Are you ready?! Can't think of anything I want really, but we'll see!

rms

On Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:19:40 -0700, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

>Are you ready?! Can't think of anything I want really, but we'll see!

Not really.

I've said it before but I'll say it again: Steam sales aren't what
they used to be. "Back in the day", you'd see some truly amazing
discounts - triple-A games dropped to $5 bucks! - that you'd only see
during the seasonal sales. The discounts would only last a day or two
(or sometimes only a few hours!) but if you could grab the game during
that period, you'd get a tremendous bargain. It also gave purpose to
visiting Steam often; you'd never know WHEN a sale like that showed
up.

But then Valve put the kibosh on deals like that, and declared any
discounts had to last the entirety of the sale. Not only did this mean
that there was no purpose to visiting Steam more than once (usually at
the beginning of the seasonal sale), but it killed those
super-discounts entirely. No company could afford to give away their
games at a 95% discount for a whole week! Instead, any
price-reductions - around usually 25% off - during a Steam seasonal
sale was in-line with a discount made at any other time of the year.
So why wait for a seasonal sale if you could just get the game for the
same discount a few months down the line?

It made buying from Steam a much less attractive option. Third-party
resellers (GMG, Humble, Fanatical, etc.) offered much better deals
than anything you could get on a Steam seasonal sale.

I mean, I'll still occasionally buy during a seasonal sale, but not
because I'm excited about it or I've been waiting for it. It's just a
"oh, hey, that game is on discount again, I might as well get it now
as any other time it's on sale" sort of thing. Or, I'd as likely not
buy anything at all, because the discounts aren't that good. This is
completely unlike the salad days of Steam sales, where I might walk
out of the experience with a dozen or more games added to The Number,
because who knew when the price might go that low again.

From Valve's perspective (and maybe from the publishers' too) this
change is probably a good thing; their 30% cut off a game is more if
the game sells for $40USD instead of $5USD. But as a customer, it does
kill a lot of the excitement about the whole thing, results in few
purchases, and makes me consider alternatives to buying direct from
Valve.

TL;DR: I miss the Steam sales of old. ;-)

rms wrote:
> Are you ready?! Can't think of anything I want really, but we'll
> see!
>
> rms

I'm going to reuse the "It's sale Time! No Steam, No!" Goofy time meme
this time. I barely touched Steam in 2022 (My year of Game pass), but
that Steam Deck required feeding.

So far:
- Clannad
- Hypnospace Outlaw (beat it on Game Pass, but I am not subbed anymore).

Considering:
- Hatred: to see what it was about
- Digimon Survive: Amazon delivery lost my copy of Switch, so not a bad
opportunity

Any ideas for "prank games" to gift to friends? I was considering the
Sex With Hitler saga, but I don't have friends that would get pissed off
about Hitler having a historically inaccurate number of balls, rather
than the game itself being shit.

On 12/21/2023 9:29 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:19:40 -0700, "rms"
> <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:
>
>> Are you ready?! Can't think of anything I want really, but we'll see!
>
> Not really.
>
> I've said it before but I'll say it again: Steam sales aren't what
> they used to be. "Back in the day", you'd see some truly amazing
> discounts - triple-A games dropped to $5 bucks! - that you'd only see
> during the seasonal sales. The discounts would only last a day or two
> (or sometimes only a few hours!) but if you could grab the game during
> that period, you'd get a tremendous bargain. It also gave purpose to
> visiting Steam often; you'd never know WHEN a sale like that showed
> up.

GOG sales have some pretty deep discounts right now. Unfortunately I
own the ones that I'm looking at going "That's a steal!" Of course I
only know they're steals since I have played them already.

Witcher 3 is $13.
Dragon Age Origins is $4
Mad Max is $4

There's some that are tempting, but I'm just not sure, and I'm tied up
with Bloodborne (though put it on pause for a day and a half as I
started to get bored since there isn't much to try out.) And I want to
eventually get back to BG3, and Cyberpunk '77, and possibly continue NG+
on The Witcher 3, and there's that game I got for Christmas from you.

Here's the tempting ones

Psychonauts 2 is $12
Divinity Original Sin is $18 and II is $14
Day's Gone is $13
Yakuza complete series is $28
Wasteland 3 collection is $13
Phantasy collection $9
Cult of the Lamb $15

I have a much larger wishlist on Steam, but nothing I can't resist
unless it hits about half what they're at even on sale. There's a whole
bunch of indy games that are under $5 on my wishlist but I'm not really
sure I'd enjoy any of them $5 worth, If I was between games, I'd
probably buy a couple.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On Fri, 22 Dec 2023 04:39:18 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>GOG sales have some pretty deep discounts right now. Unfortunately I
>own the ones that I'm looking at going "That's a steal!" Of course I
>only know they're steals since I have played them already.
>
>Witcher 3 is $13.
>Dragon Age Origins is $4
>Mad Max is $4

"Mad Max" for that price is an absolute steal. It was sadly overlooked
by many on its release. It's not the world's greatest game - it
follows open-world tropes too closely - but you it's solidly made and
you get a lot of content.

