What is the source of the games/money?
Most of the times I just do it because I like to give. If I get steam wallet codes for my bday or christmas, I put some aside for GAs and stuff like that
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i buy stuff for others and nothing for me.
works perfectly on sg :3
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I'm sure they do it, because they have the money. That and they love to give. Unfortunately I don't have the money. Otherwise I wouldn't mind giving away some better games other than left over bundle keys like yourself.
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maybe next day the homeless ask me "what money it is? how you can afford this bro?"
:DD
imho there is a hobby for every ppl... and to give something for others here.. man, try buy a good horse. na, thats pricey.
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Strange to see this question asked by someone living in a G20 country, where normally one would think even the average wage leaves more than enough room to spend a hundred Euroes or so on gifts monthly.
The answer is: good wages, other source of income, and/or looking for deals. Many games that almost never go on a good sale on Steam have nice discounts on several legit store sites. Sites like IsThereAnyDeal can help a lot with saving money on buying games for oneself or for others.
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just a word
I see in my whole life (30+ years): people with less money gave more. maybe thats why they have less money dunno. :DD
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Yes, G20, which is on verge to bankruptcy.
I live and work in Italy were salaries are very low, barely enough to maintain a home.
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Er, slight correction: Italian salaries are high. You are more than likely earn at least thrice as much as I do. And I'm an EU citizen too.
Cost of living there increased a lot, even though rent prices are still tame compared to many countries (including my own).
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high compared to which country? i know that germany, uk, swiss have salaries 3 to 4 times more than italy for the same job.
USA salaries for same jobs are also at least 4-5 times more than italy.
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I'm upper middle class here with a 515 Euros monthly wage. ;) I couldn't rent a shack in Italy with local my salary, let alone eat. ANd I earn almost 5-10 as much as many Asian middle class people. And my wage is considered a small fortune for many middle class people East and South of me.
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you pay in switzerland on average also 6 to 10 times the monthly rent then in italy
also the foodcost is easy 3 times higher then in italy you can not count this way you have to count what stay at the end in your pocket if you have the same livingstandart
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Compared to my country all Italians are filthy rich. Not joking about it.
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Same.
Straight answer for OP is simply charitable people that like giving.
You said "I will never ever buy Fallout 4 and give it to complete strangers"
But some people simply will.
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Hi neighbour, greetings from Bulgaria. I do not want to even start the topic. :)
I just give what I have and what I can.
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compare it to my country... you'll be amazed how lavish your lifes are... Not blaming my country but the prices here are touching skies and the salaries for a guy like me(a fresher in tech industry) is not even enough to fulfill our own needs...
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I don't know wages in India, but I'll give you ours so you can compare if you want.
Here minimum wage requested by the state is $200 per month (factories, stores and so on). University degree will enable you to work for $350 per month (teachers, bankers). Doctors and managers get $400, programmers $500-2000 based on position and experience. President and prime minister have $1200, head of national bank $5000.
Oh, and most people work in "gray area" for less than $150 per month. That's when "a boss" does not want to register a worker and pay health and pension insurance, so you work there without the state knowing. Why would anyone do that? Because of staggering 40% unemployment rate.
To put that in perspective, ham, eggs or chocolate cost the same as in Germany (and I'm not pulling this out of my ass, it's proven by many travelers including a cousin of mine, not counting on huge discounts they have there on a regular basis), while clothing is more expensive here.
You can rent a small apartment (most often up to 25 or 30 square meters) for $100 or more per month. You spend $30-60 per month for electricity, and additional $200 for food for two people (not restaurants or fast food, just fresh stuff from the farmers market to make your own meals).
So in the end if you live alone, you can survive with $350, get food, pay the rent, even afford to buy some new clothes now and then. If there's two or more of you with a single paycheck, you live in an inexplicable way and it became a custom here not to ask other how the hell they manage to survive without becoming criminals.
