Humble Indie Bundle X – Pay what you want and help charity | Hacker News Reader

Humble Indie Bundle X – Pay what you want and help charity

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37 pointsmike32 comments

It's worth noting that when this Bundle was first released, the game Starbound (new, normally sells for $15 on Steam) was announced at a limited quantity release for a $10 Bundle price.

The 1,000 copies were claimed within a minute. Gaming forums are accusing Humble Bundle of using this tactic to artificially inflate the Beat The Average price (was $8 an hour after release, now it's at $6 and decreasing)

...and what exactly would be wrong with that? Worst case scenario the BTA price goes to $10 assuming you're buyer 1001 and everyone else bought the $10 pack. You still get a heck of a deal.

In some cases, the processing took longer than a minute (e.g. PayPal), so they missed the window. The argument is that the buyer would not have otherwise paid $10 for the bundle if it didn't have Starbound. (to be fair, HB apparently has been offering refunds in this case)

Starbound is awesome. Are there really that many who can afford $10 but not $15?

It's not the affording bit. There's three classes of people in this bundle:

1) Paid for Starbound and got it

2) Paid for Starbound a minute late and did not get it, may get a refund

3) Paid for Starbound, or the price defined by Starbound, after Starbound was removed from the bundle

People are understandably annoyed by this -

http://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/1un5s3/introducin...

Or you could buy for $1 and then on the second week increase your amount with just the needed to get bonus + above the average games.

Incidentally, Humble Bundle locks the BTA price needed to upgrade your Bundle at time of purchase, so it's in your interest to wait.

Well, yeah, they increased the average price that way, obviously. Nothing artificial or immoral about that, though (except for really weird definitions of artificial).

Typical gaming forums bullshit right there. Those paranoid entitled whiners, always the same …

That is artificial by any definition, but people use artificial techniques to increase profit all the time. Not any more a big deal than it ever is, in fact less because those profits go to charity.

The definition of artificial (implying it being negative or immoral) is what makes no sense. Everything about all of that is always artificial. All the rules are artificial. The distinction between artificial and not artificial cannot determine whether this is ok or not.

I'd argue it's actually pretty immoral/unreasonable. I know it's still a great deal, but the average price they're showing is for the bundle we can buy + an extra game. They're effectively equating the two bundles by using a joint average, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually illegal.

What the fuck? Yeah, gamers and their laser-brains. Where everything is always illegal and you are entitled to everything. And refunds, refunds, refunds.

You comment caused me to pay $25.

So at the worst case scenario, you were paying $8 for a $50 bundle instead of $10 for a $65 bundle. And of course, in either scenario you can still get 4 games for about $1.

Is this really worth outrage?

"Value" and "willingness-to-pay" are different concepts.

To the Moon

Buy this bundle for To the Moon, for poignant feelings.

Surgeon Simulator 2013, for ridiculous laughing.

Ah I'm so excited to play To the Moon. This one by far stands out above the rest in this bundle at least to me. I'm going in with very little foreknowledge, just the way I like it.

This. This is the only reason I bought this iteration. Been working a lot, can't wait to relax and play it.

To The Moon looks awesome. Mind giving a few reasons why you liked the game?

People will be cagey about this game because they don't want to spoil it, but it's a game where you play a scientist team that provides unique services to the elderly.

Its gameplay lacks depth and has some annoying sections even, but as interactive narrative it has few rivals.

I know I had purchased Bit.Trip RUNNER before... it was in in the Indie Bundle 6. I had problems running it on my Macbook Air, so I was wondering if they had a new version to fix the performance issues (it would go very laggy).

So I looked at My Library, and the title was missing. I also looked up the Indie Bundle 6 purchase page and it is missing.

So the only conclusion I can come to is that they are deleting titles from your library after you purchased them.

Bit trip runner one was on Humble Indie Bundle 4. Just checked my game library and the game is still there

The game was part of HIB6 too. It's still in HIB4, but the separate DRM-free download is actually missing from the HIB6 page. (The Steam key description doesn't look any different, though.)

This one is RUNNER 2, the psuedo-sequel to BIT.TRIP RUNNER.

Huh, I think you're right. BIT.TRIP RUNNER was definitely in the HIB 6 [1], but I don't see it on the download page either.

There's an button to get the Steam key, though.

[1] http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/32252091984/humble-indie-b...

Does anybody else find the CAPTCHAs needed to purchase this a little excessive? I'm doing my best to give them my money, but after 10 failed reCAPTCHA attempts I'm tempted to just close the window.

That's weird. I just bought it with paypal and I didn't see any reCAPTCHA.

I don't recall ever having any issues myself when donating for a Humble Bundle, but I frequently enter the wrong characters on other sites' CAPTCHAs, so I totally understand your frustration. Actually, I think it's because I'm always (just barely) beating the average: "Orders below the average must authenticate with reCAPTCHA to help cut down on costly abuse." Is this the CAPTCHA you're referring to?

No, I paid above the average. I was given the CAPTCHA when trying to log in to my existing account.

The captcha is a joke. You're paying a dollar or less for the game, so because a third of that goes to charity, and you're not willing to give more, then they just want to make sure that there is a human with a soul at the other end. Because all data says otherwise.

No, I got the CAPTCHA when I logged in. I paid above average and sent it all to the EFF.

Back when you could get a steam key for any price, people used to spam 1 cent purchases in order to get mass amounts of steam keys. I think this is left over from when that was possible.

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