General Video Game Deals Thread

[SuperBiasedMan]

It is less that games have massive discounts and more that games are almost guaranteed to be discounted. Then some games on flash sales are super duper cheap, like 75+% off where people get extra excited.

For the moment I'm waiting for Darksouls 1 to drop to ridiculous depth (it's currently 66% off as the standard discount) so I can buy it with my farmed trading card money.

I am a savvy consumer.

[Tanukitsune]

Warlock 2 is 50%.... I didn't even know this game had a sequel! It's basically Civ V with Wizards... I might just buy it even though it's just 50% off, because a special "Lord" edition.

[eot]

Is Enslaved worth getting? I know it got a lot of praise it didn't seem like that was for the gameplay.

[Merus]

Is Enslaved worth getting? I know it got a lot of praise it didn't seem like that was for the gameplay.

 

The gameplay is competent, but it's essentially a gorgeous-looking narrative-driven game. DmC's the first Ninja Theory game where I felt like it all came together, which is what made the fans trying to sabotage that game so sad.

[JonCole]

I'd say Enslaved's gameplay is a little better than competent. It's not Uncharted 2 or Tomb Raider, but it's still good.

[elmuerte]

Yes, enslaved is worth getting (it might get an even better deal in a flash sale though).

[shammack]

Logged into Steam to vote, and realized there is this whole team/competition thing about which I have absolutely no idea what it is, how it works or anything. 

 

The competition thing seems pretty bizarre. You apparently only get points for crafting badges, and you only have a chance of winning free games if your team wins on a day when you contributed points. So you're incentivized to only craft anything if it looks like your team is going to win that day, otherwise those points just go to waste. (Also, the winning team gets extra cards, making it easier for them to win again.) So if your team is way behind, it's probably going to stay way behind since no one's going to want to throw away their cards on it when they might have a better chance saving them for the next day. Am I missing a part that makes this make sense?

[Twig]

(Also, the winning team gets extra cards, making it easier for them to win again.)

Yeah that's what I thought too, but red team was in last place by a lot yesterday, and looks like it has no chance of losing today. Purple went from first to second place. 

But yeah they basically turned shopping into a competition. But... only 30 people on the winning team get those free games, so really no one cares.

 

Crafting badges can also get you items to switch teams or steal points from other teams. I think some other things. It's definitely bizarre.

[tegan]

I realize that Steam is pretty much an objectively positive thing for everyone involved in games overall, but gamifying shopping is one of the squickiest things to me.

[Twig]

It was fun when they turned it into a treasure hunt where you actually had to play games. I agree that this is really dumb.

[Tanukitsune]

Last time I looked the card were over 40 cents, which means you must spend almost 4€ per badge, or simply buy a lot of games? Of course it's possible that people are simply crafting normal badges and getting less points, but you can probably craft a whole badge in some game for 40 cents...

 

Unless this crazy sale has increased the value of ALL cards, which I don't even dare to look!

[SuperBiasedMan]

Unless this crazy sale has increased the value of ALL cards, which I don't even dare to look!

 

As someone who has done mild card farming to earn a few euro, I can tell you that most cards are normal prices. (average €0.10 each)

[Bjorn]

Which team are you on, Bjorn?

 

Green! 

 

 

The competition thing seems pretty bizarre. You apparently only get points for crafting badges, and you only have a chance of winning free games if your team wins on a day when you contributed points. So you're incentivized to only craft anything if it looks like your team is going to win that day, otherwise those points just go to waste. (Also, the winning team gets extra cards, making it easier for them to win again.) So if your team is way behind, it's probably going to stay way behind since no one's going to want to throw away their cards on it when they might have a better chance saving them for the next day. Am I missing a part that makes this make sense?

 

Yeah, Purple blew it away Day 1.  Now Red, who was last on Day 1, is the clear winner.  I wonder if they intentionally put people in the losing teams to boost the numbers and have a chance at some competition. 

 

This is one of the dumber things I've seen them do with the sales. 

[JonCole]

I think that like with most things, this sale isn't ridiculously insidious unless you're an idiot and/or you have no self control. My wife always adds games to her wishlist that she even has a passing interest in and saves the purchases for these seasonal sales so she can participate in the events without feeling having to buy games you only began to care about when there was "extra incentive". Also, when you normally get an almost certainly worthless coupon when you craft a badge, you at least gets cards for this event when you complete badges that you could proceed to sell or mess around with for this contest. Even if you only contribute one point per day, you have a shot at winning some free games. That doesn't really sound particularly horrible to me, and the cost for participating to any normal person is buying games that you wanted to play. 

[Architecture]

Dear Bethesda,

 

Thank you for drastically reducing the price of Skyrim, just for me. I will purchase it once The Steam Store is no longer experiencing heavy loads.

 

Best,

Archie

 

PS. I'd still probably buy Wolfenstein at a discounted price.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I think that like with most things, this sale isn't ridiculously insidious unless you're an idiot and/or you have no self control.

