Living in Eastern Europe on a Budget

Sentagur

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Yes, Lambourne Lambourne , and it is more tragic than that in Romania. Because 46% of the Romanians have 264 Euros minimum wage and 16 % have high wages of 455 Euros, everyone in between has salaries that are higher than the minimum wage, but the difference is minimal.
First of all, a lot of jobs are pushed right to the minimum wage, jobs that are not payed as such in Western Europe.
There are profession that are payed more than the minimum wage, but the difference in pay is less than 30 Euros per month, less than the price of a freaking Xcom game collection.

A primary school teacher has minimum wage in Romania.
A high-school teacher has a salary with 20 Euros higher than the minimum wage. And must be university graduates, with masers degrees.
I know teachers are not well payed anywhere, but they are not payed just 20 euros above minimum wage.
University teachers, with doctorates earned in Western Europe Universities, earn a whooping double the minimum wage, but that is just 264 Euros more than the minimum wage.

The sound engineers at the company I work for earn minimum wage. Janitors are payed bellow the minimum wage because they are not hired with work contracts.
Telemarketers, minimum wage.

An accountant in Romania, during the first five years gains like 50 euros above the minimum wage. A buyer that works in the procurement office at Celestica, an multinational company that opened a factory in my town, earns 25 euros above minimum wage. And Celestica has a net worth of 1 point 3 bilion dollars. The factory workers that work in the Celestica factory from my town earn... you guessed it.. minimum wage.


Edit... Yes, sorry, Utnayan, I will stop now and I will no longer reply to this thread. Thank to those that had kind words for me.

Dont listen to the haters, they have no concepts of how life works outside their comfortable western bubbles. I also hope that if you life situation changes one day you will recognize that it was a good game and you will drop some cash on it or its successor.
Also start a youtube channel, that Vee guy migh be good but it takes physical effort to listen to him for any stretch of a time so he needs some competition.
 
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Lambourne

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sounds like a good plan. how should he get there?

There's organizations that provide transport and housing for various jobs in Western Europe, especially seasonal work. Tons of jobs in Europe list free accomodation, that's entirely for people like him. ( ie Skilled Labor/Trades Jobs in Belgium <br> Search & Apply / Post Jobs for Free )

They take part of the income as compensation of course but people still come out well ahead of what they make back east. Save some bucks, learn a language and he could do even better a few years on.

Seriously I get it, life is better in the west. There's a reason all these Africans are trying to get into Europe. He's ten steps ahead of them because he's legal to work anywhere in the EU. Opportunity is there, he just needs to take it.
 
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BrutulTM

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Edit... Yes, sorry, [IMG]https://www.firesofheaven.org/data/avatars/s/1/1110.jpg?1492713455[/IMG] Utnayan , I will stop now and I will no longer reply to this thread.

Don't stop posting because of a couple flamers. If no one has called you a retard on this board then you are just not posting much. I for one would like to hear more about the situation there and what options like working in the west look like to you. Do you know why the economy is so depressed there? I think we used to have another poster from Romania who talked about their awesome internet which was nearly free but maybe it was you.

I was also surprised by the strong reaction to this since there is tons of talk about pirating movies/TV/Music/Sports and even threads dedicated to it on this board and I have personally been flamed/negged for suggesting that people should pay for their TV shows and whatnot.
 
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TrollfaceDeux

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actually, i can see why Eastern Europe is so fraught with piracy. Shit is so expensive per overall income. It's like buying a PS4 on a minimum wage salary...only except in this case, it is game and it is a monthly thing...

if you do pirate, do you still get to play online? That is like half of the game or more nowadays.
 

Deathwing

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Don't stop posting because of a couple flamers. If no one has called you a retard on this board then you are just not posting much. I for one would like to hear more about the situation there and what options like working in the west look like to you. Do you know why the economy is so depressed there? I think we used to have another poster from Romania who talked about their awesome internet which was nearly free but maybe it was you.

I was also surprised by the strong reaction to this since there is tons of talk about pirating movies/TV/Music/Sports and even threads dedicated to it on this board and I have personally been flamed/negged for suggesting that people should pay for their TV shows and whatnot.
gogusrl gogusrl
 
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TomServo

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Denaut comes across as some sperg acting like the simple question is tantamount to putting a gun to his head and robbing him.
 

Sentagur

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Denaut comes across as some sperg acting like the simple question is tantamount to putting a gun to his head and robbing him.
As a game dev he should realize that the options were never
a. no money, no game and
b. some money for game
Both options sometimes include NO money. The first option is the person doesnt get to play a game and in the other they do and maybe sometimes down the line they purchase it or praise it enough to their friends so someone actually buys it which generates some revenue for the game dev.
Yeah i know this doesnt sound fair and its not fair but that is life.
 

Kiroy

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Thank you kindly, Raes. Glad to see there are still decent people on this forum.

Bandwagon, I didn't acted indignant, nor entitled. I am just disgusted how easily Denaut just jumped to this conclusion.

Arden, thank you. It is funny in a sad way, but the thing is we are all like that. The vast majority of the people who live in poor countries starve even if they don't buy videogames. I do not starve if I am very careful with the money, just that at the end of the month, the balance is zero. And I am not the exception, I am the rule. This is the overpowering reality of poverty. Anyway, I don't want to give people who have no ideea how it is to live in a poor country anymore reasons to preach to me about how I am a entitled and indignant thief, so I will not respond anymore in this thread. Thank you.

