How do you feel about this information?
The author of the article does not hold in his banter on flash sales.
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this is when I'm proud of the users I chose to keep in my whitelist
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It used to be 8h. There's no reason to believe that wont be the case again... If you fall asleep just after the switchingpoint you can get in 16h. Should be enough, no?
Even without that you can get about 12 hours easily of sleep by going asleep 4h before the switching time, giving you 4h and 8h of the one you try to meet. Should be way more than one needs.
EDIT: Re-read the OP again. Does seem Valve took the derp and made it worse if 6H and completely dev-free (so not 3 pre-set slots, each lasting 8h giving you ample time to actually get all even with a good night rest). Hope they just keep the good old tried and true system which allowed you sleep.
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Easily solvable; if flash sale for the game is 12 hours only, if someone requests refund for the featured game, just delay their support request for refund for 13 hours :D People who want the game will cancel refund request to keep the game, and people who get money back will spend it on something else on store, since you're always getting money back as steam wallet, so, no big deal for Valve, they profit anyway.
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First, working off your perspective, purchases are timestamped, so there shouldn't be any gain to Valve delaying refund requests.
Second, the concern is that people refund sale-priced games when they go on flash sale, to get the better price, not anything related to refunding flash sales themselves. (ie, it's a concern over the increased support demands Valve has to deal with during the sale, not anything directly related to the consumers themselves,)
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You're missing the point, or you didn't read what I wrote, or my english really sucks or whatever. So, lets go again..
You want some game and you buy it on sale for 50% off. That game goes to flash sale, 66% off for 12 hours. You want to buy that game for 66% off instead of 50% to save 3 bucks difference. You send refund request to steam support. And you wait. And you wait some more. And the response is still not coming. And in meantime you can't buy with 66% off because you already own it because refund still isn't approved. And the 66% flash sale is over. Game is back on regular sale at 50%, and you still actually want that game. And hour later your request is approved. You got your money back. You buy it again at 50% off, and on top of that now your account is 3hrs restricted for card drops (if it means something anyways).. What can you do? Bitch on some internet forum? Who cares, at the end they did approve your request, and that is all that matters.
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Simple (except it requires Valve to do work, so probably impossible); If there's a flash and you already bought it during the sale, have a 'refund difference' button, that gives the additional extra discount in your wallet after Steam verification. Even if takes until after the flash is over, there's no loss for any parties, no penalties.
The only downside is, as said, Valve needs to do some actual work. With people. And implent something good rather than bad.
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That's actually a pretty good idea. And since asking for refund because of price is not considered abusing the system, so they should make this system automatic.
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the answer to that is simple, why would anyone be so dump to buy a game that has the same price during the whole sale if there is a chance it will get a flash sale? Juts wait for the last day like a smart person and the chance for that to happen is close to 0.
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There are several variables in this decision, who knows if I want to buy a game and the last days I'm not going to be home or somewhere that I have sure I'll have a good internet connection. I think the best way to deal with this is the way you said, waiting for the last day, but calling someone not smart because he/she bought the game in the first days is wrong, you should review your attitudes.
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Sure, maybe saying dumb isn't the nicest, I agree on that.
People either wait for the last day and maybe get some flash deals or just buy them for whatever reason they have and miss on out any flash deals, it's a choice but if they choose to buy right when the sale starts, they shouldn't complain later if that game goes on a flash deal and now they missed that chance.
There is no use in having Flash deals if people can just refund it anyway, the whole idea about flash deals is that people don't think about it and just go for it, if they can just refund it later then why even bother making a flash deal?
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Cause the only way you can benefit from a flash sale is if you're online. You're not refunind the flash after all.
It's all about having people come back to you, impulse buying, adrenaline, and having sales be an event again.
2 of these are good for Steam and developers, 1 for us.
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I think the whole 'people keep coming back' doesn't sound that positive for Steam because it will just be harder for Steam not to get server problems like the old sales had because many people kept checking Steam.
But I would love for the sales to be an event again, now the sales are the same from day 1 to the last day, the only reason to keep coming back every day is for the cards (and whatever weird mini event they have during the sale) and that's pretty boring fast, would love it if they spice it up with stuff
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Having people spend once per 14 days or have them return regularly enticing them to buy each time?
I know which one I would prefer as store.
Even with dailies the worst usually was at the start, the daily changes poses only issues for a couple minutes, not hours. That... hasn't changed at all.
