I remember they had lot of press (or at least Linux press) releasing their Linux version. I think they are quite good in marketing or being very lucky (Now you HN people know what luck means :) ).
World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
51–60 of 65 posts
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#52There is a huge difference between giving away a year-old product and giving away a brand new, never-been-sold-before one. Let me explain. Radiohead took a -huge- risk by releasing an album, out the door, right at the start, with a "pay what you want" pricing model. 2dboy is taking -no- risk by releasing World of Goo with a "pay what you want" pricing model. They are already on the tail end of the demand curve at the…
And this promotion is only for a week. It's quite different.
The stupid thing is that this has nothing to do with the promotion. Bad title.
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree that the title of this is completely wrong. Still this is excellent marketing. Imagine if more companies would give away their older products like this. It would be received very well from the gamers. *I do NOT mean DRM-infested things like Steam.
Steam is the most reasonable DRM I've seen. I don't mind it at all.
I agree. About 10 years ago, someone gifted me a complete Half-life:Generation collection - with Counter-strike, Opposing Force, etc. I've recently found a Blue Shift CD from this collection and although it did not work, there was a serial on it, which I used to download the complete series from Steam.
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hm. I can't go along with the general love-fest over World of Goo. I bought World of Goo for $20 in large part because of the hullabaloo around it, and completed it in an evening. It was basically a bridge-builder derivative, where it's fun to overcome all the challenges, but once overcome, the desire to improve on them with economizing / scoring is a lot less. I got about 6 hours at most play time out of it. If I va…
The desire that's built in is the online tower building. But I don't do it for that. I do it for the thrill of seeing how efficiently I can make my pieces. The graphics are beautiful. The soundtrack is incredible. The humor is perfectly executed. The feel of the controls I hope to one day equal. The physics engine's to die for. I don't know you, barrkel, so hopefully you don't take it personally when I say: You'd val…
I played the game when it first came out too; and I agree with Barrkel somewhat.
I think calling it a masterpiece of a puzzle game is a bit too much; it was hard in places, true, and amusing to play - but not actually particularly challenging (that's a good thing).
I wouldn't value it at $2 - maybe 4 or 5.
Lets compare some FPS games though (a difficult comparison really). Firstly L4D; you should give it a shot because it is hard to fault the execution of the game. On hardest difficulty and with some good mates you can literally spend a couple of hours fighting through one level :D
HL2? Worth it for the beautiful set pieces (even if it is very linear).
Assassins Creed was also a fun game and quite comparable to WoG. It's essentially a puzzle game at it's core; and the obsession I personally had to perfect each "kill" was easily worth the $40 I paid for it.
Ultimately though we have to compare COD4. The single player is exquisite and is approximately 6 hours of game play. They weighting of the game is excellent and the "levels" are varied. And to top it off the story is excellent. Easily worth the money I paid for it.
Im not saying WoG is valueless but I get the impression your setting a lot of stock by the fact these are indie game developers; meaning the risk was much higher and they did it for the love of the game etc. Which is fair enough; but lets compare WoG to the other free "indie" games you see kicking around the internet. Compared to them it is a wonderful masterpiece and achievement. But a value of $20? COD4 at $40 sounds like a bargain by comparison :)
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#55I was curious whether 1 cent would work. It did.
IIRC, PayPal takes a commission on the transaction, around 30 cents if I am not mistaken. I think this means that the developers actually lost money in your case. Correct me if I'm wrong!
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#56Quick question -- if I donate a few £ to the guy, can I link it with my Steam account?
I'm kinda losing patience for games I can't manage through steam. Am guessing that Steam won't take licence keys for copies not bought through their services though, which I think is a missed opportunity to get more people using Steam.
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#57I don't understand this. As a consumer buying a video game, I'm trying to maximize my entertainment per dollar. Why would I ever pay more than the minimum amount? Maybe the HN crowd will pay a little more out of a sense of camaraderie, but I don't understand why a typical gamer would.
To encourage the developers to make more games that you like. Because your inbuilt sense of fairness makes you want to reward them for something whose value to you is more than the minimum amount. Because some bit of your brain always acts as if other people might be watching, and you don't want to appear mean. Because playing the game, or reading the 2dboy blog, or something, has made you feel like you have some sort of personal connection with the developers, and you want them to do well. Because you want to trade off giving them more with keeping more for yourself, and at very low prices too little of what you pay goes to them rather than Paypal.
(For example.)
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#58Quick question -- if I donate a few £ to the guy, can I link it with my Steam account? I'm kinda losing patience for games I can't manage through steam. Am guessing that Steam won't take licence keys for copies not bought through their services though, which I think is a missed opportunity to get more people using Steam.
No, you can't link it to your Steam account. Valve maintains a list of games you can register to your account from a CD key here:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-WUS...
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the idea you're raging against is that there is no 6 hour experience worth $20, I'm totally behind you. But you take it a step further and accuse barrkel of being a "tasteless slob" for not valuing World of Goo more than $2, and that's just ridiculous. It's precisely as ridiculous as if I called you a "tasteless slob" for what you were saying about all non-Orange-Box FPSes, 'cause there are a bunch of real gems ou…
I made a point to tell barrkel that I hadn't met him and that I wasn't intending my remarks personally. I don't feel comfortable judging somebody by what they write online. The friends I'm most in touch with from my hometown are gamers. By some standards I'm a gamer, though I'd disagree with the classification. So obviously I don't mean "everybody that plays games" when I refer to the "gaming community". That said: I…
"It's not every gamer, it's a specific sort of gamer, but it's a prevalent sort of gamer. The kind that argues that Bioshock is as valuable a contribution to society as the works of Joyce or the movies of Hitchcock."
Oh, I know you! http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=304895
You're still wrong about Bioshock, though I've changed my tune about Portal since that thread. Still, thanks for painting me (and I suspect barrkel) with a broad and inaccurate brush stroke.
The funny thing is, we probably agree on more than we disagree. I think the drive for longer games is ridiculous. I roll my eyes when people are upset at the idea of paying $20 for a 6 hour game on the principle that the game should be longer. Also, I got a college degree basically studying the aesthetics of games and have worked in the industry since then, so you could say that making good, interesting, beautiful games is important to me in that I've put my money (and life) where my mouth is.
I probably think a game you like is crap, and I know I like a game you think is crap, but the big difference is, I don't think that makes you "obnoxious and tasteless," I just think it means we have different tastes, or at worst, I think you're wrong.
Re: World of Goo does a Radiohead. Pay whatever you like.
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, two dollars, when compared with the value I get out of a decent FPS. The key word in that sentence is "decent", and I don't think it's the word you wanted. Games like Far Cry, TF2, etc., are outliers, they're not "a decent FPS". I doubt you'd be willing to pay full price for a "decent" FPS, if you value World of Goo at $2. It's interesting how skewed the perception of value can become due to AAA titles with huge…
No, I think "decent" is the word I wanted, and of course it is a subjective opinion. For comparison, a game that is not particularly AAA (certainly not by today's standards) would be something like Civ 2; this is another decent game that has huge replay value. If WoG had replay value similar to it, then I would have really gotten my money's worth, from my perspective. But then you go on to make a rather odd argument,…
Civ II isn't AAA? Sid Meier is one of the biggest names in gaming.
Look, you're taking games that belong on any Top 100 of All Time list, and calling them "decent". What is an exceptional game, then?
And the experiences I've gotten out of games like Far Cry, Thief, Civ 2, etc., have been infinitely more memorable than the gameplay I've had from WoG.
I can accept that perfectly well. Of course it's not everyone's cup of tea. It's when we start trying to define "value" that things get a bit hairy.