Games that have been bundled on bundle sites and games who's discounted prices were 95%, or more, off the USD base price get added to the list. Case in point: Mahjong Pretty Girls Bundle is ~98% off the USD base price when converted from RU/CIS prices.
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I thought it was 95%. I got some copies of this (Mahjong Pretty Girls Bundle) off Steam, only to realize it is being "bundled". I would have just spent the money it was at 90% to buy some bundles, and get more crap CV out of those real bundled games had I known they would add it to the list. I think I checked when I bought it, and it wasn't on the list, but now it's appeared. I was able to get Brilliant Bob many times at 90% off and gain decent CV from it. I just don't know how to tell when they're going to bundle something, since I thought it was 95% or greater for that to happen...
Kind of a waste of my CV, but my main reason for giving away is for other people to enjoy games, so it's not that big a deal. I would buy expensive titles if I had money, but I am disabled so I don't get very much... I have to find really good deals usually if I'm going to give anything away... I'm just kind of upset that this was considered a bundle when it was 90% off, and not 95%. How does one know when a discounted game will be considered a bundle game if it is retroactively added? Kind of takes a little of the wind out of my sails when the rules keep changing. I'm buying the ROW version, so RU/CIS should have nothing to do with it. If it's 98%, then that should be categorized as such (RU/CIS version only).
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First of all:
Secondly:
Anything that goes down to 95% discount or even more can and will be used to "exploit" the CV system. This means if games that can be acquired that cheap don't go on the bundle list they are given away massively and those that have access to those cheap games will gain a huge amount of CV while they only spent very little money.
Take for example another game like Aliens Collection - this package sells for 7.49 USD atm but can be bought for as low as 1.97 USD in Russia - while this alone won't qualify for an entry in the bundle-list it sold as low as 1.14 USD in Russia on Dec 1st 2014. This results in a 96.2% discount and means that anybody could gain 30 USD of CV for only 1.14 USD spent in reality. While it seems, those sales went almost unnoticed (there are very few GA for that package in the database for that date). Once it is exploited, this game too will make it to the bundle-list with a date for Dec 1st 2014.
If those cheap games wouldn't be added to the buindle-list this would completely ruin the whole CV system and we wouldn't be able to tell truly generous people apart from those who game the system for their personal benefits.
Now you ask what Russian prices have to do with the amount of money you paid. This really is the key point to the whole thing. It's enough if this game is available for cheap in any region of this world since from then on it's exploitable! People can trade for Russian copies and give those away even if they cannot add them to their own libraries.
This means any discount for more then 95% (compared to USD base price) anywhere on this world will result in an entry on the bundle-list. (As long as it's exploitable - not price errors that are fixed within a couple of hours).
If you wonder how to avoid that, I can only advise you to use the Enhanced Steam extension for your browser. If you use it, you will be able to see the game prices in other regions and it also will add links to SteamDB where you can see the cheapest price the game has sold in every region. From there on its your personal call to figure out, if you want to give away a game or not. Some games will make it to the bundle list immediately, some only months later and others go completely unnoticed for a very long time...
And for anyone who has read that far, click on that point here.
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My intention is never to buy strictly for CV. It's about giving, and that is my priority. I understand all you've written, but I'm still quite confused on this one. Russian games are region locked, I thought? Why not just make the ones that are region locked considered "bundle games"? I guess it doesn't matter whether or not it is ROW or RU/CIS then. I'd assume it would be under this, and have the red ! in the corner.
A shame I have to get an addon I don't really want just to see prices around the world. I was pretty sure this was no longer possible to exploit with RU/CIS... All I know is when I bought the games, and put them up, the game(s) were not on the list that i checked on steamgifts. I understand your point about people exploiting for CV, and I have seen a lot of it done at times and gotten away with - price glitches and such. People will continue to get away with that and there's no way to tell the difference. I figured region locked games would be easily classified as such...
Oh well. I guess I will start using this addon that I have been trying to avoid for months then since I don't feel like cross-checking every single game that goes on sale to determine if I want to buy five copies, instead of one or two.
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While it would be able to generate a different CV for region restricted GA this would most probably only result in regional groups that will create "normal" giveaways and there would be no way to check, what version has been originally bought or payed for.
So as long as SG isn't implemented in the Steam community itself and can check witch game has been given and activated, there will be no way to differ between a ROW or region restricted version.
