re waiting in vain.
But so do they for our money… reminds me a bit of my time with The War Z.
Took them a while to get that they should really listen to the users, at least in those matters.
Yeah, the $ = € thing is highly discriminating, insulting and just plain unfair. Just because I am located at some other point on this big sphere called Earth, I have to pay more money for the same virtual product that is essentially nothing more than a stored number in a game account. Proposterous.
Even more so because I have Paypal and Credit Card and am fully capable of paying for goods in US dollar, and I am not required to pay tax on such small purchases either.
In Hawken they also have the $=€ thing for their packages, but at least you get more gold currency there to offset the “conversion”, so you end up with the same amount of gold-per-dollar as a US resident.
Yeah I get it, EU commerce laws and VAT etc, but with €=$, you -still- end up paying more than $+21%.
Its double annoying since the devs are from russia. Im holding out on my purchashe untill they do something about this.
You can probably get around it with a US proxy*. These payment things are not usually very smart.
It really does unfairly charge people. I am not required to pay tax on small digital purchases like this, especially not when I am buying outside the EU. The only reason we EU members get the shaft is because of the EU payment provider charging tax to Gaijin, which Gaijin compensates for with a higher price.
Technically I would have to pay import tax, but that’s only on real goods, not electronic services, and even then, something like $99 is below the amount the tax authority and customs care about. I’ve succesfully bought a graphics card from the US before, etc. Paypal and Credit card transactions don’t care about where the money comes from or goes to.
So yeah, the €=$ thing is probably part laziness, part not understanding EU commerce laws, and part VAT because the EU payment provider charges this to Gaijin.
I do not believe it is illegal** to pay with $ as EU member through Gaijin’s US-based payment provider. Gaijin still gets the money they ask for. You get the credits, everyone happy?
*) Do so at your own risk.
**) I am not a lawyer, but I have made plenty of overseas purchases in this manner with other vendors and never had any issues with them.