I don't give a shit that you pirate stuff but it is really weird that country's with a populace that have this attitude are poor
 

Chukzombi

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ive actually never pirated a game, but i admit i do buy them deeply discounted from flea markets and thrift stores. does that make me a fucking freeloader?
 

Gurgeh

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As a game dev he should realize that the options were never
a. no money, no game and
b. some money for game
Both options sometimes include NO money. The first option is the person doesnt get to play a game and in the other they do and maybe sometimes down the line they purchase it or praise it enough to their friends so someone actually buys it which generates some revenue for the game dev.
Yeah i know this doesnt sound fair and its not fair but that is life.
I simply don't know anyone that didn't massively pirate games in the 80's 90's. No money was ever lost to the industry as we were spending already as much as we could, and the gaming industry grew with our wallets. I'm playing a tenth of what I used to play back then, but I sure spend 10x as much now. The games I purchase nowadays are overwhelmingly related to those I pirated back then, and had I not pirated them back then, I still wouldn't have purchased them and I wouldn't be purchasing what I am purchasing today.

I even think that the industry is shooting itself in the foot by making it more difficult for the younger people today to pirate their shit, as what they will spend during their lifetime on video games is most likely heavily correlated to the time they'll spend playing while being 6-15 yo with little money to spend.
 
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Gavinmad

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You mean as a game developer that derives my living off selling the fruits of my labor I am disgusting for wanting compensation for my work? How about you fuck right off. "Downloads" are not something the government let's me pay taxes in, nor the bank accepts as mortgage payments. And if that wasn't bad enough they aren't terribly nutritious.

I don't expect you to mop jizz for free at your job, so I expect the same consideration in return. You can take that "boo hoo I'm poor" attitude and shove it right up your ass. I've worked on enough "free to play" mobile games to see the data on how much poor developing countries (including Romania) blow on worthless non-games for nothing but spreadsheet numbers in return, so when someone from one of those places steals a real game that is more than worth its price I see right through that bullshit.

I rarely ever pirate games anymore, but I'm gonna dedicate my next 10 downloads from IPtorrents to you.
 
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Hateyou

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I pirated when I had no money, they weren’t going to get my money whether I did or not.

I pirated when I had money as a preview, due to mismarketing, paid reviews, etc. The industry is allowed to completely misrepresent what you’re getting. I got tired of getting burned buying garbage, other industries aren’t allowed this freedom and I don’t think games should be either.

Now I no longer pirate, because I have money and Steam allows two hours of play and you can refund it if it’s shit. I didn’t like pirating and I am thankful for this policy.
 
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Ritley

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Buying a used game from GameStop is literally raping denaut.

Treating everyone that pirates shit the same is retarded. Some pirate because they are cheap pieces of shit. Some pirate because they can’t afford it to begin with. Some pirate because it’s more convenient than the alternative (or there is no real alternative). Some do it to try shit they wouldn’t normally purchase and then end up fans and purchase sequels or the retail game, or if it sucks they don’t.
 
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Chukzombi

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Buying a used game from GameStop is literally raping denaut.

Treating everyone that pirates shit the same is retarded. Some pirate because they are cheap pieces of shit. Some pirate because they can’t afford it to begin with. Some pirate because it’s more convenient than the alternative (or there is no real alternative). Some do it to try shit they wouldn’t normally purchase and then end up fans and purchase sequels or the retail game, or if it sucks they don’t.
i'm a confirmed cheap fuck. if i can get something for less, i will. only a retard is paying full assfuck price on a video game.
 

Borzak

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I only pirated a few games in the mid 80's off a BBS because we had limited computer stores and that was pretty much the only option to get. Maybe 4-5 of them. Would ask about X game at a store and they were like "I dunno". Not that market it is now.
 

Ritley

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Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever pirated a game that I hadn’t already bought in the past. Shit like Warcraft where I used to own it but have zero chance of finding the disc and activation code.

Or some old nes/snes games that you can’t really buy anywhere anymore
 

Ritley

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i'm a confirmed cheap fuck. if i can get something for less, i will. only a retard is paying full assfuck price on a video game.
Oh I agree, I’ve stopped buying anything at release anymore. There are a few exceptions for games/companies I really like, but I’ve been waiting for games to hit the 20-30 dollar range for awhile now. Used to get the GCU 20% off discount combined with the $10 reward for preorders, but with that shit long gone I’m back to waiting
 
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Fogel

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I pirated when I had no money, they weren’t going to get my money whether I did or not.

I pirated when I had money as a preview, due to mismarketing, paid reviews, etc. The industry is allowed to completely misrepresent what you’re getting. I got tired of getting burned buying garbage, other industries aren’t allowed this freedom and I don’t think games should be either.

Now I no longer pirate, because I have money and Steam allows two hours of play and you can refund it if it’s shit. I didn’t like pirating and I am thankful for this policy.

Same here. I stopped buying music and pirated most of it because there was a point in the 90's when bands stopped releasing albums with 8 good tracks and instead it was the one good track they released on the radio followed by 10 tracks of filler garbage. The music industry never got a dime of my money till they stopped fighting against digital and I could either preview the album/song or buy single songs.
 
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Blazin

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wamphyr wamphyr just wanted to make clear now that this is a separate thread you can respond all you like if it's an issue you want to discuss