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[Derrick01]

Oh god I went to the community section to check my skyrim playtime and I noticed that I just pushed over the 100 hour mark for the last 2 weeks. Recovering from surgery is awesome!

 

[Stallion Free]

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Below are the only times they do. So most of the games in the Valve Complete Pack do not come with gift copies if you already own the game.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Hmm.

 

[volturnus]

This Meat Boy pack made me wonder why Gaijin ported the whole Bit.Trip Saga to the 3DS already but made no PC version yet..

 

[drizzle]

That is one way to put it.

It's the proper way to put it. You should either get a discount for the item you already own OR a new, giftable copy of such game.

I can understand publishers and Valve itself not wanting to do the second choice, but not providing a discount is absurd.

 

[Madrugador]

Daily Deal - Rush $2.49 (50% off)

 

[AcridMeat]

Though Anno 2070 has a bit too much bloom, that game looks gorgeous.

I want it! Why's it $50 D:

edit: Oh it's Ubisoft. Ridiculous DRM too.

 

[morningbus]

Daily Deal - Rush $2.49 (50% off)

Don't make me pull out the Venn diagram on this one guys. Game is great and a steal at 2.49.

 

[Popstar]

I can't believe people are whinging that $25 for an incredible pack of games isn't enough value. If not being able to gift copies of the games I already have is a consequence of getting such packs it is a more than reasonable trade-off. And if you only need one or two games then they're still half off.

Steam is really spoiling people.

 

[Huevos de Oro]

Steam is really spoiling people.

Can't talk about other people, but I can tell you that in my case, I have backed out of possible chances of buying cheap console games because I can't justify spending $25+ for one game I'm not even sure I want, and start thinking of how many Steam games would that amount of money give me on a good Steam sale.

 

[JaseC]

It's the proper way to put it. You should either get a discount for the item you already own OR a new, giftable copy of such game.

I can understand publishers and Valve itself not wanting to do the second choice, but not providing a discount is absurd.

I wasn't denying that, but rather pointing out that the analogy he used is one such way to express the situation.

I can't believe people are whinging that $25 for an incredible pack of games isn't enough value. If not being able to gift copies of the games I already have is a consequence of getting such packs it is a more than reasonable trade-off. And if you only need one or two games then they're still half off.

Steam is really spoiling people.

Receiving the games we pay for is "spoiling [us]"? Really? And since you haven't noticed, most if not all of these special bundles do allow you to gift the extra copies, so it's a non-issue when it comes to these promotions. The issue myself and others have is that when purchasing bundles that are not thrust into the spotlight, you do not receive all of the games you are paying for. "It's all good, because we get these occasional special deals!" is not only a leap in logic, but is almost Stockholm Syndrome.

You may not have a problem with this practice, and that's fine, but taking issue with it is hardly the petty stance you're making it out to be.

 

[Tomodachi]

Steam is really spoiling people.

I don't know. I think it's finally making people and (some) publishers understand that 70$/€/£ for a game is totally out of mind, instead.

 

[Cloudius12]

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/11588/
Magicka Complete Edition $6.24, Free to play til Sunday
man that is a really good price. I think I'm going go for it.

 

[Nabs]

Save some money and just go for the base game.

 

[Cloudius12]

Save some money and just go for the base game.

Reading around it seems most of the DLC are just skins or other mode.
And the only DLC worth buying are Vietnam and Arena DLC.
Even then, it just another mode. I guess the $2.50 is the way to go.

 

[Deleted member 10571]

Aquaria and Meat Boy and BEAT dammit! BUY IT NAO if you don't have'em!

 

[Sinatar]

http://store.steampowered.com/sub/11588/
Magicka Complete Edition $6.24, Free to play til Sunday
man that is a really good price. I think I'm going go for it.

The DLC is so not worth it, just get the base game and *maybe* vietnam.

 

[svegis]

Won't 'need' Vietnam though if you're playing with friends, as long as they have the Vietnam DLC. Only one in the party needs for all in it to play it.

 

[PaulLFC]

I can't believe people are whinging that $25 for an incredible pack of games isn't enough value. If not being able to gift copies of the games I already have is a consequence of getting such packs it is a more than reasonable trade-off. And if you only need one or two games then they're still half off.

