Comment by gspencley | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gspencley | Hacker News Reader

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> This I totally agree with (though I might be biased, as a gamedev). These ads are awesome because I told Steam that I want these games and that I want ads about these games.

I would only like this "feature" if I explicitly opt-in by clicking an "email me if this product goes on sale" button. Starring / adding to favourites etc. is not consent to send me an out of the blue notification. For all they know I've already bought the game somewhere else, or my interests have changed, or I don't play games anymore.

I'm tired of technology trying to guess what I want. When they get it right it's creepy. When they get it wrong it's annoying. I also really hate "out of the blue" emails or notifications. My "aspergery" personality has a hard enough time dealing with texts from my family members.

I'm in the habit of turning off all notifications off for everything. It just bothers me how often the defaults are "everything on."

> I would only like this "feature" if I explicitly opt-in by clicking an "email me if this product goes on sale" button.

Yes, this is how it works (which the article doesn't make especially clear). You add something to your 'steam wishlist' and steam e-mails you next time it goes on sale. As far as I'm aware, the wishlist has no other function.

Of course, part of the reason this works is that a lot of sales are like 70% off - you'll get e-mailed when that $25 game on your wishlist is available for $7.50. There would be much less benefit to the consumer if they insisted on e-mailing me to tell me that $25 game had been discounted to $23.

> Yes, this is how it works (which the article doesn't make especially clear). You add something to your 'steam wishlist' and steam e-mails you next time it goes on sale. As far as I'm aware, the wishlist has no other function.

And isn't that most of the point of adding to the wishlist?

> Of course, part of the reason this works is that a lot of sales are like 70% off - you'll get e-mailed when that $25 game on your wishlist is available for $7.50. There would be much less benefit to the consumer if they insisted on e-mailing me to tell me that $25 game had been discounted to $23.

Eh, that is true from what I gather for old games, but you can wishlist unreleased games so they send an email for the launch with 10% discount too or 25% a few months later (guessing with those numbers).

> As far as I'm aware, the wishlist has no other function.

It's also visible to accounts you've friended, for gift-giving purposes.

It does have one other function! (Besides what winthrowe mentioned) It makes Steam more likely to recommend the game to others, which really helps the dev.

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