Free Copies of "Blackwell Deception" Oct. 30 - Nov. 1

[JSoup]

You must have missed the rest of that sentence since you didn't include it.

You must have missed my point because you felt the need to comment around it.
It's not about a product being physical or digital, who's winning or losing, the point or lack there of.
It's about the word free and what it does to people.

[Nz17]

Mystery solved: people were abusing the giveaway to get the Steam codes included with every copy alongside the DRM-free download option. In other words, they were doing it to sell the redeemable Steam codes after the free giveaway was over to try and profit from the generosity of the game's creator.

Here's is the official word from Dave Gilbert, the game's developer:

Hi! Yes, apologies for this. Google Alert, er, alerted me to websites that were advertising the fact that people could nab the game from this website several times and collect several Steam keys to sell to others later. This was not an exploit I knew about, so I didn't plan for it (perhaps limiting it to 1 key per IP). I obviously had to do something about it. The only thing I could do was remove the keys entirely. So... sorry about that.

From the sounds of it, not only was the coupon code expired early, but the unredeemed Steam codes were expired too. All well, it was nice while it lasted. Besides, at $10 for the regular price, it's still worth paying for a great adventure game, right?

[Gameguy]

You must have missed my point because you felt the need to comment around it.
It's not about a product being physical or digital, who's winning or losing, the point or lack there of.
It's about the word free and what it does to people.

In case you weren't understanding what I was talking about, I was questioning why they cut short a planned promotional giveaway that costs them nothing. I wasn't questioning why people are more interested in getting something for free rather than having to pay money for it, I understood your point just fine. I'm pretty sure everyone understands your point as it's pretty simple, though it had nothing to do with what was asked.

A new Blackwell game is also supposed to be released later this year, supposedly this fall. This giveaway would have been a good promotion for that, too bad they cancelled it. This isn't a series that most people are familiar with.

Mystery solved: people were abusing the giveaway to get the Steam codes included with every copy alongside the DRM-free download option. In other words, they were doing it to sell the redeemable Steam codes after the free giveaway was over to try and profit from the generosity of the game's creator.

Here's is the official word from Dave Gilbert, the game's developer:



From the sounds of it, not only was the coupon code expired early, but the unredeemed Steam codes were expired too. All well, it was nice while it lasted. Besides, at $10 for the regular price, it's still worth paying for a great adventure game, right?

Thanks for explaining what happened, I didn't know the games were even available on Steam. I'm still a bit confused why people would rather pay some money for a Steam version from an unaffiliated 3rd party source than download a DRM free version for free from one of many file sharing/torrent sites. At least it's a better explanation than "people like free stuff".

[Ed Oscuro]

Dang, I was hoping for the game only. Scum and wretches! Thanks for the heads-up all the same.

[Kitsune Sniper]

The entire series will go on sale during Steam's Thanksgiving and Christmas sales, you can probably pick up the entire series so far for five bucks. It's well worth it. The last game in the series is coming soon and so is an updated version of The Shivah, his very first game.

Edit:

Thanks for explaining what happened, I didn't know the games were even available on Steam. I'm still a bit confused why people would rather pay some money for a Steam version from an unaffiliated 3rd party source than download a DRM free version for free from one of many file sharing/torrent sites. At least it's a better explanation than "people like free stuff".

To pad out their game count. Or because at least that way they can be sure they're not getting a virus.

[Ed Oscuro]

I haven't gotten a virus from file sharing in a very, very long time.

$5 is too good a price to give an excuse not to buy what's been a universally acclaimed series, though, so I will probably go ahead and do that. Always like to support developers. I don't feel any ill will towards them based on this little incident.

[Gameguy]

The entire series will go on sale during Steam's Thanksgiving and Christmas sales, you can probably pick up the entire series so far for five bucks.

This is the stuff that just confuses me, if people were taking advantage of the free downloads of a single game just to resell it, what were they hoping to sell it for? 50 cents? This is what I have trouble understanding, to actually sell these would take time too as I would assume it would have to be individually on forums rather than automatically through auction listings. It's like a waste of time to do this, if you're really talking about high numbers.

