19 ms·

I'd like the people that paid 1 cent and also said that's all they could afford at the time on the survey to say that to one of the WoG developers with a straig

by pjhyett 17y ago

I'd like the people that paid 1 cent and also said that's all they could afford at the time on the survey to say that to one of the WoG developers with a straight face. It's amazing they can't afford to pay even $5 for the game, but they have hours and hours of free time to play it.

kniwor 17y ago
They might be not from the US?
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
patio11 17y ago
but they have hours and hours of free time to play it. On their $2,000 computer, no doubt.
- josefresco 17y ago
  Let's not open up the can-of-worms that is "value". For example: people will work hard to afford huge houses, and lavish lifestyles requiring thousands of hours but then can't spend 30 minutes with their own kids because their too busy earning the money to stick them into private school. What does that say about value? People's sense of value is all over the board (some would say it's f*ckd), and using an anecdote like this and mine above really means nothing in the grand scheme of things.
pbhjpbhj 17y ago
I paid less than $5. It was that or not have the game. I'd be more than happy to say thank you in person to one of the devs. 2DBoy offer[ed] World of Goo to the world for whatever price people want[ed] to pay for it so I didn't pay what I thought it was worth. The game kept me occupied for one evening, quite a long evening, it was fun. I did skip one level though.
mseebach 17y ago
The methodology on that survey if off the charts. The options aren't neutral or even biased in the same direction. "That's what the game is worth to me" is negative since it conveys negative opinion about the quality of the game (if you paid less than $20, that is). "I'm a cheap bastard" conveys negative opinion about oneself, and that's even worse. "That's all I can afford right now" is a socially neutral and accepted way of saying no without having to explain yourself. If you're in a bar with friends, and want to go home because you don't enjoy the company, that's what you say after the first beer, not "that's all your company is worth to me". There's an option missing which is "You said I could pay whatever, and that's what I felt like".
- jcl 17y ago
  As they say in the article, they didn't choose the responses to be neutral; they simply used common reasons people were voluntarily sending through their contact page. I agree that that is poor methodology, since it doesn't include the opinions of anyone who didn't care enough to volunteer a response. But to their credit there is an "Other" option, the responses to which are linked in the article... Many of the answers fall into one or more of the categories already in the survey. It looks like the most common answer that isn't already covered is "I just wanted to try the game out and don't know how much it's worth".
Tichy 17y ago
I did not buy it so far (for 20$), and if they give it away, they give it away. If they don't want people to pay 0,01 cents, they should put a minimum price of 5$. "Can't afford it" is just a rephrasing of "it is not worth more to me" in that context (I don't think anybody really had not spare $ in that experiment). Personally I'd prefer them to have an option to give them money after trying the game. Actually I ended up not buying it (and I was leaning towards 4$), because the PayPal form was too much of a hassle/couldn't get it working. Also I felt a bit like fooling myself - so far I did not buy it, now suddenly I am prepared to spent money? I felt I was falling into a kind of psychological trap... I seem to remember that an address alone is already worth > 5$, so paying 0,01 cents is actually paying 5$.
- dkersten 17y ago
  I bought it a few months back for €14 or whatever it is they charged and I'm quite happy having paid that.
  - Tichy 17y ago
    I'm sure it is a great game, but somehow the buy impulse didn't reach me yet :-)
    - dkersten 17y ago
      I found it to be a really well designed and presented game and really enjoyed playing it. I still play a level every now and then. Also, if you buy it directly (as opposed to buying off Steam), you get the Windows, Linux and Mac versions :-) Finally, it runs perfectly on my eee PC 1000HE!
- citizenparker 17y ago
  Many games have incorporated a feature to where you can try the game, and then have the option to give them money. This is called a demo.
  - Tichy 17y ago
JeremyChase 17y ago
There is another aspect that they are ignoring; I'm sure a lot of people bought the game that had already decided to NOT buy it. This kind of offer will appeal to people that would have liked it but declined to purchase it for one reason or another. Then I am sure there is a significant portion of people who didn't even want the game, and just purchased it out of curiosity.
kevindication 17y ago
And then there's me, who purchased the game through Steam for full price months ago. During the sale, I dropped $1 just to be able to download the Linux/Mac versions which are normally available with the full price, but not if you bought through Steam.

by pjhyett 17y ago

kniwor 17y ago

They might be not from the US?

