What? Not liking a product is a perfectly valid reason for a refund. It's too difficult to judge what a game will actually be like without playing it.Imagine thinking the criteria for a refund should include "Idunlikdisgaem!" or "Disgaemwenonsaylel8r".Imagine complaining because Steam had to implement a refund feature to comply to most people's legal right to give back (possibly faulty) product.
Far better we baby every customer and teach them to never look for better deals. I mean, what?
- Explain the problem. For example, you might say the product doesn’t work, you were billed incorrectly, something wasn’t disclosed clearly, or a product’s features were misrepresented.
Bought the following:
Deprecated and replaced with the improved model of DLC hell.It's a good thing the whole "episodic gaming" idea died off.
The US FTC even gives "misrepresentation" and "something wasn't disclosed clearly" as a reason to refund a product.
The US FTC even gives "misrepresentation" and "something wasn't disclosed clearly" as a reason to refund a product.
False advertisement =/= I don't like this game.
The US FTC even gives "misrepresentation" and "something wasn't disclosed clearly" as a reason to refund a product.
False advertisement =/= I don't like this game.
How so?
The average popular title on Steam has a trailer made by a third party studio using assets that never appear in the game rendered using software that isn't the game engine let alone showing what the game is even capable of.
If I am purchasing a book, I can pick it up and read a few pages to see if I like it. Movie trailers very rarely show content not from the movie at all and made by a separate studio.
Video games don't offer demos because the common wisdom is that it reduces sales. That is inherently anti-consumer behavior intended to misrepresent the product.
Not liking the game because you were misled seems entirely relevant to the issue at hand here. Video games, on average, do an absolutely horrible job at representing what you will actually get when purchasing the product.The US FTC even gives "misrepresentation" and "something wasn't disclosed clearly" as a reason to refund a product.
False advertisement =/= I don't like this game.
How so?
The average popular title on Steam has a trailer made by a third party studio using assets that never appear in the game rendered using software that isn't the game engine let alone showing what the game is even capable of.
If I am purchasing a book, I can pick it up and read a few pages to see if I like it. Movie trailers very rarely show content not from the movie at all and made by a separate studio.
Video games don't offer demos because the common wisdom is that it reduces sales. That is inherently anti-consumer behavior intended to misrepresent the product.
Are you trying to prove his point, rusty? Those are pretty blatant examples of material misrepresentation / false advertising. The fact that the end user may not like the game is extraneous to the fact that they were misled into purchasing the product in the first place.
Not liking the game because you were misled seems entirely relevant to the issue at hand here. Video games, on average, do an absolutely horrible job at representing what you will actually get when purchasing the product.The US FTC even gives "misrepresentation" and "something wasn't disclosed clearly" as a reason to refund a product.
False advertisement =/= I don't like this game.
How so?
The average popular title on Steam has a trailer made by a third party studio using assets that never appear in the game rendered using software that isn't the game engine let alone showing what the game is even capable of.
If I am purchasing a book, I can pick it up and read a few pages to see if I like it. Movie trailers very rarely show content not from the movie at all and made by a separate studio.
Video games don't offer demos because the common wisdom is that it reduces sales. That is inherently anti-consumer behavior intended to misrepresent the product.
Are you trying to prove his point, rusty? Those are pretty blatant examples of material misrepresentation / false advertising. The fact that the end user may not like the game is extraneous to the fact that they were misled into purchasing the product in the first place.
It's a good thing valve's refund policy isn't a court of law but meant to be a pro-consumer tool to help against deceptive practices in the video game industry.Not liking the game because you were misled seems entirely relevant to the issue at hand here. Video games, on average, do an absolutely horrible job at representing what you will actually get when purchasing the product.The US FTC even gives "misrepresentation" and "something wasn't disclosed clearly" as a reason to refund a product.
False advertisement =/= I don't like this game.
How so?
The average popular title on Steam has a trailer made by a third party studio using assets that never appear in the game rendered using software that isn't the game engine let alone showing what the game is even capable of.
If I am purchasing a book, I can pick it up and read a few pages to see if I like it. Movie trailers very rarely show content not from the movie at all and made by a separate studio.
Video games don't offer demos because the common wisdom is that it reduces sales. That is inherently anti-consumer behavior intended to misrepresent the product.
Are you trying to prove his point, rusty? Those are pretty blatant examples of material misrepresentation / false advertising. The fact that the end user may not like the game is extraneous to the fact that they were misled into purchasing the product in the first place.
Not liking something would never stand up if you had a legal dispute about whether or not a company was obliged to provide a refund per a country's business law. A material misrepresentation absolutely would. Whether a retailer offers refunds within a period for "not liking something" in order to avoid more major headaches and disputes is irrelevant to that core issue.
I was actually thinking something similar: you may be a reasonably competent programmer of some sort, but you'd be a godawful attorney, especially if you don't see how these issues are related.It's a good thing valve's refund policy isn't a court of law but meant to be a pro-consumer tool to help against deceptive practices in the video game industry.
I'm sure corporations in the largest entertainment industry in the world enjoy you protecting them though.
