Games I've Played Recently

[Josiah]

Actually there are region locks of sorts on old cartridge systems (it's really only most handhelds that are region lock free), but they're not quite as complicated to circumvent.

[Blastotoise]

what's the point of region locks?

(I would post this in the Video Game discussion thread, except there isn't one)

[Shadowman]

"OMG games are imported from other countries? BAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!"

That's how I see it.

[Josiah]

There's a Random Japan Comment on region locks somewhere in my travelogue that you might want to track down. But, for the short answer, it helps companies control what is released in what country and how much each country has to pay.

[Neo Zanther]

Still playing FE: Path of Radiance. I'm getting near the end. I think I have 4 more chapters to go and then I'm doing the new game+ thing and get all the people, try and get all the chests, and the items in the desert and defently giving out the bonus exp diffrently (I gave some to people who really didn't need any)

[Saber Knight]

Yayz! I luv Fire Emblem. What chapter are you on? Ther are either 28 or 29 chapters, I can never remember (the last chapter being named "Endgame" throws me off).

Still on Radiant Dawn in Hard Mode, but I'm now at Endgame for part 3. What's sad is I just learned that in order for it to count as a second playthrough, you have to start a game on the clear data WHICH I DIDN'T. Now I can't get Pelleas :(. It's kinda depressing.
So, I'm gonna have to play though the game again, but I'll probably do it on Normal mode. I still need to finish up my Hard Mode file, though. I'm not looking forward to Endgame part 4. 5 stages of terror and pain. *shudder*

[Josiah]

Got 100% on Sly Cooper. Next up, probably Folklore for the PS3. But I'm gonna hold off a few days to try and finish Crisis Core first (still like 150 missions to go) but I'm nearly to the final save point story wise. I really need the break damage limit ability...

[Cheezdude]

There's a Random Japan Comment on region locks somewhere in my travelogue that you might want to track down. But, for the short answer, it helps companies control what is released in what country and how much each country has to pay.

