Humble Bundle

[trubblegum]

It would be interesting to see the modal purchase, but I'm pretty sure its $0.01. Maybe a nice frequency curve of the purchase amounts. I wonder if one could elicit that kind of information from the HB team.

This is called "market data", and is usually available for the "right price".

[Robin]

for the "right price".

That means "pay what you want", right?

Right?

[trubblegum]

Unfortunately, it normally means, "pay what they want", or "buy shares, and you 'll get the quarterly statement (which doesn't tell you what you want to know anyway)".
Market data can be extremely valuable. It helps to establish feasibility, so withholding it increases risk for competitors, and it shows trends, which, as we know, are the thing that money grows on.

I don't know who does the humble bundle, or what their philosophy is regarding all of this, but it's rare for any commercial organization to want to expose their figures, and thereby leave themselves open to exploitation. If you can cook figures to make yourself look good (and any cynic will tell you that all figures are cooked) then you have raw figures somewhere which you don't want people to know about unless they're going to make it worth your while to let them in on your slice of the pie.

I'm not sure I'm being relevant here .. it just seemed worth mentioning after reading this :

So they consistently raise the average, especially the Linux average.

[slime]

They don't need to cook figures.

[tentus]

If anything, cooking figures would be a disaster for HB, since it would look like they were withholding money from charity. The more transparent they are the more likely they are to be successful.

@Robin: good point about the "beat the average" tactic, I hadn't even thought about the meta-implications of that.

My roommate and I have been holding a slow-burning argument about HB, which goes something like this: he argues that for each bundle people will be inclined to pay less, thinking to themselves "I paid $10 last time, let's give them $5 this time, I've already done my part." I think that one, the evidence is against him, and two, I think that with each iteration HB will gain credibility as a charity, increasing the odds of people being charitable. As the company builds a reputation for actually raising money (and not just taking it and running), it will encourage gamers to donate more through them. Remember, the first HB was less than two years ago at the time of this writing. Anybody got something to add to this particular sub-discussion?

[kikito]

Anybody got something to add to this particular sub-discussion?

To me it has little to do with the dates, and all to do about the games involved. The last one had Super Meat Boy, which I had wanted to try for a long time. And Gratuitous Space Battles, which seems to be just my thing. And on Linux.

This one ... it's a bit "meh" for me. I wanted to try Abbaddon, so I guess I'll end up buying it. (Unfortunately, the android version is tablets-only ). But I'm not really interested in the rest of the games. So when (if) I buy this one, I'll pay less than in the previous one.

[trubblegum]

They don't need to cook figures.

All figures are cooked.

[trubblegum]

Sorry guys .. I'm an ass for that implication - indie games and their publishers should be encouraged, and deserve more credit than that.
Please don't let me dampen your enthusiasm.

[slime]

They don't need to cook figures.

All figures are cooked.

Wrong.

Sorry guys .. I'm an ass for that implication - indie games and their publishers should be encouraged, and deserve more credit than that.
Please don't let me dampen your enthusiasm.

More ignorant than an ass, I think.

[Robin]

They don't need to cook figures.

All figures are cooked.

Wrong.

I love how you guys keep making factual assertions, without backing them up with any arguments whatsoever.

Let's get back to the topic.