 

I think if you add "or are a child" to that list then it can be pretty insidious. Children can be foolish enough to basically buy into this and get games that they otherwise wouldn't have put in the effort to convince their parents to buy them, and it's not like their parents will expect this kind of storewide 'game' to be going on.

[Merus]

Yeah, and there are people who for whatever reason aren't equipped to make rational decisions with their money.

 

I find the market really uncomfortable, with all the things that have a price on them that are essentially invented to have a price on them. It's Ayn Rand's wet dream. Literally the only thing that gives me pause is that what is an uncomfortable micro-transaction for me is the opportunity for someone who's poor to get a free game, and I'm a big believer in making gaming more accessible to those in lower socio-economic classes.

[Tanukitsune]

When you think about, the game is kinda fair, there is a limit to the number badges you can craft right? And the votes reset too.

 

So the people in your team crazy enough to get the summer badge to level 10 can no longer help that much unless they craft normal badge with are worth less points. I might craft a normal badge if I see we are winning and the competition for that day is almost over, but that's about it... I'm happy with getting my Summer Badge to Level 1.

[Architecture]

I just sold all of my trading cards because I don't care about Steam's meta-game. I made about $4, which is pretty cool.

[JonCole]

I think if you add "or are a child" to that list then it can be pretty insidious. Children can be foolish enough to basically buy into this and get games that they otherwise wouldn't have put in the effort to convince their parents to buy them, and it's not like their parents will expect this kind of storewide 'game' to be going on.

 

That's a bit of a red herring, it's really more like "or are a child that somehow has access to money that's not yours" or more to the point "or are a child with irresponsible parents". If I was a child, this would be a great program for me because as long as you vote every day and participate in a minor way, you get access to highly demanded fake items that you can sell and buy cheap games with. And guess what? Those cheap games are readily available in the sale, so if I was a kid with parents like those I had that gave me a minimal allowance I'd be super stoked about these sales and contests for perfectly responsible reasons.

 

Yeah, and there are people who for whatever reason aren't equipped to make rational decisions with their money.

 

I find the market really uncomfortable, with all the things that have a price on them that are essentially invented to have a price on them. It's Ayn Rand's wet dream. Literally the only thing that gives me pause is that what is an uncomfortable micro-transaction for me is the opportunity for someone who's poor to get a free game, and I'm a big believer in making gaming more accessible to those in lower socio-economic classes.

 

I think it's unreasonable to ask Valve to create situations that protect people who make irrational decisions.

[SuperBiasedMan]

That's a bit of a red herring, it's really more like "or are a child that somehow has access to money that's not yours" or more to the point "or are a child with irresponsible parents". If I was a child, this would be a great program for me because as long as you vote every day and participate in a minor way, you get access to highly demanded fake items that you can sell and buy cheap games with. And guess what? Those cheap games are readily available in the sale, so if I was a kid with parents like those I had that gave me a minimal allowance I'd be super stoked about these sales and contests for perfectly responsible reasons.

 

Well I'm not even talking about extreme cases, take the example of a kid who has a birthday during the sale, and says they want to buy a bunch of games. The parents think "Well no, we wont let them buy a ton, but let's give them $50 to choose games with.", and what if the kid then just buys stuff they otherwise wouldn't have been as interested in. It's not brainwashing but it's a pretty dodgy way to push people closer to clicking the purchase button, it's a less bad version of well tuned free to play games that encourage you to just drop a couple dollars for the game to make it a bit easier.

 

I think it's unreasonable to ask Valve to create situations that protect people who make irrational decisions.

 

People make irrational decisions all the time, in my opinion a shop has a responsibility to not encourage irresponsible behaviour for their own benefit (this is the point of some government regulations).

[Twig]

I agree with JonCole very strongly. I have nothing to say that he hasn't already, so I'll just leave it at that.

 

When you think about, the game is kinda fair, there is a limit to the number badges you can craft right? And the votes reset too.

Haha, no, you can craft the badge as many times as you want. Scroll down to see what I think the current highest discovered badge. http://www.steamcardexchange.net/index.php?gamepage-appid-303700

[Tanukitsune]

Jesus, they go up to level 500? That's insane! 

[Bjorn]

I don't think there's anything particularly unethical about the Steam sale, or the card promotions or anything.  I just find their events to be getting less interesting.  Cards are neat solely because they give me money to spend on games, but the whole meta-game-promotion thing is just...meh.  I'd like to see something a bit more inspired and fun. 

[Twig]

I just find their events to be getting less interesting.

Yeah I also very strongly agree with this. The sales events were fun treasure hunts once. Now they're boring collectathons. I mean... in the end both accomplish the same thing: getting people to spend more money. But they used to be much more fun. I still regret not getting the level three treasure hat for TF2 to this day! Well, okay, a little anyway.