Being in mainland Europe, that's wise.

That has nothing to do with this topic.
This too is no reason to employ a DRM system that actually stops you from playing a game just because of your current location.

As opposed to a marketing/distribution system?
He presented his point very poorly (and semi-randomly), but it is the same basic concept. Just because you live in the US, you can't play Final Trigger 32302302420. Just because you live in Japan, you can't play Medal of Crysis 5 (on Steam).
Not a perfect parallel, but same basic concept. Both have work-arounds (proxies for the Japaneses, consoles set to the appropriate region for the JRPGs). And both suck for everyone involved, but likely make sense from a marketing/distribution perspective (is it worth properly localizing something that a small minority will enjoy?).

The difference is, that these games *are* available in Japan on consoles. Which this one will be too. So it's not a matter of cost for localization -- it's already been done. Besides which, there is also a market for untranslated games especially on the PC and even now on consoles as well, now that the media is large enough to actually handle having the original English included.
Whereas his example is the choice of a US, UK, EU, AU, etc., based publisher not picking up the rights to localize a game, near all the games restricted for us on the PC are readily available on consoles if you're willing to pay the horrendous pricing and use substandard controls.
Now can you name an example where a Japanese multi-platform game has been fully localized then only ever been released on one platform in the West with a DRM system applied to all other versions of said game to prevent play in the West regardless of where you purchased it?

False. The market is merely different.
For example, Wizardry died in the west but still enjoys success in Japan, with new games and all that.
Also, datim sims.

If you get specific enough, you will always find your case to be uniquely discriminatory.
That being said: Keep in mind that there are different distributors with regard to console and PC games.
As for your specific example:
Don't some of the early Final Fantasy games count? I recall that they eventually localizedre-released a few of them on the PSX (or was it Gameboy?). So it is a multi-platform game (NES/SNES and whichever one it got ported to) that has been fully localized and released on one platform in the West (PSX/GBA) with a DRM system applied to all other versions of said game (it uses to be REALLY hard to play import games. Not sure how that applies these days), regardless of where you purchase it (buying a Japanese cartridge in the US isn't going to make it non-Japanese :p).
Like I said, not a perfect parallel. But it does show that you aren't alone in your suffering. And while that is likely more about interest than licensing/distribution agreements, the latter still plays a role. Just like how many distributors are probably concerned about whether or not there is enough interest to justify selling PC games in Japan.

actually
you are a criminal
driving without seatbelt is an offence.
USE SEATBELT YOU GOOF!
:)
I wonder why games are blocked in Japan... I have pretty good idea about australia. Regional offices (i live close to one belonging to activision :D ) have exclusivity for those games and main office cannot allow players to buy via steam. and I don't think regional offices have or even can have contracts with valve. They probably don't want to as they have contracts and other agreements with ebgames and game and probably other retailers.
with new releases if main office wants it on steam there is nothing regional office and distributors can do so they have probably an agreement where they get the cut of all steam sales...
wonder whether this is similar case with Japan. What are PC distributors, where one buys them and if that shop has any power over gaming companies...

Well, Return to Ostagar doesn't require 1.03, but the others do, yes.

It's totally understandable. If you want to not use features like steam cloud (it's great when you need to format your hard drive if you ask me) or the friend list you can just disable\ignore them, you can even launch the games from the desktop and set steam to close afterward, it's not that intrusive, even if I know it could look overkill for someone that's not searching for a marketplace or other advanced features.
It's cool to see what a friend is playing, join him if he's playing online or leaving him a message (that he can ignore) while he's playing, I use to ask "how's this game?" if a friend of mine is trying something new, and then chat a bit while he's discovering new stuff on the game. Both text and voice chat are very useful for online games, and they're much better than using the built-in game chat (when a game has one, for example Alien Breed hasn't) because you can talk in private without disturbing other players.
Each week there are awesome sales ( just took Crysis + Crysis Warhead for 17 eur ) and the fact that when you buy a game you can play it both on mac an pc (and soon linux) is a nice add-on for mac book owners
PS you can turn automatic upgrades off for the games you like to update manually, the problem with Dragon Age was that redownloading the game makes you download the most up-to-date version and not the one shipped in the retail market. In 99.9% of the cases is something you want, it's a cool feature and patches usually serves to fix bugs and improve gameplay, if Ubisoft screwed up something with DA:O it's mostly their fault

It's just DRM, and it could be a lot worse. It's not the end of the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaJuR8QaBrQ

Fixed!

Bad news? This is great - Steam's ace. In the 6-odd years I've been using Steam, I have only ever had one problem (HL2's early crash problems) and I have never, NEVER, had a problem accessing my single player games in offline mode.
Have I been lucky? Maybe, but my friends have the same Steam experience so I doubt it's luck. The rest of you infernal whiners are either just massively unlucky or just being completely over-the-top preposterous. Or both.

Jesus, enough already. I would venture to say that most of us who don't use Steam simply don't like it. If you do, then more power to you. I don't. I don't like Impulse, either, and I'm not on a crusade against either one. There are also those who have had bad experiences and don't want to go back, and that has happened to everyone with some shop or service at some point.
Steam has something in common with Linux and Firefox: if you are not using it, you are pissing someone off.

I detect a bottle of Rage, a quart of Fanboy, and a teaspoon of Butthurt.

Cool story bro