the stigma around bundle games...

Gift> key because you can't be sure that a key is real but a gift yes

by the way a bundle game is still a great game :P

I think giving away bundle games is especially nice considering that you won't get cv from it. And the people who enter and win these giveaways don't have the game yet so it really doesn't matter to them if the game has been in a bundle before or not.

Reasons why I think they have that stigma:

-They probably only paid $1 or whatever bta was. It is still charitable but some people like putting others down because they are being less charitable. idk

-There IS still demand for these games, but it is significantly lowered

-Tradable copies are much MUCH safer to exchange than keys and most people will not trade a gift copy for a key because of the high possibility of scams.

-Massive flood of the same games on SG. Especially annoying to those without SG+ that can't filter them.

-Increase of people that haven't read the FAQ wondering why their CV didn't go up.

-The rules on many of those bundle sites even say that the individual keys aren't supposed to be shared.

When the "contributor value" feature was implemented, it created a lot of bundle game snobs. People buy bundles for the minimum possible price just to get contributor value, which ends up hurting the whole idea of the bundle and paying your own price. Sure, some people pay more than the minimum when they give away the bundle games, but I would hedge a bet that its less that 1%. I really dislike the contributor value thing... its so ripe to be exploited, and turns the focus of this site towards how much money you spend, instead of people giving out of the good of their hearts. Getting rid of the contributor value would remove a lot of snobbery and elitism from this site. But alas...

If anything, the bundle rules which prevent easy exploitation have actually made bundle gifting more acceptable, since in general people gain nothing by giving away bundle games (well, not after the first few, anyway).

I don't think most people look down on bundle gifts/gifters at all (except in cases where said gifter is behaving in an entitled or greedy manner). Everyone has different resources and different priorities. Anyone giving away a game is contributing to the site's continuing success, and should be appauded. Most reasonable people recognise that. There are many great bundle games that should be "must haves" for any self-respecting PC gamer. Just because they have been released in a bundle doesn't diminish the enjoyment the winner will get from playing them.

The only bundle giveaway makers people tend to dislike are those who stamp their feet and gripe about how unfair it is that the bundle they purchased for $1 didn't net them $200 of contributor value, and these are exactly the sort of entitled ballbags seeking to exploit the system that the bundle ruling was brought in to counteract in the first place...

I think most of the stigma still originates from when Humble first started and they used to be available (with Steam keys) at $0.01. You never knew if someone was a complete cheapass (and by most standards, disrespectful to the developers) when gifting a bundle game. Unless they tried to gift 50 copies or something -- then... you can usually assume. But SG nipped that in the bud right quick by disallowing bundle games. Then lots of other stuff happened, and bundles are popular now and so yes, I agree. The stigma is probably mostly unwarranted.

I always look at games that were bundled as better than comparable games that weren't. Why should I buy a game from a developer that wants to pinch pennies versus a developer that gives to charity and their fans?

The reason why keys are looked down on is because there's no real way to tell if they're legitimate until you redeem them. If you get some people you trust keys are fine though.

I imagine some people feel self-importance for giving away games of "value" (i.e. not bundle games), and feel that self-importance jeopardized when others are giving away a similar number of games in both quantity, value, and quality via bundles as if that person is "doing it the easy way." And a great deal more people probably, subconsciously or consciously, assign less value to any game that's been in a bundle, treating every game like it's a currency rather than a game (one of the reasons I dislike and avoid the trading culture on Steam)

either way, just ignore them

If the bundle sites would just put the games together in one key, that would strongly discourage all the illegitimate giveaways. The fact that they rarely do makes it a free-for-all.

I think a lot of people don't like how some people abuse how cheap the games are in order to boost their contributor level and enter contributor giveaways that give higher odds of winning. So because of this mentality, people forget the original point of the bundles: to help raise money for charity as well as allow indie developers gain more recognition. Also some feel that these people are doing so just to benefit themselves, instead of giving games just for the fun of it, which I believe was the original goal of this site.

I understand why most people look down on bundled games, but if you look into it, you're giving (hopefully) to one or more charities by purchasing the bundle.

Monukai pretty much hit the nail on the head. Games aren't really games until you own and play them. They're currency, and they're treated as such. Your currency(a bundled game bought for $1) isn't worth as much as the exact same game bought from an e-store at full price. You try to trade said bundled key to someone and it's looked down on simply because the perceived value is lower. People are extremely shallow like that. True, legitimacy has a part to play in it as well, but it's mostly this retardation about a game's worth depending on where and how you got it.

I personally don't mind Bundle game, most of them are sweet deals and more of them are awesome. There are people out there that do not have paypal accounts or bank accounts that really do appreciate the giveaway, even if it is a bundle giveaway.

I think most people find it more of an annoyance than a stigma because they usually end up flooding the first 3-4 pages of steamgifts.

People who offer bundle keys in trades get laughed at because they payed $1 for the bundle, and want to trade them for non bundle games that are like $10 on sale.

Borderlands 2 goes on sale on Steam for $10. Someone is trading it, what offers do they get, nothing but bundle keys. It's annoying.
If people want to give away their spare keys or trade them for other bundles keys, whatever. But trying to sucker someone out of a $10 with their 30 cent key, is pretty tacky.

In general, 'old money' has always looked down on those whom they felt were inferior. This includes those with significantly less money and those with 'new money'. This attitude goes back over 400 years and can be seen (IMHO) on SteamGifts in CV politics.

With bundle games, people spend 1 dollar to get 10 dollars of CV. It's all just rage over CV. People care way too much about it.

I think it all depends on whether the said bundle is still available. High profile bundles such as THQ can be worth over 10 bucks.

And it is very annoying to see people offer “current” bundles.

Generally agree. Especially when I don't think Just Cause is a bundle giveaway, and that cost people 27¢. So the idea of "You got that for pennies on the dollar, so you deserve less credit" definitely does not apply to every game that was bought dirt cheap. So if people are going to exploit it, they will.

I know we're not supposed to care about CV, but when you can't earn it, you can say it feels good to give games away and it does, but if it's completely thankless and you get no recognition or anything from it, then what's the point? I think there should be a point.

Idea/Tangent point: I have a bunch of Steam keys I don't want. They're worthless to SG because they came from bundles (what can I say, I work for a living). My CV is about a third of what I've actually contributed because of the bundle rule. So they're worthless, but I'm sure someone else has bundle keys they're holding onto for the same reason. I would totally trade one of my keys (any of 'em) for VVVVVV. That game looks like a lot of fun. Or Braid. Or... Pulse? I forget the name. Sigh. It was in a bundle though. This is all hypothetical, not meaning to break any rules or anything. But yeah, that would be great. I guess you can do that on Steam, but I've never bothered. (Although I think, on Steam, the games have to be inventory gifts, not keys.)