Humble Bundle ethics/etiquette

[Grimh]

I usually pay between 10 and 20 dollars and split it between the tip and developers.

I can't really tell you what to do since it's your money. I wouldn't worry about it too much though.
I'm pretty sure it all averages out in the end, otherwise they wouldn't be able to keep doing this.

 

[DEAD34345]

Paying even 1 cent is more than you have to pay to play the games (considering the availability of free pirated versions), so it's all essentially charity and a "good" act as far as I'm concerned. There's no lowest point at which it becomes immoral, it's only a question of how much good you want to do and how much you can afford to.

Also, you can always add to your Bundle donation, so why not just pay $1 immediately and the rest later? Get the games early and give the exact amount you want to, when you want to. There's no downside as far as I can tell, they even give you the bonus stuff if your next donation pushes you above the average, I believe.

 

[Lyri]

Hi all,
I'm just sitting here having a battle with own conscience over the Humble Indie Bundle 9.
On the one hand I really want to play Mark of the Ninja and I'm unemployed so the ability to pick it up for a dollar is sorely tempting me. The problem is that I can't seem to convince myself that that is a fair price to pay for it alone nevermind the other games in the bundle.
So odds are I'll wait till next week and try to pay at least 5 dollars or just leave it.

So I was wondering what are your opinions on the Humble Bundle? Do you have a lowest price you consider fair? Or since it's for charity do you think it's better to put your dollar in with the rest rather than not buy it at all? Maybe you think going as low as you can is fair game if they say up front pay what YOU want?

I'm just interested to see opinons not judging anyone for them. And one last more practical question. I note they have a buy as a gift checkbox for the bundle but if I wanted to give away only the FTL key to somebody and keep the rest of the games is this cool or considered bad form?

Thanks for your time

Look, let us be frank for a while (but you can still be Woiminkle after all this is said and done)

The humble bundles are a wonderful and brilliant thing for gamers everywhere, you pay a variable amount of coins and you get to feel smug and play brand new vidya gaemz.
Fantastic.
The rub however is that the sliders depend upon you; what you pay and whom you ultimately give it too. Do you be "shitty" and give a small amount and reap the rewards or do you play Uncle Money Bags and make it rain on those poor kids?

The answer is you do what you want; this is a charity and every little helps. The games you get are your reward for helping and donating, you've done good by just giving them money.
You should not think of this a purchase, which by the sounds of your post you are. This is no different from what you do here in the UK on Remembrance day where you give money and get a poppy to wear.
The money goes to the cause and you get a trinket, you can give 1p, you can give £1 and you can give £100, you still get your paper poppy.

This is just the same, so if you can only afford $1 then give $1 and don't feel bad about helping the kids out, even if you just want to play the games.
Somewhere out there, there is a kid who wants to play Super Mario Bros 3 on the Snes and lark about the Mushroom Kingdom in a Tanooki suit.
They'll be thankfuk for the chance, promise.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

Wasn't there something mentioned about paying only $1 actually hurting them? As it costs a certain amount of money to run(and a certain cost per purchase) and by paying so little it not only stands against the spirit of the whole thing, but also actively hurts the organisation whose running this.

((eg. where they say "Note: the Humble Tip goes to Humble Bundle, Inc. itself, which pays for the bandwidth and development of this promotion. You determine how much we deserve to earn or lose from your purchase."
the key words there being 'or lose'. They may let you pick whatever you want.... but don't be a scumbag. It's like if someone offers you a drink, it doesn't mean you then pull up some kegs and start filling a few for the road, even if they're too nice to stop you...

I mean if you're feeling uncomfortable enough to ask then it's probably safe to say your moral compass is already giving you the answer(which is a good thing), don't try to argue with it. You said you could pay more, so do it. Personally, i think the $5 average is kinda a jerk move too. These guys are offering multiple games, DRM free, with bonuses, and helping charity - the LEAST we could all do is buy the bundle at a retail-equivalent price...))

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

It depends, usually it was 10 dollars or a few bucks more than the average.

The split was a little more intresting as the older bundles had a single Steam key for the games. I wouldn't give any money to the dev if I already had the game.

The newer bundles get split between the devs and The Humble Team (except Fez because of Phill Fish).


EDIT: 3000 posts Wooo!

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I always try to beat the average (in order to get the entire list of games, really), but I don't look down on people who only pay $1 to get the steam keys. I do look down on people who only pay a penny in order to get the direct downloads, because when they do that they actually wind up /costing/ the humble bundle guys money, because it costs them more in bandwidth than you're paying them. At that point, I see torrenting the game as the better option morally, or at least paying the penny and then torrenting instead of using the direct link.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

sniperoo

True, there is that.

