Name Your Own Price

[xham6690]

Back in the Good Old Days of the internet, there used to be a fantastic website named Half Dot Com.
The premise was selling used books, at half their original purchase price or less.

Eventually, the website introduced a feature that freed users from searching for a good price or a specific title.

All you had to do was Name the title, the condition of the book you were willing to accept, and the price you were willing to pay.

If a seller listed a match, your credit card was automatically charged, and the book was automatically shipped to you. No Ebay style fighting and hovering.

Sadly, evil Ebay purchased Half dot com and immediately eliminated this feature.

My point? Why not a Steam feature that does this?
Yes, you can wishlist.
Yes, it alerts you when a game goes on sale.

But, better: you name what a game would be worth to you, and it autopurchases when that happens..

Even better than that: You name a game you like, with a checkbox: "Only Autopurchase this game after at least 100 persons on the forum state that all the bugs have been patched"

Frees you from constantly having to hope and check.

Metrics useful. Devs can see....WOW, eight thousand people will Autobuy this if we get off our lazy incompetent asses and finally patch the game.

Incentive.

[xham6690]

Steam Purchases

Back in the Good Old Games there used to be a fantastic website named Half Dot Com.
The premise was selling used books, at half their original purchase price or less.

Eventually, the website introduced a feature that freed users from searching for a good price or a specific title.

All you had to do was Name the title, the condition of the book you were willing to accept, and the price you were willing to pay.

If a seller listed a match, your credit card was automatically charged, and the book was automatically shipped to you. No Ebay style fighting and hovering.

Sadly, evil Ebay purchased Half.com and immediately eliminated this feature.

My point? Why not a Steam feature that does this?
Yes, you can wishlist.
Yes, it alerts you when a game goes on sale.

But, better: you name what a game would be worth to you, and it autopurchases when that happens..

Even better than that: You name a game you like, with a checkbox: "Only Autopurchase this game after at least 100 persons on the forum state that all the bugs have been patched"

Frees you from constantly having to hope and check.

Metrics useful. Devs can see....WOW, eight thousand people will Autobuy this if we get off our lazy incompetent asses and finally patch the game.

Incentive.

[Crazy Tiger]

Autopurchasing will cause support headaches when the wrong games get autopurchased because a user thought it worked differently. It will bring quite some "Why did Steam take my money" threads.

Those metrics aren't useful to devs. If forums full of bug reports or tons of refunds don't move them, such a metric as you propose won't achieve much either.

Edit: also, one thread is enough. This one is unnecessary: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/2798375917886351993/

[Kargor]

Originally posted by xham6690:

Frees you from constantly having to hope and check.

No need to check. While they don't do an "auto-purchase", isthereanydeal can monitor a number of game shops (including the Steam store) for price changes, and send you an EMail when a game hits a price that you've specified.

They don't always correctly match the games to their database (or, from a different perspective, you might find a game several times on isthereanydeal, with different shops attached to each because (apparently) they didn't recognize that it's the same game), but for most games it works just fine.

[feytharn]

Originally posted by xham6690:

Back in the Good Old Days of the internet, there used to be a fantastic website named Half Dot Com.
The premise was selling used books, at half their original purchase price or less.

Eventually, the website introduced a feature that freed users from searching for a good price or a specific title.

All you had to do was Name the title, the condition of the book you were willing to accept, and the price you were willing to pay.

If a seller listed a match, your credit card was automatically charged, and the book was automatically shipped to you. No Ebay style fighting and hovering.

Sadly, evil Ebay purchased Half dot com and immediately eliminated this feature.

My point? Why not a Steam feature that does this?
Yes, you can wishlist.
Yes, it alerts you when a game goes on sale.

But, better: you name what a game would be worth to you, and it autopurchases when that happens..

Even better than that: You name a game you like, with a checkbox: "Only Autopurchase this game after at least 100 persons on the forum state that all the bugs have been patched"

Frees you from constantly having to hope and check.

