Title says it all. One of the best games released last year (it even won several best Wii game prizes) now costs whatever you want. Just go here, and choose the amount. From their result, it seems $2 is the average (this including over 15,000 who paid 1 cent for it, and a couple who paid $50--the retail price is USD 20 for the computer versions, USD 10 for the WiiWare one).

Mac, PC and Linux ports available.

What you're not mentioning is that you have to buy it via Paypal. If paying through those nincompoops is the only option, I simply abstain. No matter what it is.

What's wrong with Paypal? I find it rather convenient..

In short, they aren't technically a bank, so legally, they can do pretty much whatever the hell they want with your money.

Thanks for the heads up!

...

This is just unmotivated terrorism, firstly because it's not true and secondly just use a prepaid card (as i do) and rest easy...

You don't have to have a PayPal account though:

Convenient for hackers. I remember reading of a few security breaches which convinced me not to use it.

How did "whatever it's worth" turn into "whatever you want"?
The credit card option is also PayPal, just not with an account.

Not that it's necessary because the game has received much critical praise, but I can vouch that the game was well worth the $10 I paid for it when it went on sale on steam. I just bought it again for a linux version and a more open windows version for $2.00

As for the paypal thing, paypal is a great outlet for people to do internet commerce. It does have many drawbacks but your alternatives are to give everybody your banking/credit card information, or just one group who handles the rest for you.

Considering the alternatives i'd much prefer to use paypal.

For me WoG was well worth the full price I paid last year. In fact I paid for it twice because I bought it for my brother for Christmas. Still tempted to buy the WiiWare version too....

PayPal can be annoying, I've heard plenty of scare stories. But in this case you can buy without setting up an account so what's the worst that can happen? None of the scare stories (that I've heard) have ever included PayPal stealing credit card numbers or over charging. Just play the WoG demo and see if it's worth the small amount of risk.

Gonna buy the Windows and Linux versions for $5 each. There is just no excuse to not buy it (unless you don't like PayPal, or don't have a credit card). It is an awesome game and the company (that is, the two dudes that created it and the few others who assisted in the ports) deserves the support (besides, when was the last quality game you bought for Linux?). And to think they inverted their savings ($10,000), just in this sale (after a lot of word of mouth) they obtained 10x that amount.

As for PayPal, maybe for people living in USA is inconvenient, but for people outside it is usually the only way to buy and sell things. Retailers and online sites don't usually accept international cards. Thankfully Amazon likes it.

You get it via steam, and I haven't got an account. Does this (using steam) stop me from downloading it onto a couple of machines? I've never got anything from steam as I keep reading bad things about it.

I tried buying it with my paypal account but it kept sending me to the credit card screen, so in the end I just bailed.

The game is too hard for me anyway, I tried the demo and couldn't get past level 4 or 5.

Paid $5 via PayPal, and they sent me a secret link with the download of the different executables. I thought I had to choose one version. Guess I will pay again to keep my promise!

Was the link something that you have access to for a few days, in case your download manager timed out or something? Or is the link just to a file downloader, which will download the game for you (and take out of the timeouts itself)?

I'm sure the point gnolam was trying to make was that PayPal is an evil company, and any transactions through them feeds their pockets. PayPal takes a cut of almost every transaction, so even using a credit card to pay will support them.

Anyway, World of Goo rocks.

I thought they would ask me which version, and give me only the link for that version. That is why I paid $5 (and then was going to pay another $5 for the other version). But they sent me a link to a page with all five downloads (Windows, Mac and three Linux versions) instead. I downloaded the Windows and the tar.gz version of the Linux (RPM and DEB also available). Had I known, I would have paid $10 directly.

If your conscious tells you to pay the other $5, go ahead and pay it; you just don't need to click on the download link once the transaction is complete

EDIT:

My credit card company charges me for using my card. Not annual, mind you. Just a percentage of my unpaid balance.

I don't have to pay them at all if I pay it off early enough (before the statement becomes due), or if I use my debit card instead.

