Personal computing discussed

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Glorious
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:22 am

morphine wrote:
Now, if we want to turn this discussion into how much Steam (and possibly publishers) decide to gouge us poor Europeans...


If you're going to complain please provide the Euro/USD or pound/USD exchange rate as well as VAT and import tax rates, as those are factored into the price as well.

:)
 
CasbahBoy
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:31 am

blitzy wrote:
Publishers have absolutely no way to justify a 67% markup, 5-10% maybe, 67% is just saying 'we are going to gouge you and you're going to like it'.


The reasons could easily be that the publisher is too lazy or ignorant of the dynamics of the market to constantly adjust their prices. Or perhaps many don't really care - if Valve's cut of their sales is smaller than the cost of physical production and shelf space they make more money from every unit sold on Steam than every unit sold at a B&M store, and doubly so if the Steam price is higher to begin with!

blitzy wrote:
Please, are you next going to tell me that valve has no say over pricing in a digital distribution market they virtually control a monopoly over?


I'm not sure you know what a monopoly is. I'm also not sure that you care to learn. Can you get a game available on Steam from a B&M retailer or other digital distribution outlet? Can you buy a Steamworks game from the same locations? I wasn't happy with the Steam price of Deus Ex: HR, so I bought it from Amazon for $35 instead. This isn't a monopoly, using the "virtual" weasel word or not.

blitzy wrote:
It's quite laughable really that people will apologise for this type of blatant gouging, if we were to replace valve with Apple would people still defend their pricing practices? Some probably would, but I don't imagine it would be the same people who defend valve.


Video games aren't essential goods or services, so the term price gouging doesn't really apply here. In any case, Valve does not set or adjust the prices so it is still irrelevant.

As an aside, I wonder if it would be a safe assumption that Valve in many cases charges less money (for non-Steamworks games) in total to a publisher than would cost the publisher for physical production, shipping, and shelf space w/ retailer profits. Steamworks games, since Valve is providing an actual service in addition to just bandwidth and Internet storefront, could easily cost just as much or more...but hey, not many people can know for sure.
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Madman
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:14 pm

I'm sort of pissed at Steam as well.

I always buy retail box games, so that I don't have to worry about servers going online. Or my supper crappy internet provider forgetting to fix the damn cables for two friggin weeks, again, so all I have is phone with 2GB download limit per month.

And this worked well, except once when I overlooked that Bioshock has a **** DRM, came home, popped in the DVD, and voila, servers are offline. Took them a day to get them back on line. Stupid piece of crap, not a game.

But anyway, DX:HR came out, I had a free time, I noticed on the front page news on TR that DX:HR is for sale on Amazon for 35$ few days after launch. So I decided I got to get it. DX1 was one of the most amazing games ever, and reviews of DX:HR were good after all.

1st: Amazon.com -> 35$ for US residents only, oh snap...
2nd: Amazon.co.uk -> 48$ and long shipping times
3rd: Steam -> 70$ ... holy batman...

Well, ok, Deus Ex was really, I mean, reallly, amazing, and DX:HR had an amazing reviews as well... So, snap it...

Registered in Steam, scrolled through 2 or 3 EULAs containing "Steam can collect data, steam can cancel stuff, steam can share info with 3rdparties or something". Brought the game, downloaded...

Everything works... for 70$... so far. Although since I unchecked remember my credentials, I had to log in into steam through phone to get into game when my internet provider glitched again one day... :evil: Online mode is only available with saved credentials.

And then the backups. People were saying that you can backup your steam games on DVD and play them offline. No way, you actually cant! You can burn them, but you need Steam infected PC with cached credentials to play or install them as far as I understand.

The bottom line is: Cloud computing sucks, it's overpriced and you don't own a physical copy of anything you buy. Plus, as always, it has a tremendous opportunity to turn into an amazing privacy nightmare.

The only way I'd support cloud is if publishers like Amazon would sell you boxed copies, and to amortize the delivery time, allow a download location where you could already download the game and install it with your CD/DVD key, while the boxed copy is still being delivered to you via DHL/FedEx.
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Sunburn74
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:26 pm

Just buy elsewhere then, jeez, and stop crying like you're entitled to something here. It's just video games after all.

