Personally, my response might have been something on the lines of "Thank you for your feedback regarding our price. We selected this price based on our best market research and have taken your thoughts on board."

Personally, that feels too pre-canned and 'corporate'. As a player, that'd make me think that A) I've reached a public-relations employee who doesn't actually have the power to make any changes or even to forward my ideas to the designers, and B) my thoughts haven't actually been taken on board, they're just trying to have a positive "public relations" response, are are just saying that without even considering the idea.

It feels phony and pre-canned. "In case of customer displeasure, break glass". Or rather, "In our customer relations manual, the appropriate response to comment-type #271 can be found in subsection four."

Personally, my response might have been something on the lines of "Thank you for your feedback regarding our price. We selected this price based on our best market research and have taken your thoughts on board."

Personally, that feels too pre-canned and 'corporate'. As a player, that'd make me think that A) I've reached a public-relations employee who doesn't actually have the power to make any changes or even to forward my ideas to the designers, and B) my thoughts haven't actually been taken on board, they're just trying to have a positive "public relations" response, are are just saying that without even considering the idea.

It feels phony and pre-canned. "In case of customer displeasure, break glass". Or rather, "In our customer relations manual, the appropriate response to comment-type #271 can be found in subsection four."

That is true, but I think the big point is, rather have a phony pre-canned answer than a) no answer or b) an unprofessional answer.

Sure, definitely. I just think our pre-canned answers could sound less pre-canned.

"Thank you for your feedback regarding our price. We selected this price based on our best market research and have taken your thoughts on board."

Here's what I'd like to see instead:

"Hi! I appreciate the feedback. It's hard to find a good balance in pricing, especially since the same game has different values to different people. As a gamer, I know how hard it is to gauge a game's value before you've actually played it! Alot of people have really enjoyed the game, and found it well worth the price (one even said that after playing it, they felt it was underpriced! [<-- only use if a player actually said that. I'm not advocating lying to your customers]), but if you purchase the game and decide it's just not your cup of tea, email me at [I'mARealHuman@SmallFriendlyIndie.com] within a week or two of buying it, and I'll quickly refund it for you.

If you still think it's too high, the game will be on sale in a few weeks on [digital store], or you can use our [secret discount link] (a link to your own website's "hidden" discount page) for a smaller discount, if you feel you can't wait until until the sale.

I really hope you can give the game a solid opportunity to prove its worth - I'd genuinely like to hear what you think of the game after you've enjoyed it: What you liked, and what you feel I can make better."

Maybe have a list of several bullet-points to hit (so your wording is genuinely unique each time), along with a list of words or phrases not to use (with "Thank you for your feedback" at the top of the "don't use" list )

To me, the former says, "Get lost.", whereas my version hopefully comes across as "Stick around". Especially since the former feels like it says, "We've sent your feedback into a black hole. End communique.". whereas mine tries to say, "Email me if you want a future refund. After playing the game, please contact me to give feedback. Our dialogue can continue, not just with this game, but with all my future games." -> i.e. the dialogue is open-endedly ongoing.

It also tries to do so in a way that doesn't feel like it's trying to move the public discussion into private for defensive PR reasons, but is providing basically an open invitation to everyone who reads it, and keeps the dialogue public, while still being personally addressed to an individual, so they don't feel like they are grouped in with everyone else and slapped with a complaint number.

I don't know if I succeeded at all that, but at least it's things to keep in mind when crafting responses (pre-canned or just pre-bullet-pointed).

To me, the former says, "Get lost.", whereas my version hopefully comes across as "Stick around".

I'm still not clear that "get lost" isn't the right response (suitably editorialised, of course).

You can't make *everybody* happy, and globally discounting your game or such every time you need to keep a single customer happy is a great way to lose money in the long run.

I do agree "get lost" is the right response in some situations, but I don't think price-complaints are where you want to use that, unless the potential-customer is clearly acting like a jerk, or continuing to try to argue with you.

I'm not globally discounting my game because of someone complaining.
I'm merely informing them, and anyone else who happens to see the tiny post in a tiny nook of whatever forums, that the game was already planning on going on sale in [duration to next planned sale]. I was thinking of something like, "if it's still too much money, pick it up during [the Steam Summer sale]" or "[Good Old Game's winter sale]" or whatever, depending on what known sales are around the corner.

However, I've also been thinking about experimenting with having a hidden page on my site where the game is constantly on sale for a tiny discount - say 10-15%. And hopefully 15% isn't so high that players get annoyed if they didn't know of the secret page when they bought it. By having a "secret" page,(which ofcourse people would spread around on internet forums) I think human nature would make people want to buy from that page (and thus, from my website, avoiding the 30% cost of digital stores), even if the discount is minor, because it'd make it feel special.

