Humble Indie Bundle 3: Now With Minecraft

[Your Nightmare]

The big deal here is that Notch is only using the Humble Bundle to advertise. The game makes enough money, you think he could... I don't know, support a good cause instead of piggybacking on it. Yes, he has donated money but if he's really so strapped for cash he can't sell his game then why even donate?

Hey Escapist staff, chill the hell out. Yeah he spent the lowest amount possible, but they did offer it. He's not turning around and selling copies of the game on eBay like others, at least. Yeah he advertised the fact that he paid so little, but try to act with a bit of professionalism, please? As one of the faces of gaming, you can't post all these articles saying how non-aggressive video games make people and then publicly bash one of your own readers. I understand this is a charity, but if they didn't want purchases under a dollar then they would set a minimum.

I spent $40 myself. With the average Windows purchase currently being under $5, why don't we just go ahead and say I got this guy covered?

I already have two of the games, don't like one, haven't heard of the rest and have no interest in MC. I don't think I'll pick this up. I know I can pay how much I want, but it just doesn't feel right to not give it its due. I'd still love to support indie devs, are the first 2 bundles still available?

I say go ahead and buy, anyway. Gift the bundle to a friend, and use this as a chance to support the EFF or Child's Play.

I wasn't trying to advertise it, just seeing if anyone had done the same. Probably a bad idea as I forgot this was primarily a gaming forum (I just come here to read the articles)

But I get the idea guys that you don't approve so you can stop sending me messages - if you want.

To clarify, I have only bought a copy for myself.

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

No, there are plenty of cheap bastards in the world.

Yea honestly I'm a bit disappointed with the people AND staff here. The site says to pay as much (or as little) as you'd like. They went into this knowing absolutely that some people would be cheap. If they weren't prepared to deal with that they would have set it up differently. I'd in fact be willing to wager that a lot of these devs are fine with that. More copies floating around getting buzz. Having said that I do agree you should make it a point to give what you consider a fair amount. And there is no reasonably defensible position for it only costing $0.01. Now, having said that... it is a real shame that people on here are belittling him for it. Do I think that he should have given more, yes. But does calling him a "bastard" help anything no. That is borderline flaming. He did nothing against the rules and dosen't deserve the hate he is getting.

 

[Tanakh]

pffft Throw it in all together Notch. Make it part of the bundle not a limited time offering. Seems kinda silly to use a charity sale as advertising/demo period....

This, still not bad. I am big on indies, haven't played minecraft yet and might just do it!

 

[GrandmaFunk]

He did nothing against the rules and dosen't deserve the hate he is getting.

to me the easiest equivalent is to compare this to tipping.

is tipping a penny against the rules? no.

should someone that tips a penny be reviled and publicly shamed for being a total fucking loser? absolutely.

 

[Mouse_Crouse]

to me the easiest equivalent is to compare this to tipping.

is tipping a penny against the rules? no.

should someone that tips a penny be reviled and publicly shamed for being a total fucking loser? absolutely.

Then your problem should be with the gratuity system, not the person. As I stated in my post, "there is no reasonably defensible position for it only costing $0.01", does that make him cheap, yes. Does that deserve people breaking forum rules to flame and belittle him, No. Especially when it comes to staff.

Edit to expand on thought: they chose to set this up as a pay-as-you-like pricing point. Knowing full well some would pay $0.01 and some would pay $4000. If they weren't OK with this they would have done it differently. They figured they would make the best chance of making the most money this way, and so far they haven't done bad at all. Where do we draw the line? is $1 too cheap? Because clearly they are "worth" more then that. Are we now gonna break forum rules and flame everyone who paid $1.

 

[GrandmaFunk]

nope, my problem is with the person.

if a system is exploitable, someone still has to choose to exploit it.

free will means no excuses.

 

[DeadAccountMoveAlong]

Let me be sure I've got this straight: some of you are unhappy because Notch is "advertising" Minecraft in the bundle? He's not charging for it, he's just throwing in something a little extra to sweeten the pot, but that's somehow wrong?