There is no sense of entitlement. Read what I'm saying man. I don't buy from steam regularly. In fact, I only buy from steam when I absolutely have to. What I don't understand is the love people like yourself seem to have for steam. How everyone praises their sales with what appears to me very illogical reasoning. I just don't see it.

This is all very clear because I just bought a game from a retailer (that is accessible to pretty much everyone) which steam will fully support, uphold, etc etc. I bought said game for pittance compared to what steam will charge directly. The same game, same support, for a massive difference in price. If gas at one gas station was $20 a gallon and at another gas station it was $3 a gallon, wouldn't you stop to ask wtf is going on? Maybe the 3 dollar gas station has pumps that mislead you about the amount of gas you are actually getting and thus people are being cheated (this does happen)? Maybe the $20 gas is part of a price-gouging scheme in collusion with other gas stations? You'd at least ask such simple qustions
Or would you say it's just gas after all and that the question asker should stop crying?

My arguments are as follows:
1)A sale is when something that is at market value, if lowered to below market value.
2)Steam's backup system is overrated as many of us already perform this service with the majority of our files
3) Steam prices are rarely at market value and instead are persistently inflated. Why then do people defend the service as the best thing since sliced bread?
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glacius555
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:04 pm

I can't help relating to another thread in the forums - FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS..

^^ ALL OF THIS!
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Glorious
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:14 pm

Madman wrote:
I always buy retail box games, so that I don't have to worry about servers going online.


Uh, as you noticed yourself with Bioshock, that strategy is now FAIL. You still have to worry about that.

Madman wrote:
1st: Amazon.com -> 35$ for US residents only, oh snap...
2nd: Amazon.co.uk -> 48$ and long shipping times
3rd: Steam -> 70$ ... holy batman...


Steam is to blame for the fact that Amazon.com only sells to US customers, the UK isn't close to Latvia and the fact that your Latvian ISP sucks?

Uh, what?

Madman wrote:
Everything works... for 70$... so far.


70 USD when converted from what currency?

Madman wrote:
The bottom line is: Cloud computing sucks, it's overpriced and you don't own a physical copy of anything you buy.


I think you are conflating DRM with the "cloud," which is unsurprising since the metaphor for the concept was very aptly namely.

Madman wrote:
The only way I'd support cloud is if publishers like Amazon would sell you boxed copies, and to amortize the delivery time, allow a download location where you could already download the game and install it with your CD/DVD key, while the boxed copy is still being delivered to you via DHL/FedEx.


You are seriously strange, and the real problem you seem to be having here has absolutely nothing to do with steam.

Sunburn74 wrote:
If gas at one gas station was $20 a gallon and at another gas station it was $3 a gallon, wouldn't you stop to ask wtf is going on? Maybe the 3 dollar gas station has pumps that mislead you about the amount of gas you are actually getting and thus people are being cheated (this does happen)? Maybe the $20 gas is part of a price-gouging scheme in collusion with other gas stations? You'd at least ask such simple qustions


I'd buy gas at the $3 dollar station. Who wouldn't? What's the problem here?

Sunburn74 wrote:
1)A sale is when something that is at market value, if lowered to below market value.


And this definition helps us ... how?

Or can you tell me what the "market value" is?

Sunburn74 wrote:
2)Steam's backup system is overrated as many of us already perform this service with the majority of our files


Ooooohhh, you've got a real winner with the point that "not all features are valuable to all users!" :roll:

Sunburn74 wrote:
3) Steam prices are rarely at market value


Uh-huh. Which people in this thread are evidently determining by comparing the price of the product offered in a different country, in a different currency, that they can't actually buy.

Or the product in a different country that they can buy, but don't want to wait weeks for.

Or the product in store that they evidently don't even want to drive to.

:o

Sunburn74 wrote:
and instead are persistently inflated.


According to what? Fevered imaginations in which all currencies are at nominal and purchasing power parity and things like regulations, VATs, import taxes and administrative oversight don't exist?

Sunburn74 wrote:
Why then do people defend the service as the best thing since sliced bread?


Because, to use your own analogy, why does it matter if one station offers gas at $20 and another offers it at $3? Buy the $3 gas! If the $20 gas is slightly different in a way that you don't even care about, why do you care?