However, I don't particularly care about any of the devs involved in this bundle, so it doesn't really affect my price decision.

Still, a good point for OP to consider.

 

[Yopaz]

I usually donate $10 and it all goes to charity. Usually $10 for humble bundles is a pretty good price. If people are too cheap to only pay a dollar I think they might as well torrent it.

That comment is a little unfair I think. If you can't afford to be charitable but you want the goodies anyway then sure you COULD torrent it. But they're letting you have it for just the one dollar. I'm pretty sure even the poorest gamer can afford one dollar. And if 1000 people torrent it instead of throwing a buck in, then HB missing out on $1000. They then rely on people who can afford to be more charitable to make it up.

I don't judge anyone for how much they give to charity. It all adds up in the end and thats what counts.

Well, if we were to consider the server costs in this we might wonder if paying 1 dollar is better than torrenting. If we use a torrent there's no cost to HB.

OT: I generally pay between 15-35 depending on the games, bonuses and how much money I have. Lately I have been trying to avoid it completely though. I have too many games as it is. I was considering to get the Origin bundle, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

 

[Olas]

It seems like simply going with the average defies the entire point of getting to choose your price. Stop and think, do you have more spending money than the average person? Than pay above average. Are you unemployed and barely scraping by? Then donate a buck.


Or you could just use a random number generator. Here I'll do it for you:

Okay, that's 15 dollars. You got pretty lucky there.

 

[Skeleon]

I pretty much always beat the average for the extra games, so that issue doesn't present itself to me.
I think a dollar is better than a cent, though, so go ahead, use a dollar if you can. You're a hundred times less cheap than a lot of folks out there, no matter what else...

 

[veloper]

Always $10 or more. Usually with more than half going to charity.

 

[Smooth Operator]

If you have money to spend at least do the average, but if someone is in financial troubles I would never hold it against them for going with one buck, yes there are more important things to spend money on then games but ones sanity must not be ignored.

 

[JediMB]

I try to always pick a nice, round number above the average.

Then I play a bit with the sliders to divert the money according to my preferences. Like, if I already own a few of the games in the bundle, their developers might get less. Unless they're also developers I really like, and I think they deserve to get paid twice.

 

[Rack]

Generally I end up paying close to the least I can, either a dollar or rounding up the beat the average. The charities never seem that worthwhile and if I really wanted the games I'd own them already. $5 is little enough to take a punt on a few games I'm not sure of.

 

[loa]

Pay as much as you can afford I say.
I don't think anybody will look down on you for taking advantage of the name your price deal in proportion to your tight monetary situation.

 

[GoaThief]

Without reading anyone's replies just yet I always pay more than the average price, how much depends on cash flow at the time. I don't think paying under or virtually nothing is a hugely negative thing as all parties involved know exactly what they are getting in to. That said, if you can afford to pay more I think you should as it would be the right thing to do otherwise you're just being cheap and taking a small liberty with charity.

The only people who do genuinely piss me off are the quick flippers, who like to spam ignorant people on Steam with some "bargain" keys at a "discount" price, selling a single for more than they paid for all of them in the first place. If people want to trade or sell on a duplicate key or two that's a different situation and understandable but the habitual flippers really get up my nose. It's quite widespread also, for the last few Humble Bundles I've had numerous flippers message me asking if I want any keys for trade or cash, I'll play along and ask what exactly to be presented with the complete list of whatever bundle is on at the time and nothing else. Fuck 'em, dishonest parasites.

 

[TheColdHeart]

I'll usually always try give $5 or so above the average, if I have more money available at the time I'll give more. Most often give the majority to charity then split the remainder between Humble and the devs.

 

[Teoes]

If picking up a bundle I pay a minimum of $10, going up as high as I think the bundle/individual games deserve. I think $25 was the most I've paid.

People are free to pay $1 or whatever for their bundle, but I prefer to pay more so that Humble aren't going to all that work and effort only to lose money from me. They're doing something fantastic and can damn well be paid for it. I just had a quick look to see how much is required per sale for Humble to not be losing out, but couldn't find the info. Does anyone know this?

Eh, the giving out of unused keys is a touchy subject. I've done it before myself but it is kinda sorta against the T&Cs or something. You've bought one license for one person to use said game (it's just that they give you more than one method of playing that game), so by giving out the Steam code you're essentially creating a second copy from your one license. Remember they tend to offer DRM-free versions of games for direct download as well so you can't argue that giving out the Steam code means you can't play the game and that's the use of your one copy. You can still play it yourself if you wanted to.