Notes from Another Steam Summer Sale

We are already more than half way through the annual Steam Summer Sale and… I haven’t bought a single game so far.

I did get a free game however.

I noted in a comment on my post about the Civilization V expansion Brave New World that Steam had put it up as a sale item just two days after it released, which I didn’t think was all that cool.  I pre-ordered the expansion, which knocked three bucks off the price, only to find that I could have saved six dollars more if I had waited two additional days.  I am fine paying the day-one price for something I want, but cutting the price on day three is just going to train me not to buy anything new on Steam.

Well, Steam apparently didn’t think the price cut was all that cool in hindsight and decided to make it up to those who pre-ordered.  They didn’t feel bad enough to give me the six dollars, but they gave me a copy of Civilization IV.

Steam tries to make up

I already own Civilization IV, though I couldn’t tell you where the disks were if pressed.  And, when it comes down to it, if I want to play a Civ game, Civ IV is probably in fourth place behind Civ V, Civ II, and Alpha Centauri.  But I suppose it was a decent gesture and I can always give it to somebody else on Steam.

But that isn’t why I haven’t bought any games yet.

And it certainly isn’t because of any negative reaction I might be having to their new Steam Trading Cards thing.  I don’t understand it really.  But it serves as neither an incentive nor a deterrent when it comes to purchased.  I am not going to buy stuff just to get a virtual trading card or to level myself up.

Only level 4

I probably did end up voting a few more times than I might have in their polls because of this.

And price should be no object.  The sales are great and I have been tempted to purchase a number of titles.

For example, like Harbinger Zero, I have been eying Skyrim, having set a mental price threshold of $20 at which point I have told myself I will buy it.  And, as he wrote, the fact that the Steam sale price fell just shy of that goal… I can have Skyrim for $21 right now… has ostensibly kept me from pulling the trigger on that deal.

However, I suspect that even at the $20 mark, I still might pass it by like so many other deals on the service.

I just think I might be sated when it comes to games at the moment.

I am happily playing Lord of the Rings Online and Civilization V while waiting for fleets in EVE Online.  And I already have a backlog of games that I want to play should those pale.  Steam says I have 77 games, and I probably play five of them on any sort of regular basis.

Still, I look at the Steam site a couple of times a day, just to see what sales are going.

Have you grabbed anything good yet?