Tag Archives: sale

The “Humble Store” Method: Results

So, the Steam Christmas Sale is basically over, let’s see what the results of the Humble Store Method are.

First, some notes. I decided to also apply this method to games purchased on other sites (GoG, the Humble Store (ironically), Humble Bundle and Humble Weekly Sale, as well as any other store where I may buy games). I also decided to follow the method throughout the year, as opposed to only during sales. It shouldn’t make a big difference, as I get almost all of my games during sales, but this makes it easier to follow.

After looking at my purchase history, I am also not sure if 10% are actually enough. I’ll have to think about increasing it to 20% or even 50%, as 10% appearently do not scare me enough.

My purchases were:

  • Bioshock Infinite (7.49 €)
  • 2x Chivalry: Medieval Warfare (5.74 € each)
  • 2x Shogun 2: Total War (7.49 € each)
  • CS:GO (3.49 €)
  • Risk of Rain (5.03 €)
  • Humble Weekly Sale: Puppy Games (6.66 $ => 4.49 €)
  • Stronghold Crusader HD (4.99 $ => 3.77 €)

This leaves us with a grand total of 50.73 €. Damn.

Looking back, I probably should not have purchased Shogun 2 and the Puppy Games Weekly sale. I haven’t played Bioshock infinite yet, Chivalry is great (already sunk 10+ hours into that one), CS:GO is okay (I need more people to play this with), Risk of Rain is RSI-inducingly fun, and, judging from my experience with the original version, Stronghold Crusader HD is probably fun, although I have not played the HD version yet.

So, following the 10% rule, that leaves us with 5.07 €. That’s not very much. So, I’ll just raise the percentage to 25% for this sale, leaving me with 12.68 €. I’ll have to think about the percentage for the next time, but I think 25% is a good first step. I’d set it higher, but I just donated a bunch of money to different organizations at the 30c3 conference and so am a bit short of money at the moment (which is totally not the fault of a lack of restraint on the steam sale, as you can clearly see above. Totally. *ahem*).

So, the only thing left to decide is who will get the money. At the moment, I see a few options:

  1. The CCC, as they did a great congress this year and did not get any donation from me so far (also because they did not accept it when I tried to give it on day 4 of the congress)
  2. Netzpolitik.org, for generally being awesome and informative.
  3. The Tor Project, for generally being awesome and always in need of money
  4. …?

So, if you have any proposals on who should get the money, write it into the comments. I’ll decide over the weekend and update this post with the results.

Update: I decided that the money will go to netzpolitik.org this time around. I’ve been planning to donate to them for a long time (probably more than a year by now) and somehow never got around to it. And since 12.68 € is a terrible number, I’ll just round up a bit. The only thing left to decide is if it will be 13.37 € or just a plain-old 15 €.

Next time, I’ll pick a different organization, but I’ll decide on that once it becomes relevant.

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.