So, a lot of games aren't licensed for sale in Japan...

Turns out EA in particular has some kind of particular dislike for marketing/selling games in Japan. In turn, it is particularly difficult to buy digital copies of games like Mass Effect, which are easily available via Steam in the States but hidden/blocked to consumers in Japan.

HOWEVER. I have found a loophole that is quite hilarious to me - the internet on-base here ends up being read as from the United States, possibly because it's an American military base and whatnot. So...I can get on a computer using internet on-base, buy the games I want, and download them at my apartment less than a mile away where my internet is Japanese. Suck it region blocks, I'm getting my games no matter what you try to do to stop me.

Besides, I could've had a family member in the States buy the game on my Steam account and still downloaded it here if I really got desperate. Still, funny loophole.

I kindof want to make a Success Kid for this...

now i kinda understand why them japs keep all the good games for themselves.

Military base right? Its technically considered American soil (Like embassies) so of course their IP address should be treated like american.

Also if you buy Mass Effect 3 do note that getting the Best ending its apparently a pain in the ass if you dont play in multiplayer. (plantainish move by EA)

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Originally Posted by FenixR

Military base right? Its technically considered American soil (Like embassies) so of course their IP address should be treated like american.

Also if you buy Mass Effect 3 do note that getting the Best ending its apparently a pain in the ass if you dont play in multiplayer. (plantainish move by EA)

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I understand WHY it's treated as an American IP - what I'm surprised at is that it's even possible. It does make sense, especially for things like government/official websites that servicemembers would need access to that may not work outside of the US, I'm just amused that less than a mile of distance can have that effect. Also, it's kindof exploitable. Lol. I'm also just glad to have a work-around.

I ran into the same thing with Nexon's games - I can play them on-base at the internet lounge (like any public wifi, it tends to be slow/unreliable though), but not at my apartment. Very amusing to me, honestly. Kindof like standing on a state boundary and hopping back and forth over the "line."

Im no expert, but i think its just a matter of either having their own servers to handle the conections (In the base/embassy), or some sort of agreement with the japanese ISP to assign the USA IP to the base or something.

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Originally Posted by FenixR

Im no expert, but i think its just a matter of either having their own servers to handle the conections (In the base/embassy), or some sort of agreement with the japanese ISP to assign the USA IP to the base or something.

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Yeah, more than likely. Still impressed that someone actually thought of this.

You can't get ME3 on Steam.

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Originally Posted by Corn

You can't get ME3 on Steam.

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I'm aware. I was talking about ME and ME2 (I haven't played them). There are some other noteworthy games, primarily published by EA. I don't plan on buying ME3 unless EA gives up on pushing Origin and puts it on Steam instead. The whole Origin thing seems like yet another Google+ - unnecessary rivalry to a successful namebrand that doesn't really provide anything new and makes things inconvenient for people trying to centralize all of their games (or friends/contacts, in the case of Google+).

I swear to god, if Gearbox pulls the same crap with Borderlands 2...