I like the addition of peeking :)
Huh, really now. Okay, so on a scale of 1 to 5, how much do you like the addition of peeking?
I've offered a handy-dandy visual guide (in order of 1 to 5) for you to reference, just below:
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Well, I may have had a fowl inclination or two over the years, I suppose..
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P.S.
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Phobia? Fear?
Look, it's not a phobia if it's a fact and towards a situation which is deserving of that level of wariness, okay.
That's just entirely reasonable caution, then. I mean, sure, it sounds bizarre at first but, soon you'll see the truth as well..
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I mean, I think we all kinda had suspicions to begin with..
Really, just another thing to blame the Chinese government for, I guess.
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So am I hiding among ducks or within them?
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Is there any difference between "All" and "Available" other than "All" includes giveaways you're not allowed to enter and "Available" does not?
If that's the only difference... can we get rid of "All" and just default to "Available?"
I'm not sure I understand the usefulness of the "All" option.
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I'm not sure I understand the usefulness of the "All" option.
Eh, maybe we could appreciate unique box designs? For me one of the best things about this event is these creative wrappings people come up with :)
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Unfortunately you can't see who designed it unless you can open it as a giveaway otherwise I'd whitelist a few more designers.
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It's probably there so you can check out all designs.
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There's always benefit to having access to "All", given that it's a creativity-based event. Whether it's seeing how many total giveaways have been made, trying to see if there's multiple giveaways of the same design to try and get a feel for if you want to test a specific box, or just appreciating the various art themes, there's a lot of compelling reasons to retain the "All" selection (and I can come up with a couple more niche reasons over the ones already mentioned, as well).
It definitely doesn't make sense as the default option, however, and I've already gotten trolled a couple of times by mistaking which selection I'm under, since it's not an overly obvious thing if you're not paying attention. :S
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Is there way to set it to default to "Available" filter?
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One option is to note that its part of the URL so you can just bookmark it and use that to instead of button on the page. Defaulted would be nice.
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Thanks for the peek feature, very useful. There are already several Cyberpunk-wrapped boxes with some crap in it.
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I found a game I wanted to gift for this event but Steam no longer allows you to buy a gift to store in your inventory! So how does one gift games nowadays when you don't know who the winner will be??
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You buy the game after giveaway ends and send it normally.
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Is there no way to buy it now? I had a game in mind that is currently on sale but only for a few more days.
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You might want to do a normal giveaway (so the person sees and gets it) before the sale ends.
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You can hope for it being on sale again during the winter/Christmas sale, that usually starts on 21th. Or wait for the sale to start (that will go on until January) and make the GA then.
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There's sometimes a last batch of giveaways coinciding with the winter sale, as adam already noted.
Just make sure to note in your giveaway description that users should be aware of the limited time frame in accepting the Steam friend invite, or- if you prefer- request they add you as friends on Steam before the giveaway ends (so you can just accept the relevant one view that user's Steam profile page, and then mass-reject all remaining invites). So long as you get them on Steam in time to send the gift, it doesn't matter how long they take to actually accept it [as Steam retains the gift transfer for a month before cancelling it and auto-refunding it as wallet funds].
Keys are, of course, a more versatile option, and Steam Store isn't going to be the only storefront with Christmas-based sales available.
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Is the option cancelled to gift it to your own email. And at a later point you can send it to an other?
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Should be. Only option I know of at the moment is to send directly through Steam [ie, purchase as gift, then select a friend to gift to from the list provided], after which point the only options are (again, to the best of my knowledge) to cancel the gift, wait for it to expire, or have the recipient accept it.
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Love all the new changes! The peeking feature is great.
One suggestion: I would like an option - not mandatory - for box designers to show their username so that some of them who put a lot of effort into making nice designs can be whitelisted without needing to open their boxes in case they cannot be opened.
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An idea opted last year was you can open all freely after the event is done. As even a name can identify a lot (for example, cgs own giveaways).
Didn't happen but maybe this time around.
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Thank you for setting this up again! This is lovely.
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AMAZING! I love the new updates! Thanks a lot, cg! ^_^
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Sorry to see ignored games are back. A couple of years ago I found it incredibly frustrating to keep opening boxes with one-man games created in Russia and Hentai trash but hey it's not like it's a sure win even when you get actual GAs anyway.
Thanks for all the time you guys spend on events like these and making SG a community I'm very happy to have stumbled upon 3 years ago. I came for the GAs but I stayed for the good people, the insane discussions about games and life, and everything in between, and for the good times and the bum times.
Happy Holidays!
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The other way around this is to blacklist the creator.
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I guess that's one way of doing things. I don't like dicklisting people who make GAs though.
