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MangaGamer will no longer offer Steam Keys due to fraudulent purchases


Nosebleed

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I use steam only when they have absolute monopoly on a game, I hate that platform. I have never redeemed any MG keys to avoid to indirectly fund it.

That's a major concern, though, giiven the popularity of this platform. The most logical thing to do is give steam keys only to loyal costumers with an active account.

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I've always thought the same as someone pointed out above: these steam keys may represent a lot of lost sales to MG. I understand people having the game on all platforms, but, for a company that only gets money from their games [I guess], this "I give it to friends" stuff is pretty bad, since at least ~some of these may actually buy the game otherwise.

 

Just a curiosity: the girl character from MG is an original MG character?

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Well, while i love Manga Gamer, the princess evangile fandisc might be the last VN i purchase from them.

As a brazilian customer, i usually paid more than AAA price for most of their VNs. My only justification for paying that much money was that i was getting the game both uncensored and another copy on Steam.

Without that, either Manga Gamer will drop their prices a bit or i wont be purchasing anything anymore, paying what is equivalent of almost 2 AAA releases for VN is rather absurd IMO.

There are other ways to prevent fraudlent purchases, 1 week delays, purchase quantity, etc.

Outright removing that might make them lose alot of sales.

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Not too big of a deal for me, since I'd just give them away most of the time.  I have no interest in all-ages versions of 18+ titles, but it sucks for the people that wanted them anyway, I guess.  I'm all for them not giving out free Steam keys if it's costing them money in legit lost sales.

Geez, if you're not going to buy a digital good from the company that produced it and don't care where it comes from, just pirate it.  At least then you won't potentially be giving money to amoral thieves.

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Emailed Manga Gamer:

" Hi Ricardo, 

Thank you so much for the insight into the Brazilian community.  

We are definitely considering additional security software and things so we can restore the service in the future. We are quite aware of how important complimentary keys are to the community; and want to implement a convenient solution for customers.  

 
 
Best Regards,
MangaGamer Staff

"

So it seems they are not abandoning the idea completely. Good to know, my faith in MG is restored!

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5 hours ago, br4zil said:

Emailed Manga Gamer:

" Hi Ricardo, 

Thank you so much for the insight into the Brazilian community.  

We are definitely considering additional security software and things so we can restore the service in the future. We are quite aware of how important complimentary keys are to the community; and want to implement a convenient solution for customers.  

 
 
Best Regards,
MangaGamer Staff

"

So it seems they are not abandoning the idea completely. Good to know, my faith in MG is restored!

Thanks for posting this.

I´ve always liked how Mangagamer handles things so I´m confident they will figure something out.

Still, the fact that people were doing this agitates me... Grr! Why do some people have to ruin the fun for everyone! :komari:

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1 hour ago, Dergonu said:

Still, the fact that people were doing this agitates me... Grr! Why do some people have to ruin the fun for everyone! :komari:

They were using stolen credit cards.  These weren't your typical Internet agitators.  They were criminals.  Possibly even an organized crime ring.  I'm sure the name "MangaGamer" meant nothing to them other than "easy prey".

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Just now, sanahtlig said:

They were using stolen credit cards.  These weren't your typical Internet agitators.  They were criminals.  Possibly even an organized crime ring.  I'm sure the name "MangaGamer" meant nothing to them other than "easy prey".

Yup. Still, it doesnt change the fact that they ruined the fun for everyone :kosame: Damn them.

Hopefully this will be an instentive to increase their security and improve the site for Mangagamer.

 

Next time we will be ready. :holo:

*Queue home alone music*

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This is a truly serious incident.  It could delay releases.  It could permanently damage MangaGamer's reputation to payment processors and cause them to face precipitous rate hikes.  MangaGamer might have to raise prices to compensate.  It's not a matter to jest about or make light of.

Hope really hard that MangaGamer manages to work through this and return to business as usual.

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19 minutes ago, sanahtlig said:

This is a truly serious incident.  It could delay releases.  It could permanently damage MangaGamer's reputation to payment processors and cause them to face precipitous rate hikes.  MangaGamer might have to raise prices to compensate.  It's not a matter to jest about or make light of.

Hope really hard that MangaGamer manages to work through this and return to business as usual.

I completely agree, although ...

There is always room for humor; especially home alone refrences :miyako: 

 

Hopefully it doesn´t leave any permanent damage, though it is like you said very possible. All we can do for now is wait and see.

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11 hours ago, br4zil said:

Emailed Manga Gamer:

" Hi Ricardo, 

Thank you so much for the insight into the Brazilian community.  

We are definitely considering additional security software and things so we can restore the service in the future. We are quite aware of how important complimentary keys are to the community; and want to implement a convenient solution for customers.  

