Humble Monthly Bundle: Thoughts?

[babinro]

For the last couple of years I've been a HUGE fan of humblebundle. I frequent the site daily and use it as my main source of game purchases even above Steam.

Today I checked the site to see they've come out with a new bundle service. One that gives people an unknown number of supposedly good quality games that would not normally appear in the bundle. All games will be available on steam and the service is $12.00 a month and if you sign up now you get Legend of Grimrock 2 while waiting for the first official month of releases.

Now part of me is tempted to actually try this service for the first month simply because I kind of want to buy Legend of Grimrock 2 to begin with...and hopefully at least one of the freebie games will be something that I like thus justifying the cost.

The other part of me is saying don't be a complete fool and buy games that you might not like or worse might already own. What kind of moron buys games blindfolded? This is far worse than any kind pre-order season pass garbage we've ever seen....right?

1) Is Legend of Grimrock 2 worth the $12.00 gamble knowing that I'll get a few unknown games to go with it?

2) What do you think of the humble monthly bundle idea?

The one positive takeaway from this is that the games you see listed here will either never become part of a regular bundle or simply won't appear in one for a VERY long time. Meaning you can give up waiting and just pick it up on the next GoG/Origin/Steam/Bundlestars/indiegala/etc sale that you see.

Link to article discussing the Monthly Bundle:
[link]http://ca.ign.com/articles/2015/10/01/humble-bundle-announces-monthly-subscription-service[/link]

Link to Hunmble Monthly Bundle website:
[link]https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly[/link]

 

[Mikeybb]

This does not sit well with me on first glance, but thinking further there could be something to it.

Not to say that it won't be good value, but given the number of bundles I've bought over the years I've already found myself with multiple copies of the same game (which is kinda helpful come christmas time but I digress).

For a person starting a game library on pc, this is an excellent deal.
People further along that hoarders path will find less from it.

If it was possible to raise the amount donated in the 12 dollar price tag, then you could just look at it as a rolling donation to worthy causes.
As it stands you just give 5 percent set, it seems.

Regarding grimrock.
One or Two would be worth playing and easily worth the twelve dollar tag.

I guess you could try it for a month just for that title and see what it offers up next time.
You're not tied into a period of subscription from what I can see so the second they deposit something genuinely horrible in your inbox you can run for the hills.

 

[T_ConX]

So... Instead of exchanging money for a product that's a known quantity, I just throw $12 a month at Humble and they just pull a couple of Steam Keys out of a hat to give me?

I could never get behind the idea for Loot Crate. For ~$25 a month, I get a monthly box full of geek junk; mostly just posters, stickers, and cheap plastic shit, and what I get is decided on by Loot Crate AFTER I give them my money? Wow! Count me out.

And now Humble wants in on this crap? Definitely not happening, especially since I've already built a Steam collection 1000+ titles strong, which means I could expect a lot of keys for games I already own (I already have a massive pile of unused keys that I'm trying to get rid of).

Oh, and then there's this...

What are the games playable on?

Steam for Windows. Sometimes more!

Calling it right now. One of those months is going to be nothing but uPlay or Origin keys.

 

[Zaltys]

Seems like too much of a gamble. I already have 1350 games in my Steam library, so the chances are that I'd be getting far too many duplicates.

Frankly, I'd rather buy a Loot Crate. At least that's bound to have something that I don't already own.

 

[Doom972]

The price is too high. I pay $1-$7 per bundle, so $12 is a bit much, and I don't even know if it might be a game I already own or another indie side-scroller that looks kind of cool that I'll never play.

 

[Itsuki93]

This just seems like loot crate to me, a loot crate that I could be receiving games I can't play (Steam for Windows. Sometimes more!) and that sometimes doesn't fill me with confidence.

As for Grimrock, if you were going to buy it already then you can test the waters and use Grimrock as a consolation prize if the monthly games turn out to be Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing and Ride to Hell: Retribution.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Well, it does say "highly curated". Maybe that means it's not going to include games you already have?

Really seems like that should be an FAQ question.

 

[loa]

Meh, I like to know what I get for my money and much prefer one-time payments over subscriotions.
There's also way too many games I may actually like more to justify throwing money into a black hole to get things I don't really want most of the time.

Games are not trading cards.

 

[Dornedas]

First the question regarding Legend of Grimrock 2.

The game alone is worth 12 bux in my opinion. But I can be rather strange when it comes to what I believe things are worth.

As for the program:
It is worse than pre-orders in my opinion. With pre-orders you have at least somewhat of an idea of what the game will be like.
Even if you ignore all the marketing and doctored screenshots you generally at least know what genre the pre-ordered game will be.
With this you don't.
If you at least knew the people that curate the games you could guess whether their tastes are similar to yours.
But you don't.

As for Grimrock, if you were going to buy it already then you can test the waters and use Grimrock as a consolation prize if the monthly games turn out to be Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing and Ride to Hell: Retribution.

Highly unlikely. Ride to Hell has been removed from both the humble store and the steam store.

 

[Itsuki93]

Highly unlikely. Ride to Hell has been removed from both the humble store and the steam store.

I know, it was just my attempt at humour with the use of hyperbole.

As for the program:
It is worse than pre-orders in my opinion. With pre-orders you have at least somewhat of an idea of what the game will be like.
Even if you ignore all the marketing and doctored screenshots you generally at least know what genre the pre-ordered game will be.
With this you don't.
If you at least knew the people that curate the games you could guess whether their tastes are similar to yours.
But you don't.

This is a good point that I forgot to mention.

 

[HerrBobo]

I dunno, I love the Humble site, I have have bought many games and even some of their books. Things is though, with Steam sales, ect $12 can buy you some very good games.

I guess I will check out Grimrock, and if it is a game I would play I'll try the package out for at least one month. If it sucks I can always drop it.

 

[Keoul]

Yeah I wouldn't take part in it.
Product first then payment, I'm not gunna pay for something I don't even know even if it's from humble bundle.

 

[Freegs]

I'm going to try it. I think the first few months at least will be decent since they would be trying to ramp the subscription numbers up. I think it would be hard to maintain in the long run, since they could not repeat any game (at least I hope so!). Definitely would not get if I had over 1000 Steam games.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Ahh, i love the way people think we, the consumers, will pay for anything...even nothing.

I have a box that 'could' fit a car into it? Who will start the bidding at 1000 pounds?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Grimrock 2 is okay. Similar merits and issues to the last one, and some of the charm has gone out of "retro experiences" since the original was released. Think of it as a puzzle game with highly incidental monster combat thrown in as an afterthought.

The (admittedly wonky as fuck) Might and Magic X did a better job of capturing the Bard's Tale/Eye of the Beholder/Might and Magic era of gaming.

As to the bundle...meh. I'd rather just buy things I want, rather than get indie grab bags that will almost certainly be bursting with shit I have zero interest in. For all that I credit the indie revolution with helping to drive innovation in PC Gaming, it's also produced a veritable shitload of extraordinarily underwhelming crap.

 

[The Lunatic]

Eehh... It seems like a terrible idea to me.

Humble Bundles aren't know for their quality, they're known for their price. You pay a few bucks for a bunch of "Okay" games, recently they've started to plummet in quality, now including vouchers, beta keys and cash-shop/DLC items.

Essentially, it's stuff you really wouldn't pay money for if you weren't getting a few good things extra, and even then it's hit and miss.

So, the idea that people would be willing to throw down $12 a month, without knowing what they're getting, how many games they're getting, what quality of games they can expect or really anything other than "Give us money, you'll maybe get some games that you like", doesn't seem like a very well educated one.

Added to that, calling it a "Humble Bundle" when you're taking 95% of the profit and refusing to allow people to decide where their money goes like in ordinary bundles, is a bit of an oxymoron.