24 Hour Impulses: The Concept

from JoeUser Forums

Over the past few months we’ve been working on creating a system to send users “instant messages” via the Impulse tray program.  Now users who have “Show Promotions” enabled in their “Impulse Now” settings can receive balloon notifications from their system tray on special offers that come in.

Here’s how it works:

[Need a nice screenshot of a balloon showing up <g>].  Impulse has been working to put together a series of special promotions during the month of December. Anyone with Impulse installed and has the tray program running (which it is by default) and hasn’t turned off promotions will start receiving special offers.

These aren’t ordinary sales, however. They’re special deals we’ve put together with developers that only exist for 24 hours and are priced at a level we aren’t able to promote on our main websites.

The first test promotion was Galactic Civilizations for $0.99.  We will be doing some “warm up specials” over the coming week as we prepare for the Impulse “12 days of Christmas” where AAA titles will start to get steep discounts.

To participate, simply download and install Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com).  The tray program, Impulse Now, will automatically be installed (you can also load it immediately by typing impulsenow via the Start menu).

201,582 views 131 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Turn balloons off by default, plz. My opinion, but they are annoying. I find it amazing that there's more positive than negative feedback.

But the deals don't sound bad. Will they only be on the tray?

 

:fox:

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The deals are only on the tray. And users who don't like the balloons can turn them off (though they'll miss these special deals).

The deals can effectively only be done on the tray because they're extremely targeted in order to get support from the publishers.

So for instance, one application or game might ONLY be available to users in Germany because the publisher of that app was only able to get that price for people in that country.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

<rendered redundant by OP>

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

 Sweet. Now just have Kings Bounty: Princes on sale and I will be happy.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

hmmm, I've mixed feelings about it.

Good: I appreciate the opportunity for a good deal.

Bad: I don't want advertising pop ups happening on my system.

Hard to tell which way this one will go for you...

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Spamalicious :P

As long as they can be turned off. I'm sure they'll annoy some people.

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I'm ditto with Phoon.  I was a bit miffed when the Thanksgiving popup appeared on my system; I don't like ads at all.  If the icon flashed, I wouldn't mind at all.  I don't want to turn it off because I don't want to miss any good deals, but most of them won't apply to me and I don't want them to be popping up.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Kitkun, reply 1
Turn balloons off by default, plz. My opinion, but they are annoying. I find it amazing that there's more positive than negative feedback.
End of Kitkun's quote

Yeah, agreed.

I've actually deinstalled Impules atm. Didn't knew how to deactivate it and was too lazy to look it up. Puff, and gone it is with the ads. *

 

In other words, never ever do ads by default, it really annoys me. ;)

 

 

*Ofc. that wasn't the only reason.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

I feel like Im the minority, I dont mind the pop ups. And I really am looking forward to them to see the deals that will be going down.

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

PurrBall: That's one of the things that's been enhanced behind the scenes is making it smarter and smarter about who it gives a shout-out too.

Eventually we're going to let people create profiles so that they can customize what information they receive.

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

You can turn off the balloons but still leave the view promotions checked. That way you can still check them out by clicking on "View Promotions" but not have the balloons popping up.

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Brad: Cool.  I take it this means that since I haven't bought any games, I won't get any ads for games now?

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top

So if I get a popup of some game that I think my son who`s away at college would like, and I buy it, how do I get it to him.

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting karmat, reply 13
So if I get a popup of some game that I think my son who`s away at college would like, and I buy it, how do I get it to him.
End of karmat's quote
You can select to buy it as a gift. They'll be able to download it themselves through they're own Impulse install.

 

:fox:

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top

Please make the "no popups" preference in the client persist between client updates. So I don't have to bitch and bitch and bitch about it like I did the Impulse "fast start" background process. :P

Otherwise, sounds like a good idea. :)

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Could you make it so Impulse doesn't use the Windows balloon popups? I disabled notification balloons on my system because I don't like being asked about the unused icons on my desktop every few hours, so this new feature doesn't work for me.

Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting karmat,
reply 13
So if I get a popup of some game that I think my son who`s away at college would like, and I buy it, how do I get it to him.
You can select to buy it as a gift. They'll be able to download it themselves through they're own Impulse install.

End of quote

 

Thank you Kitkun!

Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top

I wasn't even aware of the application (which I found with typing impulse tray and not impulsenow on the start.

I will leave it open for a few days and see how it goes.

 

Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top

Eventually we're going to let people create profiles so that they can customize what information they receive.
End of quote

I was going to ask if it would let you do that, but you answered my question before I could even ask:P

I think that once this feature gets added, this is a great idea. It's just too bad you're starting this right before Xmas, I have to spend all my money on gifts:P I need to teach my family how to use Impulse, so they can gift me games on my wishlist *coughdragonagecough*

Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I think 'opt out' is the sensible/appropriate way to do it.

The only time such pop-up offers 'should' be seen as a nuisance is if there were no such option...;)

Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top

So you are not advertising these on the main website so does this mean the only people who can get the deal will be the ones that have the promotion notification? As in I can't tell my sister who barely acknowledges Impulse' existance that she might want to check out a deal? Also, i went to the current promo sectipn of the tray and I see one large package deal and some other winter deal that doesn't bring me to a valid website at all. Is that the area you would see this if you are not around when the notification is orginally sent out?

 

Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Will all these deals be based off cupon codes? If that is the case then can stardock please do something to make them go ok with paypal as that is the method that i use to purchase stuff from impulse

Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top

Interesting approach.  I'm always a little wary of services running in the background - I've had too many bad experiences with antivirus programs in relation to these.  It's not that I don't trust everyone at Stardock to make this a good program that works well in a Windows environment, but I don't trust the plethora of 3rd party developers to account for it.  Well, I've got it installed but I haven't seen any bubbles yet - I'll be patient.

Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top

Frogboy if you want to compete with your main competitor I would advise you to not make the pop up default on.

 

Yesterday I almost looked for the setting to not start the Impulse Tray icon on Windows start up, the last thing I thought was to look for an option to turn off the pop up, for once thing I didn't asume there would be one, and secondly because you added this annoyance to my PC without asking me how many more 'features' like this are you going to slide in there?

 

 

The "well we offer you an opt out" doesn't justify the fact that you did it without asking/warning, I assumed I just had an icon that checked for game updates.  You may be shooting yourself in the foot with that attitude.

Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top

If a feature is defaulted to off, then no one ever knows it exists.  Defaulting to on with the simple option to disable is the best balance between awareness and choice.  If you really really hate it, turning it off is simple.