Your thoughts...
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The "which monday" thing is cracking me up. Jonny probably doesn't even know which monday it'll go live.
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Since they promised "no more mystery games", probably the Monday after they finally secured enough games for the bundle. Judging by the drawings they have two so far and announced seven, so it might be a while ;)
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probably the Monday after they finally secured enough games for the bundle. Judging by the drawings they have two so far and announced seven, so it might be a while
Lol, I think that's exactly the case :D
Doesn't really inspire much confidence...
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Kind of amazing how Groupees has been able to get away with this so many times while no other bundle site does it lol. I think it's finally getting to the point where it's biting them in the ass. They got ridiculed for the whole mystery game thing and time extensions for Holiday Helpings 4 and now this.. It's pretty bad if you need to draw a hint that there won't be any mystery games LOL
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Their communication is really weird. If they finally realized how badly people react to uncertain info, why not say in a proper message that likely starts on monday, but if not, please be patient. Or not even saying monday, just that they'll start when it's ready - like before the middle of the week. It's way better to ask people to be patient than saying deadlines and promises that they have to modify or extend constantly.
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In fact, why even announce a new bundle at all until you have everything secured and lined up? They have this long habit of announcing things before they're truly ready, which is what the mystery games and bundle launch delays are about. Why don't they stop talking until everything is in place? Instead of a hype buildup, a marketing strategy which is what they think they have been doing, it's actually a form of frustration and aggravation for the customers. No one but Groupees operates like this.
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Great points and good questions. I don't how to rationalize it all other than to say that this is what happens when you have bad leadership/management.
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Supposedly the long delay is because "someone pulled out at the last minute". But yeah, I agree. Every other bundle site operates at a professional level except for Groupees, it amazes me that they still get a few thousand purchases per bundle.
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Bemine 25 was last that I bought, sad to see like it has declined.
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Exactly where I stopped.
Not that that's likely a coincidence, considering where the site went after that.
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So instead of extending mystery games, they are now extending the launch of their bundles?
Groupees isn't making it any better for themselves.
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In all fairness, better that than to start taking orders on a bundle with mystery game(s), which we all know was code for 'this bundle isn't finalized yet but we sold it to you anyway'. Hopefully it means actually getting their ducks in a row before it goes up for sale, but then it's probably better to do that before even putting up a page for the bundle saying "starts soon".
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I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride my bike... wait, whats happening here? 🙀
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Thank you for the notice (I was out in town but I made the thread as soon as I got home). I'm a bit late with the thanks, but better late then never xD
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Thank you, I added the new picture to the thread, indeed it seems it didn't manage to trigger any guesses so far.
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Some guy suggested bottom left could loosely be Red Haze http://store.steampowered.com/app/428860/Red_Haze/
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Looks almost nothing like that drawing, aside from the purple hair.. plus it's a $2 game.
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Well, Be Mine S had a $1 game (Ablepsia), so the price itself doesn't rule it out... the drawing does look a little like the one from the Red Haze banner (purple hair, blood stains and a "punched" look, black eye or whatever)
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"looks a little like ... but not close enough, I think"
I wouldn't rule it out but usually Jonny's drawings match a bit closer. (I was thinking more of the opening shot from the video than the banner.)
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Looks like we'll get JoJo's and Spagett's games added to the bundle.
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JonnyBotGroupees HQ 21:13
7 games and 3 albums
Yup, says 6 games and 1 album now. Oh Groupees, never change.
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cyanicGroupees HQ08:11
Mmhmm. Someone pulled out at the last moment.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ not like anyone spent anything when that happened
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Well in the past they would have done a Mystery game in that case, but since they promised not to do that anymore ;P
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Someone pulling out at the last moment was probably the reason for the delay, too - my guess is there was some sort of confusion or disagreement, and they spent a while trying to resolve it before throwing up their hands and deciding they'd launch with one fewer game.
And yeah, like someone else said, this is the drawback to not doing mystery games. Previously they'd have just replaced that game with a mystery game so they'd have had a while to either resolve the problem or get something else and put it in that slot.
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Funny though how that seems to happen with every other bundle at Groupees, and extremely rarely elsewhere. Maybe the more professional bundle sites secure their games before they announce their bundle lineups?
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Maybe the more professional bundle sites secure their games before they announce their bundle lineups?
Of course they do.
