OK, some wall of text below. I don’t like writing this kind of stuff, because I’m not always good at expressing myself and conveying what I mean, but I’m on a 9 hr flight and have some spare time.
(EDIT: and now, a day after landing I have the time to actually post it. It came out a bit too much essayish; please don't read if you don't want to).
bram1253: This giveaway reminds me of all the people in the world that help others selflessly.
No. What I do is not selfless. It’s anything but. I never liked that term because it implies you’re giving away something without getting anything in return for yourself. As I said in the OP, I believe in giving value for value. I give something because I receive value in return. And I don’t expect anyone to give me anything if they don’t feel they’re getting value from me.
The point of this giveaway is that your positive attitude is worth, for me, the 15$, 20$, 30$ or 50$ I’m going to spend on this game. Positive attitude makes these forums better. And the whole world better. It’s a valuable thing; don’t sell it short.
I almost never give to charity. Definitely not when they try to appeal to your feeling of guilt. Or come up with sob stories about the receiver’s “needs”. Or come up with the “it’s worth so little to you” act. It’s only 5$ for you. For a cup of coffee you can change a child’s life…
The thing is, if I give 5$ to that charity, then (and this is generously assuming that 100% of the charity money goes to the intended recipient; nothing is wasted or laundered) I’m transferring the money to someone who arbitrarily decided that he’s in need of it. If I buy a cup of coffee, then I’m transferring it, directly, to the owner. But indirectly I’m transferring it to the workers in the coffeeshop, the businessman/owner/manager who runs it, the farmers who grew the coffee, the drivers, cleaners, accountants… etc all of whom contributed in giving me that cup of coffee for those 5 dollars. It could be a single mother taking a second job to support her kids, or a student making extra money to go through college. Or someone who’s going to spend it on beer and weed. But it is someone who instead of sitting and claiming they need it decided to do something and produce value in return for getting my money. If I send the 5 dollars to “ACME Help Us” charity instead of buying the coffee, then it’s 5 less dollars that the coffee people would get.
I did grow up in a “third world” country where a good proportion of people had literally to live on few/several dollars per day. And I noticed a thing: there were two types of people: those who would try their best to do something about it: try to find a job, or a second or get a degree, or a training course... All of which really was a challenge. And a second group who would complain about corruption (which was present), poverty (which was present), them being underprivileged, not having opportunities. And not even attempt to do anything about it.
I’m much more likely to give “charity” to an organization that instead of trying to make me feel guilty, or produces sob stories, actually appeal to me by showing something positive. Like Make a Wish foundation, or similar. Show me a fund you’ve set up for students to attend school/college, who wouldn’t be otherwise able to afford it, and I’ll listen and might give you something if I think it’s worth it. But if you instead start with “Did you know that 70% of kids in Elbonia don’t have access to basic education” with a photo of a sad kid, then I stop listening there and then.
And it works both ways. No matter how rich you are, I don’t expect you to help me because “hey, it means nothing to you”. Or “hey, this game is so old, I deserve it for free”. I never complain about a game being too expensive, there is a simple solution for that: if I don’t feel the value of the game is worth to me what you’re asking or it, then I don’t buy it. Period. I might discuss the rationale behind making a game more or less expensive, but ultimately it’s your right do decide what price you want for it, and my right to decide whether I buy it or not. I really, really hate the frivolous DLCs, or the habit of making “season passes” and all the other “bad habits” of modern gaming industry, but I don’t begrudge EA, Steam or whatever for asking x$ for them. I don’t care how rich Gabe Newell is. Good for him. He hasn’t gotten 1 cent from me that I haven’t given willingly.
So with all that being said, what about helping strangers and not getting anything in return? What about entering or hosting giveaways where you get/give a game for free? What about all the free (as in libre) software that I download a lot of. How does it fit with the “only give value for value”?
It does. And this is where me saying that “money might not always be the best means of exchange” comes in. I definitely can’t expect to go “Well, I just explained to you how to get to the bus station. Now give me the fair 2.3 cents in exchange for my time.”
The value in this case is “distributed”. I’ve backpacked often as a student, I did many road trips last year in the US. And people helped me. A lot. From simple things like helping me find my way when hiking or an extra parking spot that they paid for but won’t need to giving me lodging for the night. Or, as another example, people on these forums helped me a lot too: I’ve won giveaways, received gift games from some users or had other people spend their time give me excellent detailed helps in games’ subforums.
So I help in return. As much as I can. It’s impossible to give monetary exchanges for these types of help , or even to come close to calculating who owes whom how much, But in the long run it just… averages out. I believe in the good in people. Of 10 people I help, 7 might be influenced positively, 2 might not care, and 1 might think “haha! What a sucker.” I don’t care, it is worth it. The net positivity is worth what I spent on help in those 10 cases. And this net positive value comes back to me when people help me.
So, want me to help you? If I can, I’ll be more than happy to. But if you come saying how “needy” or entitled you are, you get nothing from me. Helping you can have positive value, but neediness or entitlement is worthless.
And conversely, I will use free software if you offer it as such, but never will I complain about it, feel entitled to it, or say that I deserve this software/game/DLC/mod for free.
And finally, I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to anyone who has ever given me help on these forums, big or small.