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If we continue to move the goalposts from "it's impossible to do so" to "many if most do that" then it's really pointless to even start a discussion. Valve's profit is absolutely irrelevant as the refunds hurt the developers, as it was stated many times. And we also know that Valve isn't really care about the developers, only their own pocket.
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i was just stating that you were wrong by saying that it was not a profit for valve with the argument that it's possible to get a refund. as for the developers, you probably just assume that they are owed money just for existing and not actually selling a valuable product. if someone gets a refund, it's not necessarily because they are cheap and enjoy the game then get their money back, but because the game turns to be not worth it actually. it's virtual so the developers aren't really hurt much. on the opposite, the customers are hurt if they pay money and it turns out the product is bad. in real life you can't help it, and the products are physical which means they can't be duplicated at no cost, but you still can get refunds for some of them. an activation key is worth so little it's barely worth money at all.i once bought a game by mistake before the refunds system and asked the support for a refund for it right away, and they agreed. did i "steal" it from the developers/publishers (by the way nobody ever talks about the publishers because it's so much easier to play on pity picturing the poor little dude working on his crappy cumpter to feed his family) ? if a game is advertised a certain way and it turns out actually it's not fun/like what the advertising felt like, is someone "stealing" it with a refund ? it's not like real life, "physical" stuff where if you eat the candies the seller doesn't care because they duplicate them at will with incredibly low cost to the point of being able to make billions of it by pushing a button. if you eat the candies, they are not there. new candies have to been made all the time at a considerable cost. developers/publishers know what money is, but you can't be expected to know what the product actually is until you've tested it, and if you do they love to call that piracy and say it's bad and play the victim and you stole from them even though you wouldn't necessarily have bought the game anyway. the money, the purchase wasn't theirs to start with but they love to pretend it is and throw numbers of sales as predictions (or, what they'd like), and then blame everyone if they don't make enough according to themselves. they just play the victim like for movies and music industries
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That was user speculation, with no compelling evidence that I've seen for it.
Flash Sales resulted in everyone "in the know" checking Steam constantly and waiting until the very last day to buy anything that wasn't a flash sale. This resulted in increased load from people constantly checking Steam and delayed most sales until the last day. Removing flash sales reduces the load on Steam's servers and has people make purchases whenever they see something they like without waiting for the last day.
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Maybe we'll get better deals, or maybe we'll just go back to waiting until the last day of sale to get the games we want. Maybe both. Who knows what's gonna happen.
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High chance it's the last option, anyone with a bit of brain will wait for the last day just to be sure they didn't buy it and it later went into a flash sale.
Better deals can happen but I doubt it will, higher chance they give less discount on games because the nice discount is in the flash sale, but maybe I am wrong...
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Only if the sales are better than currently would it make any difference to me.
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I have mixed feelings.
It's kinda pointless with refunds.
It requires some checking of the site to catch the best deal, but tbh ... despite I liked it back in the day, I have most of the games that go on nicer sales. sp less incentive in trying to catch deals. Also, it takes time.
It would be nice if they would have a play-games even like the Cleanup one, just not with 3 games daily because that's just a download-and-run / idler / SAM fest.
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While I'm on the fence about 12 hour sales, I'm concerned about anything considerably shorter. Aside from the thing written above (I also don't want to check the store every few hours, maybe once a day, but not more often), this sales will obviously be tuned to specific time zones, so people who live in, say, Russia and prefer to sleep at night will get much fewer deep discounts.
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I'm afraid to buy a game and then the next day I will find it at 75% thanks to a flash sale
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I actually like not having flash sales every 4-6 hours. I like that I don't have to check Steam throughout the day or risk missing out on the good deals. I like not having to wait until the very last day to buy anything in case it might show up in a flash sale at some point.
The truth is that Steam is in such a prominent position as a storefront that they no longer need to have the absolute best sales. Other stores that aren't as prominent are always going to have better sales because they need to - that's the only way they can compete with Steam.
And despite everyone bemoaning how Steam sales are terrible since they got rid of flash deals, I've still been able to find games on my wishlist at all-time-low prices each and every sale. My inbox explodes with IsThereAnyDeal notifications each Steam sale. Sure, those are usually for smaller titles rather than the latest AAA release, but there are plenty of other sites competing to have the best price on the latest AAA releases.
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Seems people overexegerate again, as usual.
The flash sales where 8 hours. So you had to check three times a day. Thrice. That's really not a whole lot to ask for.
Here in the EU that pretty much is akin to 'before work/school', 'after work/school' (or in the break), evening (with the daily refresh).
People check their social media about 200x more than that per day.
