If you have Enhanced Steam addon installed to check regional prices it's quite easy to predict what's going to end up on the bundle list:
US price / 20 and if it's cheaper than that in any region it will be bundled ;)
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I have that addon, but don't see anything about the regional prices, It was $1 vs $10, not 50c.
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When you hover your cursor over the price a small window should appear that shows the prices in other regions but as ambidot has pointed out you can also use SteamDB directly to get that information.
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ah yeah. ty
Looks like Brazil/Russia screwed me.
Sucks that despite being in South America I don't get Brazilian pricing.
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The Argentinian Steam store has obnoxious pricing, but you can at least buy games from Nuuvem.
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Some, sure but there aren't that many. When they list them as Brazil only I can't buy them despite the codes working in all SA.
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If that's the case, that sucks for anyone outside of the RUS/CIS region. I'm in Argentina and don't even get South American discounts like Mexico and Brazil do.
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it does suck, but noone has come up with better solution so far (and no, giving different CV for region GAs is not solution, because Russian may just make group GA for RU only group or invite only GA and invite only RU users and still get full CV by making non-restricted Ga while sendng restricted gift). But tbh - we all can get games for GAs as well - there are loads of russain traders in Trades section, so you can alsobuy these gifts for GAs if you wish only slightly above Ru prices. Thus it's not that much unfair.
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But for non-russian users it's considered a dick move while russians can always claim they have no other option. But yea... It is as it is :)
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then they would simply not make public GAs and do all in froups/private GAs only ;) And these would still give them 100% CV.
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then what? You would basically kill all groups, puzzles, trains, forum events and so on and on - things that basically run SGcommunity and differentiate it frpom all the other GA sites, because by your idea every group/private GA would have to be seen as potentially resticted GA and give lower CV. Vast majority of grpoup/Private GAs are ROW GAs, you would punish most of SG users just to fight with potential exploitation of a small fraction of users.
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eh.. no..
right now all already get lower cv just because 1 region hit the 95%
I was hinting that these region-caused bundle-listed games get on bundle-list B, where it still gives full cv on unrestricted public GAs (and only there).
That's actually an improvement to the current situation.
All other un-/bundled games stay the same.
you would punish most of SG users just to fight with potential exploitation of a small fraction of users.
that is exactly happening already, I'm not punishing anyone, system in place does it. I suggest a way that is screwing less people.
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yes - and I'm saying that all the people who now post their games in groups, puzzles, train, events, people having ROW copies of something considered bundled, would not make them and make public GAs instead. Now if game X goes on bundle list and you want to give it away - you may give it away the way you want and still get the same CV. In your scenario - all peopla having these games would make public GAs. Even if I wanted to join some forum event, make a puzzle, train or anything - I would not. Because why would I choose to get 15% CV when I can get 100% CV instead. So yes - you would basically kill any non-public SG activity. Ofc not totally kill - games not on Bundle List A or B would still be fine, but most of GAs on this site are for bundle games, games from sales etc, so you would kill vast majority of non-public SG activity because people would choose to make public GAs just to get more CV. I prefer that we get less CV but we get an awesome, active and totally unique community, full of groups, puzzles, events and other clever ideas rather than being another bundle site where people just come and click Enter button and don't bother to go to forums at all because there's nothing there anyway.
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eh again no, you are interpreting it too far and have 1 thing wrong:
games not on Bundle List A or B would still be fine
List A is for actually bundled games and us -95%. It would be nearly equal the size of the current single list and give reduced cv in all cases.
List B for different value for public and non-public would only have those where 1 region hit the 95% off. It would comprise only few games like Wolfenstein and Evil Witin.
98% of games would remain unaffected, no need to worry about anything of groups or puzzles dying.
Instead, just tell me how often do you see GAs for those 2 mentioned games. They aren't cheaply available like actual bundle stuff and because they give low cv now effectively no one gives them out anymore and chooses not-pseudo-bundled titles instead. Those games have now actually died on SG, until they get in real bundles available for cheap. Not too likely for big names though..
