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Potential new sponsor, G2A - Yay or nay?

nicklmg

From my experience, they sell windows keys despite not being a licensed microsoft reseller....and microsoft specifically said what they were doing was not allowed...

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I've only had positive experiences with them. The only problem that I did have was getting a used key fro Reaper of Souls, but I got a new one after contacting support without an issue fairly quickly.

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I for one wouldn't want to see LTT associated with a grey market. Since it is just that, in the grey area.

I don't know. But I can understand why LTT wants to make business with them.

That's the tough part - no one really "knows" in this case...  :P  Thanks for your feedback!

 

-snip-

No problem for ranting - that's what this thread is for, getting your opinions out there for me (and the rest of LMG, if they choose to read it) to see, so that I can make a more informed decision based on my own opinions as well as all of yours'.

I think that's one of the issues though - product insurance is something that's touchy because it instills the feeling that if you DON'T buy it, the company won't stand behind the product. Not a great message imo. And it's widely known as a racket that's just used to grab extra profit from the consumer in many cases. So idunno, I get why they do it (they would probably get scammed for a crapload of keys if they didn't), but that doesn't necessarily mean that I agree with it.

 

From an objective side of things:  Buying things from them is probably pretty safe, and if a code is bad, it's the seller's fault, G2A will protect you.  I have no isse with them.

From the context 90% of people will see:  LTT would be supporting a company that sells keys stolen from innocent, starving children in Africa bought for them by their dying Grandmother.

That's EXACTLY the issue here. If you do your research and use the service properly, by all accounts that I've found, you'll probably be fine as a consumer. If you buy the Shield product you will be fine, but that's another discussion entirely... The issue is that public opinion is so negative, and this negativity is being perpetuated by a lot of public figures in the industry, whether about G2A directly or about grey market services in general (and I'm not trying to say that those figures are wrong or bad for doing so - it's their opinion, based on their experience, and I can certainly justify some of their arguments). It just seems like becoming associated with them provides an opportunity for a lot of bad press.

Anyway, A+ post.

 

-snip-

Yeah I don't really know if it's something we want to publicly take a side on, which partnering with them would essentially do for us... Thanks for the feedback!

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I've bought from there several times before no probs. *thumbs up*

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My experience of G2A has always been perfect. Keys are delivered within a 3-10 minutes and if you opt to buy with G2A Shield, which is only a tiny bit extra, You're guaranteed a working key. I'd love to see them sponsor LTT.

Nothing is shady about them, the only thing that is shady is if you take the risk to buy a key from a low rated seller then complain about a bad key. I think what they do is great since their games are usually on sale a lot of the time and when they aren't they're usually cheaper than Steam anyway ;)

Also quite big YouTubers are also sponsored by G2A, such as JackFrags and FrankieOnPCin1080p

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So I bought a fair share of keys on their website.

I have had one false delivery which was solved WITHOUT G2A Shield by contacting the seller who gave me a new key.

 

A lot of gamers are getting sponsored by G2A that it is almost getting absurd.

But I still think you guys should do it, the website is great and so is the support. 

You can make some money of it and we get 3% off,  fully support the idea.

 

EDIT:

The recent issue with Ubisoft is one of the things that is on my mind which might become a bigger problem in the future when more publishers limit the keys sold on G2A or similar websites.

They have claimed that some of the keys were obtained using stolen credit cards or other fraudulent ways.

But hey, this can also happen on "normal" secondhand/used product websites, every market has its dark side.

 

EDIT2: (It seems I can't make my mind up)

There was one thing I forgot.

If big problems like illegal activities of how sellers obtain the keys to sell on G2A show up, big companies and brands might not want to get associated with them.

This could result in getting no demos from brands for you guys to review etc.

Not saying it will happen but there is always a possibility, but what the hell do I know. Follow your instinct or something like that.


Started Folding@Home on 02-05-2015

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I purchased a Windows 8.1 key from them. Wasn't bad, but I question where the keys came from that allowed them to sell for $20.

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No issues at all here..... I say go for it

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@nicklmg:

 

G2A is a Grey Market. To be clear, here is what that means:

 

 

grey market is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels which are legal but are unofficial, unauthorised, or unintended by the original manufacturer.

 

It's not illegal, but it is completely circumventing the intended distribution network. If I had to equate it to something, it would be like a poor person showing up at a soup kitchen for a bowl of soup, getting the soup, then instead of eating it himself, he walks out, sells it on the street corner and pockets the cash. It's extremely shady, even though it's technically legal. Many online retailers have had to explicitly change how their keys worked just to deal with this kind of thing by introducing region-locking.

 

Retailers like Microsoft are trying to make their product affordable in poorer countries so they can still have access to technology, but yet still sell at normal prices elsewhere like the US to maintain their profits and return on investments. Places like G2A are basically sabotaging this endeavor to bring software that's expensive to develop to the masses who couldn't afford it at a regular price. From a moral standpoint, I highly disagree with G2A and will never buy from them.