A number of things are going on here, either Groupees is not stating the bundle terms clearly enough in advance, then developers/publishers are realizing what a bad deal it is at the last moment and pulling out, or developers/publishers don't have enough respect for Groupees to honor their commitments, so they feel they can blow them off in a way they would never do to a site like Humble, or the types of developers/publishers that Groupees tends to approach are flaky and unreliable, or Groupees is engaging in poor business practices by announcing bundles too soon, before they have secured all of the keys and have agreements signed, which is something other sites like Humble don't do, and this has led to the use of mystery games and bundle delays, which is highly unprofessional. It's probably a mix of all of the above at different times.
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Very well said, I think those are exactly the reasons why Groupees isn't a good bundle site. This is really a new low though, even for them :D
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Of course they do.
Of course I know they do.
I've just become more and more annoyed with Groupees' more and more unprofessional behaviour over the past ... two years, at least. It's been going on for quite a while actually. It's probably just getting more noticeable now that the bundles are rarely that great that "all is forgiven".
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It would not surprise me if it's all of the above. Groupees are not the only ones who are willing to accept pretty much everyone, but they seem to be the only ones who are willing to announce things before they've got keys in hand. IG has had issues with shady developers invalidating keys, so they're not blameless when it comes to singing on bad actors either.
Groupees do have a bit of a shady history of not paying developers on time, or at all, and keys showing up where they should not be though, and this might scare away some developers who at first was interested in getting their games in a bundle.
So shady developers, shady bundle site.
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There was another dev complaining few weeks back Groupees wouldn't pay on time, without announcing before hand, since their Ski Vacation was more important.
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...this is the drawback to not doing mystery games.
It's not a drawback at all. If they keep doing crappy mystery games, their reputation will suffer to an even greater degree.
The whole idea of using mystery games to cover their incompetence benefits no one. It certainly doesn't benefit the bundle purchaser, and it would no longer benefit Groupees since purchasers have had enough.
The solution is to stop announcing bundles until EVERYTHING has been worked out and agreed on, and keys have been secured. Period. This is how truly professional sites do it.
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You're absolutely right. These "mystery games" represent a lose-lose situation, Groupees loses and the customers lose. The long waiting time makes their final reveal of an underwhelming game even worse.
Announcing a bundle as "7 games and 2 albums" and then quietly reducing it to "6 games and 1 album" isnt great, too, tho.
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Announcing a bundle as "7 games and 2 albums" and then quietly reducing it to "6 games and 1 album" isnt great, too, tho.
Yes, as I said above:
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With a communication like this, the backstroy with the mystery games and a subscription that feels like a big scam I don't think we will see groupees at the end of the year.
If I would create games, I would not want to make business with these guys anymore. Absolut unprofessional.
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Someone might want to tell Groupees that the domain unreliable.com is available.
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But.. it's not. o.O
Unreliable.com, net, and org are all listed as being unavailable.
So unreliable. :'(
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Mhh, when I go to the .com address; I'm getting forwarded to a registration website.
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Being that someone is holding them with the intent to resell at a profit, it really all depends on if you and I are interpreting "Available" the same way, I suppose. :P
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Hehe, okay. Well, best things in life are free. That domain obviously doesn't belong to them.
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cyanic originally said someone pulled out of the bundle so thats why there was a delay. I suppose there could be two reasons for the delay and the surgery could be one of them.. but I remember back when Desura wasn't paying devs off and the CEO was claimed to be in the hospital. Eventually everyone realized it was some BS excuse and we never heard from them again.
Personally, I feel like health problems should be kept private in situations like this unless they end up being a major problem down the line.. otherwise it just feels like a cheap excuse to me.
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...but I remember back when Desura wasn't paying devs off and the CEO was claimed to be in the hospital. Eventually everyone realized it was some BS excuse and we never heard from them again.
OMG, I was just about to mention the exact same thing.
Also, why is someone trying to curate a bundle as they are about to have serious surgery? Who does that? Surgeries are scheduled weeks in advance so he knew this was coming. Why pick now to try and do this?
JonnyBotGroupees HQ03:54
Just need one more set of keys
See, they still haven't secured all the keys. What is wrong with these people?
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Smells like a fictitious excuse about why the bundle is delayed. They just used this as a promoter to the Remute's bundle so people, who were already disappointed in them for not keeping their promises to deliver 10 Be Mine's in 12 months, would buy that bundle. This one will start probably in the beginning of next month, and will take another month before actually coming out of preorder, so somewhere around March.
BeNotMine
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Only 1 guess. :|
And already got Starship Titanic, so probably pass.
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There'll be more hint(s?) later, Johnny just said in the chat. Maybe something we can recognise
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Wish he'd just confirm some more games for us. The hype was a waste. Not revealing games isn't gonna cause more people to buy it.