Paypal is man-in-the-middle. The 2Dboy company probably chose to incur that transaction cost for them (Paypal) to handle all the encrypted transactions, credit card number storage, and security measures (physical, electronic, etc.) that they (2Dboy) don't want to have to deal with. I'd probably do the same thing: I'm not equipped to have my company (if/when I own my own) sued if a disgruntled employee wants to run off with all my customers' information. I'd rather sue someone else if they botch it

Looks interesting. Only getting it 'cause it's 1 cent.

Am I a hypocrite? Probably

Still waiting on this secret email...

You don't need to store credit cards to run transactions.

Only 1 cent? I donated 10! \o/

Actually I started with 10 cents and then paypal said "The number must be greater than 0". I spend all day debugging things and I have no interest doing it for paypal so I just did 0.01 instead.

But you still have to pay through PayPal.
Besides what Billybob said, which is reason enough to avoid them (and if even that isn't enough, there are the blatant security issues), they're still fucking incompetent. I recently - and reluctantly - had to use their credit card payment service (which I'm guessing is the same one as these guys are using). Never again. Any payment company who, mid-transaction, decides to redirect a customer through goddamned fucking IP geolocation to a horribly machine translated page that seemed almost deliberately designed to fuck up the entire purchase doesn't just deserve to go bankrupt. They deserve to burn.

So here's something I never understood about North America (or at least the US and Canada). People are terrified of giving you their bank account number. Why?
Back home, giving someone your bank account number means people can put money in your account. That doesn't really scare me. What's different?
Either way, in a case like this, I'd expect to be given bank details for payment, not asked to give mine.

Nah, it is true. I take it you've never heard any of the horror stories. I was hit by PP too, almost screwed out of $2500. Luckily, it was resolved, but I'm very cautious about using them now, unfortunately, it isn't totally feasible to get rid of them entirely.

To elaborate a bit more on this, I had a friend deployed overseas who needed me to handle a money issue. He sent money to my PP account from his debit card, $2500 to be exact. I knew it would look fishy from Paypal's perspective, so I called them to make sure everything would be fine (there was no phone # for him to be reached at, etc). They told me once the money was in my account all was good, unless someone filed a complaint. So imagine my surprise after that $2500 was transferred out of paypal, and they decided to 'investigate' the funds. They put a hold on the money (which was already gone, they made it available for withdrawl), dropping me to a negative balance. They attempted to do an electronic withdrawl from my bank account for $2500... luckily for me I didn't have sufficient funds available. They tried several other dollar amounts too, 2400, 2200, etc. My bank contacted me to see WTF was up with all the attempted withdrawls, luckily they didn't pay out and come after me for that. PP kept telling me they couldn't contact him via phone, too dense to listen to what I was telling them they told me before about the issue. They told me to have him email, after he did that it wasn't good enough and they wanted a fax, etc. Nothing was satisfactory to them. They told me I had 30 days to make it right. I told them to cancel the transaction and refund all the money to the other end, and we'd move the money without them. They refused to do so, sent me to collections, etc. Turns out my buddy had to do a chargeback (luckily he ran it as credit and not debit, another plus to American debit cards ) to get the money back and ended up mailing me a check, at which point I had to deal with their asshole collection agency. Thats a whole other story though.

They wanted all kinds of personal info from me too, copies of bank statements, credit card statements, drivers license, social security number, etc. They kept hassling me for it, even though I kept saying no way, just close the account. Then mysteriously one day I get an "investigation complete" email and my account unlocked, etc.

But yeah, FMC, read their ToS. They can do pretty much whatever they want when it comes to holding funds, etc. They are NOT FDIC insured, they aren't legally a bank, therefore they don't fall under fair banking laws, etc. The fact that they don't mention being FDIC insured and the fact that they don't require identification/SSN/etc to open an account proves that (these new anti-terrorism laws require banks to keep positive identification on file). So it isn't terrorism, and it isn't unmotivated.

That's called interest. You aren't charged for using the card (unless you pay an anual fee or something). As you said, you're charged for carrying a balance, and utilizing their money for more than a few weeks. There is a distinction there. I use my credit card for anything I may need to dispute, and pay it in full when the bill rolls. I pay no fees at all, and gain added protection (CC companies are more willing to work with you because it's their money on the line, with a debit card it's your money so they don't have less motivation; also CC's carry more protection against fraud/etc).