"The Witcher 3" is a good bargain too (honestly, it's a good bargain
at full price) but GOG has been putting that game on sale for YEARS,
and $13USD isn't close to the lowest price I've seen. So there's no
rush on that one; you'll get it at as low (or lower) price again, I'm
sure. Or maybe it'll show up as a freebie; it's happened before.

I am tempted by "Dragon Age: Origins", not because I'm so excited
about the game (bought it, played it, own multiple copies on other
platforms) but a DRM-free version is enticing. ;-)

>
>There's some that are tempting, but I'm just not sure, and I'm tied up
>with Bloodborne (though put it on pause for a day and a half as I
>started to get bored since there isn't much to try out.) And I want to
>eventually get back to BG3, and Cyberpunk '77, and possibly continue NG+
>on The Witcher 3, and there's that game I got for Christmas from you.
>
>Here's the tempting ones
>
>Psychonauts 2 is $12
>Divinity Original Sin is $18 and II is $14
>Day's Gone is $13
>Yakuza complete series is $28
>Wasteland 3 collection is $13
>Phantasy collection $9
>Cult of the Lamb $15

Yoinks. Yakuza Complete has actually gone UP in price; it was less
expensive a few weeks ago (I was tempted, except I owned most of the
games already ;-)

As for myself... well, there have been a great number of older SSI
games recently re-released to GOG ("Phantasie collection" is one, but
also stuff like the "Wargame Construction Set", "Renegade: Battle for
Jacob's Star", "Prophecy of the Shadow", and many more) which I'd love
digital download versions of to bolster my floppy-copies. But it's
/really/ hard for me to justify spending $5-10USD each for such
ancient games that are mostly just purchased as backups.

>I'm tied up with Bloodborne

I just received this from walmart!

>Day's Gone is $13

Playing this now and enjoying quite a bit. It is easy though to get tied
up doing the numerous sidequests and feeling like its demanding too much of
my time!

rms

On Fri, 22 Dec 2023 09:56:09 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>As for myself... well, there have been a great number of older SSI
>games recently re-released to GOG ("Phantasie collection" is one, but
>also stuff like the "Wargame Construction Set", "Renegade: Battle for
>Jacob's Star", "Prophecy of the Shadow", and many more) which I'd love
>digital download versions of to bolster my floppy-copies. But it's
>/really/ hard for me to justify spending $5-10USD each for such
>ancient games that are mostly just purchased as backups.

Phantasie is one I missed back in the day. It looks interesting to me
so I plan on playing it at some point. If I am remembering correctly,
there is no DOS version of the second game.

On 12/22/2023 7:08 AM, Mike S. wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Dec 2023 09:56:09 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
> <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> As for myself... well, there have been a great number of older SSI
>> games recently re-released to GOG ("Phantasie collection" is one, but
>> also stuff like the "Wargame Construction Set", "Renegade: Battle for
>> Jacob's Star", "Prophecy of the Shadow", and many more) which I'd love
>> digital download versions of to bolster my floppy-copies. But it's
>> /really/ hard for me to justify spending $5-10USD each for such
>> ancient games that are mostly just purchased as backups.
>
> Phantasie is one I missed back in the day. It looks interesting to me
> so I plan on playing it at some point. If I am remembering correctly,
> there is no DOS version of the second game.

Phantasie was pretty fun on the C-64, I thought it was better than SSI's
D&D games, but doing the same general thing. You got to have a pixie
and troll in your party! It's a game I've thought of replaying
occasionally. I may have only played II, don't remember.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 12/22/2023 4:30 AM, H1M3M wrote:
> rms wrote:
>> Are you ready?!  Can't think of anything I want really, but we'll see!
>>
>> rms
>
> I'm going to reuse the "It's sale Time! No Steam, No!" Goofy time meme
> this time. I barely touched Steam in 2022 (My year of Game pass), but
> that Steam Deck required feeding.
>
> So far:
> - Clannad
> - Hypnospace Outlaw (beat it on Game Pass, but I am not subbed anymore).

That looks pretty funny for a 90's retro-spective of the web in a game.
I'm not sure I want to remember the 90's web though :)

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:29:12 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>But then Valve put the kibosh on deals like that, and declared any
>discounts had to last the entirety of the sale. Not only did this mean
>that there was no purpose to visiting Steam more than once (usually at
>the beginning of the seasonal sale), but it killed those
>super-discounts entirely. No company could afford to give away their
>games at a 95% discount for a whole week!

I'm pretty sure, with all the game discount watch sites, that a 48 hour
deal *was* like putting it on sale for a week. Probably longer in terms
of copies sold at a loss.

In this day and age, only one person has to "visit Steam." Everyone else
is on Reddit or Discord (or whatever) ready to pounce when the guy posts.