 

...and I haven't even begun to delve into the issues that occasionally pop up with some of the people selling stuff on G2A obtained them illegally. That's a whole other can of worms.

Edited by Lotus
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no experience but I can't say I trust them to experience them.

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I haven't had any issues with them in the past, but I disagree with the idea that "we're just a marketplace, we're not shady". They enable criminals to market codes bought with stolen credit cards.

 

also, as @DoubleUx2 said, other companies might not want to feature their products in a video sponsored by a "potentially shady" website. 

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I don't support G2A- I don't like the concept of reselling third world prices to other markets, since this is unsustainable (publishers may stop selling games there or may outright charge the same as with Origin with new games costing as much as a fourth of people's salary) and morally questionable at best.

 

To develop my argument- if anything at all, G2A pushes publishers to increases prices of games in third world countries like India to those of the United States of America. We've already seen this happen with BF4, with the game costing Rs. 3500 in comparison to Rs. 1500 for previous newly released games. Do keep in mind that most people down here earn ~Rs. 15000, with the really big down under earning ~Rs. 8000. This price increase, atleast from what I've observed within my groups of friends, discourages purchases and encourages piracy since not many people are comfortable spending double for a game.  

 

Supporting G2A on a network and channel as big is LTT will make this issue even more rampant down here and in other countries and I hence don't agree with keeping them as a sponsor.

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G2A is a legit company, but not everyone in their marketplace is 100% legit. They can't really be blamed for that.

At any rate, i say go for it. You need money, right?

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If I'm going to be completely honest, I don't know all the specifics and details. 

All it took for me to think G2A is bad, is to hear they're constantly involved with illegal copies of games one way or another, it just helps even more that tons of people I respect dislike them too.

You don't hear about this with GOG or Green Man Gaming or Humble Bundle or Bundle Stars or so many other marketplaces you can buy Steam keys from, they're all highly regarded.

To be fair, the publishers and developers work directly with HumbleBundle and GOG and authorize them to resell the keys, whereas G2A does not, they're consensual and are time bound for HB, and money bound (charge almost the same price) for GOG.

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I've used them multiple times and recommend them to friends. As long as you purchase with g2a shield you are always protected and the one time I had a problem they quickly resolved it. They are supported by PayPal and run many promotions with them, if that's anything to go by.

 

I mentioned this elsewhere, but even if you don't go for the sponsorship you could get a g2a goldmine referall link: https://www.g2a.com/goldmine

 

It will allow anyone who wants to buy through their site to do so and give you guys a little kickback.

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Yes, i've had no problems with g2a and i use them regulary. 

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So, I take it anyone who said No to them being a sponsor, won't be buying from them if they became one? Yeah right. :ph34r:

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id say yes. they are more of a store front like amazon with the similarly good customer support. i would say yes.

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G2A is a legit company, but not everyone in their marketplace is 100% legit. They can't really be blamed for that.

At any rate, i say go for it. You need money, right?

Yes LMG needs money and Linus has 6 employees to feed, but the problem is G2A didn't start out with a good image. So basically their reputation is kind of ruined from the start. They will need quite some time for others to trust in them. Being able to buy a cheap game key and have no problems doesn't mean they're a good business, it's how they operation that's the most important. A company can go out, just like a light bulb by making the wrong business decision. Being sponspored by a company that doesn't have a good reputation, even if they can give LMG twice as much as other sponsors, isn't worth it.

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Yes LMG needs money and Linus has 6 employees to feed, but the problem is G2A didn't start out with a good image. So basically their reputation is kind of ruined from the start. They will need quite some time for others to trust in them. Being able to buy a cheap game key and have no problems doesn't mean they're a good business, it's how they operation that's the most important. A company can go out, just like a light bulb by making the wrong business decision. Being sponspored by a company that doesn't have a good reputation, even if they can give LMG twice as much as other sponsors, isn't worth it.

I still don't see anything wrong with their business models. They buy stuff cheap, and sell it for profit. I get cheap games, i'm happy. They sell for profit, they're happy. Everyone's happy

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I still don't see anything wrong with their business models. They buy stuff cheap, and sell it for profit. I get cheap games, i'm happy. They sell for profit, they're happy. Everyone's happy

You're looking at it from a customer perspective. LMG is a business, it needs to be looked at from a business perspective. If Microsoft decided to become a sponsor of LTT and they see LTT is supporting a company that has a shady operation, they will immediately stop sponsoring.

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Bought 2 spintires key and one of them was already used. Have been trying to solve this issue for more than 2 weeks but their resoloution center takes ages to response(mostly its the G2A that takes a lot of time)

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