Civ IV in Malaysia - Problem with Piracy

[Roman]

I have moved to Malaysia a few weeks ago and the situation with respect to piracy here is not good. I have scoured several shopping malls and software stores and I am convinced that all the merchandise they sell is pirated. Games (and movies) are sold on a per CD basis and each CD costs 5RM (about $1.50)... The depressing thing about it is that these shops look like ordinary stores in normal shopping malls and even give receits and refunds if there are problems with the merchandise. I have not found a single store which I think is selling legitimate/legal games.

I would like to ask any Malays or indeed anybody living in Malaysia that frequents these boards if they know of some place in Kuala Lumpur that sells legal copies of computer games, as I would like to get the game as soon as it comes out (and I cannot do internet orders). Thank you for your kind help.

[Freddz]

Perhaps you can postorder from amazon or the like?

[Roman]

Originally posted by Freddz
Perhaps you can postorder from amazon or the like?

As I mentioned I cannot order from the internet (I don't even have a credit card...). I am sure there simply must be some place here that sells legitimate copies of games - I have only been here for a few weeks thus far - hopefully somebody who is more knowledgable about local conditions will turn up and give me some advice where such legitimate copies can be found here.

[Freddz]

Ok sorry. Read your message too fast it seems.

[Brizey]

Good luck. My wife is from Ipoh, Malaysia. There are basically no legit outlets for media.

Roman is not kidding or exaggerating, by the way. You can by prirated DVD's and computer software in the mall, pay with a credit card, get a receipt, exchange defectives, etc. etc.

[Nikolai]

Shocking.

[Solver]

That's how it also is here! There are pirated software disks in the malls, and I know of several small shops that sell exclusively pirated stuff - hundreds of disks. At the same time, we started getting legal games less than two years ago - prior to that, you would be very lucky to find a legal game.

And even that doesn't solve the problem. The legal games that are sold here are DVD-cases, not boxes - thus, any game that ships only in boxed versions is unavailable. Or at least I haven't found a place selling those so far.

[Freddz]

Nikolai,

Not really. Poverty and exclusion is terrible and demands action for the civ-hungry malaysian population.

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by Nikolai
Shocking.

Actually this is a big problem in a lot of places.

[Nikolai]

I remember it was a shop in Prague doing the same when I was there during the summer 2004, but it wasn't everywhere, and you could get original games there.

[Proteus_MST]

What about the laws in Malaysia?

Don´t they have some kind of copyright laws which makes such things illegal?
Or is it just a question of how much the shop owners pay to bribe the local police?

[Fidel]

serbian game shops sell only a couple of original games. it is impossible to order pc games from online retailers because of their ****** shipping restrictions. i managed to find somebody to bring me civ4, but all you can do (again, because of idiotic shipping restrictions) is throw yourself at the pirates. it usally takes at least 3-4 months for a good-selling game to appear at legit shelves here.

[Boris Godunov]

I be the Pirate of Men's Pants, yarrrrrrr.

[General Ludd]

edit by markg: another post like this and you get a free vacation

[rush]

I haven't been to KL for quite some time, so my suggestion may not work .....

You can go to book shops (Times, MPH, Popular) in bigger shopping malls like KLCC, I am quite sure they sell CD Rom games. The release date may be later though.