And then, Steam. Well, 99.9% of gamers in my country were pirates before they were introduced to Steam. Back in the 80s and 90s, radio's even streamed commodore 64 games over the air waves and it was not illegal as the law did not know of video games. In late 90s and early 2000s, you could buy any game freshly burned by a pirate to a cd/dvd and sold in the street.
Then steam came around and people realized they can get those games they liked - and finally give back to developers and support their efforts - for a fraction of the full price. So they did. Mostly IT guys who were always online and involved with games for years. Then came the wave of new kids, who never knew buying games from a shady guy in a small shed by the apartment building, but they liked bundles and that you could get 5 or more games for a dollar.
But even if digital distribution changed the world and enabled us to get games for much less dollars than ever, one thing still did not change - dollar is more valued in some parts of the world, so that "same" price for a discounted steam game is two burgers for someone, and 2 weeks of food for someone else.
And it's not a problem. But then, sometimes, those who think burgers are expensive start crying around, saying that they have it bad... and we can all feel happy for them. Really. Because they don't really know what bad is, and that's good.
btw, just for the records, I assume most people in India have it worse than us, but I was saying all of this for OP so he can relax a bit and stop crying about Italy having it hard.
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dint read whole.. too long for me to read now in this condition... but from what i read the min wages u suggested for a dev is 500$ which turns out to be close to 33k in INR. which is good amount no doubt but when you compare it to the prices of our daily needs like house it means nothing. In fact one of my sir this year was talking about increasing rates in IN. and he was amazed that for a normal guy from middle class family it will take him around 7/8 years to just get a house with 2BHK in posh areas of Mumbai. and thats just time and amount required to get a house for yourself. if you plan on renting it. then you can think of a monthly rent of close to 10k in normal house if you want to rent in posh areas of Mumbai then get ready to empty your pockets just to rent a house.
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Usa is known for its low wages (for the lower class), and something like nearly 30% of the population falls below the UN's poverty line formula. Even without adjustment for UN-expectation/inflation since the us poverty line was first determined, the official poverty line in the us has 14.5+% of the population below it. Meanwhile, Italy was at record poverty levels in 2013, with 'only' 12.7%.
Perhaps I'm mistaking something, I'm minimally familiar with Italian social structure, but the us seems a poor place to compare to- namely since the us, lacking the business and employment protections standard in Europe, tends to have very disparate income levels, with only top-end jobs offering multiples of european incomes. Low end jobs theoretically pay notably less - and one thing the poverty statistics in the us fail to note, adjustment for inflation and economic growth since the 1960s aside, is how many people have to work 2 or more jobs to stay above the poverty line.
Just, whatever Italy's circumstances, don't assume the us is rainbows and sunshine.
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Obviously it depends on the job and on the rank in the job, I do Java Development, and an average salary is around 1300 euro, which is around $16k / year, development jobs in the US start around $50k/year, some specialties or those with great experience go up even higher, 70k or 80k...
average rent or loan payments here is around $500, add to this bills, fuel, schools, food, you end up with nothing. taxes are high, all tech things cost way more, hardware, software. One good thing better than the US might be the health insurance.
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That's not quite fair. While international value of the euro has dropped notably, local purchasing power doesn't drop based on international valuation.
16,000 euro'd probably be closer to 25,000, based on my experience with euros, assuming their value hasn't dropped too much locally.
Typical starting pay in the us for a decent job is $30,000, $50-60 is for highly qualified positions. You can manage that salary easily in development once you get your foot in, but it's not 'start at', persay.
still, nuances aside, it does seem worse off, in regards to that field, over there- assuming you're making a fair comparison in expected qualifications.
Keep in mind most jobs in the us pay around 20 to just under 40k a year, however, so jobs that pay above that are hardly bottom-rung. And there are far more programming-qualified individuals than jobs here, by this point, so good luck getting that first well-paying job without a solid resume.
However, average rent here is generally 600-$2000+bills depending on quality or location, so 500E seems a fair bit on the high end.
Keep in mind that if you're working a full-time minimum wage job in the us, you're only pulling about $1200 a month- less than $1300E, even on a 1:1 valuation.
