MangaGamer will no longer offer Steam Keys due to fraudulent purchases

[Nosebleed]

MG blog post: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/02/15/pay-processor-issues/

tl;dr Because of people making fraudulent purchases in order to obtain Steam Keys and re-sell them, MangaGamer has been forced to remove their Steam Key offers for the foreseeable future until a better solution comes.

It really sucks that people pull this kind of shit off.
On top of that, because of the currently existing chargeback policies, whoever is returning the money is always on the losing end no matter what they do.

I totally understand and agree with MG's move here and I even sympathize with them, but it's still sad I won't be able to get a Steam key to give to a friend (or giveaway) whenever I buy a game from them anymore.

Really hope this helps mitigate the damage for them though.

[CeruleanGamer]

Instead of blocking everyone from not getting a Steam Key, only block the motherfuckers who have only made 2 or less purchases in their account. Because this is usually how the frauds get by.

The ones who have bought more than 10 games and/or been a loyal and clean customer for half a year should be excluded.... 

Also time limit on the Steam Keys would be great. 30 days should be more than enough....

[Soulless Watcher]

Yup, I agree that Mangagamer made the right call on this one. A standard case of people ruining a good thing for the sake of their own selfish greed.

 

[Arcadeotic]

A smart move on Mangagamer's part.

Hopefully the situation will calm down or a solution will be found soon.

[Down]

I never really understood the point of giving a steam key when you buy a game anyway. Most people give it away to random other people or friends, that sounds like a potential lost sale to me.

Sucks for them to be the target of that kind of shit though.

[CeruleanGamer]

5 minutes ago, Down said:

I never really understood the point of giving a steam key when you buy a game anyway. Most people give it away to random other people or friends, that sounds like a potential lost sale to me.

It's no different on how your computer antivirus is good for multiple computers or your PSN account can be linked with several consoles. 

Whenever I have to renew my antivirus, I pretty much give the codes to my parents or I share my PSN account with my cousin because I have a bigger library of games than him. 

[Nosebleed]

6 minutes ago, Down said:

I never really understood the point of giving a steam key when you buy a game anyway. Most people give it away to random other people or friends, that sounds like a potential lost sale to me.

For me it's kind of like a "if you own the game you get to keep it wherever it's available" type of deal. Or you can give it to a friend, because friendship is awesome.
You can say it's a lost sale, but does anyone have a reason re-buy a game on Steam that they already bought on MG? I guess if they give it to a friend then that's a potential lost sale, but it's really case by case basis in this scenario because that friend might not have gotten the game otherwise.
A lot of people also really appreciate when they get offered a Steam Key by a company for their purchase and for some it's even a deciding factor in whether or not to purchase the game, so that's something companies keep in mind as well.

Overall it's not really a bad deal until people ruin it like they did here.

[Down]

Meh. I'm stuck in the 90s anyway, the modern vidya game market is complete nonsense to me. 

I'll be on the bench there with Rooke if you're looking for me.

[MercyZombie]

I was getting into this thread with righteous fury and ready to rant about greedy companies being cheap. But after reading the actual reason I can't think of another solution. Sucks for us but this is a typical case of a few people ruining it for the rest of us. I hate to say this but this was probably the right decision.

[Dergonu]

Came into this thread thinking it was linked to the "FIRST PORN GAME ON STEAM!" that just released

 

Suppose this is the right way to handle it. I actually have some games with steam keys that I havent redeemed yet, though luckily they accounted for that:

"Purchases on our site will be disabled while we work with our payment processor to sort this issue out. Users who have previously purchased games that have been advertised to come with a Steam key will still be able to retrieve their keys, but future purchases of our titles will not be provided with Steam keys."

 

Like was mentioned here, I just hope this wont have any big negative effect on mangagamer.

(THEY ARE MY MAIN PROVIDER OF NUKIGE! )

[Nosebleed]

Guess I'll have to give this thread a longer title so people don't come in here with the wrong idea.

Are you happy now that the thread has 3 lines of text in the sidebar, you monsters?

