Hey guys, we’ve noticed that a number of un-humble users are buying lots of Humble Indie Bundle 4’s for one penny, and then using their Steam codes to “legitimize” automated Steam accounts in order to increase their odds of winning prizes in Valve’s current raffle promotion. This is unfair to legitimate entrants and is definitely not what we wanted to encourage with Humble Indie Bundle 4. It’s a lose-lose situation for the indie developers, charities, Valve, and Humble Bundle.

Therefore, starting immediately, new orders under a humble threshold of $1 will not contain Steam keys.

If you can’t afford a dollar but still need a Steam key and promise not to resell it or otherwise abuse it, please contact our support team with your humble appeal and we’ll purchase a new bundle for you on a case by case basis.

What do you guys think about this change? Is there a better way to help cut down on abuse?

http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/14549340777/1-min-price-for-getting-steam-keys

Discuss

13 years ago*

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Well, they can now remove the 'Pay what you want' slogan

13 years ago
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And change it to "Pay what you want, as long as it's at least 1c"?

13 years ago
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Chances are they're Only going to do this for this bundle, and not make it a $1 for Steam codes minimum for future ones. It's just to stop insane alt spam for unfair advantage in this treasure hunt.

Of course, if you plan ahead and make sure to buy Thousands of bundles when they release their next one, then you can have as many alts as you'll ever need. Lastly, people can still use IndieGala...

13 years ago
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You can still pay what you want, you just only get the Download Links for Under $1, and not steam Keys.

13 years ago
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true

13 years ago
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"Pay what you want, get what you deserve."

13 years ago
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+1

13 years ago
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if that was the case, the humble bundle would punch 1ct buyers in the face.

13 years ago
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Now it does!

13 years ago
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+100000000000000000000

13 years ago
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"Pay what you want, but a dollar for steam keys."

13 years ago
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yea more like it

13 years ago
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nope u can still pay less than 1$ get the games drm free

13 years ago
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I only bought them to giveaway, not for multiple steam accounts.

:(

13 years ago
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And you paid less than a dollar? Classy.

13 years ago
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13 years ago
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So is a gift bought for a dollar enough to make a giveaway people won't complain about?

13 years ago
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13 years ago
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THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

13 years ago
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A bit late.

13 years ago
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Better late than never.

13 years ago
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still enough pages with free steam keys. kinda sad but who wants to cheat always finds a way.

13 years ago
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I kinda like it that way, and I think they should keep it that way.

You can still pay 1 Cent and get the Games to Download for free as many time as you want. Think of the Steam Keys as an Extra Bonus if you pay at least $1.

13 years ago
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Good move. Can't fault them, aside from waiting a bit too long for this.

13 years ago
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They shouldn't even do case by case basis ones because people will ruin that too. I donated 100 bucks. Humblebundle is no place for poors B)

13 years ago
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I physically could not pay bellow the minimum, seeing that capthca hurt, people abusing the use of theses keys is very irritating their ruining the chance of more developers wanting to be part of HB and they are ruing everyone's chances of winning the giftpile contest by jacking up the odds when they where terrible in the first place.

13 years ago
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I think it's a good idea on the part of HiB, and I think Steam should exclude new accounts from the raffle.

13 years ago
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Good, such a change is long overdue. Also they seem to be implying that all future bundles will be like this to prevent abuse in later Steam raffles and such, which is even better because it means all future bundles given away here will at least be dollar ones.

13 years ago
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I support this. No more Steam HIB keys for 2 scrap threads. -_-

13 years ago
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Gonna go straight into their office Friday and thank them personally ^_^

13 years ago
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Indeed. thank them for me as well but scold them for not thinking about this sooner

13 years ago
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thanks to them we have an inflated entrant number to the winter treasure hunt (people getting 10-20 accounts to farm coal or coupons)

13 years ago
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thank them for me too, tell them "buggity buggity boo" they'll know what I mean

13 years ago
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LMAO

13 years ago
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I wish this had been done earlier, as the abuse was going on well before Steam's winter sale; but I'd rather now than never, I guess.

Now, why doesn't Steam do anything? They could (pretty easily, I imagine) stop HIB4 games from counting towards a valid account, or take other measure to taper the alt accounts. It wouldn't even need an announcement, as the only people affected would be those with only HIB games in their account (like they're going to speak up).

13 years ago
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HiB games should not count towards anything for steam, achievements and stats yeah , but account worth and contest entry now, for example THIS ENTIRE WEBSITE.

13 years ago
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what?

13 years ago
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HiB shouldn't be eligible as a give away or count towards the account value to get onto the site

13 years ago
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HIB's should be given away, yes as some people miss the bundles or can't afford them at the time being sold. But they really shouldn't count towards your account.

13 years ago
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Good call, I personally support this. Lots of people taking advantage of the Pay What You Want system.

13 years ago
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I hope IndieGala will do the same ._.

13 years ago
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I though this was pay what you want, not pay what we want.

13 years ago
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To quote MadDogTen from above: "You can still pay what you want, you just only get the Download Links for Under $1, and not steam Keys."

13 years ago
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Or steam could make it so that humble bundle games don't count for whatever happens.

This is just a way for them to exert more control over what you spend, and I don't really support deception with offers.

13 years ago
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13 years ago
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Finally some action.