Steam is really spoiling people.

How is it "reasonable" to expect people to pay full price for, lets say 8 games, and receive six games, while someone who owns none of the games pays the exact same price, and receives 8 games? Simple answer, it isn't.

See my analogy above. While ridiculous, it's the same concept - would you be happy if that happened to you? I doubt it. Yet it's somehow seen as "reasonable" for Steam to do this. If you're paying the same price, you should expect the exact same product as the next person, no matter how much of the product you already own.

 

[Popstar]

I wasn't denying that, but rather pointing out that the analogy he used is one such way to express the situation.



Receiving the games we pay for is "spoiling [us]"? Really? And since you haven't noticed, most if not all of these special bundles do allow you to gift the extra copies, so it's a non-issue when it comes to these promotions. The issue myself and others have is that when purchasing bundles that are not thrust into the spotlight, you do not receive all of the games you are paying for. "It's all good, because we get these occasional special deals!" is not only a leap in logic, but is almost Stockholm Syndrome.

You may not have a problem with this practice, and that's fine, but taking issue with it is hardly the petty stance you're making it out to be.

Yes, the horrible evil grip of Steam's terrible pricing and anti-consumer policies has left me in the grip of Stockholm Syndrome.

It's not "it's all good, because we get these occasional special deals!" but rather that these special deals are likely partially because of the no-gifting policy. Valve knows that people likely already have several games in some of the bundles they offer and take this into account when pricing. If they allowed gifting of copies it would just lead to secondary market where people would be buying bundles where they already owned all the games just to break them up and resell. This would result in pressure to move the price of the bundle towards the aggregate price of the individual games. It would become a game of making the bundle discount just small enough so it wasn't worth the trouble to scalpers. Instead of games 50% off individually and 75% off in the bundle, we'd end up with something closer to 50%/55%.

How is it "reasonable" to expect people to pay full price for, lets say 8 games, and receive six games, while someone who owns none of the games pays the exact same price, and receives 8 games? Simple answer, it isn't.

See my analogy above. While ridiculous, it's the same concept - would you be happy if that happened to you? I doubt it. Yet it's somehow seen as "reasonable" for Steam to do this. If you're paying the same price, you should expect the exact same product as the next person, no matter how much of the product you already own.

Full price? What the hell are you talking about? I'm discussing a greatly discounted bundle.

[link to Louis CK on Conan video]

 

[Popstar]

double post.

 

[faceless007]

If you buy a game at retail, then three months later buy a bundle pack that includes that game and three other games, do you expect them to give you a discount on the bundle?

 

[Madrugador]

Just got a Super Monday Night Combat Beta code in my mail

Now I just need a Dota 2 beta invitation :/

 

[PaulLFC]

Full price? What the hell are you talking about? I'm discussing a greatly discounted bundle.

The full price of the bundle, perhaps? The same price that someone brand new to Steam could sign up and purchase it for today? It's not difficult...

 

[Popstar]

If you buy a game at retail, then three months later buy a bundle pack that includes that game and three other games, do you expect them to give you a discount on the bundle?

I think the argument is in that such a scenario you could resell the copy of game you already own. Assuming it's still packaged individually and not everything on a single disc.

 

[Stumpokapow]

okay well let's just put it this way

on GOG if you own some of the discount pack, you aren't punished when you want to buy the rest. there. that's an example of another dd service doing it. we don't need stupid retail physical game analogies. valve runs the best dd service, this is an area where they've been scooped, one of the best ways to make sure they stay the best dd service is to innovate in terms of features and copy features when they fall behind.

 

[Togglesworlh]

hurrayyyyy i woke up to my steam categories having disappeared for the fifth fucking time

i'm not doing it again never ever again fffuuucckkk

Unless someone knows how I can back them up in case it happens again?

 

[Popstar]

The full price of the bundle, perhaps? The same price that someone brand new to Steam could sign up and purchase it for today? It's not difficult...

You mean the bundle with the huge 75% OFF on it? That one?