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You pick just two most extreme examples - things that despite being just 8X% (don't remember if it was 85 or 80) off ended up on bundle list and big AAA titles at top of that, not to mention - expensive games (people are more willing to spend 2-3 $ for sth from bundle list just because it's good than to spend 10$) but even for those, according to Archive (also it proves that beside being on bundle games - yes, these games are still being given away and I saw a few of them (at least Evil, I own Wolf so don't see it):
Wolfenstein - Given Away 197 Times since it was bundled, 109 of these GAs were Group/Private/Whitelist, meaning that your system would make people who made them most likely make them Public instead. It means for this one game only you would deny 55% of non-public community contributions forcing them to be public instead.
Evil Within - Given Away 134 Times since it was bundled, 94 of these GAs were Group/Private/Whitelist, meaning that your system would make people who made them most likely make them Public instead. It means for this one game only you would deny 70% of non-publi community contributions forcing them to be public instead.
So even for the most extreme examples posible you brought up - it shows that you'd get rid of 55-70% of actual community contributions. And what about many less extreme ones? Cheaper games people could easilly buy with cards money to take part in some event? If extreme examples show 55-70% what will things that were just 90% off get?
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you'd get rid of 55-70% of actual community contributions
ugh really no...
people would, just like now, simply put other games from those 98% unaffected titles up there for "actual community contributions". And those who don't care about cv will do like before and keep them for groups etc., Hint: those are also who keep giving exactly those games despite paying more than the cv they get. So the rates would stay similar.
But the way you make it sound with "actual community contributions" is already wrong on so many levels. Yea I get it, public GAs are not community.. or maybe your heavy group focus just skews your view.
How small 50-people limited groups are now considered true community contributions escapes me.. But that is a completely other topic I don't want to discuss now at all.
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ugh how really no? You propose argument (giving example of two games), I am countering it. You take numbers up from nowhere, I give you exact numbers for argument you put. And all you have to say about it is "ugh no".
And then you say "well people would just act the same as they do now, just get 15% of CV instead of 100% - no they would not. DSmall fraction maybe would, vast majority would not. Because when they get same CV no matter where they put their GA, it's all fine to chose whatever form they want. But if they would be to lose 85% of CV most of users would not do it and make a public Ga instead. And want actual argument to provew it instead of being able to say just "ugh really no"? How ofted do you see in train/event/puzzle/whatever, generaly forum only private GA, which is level 8,9 or 10? Very rarely. In most cases they end up on lvl 7 or lower. Why exactly there? Because higher levels may not meet 5 Entries. So yeah,m people like to make SG-unique types of GAs, postthem on forums, having fun etc, but only as long as they get same CV they would get in any pther GA. If you make public for certain games give 100% CV while forum or group GA gives 15% - most of people will use public instead.
And nice how in your last paragraph you just get on personal level trying to show how my view is skewed just because of all my groups etc - yet you totally skip things like puzzles, trains, forum events and all the other forum GAs? And yeah, like it or not - groups are a big motivator for a ot of people to give stuff away - a lot of newbies and lower levels want to ge6t into groups but in order to do so they first start to give away stuff other way. Without this initial motivator a lot of new users would never start giving stuff away and would simply keep leeching. Not to mention crazy amount of community activity on forums. And you are willing to skip it all, not even comment on it, just to get personal argument instead. Like I said - what happens in groups and on forums is actual community activity - because unlike entering public GAs it requires your attention, getting involved both time-wise and attention-wise, and it is somethoing that really differentiates SG from all the other GA sites. Any idea that in smaller or bigger part hurts this activity is thus imho a bad idea.
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I give you exact numbers for argument you put.
But stating all will vanish/move out isn't backed by anything. You heavily exaggerate your conclusion far beyond anything realistic. That I point you out.
just get 15% of CV instead of 100% - Small fraction maybe would, vast majority would not.
You miss the point that nearly all who don't accept those only-15% already do not make GAs for those particular games because they cost more than bundled ones but give only bundled value.
most of people will use public instead.
again, at most, only for those relatively few affected. And they'd put other games in forums in instead. They will be replaced, not vanish.
Here now: How many pay 5€ for Wolfenstein and get just a few cv $ instead of buying something like Transistor for less and get like 7 times more cv ?
These aren't bundle games that one just happens to get in a pack and can gib some unwanted ones away.
These are singular games that have to be actively bought to be given out.
And here's the catch: currently those games get hardly given out compared to their quality, price, discount and demand. What will change is those titles to actually be revived on SG and get the amount of gibs that they deserve.
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You were first to denounce public GAs as lower worth and I only hinted that groups aren't all fine and dandy themselves.
