Gaming in South Africa?

There is nothing quite as awful as the first time you look at the South African Apple ITunes Store and it resembles the Karoo – not quite a desert, but the one or two smatterings of vegetation isn’t fooling anyone…
First, the cause: Censorship. South Africa demands control and review of certain apps. South African legislation dictates that our games need to be rated by the FPB. This is a governing body which says that games needs to be rated in such a way that parents can identify the  content and make informed decisions.This game rating process costs R2000but it can however be deferred, when a large amount of smaller games are sold as in the Mobile environment as WAP (wireless access protocol) downloadable games. Apple, it seems has chosen to take the easy way out and just block the whole category.
Sadly, this is typical of Apple’s attitude toward markets that it considers ‘non-core.’ South Africa is also falling foul of a legislative system that simply was not designed for the realities of digital distribution. Apple has for years ignored a bursting market with burning credit cards here in South Africa.

No Games. No Music. No Movies. No TV Shows. So basically everything that the iTunes has to offer is “not available for purchase in your region”.
For those of us who are not willing to go back to the days of being restricted to what we can and can not view there is a way to “work the system”
1. Set up a new Gmail/Hotmail or any other online email account. This is what you will use for your new Apple ID. Because this email account is web based they will never know where you actually are based.
2. Purchase some itunes gift cards. If they do not ship to where you live then you can have them emailed by Apple. There are instructions on the Apple website
3. Create a new apple ID on the apple website. Do not enter credit card info. Set your location to somewhere in the United States. Google an address in the United States ( a McDonalds or Starbucks is good)
4. Grab your i-device. If you are already logged in to your Itunes account from South Africa then go to settings-app store- and log out of your Apple ID.
5. Now Go into the blue App Store app and find an app that is free. Click to download the app.
6. It will prompt you to enter an account. Log in to the account we created in step 3
7. Select the US app store (not the South African) and confirm the Itunes policy.
8. Follow through to payment. Unless you have a US credit card I would recommend you enter a gift card code into the gift card space. By doing this you are able to bypass the credit card area.
If you have the new iPad or you would like to use your credit card for purchases, another way to get around the system is to enter your credit card billing information (but fill in Nairobi as the city and use the postal code 00100 ).Google a Nairobi phone number. This way you can use your South African credit card to make purchases.
With either of these very simple changes you will soon be throwing birds at pigs – Enjoy