I don't get the trolling, tbh, since it's a Xmas event and not an April's Fools event but people give what they have to give, I guess, and I don't begrudge that. I'm sure there are people interested in... you know... +1s and all that but it seems like a waste of the opportunity provided by cj and the mods behind the event.
It's just annoying when you have 5 boxes a day to open 4 trash boxes (the dollar bundle kind) and one you already own the game but haven't activated yet. It feels too much like Fanatical Mystery bundles lol
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The issue is the intent. While such people are making giveaways, their intent is to screw with people. That's mean-spirited and worthy of blacklisting. I only did this ONCE with a particular person who sadly was previously in a bunch of shared groups and on my whitelist. He kept making boxes that showed AAA games, each of which contained bundle trash (apologies for the term). Like you said, if it's April Fool's, fair game. If he did it once or twice, I'd look the other way. But I think he did about 20 or some ridiculous number -- just looked at his profile, and it was possibly more than that.
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The issue is the intent. While such people are making giveaways, their intent is to screw with people.
Pretty sad when trolling strangers is all you have to bring you joy. And no apology needed. Bundles are cool and then there is trash bundled up and tied up with a bow. Bah, they'll get blacklists for Xmas :D
Have a lovely end of year!
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No spoilers. Please do not share what games you found or what was contained inside of a gift box.
I found that you deleted this sentence.
Does that mean I can share it with a third party website ?
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With which third party website did you want to share the infos ?
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Oops, I forgot to copy that line from the last event. It's been added to the description.
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So, it's not allowed to share games and content in the gift box with a third party website, right?
In fact, I found some new users doing this, and I need a clear response to remind them.
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Nowhere in this sentence is written "with a thirt party". It states boxes content can't be shared.
So basically anyone writing "in this box you have this game", or "don't open this box it contains asset flip" breaks the event rules.
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⠀⠀⠀⣿⣿⡆⠀⠀⢸⣷⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⢸⣿⡇⠀⠀ ⣾⣿⡆⠀
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Last year users could hide gift boxes for games they filtered on SteamGifts.
Damn, I entered in one I have in my account and also hidden here.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/901399/Sam__Max_The_Devils_Playhouse/
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I like the peek feature and no dlc / no free games rule. This will surely make event less frustrating and more enjoyable.
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The peeking is a great addition CG.
- Look for the box with the GGP logo
Number,.. 36 this year by GGP, so far....
I may have kind of lost count.
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You can's share or hint towards content of the box, unless it's your box.
So you will need to edit your post.
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Fixed it, cheers.
Tofu will post himself - it was done in agreement.
Btw, we still have a few open tickets if you need any help with those?
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From me are 400 or 500 tickets open too ;o)
So yes they need help.... but cg aren't interested to change that since years, because of that "don't have high hopes".
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I guess you are the reason they don't have time for other tickets then? :P
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I would be happy if that were the reason... because then more of my tickets would be solved as it happen ;o)
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It's not true cg is not interested in changing anything, only that changes take time. And often need to consider many points of view and many user interests. Change beneficial to one person will be disadvantage for another.
Staff members can't be added on ad-hoc basis, as they are responsible for many aspects of the site. You always have a lot of solved tickets in few first weeks / months after new staff is added, as they have time and energy to "work". I had a lot of time when I joined, I was able to solve dozens of tickets per day. Now I'm not able to do it. And after some time it reaches new plateau - new people will keep working or leave, old people will see new people are there to help and will decide it's finally time to retire.
But adding more people that will burn themselves out, and have high turnover would not improve the service.
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My words aren't something against the staff members, i like most of them. I hope you know that :o)
But sorry if no new staff members will be promoted, in around 2 years, and the tickets stack more and more up and nothing change at the activity of the staff members and nothing change after a lot of, friendly, long time members had offered to help, or the possibility to reduce the tickets (=the workload for the staff) with a tracker (exist) that only need a script to read from a tracker the new added games and set them to reduced [that's maybe not perfect but better as hundreds of tickets that don't get solved and for sure only a small thing to program] (i provided the staff this trackers adress, with a please to bring it to cg's attention, that he can do a script for reading the tracker and set the games to reduced) then is something wrong from cg's side. A part of the ones that offered help have left sg after nothing changed for so long.
And i don't think it can be explained with "ad-hoc" isn't possible because the timeframe i talk about are around 2 years.
Sure are new staff members more motivated and invest more time.
It isn't a problem if long time staff members are, partly, inactive or for a timeframe X inactive, only if nothing change after it is clear that it give a problem (and alone the tickets show that since, at least, over a year, not to speak from the reactions in the discussions. If a punishment, for not activating wins, need over a year to be handled is it not helpful for the site in general-).
New, active, staff members would not a disadvantage for someone and it is possible to limit their possibilities which tickets they can handle (as example add games to the free or reduced list should be done without tickets too and would be a easy thing for people that grab freebies or buy the typical/common bundles by themself, if a few do that would it not be much work).