Oh, and hopefully you haven't forgotten that you won a game from me, in a public GA after all ;-)
Forum/puzzles, yes, those are community. Groups, especially most of the ratio based trading clubs, very often not.
But that's not the topic and would need dozens of paragraphs more to detail.
a lot of newbies and lower levels want to get into groups
Exactly because they want the higher odds and to win more
would simply keep leeching.
I doubt you haven't seen that, but many in groups do exactly that, with maximizing what they can get with just hardly staying within group (ratio) rules.
what happens in groups and on forums is actual community activity - because unlike entering public GAs it requires your attention
forums yes, absolutely, but for groups often not. Those appear on the front page just like publics after all.
crazy amount of community activity on forums. And you are willing to skip it all, not even comment on it
I have commented, multiple times, forums won't see any significantly diminishing activity. At worst a 50 wagon train will not have Wolfenstein in it and be just 49 wagons long.
Or more likely it will be replaced by any other un- or bundled game and stay at 50.
And now you won't see any Wolfenstein in forums for weeks or months either. The 'damage' is already done.
Changing that will get (pseudo-bundled) big triple A high demand quality titles actually back to SG in higher numbers again instead.
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and you put numbers or arguments out of thin air, and that I point out to you. Not saying they all will dissapear, but most of people giving oportunity to choose between 15% and 100% Cv will take 100% CV. And I simply pointed that even for your most extreme examples possible, these GAs are still being given away and amount of non-publics of them is really high.
Then later on you again take something with no data and simply state "nearly all who don't accept those only-15% already do not make GAs for those particular games" - you have no base for your assumptions again yet you use them for arguments again. I presented you with actual numerical data. All you can do is assume. It's pretty useless discussing with you at this point, because I'd have to do all actual research all the time, do calculations (like did with your Wolf.EW argument) and you'd just ignore it and put another assumption based on absolutelly no real data again.
I never said public GAs are not needed and I do appreciate my win from you, be it from public, group or forum only GA. I simply stated that we should not do antything that will make public GA numbers rise at cost of non-public GAs. Because non=public GAs are something unique to SG, something that gets ppl much more invested into SG compared to other GA sites (for example I would surely not discuss anything site related for hours on another GA site like we are doing now) and these non-public GAs help to build community. Ofc there's a lot more great stuff in community besides GAs, but you need a bait for new users first ;p Most of us start lurking because of additional GAs. Then we see great community and stick around. But if there was no bait (or less bait) in form of GAs, less ppl would get started with community thingies and less would become active community members. Public only SG would be just a bunch of zombies not interacting with each other, mindlessly clicking enter button just to get free stuff.
And you forget that it's not just Wolfenstein and EW we're talking here about. Each major Sale = dozens of games getting added to bundle list (B in your case), Only in last 7 days (only these many I can view in SGT bundle history) 31 out of 50 games added to the list were things added because of sale (retroactive bundled from day sale started), many more got added before. These are not just a few games we're talking about. Atm it's already hundreds of games that will have no place other than public section.
And another assumption out of thin air - we won't see wolf in months? I already pointed it out to you that we've seen it multiple times in forums since it got bundled. but we wouldn't if people were to get 100% CV for it in public, but only 15% on forum.
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you put numbers or arguments out of thin air
I could say the same about the conclusions you draw for the discussed change. See here the contradiction:
most of people giving opportunity to choose between 15% and 100% Cv will take 100% CV.
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Then later on you again take something with no data and simply state "nearly all who don't accept those only-15% already do not make GAs for those particular games" - you have no base for your assumptions
You accuse me of exactly the same what you do just the sentence before. Actually you confirm my statement with your line above though. And it is: most people choose 100% Cv and they currently do so by giving out other games instead, that are not on the bundle list for the same price
presented you with actual numerical data.
which, again, doesn't support any of your conclusions. Only thing it shows is the existence of some GAs. And as I said those come mostly from those people who are fine with less cv, yes those exist too, or who are unaware of it.
I'd have to do all actual research all the time,
Then here some numbers for you ;-)
From the 197 times Wolfenstein was given away since bundled:
69 were region restricted, mostly ru, so those aren't affected & won't change.
Also several 1-region-only groups make group GAs without restriction mark, despite being restricted, same with private ones, thus the number is more closely to 100 if not higher.
And of course they keep giving them because it being cheap enough to be worthwhile.
