Quick question.

When is a game considered non value?
Of course if it is given away for free somewhere as promo or something equal.

However I have a vague memory that when a game gets discounted below a certain percentage it will also be marked as no value. (I recall something like 90% ? ).

I can't find an answer in the FAQ or Guidelines, google apparently doesn't want to be my friend either in this case.
Does somebody have the answer/ other things that trigger it?

Thanks in advance.

1 year ago

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When it has 2 stars on the search bar.

1 year ago
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But they can be delayed by months since it is being adjusted retro actively in most cases.

The only recollection I have of a fast fix was, one time the site was getting flooded by one particular GA, that was promo'd in the thousands.
So to stop the "spam" GA's they almost instantly added it in the list of no value.

Knowing the requirements helps to know it in advance in most cases.

Thanks for your answer anyway.

1 year ago
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Now I see you'd like to know the category reasons. Maybe a mod will tell you here, besides the most common ones people know.

1 year ago
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I think the 90% discounts got games to be added to the reduced CV list and no CV is only the games that have been given away for free in massive giveaways.

1 year ago
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Specially when it has been made free before. Like on a Fanatical Giveaway, or a Steam 100% discount.
You can know when a game has no value for Steam Gifts when it has ** (2 asterisks) when you look for it on the giveaway creation page.

1 year ago
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I read about the ** in the Faq indeed.
I was looking for the rules that they get added to such list since I recall there was something with a high percentage (90 maybe) that was affecting something.

1 year ago
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used to be -95% of the US price but barely anyone checks that anymore, it may take months for a game to be added in the free list

1 year ago
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It will be done when the junior mods get upgraded to senior mods :D

1 year ago
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95% is general cut off vs Steam US price for bundle game, not free game. Otherwise half of all games from bundle (including monthly...) would end up on no-CV list.

1 year ago
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It used to be 95% off the US steam price, not sure if it still is.

1 year ago
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There is no clear 100% answer. I believe it is up to the discretion of the support member that adds the games to the lists.

It worked like this in the past and is probably mostly the same now. Games that were discounted around 95% off or more (individual sales or bundles) would get added to the reduced CV list (you get 15% CV). This was calculated based on the US retail price and also accounted for discounts in other countries after having their price converted to US dollars. So if a game is only 90% off in the US, but the game was also discounted at 90% off in a country like Russia, you would have to take the discounted Russian price and convert it to US dollars and see if that ends up being more than 95% off the US price. I don't believe it is always 95% though. If it ends up being 94% off, the support member might add it anyway. I'm not positive about how they decide when it is close.

Because of this, I would not buy a game with a 90% off discount and expect to get full CV. I usually consider anything up to 85% off to be safe to keep full CV.

As far as I know, games are only supposed to be reduced to no CV when they are given away somewhere for free. Even 99% off should be counted as reduced CV and not put them on the free no CV list.

1 year ago*
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I still remember when people were gifting Serious Sam Complete en masse, as it was 85% off, and then due to region pricing way cheaper in some region.
https://www.steamgifts.com/game/tJRnV/serious-sam-complete-pack/stats

Shoobo decided to add it to the bundle list, as it was an obvious CV exploit. And people immediately stopped to give it away. I think it was the first big example of adding to bundle list a game that was not in a bundle, in order to keep integrity of the CV system. LEGO games were added to the list for the same reason. Cheap on some Brazilian key website if I remember correctly.

In general nothing above 85% is "save", as it being from some really cheap region may put it way beyond 95% general cutoff.

1 year ago
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Is it common for 85% off sales to cause games to go on the bundled list? I figured 85% off would almost always keep full CV except in extremely rare cases, but I don't want to give people bad info. If you had to guess a percentage, would it be like 99% of all 85% sales keep full cv, or 95%, or less?

1 year ago
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Is it common for 85% off sales to cause games to go on the bundled list?

Not common, but can happen. I guess it will be less likely now, after they adjusted pricing for Russia, Argentine etc. But it can still happen.

1 year ago
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When will the tickets others and me wrote about full CV abused games will be handled?
When will the full CV games, abused by the RR Turkey bubble, be handled?

your CV integrity is a lie

1 year ago*
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It will be handled when someone will have time for it. We keep saying the same thing for years, and people keep "demanding" their ticket to be solved "immediately" or "in reasonable time", otherwise support does not do anything and is bad.

