I will do as you say and check.
Civilization IV: The Complete Pack on Steam- regular price $39.99, weekend sale price $10.00.
Civilization IV: The Complete Pack on Amazon- regular price $39.99, weekenOH WAIT.
Civilization IV: The Complete Pack in GameStop- regular price $39.99, weekenOH WAIT.
Ok, so Steam has a good price when it has a sale. I didn't dispute that. I said other vendors can have just as good prices. Listing two sites that probably don't typically have the lowest price doesn't change that fact. Usually I refer to ebay because within ebay itself sellers are competitive with each other.
Do you really think that adding "OMG" to a paraphrase substitutes for wit?
Course not. OMG emphasises the excitement felt by many at such low low prices.
I mean, I'm not attempting to be argumentative (anymoreso than "OMG 75% off) but that was very asinine.
Thanks for the flame. I love those.
Generally Steam prices drop before store prices.
I would expect them to.
No, it's not going to dip to "second hand prices" because you're not buying it used from Steam in the first place, so why even mention it?
Because if the Steam version is good enough for you, then the second hand version would be good enough for you. Didn't I explain it already - the manual and box mean little to you so there'd be no problem with getting one with some scruff marks and scratches on the box/manual.
And the original Civ IV is cheaper on Steam than it is from GameStop, and on Amazon it's the same price.
GameStop and Amazon aren't good prices then.
Now if you want to argue what the price "should" be in the first place, we might be in agreement.
Probably
However, as far as Steam goes, it is very competitive compared to the alternatives,
I think I said that as well. That was kinda my point - its prices are competitive and similar to the prices of other sellers when you look hard enough. GameStop and Amazon alone probably isn't enough of a search. I suggest ebay, for a start.
so attempting to "counter" my statement by giving a statement without any actual facts and then adding an exaggeration to my own words is just childish,
Taking such statements so personally could also be viewed as childish. I didn't even quote you speicifically, and intended to generalise the comment across many posters who have spoken of how good Steam's specials are. IIRC the only words I took from you were the numbers 25-75%.
In a forum like this, not every post has to contain facts. We'd all be pretty quiet around here if we weren't allowed to speak from opinion.
and smacks of "internet politics" rather than intelligent debate. And that, my friend, is not "awesome."
What is it you want to debate? That Steam's prices are better than everyone else's? I've already given evidence in other threads of prices of games not sold on Steam that are similar to Steam's. Steam has some good deals but more often than not you can find similar prices elsewhere. My main point is that a percentage discount means very little without adequate context. That is why I gave the department store example that I did. Many businesses operate that way - inflated prices and regular sales. That appears to be the model that Steam favours. Of course, if one is already pretty impressed by Steam, one is more likely to view these regular sales in "act of generosity" light from Valve. Remember that almost every decision made by Valve should in principle be to increase their revenue/profits. When they see a game is having a drop in sales, they chuck it on special. The recent release of Portal for free will generate a lot of positive publicity and attract more customers.
Another thing about sales - they remind me of impulse buying television - the kind of infomercials where they say "Order in the next 10 minutes by credit card and you'll receive this blah blah worth 49.99 absolutely free. What are you waiting for, Pick up the phone now!" Getting regular Steam users into the habit of buying during sales only makes them more predictable. Valve can keep its prices at very average levels most of the time and then "rake it in" every time they have a sale.
Going back to what you said earlier...
That they have ridiculously good deals every week (just last week I got cIV and all its expansions for $10, which was very nice- I hadn't been able to afford the whole thing before) that run 25-75% off of multiple titles?
(emphasis added by me)
Valve have done well to have you advertising for them. It will probably happen to me as well once I start using Steam more.
