You cheap bastards - 'Pay what you want' for World of Goo a success?

Pay what you want for a game, seems cool right?  I remember when Radiohead did this for their "Rainbows" album and the results were less than spectacular as well.  It turned out a year later that most people still chose to get it for free though they did "move" a lot of copies of the album.

2D Boy, developers of World of Goo, decided to try this methodology in the gaming world.  Last week they decided to allow you to pay whatever you wanted for the critically loved World of Goo.  The sale was so successful according to 2D Boy that they decided to continue the sale until October 25th for those of you that want to buy it for whatever price you deem fit (for Windows, Linux, Mac)

Now I won't deny there was some positive things that came from the sale.  2D Boy mentions that sales actually rose on both Steam and WiiWare, platforms that were not participating in the sale.  An interesting concept, especially the Steam one as people could have just bought on their website instead for any price.  The price people were willing to pay also increased as days of the sale went on, another promising aspect.



Here is the kicker though, look at the graph above.  There are a lot of cheap bastards out there.  This is a game that runs around 92% on Gamerankings and normally costs $19.99.  I understand that the game has been out for a year and that lessens demand but are you seriously telling me that out of 57,000 sales 39,000 people (~68%) couldn't pay more than $2 for one of the best indie games in the past few years? 

$2!!! That is a tenth of the regular retail price!  That is like two tacos at Taco Bell compared to hours of enjoyment with an awesome game from a studio that deserves your money.  I guess it just really disgusts me that so few people paid next to nothing.  I realize the deal was there but how can you consciously pay a penny for any game that you would want to pay.  Almost 30% of the people were completely pathetic and paid a mere penny.

I get that times are hard, people are unemployed and there are lots of other options for your cash like rent, food and just getting by.  But to me if all you can swing is damn penny you should probably just skip out on the game or just go "full ******* mode" and pirate it.  Almost 23% of those that answered noted "that's all I can afford right now".

If you want the game enough to not pirate it and it does hold some value to you I can't see any possible reason why you can't at least cough up $5.  Skip a calorie-trip to McDonalds once the coming week and actually pay for a quality game.  Is that too much to ask?

I guess it just really disappoints me how cheap people were in regards to this.  We as gamers ***** so much about anti-piracy measures, shady developers, buggy titles, being nickel and dime'd via DLC.  Then 2D Boy goes out of there way to offer an amazing deal on an amazing game and people basically flip them off while pretty much stealing their game.  Disappointing to say the least. 

These are the kinds of developers that need your support far more than the big guys like Activision and Capcom.  Those guys get crucified for $2 transactions by gamers over DLC, server transfers, etc., yet that was all nearly 70% of people were willing to play for a great game...