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Good point. Well, I am glad I can give away a few copies of said game. No rush on CV. It will come as I continually give away more stuff, since I am passionate about doing so. Thanks for taking some time to try and help me figure out why this happened. It's just a shame that something unrelated to my own purchases affect it for me.
On the contrary though, one could easily buy AAA games and exploit it in reverse buying stuff in RU/CIS with dollars instead of roubles at 1/5 the price or less from steam. They mark region locked, get their 50-60+P, take advantage of that all day long, until they are potentially banned from Steam of course - but there is nothing on the flip side since things need to be balanced for each economy. Too bad the economics collide in cases like this one with the 90%
Any idea why it was over 95% in the RU/CIS market? A shame really, but I guess this is as good and fair as they can make it.
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It got the same discount in Russia as in any other region namely 90%. The only thing is, that these 90% discount with an already cheaper base price in Russia (price without discounts 440 Rub = 7.00 USD) now put the game to 44 RUB = 0.70 USD in CIS region. And since those 0.70 USD are an equivalent discount of 97.2 % compared to the base price in the US.
So it's not about the actual percentage that is on display but about the real price the game sells for.
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I think I mentioned it in my first maybe too long comment which I tried to make a bit clearer now:
Now you ask what Russian prices have to do with the amount of money you paid. This really is the key point to the whole thing. It's enough if this game is available for cheap in any region of this world since from then on it's exploitable! People can trade for Russian copies and give those away even if they cannot add them to their own libraries.
This means any discount for more then 95% (compared to USD base price) anywhere on this world will result in an entry on the bundle-list. (As long as it's exploitable - not price errors that are fixed within a couple of hours.
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Ah - I think the whole crux of the issue is: If it's 90% off on STEAM then it will be bundled, since the RU/CIS have access to the same discount. If it is 90% off on a site such as Humblestore, Bundlestars, etc. then it's safe to give away at 90%, since you have to pay in their currency (dollars, euros, pounds, etc.).
That's why Brilliant Bob was considered full price at 90% where this one was not, because of the conversion rate. I will be more careful with my money on Steam in particular then... I love to give away, but a piece of me likes to gain a little CV for my efforts as well, when possible. I am glad that some people here in SG will get to enjoy some of my copies I'm giving out.
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Brilliant Bob should also be on the list. ~96% off converted USD base in RU. When it gets added it'll be dated Jun 15th.
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Wish there was a way to screenshot with your account name showing etc. to show there is no ugly red ! on it. I'll stop blabbing though, as you make perfect sense. Just quite frustrating when I don't know why there was a discount above 90%, and why it was over if there was for a specific region.
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Did not mean to make it sound like you were accusing me of doing that.... I have only one region locked giveaway from a trade I made... but otherwise all ROW. Yeah - that's the whole prob. I could potentially exploit high dollar AAA games any time and put them up as region locked, and amass large amounts of CV, but if it's above 95% somewhere, one gets only 15%, so I was just kind of saying it is biased one way, in a sense... Got the tool now, so I guess I'll learn to use it, and I'll make sure I don't get things off Steam at 90% since there's a chance it isn't, because there are no checks between region locked and ROW games on SG, even though you can mark giveaways as such.
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Or you can give away the games you think are GOOD and cheap, and not the cheapest just thinking on the CV. I guarantee you that when you will stop being afraid of that, you will be happier and enjoy more giving them.
The suggestion is that you giveaway asap as you purchase them. I bought a lot of games and they got bundled before I got an excuse to break my laziness and do a giveaway of them.
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I appreciate your thoughtful points a lot, and they are completely understandable, I agree with them wholeheartedly, and it is definitely great advice, so thank you for that. I think you are assuming a lot, based on what you just said, however - like I am just going for CV and giveaways come secondary. This is sort of an isolated incident that has upset me. I don't do any of what I mentioned to a large degree, but it could be done to break the extremely flawed system much more than a few measIy percentage points added to a game's discount based on a currency that I don't even use. I am simply trying to expose it for what it is - and point out some reasons why I feel it is wrong to penalize somebody who actually followed the rules of the site with a ROW title, yet gets penalized as though they have a RU/CIS version...
I never said CV was the most important thing. Again, I am simply trying to expose the flaw in the system that is in place for CV, since it is based on something that isn't static (or else 95% would mean 95% and 90% would be less than 95% no matter what). I am very happy with giving away what I do, but it leaves a bitter taste when you have expectations based on what you think the rules are, only to be slightly misled.