 
 
Best Regards,
MangaGamer Staff

"

So it seems they are not abandoning the idea completely. Good to know, my faith in MG is restored!

Your name is Ricardo?! Now thats one sexy name for a guy.

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Why did they give out steam keys in the first place? Did they really intend for people to give them to friends or just to have another copy.

 

Not to be too blunt, but anyone can get their games for free and we only pay for them to support the company and ensure future releases.

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25 minutes ago, tjc2 said:

Why did they give out steam keys in the first place?

It's a marketing ploy that benefits both users and the company.  MangaGamer gets its name out, and users get a free copy of the game / another game to add to their Steam profile to show off in their collection.  It also encourages users to buy through them rather than Steam (so Valve doesn't get its 30% cut) and justifies selling adult versions at higher prices on their site (since you get 2 copies for the price of 1).

Seems like MG/Valve could get around this issue by making the keys bind to your Steam account on purchase from the MG store (or others).  The way this would work is that you'd list your Steam ID in your MG profile.  MangaGamer would then deposit the activated game in your Steam account.  It couldn't be resold then, curtailing the illegal activities that caused their current problem.  Alternatively, you'd been given a key with a very short expiration timer (like 1hr).  The criminals wouldn't have time to resell it.

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On 18/02/2016 at 3:32 PM, pual said:

For users this shouldn't be a big loss since Steam is awful platform for VN's.  Shouldn't be a problem if eligibility for keys is raised to some buying amount.

 

12 hours ago, tjc2 said:

Why did they give out steam keys in the first place? Did they really intend for people to give them to friends or just to have another copy.

 

Not to be too blunt, but anyone can get their games for free and we only pay for them to support the company and ensure future releases.

Not entirely true guys, MGs products for me cost me x2 the price of a AAA game. A Steam key is literally the deal breaker in justifying the purchase.

I like having the 2 versions, for example princess evangile had exclusive "all ages" art which is a nice bonus

Besides, all the Steam goodies is also fun, backgrounds, smiley and cards

12 hours ago, sanahtlig said:

*text wall*

Correct me if iam wrong, but didint steam dropped support for the account binding thing in a recent update?

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Denpasoft just followed suit, they will no longer offer Steam keys for any games sold through their site. It seemed like Sunrider Academy was targeted. If I was to guess, they weren't under immediate pressure or anything but saw what happened with MG, realized it was happening to them, and decided to play it safe before they had the rug pulled out from under them like what happened with MG. Dovac seems super salty right now (what's new?).

It's a marketing ploy that benefits both users and the company.  MangaGamer gets its name out, and users get a free copy of the game / another game to add to their Steam profile to show off in their collection.  It also encourages users to buy through them rather than Steam (so Valve doesn't get its 30% cut) and justifies selling adult versions at higher prices on their site (since you get 2 copies for the price of 1).

Seems like MG/Valve could get around this issue by making the keys bind to your Steam account on purchase from the MG store (or others).  The way this would work is that you'd list your Steam ID in your MG profile.  MangaGamer would then deposit the activated game in your Steam account.  It couldn't be resold then, curtailing the illegal activities that caused their current problem.  Alternatively, you'd been given a key with a very short expiration timer (like 1hr).  The criminals wouldn't have time to resell it.

Also, I want to point out that there was a system for this at one point via OAuth. It was an api that allowed a site to sell and add a product directly to a Steam account. You would log into your account through it and then click a button, and poof, the game was in your account. One day Valve removed support for OAuth without explanation. Maybe they thought it was too much overhead managing it without much benefit for them. The conspiracy theorists out there say that Valve benefits by forcing everyone to sell keys because the risk of fraud makes publishers less eager to sell keys directly, outside of Steam. Historically, a lot of devs would just generate and sell keys on their site, avoiding giving Valve any cut, something Valve allows, and OAuth made it safe to do so, but now it's risky and you're seeing this happen a lot less often. Hmm...

Anyways, it's a moot point because Dovac just pointed out that they actually wanted to use OAuth on Denpasoft before Valve cut support and Valve was all like "You want to use it to give Steam games away alongside 18+ content? Ewww, no way!" and wouldn't let them. 

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33 minutes ago, Decay said:

Denpasoft just followed suit, they will no longer offer Steam keys for any games sold through their site. It seemed like Sunrider Academy was targeted. If I was to guess, they weren't under immediate pressure or anything but saw what happened with MG, realized it was happening to them, and decided to play it safe before they had the rug pulled out from under them like what happened with MG. Dovac seems super salty right now (what's new?).

Well he mentioned on twitter something about fraud, 4,600, and Steam Keys, so I guess he has a reason to be salty this time :P 

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