Thraeg
4133
Nah, it’s not the AAA thing. I’d rather see high-end indie games that haven’t yet been heavily discounted. I’ve got a big wishlist that they’re welcome to mine for ideas.
This would actually be a really solid month in a vacuum. It’s got six indies that were on my radar! (Atomicrops, Narita Boy, Neon Abyss, West of Dead, Fort Triumph, and Heaven’s Vault, for the record). But… I’ve already played my fill of the first four of those via Game Pass.
Really, that’s probably the biggest issue – Game Pass is outcompeting Humble in the same niche, and it just feels redundant most months. The pool of sufficiently good/noteworthy games whose developers haven’t yet heavily discounted them but are willing to put them in a bundle or subscription just isn’t big enough to go around. I recognize that Humble is in a tough spot, bear them no ill will, and am happy to keep pausing every month for the occasional good months, though.
It does, my problem is that I own all the interesting ones (to me) already!
For the most part I really don’t think folks here are wanting AAA’s from Humble (I know I’m not), we’re just looking for a different array of indies than we’re getting.
Humble recently announced they’re bringing a bunch of their upcoming titles to Gamepass, so I guess it hasn’t really been a problem for them.
I’ll probably pause for the same reason, but a couple of the other indies interest me.
I don’t consider them the same niche at all. Gamepass is renting you games. Humble is selling you games.
I can see the problem if you’re subscribed to multiple services with overlapping games, but then it makes sense to drop the least useful of them, as I did with Game Pass last year. As @malkav11, I want to own games that I can play when I want, not pay for access to a carousel of games that may or may not be available when I get t them, and Game Pass was too frustrating overall.
SweetJP
4138
My feelings exactly! Dropped Game Pass for that reason as well.
stusser
4139
I completely agree with that, but Game Pass is so cheap that I caved anyway.
Kadath
4140
I think giving away dupes has given me more smiles than discovering hidden gems. YMMV
While I agree that I prefer to own rather than rent, Game Pass gives me deadlines, which I appreciate. I don’t think I would have tried out Darksiders 3 if it wasn’t leaving Game Pass, and discovered how awesome it was. So when the game left, yes, I ended up buying it, but that’s okay by me. Finding really cool games, and then buying them is fine, it doesn’t lessen the value of game pass for me. It just makes it more likely that I’ll actually play them.
Whereas all these games I’ve accumulated in the last four months of having Humble Bundle. Will I ever play any of them? Who knows? I have the rest of my life as a deadline, right? Now, given my high likelihood of a heart attack, that’s probably not all that long, but one never thinks that way when picking games to play.
stusser
4142
I don’t believe I’ve ever actually installed a game from Humble Bundle, off the top of my head. Shrug, I know, it’s a sickness.
Daagar
4143
I’m the opposite. Having a deadline gives me anxiety/FOMO. In my broken brain, it works the same as having a subscription to an MMO - if I’m not playing the MMO at all times then I’m wasting my sub! I would do the same with gamepass - trying to play all the things because ‘omg they are rotating out’.
Like stusser, it is a sickness just in a completely different way.
None of these games appeal to me to play home on TV, but I will get it for some Steam Deck gaming.
I don’t know this genre apparently since all these games look like stinkers to me and are not even worth the $8 they offered it to me for.
“This genre” is actually a number of them as far as the games go.
But I know the feeling of looking at the list and going “man, whoever picks these just does not share my tastes AT ALL.”
Team Never Paused, Probably Never Will here.
For me part of the thrill is getting stuff that I normally wouldn’t get. And getting stuff that I might get one day.
It only sucks when they add multiplayer only games, because it’s usually stuff that’s already half or full dead by the time it gets to the Bundle, and I’m not too keen on multiplayer only games even when they’re well populated.
Fully in agreement with you on the multiplayer-only games thing. Or when they throw in early access stuff that’s clearly been abandoned, like Rapture Rejects.
Daagar
4149
My disappointment tends to be when the AAA/headliner game is an NBA/NFL/PGA/sportball game - I’d be okay with them dropping us a Destiny 2 expansion. I’ve not wrapped my head around why non-SimGolf would be fun, but folks here seem fairly jazzed about it so I guess maybe I should try it.
It would be pretty cool if they had an either/or option: take the headliner (for the months that have one), or take these 2-3 non-headliners instead (all at the cost of “one choice”). This might even help them determine which headliners are driving subs and which are not (as I might be in a total minority and maybe PGA2K1 is setting their month on fire).
Totally agreed. I can’t help but feel like I’m getting a bad deal if I don’t want the clear headliner. Makes me feel like I might be able to get many/most of the rest in a $1 bundle from Fanatical at some point not to far off. Yes, I know it’s a bit nonsensical if the remaining games are “worth” the monthly sub price to me. I just don’t feel good paying the majority of the sub price for something I don’t want.
I mean, part of the conceit from the beginning (and what fuels all of these subscription services at first) is the “surprise” aspect. You don’t know what you’re going to get - it’s exciting! But over time, people get grumpy about the value proposition, so the service starts to give more and more visibility and more and more choice, but having that visibility and choice makes them less able to get high-value offerings, so people are more dissatisfied, and it just goes on and on.
My take is that if you haven’t been happy with the majority of the last six months, you’ll never be happy with it again and should just save yourself the money.
Daagar
4152
Don’t get me wrong - I’m part of the no-pause gang, as there is plenty in there each month that even if I’m not interested, the kids probably will be (or I can gift things). I’m only bummed when there is a “big” headliner, and it is something I don’t want. That’s the only time I feel like I’m ‘missing out’. Which, as you say, it part of the surprise aspect and built in.