0.01 is useless. Paypal's fees are more than that. Luckily, fees are capped at the transaction amount, so net effect for the receiver is 0 on that 1 cent transaction.

Wow. I'm not going to use paypal for anything important from now on...

Well the thing is PayPal is, as you said, not a bank... why use it as such?

I mainly use it as a mean to make smallish payments on the web (using a prepaid card) and for such it works cleanly, and it ads a little bit of security on my transactions. I prefer giving my card data once rather than every time i buy something.

In Europe, Paypal is registered as a bank and is also regulated as such.

The problem isn't in sending payments, it's in receiving them. When people send you money, you kinda have to use them as a bank, as they have the money until you manage to get it from them.

The demo seems to be running beautifully in Linux. This is so awesome. The site says USD$20 is the regular price and I think that's fair. Edit: purchased.

As for PayPal, I trust them; certainly a lot more than 99% of Web sites. I'd rather go through PayPal then directly give some Web site my credentials. I haven't had any problems with them (though if you use debit it's usually a SLOW process thanks to banks taking forever...certainly Canadian banks). It makes sense to use a middleman that can focus on securing transactions and let everyone else worry about doing business.

I downloaded the demo and it is not precisely my kind of game. It feels kinda like that bridge building flash game, and much like it, I can imagine it gets really frustrating in later levels, so I'm not going to buy it even for 1 cent.

However, what these guys are doing is really nice. Offering their game for as low as 1 cent is a nice move to stop people from pirating it and possibly get some money instead. I think PayPal keeps all the money for small payments though, so next time they should keep a lower limit of one dollar or something like that.

Offering the game for every OS is also nice.

Nefarious types can both charge your account with just the #, or make a withdrawal. Charging is not hard, there are plenty of ways to make a charge with just a bank account number. Withdrawal isn't hard either, as any information the bank asks for to verify your identity can be collected or bought.

Also, in the U.S. your bank account is only protected beyond $500. If your ATM card gets stolen, for example, and you don't report it before charges are made, you could be out $500 and a month's worth of hassle.

Indeed, I have been playing the Linux version at home and runs extraordinarily well. In fact I was surprised at how smooth it was (even while leaving dvd burning and file moving in the background). And it has relatively low requirements.

I think everyone should support the game, but if it is not your type of it, won't force you

The music of the "Tumbler" stage in World 1 is awesome too. By the way, you can download the soundtrack of the game for free too (90MB or so).

Can anybody explain all of the rules for playing? I'm stuck on Chapter 1 Level 4... I can get to the tube, but when I do I'm always short goo balls, even when they haven't apparently been chopped up... Is there a time limit or something? What's the deal? The game is missing a How To Play or Tutorial mode...

For every level you need to save a determined amount of goos. You link them to create a tower or similar structure to reach the pipe, which will suck them. There is no time limit, and the goos naturally move towards the pipe (so if the pipe is above and you begin building a tower, they will start climbing). Once all the goos are sucked, you pull the chain and finish the level. Let me check 1-4 to see which stage it is.

(Edited: Aha, goos "die" if they touch the cogwheel, or if they fall on a bottomless pit. For that stage, you need to build surrounding the cogwheel. It is possible that you won't be able to finish the stage if too many goos die. If you click the "eyes" that float around--can't remember how the game calls them--you will be able to go back one goo in time to redo a movement, but those redoes are limited).

You need to build a more efficient structure, as only the goos you haven't used to build are collected in the pipe. That level is much more difficult than the first three and slightly more than some of the others after it.

The good thing about the game is that it lets you skip stages. That is, you don't get stuck. Some levels are easier than others, and it may take you a while until you get to learn the different tricks. I finished the first world easily because I had already played the demo too many times, however I had to skip the bridge building stage because (although I know how to pass it) I can't get "the solution" to work.

Ah, that was the problem. Thank you.

There seems to be a difference between the green and black ones as well... AFAICT, the green ones are reusable and the black ones are one-time uses? Finished the first chapter (if the number on the main menu is any indication, I managed +69 balls).