The fact is, the different social structures mean direct comparisons are impossible- but certainly, I'd say both nations seem to have their economic shortcomings.
Basically, the us seems to have a way worse bottom tier, and a better high-end middle tier, when it comes to jobs, is the impression I'm getting.
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I agree that direct comparison is not possible, but i still say that US life is a bit better, i have cousins who live there and I hear from them about prices, cars are cheaper (they change their every 4-5 years), clothing cheaper, food cheaper.
I don't want to go in an endless loop, different countries, societies and monetary regions have everything different, other wise we end up with: "All countries are equal, but some are more equal than others"
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Your cousins sound like they have good jobs.
Keep in mind, even if 30% of the us is dealing with financial difficulties, and 20% is very well off, that still leaves a firm middle class of 50%.
My point was more that we've more low-income issues than Europe, due to lack of protections that are standard there, not that we don't have some parts of our social strata that are much better off than other places.
That said, most of my comparisons are with Germany, where a ton of things were a bit cheaper, and things like furniture often like a third the price of the us.
Things could be quite challenging in Italy specifically- I certainly wouldn't know, definitely not more than you!
Just pointing out we all have our own challenges, and the grass isn't necessarily greener, but sometimes just 'differently arranged'.
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Now compare it not with Germany, which is very well developed country, but with eastern europe. Where for Your minimum wage, I could live a VERY comfortable life. A couple earning Your minimum wage could easly afford to get a loan for a full house, as Your minimum wage is higher than even our average wage.
Example, I drive a 16-year old car. I got it for 2000$. A new car, let's say, this year's Ford Mondeo - the middle class car. Around 25000$ here. So, in theory, You could buy this car with Your average job in one year. With our slighty above typical salary, we could afford this car after... 4 years. Yup, young people here typically earn around 500-600 dollars per month. 6000-7 000$ per year. When comparing minimum wages - then You need less than 2 years of pay, while we need more than 6 years worth of work.
Rent? 200-300 dollars for a small flat. My friends got a 40-meter flat for 450$, but they can afford it because they both have jobs.
And our social protection... Yeah, there is. Some. But You wouldn't be able to survive off it alone...
The main problem is - we get paid a certain amount of money. Our food is typically priced adequately to the salaries. But then You want to buy something that is not required to survive - like games or cars - and You find out that You're expected to pay the same price as westerners. While earning 1/3 of what westerners earn :(
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None of that makes any sense to the current topic, if addressing it was your intent.
In fact, comparing one country's minimum wage without adjusting for local buying power is nonsensical in any context other than discussing plans for emigration.
The Mondeo is $35k here, minimum wage yearly income is about $13,000 after deductions. Even if you got full minimum wage/refund at end of year/et al, worked full time every week of the year, no holidays, it'd be $15k.
If you get a cheap place, splitting rent, you might be able to reliably go as low as $400, if you're not in a notable urban area (not necessarily including utilities, which can run as much as half the rent)
Ignoring living expenses/utilities/etc, since you did;
We get a year end result of about $8200.(23.4% of Mondeo)
Assuming 500$/month and $200/month rent, you'd get $3,600 (14.4%)
Which'd put us at just under double, not just over triple, so your estimate was a fair bit off.
Nevermind that not accounting for all other costs makes it a moot affair.
Moreover, generally people in America don't consider Eastern Europe part of Europe. That's not meant to imply anything whatsoever, just that perceptions of the word 'Europe' is used to refer solely to Western Europe and its economy, while 'Eastern Europe' is used specifically for the east.
so while insights are certainly welcome, do just want to clarify people weren't necessarily making any assertions to conditions in East Germany- certainly, I think most people'd agree that sometimes conditions are simply better in one country than another.
Also, not sure what you mean about social protection. If you mean what I mentioned, I was referring to protections on employment- [western] europe has far more restrictions on what businesses can get away with, than the us. For example, in the us, if you have a salaried position, there's no limit to the number of hours you can be asked to work.
