So, uh, that steam sale

It was the last chance to buy it at that price from Stardock. Steam sales happen. Where are all of you coming from, its almost like a bunch of monkeys just discovered computers and steam sales today. Theres like several of you already, stop breeding...

Take your condescending tone and shove it up your arse.  Sure, steam sales happen - but stardock's email didn't say it was the last chance to buy it direct, it said the last chance to buy a discounted pre-order. Not only was that not true, it's now being sold for less than what I paid before the game's even close to finished. 

blah blah blah. You're own fault, stardock didn't misslead you. You and your poor $10.00, I paid a $100.00

You are just as bad as the people crying in the Steam forums that Civ beyond earth is 40% off when they paid full price. Same rules apply.

Oh my glob I bought the game for $15 more than today's sale price three weeks ago. Everything is ruined.   

Well, it'd be nice to have that $15 back but whatever. 

OP, anything goes in Steam holiday sales. Never assume. If you want to buy a thing in December, wait to see if Steam puts it up for sale. Usually, the prices will stay at least somewhat discounted until January 2, and you'll still have a shot at the better discounts that last for a day or so.

Do all of you have a reading disability? I am not bothered that Steam sales happen - I am bothered Stardock told me the Founder's edition was the last chance to buy a discounted GC pre-order and that turned out not to be the case. But no, continue to ignore that part and be needlessly hostile in your knee-jerk defences. 

But it was the last chance to buy a pre-order. It is no longer on pre-order and never will be again.

I've bought games on pre-order for a small discount or a bonus dlc and found the game on sale a few months later. Almost every game gets a discount at some point in the 3-6 months following release. Only the biggest of the big sellers manage to keep their release price for an extended period. In fact pre-order is the only time it's worth paying full-price because then you're guaranteed the longest period before it goes on sale. Buy at any other time and you're risking a sale the very next day.

The game is not yet released, so all current sales are also pre-orders. If you argue that Early Access is "release" and so these sales are not pre-orders, then how does EA differ from the Founder's Beta? Either they are both pre-orders or neither are, in either case the advertisment would be misleading. 

Anyway, I have emailed stardock sales and will not be checking this forum further.

Unfortunately, Stardock cannot speak for Steam, nor predict their holiday sales any better than you or I.  I sympathize with your frustration, but I don't think Stardock can be held to blame here.  Steam caught both you and Stardock by surprise.

As for the question of buying too early, I shelled out $100 for the free-content-forever deal.  In my eyes, as a frugal shopper, you bought too late. 

Me too, and when all is said and done, I think we will be the ones who got the most for our money.

No, I just think your complaint is ignorant. Stardock saying that was about Stardock selling it. That doesn't necessarily extend to Steam, and I am not sure why you'd expect it would.

I'm not one to support moderation of feedback that can lead to a lop sided forum where no negative comments can be discussed. However if this type of forum "banter" is acceptable to the community I would be shocked. Seriously people, get along and don't go raging forum wars. It was on sale, it happened. That can upset people. Does it bother me? Not one bit, it happens. To say that stardock didnt approve a sale would be inaccurate. Valve (the company that runs steam) does not decide what your product price point or sales are. They can suggest with statistics on trending sale prices and price point to sales profit scales and what not. In any event, its done, and some lucky crowd got a great deal! Thats more money in the pocket of the company we all want to develop this title into a future classic. Thats it I'm done, not going to read any further on this post as it has deteriorated into a horrible expression of human intolerance. 

I think the moral of the story here is to simply buy games when you can afford them and with money you can afford to spend. What you pay for things is largely irrelevant as sales will come and go and everything drops in price over time anyway. It's more about whether or not you're willing to wait and what you're willing to spend at the time.

That was a little bit of resurrection there. But damn! There you go using common sense and logic. Careful, that might get you into trouble in some parts...

If you are going to use common sense you are not allowed to wear pirate like gear.    You hear?

It's pretty amusing some people here have the gall to talk down to me while at the same time imaging that Steam just randomly put people's games on sale. Game Developers/Publishers have to agree to suggested sales, or indeed can set their own sales prices nowadays.

This is not a complex thing, I'm not upset about money on its own, I'm not upset about games becoming cheaper in general as they age/go on sale, I'm upset because Stardock specifically offered me the "Last Chance for Discounted Galactic Civilizations III Pre-order", which was what made me buy it at the time, and then sold the pre-order for cheaper later. It was dishonest, that's what's upsetting.

If you ever saw ghost busters theN you may remember the quote: if so eone asks you if you're a god you say yes. If steam offers to feature your game even if it means discount ting it you say yes.

I find it amusing that you necroposted just so you could keep bitching about this. 

I agree with your decision and think you should do another one, just for kicks. :) 

Seeing the title, I thought there was a steam sale and I was about to gleefully buy more copies to gift out. Oh well, maybe later. 

And yes, I am a god. Aren't you? :) 

If you ever saw The Empire Strikes back, you might remember the part where Vader altered the deal - further reinforcing him being the bad guy and turning Lando from an ally to an enemy.

So you're saying it's ok to break promises to you customers to make more money? Sure, from a business point of view, I guess it is so long as the extra profits outweigh the annoyed customers- doesn't mean the customers with the broke promise is gonna be pleased about it. 

Look, Brad, I'm not happy about this, and I'm not happy with how the game turned out - can't I just get a refund and leave like you offered that angry dude in the patch thread? That's how most businesses handle annoyed customers, even if they think they're totally wrong, I could have been on my way thinking "well they changed the deal, but I got a refund so it's all good, SD are decent people". Instead I've been changed from a long-tern galciv fan to someone who actively dislikes your products and way of doing business, it doesn't help anyone involved. 

Don't act like you've been begging for a refund this whole time, this is the first time you've asked for a refund in this whole thread. The entire rest of it, you've been complaining that you pre-ordered the game while it was on sale, because they said that would be the last time to pre-order at a discount, then it went like on sale for $5 less later on.

The truth is, they didn't plan on there being more discounts, so as far as they knew, that was going to be the last chance to pre-order at a discount. Then Steam came to them and offered them free advertisement in return for offering an even bigger discount on early access. What would you have done? Turn down free advertisement because "Well, shoot, we said we wouldn't do any more discounts..." That would be stupid! And here you've spent a lot of energy on outrage over a dollar amount equal to what might be the price of lunch.

If you really want a discount, go for it, but stop acting like you're a victim of some company's evil plot to steal your ten dollars.

No, what I would expect them to do is take the steam offer and offer the difference back or a refund to any customers who took the earlier deal and were upset about it now.

Also, you might want to re-evaluate your stance since you don't have all the info, I asked for a refund via the stardock support system shortly after I made this thread (I actually thought Brad would be cool about it and sort me out here without having to take an official step). Instead I just got some kneejerk insults, so I made a support ticket instead - they refused me. The reason I am posting again now is that Brad offered a refund to a guy in the latest patch thread and I was hoping I could also get one.

And I might as well quote the reply I am talking about: