Finky

Finky's World
2011-07-12 14:59:35 (UTC)

Buying Games

University life is free, I get tons of free time on my weekends and would love to spend them on one thing : Video game. Problem is, I only have an average laptop, parents ain't gonna buy a 3k desktop rig for me "just to play games". Video games in their minds are still devilish and time-wasting. I even had to buy my order of Starcraft II in such level of secrecy that could compete with intelligence agencies. So now all I have to burn my lonely time with is an Acer Aspire 4750G. While not exactly state-of-the-art, it can still play old games, around 2008 and before games. Any newer than that, it probably will run in low FPS which just kills the experience and fun.

And just about 3 weeks ago I've saw that Valve has made Team Fortress 2 F2P. While many fans seems to be enraged about it, I am one of the "cheapstakes" or so we're called, to get the game for free and try it out. And boy am I entertained. In just a about 2 weeks I've logged more than 53 hours on TF2. Steam is okay. they're a lot of servers available (Proly because it went F2P), and I like the achievements quite a bit, something buying retail games without Steam support doesn't have. Only big problem I have is the snail-speed updates and the login that takes forever, so long that infact it often time out. The only time I can login to Steam is on weekends where my housemates will be out, leaving the Broadband all by myself. Still, after having so much fun I think it's important to give something back. So I decided to try buying some games on Steam, perhaps even a few hats in the Mann. Co store.

But I do not have an online transactions account set up yet. I heard from someone that you need a debit card, and a debit card I have. So I went to the ATM today to get an e-pin, which helps me create an online bank account. Since it's an Malaysian bank account, Steam doesn't directly take payments from it, so I decided to channel it through PayPal with USD.

I head to Steam's store and see the plethora of games offered, and was surprised how dirt-cheap the games are compared to the ones local shop sell. There is a sale going on called Steam Summer Camp Sale, and my goodness those games are cheap! To compare with local price, Battlefield Bad Company 2 on Steam was selling for $7.99, but if you get a copy of it costs around RM180-RM200 here (I got my SCII for RM220), which is about 70U$D.

But... Since I'm still a student and budget is limited, I can't just go around filling shopping card with games, lots of consideration is put into what to buy. Can my computer run it? Is there many people still playing it online? Will I like that kind of game? Is the replay value high?. And after hours of evaluation, I've came up with two winners: Counter-Strike: Source and Left 4 Dead 2. I'm 100% sure I can run em since both of them use the Source engine, which TF2 also runs on, without frying my computer. Both games is in the top 10 of most played Steam games. Both of them total costs only $25. FAT deal comparing how much I got my SCII for. So I excitedly open up a PayPal account and try to set things up.

Before I get that done, I revisit the website next day to found out that the sale is gone... Oh well, shit. I have no idea when does Summer end in America, but it ends way too soon... Just a day before I got my online banking account ready. Fucking Bummer. Both the games cost total of $40 now. Well, I said to my self: Decision is still a decision, I'm going to buy it regardless. I know that PayPal will take a little interest out of transactions, but I don't know how much so I clicked "Add $50.00" just to be safe. And when I'm redirected to my banking account, behold: "This process is not available for teen accounts." Teen accounts? Not available? What. The. Fuck.

Then I remembered that since my birthday is on September, I'm technically still not 18, thus had to open up a "Youth" account before I came to uni. Oh shit. No. NO!!!!! What else option do I have? Asking for parent's credit card is out of the question, buying games is too stupid for them. And I'm to morally bounded to do anything illegal/stealing to get what I want. How fucking frustrating consider how excited I am thinking that I might get to play new games on weekend. May not seem much but it means a lot to me since I have literally nothing on weekends to do.

Still thinking on how to get those games... Use a friends' >18 account maybe? Trick parents into upgrading my bank account? But September's too far away! We shall see....




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