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I didn't know that You exlude Eastern Europe when referring to Europe at the time of writing. You say that a 1200$ a month is a low income, while we dream of such. I wanted to give You some perspective from underdeveloped european country. For us, the grass IS greener, as I have many friends whose lives were changed by only moving to other countries. If I did knew earlier, I wouldn't stick my cents in this discussion. My country, Poland, is right in the middle of the continent known as Europe. And we want to achieve the western standard of living ;) But it's sad that we're considered "not europe" and just some backwater :( The continent of euope is unfortunately very uneven in terms of living standards.
I am comparing the buying power - comparing the sole costs of living between highly developed countries like USA, Germany, France etc. is pointless, as they're pretty similar, more or less (some things cheaper, some more expensive, but evens out). Even more, costs of living in underdeveloped countries are also adequate. The main problem are the luxury goods. We get to eat as much meat as You, but we get 1/3 of the luxury goods You get.
I double checked the price of the Mondeo - around 29000$, so I undervalued it. The minimum monthly wage after taxes is around 1300 PLN, which translates to 325 dollars per month, so 3900 dollars per year. The wage of 500$ is the most common one in Poland (not average, which is 1000$. And half of the working population works for less than 800$. Half. Where You're expected to pay around 300$ for rent alone.). I assume no living expenses, because as I said earlier, they are pretty adequate, the price You pay for potatoes or apples for example is horribly expensive by our standards.
About social protection of work - I will tell You how they work here - they don't. Yes, officialy You should not work more than those 40 hours per week. If You do, You're supposed to get back the free time or get paid an extra. In reality? "Get to work or I'll fire You.". You could try to fight and notice the goverment. But then, most people are afraid of losing their job, so they just agree. Because they have no choice. At the same time, my friend who recently went to US after winning a visa, has a job in a factory where he works those 40 hours and is not expected to work more. Here, in Poland, while working in a butchery, he was working more than 50 hours pretty often.
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I see.
I still think the financial equality is a bit more complex than you give it credit for, but with all you said in mind, it seems hard to argue that fundamentally, life in Poland is more challenging.
Thank you for that in-depth perspective- I certainly didn't mean to imply anything other than that moving to the u.s. from any country wouldn't necessarily be better.
In your case, it seems it very likely would be a fairly reliable improvement, even if only looking at luxury goods obtainable over time.
And of course, I'm sure every country has its weak points- some more than others. I was merely trying to point out the us's, not trying to emphasize those points as necessarily worse than another country's.
Though, what I truly got from our discussion, is that both our economies and employee protections need a lot of work, regardless of the specific nuances. :X
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After You obtain certain financial stability that allows You to live comfortably (that means, You have a roof over Your head, full fridge and are able to afford medical care), it's normal that You start to look into luxury goods to satisfy other needs like entertainment. I know it's a complex matter, but somehow we need to simplify it for discussion.
I know that US is not the paradise some think it is, I know that You have starving people like every other country. But I'm just a little envious of Your middle class ;)
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Well, yeah. But even people in America are envious of our middle class :P
Noone is arguing they don't have it good :X
Just so long as you don't assume everyone here is that well off, I think we're on the same page :P
One of the main problems in the us is actually holding on to a job if you're lower class, so you rarely actually make a full year's salary.
That's more what I'm getting at, that you can't just look at the numbers.
But yeah, fundamentally, you can definitely break it down to basic food, shelter, clothing, versus mid-level items like furniture, versus luxury goods, and I imagine the us has pretty good access to the last one, compared to many other places.
Trust me, you and I both wish we were American middle class:'P
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I am a member of the social class that Americans call "the working poor." I work two part-time, temporary, on-call jobs. This means I have almost no job security because I do not know when I will have work or how much work I will get. In an average month, I earn about $600. Neither of these jobs offers any benefits. No medical. No bonuses. No discounts. No retirement.
The rent for my apartment is about $900/month. Other bills include water, electricity, garbage, car insurance, food, and telephone. Also internet, which is a luxury. How am I able to pay for all of this? I work hard, and my relatives help out. Some months, I am able to earn a bit more than usual, and then I can save up some money. Other months, things happen to me (e.g. car accident) and the money I have saved is used up. (I have almost saved up enough money to get my car repaired.) As always, life goes on.