40 were given out on first few days, before bundle'ing was visible. Safe to say most wouldn't have happened otherwise as shown by the heavy decline of GAs afterwards.
And in the last 4 months only 4 private GAs for it happened. Were all those in forum at all? Not sure either. So I'm correct with saying weeks to months to just a chance to see them in forums.
I never said public GAs are not needed
and I never did for forum or groups.
we should not do anything that will make public GA numbers rise at cost of non-public GAs.
And here's the difference, only those certain games will increase overall, non-public will be nearly unaffected.
I want to see quality titles back that have basically vanished in a black hole, that's it. Wolfenstein is popular enough to at least still get a few GAs, all smaller titles are nearly completely gone.
non-public GAs are something unique to SG
They exist on competitors like SC just the same. Not my/our fault they suck at integrating a forum well enough to work out like here ;-) plus less popularity in general etc.
dozens of games getting added to bundle list (B in your case), Only in last 7 days 31 out of 50 games added to the list were things added because of sale
31 of 5918 bundled ones. Putting it into perspective that number is tiny. And don't forget most end up in real bundles at some point, thus the number reduces again too.
Important part here: Most getting bundled, not all. Wolfenstein won't.
it's already hundreds of games that will have no place other than public section.
It's already hundreds of games that hardly get given out right now compared to real bundled or non-bundled ones.
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See, I don't even disagree on many of your basic points about community importance or cv relevance. Just a minor difference on how it plays together and the result it has or would have.
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shows existence of some GAs you claimed does not exist. And you see no point in it? ;p
I cannot speak about visibility of Wolfenstein, because like I said I own it already,m but speaking about Evil Within - I entered 15 GAs for EW after it was bundled, out of these 15 GAs 8 were either Group or Forum GAs. Now note that I do not solve every puzzle there is, I'm not online 100% of the time, I'm not in every group there is, I do not enter even private GAs if they are widely accessib le and low level, I do not do jigidi and so on and on. So there arfe existing instances, quite a few of people still giving away this game in forums or in groups. Maybe not all but many of these GAs would not end up in forums or groups if Contrbutor had to choose between getting 15 and 100% CV ;)
And no, not 31 of 5918. 31 out of 50 most recentlty bundled things. 500 out of 5918 (also consider that a lot of stuff on bundle list are packs, actual number of games bundled is much lower than 5000) seems kinda different, doesn't it? Now how about 500 out of 3000 if we exclude packs, DLCs etc?
And comparing these to usual bundles is kinda pointless. Any game, no matter bundle list or not woill lose compared to numbers of bundle GAs (actual real bundle), because bundle GAs are cheaper to get, plus many people end up having leftovers from them. More people are willing to give away leftovers than to buy a game specially for GA purposes. The same way you can compare that GTA V is given away much less than anything from Tier 1$ bundle. But how is it possible? GTA V is not on bundle list after all ;p
And just anothrer perspective I just now thought about ;P Complicating system even more - maintaining 2 separate bundle lists, more people complaining about why they did or didn't get their CV, more forum spam with QQ topics regarding CV, more support tickets "why is my level not rising", more support time wasted and so on and on ;) A lot of actually good ideas for site improvement in the past got denied because while being good ideas they would also complicate system even more plus generate even more support work for already overwhelmed support. Thus I don't believe that even if I agreed with your idea it would get implemented, not unless there are much more support members and they are no longer overwhelmed by their work and can focus on new things that will give them more work as well ;)
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Edit: Yeah... I'm really tired and taking myself out of the discussion now :D
I completly forgot we just established that we're talking about keeping a seperate bundle list and not about adjusting all CV to regional prices.
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I think he means only for the games that end up with an over 95% in some region. I figure most of the bundle games are due to actual bundles, so it wouldn't affect most games. But also might not be worth it if the amount is not that much.
Edit: Very late with my post, should've refreshed the thread before the comment.
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But wouldn't that be counterproductive because it would push people to rather gift to groups or as invite only GAs? Granted I can't enter either of them but I still see a public GA for the whole RUS region as more of a contribution to the site than gifting to your 10 best CS GO buddies.
Edit: Ok now I see what you mean. Not a bad idea but it would fuck over those people from low-price-regions who actually buy ROW copies from 3rd party sellers because all of their group and Invite only GAs would then give lower CV.
