ARMA 3 donation

[MavericK96 0]

Another argument is that, if the copies are gifted, it could be to people who might not ever buy ArmA 3 in the first place, but may play it for free and like it, and further support BIS in the future (and/or become a valuable member of the modding/scripting community).

[NeuroFunker 11]

u can be a best buddy in the world, and simply buy as much support editions u can, and gift them to ur buddies. Thats imo the best donation you can make.

[hyzoran 17]

Purchase many copies of ArmA 3 and send them to orphans so that they can enjoy the experience as well.

[cjph 0]

In the UK there is a charity called 'Help for Heroes' for those injured in recent conflicts. Whilst I would like to see the money go there I suspect there are many such charities in the countries where BIS sells Arma all worthy of donations. If not, the red cross and/or red crescent never have enough funds.

cj

[b00tsy 28]

Or if you're really flush, buy a super-dooper server for the peeps to play on.

And buy me a decent pc that is up for the job, the crisis has been a biach to me. It may even be a secondhand one or one that fell of a truck :ok:

I like the idea of you buying the first 500 alpha copies. Pretty funny to see the same name 500 times in the end credits lol.

[Nicholas 5]

I remember when I felt like I wanted to donate money to Bohemia Interactive. I believe that simply being a loyal fan is worthy enough for Bohemia Interactive. Donating to charities, various modding teams, and other ArmA websites is what will really help. I've made donations to various modders and teams before and you feel good knowing that your donation is helping to make more awesome mods.

You can donate as much as you want to Bohemia Interactive and you'll probably only make a tiny dent in total sales of ArmA. They are a business and operate on profits and not donations.

Edited February 28, 2013 by Nicholas

[vegeta897 13]

The ridiculousness of this argument makes my head hurt. I don't even know what to say to this.

Let's also remove the ability of Steam Gifting ArmA3 because that's a sale lost to BIS!

I think you're forgetting the point of the thread. Gifting extra copies you bought doesn't help BIS any more than if those people had just bought the game themselves, which is what the OP of the thread is asking about. If he had bought 50 supporter editions, and didn't give them to anyone, then any of the people who would have bought the game without being gifted it would be then giving extra money to BIS. "Lost sale" has a negative sound to it, but it's kind of accurate when you consider the point of what the OP is asking.

50 people buying 50 games vs 1 person buying and gifting the other 49 is the same amount of sales, yes. But if the OP wants to "donate" money, he would buy 50 games and gift none, thereby causing the would-be giftees to buy the game themselves, which is extra sales. Even if not all of them do, it's still extra sales.

This isn't to say I agree that it's a good idea to not gift the extra copies you bought. It's hard to say for sure whether letting BIS 'keep the money' would be more valuable than spreading gifts to people who wouldn't have purchased it otherwise, who may then recommend the game to their friends and generate even more income.

Since the idea of doing nothing with the extra copies seems like a waste, I'd say just give out the copies. I don't think BIS are hurting for money that bad.

[dm 9]

Not if it removes demand from the system.

The one getting the game for free doesn't pay, sale lost.

No, there is no sales lost, there is no demand removed. The logic:

100 people want Arma 3

Inch wants Arma 3

100 people buy Arma 3

Inch buys Arma 3

= 101 sales

100 people want Arma 3

Inch buys 101 copies (assuming he keeps one for himself), gives one each to those 100 people

= 101 sales

100 people want Arma 3

Inch guy buys 101 copies, and DOES NOT give to those 100 people

those 100 people have to buy Arma 3

= 201 sales (100 people who wanted the game, plus Inch who just wanted to spend the money)

There is only ever Inch's EXTRA sales. There is never a sale "lost" in terms of final numbers of the game shipped, only ever the extra sales Inch would generate in buying those copies and leaving them to fade into obscurity.

Edited February 28, 2013 by DM

[almanzo 144]

Here is how you can donate.

Buy as many copies as you want but don't give a copy to anyone. Let those copies disappear in obscurity, every copy you would give is a sale lost to BI.

If you want recognition, buy some or all of the first 500 supporter editions and make BI print your name 500 times in the credits. :)

One mayor flaw in that argument, and that is also the one mayor flaw in anti-piracy agencies. If someone gets something for free or wants something for free, it does not mean that they would buy it if it wasn't free.

However, if Inch bought 100 copies of ARMA III, and gave away 99 of those copies to people he thought a: would never have bothered to pay the game just to try it, or B: people who have never heard of the game before, then alot of people who never would have owned ARMA III if it hadn't been for what he did. Let's say about 80 people of those 100 didn't care much for the game. They tried it, and it wasn't their thing. No harm done, nothing would have happened. But if the 19 others who got the game liked it, told their friends about it and tried to get others into it, it would mean increased sales.

Why do games to markeding? Because they need people to know about the game and talk about it to generate sales. Giving out free copies isn't allways a bad idea. Paulo Choelo, the author, put his own books on Pirate bay because he realized from statistics that piracy actually increased his sales.