Honestly, it doesn't seem you really have an argument other than "I'm mad because someone is getting more than me". It's not really different than any other price drop. If you wait, you can get things cheaper.

 

[JaseC]

Yes, the horrible evil grip of Steam's terrible pricing and anti-consumer policies has left me in the grip of Stockholm Syndrome.

The point being that you support the practice of people not receiving what they've paid for when buying regular bundles which happen to include games they already own due to the assumption that this gives rise to promotional bundles.

It's not "it's all good, because we get these occasional special deals!" but rather that these special deals are likely partially because of the no-gifting policy. Valve knows that people likely already have several games in some of the bundles they offer and take this into account when pricing. If they allowed gifting of copies it would just lead to secondary market where people would be buying bundles where they already owned all the games just to break them up and resell. This would result in pressure to move the price of the bundle towards the aggregate price of the individual games. It would become a game of making the bundle discount just small enough so it wasn't worth the trouble to scalpers. Instead of games 50% off individually and 75% off in the bundle, we'd end up with something closer to 50%/55%.

[link to Louis CK on Conan video]

All you've done is reword my deliberately cavalier sentence. As for your theory, people can already stockpile gift copies of non-promotional bundles by purchasing them as gifts and saving them to their inventory for distribution later. Have you ever stopped by Steam Gifts when, say, a regular bundle is discounted? The website experiences an abundance of giveaways created by people with spare copies of these games. Suffice to say, your theoretical secondary market, in fact, already exists.

 

[PaulLFC]

You mean the bundle with the huge 75% OFF on it? That one?

Honestly, it doesn't seem you really have an argument other than "I'm mad because someone is getting more than me". It's not really different than any other price drop. If you wait, you can get things cheaper.

Why you keep going back to the 75% off point, I'm not sure. Not once have I said anything about the price. It could be £100, or it could be £1. My point is the same in either case - if you pay for a bundle that says it includes X number of games, you should receive X number of games with your order, not less games simply because you already own some of them.

Let me post this again, since evidently you didn't read it when I referenced it last time and instead concluded I have a problem with the price of the bundle, which I don't:

It's extremely rubbish analogy time: I think of this like buying a multipack of peppers at the supermarket. You buy a pack that has two yellow peppers and a red pepper in. You then buy another pack that has a red pepper, a green pepper and an orange pepper. Only when the cashier goes to scan the second pack through at the checkout, they say "Oh sorry, you already own a red pepper, so I'll just take this out of the pack and sell you the remaining two for the same price. Happy shopping!". It wouldn't happen with any other products, so why is it considered acceptable and "normal" on Steam?

It doesn't matter if it's games on Steam or food items, the principle is the same - if you pay for a product, you should receive the full product that you paid for.

 

[bender]

Bejeweled 3 is tempting but I think I'll hold off for the holiday sale. I've purchased way too many games lately. The Meat Boy bundle would be great if I didn't already own all the games. Machinarium is one of my favorite games of the last few years.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Why you keep going back to the 75% off point, I'm not sure. Not once have I said anything about the price. It could be £100, or it could be £1. My point is the same in either case - if you pay for a bundle that says it includes X number of games, you should receive X number of games with your order, not less games simply because you already own some of them.

Let me post this again, since evidently you didn't read it when I referenced it last time and instead concluded I have a problem with the price of the bundle, which I don't:


It doesn't matter if it's games on Steam or food items, the principle is the same - if you pay for a product, you should receive the full product that you paid for.

Steam's not a grocery store, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. NO SHARING!

 

[Popstar]

okay well let's just put it this way

on GOG if you own some of the discount pack, you aren't punished when you want to buy the rest. there. that's an example of another dd service doing it. we don't need stupid retail physical game analogies. valve runs the best dd service, this is an area where they've been scooped, one of the best ways to make sure they stay the best dd service is to innovate in terms of features and copy features when they fall behind.

Steam could do some sort of progressive system, where the more games you buy in the bundle that greater and greater the discount becomes until you get to the full discount. Noone could complain about that... *cough*

 

[ArjanN]

hurrayyyyy i woke up to my steam categories having disappeared for the fifth fucking time

i'm not doing it again never ever again fffuuucckkk

Unless someone knows how I can back them up in case it happens again?