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to your edit, that already happens though. Everybody gets screwed currently.
And those could make them public too and get full value instead.
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Actually that makes sense but it's getting late over here and it just took me way longer than usual to think this through so maybe I'm just overlooking the downside. I must have been thinking we are talking about adjusting all GAs from people in low-price-regions to regional prices and not about keeping a seperate Bundle list for those regions.
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Usually if game has 90% (or maybe 95%) discount it becomes bundled. But sometimes when there's a huge discount in Russian Steam Store they can go to bundle list even if they are for example 85% elsewhere.
If you will giveaway a game before this discount it won't go to bundle list. If you will give it away after discount you'll get less CV even if you've paid full price. However sometimes games may be added to bundle list even after a year (like Never Alone) so the best advice you can get is to be prepared that your giveaway can be listed as bundled any time :P
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I wish the criteria was stated clearly somewhere rather than left open to interpretation, but I guess I won't be giving away any games on sale any more.
TY
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I mean they are stated clearly but sometimes games are added to bundle list waaaaay to late cos there's only one person adding them afaik.
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The criteria for adding games to the bundle list isn't clear, "highly discounted" isn't a clear criteria.
But I get it.
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you can give away games from sale still, just not from really deep sales - like 90% or more - these you can easilly check yourself if they fall into 95% category using Enhanced Steam or SteamDB.
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I get it, Problem is even if my sale isn't that great RUS/BRA can apparently get sales far better to the point it goes over whatever limit is set up and I'm not aware of.
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the limit is ~95% off compared to US price. basically if game is cheaper than 5% of US store price in any region you can be sure it will end up on bundle list sooner or later. game on discount like 94.9% may end up. Anything with discount like 94,93,92,90,80% aet discount (in cheapest country again) is safe.
And this 95% you can easilly calculate yourself like pointed by others in this topic.
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Yeah, I know know, just wish that that 95% was said explicitly in the FAQ
TY
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it's not, because for once - something may go on 94.99% and would be off bundle list, all of users goes exploiting this fact - and what? it's fine? And more important thing - currency prices fluctuate all the time, Today something is 95.02% off, tommorow it will be 94.90% off because ruble price raised a bit compared to US dollar. Then someone calculate GA price tommorow and see "oh, it's not 95% off, it's fine", and when he see it bundled 1 week later he goes on ragespree on forums.
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Still, something like "around 5% of retail price" or "games on sale for less than 6% of the retail price may be added to the bundled list without notice" would be fine, literally saying that under some threshold it's their criteria or decision, is better than nothing in my opinion.
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not really, I already explained why in comment above ;p If you state the treshhold clearly you must stick to it. And if ruble rise/fall significantly over short period of time you're then in trouble. Because you cannot adjust system quickly to cover this change and you open yourself upon exploitation in this time period until the time you adjust the treshhold (and even then it should only work from the day you adjust it, all exploitation that happened in between would stil benefit exploiters). By having said treshhold you also make yourself vunurable to unconventional promotions, like buy game X at XX% sale and get game Y for free. Game X may be on 90% sale, but i you combine it with retail price of Y you buy both games for less than 5%. But no - X should not go to bundle list, becaus eit was only at 90% not 95% sale.
Long story short - having not clearly stated any treshhold in the site rules grants staff flexibility to react to many different situations, which in other case could be easilly exploted to farm massive amounts of CV.
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Not quite, "may be added" implies that it may or may not. If anything you could complain that a game wasn't added to the list. So you can stick to the threshold, but the final word is left to the mod.
What I said is state a threshold below which it is left to the mod's criteria, basically it gives you a "safe" zone. where you know that a game will not be added to the list, and beyond it is up to the mods to decide.
But I see your point that people will complain either way.
We can agree to disagree.
Best of luck
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Yeah - there's basically few topics per week about CV already. When something major get bundles it becomes few topics per day. No matter if you add "may or may not" people would still make even more topics about why XYZ got or didn't get added to the list even while not meeting / meeting treshold ;) Even more spam, drama, rage etc ;) Not to mention even more flood of support tickets asking the same questions ;)
I get your point of view as well, but I believe that in current situation, with lack of support power anything that would give them even more work woth managing topics, with current levels of spam, waiting times for tickets etc, anything that may make even more CV-related drama is a bad idea ;p Maybe in distant future, when we have dozens of staff and all support is maintained quickly, forums moderated all the time, questions answered quickly etc it would be good. But not now ;)
Best of luck as well ;) Gotta go to sleep soon anyway ;p
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check SteamDB for those prices, usually all at 85% hit 95% in ru
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It is usually the Russian price that messes things up, as they get a 40-60% discount on any price, even on-sale ones.
