A Shout Out to Stardock

So this week has been pretty miserable. It turns out that I managed to contract a bacterial respiratory infection during my recovery from my viral infection last week. Essentially, I managed to be as sick as I have ever been during the past 6-7 years of my life. Miserable.

To help pass the time, I purchased a video game that I've wanted to own for some time and have been playing the demo for a couple of weeks: DemiGod.

It's a fun game, but I did so knowing full well that in all likelihood the game would immediately go on sale after I purchased it.

I bought the game on Sunday.

Guess what? Yes! Lo and behold, today I received an e-mail from Stardock (the company that sells the game) advertising DemiGod (This weekend only!) for 50% off. Needless to say, despite being glad I had something to help pass the time this week, I was somewhat miffed.

So I fired off an e-mail this morning to Stardock explaining how I had just purchased the game and how I would like for me (and Peter, who I convinced to purchase it, as well) to receive the discount.

You might wonder why a company would do this, but I think it was actually rather reasonable request, considering the circumstances: I've owned the game for less than a week and because it seemed like a reasonable time to finally buy it. Beyond that, however, it is a good business decision.

Not only is Stardock known for trying to support gamer/consumer rights as a company, but I'm a darn good customer.

After purchasing their original game, Sins of a Solar Empire (an excellent strategy game, by the way), not only have I purchased the expansion for Sins, bought Demigod, and used their on-line purchasing service to buy another game (Dawn of War: Dark Crusade), but I've convinced no less than 5 people to buy Sins and its expansion, one person to buy Sins, and had a hand in two other Demigod purchases. All in all, if Stardock were to refund the 50% off ($20 apiece to both me and Peter), it would represent less than 8% of the total revenue I have generated for them so far (approximately one year). And since I am now writing about it on my blog and exposing more and more people to their company, it could be an exponentially bigger amount.

Essentially, I represent the type of core consumer that is known for making or breaking companies - those consumers that use word of mouth to entice, or discourage, others from using a product.

I'm not going to lie, Stardock's software is not always flawless or bug free, and their purchasing service sometimes has real issues. But in general, their software (espcially their games) are well-crafted and extremely worthwhile, and if they are willing to put their money where their mouth is, to put customer loyalty and satisfaction first, that says a great deal about them as a company. It also tends to keep people like me with them and recommending their products to my friends and family.

This is especially important now, for a smaller company like Stardock, which is trying to make a successful launch of its on-line purchasing engine, Impulse, and trying to grab market share from the current industry leader (and honestly, less buggy) Steam (from Valve Software, an excellent company). In this day and age of total automation (which is definitely good), it is nice to know that there is still someone on the other end sometimes making sure things don't go totally wrong, and willing to work out the problems that do arise. That means a lot to consumers, even ones who love the ability to have video game purchasing boiled down to a few button clicks (you don't even have to wait for it to come in the mail - you get it NOW).

So far, all I know is that they have recieved my e-mail and are reviewing it and that it usually takes two business days to respond to e-mail requests (via automated e-mail responder; it did provide a ticket number to track the issue should I not hear from them).

I'll keep you posted as I learn more, but either way, this will be a valuable lesson about the free market. Either I will be happy, and I can guarantee Stardock will be happy... or I will be disappointed, and Stardock - well, they won't be happy.

The customer is always right - and people like me guarantee it.