Origin and Steam: When a giveaway isn't

Beggars can't be choosers and free is generally worth every penny you paid...

So when a company like EA or Valve is giving away something you really don't have any room to complain if what's being offered doesn't meet your expectations.

Still, if the "gift" amounts to a glorified door prize the end result is burnt offerings.  If we're talking about  games it's either going to be old, unpopular or just more trouble than it's worth.  If the "gift" is the promise of trading something of value for even more value and it doesn't come to pass then it may be something else entirely.

Case in point: The Steam Holiday Auction.

It's the Holiday season and anyone who's got anything to sell has an angle from Ebay to the local pet store.  Valve's (Steam) angle is a so-called auction.  The premise is simple, use what you already have to bid on games you want. 

For the purposes of the "auction" your currency is a "gem" or rather many gems.  Steam users can bid on games using gems crafted from the promotional leftovers Valve gives away such as Trading Cards and other Steam specific kitsch.    Once a gem is crafted from these items it's irreversible. 

Sounds like a good deal right?  After all you're only bidding with the digital equivalent of a bumper sticker.  

Except that that the Holiday auction looks more like a glitzy bait and switch racket under the harshness of daylight.   You see, the items you "sacrifice" to craft gems for the auction actually have real value in the Steam "Marketplace."   Just as its name implies the "Marketplace" is a service that allows users to buy and sell game related trading cards and the like for real money.  Proceeds end up in the user's Steam wallet and can be used to purchase games.

Here's the bait and switch...

Once you craft a gem from the kitsch in your inventory it can't be undone.  Meaning you lose the ability to sell your items on the marketplace.  "Big deal," you say?  Well, here's the thing, the number of gems you get from your inventory items is paltry and almost worthless compared to what you potentially could have made in the marketplace. 

A quick glance at the current auctions show bids in the tens of thousands but it's unlikely you'll have anything near that even with a healthy inventory of Steam trading cards in your account. 

Worse, the titles up for "auction" largely consist of unpopular "indie" titles or old games that are already deeply discounted elsewhere. 

Instead of an opportunity to reward the Steam community, Valve has figured out a way to snooker them into trading a tiny bit of something for a whole lot of nothing.  Of course all of this happens within the confines and context of Valve's sandbox meaning they get to decide what's fair and just.

So much for giving back to the community. 

With somewhat less suspicious motives, EA's Origin has been offering up freebies all year.  Starting shortly after the Battlefield 4 launch debacle, EA's "On the House" promotion has been treating users of its service to free digital copies of selected game titles.  

Beginning with the hit game "Dead Space," and including Battlefield 3 and Plants Vs. Zombies, the offerings that have come along every few months were a bit dated but quality titles at least until now.

I say until now because it seems EA has decided to start reaching back into the last century for its latest "freebies. "   

In other words they've gone cheap...

Remember Crusader: No Remorse?  Me either.  How about SimCity 2000?  They may have been groundbreaking back in the 90's when they were released but now they're little more than relics and novelties.  Literally more trouble than they're worth and a reminder of how the good old days really weren't that good.

But that's what free buys you at EA these days.  Of course there's not much room to complain considering the price you paid.

But again, just like the Steam Holiday auction, it's burnt offerings with no other purpose than to legitimize a marketing campaign.

It's an insidious ploy.  Slap "Free" on anything and you take away the power to question what's being offered.  Dissent is easily countered with charges of ingratitude even if the motives are less than pure.  In the case of EA, "On the House" was likely little more than part of an overall marketing campaign of damage control after BF4's disastrous launch.

 In the case of Valve, it's likely less about magnanimity than it is about moving stale products at the expense of their customers.  The equation goes something like this:

Create a sales gimmick, say an "auction" that relies on a sandboxed currency (gems) only available through the purchase of your products.  Those products have attributes you can convert into auction currency but when you do so you find out that the items up for bid are out of reach because of the paltry exchange rate.  Soon you find slow moving titles selling like hotcakes as "bidders" clamor to get more currency by buying up cheap games thinking they'll come out ahead.

The worst part is that when you look at the games up for "auction" you find that most of them are stale titles whose "gem" value exceeds what you'd normally be able to buy the game for.  Since most of the auction items are "donated" by developers it's nothing but pure profit for Valve. 

The only part missing in a scheme like this is a charitable tie in.  If they donated 10% of sales to a charity the whole thing would be considered beyond reproach.

Call me cynical but I'm starting to get a bad taste in my mouth for the word "free."