If someone does care enough about the difference to buy the $20 gas instead of the $3, why can't they?
 
cynan
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:21 pm

I haven't seen anyone rave about Steam's prices in general, so I'm not sure where you are coming from with such an accusation.

Sure there is a bit of hoop la once in a while, but that is always limited to a specific game or sale. When people rave about Steam, it's not about how their regular prices are so fantastic, it's about the service they provide. (And yes, perhaps this is somewhat overblown, but...)

And about Steam's sales, they often are quite good, though perhaps they don't always happen as soon after release of a game or as frequently as you would like. The fact of the matter is, their weekend deals are often unbeatable (at least in the US and Canada) and the last couple of holiday and summer sales have been pretty good - and these have been multi-week sales.

For the casual gamer that doesn't have to be on top of all the latest games right away, their sale system often works out well. At least it has for me.

I've probably bought just shy of a couple dozen games off of Steam, yet I'm fairly certain I haven't spent much more than $100 as I have only ever bought during sales. A couple of recent examples that I recall:

1) Borderlands with all DLC packs for $7.50 last spring. When has it been cheaper than that anywhere else?
2) Batman Arkham Asylum also for $7.50. Same question.
3) Metro 2033 for $14 about a year ago. (not the cheapest it's ever been, but this was only a few months post launch).

But of course, we're all free to shop around if we don't like current prices and don't want to wait.
 
LafInBob
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:28 pm

Madman wrote:
I'm sort of pissed at Steam as well.



My (related) rant is regarding the requirement of Steam activation for Skyrim. Should I be pissed at Bethesda or Valve/Steam (or both)? I know that Steam offers things that many people want and enjoy, but I'm not one of them. I want to preorder (i.e. pay full retail) and play Skyrim without Steam just like I have played all the prior titles. Is there any reason why Bethesda couldn't offer this title without mandating Steam?
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Mentawl
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:31 pm

Oh boo-hoo. Let those of us who appreciate Steam go on using it. If you want to save a few $/£/whatever using another store, that's your call. I'm happy to pay a little bit extra for the convenience, and because I believe Valve are doing DRM, multiplayer matching etc right. I still rarely buy games full-price on Steam, but I'm certainly not going to have issues about paying £7 for a game I could get at £5 elsewhere, because the convenience and speed of getting it from Steam is worth it.

The only big issue I have with Steam is their habit of randomly removing games from the UK store pages - for example, Space Marine still isn't available to buy on Steam, despite being released on the 9th. Inclined to believe this is due to a certain jerky retail store putting pressure on the publishers, but with no proof there's not much can be done :(.
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LafInBob
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:57 pm

LafInBob wrote:
Madman wrote:
I'm sort of pissed at Steam as well.



My (related) rant is regarding the requirement of Steam activation for Skyrim. Should I be pissed at Bethesda or Valve/Steam (or both)? I know that Steam offers things that many people want and enjoy, but I'm not one of them. I want to preorder (i.e. pay full retail) and play Skyrim without Steam just like I have played all the prior titles. Is there any reason why Bethesda couldn't offer this title without mandating Steam?


I looked at this page - http://steampowered.com/steamworks/FAQ.php - and found this:

"8. Do you require exclusivity for titles you sell on Steam?

We think you should get your game in front of as many people as you can, therefore we do not require exclusivity on titles."

I guess that my "beef" is just with Bethesda, whom I've loved since Arena and Daggerfall.
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mganai
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:03 pm

Different regions get better/worse deals on different games (though granted, some are just ludicrous). You can always request someone from a different region to gift you a game, and paypal them back. I've set up a couple exchanges that way.

steamprices.com is your friend.
 
Madman
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:07 pm

Mentawl wrote:
Oh boo-hoo. Let those of us who appreciate Steam go on using it. If you want to save a few $/£/whatever using another store, that's your call.


http://store.steampowered.com/app/28050/?snr=1_4_4__13 (43 GBP)
vs.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deus-Ex-Human-R ... 423&sr=8-3 (28 GBP)

It's close to 2:1, and Amazon gives you actual hard copy DVD with manual or something probably.

Mentawl wrote:
I'm happy to pay a little bit extra for the convenience, and because I believe Valve are doing DRM, multiplayer matching etc right.

It's not really convenience, it's a tradeoff. You get initial download on day 1 (hence my post about perfect delivery), but you can forget about the game if you have no internet connection. You can backup your downloads, but they have a weight of a plastic garbage unless you can use Steam on a road trip, in rural area, after 10 years when Steam servers are offline. Plus you get a spywar'ish application on your PC.

I sort of brought into this Steam is amazing hype, but in reality there are a lot of cons. I will definitely go back to hard media for the next purchase. Feeling that you payed 70$ for something that you don't actually own, + other problems is not what I want.
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Mentawl
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:15 pm

Madman wrote:
I sort of brought into this Steam is amazing hype, but in reality there are a lot of cons. I will definitely go back to hard media for the next purchase. Feeling that you payed 70$ for something that you don't actually own, + other problems is not what I want.

Ah, first off, you never truly own any software, you know that, right? So really you're deluding yourself if you think having a physical copy in some way gives you more "ownership" over software than a digital copy.

Madman wrote:
It's not really convenience, it's a tradeoff. You get initial download on day 1 (hence my post about perfect delivery), but you can forget about the game if you have no internet connection. You can backup your downloads, but they have a weight of a plastic garbage unless you can use Steam on a road trip, in rural area, after 10 years when Steam servers are offline. Plus you get a spywar'ish application on your PC.

As to this...I used to work offshore, for upto 6 weeks in a single rotation, with no direct net access. I bought a gaming laptop to play games on while I was off-shift. The only game I had an issue with playing offline was Company of Heroes, because I had a non-Steam copy of the original and a Steam-bought copy of the expac, and tended to forget to bring the original disc with me. I'm not sure where you're getting the information about not being able to play Steam games offline - any game that *can* be played offline (Ubisoft, looking at you) without Steam can also be played offline when bought through Steam. In my case, having to have the disc in the drive was far more annoying than having to have the Steam client open.
Also, I'm really not interested in 10 years down the line, but Steam's been going for 8 years now, and just continues to get better and gain more users and market share. I'm fairly sure it'll out-last DVD-Drives too :).
Not even going to really dignify the "spywareish" application claim - I've never seen Steam do anything I didn't tell it to do. Do you have reason to make this claim beyond just hating Steam?
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Madman
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:31 pm

Mentawl wrote:
Ah, first off, you never truly own any software, you know that, right? So really you're deluding yourself if you think having a physical copy in some way gives you more "ownership" over software than a digital copy.

Yes I know that. But if you have a physical copy + your CD key, you can use your license any time you want. Pop a DVD bay open, drop the disc in, install, play. With steam, it's purely at the mercy of Steam and your network provider.

IF they would be mailing DVDs with your license agreement and CD-Key, after purchase, I would have no objections.

Mentawl wrote:
Also, I'm really not interested in 10 years down the line, but Steam's been going for 8 years now, and just continues to get better and gain more users and market share. I'm fairly sure it'll out-last DVD-Drives too :).

Baldurs Gate 1 was released in 1998, it's still better than most games nowadays. And you know what. You pop the DVD/BluRay bay open, pop a CD in, install play. Try that with Bioshock with it's active DRM. And steam is the same type of service, if it's down for whatever reason, your license to use the software you paid for, is less worth than a piece of paper.

Mentawl wrote:
Not even going to really dignify the "spywareish" application claim - I've never seen Steam do anything I didn't tell it to do. Do you have reason to make this claim beyond just hating Steam?
Steam client EULA, maybe I'm mistaken, but it tells they can collect data about your PC, and share it with 3rd parties. Maybe I misread something in that 10 page agreement, and I'm not a lawyer, but that was what I understood. Not the subscriber agreement, but the Steam client itself. Moreover, there is a clause that they can change the EULA, and it's your duty to reread it on their web site.
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l33t-g4m3r
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:34 pm

Mentawl wrote:
Ah, first off, you never truly own any software, you know that, right? So really you're deluding yourself if you think having a physical copy in some way gives you more "ownership" over software than a digital copy.

Lol @ the brainwashing. You do own it. You own a physical copy of a license, and you have the right to sell it if you wish. That certainly does give you more "ownership" over a digital copy, which you can't sell. If ownership of software doesn't exist, then nobody should pay for it. Why buy something if the publisher is going to impose all sorts of bullspit restrictions on you for legitimately supporting them? I'm not condoning piracy here, since I don't believe we don't own what we purchase. If that truly was the case, then yes I fully endorse piracy and the total degradation, destruction, and collapse of our current society. Bring on the apocalypse.
 
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:03 pm

l33t-g4m3r wrote:
...

The truth is, since Mentawl and others don't give a damn:
1) Backup rights got exterminated from pretty much all software (you still have rights, but you can't use them because of DMCA or Copyright protection or w/e)
2) Your rights to buy and own a license got exterminated (You can still buy the license, but every damn EULA says they give you no warranties, they can cancel it, they can change it and so on)

Basically all this Cloud/DRM crap has removed pretty much all rights from the consumer.
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Captain Ned
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:17 pm

Are we really going to do the umpteenth thread on DRM vs. rights, where every single party has already made up their minds and thus fires their ritual support for one position or the other into the thread?

Seriously, these threads are as predictable and immutable as French court dancing at Versailles under Louis XIV, but with worse music. Hell, one could probably make a semi-decent square dance call out of this little ritual.

Thanks for listening.

[/mod voice]
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
CasbahBoy
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:22 pm

Captain Ned wrote:
Seriously, these threads are as predictable and immutable as French court dancing at Versailles under Louis XIV, but with worse music. Hell, one could probably make a semi-decent square dance call out of this little ritual.


This is pretty much the best comparison that has ever been made. Also I would like to hear this music, chances are I'd like it.
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Captain Ned
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:24 pm

CasbahBoy wrote:
Also I would like to hear this music, chances are I'd like it.

Google French composers in the 1650-1700 range. When he was still a young'un Louis XIV was the star dancer in many court ballets.
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Sunburn74
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:20 pm

Because, to use your own analogy, why does it matter if one station offers gas at $20 and another offers it at $3? Buy the $3 gas! If the $20 gas is slightly different in a way that you don't even care about, why do you care?

If someone does care enough about the difference to buy the $20 gas instead of the $3, why can't they?

I actually dislike your style of reply as it doesn't really pose and argument and instead just lists little bullet one liners. But I'll try and respond. In texas, once a year every gas station is supposed to be inspected by an independent inspector because its actually really really hard to catch gas stations who find ways to cheat and save a buck. They can do it by altering the meter so it reads you received 12.5 gallons when you actually received 10 gallons. Or the gas is cheap and not quite grade to meet market standards. And etc and etc. In fact, often before the gas station owner is caught and shutdown, people have been buying the gas for months without a clue they are being ripped. Sometimes these people have no other choice. If you live in a small town, there may be one or two gas stations. It doesn't however mean these people deserve to be ripped off. Part of the process of ripping people off can include lowering your gas price so it seems more attractive. The guy on the other side is selling for 3 dollars, you are selling for 2. People flock the seemingly cheaper gas. Why should they care? Its cheaper after all right? Why even question the reason for such a drastic difference in price? Just buy it and laugh at your saving!

The reverse is true. Sometimes people take advantage of being the sole supplier of gas in a town. They charge $7 a gallon; the townspeople know that elsewhere in the state prices are more reasonable. Why should the people who have to buy care? Why question? If you don't like it buy elsewhere? Otherwise shut up, take the slap in the face, and buy it right?

Look, questioning why things are they way they are is a good thing because not everyone in life is out to do you good. When you fail to question, you fail to see and when you fail to see, you may suffer very serious consequences. Right now we're talking about video games, but gee this is true to pretty much everything in life.

I see very suspicious pricing discrepancies with steam and gee have to wonder why. I realize I can buy games elsewhere, but it doesn't mean I should bury my head in the sand. These are the same questions I'd ask about any pricing descrepancy anywhere.

First world problem? Sure. But so what? People act like first world problems aren't problems at all. If I'm in space and I can't get parts delivered to my space station to repair my blown engine, its a zero world problem, but still a pretty damn big one. Oh zero world problem noob. Stop complaining. Zero world problem.
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glacius555
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Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:04 pm

Sunburn74 wrote:


First world problem? Sure. But so what? People act like first world problems aren't problems at all.


