I was given a birthday gift by EA

[witch]

I received an email from EA saying 'Happy Birthday' and offering me a $15 discount on anything in the EA store. I checked out the EA store, there were no PC games I wanted to buy that I didn't already own. My son checked out the Playstation games. He found the new 'Need for Speed', and then we read the small print.

Postage, tax and handling to be paid by me. Then the clincher, 'offer not valid outside the United States and Canada.' WTF? SO WHY SEND IT TO ME IN NEW ZEALAND! Do they not have filters on their database? Cheers for the pressie EA.

*Ahem*

So, would anybody like a $15 'off regular price' voucher, valid in EA stores? Valid till 30 Nov. Maybe a struggling student hanging out for NL who's just $15 short? PM me.

[Motoki]

LOL Think they would let someone use it for the $15 Holiday addon pack. If so, I'll take it if no one else beat me to it lol.

They must not like me because they didn't send me anything for my birthday this past August  and I'm in the US no less. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

They've sent me invites to things before now, then when I've tried to log in I can't because of not being in the US.  How come EA still ignores the rest of the world?

It also annoys me having to use oodles of disk-space just to keep all the multi-language info stored in The Sims2!  why can't they make separate editions for each language?  How much longer would it take?  I don't NEED to be able to play my game in simplified chinese, for heavens sake!

[Ancient Sim]

It also annoys me having to use oodles of disk-space just to keep all the multi-language info stored in The Sims2!  why can't they make separate editions for each language?  How much longer would it take?  I don't NEED to be able to play my game in simplified chinese, for heavens sake!

It's not just this, either.  A lot of things are repeated in every folder - original, Uni & now NL.  Makes me wonder whether it would be OK to delete all this surplus stuff, or even just the language folders.  Has anyone tried?

[Oddysey]

They've sent me invites to things before now, then when I've tried to log in I can't because of not being in the US.  How come EA still ignores the rest of the world?

It also annoys me having to use oodles of disk-space just to keep all the multi-language info stored in The Sims2!  why can't they make separate editions for each language?  How much longer would it take?  I don't NEED to be able to play my game in simplified chinese, for heavens sake!

Well, it is rather handy for the aspiring multi-lingualists among us. I'm still toying with the idea of reinstalling everything in French, but that would require work . . .

I find it humourous, in a sick and twisted way, that EA is currently under the impression that all their customers are domestic. Hello? 21st century here? Any company that believes that must have recently had their brains removed with a blunt melon spoon. (Or perhaps a runcible spoon? What is a runcible spoon anyway? But I digress . . .) For a company that considers itself tech oriented, it's pretty outrageous. Every forum type site I've ever been on has had lots of people from all over. Generally Portugal, Brazil, England, France, New Zealand, Australia, and Italy, to my current knowledge. I know a site that has about half its membership from Portugal, judging from the forums.

Conclusion: EA is run by idiots! But we knew that already. ;-D

[witch]

and for those of use on the fringes of the civilised world... it makes us feel like 2nd class customers. Sometimes I click on the button on the front of the ea.com site to see if there's a 'community near me'. Nope. Not even as near as Aussie, or as global as Oceania - (which name I kinda like).

Many of the tech students here keep geetting free sample mail spam in their hotmail & yahoo accounts. I have to explain & show them the fine print which means they usually cannot collect any gifts or samples here.

[Diala]

You know, I am almost tempted to ask you for that $15 off... NL would be $19 then, and I could be able to get that much from a parent. (poor college student, heh)

But I wonder why it doesn't apply for international players? I doubt money conversion is a problem, since they offered it to Canada, which has a different money system than the US.

[ZephyrZodiac]

It's just pure and simple Isolationism!  Maybe if they relocated to somewhere like New York they'd get a more Internationalist approach!

[Hook]

Shipping and customs on overseas orders can be a real bitch.  Even if the recipient pays all the shipping and customs.  This is one of those Black Arts (like network administration) that I never intend to learn, if only so I never have to support it.

Hook

[ZephyrZodiac]

But since they have official websites inother countries, such as the UK, why can't they be shipped from there?  (Or in the case of special gifts, downloaded?)

[Hook]

Only God knows, and She's not talking.  Maybe the situation is even worse shipping from UK.

