Pre-order woes
DesignFlaw_
Member Posts: 10
So I'm trying to give you my money, but silly things are getting in the way.
I bought the BG:EE when it first came available on steam, so I just want to pre order Dragonspear. However I've done the merry-go-round numerous times and you only seem to be selling it with BG:EE attached on the website.
I tried to pull a CD-key from Steam but don't seem to be able to, and we can't order the expansion on steam either (I'd rather use your Beamdog client tbh).
So how do we just buy the expansion on its own? It will probably have to be a CD key to add to steam, unfortunately.
Remember: I want to give you my money
I bought the BG:EE when it first came available on steam, so I just want to pre order Dragonspear. However I've done the merry-go-round numerous times and you only seem to be selling it with BG:EE attached on the website.
I tried to pull a CD-key from Steam but don't seem to be able to, and we can't order the expansion on steam either (I'd rather use your Beamdog client tbh).
So how do we just buy the expansion on its own? It will probably have to be a CD key to add to steam, unfortunately.
Remember: I want to give you my money
0
Comments
I recommend holding off for now until SoD will be officially released on steam.
As much as I love Beamdog for what they do, this is very disappointing. I know that a lot of people are anti-steam, I've seen some of the archive posts while looking for answers, but I played the original Baldur's Gate as a teenager. I didn't know about the Enhanced Edition until it hit steam and the media grabbed a hold of it.
As I said, I'd love to use the Beamdog client but I don't believe I should have to buy the game a second time. So we'll see how that goes
Just making the observation; this is arguably false advertising. Especially since I've read they're going to sell it in steam key format, but they still want you to buy the base game at the same time. It's all kind of silly
Just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Or maybe summoning an admin here ( @Dee ) would help the same.
You can buy the Standard Edition for 19.99 USD if you already have BGEE from Beamdog. I had BGEE from Beamdog and bought SoD for precisely 19.99 USD.
The thing is you can't run SoD without having BGEE, it's an expansion for the base game, not a separate product due to the agreement between WotC and Beamdog. So if you don't have BGEE from Beamdog you can't buy only SoD from Beamdog.
And you can buy SoD (if it's only SoD, without BGEE) from that seller you bought BGEE from.
In your case, you bought BGEE from Steam, so in order to buy only SoD, you need to buy it from Steam as well. And for Steam, it will be available at March, 31.
The first half of this is simple. They have a button there on the website that says you can buy it for $19.99 with no disclaimer. I click that button and they want me to pay nearly $40. This is wrong and should be fixed.
The principle behind the rest of it is more important and it would be for most Aussies as well, it's in our culture. I should not be punished for buying it on Steam. Yes they will fix it later, after release, but understand that Steam gave them a lot of exposure for their release of BG:EE. So they're being uncool to both Steam and every customer who bought from there.
Waiting to buy the game, to 'give them money', isn't that big a deal - but the way they're going about Steam and 'their customers' on Steam is.
Plus you know - anyone who hasn't read up on it or doesn't notice that the price they clicked on has gone up will pay extra. I'd almost class that as dishonest trickery.
If you already have a downloaded version of BG1 from whichever retailer (Beamdog, GOG or Steam) why do you have to purchase SoD from the same retailer?
Don't the game directories and folders follow the same paths?
I bought BG1EE from Beamdog but was never able to download it for some reason that was never fully explained. I then bought again from GOG, but lost my password and couldn't reset it because my e-mail address was "already in use".
So, when BG2EE came out I had to buy it from Steam (which I don't like because I find their insistence that I go online intrusive).
Then, being totally fed up with all the hassle around doing things online I bought box sets of BG1 & 2 - which I'm now playing very happily.
As a result of all this I have actually bought three copies of BG1EE, and now apparently I have to buy a fourth.
I go back to the website, and I see I can click on $19.99 price for the expansion and it tries to charge $39.98 - this is tantamount to clickbaiting as it changes the price and the content of what you were seeking to purchase.
This really needs to be fixed.
And I don't care about forum badges
To put it in perspective, from the first year of release of Baldur's Gate in 1998 through to IWD:EE I've been a loyal customer who's enjoyed the products of Beamdog and their predecessors. This stinks and you know it.
I think 20 Dollars is a fair price. Nowadays I expect most addons to cost around 40 Euros. The DLCs I have bought commonly cost around 15 Euros, and that is for far less content thant I expect from SoD. When I'm in doubt about purchases such as these I often compare their price to seeing a movie. There I also pay 20 dollars for about two hours of entertainment that I only get to enjoy once - the addon, however, I can play as often as I want. Adding to the movie comparison: most people would not hesitate to pay 20 Dollars for a sequel if the enjoyed one movie of a series - however when it comes to games, the same amount of money apparently suddenly appears to much. Moreover, here I can talk to the guys (and gals) producing the game and might influence in which direction the product goes by voicing my opinion.
P.S. Sorry about the mixing of Dollars and Euros, I'm not quite sure about the conversion, but I think it's rougly 1 Dollar = .80 Euros.
With the website setup, they're clicking on $19.99 and suddenly the price goes up to $39.98, as I said before. I bet you more than one person has accidentally bought it at that price as well, not realising or happy to pay extra - and there is some reliance on this to dishonestly push people to buy (or re-buy) both the base and the expansion.
I'd hope someone from Beamdog, working on a franchise near 20 years old, would have more integrity than that. Add the snub to existing Steam customers on top, and yeah. I'm gonna get my soapbox out. I could put in a ticket or even go so far as to contact Fair Trade, whom I used to work for, but I don't want to go that far. I kinda hope common sense and a little decency would at least fix the baitclicking if not the steam deal.
Did I get lucky or shouldn't this be the standard way?(Steam might make complaint that it's unfair to them)
That's not to say Beamdog haven't done an amazing job on their content so far, because they have. Now there seems to be some hand-wringing; with the Beamdog client out they perhaps want to stand on their own - and I respect that. But now they're not really giving everyone a "fair go" who bought from steam originally.
-shrug-
They knew it was DRM when they agreed to have their product sold there.
You have to go to the FAQ to find out if you can get a steam key, but then you go back to the $39.98 to find out you have to buy 'two' products, and the other isn't available because we dared to buy the game somewhere other than the Beamdog client.
I even went to the shopping cart and unclicked BG:EE, and it removes both products. I was scratching my head and did this twice more to make sure.
If Beamdog doesn't want to sell the expansion on its own for pre order, you should just say so. "Available individually only via Beamdog client" - own the fact that you don't want to sell it separately. Be honest that you want people to use the client.
Of course people who bought the game DRM-laden via steam are going to be a little miffed about the whole deal - but don't make them chase the info to add insult to injury. Otherwise you get idiots like me with soap boxes lol