Should Ukrainians get a free/lowered Sub?

[AnPo]

I'm just curious, what tips you can give? All daily routine like work/preparations are done, so... now person should go stay idle or sleep?
according to tips in this topic - person in Ukraine should 24/7 do nothing but care about something else and stop playing games (and every adviser not mentioned - what is this... something else)

[Lustre]

Caucasian county in distress.

If you said this about any other culture you'd be labelled a racist... why does the skin colour matter?

[Misplaced_Marbles]

I don't see why Ukrainians should be any special.

Streamer said so. Streamer just looking out for number one. Streamer gets paid for nothing regardless, but saving are always nice.

[AlyaNimfa]

If you said this about any other culture you'd be labelled a racist... why does the skin colour matter?

Apparently it matters to him, and yes, that would be a racist remark.

[Bukachu]

Again, I'll repeat, I know it's not on the same scale but it does beg the question where the line should be drawn.

I think the part where your country gets bombed and invaded is a good place to draw the line.

[Tanis_Ebonhart]

I support it but this might be a bad idea as Putin is extremely petty.

[Ranaku]

To be fair the derailing of this thread is my fault, i should've known better and that people would jump on the stuff like "free" and that i linked a zepla vid which goes actually in depth a bit about the topic and well they also didn't endorsed the giving out free subs which i am also against. But people here well they already have their stuck up opinions formed.

I should've posted only about the stuff that is already going on which is regional pricing, would've been much more understandable for people with no understanding of economics and the fact that the whole world doesn't run on dollars which after reading through all the comments i think 9/10 people here seem to believe actually. Fact is if you pay in dollars you already pay much much more than the people who don't, sub fees were never equal and will never be equal.

Also against my wishes obviously the people again managed to let the thread derail into political discussions instead of seeing it as what it is. Fellow players that have to pay way too much like so many other people from all over the world have to cause their currency is not as strong as others. But obviously people here ignored completely the fact that this is already a thing, chinese players paying less and in hours played, russian players paying like 4 euros, european players paying like 12,99 euros and people who pay in dollars pay 14,99$.

So yeah if you think that it is fair that players, all around the world, have to pay a huge portion of their income just for the sub then yeah i can't help you tbh, you are way too stuck up in your own greed then. And with that i am out of here, a total waste of time as usual.

[dapperfaffer]

regional pricing may very.

[Parasite]

All wars? Or just the Ukraine/Russia one, and then only on the Ukrainian side of it?

Does the situation in Myanmar or Sudan count? What about people in Chinese Tibet? Afghanistan? Ethiopia/Eritrea? Yemen/Saudi Arabia?

Do terrorist/popular Insurgencies count? Algeria? Burkina Faso? Cameroon? Chad? Columbia? D.R. of Congo? Iraq? Libia? Mali? Mozambique? Niger? Nigeria? Syria? Tanzania? Tunisia?

If it's a bad exchange rate, what about all the wonderful people in South America; Brazil (who often rightly mention how the sub is just so expensive), Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela?


That's where it gets tough eh? Make a gesture to one side of a two country war but ignore all the rest.


Maybe just let SE decide? They will do what they think is correct and meshes with their business.

Wow, I stopped reading this thread because your answer sums it all up better than I could. You definately have a Like for this! Its a harsh world yes, but thats how it is.

[Padudu]

So like, what were you hoping to gain out of the thread, OP? Your first post isn't all that much about regional pricing other than the fact that Ukrainians have to pay in Euros since SE doesn't account for regional pricing. Regional pricing is a PITA for most companies btw, they don't usually cater to currencies unless they are.. you know, a huge company (PayPal, Apple, ect).

So my question is this, should SE gift people from such war-torn places free gametime? Or at least lower their subscription cost significantly so they can afford it? Most people in the US/EU have to work 1-2 hours to get the money for their sub, Ukrainians having to work basically 8-16 times (or even more) that much just to get an escape from their reality seems really really unfair to me personally.

And just to say it again, this is about our fellow players. This is not about the political turmoil that is going on around it. They are civilians and XIV is an escape and home for them like it is for all of us so please respect that and this thread.

Lowering/free would be nice, but local currencies (and economies) fluctuate and can be unstable. The problem SE will face here is that people are savvy nowadays, they will circumvent paying the more "expensive" pricing (US, Canada, AUS, NZ, for example) and just find a way to pay less for their sub in another country's currency.

You also have to consider the fact of population. There are likely not enough people who play XIV in Ukraine to offset lowering the costs. I'd be willing to wager that more people would exploit regional pricing rather than most Ukrainians actually benefit from it.

I'll use my country's example (where I came from), Haiti. 130 gourde makes up about $1 USD. $5 USD is about maybe 600 gourde. $15.99 USD is about $2.1k gourde. Haiti's monthly wages estimate about $800 gourde which is six dollars USD. Now imagine if you can set your VPN and account location to Haiti to pay in gourde.. you are now only paying about 12 cents/month instead of the 15.99. Do you imagine how much SE would lose from people pulling that?

That is why USD/euro is standard and they don't adjust regionally for many countries + there's so little players from these regions that it would likely not make up the cost. Plenty of people suffer from hardships everyday, including war, go look at central america and what they have to deal with. We pay in dollars and it's more because the dollar is just a higher value. It's just how that works. The USD makes up about 60% of GLOBAL - meaning international - foreign exchange reserves. (source: https://www.thebalance.com/world-currency-3305931). Second would be euro. USD has a major part in the world's economy whether you want it to be true or not.

Regional pricing is not just about Ukraine here. They would have to accomodate a ton of countries for this and it's not easy at all. You also made it political to begin with, BTW.


lil note: YMMV on converting currencies for the gourde and USD. My math is not great and it has been awhile since I had to deal with gourde lol.