I would have gotten a lot of other BETTER things like you are saying, been more happy with my contributions, and gained much more CV if I had spent the money I did on other things. Since it wasn't listed at the time in the bundle-games section on Steamgifts at the time I made my giveaways, I was not aware I would be crippled down to 15% or I would have simply gotten refunds from Steam... It makes me sad that they cannot keep their data up to date. The surprise is what upset me, since I checked before I put it up, and it was legitimate at the time of my giveaways...
Giving is my priority, and I think I have said that several times in this thread - I would not even do it if I just wanted to gain CV. I would have cancelled all my giveaways and gotten refunds immediately after I found out... I am fine with what I got, and I am glad I can give to people interested in what I am giving away. That's not the point really. It's the principle of the thing that bothers me - getting ripped off when something changes after I make my giveaways. I will just have to make sure anything that is 90% off is not from steam because I risk getting ninja'd - so all the rule does is keep me from buying directly from steam in these cases, so I can avoid any possible blindsiding. It's easy - I will buy where only stronger currencies are used to pay, then I know 90% is really 90%. Problem solved. Lesson learned.
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Check Here if a game is bundled /discounted to 90%could be even lower not sure and check the What are levels, and how can I increase my level? part about bundle games
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https://steamdb.info/app/211420/
It hasn't. Lowest it went off USD base after conversion was 88%.
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base show not all http://s014.radikal.ru/i329/1510/c3/6c01323f6625.png
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Sometimes on sale or game release publishers add dot in wrong place like 6.99 instead 699, for some minutes, hours. If you think it is nothing, then check different between russian owners http://steamspy.com/app/211420 and http://steamspy.com/app/236430, http://steamspy.com/app/260230 and http://steamspy.com/app/256290
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It wasn't on the list when I got Mahjong Pretty Girls bundle. It's on there now though, after I made my purchases, and wasted some money where I could have bought a lot more and gotten much more gifts, and a little more CV out of it buying bundles instead or just holding onto my money for something else. Many times, when I see 90% on ITAD and it's not on that list, I assume it will get good CV return. I was wrong this time, as it must have been delayed and not added to the list in a timely manner, until after I purchased my games. Already put stuff in random giveaways or else I'd send them back to steam and buy other things to stretch my money out a little better, and get more CV as well for my efforts.
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I think it's up to what they decide to bundle. I feel ripped off sorta by the Mahjong: Pretty Girls Bundle being considered bundled. It's kind of expensive for a single package, at 90% (I could've sworn it was 95% or greater to be considered a bundle). For the amount it costs to buy one copy, you could get much more CV in buying a couple of bundles and snagging it from those instead. I am fairly certain when I purchased several copies of this, it was not on the list, and has been put there retroactively. I guess 90% is the new 95% in some cases. It worked fine with Brilliant Bob until it was bundled... I always check the bundled games list they have here before grabbing something at a discount, since there have been so many bundles that have had games that I don't remember.
Seems the rules keep changing.... I would have just cancelled my orders and sent them back to steam had I known they would appear in this "bundle" list, and spent my money on something to get more CV on, probably, or grabbed a single higher quality game. I've already started all my giveaways though, so I'll just have to eat this one, knowing my money could have gone further, and I could have given more people more games with more giveaways, or given a single game that was much higher value.
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Please see my reply above.
As an addition: the bundle list is managed by one person alone and there is no automatic process for that. So it may take a while for them to notice cheap games that deserve a bundle entry. Sometimes it is only noted after a huge bunch of region restricted GA spawn...
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It's funny: They penalize people who buy legitimate 90% off bundles of games, but they group them with RU/CIS region locked games and call them "bundled".
But you can, however buy a RU/CIS game, say... Dying Light, for around $12 and give it away region locked... to make 60P pure CV. I'm having one of those "wtf" moments...
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TBH the difference is that Dlying Light is still at only 80% discount, while the 90% ROW-discount is indeed 95%+ in RUS. But the thing I don't understand: when this started? The rules were 95% discount. And now one needs to check the russian price to give away a ROW copy just because one could trade with a russian to get them? When will we start looking into like polish retail prices because one could pay a polish friend to buy more retail games to give away, and how do we know if one country's retail prices won't go over the "95% of USD price" rule? TBH I don't really see any legit, common reason to somebody giving away a region locked game if not from that region - considering buying from the steam store one could only get locked games for his/her own region.
