Pre-ordered Dark Souls II on steam

Now, the waiting truly begins. I've not kept myself pure for it, what with all the Dark Souls II content on the site, but I'll still be mostly virgin. I don't have any consoles right now, but I still got my gaming PC so it was my only option. I'd usually wait until a sale, for any game, I juat act like games come out a few months aftr they really do, and I hardly ever Pre-Order (Last Pre-Order I made was Dragon Age 2. Before that, Bioshock 2. got burned twice, shame on me). But, this one seems worth it, particularly on the ground floor, at least with the other PC users.

The bad part, I'll be in Living in China by then, and the online stuff will likely be a lagfest. Oh well, even if it just means bloodstains and messages, I always liked being online more than offline. I rarely beat invasions anyway.

About a month. Tick Tock.

Isn't DSII region locked on steam? Hope you don't have problems with your new region.

I'll buy it on steam too but I don't preorder games. :p

By the way, what's with that region lock recently on Steam? It's really annoying. People move to other countries a lot more frequently nowadays. I don't wanna be forced to buy a game twice just because I'm living somewhere else.

Also, good luck in China!

I pre-orderd DS2 on steam. I have no problems w/ preordering if I want to. I haven't bothered to protect my virgin eyes because that does not matter much to me, unless again I want it to. As in story related. You look at the threads, they are mostly a big info dump anyways even spoiler free, but I only have read a few of them. Mostly I turn on the DS2 feature of Vinny, Brad, A Matt, and I only half watched it today.

But I am excited to see this on PC, if only to liven up the area Brad was in at the end of his run. Didn't look very good, but I have heard that goes back and forth.

That is news to me. I've not had any problem thus far, I'm in Yucca Valley, CA now and I was living in Thailand last year, and San Jose in 2012, Thailand again back in 2010-2011 and Korea from 2008-2010. I think the region locking means that you can't buy a game if you get gifted a game that is banned or unavailable in your region, but if you already own it than I think it'll be fine. at least, that is my experience. Dark Souls and LA Noire were not available in Thailand, but when I moved back to the states, I bought both, no problem, then was able to download and play them without any problem when I went back to Thailand.

And if it comes down to it, I can use a VPN/proxy to mask my region and fool steam into thinking I'm still in California, which I'll have to do to get on Youtube and Facebook anyway. It's the common way of dealing with Chinese censorship.

@aelric: the game will still be there if you bought it but you won't be able to download it(if it is a region locked game such as Metal Gear Rising or DS II) . VPN and steam is risky and it can get your account suspended. I'm on mobile right now so I can't find a source to back this up but I'm pretty confident about it.

Wow, that's a lot of travelling. Is that job related if you don't mind me asking?

@edsone: Yep, I'm an English Teacher. Patrick once mentioned my industry on the podcast about three years ago where he had a friend going to Korea to teach kids English that he thought had no business teaching anything to anybody. That's everyone in the industry at first, barring real education majors, but you grow into the job and eventually you either go home after a year or two of become a lifer in the country of your choice. I'm kind of an odd one out that I keep changing countries, though I was in Thailand for the longest time not because I wanted to be there but because I got engaged to the wrong woman.

It's not as interesting as people think it is. It's bursts of "adventure and travel" between long stretches of work tedium where I stand in front of kids that don't want to be there, adults that do want to be there (I like teaching grownups way more than kids) and paperwork, paperwork, paperwork....and sitting in front of my PC because PC parts are easier to find than consoles, less likely to be counterfeit and way cheaper internationally. It's a 40 hour grind, so you don't always have time to do much else. The pay is usually about $2000 per month in China/Korea/Japan and $1000 in SE Asia. You need a BA to work anywhere but I do recomend everybody give it a try for a year after colelge. Living (Not Vacationing) internationally is an eye opening experience (It's why I cringe a bit when the guys ask Danny silly questions).

Before folks think it's a quick trip to live in Japan, Japan is one of the hardest to get into due to their economy being in the toilet since the tsunami. I'd recommend Korea. It's the least sketchy, highest paying and most comfortable place to move into. You get a free apartment and full medical and $2000 per month. It's getting harder to get in their since they stopped putting teachers in high school and middle school, but folks can still get in.