Hmm. So I should know this, but can I get wiiware from their site onto an SD card, so I can put it on my Wii that way (since I have no wireless router)

Yup. There are five types of goos, plus item helpers (like balloons). The goos you save can be used to construct the tower of Goo, submitting the size of your structure to their online rankings, and to give the game some replayability.

No, only the Windows, Mac and Linux versions are being offered. The Wii version is being sold for USD 10 (which is half the USD 20 being asked for the PC/Mac ones). Note that the WiiWare version is hailed as the best one because of the multiplayer component (people can just pick up a Wii Remote and start helping or disturbing the original player).

Just bought it for $5. Wife's idea.

Let's see how this bad boy plays out.

I LOVE THIS GAME. I paid $5 for it and told a friend, who paid $5 for the Wii and PC versions combined. I've already played about three hours and hit the third chapter. But it's 2 am... and moderation is important!

And as for hating Paypal... I don't get it. It's a business. If they want to keep making money, they're going to do what they need to. It's that simple.

Yup, saw the story on Slashdot a few days ago and bought it then. It was a smart move on their part extending the offer after releasing the results. It's a pretty short game though, so I'll be checking out some user-made levels in the coming days.

Anyone got the internet connection working in the World of Goo corporation bit?

Are you reading those signs the Sign painter left there for you? They explain a lot.

Fails under Linux every time I tried. Apparently it uses HTTPS, but I am not sure if the Linux bit is broken, or if the server is being overwhelmed with connections.

I put in -$10, and paypal gave me money.

By the way, the leaderboards are being redone, probably that is why we cannot connect.

Same for me on Windows, but AFAIK, the server was shutdown due to this action, because it was overloaded. That, or the fact they're being redone is at fault. Anyway, can't wait till I see the towers of other players!

I read somewhere that you had to configure a proxy using environment variables (the answer was even geared for Windows...). That doesn't seem to make sense though...

I'm currently stuck on what I think is the second-last level in Chapter 4... What do I gotta do?!^[1] Edit: I cheated and asked Google.

I wish I'd thought to try that; but the "The number must be greater than 0" clause probably prevents it most of the time...

I tried the demo some time ago, but I didn't really like it much... but when I read about the deal on ars technica I figured it was that it was probably worth it for the low price of $1, even if I only play a few levels past the first chapter.

I actually really like it. And I'm not one for casual or puzzle games. I think WOG is so much more than that (in fact, I'm not sure I would call it a casual game; it sure doesn't feel like one). The art, humor, sound effects, music, and story make it a complete experience. The physics make it fun and challenging beyond just solving puzzles. And the extras, like the spare room where extra balls can be played with and networked with the world is a really great idea that adds replay-ability. I really like what they did too with the new goo balls. You never really know what you're going to discover and it makes it that much more gripping. It's a really great game. It's special.

I was starting to enjoy it... got about 3-4 done (so just after the intro screens), when my wife came in. I let her play some of the first levels so she got accustomed to it, and I left for just a minute to take care of the kids. When I came back, she had beaten two more levels and was on a third (past where I had beaten).

She says it's addicting and doesn't want to play it again while she has "anything important to do." Which means I can't play it while she's doing other things, since it will distract her.

So I guess the game is fun... for what I've seen, anyway.

I had an unemployment card with like a dollar left on it and I didn't know what to do with it. This seemed like the perfect solution.

Quality time well spent!

The game has up to three profiles too, so that she doesn't finish levels you wanted to do.

I wouldn't say it's addictive... There really isn't that much to the game. It's great, but it's also short. I just got it Saturday and already (as of Sunday evening^[1][2]) I'm at the Epilogue (with 1/4 levels beaten). It reminds me of Portal in that it's short, but sweet. AFAIK, all that remains after beating these last levels (which are supposed to be much harder, and the first one was no exception) is accomplishing OCD on all levels (and that comes naturally ^[3]) and exploring the "extras room"^[4]/networking content. If after completing all the levels and exploring what other secrets might be waiting, you're still playing it like an addict, I would say something is definitely wrong.

When you're done playing, go get Plants vs. Zombies. Another short, but sweet game.

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Source Article

Survey Results

In short: They made about $100k for the week long sale.