You, Masafor and others keep bringing Pete as an example of "perfect support member", because he had time to solve piles of tickets, that normally not many have time for. While "forgetting" that he could commit to helping 4-6-8h per day, sometimes for weeks, only due to personal situation. People who work full time, commute, have life admin, kids and other obligations will never be able to commit that much time to voluntary work.

I will no longer respond to this kind of message, as there is a limit to how many times you can say people can't expect volunteers to work according to someone else standard while helping. You can't complain volunteers in animal shelter did not "work enough", as all dogs did not have chance to have individual walk. You can't complain the lady cleaning the sidewalk did not "work good enough", as she missed some rubbish on your path. Or complain lawyer who gives their time to help in domestic violence center lost a case. I think it would look regrettable if you'd complain about this kind of stuff in real life. So I don't see how it's all right to do it here.

1 year ago
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It will be handled when someone will have time for it. We keep saying the same thing for years, and people keep "demanding" their ticket to be solved "immediately" or "in reasonable time", otherwise support does not do anything and is bad.

You're providing contradicting information here, you can't claim CV integrity is kept, when you come up with the usual excuses why tickets aren't handled for half a year or longer, because this means CV integrity will be compromised for this period of time.
And mods are so slow, they'll never pick up the pace with abusers finding loopholes and ways to cheat the system, so CV integrity will never be kept and talking about it is a plain lie

You, Masafor and others keep bringing Pete as an example

I never brought up Pete as an example

and you got the intention of my post wrong, i wasn't complaining about the time it takes to handle the tickets, i was complaining about you lying about the CV integrity, fully aware of the issues with ticket handling time

1 year ago
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i was complaining about you lying about the CV integrity, fully aware of the issues with ticket handling time

Yes. This is how it works. Same as when you think your house is getting dirty and you clean the hall, the kitchen and the bathroom to keep it clean - then you are a liar because you didn't also clean the living room and the bed room.

Or when you take a course at the university and you study it in parts - all those students should be failed because they did not finish it all in one direct go. They are liars.

Or when you eat your dinner you should be smacked in the face halfway through because you did not complete it fast enough for my standards. You lie about eating your food.

Yes. This sounds about right....

1 year ago
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your examples are lacking, because they suggest there is a finite amount to handle, which isn't the case

it's like cleaning the living room and claiming to guests your house is clean
and by the time you cleaned up some other room the living room is dirty again and the stuff in your basement piled up another floor

1 year ago
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No. To claim it was done in order to keep house clean and then being called a liar for saying so.
Exactly what whas said and how you reacted.

You can't really defend that, so just give it up.
You are behaving like a spoiled relative who comes to visit and finds an uncleaned room in the house and just haaaaave to exclaim unhappiness with that.

1 year ago*
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No. To claim it was done in order to keep house clean and then being called a liar for saying so.

huh? I didn't called it a lie, that they've done something to keep the CV integrity, i called the CV integrity itself a lie, which sould have been obvious from my examples

but maybe it's a translation issue, even if all my translators say in order to keep is a synonym for to remain
And if i do something that my house remains clean, it means all of my house not only a single room.

It's easy to defend my statement, but maybe some stubborn people don't want to get it

and again you're twisting the truth, it isn't me being spoiled and who complained first, owners stated that the house is clean and i called them a liar, because a lot of garbage bags weren't taken out for months, which already attracted pests, which are feeding off the garbage
but i'm starting to repeat myself with other words

1 year ago*
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What is it that you seek? It seems like you are focused on semantics of "to keep" implying it's a lie because cv integrity is "not kept" as it has to be retroactively adjusted.
Is that what you are trying to say? Do you want them to use a different word than integrity?
The system won't get better than this - even if they have hundreds of workers and reduce cv from all abused games within 24 hours. There will always be a time frame of "no integrity".

To me it looks like you care more about a word they used (keep) and its dictionary meaning rather than the point they were explaining in that sentence. Did you just want them to say "in order to prevent as much cv abuse as possible we added lego games to the list" ?

1 year ago
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There will always be a time frame of "no integrity".

sure, there will be and with current ticket handling times it's even always the case and the other thing is, the more you're slacking with "house cleaning" the more pests you'll attract and the longer they can benefit from their surreptitious CV level gained through abuse, so the whole system will be compromised forever and the degree will rise

people gain levels trough abuse, enter level restricted GAs, win keys there and when the CV will be adjusted they'll lose levels and still have the keys obtained from level restricted GAs, which they don't have the level to anymore

I wouldn't call such a compromised system upright and conclude that CV inegrity is a lie

1 year ago*
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Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. You look at it as a fixed object while it is more a flowing state, but using the fixed state as a basis for your statement - while clearly demonstrating knowledge of the difference.