Sometimes, I am able to save up enough money to buy something extra, such as the game I am giving away. (I found it for a good price, so I could afford to buy it.) You may wonder why I give away the games I want for myself, but it turns out that I have received many games from the people of SteamGifts. Sometimes I win giveaways, and other times people are very generous and they gift me games directly. While it is nice to receive, I like giving even more.
Although my life is very simple, I am thankful that God has blessed me with so much. I have been through difficult times, before, and I survived them. This difficult time has lasted longer than most (thanks, Obama!), but I have hope that things will be better in the future. (I have been making progress on finding a "good job.") Until then, I try to remember all of the blessings I have and to be thankful for them.
I am not level 9 because I have a lot of money. I am level 9 because I give consistently, even if it is only a little bit.
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i know enough of geopolitics to understand things aren't easy for Italians. The Euro has its dark side.
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G20 doesn't mean much.
It doesn't include countries like Netherlands or Spain, but it includes Russia, China or India - places where salary is far worse than it is in Poland (not to mendion in USA, UK or France)
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True, although in day to day comparison the cost of living is a huge factor too. In this conversation it is not though, so I guess saying "living in Western Europe" would have been better phrasing.
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exactly my point... coming from India... i can assure that salaries here are far worse then what you guys are talking about..
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Damn man, I'd love to live in your version of the G20.
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What does living in a G20 country have to do with it?
Just because the average income appears high doesn't mean normal workers earn much. Rent, electricity, health insurance could be really expensive so you end up with hardly any money left to cover unexpected bills.
Edit: It's only lately that Germany even bothered to adopt a minimum wage oO
Taxi drivers for example were only earning about 5 euros per hour and in some places weren't even paid when they had no customers and were waiting.
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Maybe some do it for giving and not for a stupid level...
Not everyone cares about level for the sake of winning more games.A lot of games can be had for cheaper in bundles and on other sites and during sales so some save up for them,some just have extra money.Some get stuff from others through trading or keys giving to be given away.
I do not have a lot of money either but i still tend to give my games here rather then trading just because i enjoy it,though i suppose since it bundle games it will take me forever to reach a high level but i do not care.I wish i had more money i would do bigger GA but at this point i do not,so i give what i can.
P.S. I am aware some do it to get a higher level to have a chance at better games and winning more.This site is about just giving away games and winning so if someone wants to raise there level to win more that is fine,if someone just does it because they love giving that just as fine.You you can win without giving a single thing back i know some would cry leech,but your only a leech if rules dictate you must give back to be a part of the community and in this case that is not so at least that how i see it.If you go by the simple rule of taking without giving,then any time you accept a gift without something in return makes you a leech which would pretty much make everyone one.
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Don't forget that some people will barely do any public giveaway, in other words they don't give to strangers - they give to their friends.
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It's a mix for me - I started out with bundle leftovers at no extra cost for me (to not let them go to waste), then I bought some discounted games for events as well, and now I'm a full addict casual gifter and buy bundles and extra games for events or when a game I like is on sale so I can share it with others. Some of it I pay with regular job-money, I guess, but now that I started idling I also just use Steam wallet money. Oh, and I won a pretty nice Humble gift card this summer, got all my wishlist games they had + had some money left over to buy a few nice games for GAs here :3
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I like making people smile. Games do that.
And since it's pretty cheap to make people smile with games, I enjoy doing it without breaking the bank.
I also donate to several charities and volunteer time somewhere, but never beyond my means
I used to be a drunk/addict, and games pretty much saved my life, so there's that reason, too
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Thanks lol. Spent all my time (and money) drinking and drugging.
When I quit doing that, I had a lot of free time, so I filled it with gaming.
Been clean & sober ever since. :)
We hear so much about how "evil" video games are, people neglect the good that comes from it.