Metrics useful. Devs can see....WOW, eight thousand people will Autobuy this if we get off our lazy incompetent asses and finally patch the game.

Incentive.

Fun fact: The autobuy feature in that form would no longer be legal in Germany and most of the EU (I am unable to do a search for that right now, it was ruled at the same time the made a ruling about not being allowed to offer a product for prepurchase without having a release date)..
edit: even one click purchases withou confirmation are no longer legal im the EU.

[J4MESOX4D]

Steam has prices set by the publisher/developer - you don't get to choose. If you want a better price, there is a site https://isthereanydeal.com/ which monitors live pricing.

As digital games are unlimited in quantity, there is no need to have an auto-purchase option especially when buying is so quick any easy.

People these days would also forget they had such a thing set and then moan that they got charged for something they didn't want at that time and it could also lead to a new type of scam where victims would have buy orders set for things they don't want and it would just lead to endless rectifying.

With no second hand digital PC games either, it's not really needed. If you save your payment details then something can be got for a matter of clicks.

[SpunkyJones]

Auto purchase would be bad, I can see lots of people setting it up and forgetting about it, then freaking out when steam "steals" their money.

[xham6690]

Originally posted by Kargor:

Originally posted by xham6690:

Frees you from constantly having to hope and check.

No need to check. While they don't do an "auto-purchase", isthereanydeal can monitor a number of game shops (including the Steam store) for price changes, and send you an EMail when a game hits a price that you've specified.

They don't always correctly match the games to their database (or, from a different perspective, you might find a game several times on isthereanydeal, with different shops attached to each because (apparently) they didn't recognize that it's the same game), but for most games it works just fine.

Thank you, Kargo. Sadly, I find it difficult to phrase certain queries in such a way that a search engine will reveal the resource I'm searching for. That is why isthereanydeal wasn't on my radar. Thanks!

Isthereanydeal sounds great. Hopefully they rent, sell or give away data to the sellers: "this is what people will pay"

I've always thought all major manufacturing should work that way.
You let people descibe what they want, and what they will pay.
So you only build that many items.
Not thousands of appliances or cars that sit unwanted in warehouses
because you were trying to pressure people instead of asking about their needs.

[xham6690]

Originally posted by SpunkyJones:

Auto purchase would be bad, I can see lots of people setting it up and forgetting about it, then freaking out when steam "steals" their money.

Since this is digital content, the solution is simple.
If you don't want the item autopurchased, you never launch the game and steam issues a refund.

This already works on, for example, Amazon.com.
If I mistakenly click "buy" or "rent" on a movie button (which is easy to do)
an immediate popup allows me to back out of the purchase.

The major benefit here is incentive for sellers, realtime data on what things are actually worth.
Kickstarter is highly imperfect, but the general concept is very good.

[xham6690]

Originally posted by feytharn:

Originally posted by xham6690:

Back in the Good Old Days of the internet, there used to be a fantastic website named Half Dot Com.
The premise was selling used books, at half their original purchase price or less.

Eventually, the website introduced a feature that freed users from searching for a good price or a specific title.

All you had to do was Name the title, the condition of the book you were willing to accept, and the price you were willing to pay.

If a seller listed a match, your credit card was automatically charged, and the book was automatically shipped to you. No Ebay style fighting and hovering.

Sadly, evil Ebay purchased Half dot com and immediately eliminated this feature.

My point? Why not a Steam feature that does this?
Yes, you can wishlist.
Yes, it alerts you when a game goes on sale.

But, better: you name what a game would be worth to you, and it autopurchases when that happens..

Even better than that: You name a game you like, with a checkbox: "Only Autopurchase this game after at least 100 persons on the forum state that all the bugs have been patched"

Frees you from constantly having to hope and check.

Metrics useful. Devs can see....WOW, eight thousand people will Autobuy this if we get off our lazy incompetent asses and finally patch the game.

Incentive.