Normally a game sale only adds a game to the bundle list if it has a ~95% discount.
Considering the Russian "bonus" and the added effect of the shit-weak ruble that falls along with the oil prices and the country's less-than-stellar efforts to prevent any kind of peace on the Middle East, nowadays it means that if a game goes on a 85% sale on Steam, then it will end up on the bundle list.
80% is almost a safe range, but this is where you really need Enhanced Steam or looking at SteamDB.
Transistor's base price is USD 20. Currently it goes for USD 1.31 in Russia, which is a ~94% discount in total. Since this is close enough to the usual threshold, I would put a rather large wager on that the game will be retroactively put on the bundle list with a starting date of the current sale, rendering all currently given away copies drop to 15% CV.
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TY. That was my fear.
Would much prefer region based CV, but it would probably take more work/resources.
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Was suggested several times, but easily exploitable.
Also, take an advice: treat all games you give away as bundled. This way if for some reason it is not, you get "bonus" CV. Sometimes people try to get a boost by giving away a new AAA game, but they fail to notice that CV is calculated from Steam US store prices, meaning the natural price drop over time decreases CV. And it is much more visible if you drop from 60 to 20, than from 20×0.15 to 5×015.
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"Games may also be added to the bundle list if they're available for free during a promotion, or if they're highly discounted in a sale." + "Keep in mind that changes to the list of bundle games will apply retroactively, so if a bundle begins today, attempting to gift the game before it's added to the list will offer no advantage." means "anything can be bundled any time and be marked with any date retroactively".
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That is clearly not the point of my inquiry.
I know how it works I was asking what constituted the criteria for "highly discounted in a sale."
But, thanks for trying to help.
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I'm going to help you and conclude for you then: it is discretionary. there's no criteria. bundler decide what will be bundled.
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Nevermind, the language barrier is too much for you to understand what was being asked.
Thanks anyhow.
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the easy way to look at it is that if you picked up the game for next to nothing, it'll be on the bundle list
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not always true, because things from very short regional price bugs end up on Bundle List as well. For example - Just Cause 3 was available via a bug for a short time on british Amazon. Not a lot of people were able to get it. You then see it on 50% sale on Steam - by your definition it's 50%, costing 25$, hardly "next to nothing" so you should feel safe? Not really ;p
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I managed to snag a few copies during that bug/
I'm not saying that all games on the bundle list can easily be grabbed for next to nothing, I'm saying that (pretty much) all games available for next to nothing are on the bundle list
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Good for you then ;p I was too slow creating UK account (only had US and DE one ;p)
oh, ok then - in this case yeah, you are right ;) if someone see 20$ game for a few pennies it's unreasonable to then cry that it got added to bundle list;)
Other thing is that in most cases of these topics are not created by people who picked the game for next to nothing, because these people were buying actually more expensive copies from more expensive regions ;)
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yeah, it sucks when that happens. I'm often taken aback when people explain they paid full price to give away some mediocre game that's currently available in a bundle - which happens quite often.
I wish there was a place one could look up whether games were ever bundled
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well - there's Enhanced Steam and IsThereAnyDeal ;) But curent problem is - there are too many bundles to handle thus it's harder to maintain anything like that. When all bundling started there was Bundle Wiki and everything was covered there, anyone could access it and check things easilly. But back then there was just a few bundles. Humble every 2 weeks, IG once a while and Groupees once a while. Now we get few humbles at the same time, at least 1 IG bundle per day, few simultaneous bundles on Groupees, DIG etc, dozens of small bundle sites and so on and on. It became really hard to keep track of it all live and not to miss anything and it would require really a lot of work to maintain system that would allow to check users 100% of time of something is in bundle. Because even updates once a day are no longer enough.
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If you wish to avoid the CV for your giveaways being retroactively reduced due to "bundles," the solution is simple: give away games before they go on sale. Bundle reductions only go into effect for those giveaways which are created AFTER the price drop. Any giveaways created before such a sale always receive full CV.