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agreed , no one mentions how a lot of games help develop u as a person , mental thinking capabilities, id like to think maybe some moral values too like good over evil (sounds a bit naive , i know) and the amazing number of ideas that are put into games do help.
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when I buy a game, I buy it for myself
Replace "myself" with "giveaway" and you will have an answer. It's really that simple
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I have a job, not high salary but not low either, i don't complain.
I just give away games when i feel like doing so :)
As for charity, i am giving to them as well.
I don't have any house to pay though, so i will probably change my way to give away when i'll buy one.
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I do it because I love the community.
How do I do it? Well, I'm unemployed and have no real source of income but I do work occasionally by giving private English lessons and have some money saved up so I can afford to buy bundles every now and then. Then, I idle the cards and sell them. After a while I earn enough from the cards so I can buy a non-bundled game to give away. When I can't make enough from selling cards I just give away bundled games.
And as far as charity goes, I prefer giving my money to or buying things for the people I see in person so I'm certain the money has gone to the right hands. As I've said, I'm unemployed and I can't give much often but if someone needs food and I can afford to buy it for them I'll do it.
SG isn't a charity organization and there's no point comparing the two. Everyone who's here has at least a 100$ in their account in unbundled games, a computer, a home and can pay for electicity and food so no one can say they fall under the "charity-worthy" category.
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I work nights on the weekends while in school. Since I live at home, everything I earn can be spent on myself (or others :P).
If you are wondering how I'm paying for school, I get a mix of government grants and loans that covers tuition and books :D
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I sleep with people. Mostly with Madnessnewb and SleepyCat :)
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I killed a goat during a satanic ritual. The robot devil from futurama appeared and laughed at me told me that my shitty goat works only with bundle games.
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Humans work best ;)
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I couldn't resist. :X
inside joke
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Heh, I'm no way near being level 10, but here's how I do it:
All the money (not much) I use on Steam (either for giveaways or for myself) is earned by two things:
- I mostly sell cases that I get in CS:GO
- I hoard free games to sell the cards they give me
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While you play the game, cases simply drop. You can get two cases each week, and the counter resets every Thursday. Then you can get new drops again =). The cases normaly aren't worth much =/ But if you are lucky and get a very new case or a very rare case, they can be worth several € =)
Some people don't like it, but there are even servers created for idling, so that you don't have to actually play the game. You join the server and do other stuff while hoping to get a drop.
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You had lucky with them? many hours playing/idling to get one drop?
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Well, it takes a while to get drops, but I mostly idle while doing my homework on my laptop, so it's not big problem. I mostly get my two drops each week. But you don't get very much out of it, but it's enough for me :D
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I work but most of my money goes on bills. I make spare cash as an artist and if I'm doing well from what is basically a hobby I can afford to be a bit generous. If I'm not doing so well winning a nice game can really cheer me up!
I'm still surprised by how much I'm supposed to have gifted sometimes. I've gifted a few nice games that weren't even on big discounts but I still know I haven't spent anywhere near that much. Most of it was just spare bundle games or stuff that I thought people would like that I saw at a nice discount someplace (most of the non-bundle stuff I've gifted is on my own wishlist or has been).
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I gave some gifts on my account from bundle games I don't need: I buy a bundle, keep some games, trade others, and gift others. But I see a lot of gifters who are on level 10, with the total amount of given gifts that totals to tens of thousands of dollars, but how is this possible?
First of all the total amount of gifts sent is less than that because SteamGifts consider the original price, which is most likely never paid, but still even at 50% of the original price the amount is high.
Also there are developers/publishers who does this as a promotion for their site, but not everybody.
Speaking for myself, I have a job, not that high salary, enough for the house and some savings. If/when I buy a game, I buy it for myself, I will never ever buy Fallout 4 and give it to completely strangers just to increase my level to win more games later. If I want to cash out some money to strangers, I prefer giving it to charity to provide food/water for the poor or world causes, which I do very frequently. That's why I like HumbleBundle because I can change the splits and give nearly all to charity.
Maybe somebody likes to spend their money for others? if so please explain.
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