Tag Archives: humble bundle

Surviving the Steam Holiday Sale and… doing good? Aka: The “humble store” method

From past experience, I know that I always spend way too much money on the big sales of the Steam Game Distribution platform. I always buy a lot of games that I never play, or only play for half an hour before never starting them again, and I always end up repeating the same mistake on the next sale, because DAMN CS:GO FOR ONLY 3.49 €!

So, since I am obviously unable to learn my lesson, let’s try to at least do some good while buying games I will never play.

The “humble store” method

For those of you who do not know what the humble store is: It is a store for (mostly indie-)games by the guys behind the humble indie bundle. And, the most important part for the purpose of this article, 10% of the price of any game is donated directly to charities like the American Red Cross, the EFF, Child’s Play Charity, World Land Trust, and Charity: Water. They have already raised over $280k using that store, and combined with all the humble bundles they have sold to date, have raised over $29 million for charity.

So, starting with this sale, I pledge to keep track of how much I spend on those sales, and, after the sale has finished, tally it all up and donate (at least) 10% of the money to a charitable organization of my choice. This can be the EFF, but it could also be the wikipedia, Worldbuilders (the charity of my favourite author), Netzpolitik.org (a german blog I read a lot which could use a bit more money) or any other charitable organization.

Now, 10 % isn’t very much. BUT:

  1. I think any charity, having to choose between a small donation and no donation at all, would choose the small donation.
  2. Nothing prohibits me from donating more than I strictly have to.
  3. If 100 people would do the same, it could still easily make a difference of a few hundred euros.

My challenge to you:

Think about where you are spending way too much money. Maybe you are playing a free-to-play game and are constantly buying more virtual currency for it? Maybe you are drinking too much starbucks coffee? Maybe you are reading too many books No, that’s impossible. Whereever you find yourself spending way too much money, think about this: Could the “humble store” method work for this? Would you be willing to turn your vice into something that helps the world a little bit each time you give in to it?

I’m interested in your feedback on this idea. I will try it out for this sale and report back afterwards.