I apologize for my earlier remark.

I came to realize that entertainment is at lack, sitting in my chair and sipping wine, after I had stuffed my belly with most exquisite food !!!

This is a problem of galactic importance!

To hell with DVDs - I want Steam domination! I wanna perform head-shots with surgical precision and cleanse the world from virtual aliens, sitting in my chair!

At least, I am useful here, sitting in my infamous chair, coz my boss tells me I'm useless and need to make haste with my assignments..

Hmm.. Should we perhaps assemble UN security counsel to prioritize improving quality of modern PC games?

Meanwhile, a family in Africa wonders whether they should bury their dead kid or eat the meat..


PS. Finding "fun", while I feel bored scratching my belly, is not the same is fixing oxygen supply in space.

/sarcasm end

More on the topic:

I wait until sale comes. Also, it seems that adult life does not leave much time for gaming, or any other entertainment for that matter, so I always have 5 or so games that I haven't even started.

Those of us who want it here and naw are bound to pay up more anyway, in just about any industry.
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blitzy
Gerbil Jedi
Posts: 1844
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2004 6:27 pm
Location: New Zealand

Re: Steam price rant

Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:24 pm

I'm not going to bother arguing this any further because all I am getting is ignorance in response. Until the shoe is on the other foot you just won't get it.

I never anywhere said that price was in NZD, we get charged in USD when buying from steam. Virtual monopoly is a perfectly valid way to describe a company that holds big enough market share they can influence the market. The term gouging does not only apply to 'essential' goods.

Step aside cult of Apple, cult of steam has arrived.
 
SPOOFE
Grand Gerbil Poohbah
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Re: Steam price rant

Wed Sep 14, 2011 4:27 am

not everyone in life is out to do you good.

But they ARE out to compete. Half of your spiel only applies monopoly situations, which Steam isn't, and the other half applies just as much to every other source of games, so Steam isn't exceptional in that regard.

I see very suspicious pricing discrepancies with steam and gee have to wonder why.

You don't have to wonder. You said it yourself; I'll even quote it again:

not everyone in life is out to do you good.

They're out to make money. They've found that they can often charge X for a product. They've also found that having regular sales or special deals for their various products drives adoption. In this regard they are essentially identical to every other vendor that offers other items for sale, so in that regard it's a total wash.

But then one requires you to get up from your chair, and the other doesn't.

It seems incredibly simple to me. I think you might be reading too much into it all. So far the worst that's been established about Steam, re: pricing, seems to be "they're not always the best price for everything". And in my opinion, that's not a very significant statement.
 
Glorious
Gerbilus Supremus
Posts: 12343
Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2002 6:35 pm

Re: Steam price rant

Wed Sep 14, 2011 8:32 am

Madman wrote:
Yes I know that. But if you have a physical copy + your CD key, you can use your license any time you want. Pop a DVD bay open, drop the disc in, install, play. With steam, it's purely at the mercy of Steam and your network provider.


...provided the publisher didn't include internet-required DRM.

As I said before, your beef here has absolutely nothing to do with steam. You CAN play steam games offline, as long as the PUBLISHER allows it.

Sunburn74 wrote:
But I'll try and respond. In texas, once a year every gas station is supposed to be inspected by an independent inspector because its actually really really hard to catch gas stations who find ways to cheat and save a buck. They can do it by altering the meter so it reads you received 12.5 gallons when you actually received 10 gallons.


That is called FRAUD, not price discrimination. It is not what anyone is alleging here.

Your entire response is therefore irrelevant.

blitzy wrote:
I never anywhere said that price was in NZD, we get charged in USD when buying from steam.


You never said otherwise. Thanks for correcting me, but how was I to know otherwise? I assumed what was logical, that you paid in your native currency.

blitzy wrote:
Virtual monopoly is a perfectly valid way to describe a company that holds big enough market share they can influence the market.


Everyone influences the market, so this metric is immediately worthless.

And, is Steam to even blame for this? The publisher sets the prices. Yell at THQ or whoever they contracted for distribution in your region.

blitzy wrote:
Step aside cult of Apple, cult of steam has arrived.