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

patio11 17y ago

but they have hours and hours of free time to play it. On their $2,000 computer, no doubt.

josefresco 17y ago
Let's not open up the can-of-worms that is "value". For example: people will work hard to afford huge houses, and lavish lifestyles requiring thousands of hours but then can't spend 30 minutes with their own kids because their too busy earning the money to stick them into private school. What does that say about value? People's sense of value is all over the board (some would say it's f*ckd), and using an anecdote like this and mine above really means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

pbhjpbhj 17y ago

I paid less than $5. It was that or not have the game. I'd be more than happy to say thank you in person to one of the devs. 2DBoy offer[ed] World of Goo to the world for whatever price people want[ed] to pay for it so I didn't pay what I thought it was worth. The game kept me occupied for one evening, quite a long evening, it was fun. I did skip one level though.

mseebach 17y ago

The methodology on that survey if off the charts. The options aren't neutral or even biased in the same direction. "That's what the game is worth to me" is negative since it conveys negative opinion about the quality of the game (if you paid less than $20, that is). "I'm a cheap bastard" conveys negative opinion about oneself, and that's even worse. "That's all I can afford right now" is a socially neutral and accepted way of saying no without having to explain yourself. If you're in a bar with friends, and want to go home because you don't enjoy the company, that's what you say after the first beer, not "that's all your company is worth to me". There's an option missing which is "You said I could pay whatever, and that's what I felt like".

jcl 17y ago
As they say in the article, they didn't choose the responses to be neutral; they simply used common reasons people were voluntarily sending through their contact page. I agree that that is poor methodology, since it doesn't include the opinions of anyone who didn't care enough to volunteer a response. But to their credit there is an "Other" option, the responses to which are linked in the article... Many of the answers fall into one or more of the categories already in the survey. It looks like the most common answer that isn't already covered is "I just wanted to try the game out and don't know how much it's worth".

Tichy 17y ago

I did not buy it so far (for 20$), and if they give it away, they give it away. If they don't want people to pay 0,01 cents, they should put a minimum price of 5$. "Can't afford it" is just a rephrasing of "it is not worth more to me" in that context (I don't think anybody really had not spare $ in that experiment). Personally I'd prefer them to have an option to give them money after trying the game. Actually I ended up not buying it (and I was leaning towards 4$), because the PayPal form was too much of a hassle/couldn't get it working. Also I felt a bit like fooling myself - so far I did not buy it, now suddenly I am prepared to spent money? I felt I was falling into a kind of psychological trap... I seem to remember that an address alone is already worth > 5$, so paying 0,01 cents is actually paying 5$.

dkersten 17y ago
I bought it a few months back for €14 or whatever it is they charged and I'm quite happy having paid that.
- Tichy 17y ago
  I'm sure it is a great game, but somehow the buy impulse didn't reach me yet :-)
  - dkersten 17y ago
    I found it to be a really well designed and presented game and really enjoyed playing it. I still play a level every now and then. Also, if you buy it directly (as opposed to buying off Steam), you get the Windows, Linux and Mac versions :-) Finally, it runs perfectly on my eee PC 1000HE!
citizenparker 17y ago
Many games have incorporated a feature to where you can try the game, and then have the option to give them money. This is called a demo.
- Tichy 17y ago

JeremyChase 17y ago

There is another aspect that they are ignoring; I'm sure a lot of people bought the game that had already decided to NOT buy it. This kind of offer will appeal to people that would have liked it but declined to purchase it for one reason or another. Then I am sure there is a significant portion of people who didn't even want the game, and just purchased it out of curiosity.

kevindication 17y ago

And then there's me, who purchased the game through Steam for full price months ago. During the sale, I dropped $1 just to be able to download the Linux/Mac versions which are normally available with the full price, but not if you bought through Steam.