*sigh*
Okay...I was on the fence on this monthly, but okay: I'm subscribed for the last time. I know it's a trap, but I can spare the money.
Why do I think it's a trap? Because the mechanisms they put in place are aimed at making you spend more money than you want. It's no coincidence that the overall quality of their OTHER game bundles is declining. Those are one-time offers. What they want is, obviously and understandably, a steady source of income. They want to tell game developers "look...we've got X amount of bucks coming our way for game bundles. We'll pay you <somewhat below one tenth of that> of that amount if you join in this next bundle". That's a much better bargaining position than the "how about we'll let you showcase your old games with us for the middle tear that'll probably - hopefully - nets you a few bucks per game?" that the standard formula has.
The idea of layers is interesting, but IMHO at the moment pretty flawed on the bottom tier.
Lite: has only access to the humble trove. I...honestly don't get why anyone would want it. None of those games have DRM on them, nor even a requirement of staying subscribed (at the moment, obviously). I currently already own about 80-90% of it, and anyone with a recent subscription can just spend a few hours downloading everything (fuck...I pretty much downloaded over half again when I switched to linux
). Unless the added games change drastically in the upcoming months, you basically pay (AFTER the first month) five bucks per month for pretty much access to an oldskool gem
Basic: this would be my interesting pick. Heck, I'd stay even subscribed for this, as each month at least has
some interesting picks for me (as I imagine for everyone, though we'd probably pick different games). My only problem...it costs MORE than 12 bucks. It's sweet of them to prevent me from getting addicted to gaming/allowing my backlog to expand less fast, but I'm not thankful enough to pay MORE for that privilege.
Premium: 9 out of 10 games seems odd. Why not just the full package? It's like they're saying "sigh...yeah: we're contractually bound to have one experimental weird-ass indie title in the bundle. Just skip that one and wait until we add it to the trove next month". It's probably interesting for them to measure which games people will throw out, and we've got to be honest: we can all spare one. But still...why? And why the 20% store discount? It's generous, but TBH I barely used my 10% discounts (it's like ordering extra dessert in an all you can eat buffet...not much point in it since you're pretty stuffed already).
Classic: I think this is going to be their real cash cow for at least the coming half year. It's a fright technique: "cancel now and you can only resubscribe to a more expensive model"...but in reality they're pretty comfortable with 12 bucks (hint: it's virtual. Aside from bandwidth server costs, their costs are pretty minimal).
So...despite me knowing damn well it's going to be a trap, I'm subscribing anyway. Perhaps even for two months, depending on what the reveal will be (if an early reveal gets skipped, I'm out earlier as well).
Why not let people choose Classic as one of the options instead of it being a legacy thing you can lose?
Probably because I'm not the only one being me: I buy monthlies on a time-to-time basis and don't give a fuck about their subscription model. This means that about every two or three months, I find myself in the following situation...
Me: hmm...I kind of like these new reveals. Okay: I'll (re)subscribe for these.
Humblebundlebot (HBB): great. you're now subscribed. We'll be subtracting 12 bucks from your account each month.
Me: yeah...you wish.
Me: *grabs reveals*
Me: *downloads every new entry in the trove*
*some time passes*
HBB: okay: first friday of the month: here are your further games.
Me: nice. Now unsubscribe.
HBB: are you sure? There'll be new entries to the trove in a few days.
Me: well...okay.
*a few days pass*
Me: *downloads new entry/entries in the trove*
Me: unsubscribe
HBB: are you sure? Look...there's a new entry. It's a good game. Just click here and you can start playing it.
Me: no. unsubscribe.
HBB: well, I can't force you. But how about you pause for a month?
Me: no. Unsubscribe.
HBB: ...I don't like you *unsubscribes*
I know my actions are pretty greedy, but from my perspective: I'M BEING FLOODED WITH GAMES! I'm like the netflix user who would pay for hourly subscriptions if that were possible. Of course humble bundle counts on people being lazy. They hope that people just say "meh...I'm curious what games I get to play next" and pay for more games than they can play through(1).
(1): oh, come on! Even when you're unemployed and have no social life, it's not like you can fully play through every game they can offer.
