It's Not Wrong To Pay $3

This weekend, indie developer Tale of Tales is having a pay-what-you-want sale on a bundle of three of its spookier games: The Path, The Graveyard, and Fatale. The minimum payment is $3, but those who pay at least $50 will receive an undisclosed bonus. After the success of the Humble Indie Bundle back in May, we shouldn’t be surprised to see another developer take a chance on the pay-what-you-want model. We also shouldn’t be surprised that giving Tale of Tales money is being treated by some as a moral imperative.

“There is some motivation to pay more than the minimum (beyond it being pretty crass to lowball an indie like that)...” says Joystiq’s JC Fletcher, in his post on the sale. Apparently we have different definitions of “lowball.” If someone says “I’ll take $3” and you give them $3, you’re not lowballing them, even if they make pained faces as you hand over the money.

But is it crass to pay the least that someone asks? Not in this case. These pay-what-you-want sales are a calculated risk. If the number of people who were curious about a game but not curious enough to pay full price for it is high enough, then the developer makes money through volume. If not, well, no business venture is a sure thing. Hopefully Tale of Tales arrived at the $3 minimum after careful deliberation. If not, so much the worse for them.

Still, even if it really is crass to pay the minimum asking price, what does the fact that Tale of Tales is an indie developer have to do with it? They’re people trying to make a living by making games, just like, for example, the people at Pandemic, Realtime Worlds, and Krome. Despite the support of major publishers, the above studios had to close down when people didn't want to buy the games they made at the price for which they were sold.

Fletcher’s reasoning (which, to be fair, is in no way unique to him), is really just the flipside of that employed by pirates who say that it’s all right to steal games released by major publishers. They have the money, so they can absorb the loss. Indie developers, on the other hand, are seen as perpetually scraping by, and therefore entitled to more support than those developers who have tried to find a measure of security by working with big publishers.

The indie entitlement narrative may be benevolent, but that doesn’t make it rational. Indie developers are no more or less entitled to money than any other developer. All of them are human beings trying to make a living by doing something they love. What’s really crass is to suggest that one deserves special treatment simply because they’re more in line with some obscure idea of cool, and not because they do especially good work.

I’m going to buy the Tale of Tales bundle, and I’m going to pay more than $3 for it. But it’s not because I think indie developers are a privileged class of people who are entitled to my financial support. Rather, I’m going to do it because I think Tale of Tales is making a type of game that needs to be made, and I want to support their vision. Anyone who disagrees, or simply isn’t sure, can pay less, even $3, and sleep well at night.