It's Valve telling you that steam categories are dumb.

 

[Deleted member 10571]

That is one way to put it.

I think honestly it's a pretty fitting analogy.

 

[faceless007]

Why you keep going back to the 75% off point, I'm not sure. Not once have I said anything about the price. It could be £100, or it could be £1. My point is the same in either case - if you pay for a bundle that says it includes X number of games, you should receive X number of games with your order, not less games simply because you already own some of them.

That's bizarre logic. Outside of supermarkets and library bookstores, I'm not aware of any bundle in any market that promises "X number of products," it's always "these specific products." The price isn't determined by how many are in it. Are you saying you should be able to substitute any other game in the store of the same price for the one you already own just to maintain the $/game ratio of the bundle price?

on GOG if you own some of the discount pack, you aren't punished when you want to buy the rest.

When do they do packs as discrete bundles? I'm not aware of that; I've only see them setting a list of games on sale and you can pick and choose. That's not a pack. And in the (weird) cases where they do tiered discounts depending on how many games you buy, you are in fact punished because you can't re-purchase the games you already own to get the maximum discount on the others.

 

[Of All Trades]

It doesn't matter if it's games on Steam or food items, the principle is the same - if you pay for a product, you should receive the full product that you paid for.

But the full product that you paid for is whatever you actually paid for, not what you wanted to pay for, and at no point is Steam promising what you wanted to pay for. What is being offered in the bundles is a variation on "new customer discounts". GMG has referral coupons for new buyers: why should they get a discount when I don't? Given that almost all of the bundles offered are publisher-specific, Steam is in essence operating as a shopping mall where publishers have their own stores. I've already shopped at the Eidos store when I bought their "new customer bundle", so now I'm not eligible for it.

GoG has their own method which lines up closer to what you want but I suspect that if Steam went to the GoG method then the savings wouldn't be as good for most people because the bundle pricing is typically so deep.

 

[Popstar]

Why you keep going back to the 75% off point, I'm not sure. Not once have I said anything about the price.

Hmm.

How is it "reasonable" to expect people to pay full price for, lets say 8 games, and receive six games,

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Yeah, fuck steam selling games cheap as a bundle and not giving you additional copies of games you already own! I demand every penny worth of saving from that cheap bundle!

Also fuck the humble indie bundle and the charities it supports when it gives me a single steam code for all games contained therein!

Seriously people? On the assumption you are all mentally sound adults capable of determining your own cost : benefit analysis, take into account the fact that you get 'less' than someone else and determine if what you will get is worth the asking price; what other people may or may not get shouldn't really come into that.

 

[JaseC]

I think honestly it's a pretty fitting analogy.

I wasn't denying that, but rather pointing out that the analogy he used is one such way to express the situation.

.

Edit: Oh, there's a tongue-poking smiley at the end of that post. No wonder people are assuming I'm being sarcastic. It's gone now! Sorry, force of habit.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Ignoring the charity aspect, all Steam licenses should be transferable before activation really. If I buy a bundle that contains six games, they should be able to be bulk-activated or activated individually so I may give the games I already have away to friends. Not sure why this is controversial, personally I just think a blanket rule should apply rather than everyone having to guess whether a particular bundle allows additional copies to be gifted.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Yeah, fuck steam selling games cheap as a bundle and not giving you additional copies of games you already own! I demand every penny worth of saving from that cheap bundle!

Also fuck the humble indie bundle and the charities it supports when it gives me a single steam code for all games contained therein!

Those two situations aren't really comparable because Valve has full control over Steam bundle policies and HIB does not have full control over the way Valve sets them up

 

[Rodney McKay]

hurrayyyyy i woke up to my steam categories having disappeared for the fifth fucking time

i'm not doing it again never ever again fffuuucckkk

Unless someone knows how I can back them up in case it happens again?

I've had that happen before as well. I found out it was because the Steam on my laptop didn't have categories and when I would log on with it it would revert my desktop categories to my laptop ones.

I updated my laptop's categories and I haven't had a problem since.

 

[PaulLFC]

Right, either I'm not explaining my point well enough (probably that), or people are getting the wrong idea. So I'll try and explain it a bit better.