So the plan didn't work any more. I doubt it was enitrely Valve's
decision. I think they played with limited supplies for a bit until the
whole thing became more trouble than it was worth. At that point, IIRC,
mistakes were made and Valve's clients got angry about it.

This is why we can't have nice things.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On 21/12/2023 15:19, rms wrote:
> Are you ready?!  Can't think of anything I want really, but we'll see!
>

As I've said before I stopped actively looking at Steam sales a few
years ago as I know what I'm like. I'll ended buying games as they were
a 'bargain' (not if you play if for no more that an hour the are) or
even worse buying something as otherwise I've 'wasted' the last
half-an-hour browsing the sale. Then there was the problem that I'd end
up dropping the game I was currently playing, and enjoying, just to try
the new ones out.

Anecdotally they also don't seem as good as they used to be with the
absolutely massive discounts which put it into the I'll buy it at that
price just to have a change of game for when I feel like it. The last
problem. There's very few games that I think if it's worth £10 pounds
then it isn't worth £30, to put it simply if I really wanted to play it
why haven't I already bought it. It's similar to why I'm quick picky as
to which freebie games I claim from Amazon gaming.

Justisaur wrote:

> That looks pretty funny for a 90's retro-spective of the web in a game.
> I'm not sure I want to remember the 90's web though :)
>
>
Starts like a "late 90's internet simulation", then it starts getting
darker and darker. The moment the second game gets a date, I'm preordering.

On 12/22/23 22:00, Zaghadka wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Dec 2023 12:29:12 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
> Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>> But then Valve put the kibosh on deals like that, and declared any
>> discounts had to last the entirety of the sale. Not only did this mean
>> that there was no purpose to visiting Steam more than once (usually at
>> the beginning of the seasonal sale), but it killed those
>> super-discounts entirely. No company could afford to give away their
>> games at a 95% discount for a whole week!
>
> I'm pretty sure, with all the game discount watch sites, that a 48 hour
> deal *was* like putting it on sale for a week. Probably longer in terms
> of copies sold at a loss.
>
> In this day and age, only one person has to "visit Steam." Everyone else
> is on Reddit or Discord (or whatever) ready to pounce when the guy posts.
>
> So the plan didn't work any more. I doubt it was enitrely Valve's
> decision. I think they played with limited supplies for a bit until the
> whole thing became more trouble than it was worth. At that point, IIRC,
> mistakes were made and Valve's clients got angry about it.
>
> This is why we can't have nice things.

Scalpers ruin everything.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On 12/24/23 09:49, H1MEM wrote:
> Justisaur wrote:
>
>> That looks pretty funny for a 90's retro-spective of the web in a
>> game. I'm not sure I want to remember the 90's web though :)
>>
>>
> Starts like a "late 90's internet simulation", then it starts getting
> darker and darker. The moment the second game gets a date, I'm preordering.

Proud to say Hypnospace is on the list of games that made me cry.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

On Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:19:40 -0700, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

>Are you ready?! Can't think of anything I want really, but we'll see!
>
>rms

There's a Warhammer 40K 4X that's 90% off, but I finally drew the line
on new purchases. I said "no" to a $4.00 WH40K game because that's
how bad my credit card needs to be paid of. Now if I go out and whack
a passerby who has $4 in her purse, I'll green light the purchase.
Everything I know about banking I learned from GTA V, which is slated
as my next video game install. I should be able to get some time in
playing if I fail to inform my mates that I've put it back up.

On Tue, 26 Dec 2023 09:00:17 -0600, Praetor Mandrake
<j63840576@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:19:40 -0700, "rms"
><rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

>>Are you ready?! Can't think of anything I want really, but we'll see!

>There's a Warhammer 40K 4X that's 90% off, but I finally drew the line
>on new purchases. I said "no" to a $4.00 WH40K game because that's
>how bad my credit card needs to be paid of. Now if I go out and whack
>a passerby who has $4 in her purse, I'll green light the purchase.
>Everything I know about banking I learned from GTA V, which is slated
>as my next video game install. I should be able to get some time in
>playing if I fail to inform my mates that I've put it back up.

Hmmm...

Assault a little old lady for pocket change...

.... or go without a new video game and don't see The Number
incrementally improve.

That's a hard call.

I think I'll make the sacreligious choice, say DON'T rob people, and
just wait for the next freebie. There's one right around the corner,
I'm sure. The Number will go up one way or another.

;-)

More seriously... I'm getting burned out on Warhammer stuff. It seems
every week a new Warhammer video game is released. I know that's Games
Workshop modus operandi - flood the market with branded tat and
bankrupt your customer base - but that tactic works best when you
dominate the market, and aren't a tiny also-ran in a crowded market.
Buying/painting a miniature also requires less of your time than
finishing a video game. The excess in Warhammer video game merch is
turning me off the franchise more than it is attracting me to it.

TL;DR: I don't think Games Workshop's strategy is good in the long
run.