GOG: Heavy (Steam) discounts are bad for gamers.

Fallout 1 from GOG for steam ?;p

The fact is that games have a different value to different people. Some people might be happy paying 50-60 Euros or Dollars for a game, but for someone else that same game might not be worth more than 20. That's why sales are a good thing, because it allows people to make the choice - buy it now for full price, or wait for a sale and buy it for a reduced price (or not buy ot at all obviously, but you have that choice anyway).

Besides, sales can bring attention to underappreciated games, and can cause people to try out games they never would have bought otherwise.

"If a gamer buys a game he or she doesn't want just because it's on sale, they're being trained to make bad purchases, and they're also learning that games aren't valuable. We all know gamers who spend more every month on games than they want to, just because there were too many games that were discounted too deeply. That's not good for anyone".
Yeah right, we forgot to ask for your opinion. According to this twisted logic, fat people eat too much food because it's cheap, so let's forget about everyone except fat people and make food more expensive. All this sounds more like "Oh noes, Steam gets to make larger discounts and better agreements with publishers and developers! We want more money too! Let's talk some illogical bullshit!"

i buy what i want, when i want

GoG is trying real hard to get people's attention.

I kind of agree. The problem isn't the heavy discounts as much as it the silly high regular prices. People wouldn't need 75% off to make them interested if the game was reasonably priced to begin with.

All this is doing is covertly training the populace to get angry over the high costs of other goods they need for survival and cause rioting.

tell that to companies like tripwire, who STILL get revenue and their game on top sellers list on the 75% sales (A GAME RUNNING ON UNREAL TWO ENGINE)

Or the Killing Floor community who never dies just thanks to the recurring sales.

He's just talking out of his arse.

None of my games was brought without an >50% discount. :|

I've found some gems I'd never have normally considered buying thanks to Steam sales and Indie bundles. With hindsight I'd have cheerfully paid more than I did, but there's the issue. Without having had Steam push them under my nose at an appetising price, I wouldn't have bothered. I've bought enough duds in my time without risking spending sizeable sums on indie games I've never heard about before, and can't be bothered to download their demos. Sure, some of that's in the advertising, and exposure, but indie devs, by definition, don't have the sort of resources to make much headway against the big players in these areas.

If the "true value" of most indie games was $15-$19, I can perhaps think of one (and probably no more) that I'd ever have taken a punt on at that price. Instead, over the years, I've probably put hundreds of pounds into the Indie gaming industry which they would never have otherwise received. The same is probably true for the majority of indie games buyers on Steam.

This is about GOG not being able to afford to compete with Steam's prices, and very little to do with moral arguments about the true value of games. I sympathise with them, but while Steam are no white knights, crusading for the Indie cause, they deserve credit for opening up a whole new market for indie games (albeit one which has been brought to expect budget pricing). Better to sell large quantities at $2.49, with the exposure that brings, than a handful of copies for $15 to a few hardcore supporters of Indie games.