Lets say we have a bundle that costs $10, and includes 5 games. Person A owns no games in the bundle, pays $10, gets 5 games. This is correct. Person B already owns one of the games in the bundle. Person B pays $10, and gets 4 games. This is where I have an issue. Why shouldn't Person B get 5 games as well, and have the "extra" copy of the game they already own to gift? After all, they've paid the same price for the bundle as everybody else.

That's bizarre logic. Outside of supermarkets and library bookstores, I'm not aware of any bundle in any market that promises "X number of products," it's always "these specific products." The price isn't determined by how many are in it. Are you saying you should be able to substitute any other game in the store of the same price for the one you already own just to maintain the $/game ratio of the bundle price?

The "X number of products" was poorly worded, hopefully that will be explained a bit better above - I was referring to the fact that if a bundle contains say 5 specific different games, anyone who buys that bundle should receive all five of those games.

Hmm.

I'm sure you know full well what I mean when I say "full price" there, that being the $25 or however much the bundle costs currently. If the price is the same for all buyers, the products they receive should be the same too.

 

[The Technomancer]

I've had that happen before as well. I found out it was because the Steam on my laptop didn't have categories and when I would log on with it it would revert my desktop categories to my laptop ones.

I updated my laptop's categories and I haven't had a problem since.

That's stupid. So it doesn't store the categories online but if you log into a computer without them then it resets them on one with them? That's really stupid. It should either be full local or full cloud.

 

[Snuggles]

That's stupid. So it doesn't store the categories online but if you log into a computer without them then it resets them on one with them? That's really stupid. It should either be full local or full cloud.

Yeah, I organized my entire Steam library into categories on my PC, but I booted up Steam on my laptop the following day and the everything got reset. Thanks a lot, Gabe.

 

[JaseC]

Every time somebody asks Valve about Half-Life 3, Gabe smites the custom game categories of one unfortunate user. Or maybe it's Lombardi... it sounds like something he'd enjoy.

 

[Togglesworlh]

It's Valve telling you that steam categories are dumb.

Yes because me having a way to organize my hundreds of Steam games is dumb.

What.

I've had that happen before as well. I found out it was because the Steam on my laptop didn't have categories and when I would log on with it it would revert my desktop categories to my laptop ones.

I updated my laptop's categories and I haven't had a problem since.

That's stupid. So it doesn't store the categories online but if you log into a computer without them then it resets them on one with them? That's really stupid. It should either be full local or full cloud.

It does store them online. They showed up on my laptop. I did this a week ago, logged onto my laptop at one point. Definitely had the categories.

Last night I had categories. I woke up this morning and they were gone. I didn't even restart Steam or anything. My computer was on all night.

I don't know what the fuck. It's frustrating. I'm giving up on categories. This is literally the fifth time it's happened to me.

Every time somebody asks Valve about Half-Life 3, Gabe smites the custom game categories of one unfortunate user. Or maybe it's Lombardi... it sounds like something he'd enjoy.

But I'm one of the few who DOESN'T bug them at every opportunity. I'm happy just waiting until it's ready! Why whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy meeeeeeeeeeeeee. ):

 

[Woody Invincible]

Why would anybody support not getting a copy of a game you already own when you buy a bundle? I fully support Steam and buy many games through the service, but it's inconceivable how many anti-consumer practices are swept under the rug by fanboy apologists.

 

[Sinatar]

Easy way to avoid using categories:

1. Sort by status so that installed games are on top.
2. Take the games you are currently playing or planning to play in the immediate future and put them as favorites.

Problem solved.

 

[Sysgen]

Yeah, fuck steam selling games cheap as a bundle and not giving you additional copies of games you already own! I demand every penny worth of saving from that cheap bundle!

Also fuck the humble indie bundle and the charities it supports when it gives me a single steam code for all games contained therein!

Seriously people? On the assumption you are all mentally sound adults capable of determining your own cost : benefit analysis, take into account the fact that you get 'less' than someone else and determine if what you will get is worth the asking price; what other people may or may not get shouldn't really come into that.

PHD in our midst . Bravo.