So Wassup with Reserve this Bundle?! | Groupees

Sep 18 / 2014
Community, News

So Wassup with Reserve this Bundle?!

Hello fellow Groupees, it’s your friendly Slug. Last week, we started to use the Reserve this bundle function or preorder if you will. I have read what people are writing, so while many of you folks seems to like it, there are some folks out there who do not, and I think there is some misconception to this idea as well, so I wanted to share with everyone what our thinking is.

First off, one of the biggest motivations for us in doing this is to create something fun. The idea is to provide an element of surprise and discovery. Amidst all the noise and haste of life, how often do we even have the time and attention to experience a surprise? Certainly, with all the other bundles out there, it seems to us that the whole experience has become rather ho-hum, and we REALLY don’t want to be simply purveyors of cheap games.

Next, if you don’t want to do this, please don’t. You will still have an opportunity to get our bundles at a great price and earn all the bonuses. While it is true that we discount the bundle to those willing to buy during preorder, we do understand that many folks may not wish to take a leap of faith, so please only buy if the deal is right for you. As an aside, we will continue to use our build a bundle option on most bundles, which is to say we’re all about choice!

Finally, we have chosen to do away with the Dollar Day concept, and so the Preorder idea is, in part, a different way to offer our bundles at an even better price, for those interested in the concept. Based on our data, the Dollar Days concept was not used in the way intended, and that is the reason we are discontinuing it. We like Preorder much better and are excited, too, for our Trading Coin concept, which we’ll be rolling out more fully in the coming weeks.

We do want to reward our loyal community members and do not worry if Preorder is not for you, we have other ways to keep you engaged and happy!

Best,

Shifty

ShiftySlug

The one and only. I have passed the torch for making game bundles and will now focus on Community building. Mega gamer and good friend to many.

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Shad0WeN

Oh please, the preorder stuff is pure nonsense. It’s not about doing something fun or just to make a surprise. There are plenty of other places in life for surprise and discovery. It’s about suckering people into throwing money at something ‘sight unseen’ without knowing what it is, because many of them may not otherwise touch it once they see what is actually being offered. It’s just a numbers game. Sorry, but I’m not going to drink the Kool-Aid being served, nor should anyone else who has half a brain.
gokuexe

I love pre order bundles, i cant resist, always buy =)
Mudeater

Personally I have mixed feelings about it but mostly positive, I hate gambling and any gambling mechanics usually especially if you look at the Indie royale attempt that was 100% repeats, this feels like trying to cheat people yes, but I have more faith in groupees than that and I pre-ordered all the bundles on Groupees so far and was satisfied with most of them. In the end it’s your choice if you want to take the chance or not, similar to buying a 1$ lotto ticket but at least you know you come out with something. Plus Groupees usually talk in chat and Johny answered me multiple taimes if it was repeats or not, that’s pretty much the only relevant info to know I feel, even if I don’t like the games it’s still better then getting only repeats 😉
Tatsuya Hiroki

I personally really dont think the whole preordering is a good idea, waay too many occasions to get burned
Brian F

Garbage. This is just a cynical way of making extra money from people who wouldn’t buy the bundle if they knew about the contents.
- Jonny Cappuccino
  
  Folks didn’t like Dollar Days so we did away with it. This was introduced simply as a way to create something fun and to look forward to it. If you haven’t noticed, there are lots of services out there using the “Box” metaphor, essentially providing on a subscription basis a box of unknown goods. That is the basis of our reserve system. We’ll continue to evolve this idea, perhaps including clues to some of the games, but this is about creating something fun. If you don’t like to reserve a bundle, don’t worry. Just wait. As it is, most of our bundles use our build a bundle format so you can just wait and pick the games you want and/or don’t already have.
  - Matthew
    
    I was wondering what happened to the dollar days. The only “not liking it” would be if you’re someone like me and typically buys a couple of bundles for one’s self and some for friends; in that case you may feel “cheated” for missing out on a deeper multi-buy discount…but I don’t think this is “bad”…people just don’t like feeling as though they missed out saving money. It’s just a bonus, and should be offered to those who buy in the first 24/48 hours to encourage sales.
    Maybe you could incorporate some kind of special multi-buy like IndieGala does then? Kind of like a buy three bundles and save 25% on the total or something…I don’t know. Or maybe you guys will work multi-buys in that coin thing you guys were going to do last month.
DAJ

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE PREORDER, DON’T USE IT.

Why is this concept lost on people complaining about it? It’s not as if this is the ONLY way you can obtain a bundle now. Nothing has changed in that regard, there is just another option now, and if you don’t like it, pretend it doesn’t exist and wait until the reveal. Is that really so hard?

I hope Groupees decides to continue using the preorder option more pervasively. Not only do I like the element of surprise, but I can think of certain bundles that I would definitely like to use it with.
- Jimbo Jaku
  
  Well put
roddy

I love the pre-order! It is exciting to wait and get the bundle not knowing what will be there. Also, it always is a great deal for the money! Please keep it going and I don’t know why the other people don’t like it, just don’t buy it and wait for the bundle to come out.
ET3D

I prefer what Indie Royale did with the Mystery Bundle. At least there you started knowing two games form the bundle, which was good enough to make a decision. Making a blind decision is much harder.
iGnome

So far, the preorder is ok, most of them were rarely seen games, and only a few left-overs.
Compared to the only “mysterious bundle” made by IndieRoyale, which was a total waste, all stuff included was heavily rebundled garbage, Groupees’ surprises are Surprises in a good way. Keep it that way.
dsboger

For me, the only disappointing aspect is not knowing which platforms the games will work on. My computers do not run Windows so I cannot take for granted the games will be usable. Stating the platforms would be great.
Alfonso Sintjago

Enjoy buying all your bundles or most of them.
Since I will probably buy them anyhow pre-ordering works for me. I find it fun.
Vincer Victor

Seriously… if you guys really do want to create somthing fun with expectation, do something like the mistery bundles- revealing 2 titles at least. THIS gives something for us to conjecture, this creates expectation and such.
Blind money throwing have no fun in it.

This clearly is a case of ‘like it do it, don’t ignore it’- but saying this is fun is wrong. If fun with the mistery is trully your aim, there needs something more.
이지웅

I like pre-order bundles, they’re priced reasonably given that I don’t know what games are in the bundle(for example, one bundle had 5 games that I already owned :-)), and if the bundles contain games that I’m missing, great!
Aslan

I like the idea, but I want a guarantee that I don’t own 50% or more of the bundle. For users who preorder and can easily prove with Steam or Desura they already own at least 50% of the bundle they should have the option of passing on the bundle, and storing the value they paid for the bundle in their Groupees account to use on a future Groupees bundle or store purchase.

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