And yet, I can refund them.I was actually thinking something similar: you may be a reasonably competent programmer of some sort, but you'd be a godawful attorney, especially if you don't see how these issues are related.It's a good thing valve's refund policy isn't a court of law but meant to be a pro-consumer tool to help against deceptive practices in the video game industry.
I'm sure corporations in the largest entertainment industry in the world enjoy you protecting them though.
I think one of the people who controls Rusty's account is a lawyer, based on some previous comments. Another is a developer. The third is a NEET who has some reasonably good opinions on RPGs from time to time.I was actually thinking something similar: you may be a reasonably competent programmer of some sort, but you'd be a godawful attorney, especially if you don't see how these issues are related.It's a good thing valve's refund policy isn't a court of law but meant to be a pro-consumer tool to help against deceptive practices in the video game industry.
I'm sure corporations in the largest entertainment industry in the world enjoy you protecting them though.
And inhabit the same body, Sybil style.I think one of the people who controls Rusty's account is a lawyer, based on some previous comments. Another is a developer. The third is a NEET who has some reasonably good opinions on RPGs from time to time.I was actually thinking something similar: you may be a reasonably competent programmer of some sort, but you'd be a godawful attorney, especially if you don't see how these issues are related.It's a good thing valve's refund policy isn't a court of law but meant to be a pro-consumer tool to help against deceptive practices in the video game industry.
I'm sure corporations in the largest entertainment industry in the world enjoy you protecting them though.
And they're all feds.
The real reason sales have gotten worse have nothing to do with any of these theories in my opinion.
The development rate of videogames has become insanely slow. This can't be attributed to them making more technically complex games as we're effectively past the era of regular mega-AAA blockbusters, something only a handful of studios do now. This can't be attributed to the coofdemic either, as it was something that started before that and was only exacerbated by it.
It explains why you see games released 10 years ago on sale for $30 when you used to see old games for only a couple dollars. They're no longer used to pull you into a series to get you to buy the newest titles.
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The question is why, though?The real reason sales have gotten worse have nothing to do with any of these theories in my opinion.
The development rate of videogames has become insanely slow. This can't be attributed to them making more technically complex games as we're effectively past the era of regular mega-AAA blockbusters, something only a handful of studios do now. This can't be attributed to the coofdemic either, as it was something that started before that and was only exacerbated by it.
It explains why you see games released 10 years ago on sale for $30 when you used to see old games for only a couple dollars. They're no longer used to pull you into a series to get you to buy the newest titles.
To put it into perspective: Dragon Age: Dreadwolf currently has no release date. Dragon Age Inquisition is nearing a decade old, the time gap between DAO and DAI is nearly double the current timegap of DAI to ...nothing. This is the studio that was previously pumping out two major franchises simultaneously.
And it's most definitely not limited to Bioware, it's across the entire industry. It's taking developers 4-5 years to make games they used to make in 2.
Batman Arkham Asylum? 2009. Arkham City? 2011. Arkham Knight? 2015. 5 years later they announced the Suicide Squad game they're still working on with a planned release date in 2023. Rocksteady has released 0 titles since 2015 except some crappy VR shovelware game in 2016.
Firaxis: Civ 5, 2010 with a stupid amount of DLC. Nu-Xcom, 2012 with major expansion in 2013. Civ: Beyond Earth, 2014. Nu-Xcom 2 in 2016 with a major expansion in 2017. Civ 6, 2016, more stupid amounts of DLC. ... Nu-XCOM Chimera Squad, 2020. ... Marvel's Midnight Suns, later this year.
Harebrained Schemes: Shadowrun Returns, 2013. Dragonfall, 2014. Hong Kong, 2015. Battletech, 2018. Nothing since besides a recent poor console port of the Shadowrun games.
Bethesda: LOL
Techland: Call of Juarez Bound in Blood, 2009. Jaurez: The Cartel, 2011. Dead Island, 2011. Dead Island: Riptide, 2013. Juarez: Gunslinger, 2013. Dying Light, 2015 with an expansion in 2016. ....... Dying Light 2, 2022.
Are there some exceptions? Sure, but they're definitely in the minority, and I have a feeling a lot of them will end up being Japanese.
Gamedevs are relying heavily on profits from older games now, that's why you aren't getting your sales anymore. Also, remasters for everything!
They got rid of flash sales and stuff like that (and they've said it outright) because it was deeply unfair to all the other devs who didn't win the lottery, not to gamers. Getting onto the Steam front page just for four hours when every gamer in the world knows something is up there was like winning millions in a huge national lottery for the hundred or so winners. And all the other thousands sucked dick in comparison. So, as a customer, sure, they were awesome, a selection of random shit I might've never bought otherwise and I was watching them every day. From the dev perspective though, the current system is better because lotteries create very unhealthy environments.Like mediocrepoet was saying, be sure to thank all the losers complaining how deeply "unfair" it was that they couldn't be present for every sale, because remember, far better that no one gets to have nice things than some people get to have nice things.
nightmare reaper is fun as fuckI see nothing fun about FOMO sales tbh. Waking up at 3am to save an extra $5, frankly it's not worth it.
Anyway, my haul this year. I completely passed on last year's winter sale so I don't feel bad buying a lot of stuff this event
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