[Edited]
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Not really the point of the inquiry.
I was asking for clarification/transparency on what constituted the "highly discounted in a sale" criteria for adding non-bundled games to the "bundled" list.
But I got the response that if it goes under ~5% of retail price in any region it get's added to the list oblivious to who has access to said region.
Nonetheless, Thanks for the reply.
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giveaways which end AFTER the price drop
small correction: GA begin date is deciding
(unless that has been changed recently?)
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Last time I talked with Staff about it, it was the ending time that mattered, but I could have misunderstood. The FAQ says giveaway start time.
- On the one hand, ending time cut-off would prevent people who buy the game after the giveaway ends from getting full CV for a game purchased in bundle.
- On the other hand, starting time cut-off would avoid penalizing those who bought the game before bundling
I would guess that SG would err on the side of protecting the customer from being unduly penalized.
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Hi :)
i loose real CV for allready ended GAs and this just sucks... bad system
SGTools shows a lost of 4$ but no changes in the number of unbundled and bundled games... dunno what happend... :/
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One thing that happens is that the retail price for a game drops and you lose CV despite it happening after you gave it away.
PSA: it's "lose" not "loose"
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Not really. CV needs to lose value over time, otherwise it is just a perpetually steeper mountain to climb for newcomers.
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How else would you devalue CV? It is awarded after a giveaway ended, so it cannot drop in value before that.
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they change the value for GAs that enden ages ago...
if i gave away a 10$ game a month/week ago, they still change the value if the price changes...
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Yes, I know and understand, but this is also my point: this is the only way to actually lose CV, apart from the occasional bundle list updates with backdates. And if the CV wouldn't lose even this small amount, this would pose an eventually almost impossible task to reach level 10 within reasonable amount of time.
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losing CV makes it easier to get Level 10 ? i don't get the logic behind this...
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It's simple.
To reach level 10, you need to invest 5000 dollars. Right now, if you want to reach this goal, you can say that you put in 100 bucks a month and will be there in a little over 5 years. If somebody comes a year later and want to reach by the same time, they need to invest 125 dollars a month. If someone comes 3 years later, they need to put in more than 200 dollars; twice the amount you are putting in.
This way, the amount of people who enter level 10 will get slower and slower compared to low-level users. The old "rich stay richer, poor get less chance to catch up" scenario. This is why the site needs inflation, like any basic economy. If your amassed fortune doesn't lose value, you have no incentive to invest in further.
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that's just a punishment for people that bought games fullprice and gave them away... still sucks...
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sigh
Try to think it like a physical product. If you buy a PC now for 2000 dollars, in 5 years how much will it worth? Same economic principles can apply here as well.
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yea and the money i gave away for that is still around the same value... money is kinda physical too you know...
but good too know how it works here... i was afraid to giveaway games like Borderlands and now it's bundled...
and if people don't have much money and spend a bit to reach a level and lose it next days, then its a bad system...
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Well, actually, money loses value. This is what keeps the world economy going. Almost literally.
Anyway, the system is relatively simple, as the bundle list is available for anyone to see, so you can check which games have the 85% reduction.
(By the way, bundle games offer the best CV/money spent ratio, unless you live in Russia, India, or Brazil. For those countries, Steam games that never had more than 75% sale are the best CV farming method.)
CV can only drop in two cases: if a game's base price is reduced (Steam API limitation), or if it is put on the bundle list with a previous date (limitation of only one person managing the bundle list). Both are small, by the way, I lost about 300 dollar in CV since I started levelling, and about 220 of that was one game getting bundled.
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90% RoW usually means 95% in Russia so automatic entry to Bundlelist. Sometimes games get added backdated much later and you get a fully gotten CV drop to bundled. If you keep giving games your levels won't drop likely but if you stop giving chances are they will have dropped some months later.
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Might as well remove levels then, since everyone would be level 10 easily just by giving away bundle games quickly before they are added to the list.
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"Games may also be added to the bundle list if they're available for free during a promotion, or if they're highly discounted in a sale."
I gave away some games that had a 90%off sale and now got put in the bundle list meaning drop in CV.
So, I'd like to know how it works to avoid losing CV in the future.
Are they going to put Transistor in the bundled list as well for an 80% discount?
What's the criteria for this?
I would have probably given away something else if I knew this happened, but oh well.
Thanks
PS: no giveaway at this time, sorry
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