So the response is basically:

• I'm a human, not a corporation.
• Different people value the same game differently, so there's no price that'll please everyone.
• As a gamer, I understand the risk of buying a game that you later feel wasn't worth it.
• Alot of people think my game is worth the money, so go ahead and give it a shot.
• If you don't like it, I'll refund the price. (The point is to get my foot in the door and get them to pay, because the chances of them asking for a refund even if they don't like it, is still significantly less than 100%)
• Here's a ""secret"" 15% discount that's always available.
• Buy it from the next Steam sale if it's still too high.

The point is, I'd be trying to show not just that one person, but everyone reading, that I'm a small-time indie who's friendly, understanding, and personable. Secondarily, it's to hook the person and others into a long-term fan relationship, so they buy not just my current game but future releases as well. Thirdly, it's to make sales in general, and so to reduce the feeling of risk of wasted money for anyone who comes across the page. Finally, it's to make the current sale, if not at 100% then at 85% (via the constant-effect ""secret"" discount link), and if not at 85% then at the 35% that would've already been available (50% on a major online store sale, minus the store's 30% cut).

I wouldn't be doing anything special for that one user (and definitely not a global sale just to please them). This would all be standard what was already available or what was already coming. I wouldn't be engaging the gamer in an extended back-and-forth discussion, unless he has genuine questions (in which case my responses would again be serving anyone googling who comes across the thread).

I think this is a better solution to getting into a back and forth debate about them comparing the price of your game to other unrelated games from unrelated companies, and you comparing your price of your game to theater plays and movies and cups of starbucks coffee. That'd just become "Na-uh", "Yea", Na-uh", "Yea!", "You're wrong!", "No you are!", and eventually you'll stop replying or they'll stop replying, and either way, you look stubborn or oblivious, and they look like jerks, and for anyone coming across the conversation in the future, it's a wasted advertising opportunity - either an opportunity to sell yourself as a indie developer, or to sell your game by discussing why it's worth paying for.

By having an intelligent pre-canned or pre-bullet-pointed responses, I think I can just make a post and maybe answer a follow-up question, and then get back on my way in only a few minutes, and potentially get an immediate sale (and potentially retain the individual as a longer term fan), and potentially reduce the friction for a few future sales from other people. Yea, a lot of "potentials", no absolutes, but for a few minutes time per complaint, I think it's worth trying.

Response by the dev is a longwinding answer about:

How long it took them to develop the game (5 years)
How many people invested how much time into it (4 guys, number-too-long-to-remember hours)
That the game was built from scratch
What else costs 20 bucks or more
How big the game is (here it gets quite impressive actually, pretty big maps)
and then one sentence indicating the dev getting weight and a drinking problem in the process of the development.

Honestly, all but that last one is probably what I would include in a response.
I'd probably also add a line about Steam's fairly permissive refund policy (you can almost definitely get your money back if you play the game for an hour or two and decide it's not worth $20 to you)

A lot of people don't realize how long (or how much money) it takes to develop a game. A couple years ago I advised a small businessman who also happened to be an avid gamer who was willing to invest a considerable amount into developing a game idea he had. I had given him ideas to trim down development time and other costs without completely changing the game, but I just couldn't trim down the cost enough to make it possible for him to hire a development team to see it through with what he was willing to invest. I'm not sure if he wound up seeking other counsel or just abandoned the idea, but he didn't seem to fully believe my estimations of the cost and development time. In this example, if you assume that the developers were working essentially full-time, and assume that they could have easily gotten a full-time job paying $10/hr, then this game cost the developers $416,000 in lost income to develop. At $20, they need to sell 20,800 copies to recoup this cost (actually more because of steam's cut). Knowing that is significant.

Size of the game (not really in map size or quantity, but in hours of enjoyable gameplay) matters in the customer's estimations of value. This has been covered in previous replies so I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say I'm more happy to throw down several hours worth of pay on an Elder Scrolls or Legend of Zelda -like title than I am on a game I know to be much simpler and smaller in scope.

Also:

Put simply, you can't have it both ways: either you buy a game from the 'corporate world' which has standardized values and price points and are allowed to bitch and nag about the relative value, or you buy an indie product and have to live with the fact the pricing is determined by an unregulated, high-risk environment.

Just QFT

Or $3million if you value them at a competitive game developer's salary of $80/hr...

I'm not in the industry myself, but I think $80/hr would be a pretty small minority of game programmers. $50/hr would be closer, and many indies without years of professional work experience would be much less. Game Industry Salary survey - 2014

I agree with your other points though.