Seriously, what in god's name are you talking about?

With all due respect Mr. Chalk, you need to take a breather. You are turning this thread into a Youtube flame war.

For the overwhelming amount of money Minecraft made, he could do more than offer a F2P week. Did he have to do anything? No, but with this plan he is basically encouraging more people to get sucked into Minecraft and pay full price, instead of just sticking his name with the Bundle and taking whatever people give.

I am honestly disappointed in you and the staff. If you can't see our point of view, or are going to treat a viewpoint that goes against yours with hostility, then you are no better than the people blindly spewing for video games to be pulled from shelves.

I know this means nothing to you guys, but I am going to wipe my account clean and leave the site for good. This is not a community I wish for myself or video games to be represented by.

 

[JoshGod]

I know we're of different opinions, but if it makes you feel better - I have donated £0.01 to charity (on the first HB) and £0.02 to the devs (HB 2 + 3)

Surely there are processing costs that exceed 1p.

 

[TeeBs]

I take it I'm not the only one who has donated just $0.01 ..

I don't know whats worst, that fact that you donated so little, or the fact that you openly admitted, and defended, giving so little.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

For the overwhelming amount of money Minecraft made, he could do more than offer a F2P week. Did he have to do anything? No, but with this plan he is basically encouraging more people to get sucked into Minecraft and pay full price, instead of just sticking his name with the Bundle and taking whatever people give.

I am honestly disappointed in you and the staff. If you can't see our point of view, or are going to treat a viewpoint that goes against yours with hostility, then you are no better than the people blindly spewing for video games to be pulled from shelves.

I know this means nothing to you guys, but I am going to wipe my account clean and leave the site for good. This is not a community I wish for myself or video games to be represented by.

The entire premise of the pack is advertising for indie games first, charities second. Adding a Minecraft trial is incentive to download the pack and if people are downloading it, it's done what it was supposed to.

I frankly don't see how calling out a person for donating money and trials to a game towards something that is meant to help indie developers is any different from calling out a person for donating a penny and hindering the service.

Besides, if Notch is so hell bent on advertising. Why is he giving up a full page of free advertisement in a magazine to indie developers?

 

[Susan Arendt]

No, there are plenty of cheap bastards in the world.

Yea honestly I'm a bit disappointed with the people AND staff here. The site says to pay as much (or as little) as you'd like. They went into this knowing absolutely that some people would be cheap. If they weren't prepared to deal with that they would have set it up differently. I'd in fact be willing to wager that a lot of these devs are fine with that. More copies floating around getting buzz. Having said that I do agree you should make it a point to give what you consider a fair amount. And there is no reasonably defensible position for it only costing $0.01. Now, having said that... it is a real shame that people on here are belittling him for it. Do I think that he should have given more, yes. But does calling him a "bastard" help anything no. That is borderline flaming. He did nothing against the rules and dosen't deserve the hate he is getting.

He is absolutely playing by the rules, no question about that.

That doesn't make paying a penny for five games any less of a jerk move, however.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I know this means nothing to you guys, but I am going to wipe my account clean and leave the site for good. This is not a community I wish for myself or video games to be represented by.

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

 

[vansau]

With all due respect Mr. Chalk, you need to take a breather. You are turning this thread into a Youtube flame war.

...

I know this means nothing to you guys, but I am going to wipe my account clean and leave the site for good. This is not a community I wish for myself or video games to be represented by.

Everybody's allowed to be wrong now and then; that said, I'm totally OK with you being incorrect somewhere else.

 

[Susan Arendt]

He did nothing against the rules and dosen't deserve the hate he is getting.

to me the easiest equivalent is to compare this to tipping.

is tipping a penny against the rules? no.

should someone that tips a penny be reviled and publicly shamed for being a total fucking loser? absolutely.

Wow, excellent analogy. Mind if I borrow that in future?

 

[Yuri 'Arara']

After reading Freakonomics, you can't help but use some of the ideas on it to see the world from a different point-of-view. Let me explain.