Fun fact: The autobuy feature in that form would no longer be legal in Germany and most of the EU (I am unable to do a search for that right now, it was ruled at the same time the made a ruling about not being allowed to offer a product for prepurchase without having a release date)..
edit: even one click purchases withou confirmation are no longer legal im the EU.

Thank you for sharing that information. It is good that different nations try out various consumer protection laws.

Sometimes, such laws backfire. Net results have to be considered.
In Germany, the experience of total government control during the nazi era has caused some modern day paranoia.
Anywhere else in the world, you can find a destination using Google maps, with a 360 view of the route.
In Germany, Google was legally banned from recording any maps.
So, you get an insignifigant increase in privacy, and now tourists, delivery trucks, emergency vehicles, etc. have a harder time navigating.

German consumer protection laws allow anyone to return any item they purchase for a full refund, no questions asked. And, as a consequence, more Germans return Amazon items than anywhere else in the world.
The result? Eventually, losing money, vendors will start saying "We don't sell to Germany"

German green laws force cars to be totally recycled. The result is piles of square crushed cars that are taller than skyscrapers. Useless waste.

Almost everything has unintended consequences.
Attempting to prevent all possible harm is futile.

[xham6690]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Steam has prices set by the publisher/developer - you don't get to choose. If you want a better price, there is a site https://isthereanydeal.com/ which monitors live pricing.

As digital games are unlimited in quantity, there is no need to have an auto-purchase option especially when buying is so quick any easy.

People these days would also forget they had such a thing set and then moan that they got charged for something they didn't want at that time and it could also lead to a new type of scam where victims would have buy orders set for things they don't want and it would just lead to endless rectifying.

With no second hand digital PC games either, it's not really needed. If you save your payment details then something can be got for a matter of clicks.

The "need" for an autobuy feature has already been expressed. Not everyone wants to keep checking to see if something is available. They want to decide NOW what to pay, and get that when it is available.

This concept was already PROVEN and PROFITABLE decades ago, on Half dot Com.
It works. No one was scammed or "moaned". It was an option, not mandatory.


You also overlook the INCENTIVE FACTOR. many games don't sell because they have a well deserved reputation of flaws.

Seeing the number of persons lined up to buy and how much money could be made, gives developers a reason to go in and fix game flaws.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by xham6690:

Since this is digital content, the solution is simple.
If you don't want the item autopurchased, you never launch the game and steam issues a refund.

That's not a liable solution I think and I'm afraid it would even torpedo your whole idea. Refund requests cost Steam money, that's why there's a limit on how many requests you can make and why refund requests should also not be done casually.

So if this setup could provide a risk for unwanted / unintended refund requests then I'm pretty sure Steam wouldn't be a big fan of it.

[Karien]

It could be set up so that if said 'exchange' is available, the client informs you about it so you can finalise said payment then or cancel and maybe remove said game from autobuy. Would solve the whole, AND SUDDENLY, money goes poof thing. To be fair, some people do think that way due to community market autobuy already. You wake up to $30 missing, then you remember about the market.

[reg1s7]

We already have that feature on steam community market. It is called buy order.

For steam store, I think the system won't fit. We need to understand the difference of both system. Half dot com is market, which means price is controlled by population, both seller and buyer. Say that you want to buy a certain book title. There are a lot of sellers who sell it. Hence, you can put your own price and with enough time you may find a seller that is willing for that price.
On other hand, Steam store is oligopoly. If you want to buy a game title, there is only one seller that sells that game. As consequence, price is determined fully by only one seller. Thus, there is no purpose on putting our own price.
I hope my explanation is clear enough. My point is, setting our own price only works if there are many sellers for a spesific item.

About autobuy, it will create new problem as explained by #2, #3, #4. I think notification whenever sale happens is the closest thing that we can have regarding autobuy system.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by xham6690:

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Steam has prices set by the publisher/developer - you don't get to choose. If you want a better price, there is a site https://isthereanydeal.com/ which monitors live pricing.

As digital games are unlimited in quantity, there is no need to have an auto-purchase option especially when buying is so quick any easy.