But lets drop it, I don't think we'll see eye to eye on this, and arguing continuosly dosen't help anybody either.

1 year ago
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i have no clue what you're talking about

1 year ago
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I will no longer respond to this kind of message, as there is a limit to how many times you can say people can't expect volunteers to work according to someone else standard while helping. You can't complain volunteers in animal shelter did not "work enough", as all dogs did not have chance to have individual walk. You can't complain the lady cleaning the sidewalk did not "work good enough", as she missed some rubbish on your path. Or complain lawyer who gives their time to help in domestic violence center lost a case. I think it would look regrettable if you'd complain about this kind of stuff in real life. So I don't see how it's all right to do it here.

As a general rule most organizations won't accept you as volunteer if you can't commit to sacrificing at least 4-6 hours per week for the job. I think it's a misconception on your side to think because you're volunteering somehow certain work standards don't apply.

No matter if you get paid or doing a job for free you'll be judged by your peers and the public on the quality of your work.

In the special case of SG the extreme hierarchical structure of the moderation team is problematic as Junior Moderators lack even the permission to close a thread where somebody advertises an auto-join script and how to make the best use of it. The "real" power is concentrated on a few people so necessary work can't get done when they are absent for whatever reason.

I'm not only theorizing as I volunteered at the food bank "Die Tafeln" a German NGO for years.

1 year ago
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As a general rule most organizations won't accept you as volunteer if you can't commit to sacrificing at least 4-6 hours per week for the job.

There are many types of volunteering. One-offs, and commitments that must last for at least 6 months. Things that will take you 1h or 8h per week. Things where you can get reference from the teacher and just walk in, and things that require criminal history checks. Things that must be organized through a registered charity, and those where you can ask a few friends and do something for the community.
Don't know why you generalize with "most organizations" without any data to back it up. Go through this list and tell me that most places require people to basically do an extra shift per week. The fact that you volunteer in a place that requires quite a lot of time does not mean it's universal... and helping on SG is not an extra shift, there are no ticket quotas, people can leave for 6 months if their life requires it etc.

https://www.bridgerenewaltrust.org.uk/featured-volunteering-opportunities
Most things on this website are like 1-3h per week.

Even the same "type" of volunteering requires different commitment.
Cancer Research UK shops require "couple hours per week", while Royal Trinity Hospice shops can start with even an hour per week, and there is no "minimum" quota.

You can have a role where all that is asked from you is to make a tea party for elderly twice a year:
https://www.reengage.org.uk/volunteer/new-volunteers/

Nothing in your reply invalidate my initial comment. If you help in an animal shelter and can commit 4h per week no one can go after you and say you "did not work enough" as not all dogs were walked or all kennels cleaned. The fact that you walked 8 dogs in 4h (I'm just guessing here) and there are 10 dogs left does not mean you did a bad "job", or that you can be judged by peers by your "quality". If you just decide to pick up a trash bag for an hour a week, and clean a back alley from litter - no one can go after you and say "quality of your work is bad because I saw some trash left".
I don't know why you bring it up. What I wrote clearly points to people who complain that someone did not work "long enough" according to their standard. The fact you can't commit more time than someone would like does not mean quality of work is bad.

Volunteering is about managing your time, understanding how much you can volunteer and finding a role that suits you. And being able to say "hey, due to personal situation I won't be able to help for the next few weeks" if required.

1 year ago
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All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio goo goo
Radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga
Radio blah blah
Radio, what's new?
Radio, someone still loves you

1 year ago
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Hey MSKOTOR,

these stat pages for games are new to me. Is there a way to access stats for other games by a list or search?

1 year ago
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https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/E2Ft8/new-game-pages-and-more

Open desired game page and select Stats in the menu on the left

1 year ago
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Thanks, missed that.

1 year ago
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Like PapaSmok said. Currently it's not possible to search for this page like for a giveaway or in an archive. But it's possible to find game appID and paste it.

1 year ago
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Thanks :D

1 year ago
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But isn't it region locked when it's bought from Brazilian key website etc? I think taking those games giveaway value to zero is sad since those games are actually well recieved good games and absolutely not cheap for some of us or most of us even with 85-90 percent discount. Maybe we could use %1-10 value or something instead of discarding it as no value. I would like to see more Serious Sam and Lego series in the future.

1 year ago
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Those weren't locked back then. Always depends on publisher's package management.

1 year ago
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I also don't like that we are locking games like this.