As for how to do it, I used a company called Footprints Recruiting but you should really do your own homework for months before deciding on how you would want to go over there.

Wow, my own thread and I went wildly off-topic. Well, anyway, I hope I'm able to get it. If not, well, I paid for it, I'll pirate it. I'll be in China anyway.

@aelric: I could see how it can be tiring but it's a pretty unique experience to have I believe. I'm thinking about going to a few countries in Asia as well. As far as living goes I'd be mostly interested in Japan/South Korea/Taiwan.

I'll see how it goes, I'm applying for a scholarship in Japan so I can do my masters there, 'levelling up' my Japanese in the process. For Korean and Taiwan for the time being I'll just keep studying Korean (just started for fun) and I'm planning on learning Mandarin next year.

Since I majored in Computer Science it's so much easier to find jobs anywhere on the globe so I'll focus on that. That might also be one of the few areas where one could get a decent job nowadays (assuming you can speak the language) in Japan. It's hard to recommend the place otherwise due to the economy, even prior to the tsunami. It would be pretty cool be living there, eventually being able to speak the 3 most relevant languages there (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) plus any other you might happen to know. Korea does seem more accessible indeed.

Anyway, I DO find it very interesting what you're doing, especially because I'd be up to something like that and I'm pretty aware of what I'd be getting into, tedium moments included. Even if I don't plan on teaching English I'll have a look at this company you mentioned.

Back to steam, I found the following:

"Games bought in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia are only playable for those countries. They currently have Dark Souls 2 for $ 50.

Games bought in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Bahamas, Belize, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Suriname, El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela are only playable in those countries. These countries also have Dark Souls for $ 50, except for Brazil. Brazil has Dark Souls for $ 37.

They investigated further and generally found restrictions applied to these South East Asian and South American countries, whereas US Steam account owners could buy region free copies, at the same or lower prices."

Source

It'll be fine then!

By the way, back to the uh... topic, I played Dark Souls offline and I don't regret but I want online this time around. Playing offline is not a deal breaker for me however. Also, I forgot to say before but Bioshock 2 was not bad at all! I can see how it could be disappointing though. Now, Dragon Age 2... yes, pretty unlucky with that one. And I'll stop now, wrote too much. :P

@edsone: Bioshock 2 was alright, but not $50 alright. I'd have rather gotten it on a steam sale than day one.

Yeah, you are doing Computer stuff, it's easily the work that people can get these days. I studied literature and while I feel like I'm a better conversationalist for it, it's crap for work, thus, my little adventure in Teaching has sort of turned into my career, at least thus far at the age of 33. You sound like you've already got a solid plan. Stick to it but remember that studying and visiting is not living and working in these countries. Part of why I advise everyone to travel and LIVE in another country for at least a year is for both the good and the bad. It takes both to really appreciate both the place you are and the place you are from. It'll also open your eyes to things you'll never experience otherwise. As a white guy in the US, I never knew what racial discrimination was like. I still don't, by comparison, but I have a better understanding about what some folks go through after being denied service, being spit on and having racist shit hurled at me. I'm not saying it's good that I experienced that stuff, but that I think I took the right lessons from it. And on the other side, in those same countries, I've experienced hospitality and friendliness like nothing you find in the US. I one talked to a guy in the Seoul subway for about 5 minutes and an hour later I found myself sitting with his whole family having a fantastic diner. Also, at least in Korea, your fellow expats tend to be a tight knit, auto-friend group fairly free of cliques because whatever you were at home, you are in the same boat now. Thailand want's as great with other expats, but that is because a lot of them are old men with 15 year old Thai wives and you don't want anything to do with them. That's just SE Asia, though, guys still buy their wives down there on the lowdown.

I never got to spend time in Japan. It was sort of the motivation for going, but the appeal of japan has faded as I've gotten older. China has a more interesting history IMO and...well...they still hire easily and with my experience I'll be making $40,000 yearly, which I'd never get in the states. Japan only gave me lowball offers at around $20,000 per year and even those were so competitive, plus it's expensive as hell in Japan while dirt cheap in China, so my money will stretch out a lot farther and instead of a crap studio I should be able to get a nice condo in the city.

As you get ready to travel, feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I can't answer for japan in general, but UI can give you the warts and all low down about expat life.