[DarkZedge]

Just now, Nosebleed said:

MG blog post: http://blog.mangagamer.org/2016/02/15/pay-processor-issues/

tl;dr Because of people making fraudulent purchases in order to obtain Steam Keys and re-sell them, MangaGamer has been forced to remove their Steam Key offers for the foreseeable future until a better solution comes.

It really sucks that people pull this kind of shit off.
On top of that, because of the currently existing chargeback policies, whoever is returning the money is always on the losing end no matter what they do.

I totally understand and agree with MG's move here and I even sympathize with them, but it's still sad I won't be able to get a Steam key to give to a friend (or giveaway) whenever I buy a game from them anymore.

Really hope this helps mitigate the damage for them though.

I agree aswell..it's sad to see a company betrayed when they actually tried to offer convenience to their customers...people never learn though and the greed gets the best of them.

In the end we all lose because of some bad people who chose to fuck people over to make money...as you said i hope Mg is able to recover from the damage

[OriginalRen]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but this doesn't really surprise me. VN/anime/manga fans (some of us included) don't like paying for Japanese goods to begin with, so doing this sort of practice is absolutely expected. People pirate these kinds of things all the time (stream shit, torrent games, scan manga), and I feel companies should realize this before even offering any kind of service.

Bad apples ruin it, but let's be honest, 90% of people don't want to pay for shit on the internet.

[Down]

1 minute ago, OriginalRen said:

Please don't take this the wrong way, but this doesn't really surprise me. VN/anime/manga fans (some of us included) don't like paying for Japanese goods to begin with, so doing this sort of practice is absolutely expected. People pirate these kinds of things all the time (stream shit, torrent games, scan manga), and I feel companies should realize this before even offering Steam Keys.

Bad apples ruin it, but let's be honest, nobody wants to pay for Japanese goods.

This is not just about piracy or even just reselling Steam keys, that's about games being bought with stolen credit cards. That's criminal activity, probably with a minimal degree of organization. And it's worse than piracy for MG because it actually costs them money.

[solidbatman]

thanks obama

[OriginalRen]

Just now, Down said:

This is not just about piracy or even just reselling Steam keys, that's about games being bought with stolen credit cards. That's criminal activity, probably with a minimal degree of organization. And it's worse than piracy for MG because it actually costs them money.

That's my point though. Do you honestly expect anything less from people who feel entitled to 18+ versions of games/fan translations/free shit?

[Funnerific]

1 minute ago, OriginalRen said:

That's my point though. Do you honestly expect anything less from people who feel entitled to 18+ versions of games/fan translations/free shit?

I wouldn't naturally expect people to steal credit cards just because they like free stuff.

[solidbatman]

9 minutes ago, OriginalRen said:

That's my point though. Do you honestly expect anything less from people who feel entitled to 18+ versions of games/fan translations/free shit?

This happens to all sellers Ren. GMG got into a bit of trouble for something related to this recently. Key resellers are sometimes scummy and don't tell people where their keys come from. Its a grey market. There are far better examples of VN weeb entitlement than this.

[Nosebleed]

Yeah I don't think this is so much weebs wanting free shit as it is key resellers trying to grab as many keys as they can with whatever methods they can use.
If you wanted free shit you wouldn't buy a steam key you'd pirate the game itself.

[OriginalRen]

So these people are basically equivalent to the Chinese bootleggers of the Japanese market.

[KuroganeHomura]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/06/30/steam-revokes-stolen-sniper-elite-3-keys

It's fraud, plain and simple.

[Valmore]

35 minutes ago, solidbatman said:

thanks obama

That Steam key he sold me didn't even work...

[ChaosRaven]

They seem to have a lot of technical problems lately. Their forum is still broken and waiting for resurrection and now this. I hope their homepage doesn't follow the trend and goes down too - it wouldn't be the first time.

[sanahtlig]

It's terrible that a small company like MangaGamer is getting fleeced by genuine thieves.  They've reacted appropriately here.

[The Striker]

Well i dont buy visual novels..... but this is sad