Have you even established that this is REMOTELY steam's fault? No, you haven't. You're just assuming that. :roll:
 
yogibbear
Gerbil Elite
Posts: 920
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:30 am

Re: Steam price rant

Wed Sep 14, 2011 11:22 am

The publishers set the prices on steam on a region per region basis. This we already know.

The only possible gripe you can have is that really Valve should either say "No, you must pick one price". Or, it should be visibly shown that there is a price difference based on where in the world you are. Rather than hiding it unless you go onto the steam website and pretend you're from the UK/USA/etc.

Obviously most of the price ranting does end up on the steam boards (which most publisher's rarely check), plus, ranting about the price is unlikely to change it as the decision has already been made.

This has changed my behaviour towards buying games on steam:
-I support developers that don't charge > $50 USD for a game (I'm an aussie and lots of the evil publishers want to charge $80-90+ USD for the exact same bits nad bytes going via steam to me).
-If I can't get someone to gift a game to me that isn't listed at <= $50 USD, I won't buy it until it is on sale
-I often pre-order a game I really want if I see it is at <=$50 as often once the actual release date comes around (or just a few days before), the publisher realises steam's regional pricing hasn't been set correctly or whatever and INCREASES the price to Australians by $20-30 USD (often a 50-100% markup vs. what an american would pay).

I do like steam, but if simply importing the game from the UK is significantly cheaper then I will do it. (Already import books, DVDs, electronics, clothing, shoes, etc. as our retail markups are generally about 50-80% of RRP vs. what I can pay for the same thing online and usually shipping is < $5-10 for these kind of items).
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Madman
Minister of Gerbil Affairs
Posts: 2317
Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2003 4:55 am
Location: Latvia

Re: Steam price rant

Wed Sep 14, 2011 1:55 pm

Glorious wrote:
Madman wrote:
Yes I know that. But if you have a physical copy + your CD key, you can use your license any time you want. Pop a DVD bay open, drop the disc in, install, play. With steam, it's purely at the mercy of Steam and your network provider.


...provided the publisher didn't include internet-required DRM.


The rule of thumb is to never buy anything from such mother$%$! Ubisoft and 2k games can go and $#%$% I used to buy their games, never again, they are on my ignore list now! No matter how cool Bioshock and PoP trailers look. They screwed PC crowd with PoP with non-PC story-continuing-DLC and then with always online mode (Assasins creed, POP), and 2K with that Bioshock server is offline crap :evil:

[sarcasm]At least I hope someone at their HQ got a huge bonus for the awesome idea.[/sarcasm]
Core 2 Duo E6300, MSI P45 NEO-F, Club 3D GTX 260, 4Gb DDR2-800Mhz, Audigy X-Fi Fatal1ty Champ1on ed., 0.5Tb+1Tb Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, 630W AXP, Samsung SyncMaster BX2450, ViewSonic VP171b
 
thegleek
Darth Gerbil
Posts: 7460
Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 11:06 am
Location: Detroit, MI
Contact:

Re: Steam price rant

Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:44 am

CasbahBoy wrote:
Captain Ned wrote:
Seriously, these threads are as predictable and immutable as French court dancing at Versailles under Louis XIV, but with worse music. Hell, one could probably make a semi-decent square dance call out of this little ritual.


This is pretty much the best comparison that has ever been made. Also I would like to hear this music, chances are I'd like it.

Does this come close?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmEGrAVH5eI

or dare I, perhaps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqAxGUa5Tqc
 
Captain Ned
Global Moderator
Posts: 28704
Joined: Wed Jan 16, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: Vermont, USA

Re: Steam price rant

Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:11 am

OK, OK, I put it out there. That was a gross Mod Fault. For future reference, any mod-signed post from me ("Thanks for listening" is my mod tag) is not an invitation, but an expression of exasperation.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
middydj
Gerbil In Training
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:31 am
Location: near cincinnati,ohio

Re: Steam price rant

Mon Sep 19, 2011 3:55 pm

standingmammoth wrote:
I didn't know people actually payed full price for games on steam. I thought everyone just waited for the sales...



This....
 
RAMBO
Gerbil Team Leader
Posts: 273
Joined: Sun May 01, 2011 11:34 am

Re: Steam price rant

Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:31 pm

Anyone know of a starcraft 2 sale or discounted price?

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