Support NeoGAF

[Aselith]

Nope. The winter weapons (spy-cycle, holiday punch and wrap assassin) were crate-only for the first week. Not only that, but all three, plus the other five weapons introduced during the same patch are only craftable via random craft which is basically playing the lotto.

Anyone who plays spy will tell you that the spy-cicle is a damn good weapon. The other two are more novelties, but that's beside the point. It's the principle of the matter. Anything that affects gameplay should be easy to obtain. You'd think they would have learned that after the fallout of the polycount hats, but apparently not.

An ENTIRE WEEK!

 

[Yeef]

An ENTIRE WEEK!

I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but I'll respond anyway.

ANY amount of time that items affecting gameplay are only obtainable via micro-transactions is terrible. Whether it be 5 hours, 1 week or 2 months. It's shitty game design, pure and simple.

 

[AlimNassor]

they're swimming in money and have no publisher breathing down their backs demanding them to charge fees or release a game in a certain time period.

 

[DrForester]

1. Never Make Sequel To Half Life 2
2. ???
3. Profit

 

[Super_Chicken]

The first reply made me actually laugh out loud for 5 minutes.

Customer service means more than the cost of a game in todays market. Look at what happened with the Penny Arcade situation. If you show appreciation for the customer even in the slightest way it goes a long way.

I just bought two new amps for my car from a US company to ship in the US (I live in Canada). The payment screwed up due to billing issues. When I called in to fix it the person on the line was so concerned with getting it rectified that he was able to take $ off the different items and save me an extra $60 on a $1000 order. But to me it shows that as a company they care and want my business. I've already ordered from there twice now, and recommended a friend, but if anyone asks about car audio the first thing I tell them is buy from that site.

edit: I'm sure the hats are the real reason behind it thought...

 

[FireFly]

I haven't read all the replies in this thread, but isn't there a very obvious benefit for Valve to the great gift pile system? It encourages players to buy titles in order to unlock the achievements in the first place, and the games selected are usually more obscure indie titles that have a low entry point, and are less likely to be owned already.

It's like the stamp card system: go to a coffee shop 10 times and get a free (!) coffee. Humans are much more attracted by the prospect of receiving a free gift, than receiving the equivalent monetary value in discounts. Hence they're prepared to put in a disproportionate amount of effort/money.

And the 'Steam' achievements are all about increasing the value of the platform by encouraging the utilization of new features. For example, I didn't know about the new trading system before this sale.

In any case they're not even promising a free gift. They're promising the opportunity of winning a free gift. All it takes is a few people to win for the word of mouth to be strong enough for others to participate.

 

[ScrabbleDude]

Companies that operate on a belief of abundance do very well. Those that operate on scarcity do not.

Abundance - "There's enough for me to be successful and more besides."
Scarcity - "There's only so much business to go around, gotta get my piece."

 

[Dennis]

Gabe: " You pay me me money"

 

[Zomba13]

I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but I'll respond anyway.

ANY amount of time that items affecting gameplay are only obtainable via micro-transactions is terrible. Whether it be 5 hours, 1 week or 2 months. It's shitty game design, pure and simple.

I kinda agree, especially as they were community made items which meant (I'm assuming, unless they all got a cut of key sales) that they missed out on earning money for a week.

 

[Woo-Fu]

When you talk about Valve as a business you're really talking about two different businesses that work closely together.

There is the Valve that makes a good game every 3-5 years. This company has a track record of good to great games, a track record where you don't have to wonder if you're going to get shafted as a customer. The games are good, get great support, and are always multiplayer and/or the foundation for a multiplayer mod community. Those three things are the best anti-piracy measures there are.

Then there is the Valve that built, maintains, and expands Steam, the premier digital distribution platform for PC games. Steam was a clunky piece of shit when it came out, but unlike every previous attempt at DD Valve kept improving it, making it run better, making it more convenient, adding features, etc. Contrast it with Origin, which will probably remain in beta forever only to get scrapped in a few years when EA corporate decides it "isn't working out", not realizing it isn't working out because they're not supporting/enhancing it enough for it to be a valid competitor.

There seems to be a good synergy between the two endeavors. Steam gives Valve a huge and varied "focus group" to test out new approaches with. They can throw something up against the wall and see if it sticks before putting major effort into it. Steam on the other hand benefits from Valve's track record with gamers which gets them to install it and leave it running even before they want a game they can only get from Steam.

 

[Tylahedras]

I love that hats are on both axes.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

valve's business model--

--make a consumer friendly DD service
--give away stuff for free or heavily discounted to ensure customer loyalty into the distant future
--consumer loyalty gets consumers to tell other consumers to use steam and gets great press
--Release a good game every once in a while to drive even more people to your service
--use all kinds of positive reinforcement tricks to keep people with your service, attract developers to your service, and attract new customers


please don't frame it as "oh, they just love us so much that they don't care about profits!" that's probably part of it

Another thing is that they have enough money to actually do things like this.