Are you removing all transactions $0.30 and lower from these figures, minus around the 11% mentioned that were Paypal transaction fees?

From what I calculated (using only the low-end values provided by the survey results):

Paid            # purchases     Subtotal                After 11% Paypal
====            ===========     ========                ================

$1.00           2,389           $2,389.00               $262.79 
$2.00           1,424           $2,848.00               $313.28 
$3.00           1,201           $3,603.00    (paypal)   $396.33 
$5.00      *    3,627     =     $18,135.00    * 11% =   $1,994.85 
$10.00          1,188           $11,880.00              $1,306.80 
$15.00          214             $3,210.00               $353.10 
$20.00          235             $4,700.00               $517.00 

                                Subtotal:               Total:
                                $46,765.00              $5,144.15

Wouldn't the total be $46K-5K, not the $5K? Still, a lot less than $100K.

You're pulling numbers from the survey. That's just people who filled it out on the honor system.

The numbers from the image are real sales numbers and more than double these.

Have 2D Boy released an estimate of the development costs (including their salaries, projected if they don't get such a luxury)?

They mentioned it was USD 10,000 (their life savings). Can't find it, but in this interview about something unrelated they mention 2D Boy, two guys, 10,000 dollars.

Whoops! You're totally right. I feel stupid.

Paid            # purchases     Subtotal                11% Paypal Fees     Total
====            ===========     ========                ===============     =====

$ 1.00          2,389           $ 2,389.00              $  262.79          $ 2,126.21 
$ 2.00          1,424           $ 2,848.00              $  313.28          $ 2,534.72
$ 3.00          1,201           $ 3,603.00    (paypal)  $  396.33          $ 3,206.67 
$ 5.00     *    3,627     =     $18,135.00    * 11% =   $1,994.85          $16,140.15 
$10.00          1,188           $11,880.00              $1,306.80          $10,573.20 
$15.00            214           $ 3,210.00              $  353.10          $ 2,856.90 
$20.00            235           $ 4,700.00              $  517.00          $ 4,183.00 

                                Subtotal:               Fees:              Total:
                                $46,765.00              $5,144.15          $41,620.85

This is true, and the numbers from 2D boy would be more accurate, though I'd like to see what their income after Paypal turned out to be.

I think they should continue Paypal donations to anyone who bought the game for < $5 or $10, who plays the game, and feels like it's worth more than what they initially paid for it (or when they can "afford" it, like many listed on the survey results). I, for example, had never played it and had only seen a YouTube video here or there describing it, though it really didn't do the game justice. I feel comfortable with my $5 "donation", though if my wife and I keep playing and loving the game (like, good replay value), I would like to be able to donate more so they come out with WoG 2.

Something tells me $10K is a little underestimated. This suggests more like $96K for just the developers' living expenses over an estimated 24 month development period (2 years). Even that seems low to me. Basically, it's approximately $24K/year each^[1], which most will agree is not a very comfortable income. They might have struggled with that kind of money over the course of development, but I doubt they want to live like that forever. More than likely, now that they're bringing in some money they're doing some catch up to make their lives more livable and I would argue that should be added to the cost of development. On top of that, there was $10K for hardware, software, devkits, and a part time QA person; and another unexpected $10K for legal fees (due to trouble with one of their publishers) and localization. I count the estimate at about $116K, and I bet there's more where that came from.

Very true. I pulled some strings and got their actual numbers! They're in the image below.
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Thats about the average income in California... It's even lower for the USA.

Also consider they could make plenty more money as the game gets more popular.

That's not what I'm reading...

Maybe I'm reading it wrong... I make close to USD$24K/year and I think it would be hard to live comfortably on what I currently make^[1].

I wonder what the cost of their server uptime is. Of all things I would expect that to be the most expensive "running" cost. They would have to make a certain amount of sales per month just to keep the game available to the public.

I love no DRM BTW. I'd gladly pay extra for a DRM Free copy of any game.

Dirt cheap. A couple hundred a month at most. And I'm not following why the server is essnential to the game, isn't it just used for a high score list? It can be used for numerous other things aside from the game assuming load isn't through the roof (such as hosting the site itself) and host future titles as well. The most expensive running cost is probably the rented "office" which is part of the nintendo requirements for getting dev kits.