13 years ago
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I agree, HiB for $1 is still cheap like hell. I know many people that buys HiB for the $0.01 - and that's wrong! I even saw HiB on Aukro (something like eBay in my country) where somebody sells it for $2.5. How much you guess that he paid for them? -_-

And the limit only for Steam Keys is also great idea - many people will rather pay the $1 'cause of the Steam key.

13 years ago
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I'd set the minimal price even higher.

13 years ago
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Good move, about time something was done against people with no morals.

13 years ago
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I still think they should set it at 1$ minimum period.

13 years ago
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I think its a good idea, there was a thread on the steam forums where someoene was just giving away code after code, which didn't include the extra codes, so I'm guessing he was getting them for 1c each. I couldn't afford the average, but I still paid $1

13 years ago
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+1. or even make it 2$.

13 years ago
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$1 minimum is still far too cheap! I didn't even know you could pay whatever you wanted, that's disgusting. $5 minimum and no lower if you want to cut back on account abuse.

13 years ago
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$5 minimum cuts a lot of customers, and when it comes to pay what you want schemes, what they want is to sell as many as possible.

13 years ago
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+1. Also to cut back on people buying them for .01 and selling them on the forums.

13 years ago
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The point of the whole thing is to be generous. That's why you can decide who gets how much. Obviously the current model has been successful enough with how many bundles there have already been. I do agree with the $1 limit, that seems like an acceptable compromise even though it won't prevent all abuse.

13 years ago
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I think it might further deter people who aren't exactly blessed with money. I'll admit, I bought My indie bundle for 7c, but only because I didn't have much money left over. I usually pay WELL over the 5$ average. Had it been raised to 1$ beforehand I could have still gotten it, but the principle stands that it also offers an opportunity for poorer gamers to play games. Let's face it, there are people who will always abuse the system they are given. For people who DO get lot's of copies to create dummy accounts and "increase" their chances of winning this raffle, well, they probably won't be increasing their chances by much and if they created enough dummy accounts TO increase their chances, let them have it, maybe having a limitless supply of games to interact and socialize with people might be enough to kick in and make them realize how much of a loser they are that they were willing t sit down and do the same achievements over and over.

Note: There's only 3 games with achievements from the bundle that are going to get you anything for the gift pile.
http://steamcheeves.com/
Inb4 bonus items, you;d have to donate over 5$ to get them.

So as you can see, the indie bundle team are worrying about literally NOTHING

13 years ago
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So, people are creating hundreds of alternate accounts to cheat a giveaway promotion (while also causing the Humble Bundle developers to lose money) and you say they are worrying about nothing?

And sorry, but I don't buy the "I am poor" excuse. $1 is not even a meal! And they said they might buy the bundle for you depending on your situation, so if you're really THAT poor, you might still get your games.

13 years ago
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Ok, think of it this way, if someone WERE to buy hundreds of indie bundles for a penny. Who has the time to do what? 5 achievements... on HUNDREDS OF ACCOUNTS. You're telling me that there are people WILLING to go out and do the same 5 achievements over and over? And even if they WERE to, that's 500 entries out of the entire steam community. Even if the entire steam community were to do 1 and just 1 single achievement, 600 entries on someone else's behalf won't make much of a scratch in helping their odds. So lets look at the reality of the steam community doing a minimum of 5 achievements and suddenly the odds shrink even more. And don't even get me started on profits. Aside from it being a charity thing, they have made OVER 1million dollars... almost 2, and somehow that's not fair?

13 years ago
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I meant to say that multiple people were creating hundred of accounts, and not that each single person was creating a hundred accounts. And yes, I'm sure people are willing to go out and do the same 5 achievements over and over. Just look over the steam forums or even here. People are getting a LOT of coals and coupons in the second day and I don't believe everyone one of them traded for it. And it doesn't matter if they did 1 or 10 achievements, they are still increasing their odds of winning something by "cheating".

And what do you mean about they having made over 1 million dollars? Yes, they have (though we don't know how much of that is for charity), but what exactly makes you think it's ok to damage them because of that? Maybe the supermarket you go makes a lot of money, maybe a book you bought was written by a millionaire, you think it would be ok to steal from them just because of that? The Humble Bundle guys are already being humble enough allowing you to pay what you want AND give the money all to charity and not a single cent to them, if you wish. The developers worked hard on their games, what's the problem in paying a fraction of what it's worth? What's the problem if they are making a lot of money, don't they deserve to?

13 years ago
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It's not damage. No matter how much people donate it's always profit, digital goods aren't like physical goods, they don't require supply and demand. Also take into account that you can donate all of your money to charity or the indie bundle team and not the devs if you choose to. In terms of money, it hurts no one.

As for the draw, there is no way ant user could significantly increase their chances. If fixing the spam is what needs to be done, then let Valve crackdown, otherwise the indie team puts the burden on them and will only get hurt by the backlash. I like the indie bundles, they allow me to support charities wit my money and reward me with games I enjoy.

If you want me to further elaborate add me on steam and I can explain it better. I don't like arguing on forums.

13 years ago
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"It's not damage. No matter how much people donate it's always profit"
Nope, for every transaction via paypal there is a transaction fee meaning for every bundle brought at 1 cent there is a net loss of around 29 cents.

13 years ago
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Not to mention the fact that they pay for bandwidth, and for all I know Valve or Desura might charge them a fee to have Steam/Desura-redeemable keys (they've gotta pay for that download bandwidth too after all).

13 years ago
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Paypal has a REALLY retarded system if that is the case

13 years ago
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13 years ago
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Closed 13 years ago by Kove.