Look on Portal 2. Were they ever in a bundle? No. Why they give bundled CV then? Because there was promotion on a website, giving those away after you complete some simple basic introductory coding course. I really hoped those will not land on the list, but enough people tried to game the system (by sharing the most time efficient way to get those games for free...) that Shoobo decided to put them on the list to avoid exploitation.

It would be easier if keys would expire after x. So we could disable it for the time being and then reactivate. But keys never expire, unless it's some exception set up by the developer. A key that was grabbed by people in 2013 when game was free would still activate the game. That's why games end on the list "for life". And even if we could add game to bundle list based on region - people would create "region groups" and then make ROW GAs with region locked keys. There is no end to ways people try to game the system.

Portal is spike from Dec 2013
https://www.steamgifts.com/game/enKZF/portal-2/stats

1 year ago
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I also don't like that we are locking games like this.

Then don't. I'd rather have some people from cheap regions abusing the CV system than unbundled games put on the reduced CV or no CV list. There are very few unique giveaways on the site already, most of it is either bundle leftovers or straigth trash keys. This practice of devaluing games based on regional pricing makes it too risky to give away unbundled games. It's not enough to check whether the game was bundled and how low its price went in legit key stores, you also have to check its regional pricing on steamdb and whether there were a significant amount of region restricted giveaways done for it. And it's anyone's guess what that significant amount is which would jeopardize its unbundled status. Totally unreasonable.

Every time I see a nice unbundled game on Steam at 80-90% off and think about doing a GA for it, I go check the archive. And if I see a few region restricted giveaways there, I chicken out. I'd feel like a fool if my CV was retroactively taken away for these. To me it feels different if it's a bundle leftover or a Lootboy key or whatever compared to when you directly spend the money for that one gift.

One of the most egregious examples: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1107300/Down_in_Bermuda/
This game was never bundled, never given away, there are no keys floating around on the grey market. If it was on the reduced CV list solely for the regional pricing that would already be a shame but for some reason it's on the zero CV list which is an outright travesty. The starting date of no CV seems quite arbitrary, too. It's probably set to punish a single user who gave away 5 copies around that time. (Even though there were other region restricted multi-copy giveaways for this game before, too.)
By the same logic the mod making the decision used on this one you could / should put every single game that reached 90% off on the zero CV list if they used Steam's old recommended regional pricing scheme.

1 year ago
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hmm, no idea whether this is useful information..
but the latest Fanatical freebies were exactly that - time sensitive keys with an expiry date ca. 4-6 weeks after the end of the promo
just FYI
also thank you & all other mods for the work you put in! it´s tremendous how you all keep things together on a voluntary basis : D

1 year ago
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It seems like games that have been free on the Epic Game Store are immune to this? I guess because those aren't able to be activated on Steam?

1 year ago
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... and the free epic versions can't be gifted on sg.

So correct in the end result ;o)

1 year ago*
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Never had Epic, but I assume when you receive the free game they are emediatly added to your account?
Or otherwise a different kind of code system then steam to prevent exploits because there are many resellers of steam keys.

1 year ago
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epic is its own storefront and client.
so no interaction with steam at all.

1 year ago
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I expected as much, however with the time that new Epic users suddenly saw very specific suggestions for possible friends (straight out of their Steam friend list), you could expect basically everything at that point.

1 year ago
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Thanks for all this information (Found via Google).

I got hit with an unclaimed gift punishment due to the gift being real, just not the one advertised (Same franchise though, so easy mistake I suppose) and the member giving it away couldn't/wouldn't get in touch back with me about it. Mods contacted me, all was good but I still wanted rid of it.

Recently a bundle came up that I bought the full amount of which cleared up my unclaimed gift notch against my reputation. The idea being to give the rest away on the next community event train. The 0 CV thing confused me though as I don't want people to win a game worth nothing to me and not play it. Some of the games in this bundle (Oddly enough including the one I was being punished for) have 0 CV and my niece might enjoy playing them instead of a stranger who just enters to squander points.

Am I correct in assuming that taking those games with two asterisks (**) when creating a GA will give nothing to my personal CV here and may as well use them on my Steam account for her to play?

Thanks in advance for any help and I hoe this necro-bump is allowed as it seems inline with the content here :)

2 months ago
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Yes, ** marked games gives nothing to your gifter score, but... they still unlock you more giveaways slots (1 per 3 delivered)

2 months ago
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That's good to know, thanks!

I've got 13 available at any given go just now and so should be good for the community train event (Which will add another 4 or so I should think).

2 months ago
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