I'm not really that bothered by the giveaway being cancelled. I'm more bothered by the lack of physical copies being sold. At one point they were selling physical copies of their games, they were about $10 more than the digital only versions. I think they stopped doing it because they weren't making enough money that way so I can't really blame them for it, it's still a bit disappointing though.

[JSoup]

This is the stuff that just confuses me, if people were taking advantage of the free downloads of a single game just to resell it, what were they hoping to sell it for? 50 cents? This is what I have trouble understanding, to actually sell these would take time too as I would assume it would have to be individually on forums rather than automatically through auction listings. It's like a waste of time to do this, if you're really talking about high numbers.

Many people will be putting them up on gifting sites to build up cred. SteamGifts has been dealing with this all day, removing stolen copies and such. Other will trade the codes into GreenManGaming and other sites that function similar for credit to other things. Still others will trade them to Steam enthusiasts for TF2 items, coupons and cards.

[Buyatari]

Mystery solved: people were abusing the giveaway to get the Steam codes included with every copy alongside the DRM-free download option. In other words, they were doing it to sell the redeemable Steam codes after the free giveaway was over to try and profit from the generosity of the game's creator.

Here's is the official word from Dave Gilbert, the game's developer:



From the sounds of it, not only was the coupon code expired early, but the unredeemed Steam codes were expired too. All well, it was nice while it lasted. Besides, at $10 for the regular price, it's still worth paying for a great adventure game, right?

Who cares if the free code is sold? This is like a sports figure who stops signing autographs for free because people are selling them.

The best way to fight this is with an abundance of free copies because THAT will devalue the code.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Who cares if the free code is sold? This is like a sports figure who stops signing autographs for free because people are selling them.

The best way to fight this is with an abundance of free copies because THAT will devalue the code.

I fail to see your reasoning here. This isn't a guy that does say, 50 autographs per convention or whatever. He lost 30,000 potential new customers to people who had no interest in trying out his games - and who only wanted to make money off his promotional stunt. 30,000 copies of a game is still a lot of lost money for him, especially considering he's not one of the big indie blockbuster companies. He has a following, myself included, but he's not an indie superstar. These copies that were meant to be free could be used to undercut later sales - sales he depends on to maintain his family. How would giving away MORE COPIES hurt the resellers?

Voiding the codes was the right thing to do.

You could at one point when the site was still new. Haven't used the site in a long while, I see that you're correct, you can no longer trade in codes.

I wouldn't know about that. You can trade in specific games that you've bought from them for credit, and they have discount codes, but that's about the only thing you can do now.

[Gameguy]

He lost 30,000 potential new customers to people who had no interest in trying out his games

How exactly did he lose out on that many sales? Were the downloads somehow limited? If there were no limits, his other customers would have still been able to play the game anyway. If someone downloads 30,000 copies by themselves, it would be just a hoarder. It's like someone wanting multiple copies of a photo, so this person insists on being sent multiple emails with the photo attached.

You previously said the entire series would probably go on sale for $5 with Steam, that would undercut the value of his games more than anything else.

I remember years ago getting free codes to some Sam and Max episode because I bought some stuff from their store. In the end I gave them away because they had no value, nobody was willing to trade anything for them. Maybe it's like JSoup said and people just want to "build up cred", though that's basically still worthless unless you count TF2 items as having real value. If they were still given away to build up cred, more people would have learned about the game anyway and it would have been for free all the same. Heck, it might have even helped for people who didn't just stumble upon the developer's own website by chance, who really would have found out about the giveaway except those already familiar with the games and the developer?

[Buyatari]

How would giving away MORE COPIES hurt the resellers?

Giving away more copies hurts a reseller because it is hard to sell something that anyone can get for free.

Anyway this game is a part in a series correct?

Wasn't the whole point of offering this game for FREE to make this game available to MORE people? Mission accomplished.

[Bojay1997]

Who cares if the free code is sold? This is like a sports figure who stops signing autographs for free because people are selling them.

The best way to fight this is with an abundance of free copies because THAT will devalue the code.

I'm pretty sure Steam still charges something for developers to give away "free" steam codes. It might be less than their regular revenue split, but it sure isn't free.