Culture is social. We talk about our experiences. Just think about the many times a friend have told you about a movie or a game so that you decided to buy it, see it or try it. Word of mouth is the best adverticement there is.

To make a very clear example. When I was younger, we used to pirate music. I don't anymore, but I did. Most of the music we downloaded was obscure and only us knew about it, but it was huge in the LAN culture. 90% of the music we lissened to, hit the charts about 1 - 2 months later, allways every time. TaTu might be the best example of this from back then.

Or to look at something more recent. Gagnam Style. Most people found Gagnam Style through youtube and social medias. It was made popular simply by sharing it through social media sites. It made Psy a global super star. Same thing with Justin Bieber, he was made famous on youtube, mostly due to piracy (Gagnam Style was put on youtube intentionally by his label).

Giving out copies of a game you love to people (especially when you have payed for it) helps said game a lot!

Take DayZ as an example as well. Alot of people bought ARMA because of DayZ, or they would never had bought it. Just look at the wastelands servers now, and ask the majority of players how they found ARMA... Allmost everyone replies DayZ. Alot of people who buys ARMA III whould never have done so, if it wasn't for DayZ. DayZ was an incentive to buy ARMA, but ARMA it self was not why they bought it. They bought it in order to be able to play DayZ. But alof of those people now play ARMA alot, simply because they have found out how great it is.

[chrisb 196]

Well I spent a little time thinking about it and can honestly say BIS never donated to my business:(, so I’ll not be donating to theirs.:D

Not as if that will bother them in the slightest, I’m buying the game, they will be more that happy with that, so will I, great, we’re both winners..:p

If you want to donate, send a donation to the two guys that were stuck in Greece for so long, to help go towards their legal costs..:butbut:

[bumgie 49]

Step 1. Find modders of previous armas who are on the fence about getting arma 3 due to it being (x/y/z/steam).

Step 2. Give them a free copy.

Step 3. Think long and hard at why you have extra money and whose dept it really is.

[tonygrunt 10]

There is only ever Inch's EXTRA sales. There is never a sale "lost" in terms of final numbers of the game shipped, only ever the extra sales Inch would generate in buying those copies and leaving them to fade into obscurity.

Still, 201 is bigger that 101 and you did get what I was trying to point in my 1 line response but you have a problem with the way I worded it. Please remember that for some of us English is not our native language (and I have 2 of them).

................

All nice and well, nobody said otherwise, but I just want to give some extra money to BI, I don't want to take a 2nd job as a promoter to the community. You are free to do as you like and I await how you will follow through with your promotional ideas. I will just buy ArmA 3 a couple of times more in the course of me playing it (call it a subscription), and let the extra copies rot (OMG think of the starving gamers :) ).

Now this thread has gone way off topic. Inch asked for ways to help donate BI and it has become a tear down of comments. But please continue to overanalyze my 1 line comment.

[ringoray 1]

Step 1: Ask for my Address.

Step 2: I will give it to you.

Step 3: Ask me what would I like?

Step 4: I will answer, I would like a spanking new pc.

Step 5: You send me around £4,000 to build such amazing pc.

Step 6: I thank you for your kindness and be on my way ;)

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

100 people want Arma 3

Inch wants Arma 3

100 people buy Arma 3

Inch buys Arma 3

= 101 sales

100 people want Arma 3

Inch buys 101 copies (assuming he keeps one for himself), gives one each to those 100 people

= 101 sales

100 people want Arma 3

Inch guy buys 101 copies, and DOES NOT give to those 100 people

those 100 people have to buy Arma 3

= 201 sales (100 people who wanted the game, plus Inch who just wanted to spend the money)

I didn't mention any "sales lost", I said demand would be removed from the system and they would get only 101 sales, as opposed to 201 - which is obviously a more preferable scenario.

[sproyd 2]

There are some really dumb arguments in this forum and people feeding the trolls.

A copy of a game given away is not a lost sale, you sound like those RIAA scumbags who think that because Justin Timberlake's album was downloaded 1 million times on The Pirate Bay they missed out on $20M in revenue. The world doesn't work like that!

---------- Post added at 13:55 ---------- Previous post was at 13:52 ----------

I remember when I felt like I wanted to donate money to Bohemia Interactive. I believe that simply being a loyal fan is worthy enough for Bohemia Interactive. Donating to charities, various modding teams, and other ArmA websites is what will really help. I've made donations to various modders and teams before and you feel good knowing that your donation is helping to make more awesome mods.

You can donate as much as you want to Bohemia Interactive and you'll probably only make a tiny dent in total sales of ArmA. They are a business and operate on profits and not donations.

This is the best answer. Otherwise, the closest thing to a donation for BIS is buying as many copies of the Alpha edition on their website as you want and not registering the keys on Steam. The Alpha edition obviously has the lowest Cost Of Goods Sold/Marginal Cost as it doesn't include any extras and if you are buying multiple copies it doesn't matter that its cheaper - just buy more copies to make it up X amount of $/EUR/£.

[call_911 10]

Holy shit...

:butbut: