Reply With QuoteI would say that's awesome. If I buy a $40 game and like it so much that I want to buy it for my friends, paying $30 for a gift is better than paying $40.
Discount gift codes are GOOD (in this context)
Discount gift codes are EVIL (in this context)
I normally am pretty sure I know how I feel about everything regarding games, and selling/buying them, but I'm stuck with a quandry on this topic:
Say you go buy a game. lets call it 'Gratuitous Dwarf 'n Blade'. You like the game, and consider it a worthy purchase.
The developer/publisher sends you a discount code for some percentage off the same game, for you to give to a friend.
Do you
A) Cheer and exclaim woot! for you can now email this code to your pal Dave, to whom you have always exclaimed how the game rocked, but the tight-ass never bought it. Maybe now your pal will get it too, and there can be much bantering and mutual fun. Plus, you saved Dave a few dollars! Everyones happy!
B) Snarl and proclaim the developer the antichrist, for the game you paid X for is now clearly available to less gullible people for X-N. If you hadn't been such a mug you might have got a discount code, and clearly the game was always overpriced to begin with. Burn them! burn them all!
I can see people falling into either camp, and I can see both points of view. In my own mind, I suspect A) is the majority, but maybe thats just wishful thinking by me. I humbly request the input of the hive mind.
I would say that's awesome. If I buy a $40 game and like it so much that I want to buy it for my friends, paying $30 for a gift is better than paying $40.
The former. Especially for independent games; it's hard to get people I know into Strange Adventures into the Dominions of Flotillas, and saying 'here, now do it with a big discount' is very attractive to me.
Hells yeah, I want this game, discount codes be damned!Originally Posted by cliffski
A potential boost for the original purchaser in this case could be something like "$5 off any other game in our catalog with the purchase of a discounted gift for a friend!" Something for both people -- the original adopter and the gift receiver.
Like LeSquide said. If you do it, Cliff, or if Vic Davis does it, then it's good. If Ubisoft did it I'd be ticked off. They don't need help selling boatloads of units.
It's good. I've sent a bunch of the Demigod codes out to folks I knew wanted to get the game, but were on the fence.
I say it's good. I've long gotten over the fact that my early purchase of games means I'm paying a premium and that in two months or less whatever game I just bought will be available for $10 to $20 less.
A discount's a discount as far as I'm concerned.
We're in a market where it's not unusual for a $50 game to be had for $20-$30 on crazy sales within a month of release, or for random games to pop up as a Steam deal for no apparent reason a day after you just paid full price (grrr!).
I mean, do you get pissed off if you buy a Hungry-man meal for $3 and when you open the box there's a $1 coupon off the next purchase of the same meal you just paid $3 for? Maybe it tasted like shit and you give the coupon to your friend, who then only has to pay $2 to discover what shit tastes like.
I don't blame the retailer or publisher if this happens - I made a conscious decision that the game was worth $X for me, and if other people can get it for less at a later time, bully for them. At worst, this flips the situation around for me - do I pay full price now or hold off for the inevitable deal?
Personally, I'm a bit more of a fan of the 4-pack discounts Steam sometimes offers as it feels more "fair" to each party, but not all distributors have a way of offering such a deal.
Demigod just did this a while back and from what I remember the response was very positive. Lots of people were more then happy to throw around discount codes so that everyone could get the game on the cheap.
I always feel that the early adopters (day 1 buyers) will always expect to pay more. This goes for anything from Iphones/pads to video games. So I don't see an issue with a discount code being given out for those who are waiting for some incentive to buy it.
My father (68 yrs old) is as much a gamer as I am, and he and I send each other games and coupons all the time. I support this idea wholly.
The discount code also makes a lot more sense for a multiplayer game, where getting friends to play actually adds to your experience.
Where can I preorder this?
I don't understand how anyone could ever be angry about discount gift codes. I like sharing -- a code like this makes me more likely to be able to share the experience with a friend.
Any discount is a good discount.
I think you, of all people, would be aware of the unreasonable extremes a customer can reach for no goddamn reason at all.
I like how my one single vote just sitting there.... alone....unwanted...
I just hate junk mails, don't send me coupon, if you have a discount, make it publicly, put it on the your webpage instead just limiting to people who already purchased your game.
Way to reward customer loyalty there, Idrisz!
Cliff, just send them to everyone else who bought the game.
It's not a reward because previous customer get almost 0 benefit from the coupon, It's a form of marketing.
If you want to reward your customer loyalty you probably should give out free stuff to that customer instead trying to make your customer sell more shit(replace shit with whatever stuff you are selling) for you.
It's similar to Bioware giving out Free ME2 DLC, instead they email your a coupon code for $5 if you purchase another ME2.
God forbid a developer wants to sell more copies in an innovative way!
Totally for it, but don't tell me it's to reward your loyal customers, and don't spam my email box.
I can see why people don't want spam. yet I also exist in the real world where I have to compete with everyone else, and EVERYONE seems to be emailing existing customers trying to promote, cross-sell and upsell. Tbh, it doesn't bother me that much. I am surprised I never got an email about Warband from the Mount N Blade guys, for example. I am totally fine with that personally.
However, I did find it weird, that after I bought this chalkboard:
I started getting emails from the chalkboard company about other chalkboard products they have. It's not like this is a regular purchase for ANYONE surely?
You've demonstrated that you have need for at least one chalkboard, which is more than the non-chalkboard-buying rest of the world :)
Well, one way of looking at it is that you can get friends to play the game with you since they don't have to pay as much for it.
Friends?? what's that...
Jokes aside, most of the games don't have multiplayer, and games I really enjoyed I would have already recommended to my friends. That's why a normal discount price for everyone would have been better instead a coupon code. That way I can just tell them the game name, and they can go purchase it themselves.
This board is not representative of the reasonableness of the average consumer. I agree with Reldan--group discounts done in the Steam 4-pack style (you could obviously do this with a 2-pack instead) are the way to go.
It probably is a regular purchase for their usual customers, schools and such.
Thats a cool chalkboard, where did you order it? (not being sarky, I am genuinely interested) :)I can see why people don't want spam. yet I also exist in the real world where I have to compete with everyone else, and EVERYONE seems to be emailing existing customers trying to promote, cross-sell and upsell. Tbh, it doesn't bother me that much. I am surprised I never got an email about Warband from the Mount N Blade guys, for example. I am totally fine with that personally.
However, I did find it weird, that after I bought this chalkboard:
I started getting emails from the chalkboard company about other chalkboard products they have. It's not like this is a regular purchase for ANYONE surely?
All you need is chalkboard paint.