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I really, really enjoy the guessing game, but I had exams, I'm tired, even typing makes my arm hurt because of the stress and hurt from writing too much recently, and I just can't keep up with the steam store at this point, no matter how good my memory is :( I'll try tomorrow if I'll feel better, it just feels bad that I can't contribute even though I would enjoy the detective work of trying to find games that fit.
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it just feels bad that I can't contribute even though I would enjoy the detective work of trying to find games that fit.
Even when you do it can still be for naught. Let us never forget "The Novelist" fiasco...
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I think I forgot about it , even though I faintly remember the bundle. How was it?
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Are they always drawings from inside the game or can they point to titles?
Guessing http://store.steampowered.com/app/599100/Green_Cat/ be too obvious.
Purple creature also looks more like a knife or even saw in his back then damaged wings.
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The green cat isn't a hint. It's Jonny's signature
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I think that those two games will be in that bundle
Star Trek™ : 25th Anniversary
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That doesn't look like Kirk (blond vs black hair), and it's a gun he is holding not a phaser.
Tend to think it's more like a Hitler. Thought maybe Wolfenstein 3d, but think it only had Hitler in a robot suit.
No Thing could be right.
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doubt it's no thing. as in they don't really like putting internal repeats in their bundles. (No Thing was in a remute bundle I think)
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JonnyBotGroupees HQ00:07
I'll add artwork for two games I just added
(~half an hour before this post). expect new hints in a few hours after Jonny gets some rest.
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Thank you for the update! Unfortunately I won't be around for the next few hours to update the thread with guesses for Jonny's new drawings :(((
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[Background image 4](https://groupees.com/uploads/bundles/986/landing_background/new_preview/BM_32-8.jpg)
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Well, the two more drawings are up, and they look... not exactly convincing of the bundle's quality lol :D I do very much wonder what will all the games turn out to be O.o
Edit: Genres included in the bundle:
JonnyBotGroupees HQ02:23
action, adventure, bullet hell, music theme, multiplayerJonnyBotGroupees HQ02:24
multiplayer can be played single too
Edit #2:
cyanicGroupees HQ02:48
No guesses? I can tell you what looks like a cloud is not a cloud but a silhouette.
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Thank you for the help! I added these hints to the list.
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Why are they preordering it at $4?
edit to add
JonnyBotGroupees HQ22:35
subscribers getting their bundle now
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$2 you mean. I can only guess you're missing the fact about a year ago some people paid to get an annual "Be Mine" subscription?
However, if your screncap is true, then that means those that did, can now tell us the contents.
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Nah, it shows up in their account as purchased, but won't reveal the actual games until it goes live.
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I didn't edit the screen capture, check the chat 58 minutes ago from this message.
Oh, and there were a lot of people purchasing at $4. Didn't save that.
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http://store.steampowered.com/app/535890/Stereo_Aereo/ is a good guess from groupees chat, third screenshot fits the bottom left drawing.
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Oooh, I hope that's right. I love rhythm games. =)
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Yap, that one seems solid, the head, red star on the face, hair style all fits.
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Looks like a solid guess, but very cheap game.. it even had a MSRP reduction recently and went on sale for $0.99. Disappointing, hopefully there's at least 2 higher value games in this one. Both of the revealed games so far are low value..
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So it is 7 games again & based the 2 revealed games I will preorder now. :) Also there are more pictures again!
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Groupees - Be Mine #32
7 games, 1 music album (initially it was: 7 games, 3 music albums)
preorder starts on Mondaypreorder start: Thursday, $220 January 2018 - 03 February 2018
View this bundle on: ITAD - Barter.vg - Lestrades
Groupees - Be Mine Subscriptions
If you’ve purchased the Be Mine subscription, the bundle will be automatically added to your account after it will be released.
This bundle is the 5th of the series.
Tier 1 - $1.50
Bonus unlocked: Riskers Soundtrack (DLC)
Tier 2 - $4
Retail:
CV:
Chart created with Lex's SG Chart Maker
hints:❓ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In the following images, the drawings represent hints for the games (apart from the left cat which is always there):
Background image 1
Background image 2
Background image 3
Background image 4
Off-topic:
Guesses
Starship Titanic = red guy on the right (guess by Lugum)
Stereo Aereo = the bottom left drawing, screenshot
Riskers= guy holding a gun with an outstretched arm (guess by IncoherentLight )
the box with the X = no mystery games
Are you interested in knowing other ongoing bundles? Feel free to check out the new master thread!
Wondering what games you already own from this bundle? There's an extension/UserScript for that! It's called the RaChart™ Enhancer!
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