GameFly redirect links to the main page

u_u_

This issue is definitely related to region-specific redirections. I tested it with my native IP (German), and then via vpn-connections to UK and US. Only with the us-ip did the links work, non-us-users are redirected to the co.uk-homepage. Conversely, I wasn't able to use direct gamefly.co.uk-links with the us-ip, because it redirected to the .com-homepage. I suppose the most practical thing would be to have your redirect.php script make a distinction based on the user's region-preference when processing gamefly-links. This way, it could provide a gamefly.com-url for everyone using the us-region-setting and gamefly.co.uk for the others.

EDIT: Never mind, it's more complicated than that. Gamefly uses separate product-ids and (in some cases) different product-name in their shops, so a simple replacement of the tld isn't enough. Maybe, Gamefly will standardise their inventory at some point. Or at least provide some kind of automatic mapping to corresponding products, when forcing the redirect rather then just changing the tld and throwing the user back to the homepage once the site doesn't get found. Only way of fixing it on the cheapshark-side of things at the moment would be to determine and store both links (for the .com- and the .co.uk-store) and serve them as suggested above with respect to the user's preference in the redirect-script.

2013-03-10T02:09:10+00:00

Comments (3)

ArmoredCavalry repo owner
- marked as minor
Looks into this, the link seems to work for me: http://cheapshark.com/l/V1wrD/0

If I had to guess I would say the issue may be cause by the user being in a region that Gamefly redirects for.

I'll leave this open for a few days, if the original submitter reads this, please let me know what region you are located in (country), and what domain (.com, etc.) Gamefly goes to on a click.
- 2013-01-24T23:48:18+00:00
ArmoredCavalry repo owner
- changed status to resolved
Resolving due to no response.
- 2013-02-06T14:59:26+00:00
u_u_
This issue is definitely related to region-specific redirections. I tested it with my native IP (German), and then via vpn-connections to UK and US. Only with the us-ip did the links work, non-us-users are redirected to the co.uk-homepage. Conversely, I wasn't able to use direct gamefly.co.uk-links with the us-ip, because it redirected to the .com-homepage. I suppose the most practical thing would be to have your redirect.php script make a distinction based on the user's region-preference when processing gamefly-links. This way, it could provide a gamefly.com-url for everyone using the us-region-setting and gamefly.co.uk for the others.

EDIT: Never mind, it's more complicated than that. Gamefly uses separate product-ids and (in some cases) different product-name in their shops, so a simple replacement of the tld isn't enough. Maybe, Gamefly will standardise their inventory at some point. Or at least provide some kind of automatic mapping to corresponding products, when forcing the redirect rather then just changing the tld and throwing the user back to the homepage once the site doesn't get found. Only way of fixing it on the cheapshark-side of things at the moment would be to determine and store both links (for the .com- and the .co.uk-store) and serve them as suggested above with respect to the user's preference in the redirect-script.
- 2013-03-10T02:09:10+00:00
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