Green Man Gaming Takes a Stand Against Price Gouging

Slash2x

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llyrnion said:
Farther than stars said:
According to capitalists, shouldn't a competitive market be lowering prices? (Irony!) This is solid proof that prices can be rigged in the free market the same as in any market regulated by the government.
Without getting too much into poli-ticks, there's one trait both capitalism and socialism (or communism or whatever-you-call-it-in-your-part-of-the-woods) share: Its specification is quite different from what we've implemented.

E.g.
- Under socialism, everyone is equal. Except the people in charge. And their families. And their friends. And their friends' friends. Etc...
- Under capitalism, there's equal opportunity for everyone. Except the people in charge. And the corporations with pockets deep enough to buy... er, I mean, sponsor them. Oh, and their families, friends and etcs, too, naturally.

That's why when a small company makes it big, there's a metamorphosis in their behaviour. E.g., they go from, say, "do no evil" to "there's gotta be some amount of necessary evil, because everyone else is doing it". If you search for «apple tax evasion», you'll see a sort of behaviour that's shared by every company big enough to do it.

Getting back on topic - everyone indulges in this price gouging because "everyone else is doing it". The only possible response they'd understand would be if people in ANZ stopped buying games. Since everyone keeps paying, the price must be right, right?
I disagree entirely.

Corporations past a certain size are simply friends at that point. Once they are rich enough they are just automatic friends with politicians. And what kind of friend are you if you will not buy a buddy a $20 million boat for a Tuesday? A terrible one that is what kind.
 

CardinalPiggles

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It sucks for Greenman to have to slash prices so dramatically just to please everyone. The Publishers should be pleasing their customers, not Greenman.
 

risenbone

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Well yeah I was probably getting shafted with my internet costs and restrictions. We are talking 7 or 8 years ago and living west of the great dividing Range. My provider being Telstra the only provider in the area at the time.
 

Falterfire

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Farther than stars said:
Yeah, that's my point though. According to the theory of a free market, competition should have established itself by now, offering better or equivalent games at lower prices. The fact that this hasn't happened yet illustrates the tendency of companies to inflate their prices in sync with the competition simply for the sake of a quick buck. That's how your oligopoly is established and maintained.
Not a free market though. Unlike with, for example, chairs, where anybody can make one that is indistinguishable from the other, games are each unique. (Go ahead, make your Madden/CoD jokes now) Since they're unique, nobody else can make the same game for less.

Sure, another company could make a different game they thought was better and sell it more cheaply (See: The whole Torchlight 2/Diablo III thing) but you'll still have to go to the other guys if you want the original version. If you want to play Borderlands 2 you HAVE to buy it from 2K. Nobody else can make it.
 

Krat Arona

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So, something I don't understand:

Obviously being a business they're in it to make money, that's a given, that's not a bad thing.
And it's also understood that Vendor relations are a HUGE part of a business, especially in game sales and Digital Distribution.
However, if GMG really gives such a damn, why do this so roundabout?

If they are so concerned about the prices their clients are paying why not treat the problem and not the symptom?

It's harder, but why not tell the gouging publishers no? Take a stand against it rather than handing out coupons. Tell 2K or whoever happens to try to unfairly gouge, no. That's going to step on Vendor toes for sure, but they are NOT going to pull services from the provider. They'd be killing their own profit by yanking their games off of GMG in spite.

Then again, I'm probably just being too cynical about it.
 

Farther than stars

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Glademaster said:
Farther than stars said:
Glademaster said:
Yes but games aren't a Free Market so you can't compare them at all. Games are not in Perfect Competition they are in an Oligopoly. Also Oligopolies aren't necessarily a bad thing.
Oligopolies are an incredibly bad thing! They invariably drive up prices, such as seen with video games in the ANZ market. Those kinds of business tactics are bad for the consumer and we all know that what's bad for the consumer is bad for the economy.
By the way, are you saying that games cannot exist in a competitive model per definition?
Yes game and every other thing sold in the world bar a very few select things actually exist in perfect competition. Like everything if something is operating properly and not being abused there are advantages for everyone easy price comparison, focus on quality and "loyalty" perks are some of the consumer advantages for Oligopoly.
Those are not advantages that weigh up against the loss. Price comparison doesn't really impact the consumer, because they still have to pay the same exorbitant rates, no matter how easy they are to compare. There is no real room for quality, because all theoretical innovation supplied by start-up companies is crippled by the oligopoly's stranglehold on the market.
And 'loyalty perks'? They're nothing but a Skinner's Box technique to push products on consumers, designed with only one interest in mind: that of the retailer.
I agree with you that many industries eventually take the form of oligopolies in a free-market environment, but to me that is a bad thing. It is the dead-end of capitalism, where the short-term interests of companies are seen as more important than the long-term interests of consumers. And that is why we must oppose this system all the way.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Good on 'em. GoG does this as well, though it's their standard operating procedure instead of a voucher. Still, this is good and hopefully more do this type of thing in the future.
 

Something Amyss

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Grey Carter said:
Region-based price gouging is an unsightly hold over from the days when games had to be shipped around the world in galleys or zeppelins or what ever it was that made Australian games cost twice as much as their North American counterparts.
Actually, it primarily had to do with the strength of the American dollar vs the Australian dollar. There was a time where the Aussie dollar was worth about 55 American pennies. Times have changed, and the US dollar is now worth about 95 Aussie cents, but prices did not.

