No Export for You/Headscratchers

That the majority of the examples on the main page are made by North-Americans really bugs me. Compared to Europeans and Australians, those guys get the bleedin' royal treatment. "Oh woe, a product is delayed that most of the world won't even see the release of, I'd best complain about our unfair treatment". Okay, I sound bitter, but frankly I'm just jealous.
- Maybe if you were to try posting examples of stuff Europe and Australia never got...Especially since some games that don't make it to North America never make it to Europe and Australia either. It's not that hard to do so, you seem to have plenty of examples...
- This Aussie trope agrees to the point she was grinning like a Cheshire cat when the Europe release of Fatal Frame(Project Zero) 4 was announced and none for the US... nope not feeling much sympathy there... I know I should but... Welcome to my world!
- This Aussie troper also agrees. Not to mention that America itself refuses to export products beyond its borders, or delays it like hell. Even sites like Hulu won't let anyone outside of the US watch their content. So, my American friends? Don't whinge.
  - Note that most games in Austrailia would more likely get banned if it got an M rating or an 18+ rating in most other areas. It's not the companies fault, just the dumbass raters.
  - This troper's classmate (in college) actually has the same to say to you Europeans..because you "don't have to drive all the way to Cape Town or Johannesburg to even find and arcade let alone a video game store with new releases"
  - But... isn't whin(g)ing the whole point of this trope?
- Being European? Try being European of small language group. You'll be amazed if a series is brought with local subtitles, unless it's from the US or Britain.
  - Yep - When you live in Poland, you have to deal with translations that are even worse than those of Zero Wing on top of not having a polish track, and if you live in Cyprus...let's just say you have to know English, French, or German because they probably don't even have the manuals in Greek let alone the actual game.
    - I've seen Polish dubs, I feel for you. The difference in quality between the german ones and the polish ones is..wow.
- Try living in New Zealand!
  - Or Cyprus.
  - Fellow Kiwi troper empathises with you (and sympathy for the troper of Cyprus).
- If it bothers you that most of the examples are made by North-Americans, then maybe...um...make more yourself? We're not claiming to have it worst.
  - Tried that. So far all of them have been deleted for various reasons. Nevermind that whinier and less on-topic examples still stand today. This troper finds whines to be funny, though, as long as it's sympathetic.
    - The record shows that he made two such edits, both of which were deleted at one time by an edit that edited several other lines in a stated attempt to eliminate a general whining tone. I would not call that bias against European examples, but rather bias against snark. I recommend trying again without quite as much edge.
    - Okay, as long as we're in agreement that whining belongs on the page while snark doesn't. I mean it's the "no export for you" page. Whining about not getting awesome products released in other regions is the purpose and designated function of the page. Also funny.
- The reason they're mostly by North Americans: a) That's what most Tropers are. b) When a game doesn't make it to North America, it's fairly notable. Unfortunately, when it doesn't make it to other territories, it's just routine. And when it makes it to other territories but not the US, it leaves this troper annoyed -- I want Michigan, Siren 2, Maken Shao, and the earlier Oneechanbara games. And they're already in English... just kept from me by the virtual nonexistence of video game import shops that sell EU games and systems to NA customers.
- Americans being most of the tropers certainly doesn't count as an excuse. I'm pretty sure there are certain European games that have made their way over the Atlantic but not the Pacific (like Beyond Good and Evil), at which case there will be those just as intruiged to find out what the hype is all about.
  - It's not an excuse, but it is an explanation. Of course whatever population is dominant will post more to things like this.
- Oh, and bad news -- Fatal Frame 4 was going to come to both the US and EU... and both have been announced not to be coming after all. EU held out longer, but No E has finally said they have "no plans" to bring it over. Of course, there are some hints that they're lying, but there's no obvious reason for them to be.
- So North Americans have no right to say "Darn it I want that game" because you have it worse? You shouldn't either then - Especially you lucky British people; who don't get games you want banned by the local government like Dubai did to Grand Theft Auto IV.
  - Nah, the original point was just that the ones who notably have it worse should be complaning louder than those who don't. Which is currently not the case. But in hindsight it'd very quickly devolve into a contest along the lines of "Oh yeah, well back in my day we had to trudge through nine miles of snow to pick up the post-"
    - Then technically, South Americans and Africans should be complaining the loudest. Yes, even Brazil.
      - My former classmate can attest to that, I showed him this page and he just burst out into laughter, mostly because he can count on one hand how many games made it to Argentina, and a lot of the import stores only had stuff from Tec Toy (Meaning Sega systems), so naturally, when he came out to America, he was wowed upon finding stuff like Super Mario 64 on a handheld.
- Just because you have it worse doesn't mean that it not coming to NA isn't annoying. Just because I pity how little you get doesn't mean it's magically better when NA doesn't get a game.
On a completely different subject, has anyone else ever suffered a literal interpetation of this trope? As in, not even being able to purchase the original-language releases from a store that specializes in importing such things, because even that tiny, specialied niche market isn't large enough for them to justify the price?
- European games. Very few import shops carry them at all, and when they do, it's big-name stuff that there's no reason you wouldn't just buy the US version for, rather than niche games that made it to Europe but not the US.
- It might have something to do with zealous enforcement of laws like 17 USC 602, which states that the "first sale" exception doesn't apply to importation. Customs stops imported copies at the border.
- This troper's Brazilian classmate has had something similar to that - the import stores that had movies&games didn't seem to realize that DVD players, game consoles, etc are actually coded differently per region, so you could buy a DVD of something only to realize it's not working on your player. They also had imported novels but those aren't coded, so go nuts. (Some people actually do import books from other countries so they can learn a second language, to justify having them)
- This Swiss troper loathes dubbing if the original is in English. Getting DVDs that include original language? No problem. Gettings video games? Not quite as easy... For example, Call of Duty 4 is a lot more enjoyable with characters speaking with American, English, and Scottish accents than everyone speaking the same sterile Standard German (which is still foreign to my Swiss ears).
You know, we could just have sections/folders for various regions...
- Gah! You and your Earth Logic!
Hulu gets a lot of Internet Backdraft for the "USA only" policy, but how much of it is them, and how much is content owner going all Knight Templar over protecting their content, and how much is governments wanting to keep out something that their Moral Guardians have a harder time blocking? Let's direct our ire in the proper direction.
- Hell no! I'm mad as hell, and I'm going to shoot the messenger.
The thing that bugs me the most about this trope is that this trope focuses on games,anime, etc. that don't make it to North America/Europe/Australia from Japan. How come it is never the other way around? I'm not Japanese, but it'd be nice to see that example of the trope more often just to show that not everybody gets what they want to have from other countries.
- Because the wiki is in English, and thus most of us aren't from Japan and therefore don't pay much attention to what gets exported there?
  - Because that's so very seldom the case. Japan will almost always get what the US and Europe gets, even if it wasn't originally made there.
So wait, regarding the recent announcement and slight backlash of Fire Emblem: Awakening, am I the only one who thinks that NA-gamers were just Properly Paranoid? EU people were saying "Don't whinge, it was announced for EU, it's gonna get a NA release sometime". Well, games that were announced for PAL first, yet not for NA, with no interest in localizing them? Well given Nintendo's past record with this, I can't say I blame NA gamers for really wanting some confirmation that yes it was being released out in NA.
PBS Passport. It doesn't do the one thing any good passport must do to be useful... namely allow you to travel to other countries. Oops.