The Freakonomics book revolves around the idea that people are motivated by incentives, be they financial (money and similar), moral (the set of rules you impose over yourself) or social (the set of rules society imposes over you). The Humble Bundle presents an interesting example where those three types of incentives come into play.

The Humble Bundle says you can price the games as you want. That means you have to value how much you appreciate those games and pay accordingly, but that's not entirely true - there's a moral incentive in helping charity and indie devs that come with the bundle purchase. It's basically a trade between money and the "feel good" sensation. So there'll be people who'll pay $40, there'll be people who'll pay $10 (as myself) and there'll be people who'll pay a penny. The amount you give to the HIB says much about how one perceives the value of the moral incentives involved. One may think it's really important to support charity and indie games, one may give the bundle what he can and one can simply not give a s***.

And there's a third incentive here - the social one. When Notch (the Minecraft creator) pays $4000 for the games (some of them he already owned, mind you), the social incentives comes into play, since he wants to be recognized as an indie dev who hit jackpot but doesn't forgets his roots and cares about his fellows. When he gives away the most popular indie game of recent history for free (even for a few weeks), it's both to help the bundle and to promote himself as a samaritan. It'd be naive to fool ourselves thinking that he's a saint or an exploiter, but he's no doubt pushing some of the Minecraft popularity onto the bundle while promoting his own figure. Jonathan Blow (of Braid fame) is doing the same (@witnessgame donated $2718), except Braid was sold on the first Bundle.

As for the ones who publicized that they paid only a cent, they're either trolling liars, naive children or amoral people, and I agree with the overall bashing.

 

[Ickorus]

I take it I'm not the only one who has donated just $0.01 ..

That really makes me sad :\ These indie devs throw out these awesome games, in an awesome promotion, to try and raise some money for charity (and themselves). They give us the option to pay what we would like, and split that money up how we see fit. Yet, some people would rather pay a penny because they can *sigh*

Don't take me the wrong way, I'm not saying to spend a fortune. But, for God sakes, you can't even throw them $1? For 5 friggin games??? Just saying...

When it comes down to it the bundle isn't just about the charities but about the people too, some of us gamers are very poor individuals and we literally can't afford to spend much money on games, this sort of offer helps us out as much as it does the charities or devs.

That said I donated £10 for the first and second bundle (when they offered both bundles together), £0.50 for the Frozenbyte one and another £0.50 for this latest one, by the time the next bundle rolls around i'll hopefully have a job i'll be more than happy to donate a hefty sum but until then this is just how it's going to be and im very bloody grateful for what they're doing for us.

 

[Yuri 'Arara']

I'm only going to pay 0.01

How am I supposed to know what these Games are worth to me, I haven't played them yet, makes such a decision rather difficult.

I have a simple solution, if I like them, I'll just buy my Friend a Copy and lay the extra Cash on top there.

You can buy for one cent, play the games and, afterwards, raise the amount you wanna pay within their own systems.

 

[Gindil]

Good job I didn't buy 100 copies and selling them off for in-game items then.
I don't know who total biscuit is anyway, plus I have done nothing wrong. If I had pirated the bundle, then by all means berate me. They said pay how much you want - so I have.

Pirating it would have cost them less money.
What you have done is morally worse than simply pirating it.

For crying out loud...

Why is everyone arguing about morality when it's simply economics? He was asked to pay what he wanted. He paid what he felt it was worth.

Some people have went and paid $2000 for the same batch of games. There have even been case studies into how much people will pay in these type of schemes.

Kickstarter has given people a lot of incentives to pay what they want for success. Still, some people pay only .50 cents. Does that mean they're horrible persons? No? Okay then.

Point is, for all the complaints about how "your nightmare" is a "complete d-bag" for not paying more than .03 pds, it's irrelevant. He paid his money. He's not morally bankrupt for stating that opinion. He made a choice to pay something. Morality and economics don't mix well. Let it go.