Ability to Gift Games for Random Users Wishlists (learn from YouTube)

[Fifty Eight Republic]

I would love if you could buy a game for a random user who has that game on their wishlist.

YouTube has a KILLER feature: On YouTube Live videos, it's popular to gift a *subscription* to the channel.

This is genius for a few reasons:
* The person who got the gift is excited that they get to be a part of the exclusive channel subscription
* The giver of the gift feels excited that they made someone's day
* The channel benefits from an extra subscriber.

I've thought, all of these could apply to games!
If a user wants to support a developer, they could gift games to random people who have that game on their wishlist. If you give the person an opportunity to accept (and maybe send a thank you message).
Another value add is if the developer is made known about the gift giver and can say thank you to them as well
* Developer gets another sale
* Giver feels more a part of the community for the game
* Random person gets a free game, and that's exciting
* There is potential for another review which can build the game's notoriety from the person who got the gift!
* Steam gets the commission!

So... win win win win... win!

[Jaunty]

Sounds creepy...

[Gwarsbane]

Originally posted by Fifty Eight Republic:

I would love if you could buy a game for a random user who has that game on their wishlist.

YouTube has a KILLER feature: On YouTube Live videos, it's popular to gift a *subscription* to the channel.

This is genius for a few reasons:
* The person who got the gift is excited that they get to be a part of the exclusive channel subscription
* The giver of the gift feels excited that they made someone's day
* The channel benefits from an extra subscriber.

I've thought, all of these could apply to games!
If a user wants to support a developer, they could gift games to random people who have that game on their wishlist. If you give the person an opportunity to accept (and maybe send a thank you message).
Another value add is if the developer is made known about the gift giver and can say thank you to them as well
* Developer gets another sale
* Giver feels more a part of the community for the game
* Random person gets a free game, and that's exciting
* There is potential for another review which can build the game's notoriety from the person who got the gift!
* Steam gets the commission!

So... win win win win... win!

Or you could just buy the game for someone on your friends list, no need to setup something like this.

If Valve were to ever do this (and I hope they don't) it needs to be anonymous because I have no doubt it will end up with people who randomly get the gift adding the person to their friends list and start begging for more free games.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Valve stopped allowing users to gift games to random people, even ones without Steam accounts years ago (2017) due to the many people both entering in the wrong email addresses and using their accounts for commercial use.

It is now required to have a Steam account and be friends with said account.

Do not expect this to be a thing again.

[[N]ebsun]

Originally posted by Fifty Eight Republic:

I would love if you could buy a game for a random user who has that game on their wishlist

Only if you can't see the game that you are buying, or the exact price.
Some people have private wishlists - this seems like something that would leak that info

[Gin]

It's not the worst idea to be honest and I could even see me using it for giving away 100% Orange Juice copies as that game suffers from a lack of players

[Fifty Eight Republic]

Valid points all!

I think that there's a lot of potential, here. There are several developers that I want to support, and I would buy 5 copies just because I think the developer would benefit. The money is one benefit, but the exposure to more fans is an even deeper benefit.

So, some controls to protect the issues y'all have brought up:
* restricting to those who are steam users, maybe even to those that have purchase histories
* game distribution is random
* Perhaps anonymous giving would lead to the least amount of problems. You can still say thank you to your anonymous donor perhaps


My thoughts on a couple concerns:
* Why not gift to your friends? - people who wishlist a game have already expressed interest. My friends would not be interested. I'd rather not give a game that has no chance of being played.
* valid point on the privacy concerns. I'd say make it so private wishlist owners can opt in if they choose while still not showing random users their wishlist.

So far the concerns seem manageable. Any others?

[Mad Scientist]

It's best they stick to the ability to buy for friends that have an interest in showing their list and receiving a game. This already cuts down on mistakes & waste, let alone anything involved where ultimately it may be refunded but they lose in transaction fees.

Sometimes the most simple solution is the best.

[Vinz Clortho]

Wait, so somebody else can subscribe you to a social media channel without your consent, and that's a gift?

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Han Solo:

Wait, so somebody else can subscribe you to a social media channel without your consent, and that's a gift?

On YouTube, you have to be watching, and when people are gifting a subscription it'll ask you if you want to opt-in. By default, it is opt-out.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Buy keys from legitimate key sites.

Problem solved.