The reasoning appears to be "because Australians will pay it" and mirrors the physical stores.

The same thing happens, though to a significantly lesser extent, to our Canuck friends to the North. Or South. I can never find Canadia on a map.

Abomination said:
It got me thinking, with Steam being as powerful as it presently is... couldn't they just tell publishers "No, fuck you. You want to sell via Steam then you sell at a worldwide agreed upon price."
I don't think Steam wants to, since they actively discourage region jumping far more than even the gaming publishers do.

Abomination said:
The reason why ANZ gamers will pay is because they have no choice.
There is ALWAYS a choice. ANZ gamers could choose not to go through this. Not through piracy, but by simply refusing to play the games until the prices come down. This requires self control, something that seems to be in short supply among gamers, but it can be done.

The reason the concept of the boycott has lost all meaning over the last decade or so is that people claim they are boycotting and buy the stuff anyway and hope nobody notices. Piracy isn't going to work, either. Piracy sends the message to the publisher that you want the game and therefore would buy it if you had to, further enforcing the demand for the game. It doesn't matter if this interpretation is true; the message is still sent.

Instead of pretending to be victims of circumstance with "no choice," people should take it upon themselves to make the hard choice for long term benefit.
 

shintakie10

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Strazdas said:
We raised all the prices, but here you get to buy one of the items at the old price, and the rest at inflated prices, look how good we are.
sorry guys, i dont buy that. you should have took a stand and said no to publishers, after all, somone should ahve done that like... 4 years ago. but greed, greed never changes....
I guess you missed the whole reusable part of that coupon. Reusable for the next 10 years.

Abomination said:
It got me thinking, with Steam being as powerful as it presently is... couldn't they just tell publishers "No, fuck you. You want to sell via Steam then you sell at a worldwide agreed upon price."

I think they have the clout to pull it off. What are the publishers going to do? Turn down having their product on steam, which is essentially the most successful marketplace for PC games?
They could, but then they'd lose money.

If you hadn't noticed, outside of Steam sales (and even then its still overpriced sometimes) the prices on Steam are higher than their competitors. Why? Because they choose to purposely gouge their customers because they know people will pay it and continue to praise them as gods gift to gamin.

Green Man Gamin has definitely caught my eye lately as a place to buy my games. I used to basically shop exclusively on Amazon, but both have fairly competitive prices now that its quite helpful to look between the two. Plus both have a ton of good will goin for them what with Amazons absolutely amazin return policy (I have yet to find a reason they wont refund me money, even if its my own stupidity) and this for Green Man Gaming.
 
Jun 11, 2008
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Farther than stars said:
But I would have expected an Italian such as yourself to understand the dangers of oligopolies, especially since the most famous oligarch in the world used to be your prime minister. I hear he's hoping to become your country's finance minister now? Shouldn't that concern you?
I'm not even going to address the rest of this but my flag is not the Italian flag. It is the Irish flag if you don't know the flag to country then hover over it with your mouse.
 

Farther than stars

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Glademaster said:
Farther than stars said:
But I would have expected an Italian such as yourself to understand the dangers of oligopolies, especially since the most famous oligarch in the world used to be your prime minister. I hear he's hoping to become your country's finance minister now? Shouldn't that concern you?
I'm not even going to address the rest of this but my flag is not the Italian flag. It is the Irish flag if you don't know the flag to country then hover over it with your mouse.
Oh, look at that. I zoom in my screen to 200% and the colour goes from red to orange. Well, my bad. Sadly I can't think of any famous Irish oligarchs to compare to Berlusconi, but I think I made my point pretty clear.
 

Dryk

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Zachary Amaranth said:
There is ALWAYS a choice. ANZ gamers could choose not to go through this. Not through piracy, but by simply refusing to play the games until the prices come down. This requires self control, something that seems to be in short supply among gamers, but it can be done.
Not without raising awareness it can't
 

Snotnarok

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I'm amused how devs and pubs keep the prices high, sometimes raising them while decreasing the content given in both the games & the boxes. Hell prices are STILL high even when you buy digital, I get that's to keep competitive and so physical stores wont get angry but these other countries are getting shafted.

I mean Mass Effect 2: SE for PC was 60 bucks and came with a lot of neat things, ME3: SE was 80 and came with less, not even a bloody manual. Hell PC games used to come in big embossed boxes with a manual and sometimes other goodies, with the regular edition usually.
Come to think of it, Diablo 3 didn't even have a fucking jewel case it was a paper sleeve with the S/N sticker-ed on it, no manual either just a dumb note book.
 

Nouw

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Daniel Harvison said:
Nouw said:
What makes a game ANZ? Just a bit confused here >.>. Or are all games automatically ANZ if you live here?
ANZ is "Australia and New Zealand".
I do know that but I'm not sure what makes a game ANZ.
 

Something Amyss

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Dryk said:
Zachary Amaranth said:
There is ALWAYS a choice. ANZ gamers could choose not to go through this. Not through piracy, but by simply refusing to play the games until the prices come down. This requires self control, something that seems to be in short supply among gamers, but it can be done.
Not without raising awareness it can't
Awareness has been raised. This awareness raising coupled with inaction turns it into whining.