Humble Choice: January 2021

I’m not sure how globally this applies, but, under the Fair Trading Act legislature of New Zealand it is considered a breach to advertise something as ‘limited time’ or being something special when it isn’t. If a particular deal is so entrenched as to be reasonably considered ‘normal’ then to continue marketing it as a special isn’t something you can do any more.

Unless you enjoy fines.

The natural consequence of this is that any specials that are going to run for an extended duration need to come with an end date attached and advertised as well.

Now- like I say, I don’t know how globally this applies, but this time around Humble have added an end date to their ‘Get ALL THE THINGS’ version of the ‘choice’ bundle.

I don’t recall whether this was the case last month or the month before that. It may’ve been. But it definitely hasn’t been there since the beginning. Either way, it caught my eye this time around and made me wonder.

Because this limited time special has been running quite a while now. Since August, it looks like.

In any case – I digress. I’m also very late on this post. I contemplated simply not doing one as I grow ever less enthused with the humble choice offerings. Magi and I flipped roles this month, as I typically go early and he typically catches the end of the month. So there was already a post out there for anyone interest.

I think I might also be at the closest to hitting the cancel button than I’ve been in some time, despite the fact it would mean the loss of being grandfathered in to the ‘Classic’ plan.

Although it isn’t to suggest that this month’s games are particularly bad. They just carry on the trend of being aggressively mediocre picks. Nothing Humble Choice has offered in a while has really got me all that excited. But I know. KNOW. That if I do go ahead and hit that cancel button within a month or two I’ll be made to regret it.

And that’s what keeps me locked in. My own fear of missing out.

We’ll see though. I might be coming around to it. While Humble is still, without a question, a good value for money proposition, the market it operates in with Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft all running quite good gaming library services is quite different to the one Humble Monthly (as it was before known) operated in when it launched.

In any case, enough rambling for now. And having said all that, I’m still about to go ahead and rank out the ones I’m most interested in. And there are a few.

My Picks for January 2021’s Humble Choice

No bold ‘must have’ titles this month. But I suppose to be fair, neither are there any italic ‘wouldn’t even take it for free’ titles in here.

My top 3 picks though despite not earning the bold treatment are fairly solid. From 4 down though there is plenty of room to reshuffle depending on mood in the moment.

For example; Puzzle games are often something I do quite enjoy. Certainly more so than a visual novel. But the first trailer that loaded for it struck me as more of a humble-brag, very smug, ‘look at me, aren’t we so great’ style thing in tone and instantly turned me off.

I’m going to admit though, I’m in a bit of a sour mood more generally at the moment (Wife’s car in total breakdown at the moment, and we only bought it in August. Dealer will have to come to the party of course, just a lot of hassle.)

So it’s possible I’d be able to watch that same trailer again another time and wonder what triggered my grumpy old man ‘get off my lawn’ response right now.

Likely even.

In any case, I’ll continue to ponder. I think I might make next month’s bundle be my decider. Nothing I really want in it? Might consider pulling the pin on my subscription. Or at least becoming more liberal with usage of the ‘Pause’ button. Something I’ve not really done so far and probably should do more of even were I to continue my subscription. It’s certainly the less nuclear option in any case.