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It's really bizzare to read all these hot takes on why flash sales apparently sucked. You'd think SG out of all places would actually remember and appreciate the times when steam sales were actually good.
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Not to mention I remember a topic where it was wondered if the minimum time on SG shouldn't be raised from 1 hour. I would approve, but the MAJORITY was all like "be acitve, reap benefits! 1 hour is even too little."
To then see Steamgifts user turn on Flash Sales. I mean... come on (although the poll is heavily in favour, somehow commenters seem... different).
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I thought I remembered some being only 4-6 hours long, but it's possible I'm mis-remembering. I'm pretty sure at least one sale had flash sales that only lasted 4 hours. The summer sale would coincide with me going on vacation, where I'd have spotty internet and more important and enjoyable things to do than check Steam's painfully slow site 3-6 times a day.
Some people may check their social media 200 times a day, and they may miss flash sales as they clearly are looking for things to do to distract them.
However, I am busy. I don't do social media (unless SG counts), and I prefer not having to check Steam several times a day during a sale. Even if it's only 3 times a day, across 13 days plus again on the last day is 40 times that you'd have to check Steam. 40 times is a lot more than once.
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Pff, not like I haven't missed sales due to vacation too. But really, why care... if Steam is more important than a vacation, you need to pick a vacation you like more. I got 100% internet silence on vacation, a sale ain't gonna change that.
And don't tell me you currently visit it once with the discovery queue generating cards every 24h already (and with the last 3 more from the game).
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Fair enough. I just found flash sales to be kind of annoying. I didn't like the thought of possibly missing out on a sale, didn't like having to check the site throughout the day (unlike the discovery queue, which is just once a day), and I didn't like having to wait until the last day on the off chance that a game might have a flash sale.
Because the effect of flash sales is that every game that's part of the flash sales but not currently having a flash sale has a terrible discount by comparison. I'd take good discounts that run the whole two weeks over great discounts for things on flash sale and terrible discounts on things that aren't.
I do like your approach to vacations, though. ;)
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Let's hope with it, good prices return too. Though it would be interesting to visit the Steam storefront for something different than the Discovery Queue during a sale again... nor being bored out of the sale 1 day in with 13 days remaining.
And not just 75% becomes 50% and 75% on flash...
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I liked when they did this in the past because it gave a reason to keep checking back during the sale. I doubt we'll get good discounts though. Most stuff seems to go for 50% in recent sales, so maybe a flash sale would be 55 or 60% as devs don't seem to push sales like they once did. If things were to go the way they were in the past, I'd be excited, but for now, let's wait and see...
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many people would disagree with you, they enjoy getting extra special deals on games at certain times.. sure it sucks if you miss out on a deal, but ultimately something like flashdeals were awesome, as you could get games for that little extra % off..
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I really don't miss that awkward feeling when missing a big discount on a game I want because I went away from the internet for a few hours, I rather have a flat discount for two weeks so I have time to decide if I want it for that price or not instead of rushing to checkout and later having buyers remorse.
I would be ok with flash deals if they lasted a day or two tho.
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I can see why lots of people will welcome this, but for me it's just meh. Sure everybody has to sleep, but I work at a place where, due to security reasons, one can only have and use their smartphone during lunch break... if I leave the building. Plus the connection during my commute by train is spotty at best here. All this adds up to a lot of missed flash sale chances.
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Important bit: "According to Valve News Network’s Tyler McVicker, the concept of Flash Sales is making a return, with some changes.
Developers are now able to set a time limit for flash sales of their games, between six and 12 hours. This likely means the front page would have to update every hour or two to show the new batch of deals, keeping things interesting for the sort of people who think of Steam sales are meant to be exciting adventures."
https://www.vg247.com/2018/08/03/steam-sales-flash-deals-coming-back-report/
Tweet the article is based on: https://twitter.com/ValveNewsNetwor/status/1025215264164597762
I'm cautiously optimistic. The flash sales could be like the kind with deep discounts that happened years ago or the developers and/or publishers could cheapen out on the regular discounts and make flash sale discounts equivalent to regular discounts before the flash sales return. To clarify with an example: "Game A" was discounted at 75% off in Summer Sale 2017. Let say flash sales make a comeback in Winter Sale 2018. Whoever is in charge of discounting "Game A" made it only have a 50% off mark then there's a flash sale to give "Game A" a 75% off mark. No difference in price for that game between Summer Sale 2017 and Winter Sale 2018. That's what I'm concerned about in this exciting news.
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