Random Japan Comment: Region Lock
Actually, this has to do with pretty much the entire world, not just Japan, but I'm been getting some questions about it lately so I figured I might as well do a full write up here. See, when Super Mario Galaxy launched in Japan, and now that Super Smash Brothers Brawl is available (and won't be in the US for another month or so), I've had people asking if I'm going to get a Japanese copy of the games so I could play them early. Considering that neither game requires extensive Japanese skills to play (I'm steadily improving but something with a ton of very important text or dialogue, like a Final Fantasy game, would be more than I can handle right now), I would have considered getting a Japanese copy...except that I wouldn't be able to do anything with it besides stare at the box because of the region lock.
So what is region lock? It's essentially a way to kill, or at least greatly deter, the importing of a variety of multimedia products from one country to another. It affects commercially released DVDs, BlueRay movies, and most video games systems, and prevents you from playing media from one region with a device from another region.
Basically, you first divide the world into regions (North America, Europe, Japan, etc). Then, when a disc is made for x region, some data is placed on the disc that tells the player what region it's from. Similarly, DVD players/drives, game systems, etc have something in the hardware that tells them what region they were designed for. If the disc isn't from the same region as the player, the player will refuse to load the disc. (Interestingly enough though, the way the world is divided up isn't consistent across all media types).
There are some ways around region lock. For example, it's possible to buy special DVD players that will play DVDs from any region. Also, really old game systems are usually also fairly easy to bypass since back then, instead of a real region lock, they just made it so a cartridge from one region wouldn't fit in the slot in another region's system, something that can be easily fixed with special converters or, in some cases, by simply shaving some excess plastic off the casing. Unfortunately, getting past the region locks in a newer game system (from around the original Playstation and on) or a normal DVD player can be rather difficult. Some game systems can be tricked with a swap disc (a special disc from the correct region that loads properly then gets switched with the other disc) but for most of them, and for DVD players, you'd actually need to open up the system and install a mod chip, which requires at least a bit of electrical know how and voids your warranty. Even worse, the newer game systems frequently update their software via the internet (you can disable it, but doing so may leave you unable to play the newest games or access certain features such as online play) and it's not unheard of for these updates to mess up, or in some cases completely break, modded systems. So, in most cases, if you want to safely enjoy movies or games from another region, you have to buy a whole new DVD player, game system, etc from that region.
So what doesn't have region locks? CDs for one, and current HD-DVDs. Also, all of Nintendo's handheld game systems (the Gameboy, GBC, GBA, and DS) and a few random (and mostly unheard of) systems. Then there's some game systems that are inconsistent. For example, the PSP region locks UMD movies but plays games from any region...unless said games are specifically region locked by the game's developer (something that at this point in time is extremely rare). The Xbox and Xbox 360 also leave it up to the developers, so a good chunk of their games are locked but some aren't. The PS3 is the same...but only for PS3 games. DVD movies, BlueRay movies, and PS1 and PS2 games are all locked. So yeah, it's a bit complicated.
By now you're probably wondering what the point of region locks is in the first place. In many cases the language barrier isn't going to make a whole lot of people want to import things to begin with and even so, what's wrong with letting people important movies and games if they want to? Well, there's a couple of reasons. First off, sometimes movies and games are published by different companies in different regions. If you only buy from your region, it ensures that the local distributer gets the money for it instead of the foreign one. Region locks also act as an effective, though questionably legal, way of price fixing. For example, in Australia DVD movies typically cost 2 or 3 times as much as they do in the US. There was originally a half decent reason for the high prices (can't remember what it was though) but when that reason disappeared, the DVD companies figured that, as long as people were paying that much, they might as well keep the prices the same and increase their profits instead of passing the savings on to the consumers. In many cases it would actually be a decent amount cheaper for people in Australia to important DVDs from the US than to buy them there (and since they speak English, there wouldn't be any language issues). So what stopped a huge import market from forming? Region locks. Japan is in a somewhat similar situation. DVDs in Japan are typically very expensive, especially box sets. Even with the language barrier, there are some dual language DVDs they could import from the US (anime for example) for less than a quarter of what they'd pay for the Japanese version. But once again, region locks make the process a whole lot more complicated.
When it comes to video games, especially importing games from Japan to the US and vice versa, the prices are often close enough that importing new games wouldn't offer any significant savings. Also, with a few exceptions, the language barrier would prevent most people from importing games and those that did would probably focus more on the games that never received a commercial release outside for their home region anyway (Japan especially has a huge amount of games that are never released anywhere else), so region lock doesn't seem quite so necessary. Actually, the big thing with region locked game systems right now is to stop people in Europe from importing US games and systems. Video game systems especially tend to be considerably more expensive in Europe than the US (up to double the price in some cases, which is quite a lot when you're dealing with an item that costs several hundred dollars to begin with).
When all is said and done, the legality of region locking in most countries is questionable. In some countries, such as Australia, certain aspects of it have been successfully challenged in court (all new DVD players there are now required to be sold with a chip installed that bypasses the region lock). But, like the not exactly legal DRM (digital rights management) locks put into commercial DVDs and most music purchased online (MP3s, ITunes stuff, etc), it's probably not going to go away any time soon.

[Sora_Chaos]

Still playing Kingdom Hearts, finally got all the drops i needed...it amazing how you can camp for an item for hours and never get it, quit for the day, come back the next and get them in about a half hour -_-.

[Josiah]

I finally got the items in Crisis Core that break the HP and damage limits. The rest of the missions are going a lot faster now.

[Blastotoise]

Still playing Kingdom Hearts, finally got all the drops i needed...it amazing how you can camp for an item for hours and never get it, quit for the day, come back the next and get them in about a half hour -_-.

Do you have the LuckyLuckyLucky setup?

[Sora_Chaos]

yeah, of course i did, that what surprised me the most was have the Lucky Lucky Lucky setup and no drops

[Doodleshark]

I've gotten back into World of Warcraft... I've also been playing a lot of of Diablo II, Battlefield: Bad Company and Call of Duty 4.

[Saber Knight]

Randomly decided to play a bit of Roller Coaster Tycoon Delux today. Not sure why, just kinda did.

Still playing Radiant Dawn, though. I'm on Part 4: Chapter 1

[Cheezdude]

Randomly decided to play a bit of Roller Coaster Tycoon Delux today. Not sure why, just kinda did.