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I was just mentioning it because one could "create" their own discounts whenever they wanted, even on games that would never drop to those kinds of percentage discounts, like Dying Light, for example. if they chose to use some sort of go-between to get region locked games and throw giveaways up for the sake of just gaining some CV. The point is, there is no penalty for doing something like that, yet there is if the conversion rates in another country other than your own is above 95%, so there's a chance I could have obtained a region locked version, even though there is no red !'s on any of my gift copies, and I don't live in RU/CIS and I don't want to use VIP or get games from people in other countries just to try to make a tiny bit of CV.
It is kinda ridiculous that I have to now check the currency rates at any given time (since they all fluctuate also), just to see if a giveaway would gain a little or a lot of CV. What if it was at 94.9% discount in RU, and then an hour later it was 95.1%???? STUPID!!! I guess the 95% rule only applies to games that are not on Steam itself, since the currencies of other stores, like humble, bundlestars, indiegala etc. take dollars, euros, pounds so there is no roubles anywhere in the equation to worry about. 90% is 90%, or close to it, and you can remain confident it will stay that way as long as it doesn't become 90% on Steam, or find its way into a bundle before giving it away.
You're right about there being no really good reason to give away games from other regions. I have a friend from RU/CIS that gave me a couple of extra games from that region in a trade. They are very low-priced games, however, and I may or may not give them away at some point. I don't have them listed in my trades page though, but may offer them at some point, or give them away. I have also given away a copy of GTA:, Vice City I think it was, that was locked for South America. I've gotten a few games in trades from other regions though.
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while the 90% ROW-discount is indeed 95%+ in RUS. But the thing I don't understand: when this started?
It was always like this. Just before Steam introduced region locked gift copies any copy traded from Russian Steam users was ROW and could be given to anybody. So it was maybe more reasonable to include those games to the bundle list, since back then those games were cheap ROW games.
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That's understandable when it was easy to do that sort of thing. I hope one day they can catch up with the times, or create a better rule for games that are not actually in an official "bundle". It makes sense... just sad everyone is guilty and there is no way to prove your innocence....
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Rules are that if you use something to exploit CV, it will be bundled. Anything that goes over 95% discount and is posted by several people will be considered bundled. Exceptions are when it's a price error that was fixed quickly, so very few people could profit.
Anyways, the system now rewards gifting different games rather than copies of the same game, so, you can't really increase your CV by acquiring large stacks of a heavily discounted or erroneously priced game (as was once possible, see Crazy Machines, there's still people with 10-20 Crazy Machines games gifted...).
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Yeah, this is where I was confused, since I thought a recent giveaway was 90% and wasn't listed in the bundle games when I bought copies to give away. I figured it was within the 95% rule, so everything was fine.... I am wondering why it was at a higher discount somewhere else? The currencies being different is understandable, but I don't know where this higher discount came from... Oh well, live and learn.
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You can always check SteamDB:
https://steamdb.info/sub/71448/
If USD price is 2.49 with a -90% discount, then anything lower than $1.25 is over 95% discount. There are 4 such stores ATM (Russian, Brazilian, Malaysian, Indonesian).
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Yeah very true... it's unfortunate that it has to be checked, but that's the way they want the system on here I guess. I will just stay away from 90% off stuff on Steam. Don't currencies fluctuate? What if it's 94.9% for a while, then it drops to 95.1% later? Does any of that factor in? I will just purchase from other sites like Indiegala, Humble, Bundle Stars etc. where only currencies similar to my own are employed, so I don't have to worry about it. It's not the end of the world though, and the CV comes as I give, and I want to keep that my primary focus. Still I feel sort of burned and cheated since I figured 90% for me only counted for ... well... my purchase.
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https://steamdb.info/app/15100/
will be bundled or not?
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No its only 75% off.
I'm not going to read everything in this thread to catch up but I'm assuming you're asking in regards to CIS prices. Well they're region locked now. If you were to start bundling those then you could probably bundle anything that goes on sale because CIS prices are so much lower.
To my knowledge, the last game that was bundled was the 007 game because that was being abused (region locked CIS), and those keys.
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Would be nice for discussion thread about bundled games. Same
<95%
https://steamdb.info/sub/30371/
cant see
https://steamdb.info/sub/41125/
(>)95%
https://steamdb.info/sub/41124/
but they can add all 3 in bundled.
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Anybody can write me rules about bundled games or it just admins wish what be bundled, what not?
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