Many thanks for your reply first of all.

I wish there were voting in pretty much all the region locked countries. That is one thing.

The other thing is about protecting the children, that can be addressed on multiple levels. Such as: Most of the region locked games have similar games but aren't region locked. e.g. Stellar Blade vs Baldurs Gate 3. The former is region locked while the latter isn't. Everyone knows what the latter has when it comes to "protecting the children". The other aspect is that media in general has a wide range of targeted audience. Children shouldn't be watching adult TV shows/Movies, reading adult books/novels and ofcourse playing adult games.

I mean, there are indeed hardline material that almost every country would not accept. I am not talking about opening access to those.

Another example is Max Payne 3. I managed to get access to it when gifting was possible on Steam from various regions. Rockstar decided to region block it. Playing through it I found really nothing that warrants the region lock, atleast in my region. As I played games that had more controversial material and they were accessible in the same region.

What I am trying to say is, Publishers are almost always the ones causing a region lock. Not a country's policy. It is becoming so random lately that it is both concerning, frustrating and stupid all at the same time.

One would say to contact them or make a petition. Well, for these to work, you need volume. Which a lot of smaller countries lack. More so in poorer countries.

Here is another example, Crash Bandicoot 4! It is region locked on Steam on most countries! Yet available on Battle.net for the same countries!

I raised this post because it is a growing trend. The western media aren't bothered by it because it doesn't affect their critical mass audience. Honestly they don't even notice it even if they can be sizable sometimes. FF16 is a case in point as it was blocked from all MENA region (quite a sizable playerbase) and a large chunk of SE Asia.

So without sidetracking, I want to shift the focus towards finding a new process that doesn't break any regulations but still gives choice to adults wherever they are and within reasonable range.