People these days would also forget they had such a thing set and then moan that they got charged for something they didn't want at that time and it could also lead to a new type of scam where victims would have buy orders set for things they don't want and it would just lead to endless rectifying.

With no second hand digital PC games either, it's not really needed. If you save your payment details then something can be got for a matter of clicks.

The "need" for an autobuy feature has already been expressed. Not everyone wants to keep checking to see if something is available. They want to decide NOW what to pay, and get that when it is available.

This concept was already PROVEN and PROFITABLE decades ago, on Half dot Com.
It works. No one was scammed or "moaned". It was an option, not mandatory.


You also overlook the INCENTIVE FACTOR. many games don't sell because they have a well deserved reputation of flaws.

Seeing the number of persons lined up to buy and how much money could be made, gives developers a reason to go in and fix game flaws.

Completely different type of store and products that example. An auto-buy system just shows laziness on the consumers part and a hooking mechanism for the retailers. People would also have to spend time managing their buy choices in case they change their minds and don't want to then be billed for something they didn't want.

If you need something like this and can't seem to fathom how to shop with freedom then that says more about you than the Steam Store missing such a feature. This isn't an auction site or a place to reserve games - you buy what you want, when you want, how you want and at the price listed.

[nullable]

Originally posted by xham6690:

Back in the Good Old Days of the internet, there used to be a fantastic website named Half Dot Com.
The premise was selling used books, at half their original purchase price or less.

Eventually, the website introduced a feature that freed users from searching for a good price or a specific title.

All you had to do was Name the title, the condition of the book you were willing to accept, and the price you were willing to pay.

If a seller listed a match, your credit card was automatically charged, and the book was automatically shipped to you. No Ebay style fighting and hovering.

Sadly, evil Ebay purchased Half dot com and immediately eliminated this feature.

Purchased them 20 years ago and kept the site running for 17 years...

Originally posted by xham6690:

My point? Why not a Steam feature that does this?
Yes, you can wishlist.
Yes, it alerts you when a game goes on sale.

But, better: you name what a game would be worth to you, and it autopurchases when that happens..

Well the reason why is that model carries with it specific hassles Half.com was willing to deal with. Them being willing to deal with that doesn't make it a good solution for any other retail scenario.

And having seen a wide spectrum of user complaints I can imagine people setting something up as you suggesting, "forgetting" about it and being angry their card was charged. Or having their metric almost met, but not quite, and then deciding Steam should have bought the game for them anyway because...

Originally posted by xham6690:

Even better than that: You name a game you like, with a checkbox: "Only Autopurchase this game after at least 100 persons on the forum state that all the bugs have been patched"

Frees you from constantly having to hope and check.

Well that requires some really specific data aggregation. You probably can't scan reviews and forums and determine if people believe the specific issue has been patched because how 100 people are going to comment on a single bug and its resolution is going to vary wildly.

Originally posted by xham6690:

Metrics useful. Devs can see....WOW, eight thousand people will Autobuy this if we get off our lazy incompetent asses and finally patch the game.

Incentive.

You're imagining "useful data" but maybe you're not familiar with the axiom, "Garbage In, Garbage Out".

I understand what you're angling for, I think you're just extremely "optimistic" how viable some of your ideas are when it comes to implementation.

Originally posted by xham6690:

This concept was already PROVEN and PROFITABLE decades ago, on Half dot Com.
It works. No one was scammed or "moaned". It was an option, not mandatory.

And yet they're not around anymore and no one has replicated that model, or least hasn't in a way where you're aware of it to cite a recent example.

I mean you say proven and profitable. eBay kept it going for 17 years. I think they would have a pretty good insight into how valuable it was and whether it was worth carrying on. I mean half.com might have survived, it might have made some money. But again that doesn't make it an ideal model to emulate for other random retailers, regardless of the convenience and benefits you can imagine. It clearly wasn't in danger of consuming traditional retail. It served a niche market. Steam probably doesn't need to serve that niche market on its platform.