You're supposed to be able to see other online players building towers in the distance from their extra goo balls in the "extras room". I haven't been able to connect yet so I don't know exactly what this means. I assume it's in real-time.

It's not in real time and in the time that i've played it, I only occasionally saw any other towers.

Usually they only show others that are somewhat close to the height of your tower.

This is the bias in your numbers vs mine bamccaig.

My numbers are either every man woman and child or all men and women of working age. I can't exactly recall which one it is.

If you say 'men who worked full time' you're on a very different scale.

edit
My numbers must be every man woman and child. Here is all people over 14 (src wikipedia):

Does this exclude the homeless? I don't know.

If you look again at my post, I included that in the quote. How many 14 year olds do you know that can support themselves, let alone a family? I know none. And even with them, it's STILL more than $24K!

There will be as many people below the median as above it. Even at 40k there are very likely a bunch of 'people who work full time' living at 20k and still 'people who work full time' that make 10k. If you say all these people live uncomfortably that's fine though I disagree with you. America is a very rich and easy country to live in. It's possible to live very nicely off 10k.

It's also ridiculously easy to get 10k a year. Compare that the hoards of impoverished countries out there and that 10k starts to sound like some kind of paradise.

What people usually mean when they say "no one can live off 25k" is "I can't live in my favorite expensive city". This is a very different thing to say.

It would be more difficult to say "it's impossible to live off 25k" if all the people making that much, and going on living, were sitting there listening.

The reality is that these 14 year olds must be provided for regardless of their income. The income will simply be drained from someone else's salary.

You can't look at these numbers as when employment starts but as when expenses start.

Where do you live?

I agree the cost of living varies from state to state, and it's pretty easy to get 10k a year. But 10k a year living comfortably?

10k a year jobs don't often include things like:
- health insurance
- travel expenses
- food?

What do you eat besides Top Romen with 10k a year?

At my worst times (when I made least income to expense ratio in my life) I had $650 per month rent for a 1 bedroom hole in the wall and barely could afford food. I made about 10k a year (before taxes)

I was not living nicely. Had I gotten sick or injured, I'd be boned.

10k a year can only feasibly mean.
- only taking public transportation
- only eating very unhealthily
- never going to a doctor/dentist
- living alone most likely unless with someone else making 10k a year.
- no luxuries whatsoever.

I doubt anyone considers that living nicely.

Comfort is a relative thing. If your standard is higher that will sound awful. If your standard is lower that will sound amazing.

It's a bit silly I suppose to start saying one thing is comfortable and one is not while attempting an objective discussion. Much more interesting is how half the population is under $24k/yr.

edit One quick semantics check

I'll bet a lot of people in Africa do. Anyone is a large group.

I'm glad I don't live there. You can rent an entire house here for about US$650 a month. And I mean a reasonable quality one as well, within 20 minutes of the city centre.

I could live off of $500/month in a rural area. $830/month would be very comfortable living.

In fact, I've been living off of $12,000 per year for the past couple of years. And that includes going to (without any debt) university.

Back on topic, they posted more information:

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After their first post (on the 8th) donations went upwards (they assume it was after informing they were not seeing money for donations of $0.30 and lower).

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Linux users usually donated more money than Windows users, while over 65% were Windows buyer. I downloaded the tar.gz version, for reference.

I was thinking of doing a 'free' promotion where I give away the game until a certain date. I'd advertise the free until date everywhere and try to get as many people as possible to download it.

Then presumably it would start costing money and all those free games out there are your advertisements.

Could it work?

It would be better if you were to do microtransactions on top of the free game, like map packs, more enemy and item variety, etc. At least, I think so.

I've noticed some hostility in iPhone App reviews for this concept. I'm not quite sure how to react. Ideas?

It seems to work really well for Guitar Hero where you can buy playable songs. That's genius...

I believe the reason this is done (perhaps someone else can confirm/deny) is that by setting a paid for product to free there is the hope that there is a large spike in popularity, enough to get the app onto the main page of top "x" apps, and then charge for it once it gets there. It's more for placement then just word of mouth.