Interesting anectode:  I have a small package here that was shipped to me in Texas from New Zealand, containing a CD with a game mod a friend there made.  It didn't look like shipping or customs was that much, and the value was declared as $5 NZ.  The interesting part is that one of the dim bulbs somewhere in the postal system marked out the valid zip code and substituted another along with the wrong town.  In their defense, the address had the city on the normal address line and the city/state addy line had only Texas and the zip.  Someone else had marked through the incorrect info and had arrows pointing to the correct stuff.  Somehow I managed to get the package.

Sometimes the performance of the postal system is somewhat less than stellar.  I won't go into the reasons, but politics plays a major part.

Hook

[Bangelnuts]

LOL Think they would let someone use it for the $15 Holiday addon pack. If so, I'll take it if no one else beat me to it lol.

They must not like me because they didn't send me anything for my birthday this past August  and I'm in the US no less. 

dont fee bad they dont like me either my birthday is in July and they did send me a thing either and Im in the US  as well

[ZephyrZodiac]

Because of the EU, I would say shipping was relatively straightforward from the UK. 

[laeshanin]

I think "Good Grief" covers this topic quite nicely. *shakes head in bewilderment at total asininity*

[ZephyrZodiac]

I agree there - if you can't get the gift, why on earth inform you of it in the first place!

[witch]

But I wonder why it doesn't apply for international players? I doubt money conversion is a problem, since they offered it to Canada, which has a different money system than the US.

Credit card transactions on the net do automatic conversions too, doesn't seem to be a bother for them.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Isolationism, as I said!

[Regina]

Shipping and customs on overseas orders can be a real bitch.  Even if the recipient pays all the shipping and customs.  This is one of those Black Arts (like network administration) that I never intend to learn, if only so I never have to support it.

Hook

Actually, shipping overseas isn't difficult at all.  I've done it numerous times, both with things I've sold and things I've sent as gifts.  It takes about 30 seconds to fill out a Customs form and peel the back and stick it on the package.

The real tricky part is knowing what is and isn't allowed in various countries.  For example, used bedding can't be shipped to Australia, and neither can any type of gemstone or coins, along with about 50 other taboo things.  And each country has their own list.  Maybe there are some countries to which it would be illegal to ship software?

[FutureCat]

The restriction might actually be at the US end.  I know Amazon.com won't ship software internationally, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was because of export restrictions - something to do with software being so sophisticated these days that it actually technically comes under the classification of "military use" (even if it's just a game!) so isn't allowed to be exported (although of course this may be just urban mythology - there's probably some much more prosaic explanation).  Obviously they have some way round this because American-made software does get distributed around the world, but I'd guess that whatever system they have for doing that doesn't work for individuals purchasing software.

[Hook]

Wanna bet the "sophistication" that can't be shipped overseas is in the copy protection and not the actual game?  It might even be in the encryption that Secure Socket Layer uses to allow your game to log onto the official BBS for updates and custom content.

I agree that it shouldn't be a problem.  "Shouldn't" being the key word here.

Hook

[FutureCat]

Yeah, that sounds familiar - I remember reading something about encryption that's higher than a certain number of bits (8?) is classified as military grade 

[Hook]

Here's some good info on the problem:

http://ciphersaber.gurus.com/

This site includes instructions on how to build your own high security encryption program.  If you're a programmer, the instructions enable you to write the encryption software in pretty much any computer language.  They have an encrypted certificate you can download and decrypt using your new software.

EDIT:  The actual instructions are no longer on the site.  There is, however, a link to the book they originally came from.  There's lots more information about encryption and laws for those interested.

Hook

[witch]

From what I remember about the encryption row - 4-5 years ago? - America tried to suppress or restrict the use of the higher level encryption. Then everyone else in the world knew how to do it and was using it, but it was still classified as a military grade secret in America - and illegal to be used by the average Joe Blow.

I remember thinking it was very funny at the time.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Funny, illogical and ISOLATIONIST!  There's a whole wide world outside the US, haven't these guys noticed?  Or have they been holed up in some bunker for so long they think the world ends at the wall?

[laeshanin]

But didn't you know that the USA is THE only country in the world! All t'others merely satelites that wander across its vision as if from some wild faerie dream...