It isn't totaly wrong to set a staff member at "not active" if his personal situation, energy level or whatever else don't let him handle some work at the site. That don't mean something bad or that it is needed to kick that one or something like that, it should only show which ones are effective around to help someone and/or work at the tickets and which ones need to fill there energy up before "back in action".
Because i get, i think so, """much""" solved tickets (for the standard right now) and sometimes feedback at my tickets, i would say i know very well how much of the staff are active (with tickets) and how active they are.
I know the active staff members try their best but if they know they can't handle all workload then they burn out and i think that happened with a lot of the "active" ones.
From my point of view only more shoulders that can handle the workload lower that burnout problem for each of them.
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:D
Well now you can complain on me (and Zomby I guess) that nothing changes in support staff. Let poor cg sleep a bit better :P
Let's hope we can make it work better from now on.
It isn't totaly wrong to set a staff member at "not active" if his personal situation, energy level or whatever else don't let him handle some work at the site. That don't mean something bad or that it is needed to kick that one or something like that, it should only show which ones are effective around to help someone and/or work at the tickets and which ones need to fill there energy up before "back in action".
cg removed inactive support members some time ago, if you check the roles there was way more people there. Still, people who work infrequently were left as it's easier to do than change their status each time they have bit of free time to help.
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I would say, great change :o)
It go upwards.
Congratulations.
And yes, if Zomby and you do the job, cg can sleep^^
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I really wish I'd have more time, believe me :P
Maybe after new year I will have some time off from work and RL issues to sit and do bulk of other / user reports / unsuspend requests. Request New Winner and Delete Giveaway are given high priority, so they are done with in timely matter, even when it means waiting 4 - 5 days for ticket to be solved.
Add Games To list is bit of a mess with everything, as it should be used to ask support to add specific game to the /create-giveaway page. And there is everything from adding game to the bundle list, removing game from this list, unsuspend requests, questions about revocations etc. Games are added to the database automatically up to 24h after release, and we can't add bundles to the create-giveaway page, as they are metapackages. That's why queue is so long there I believe. Mix of ticket in wrong category and issues that will solve themselves after few hours.
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How many staff "is" there in actuality?
Honestly it's so rare staff even responds at all, that i'm quite glad for the attention you're giving us with questions here right now, so don't mind me if a few more questions may be coming your way in order to help better understand the site's current situation and what difficulties are currently up on the board.
CG already sort of let go of steamtrades due to a lack of staff I think, even though that part of the site is still up and available for use. (and can get a little messy with all the spam and bump bots kicking up 5-10x the same post)
If it's just CG, you, and zomby doing the tickets right now, then I can fully understand why some are up and left alone for a year or more. Especially with the number of users the site has. Some FIFO (first in first out) may be worth investigating for future purposes, or even just answering them to give users an idea that they are seen, and when they may expect an actual response. And I'd outright close any tickets from users that aren't even active on SG anymore. Perhaps a clean-slate, close any tickets older than a year and let users recreate them if they are still of interest / relevant to them. That way staff doesn't get discouraged by the giant mountain of unanswered tickets, and you can actually start working on clearing it.
Not recruiting new staff because they don't last, isn't really the way to go about it imho. You need new staff, the backlog pretty much explains why. Even if a few people do a lot of work in a month before quitting - that's a few months worth of tickets handled before the next person comes along to take their place. I'm not volunteering (work, admin on 4 discords, ggplayers, and playing some games to review), but I'm quite sure there's a dozen qualified and energetic young individuals who would be more than happy to contribute their free time for the common good.
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If it's just CG, you, and Zomby doing the tickets right now
No, there is way more active staff than 3 people. It's Junior and Senior mods who take care of bulk of the work and solve delete / request new winner requests. I as SM was just solving issues where manual intervention was needed. All people that are in the moderation team do something. If not daily, then weekly or from time to time.
Some FIFO (first in first out) may be worth investigating for future purposes, or even just answering them to give users an idea that they are seen, and when they may expect an actual response
You can't tell when user can expect response, as we're not paid. Tickets are not "assigned" to us, and one moderator can start to solve the issue, and it will be closed by someone else.
I could answer 20 tickets yesterday and inform I will answer again today (I'm off work Mon and Tue), but something could happen and I will not have time to open SG for the next week.
Sometimes when I've spent 2h answering tickets and want to close SG - I see new reply with user sending screenshot of their region. So I will answer in 5s and adjust the region. Other time I will not have time to do so, and user will wait for few days after they submit the necessary information. So one person will say "support was lightning fast", and another "they are too sloowwwww".
We do in general follow FIFO, but it all depends on our time and priorities. Like right now I was poking into other category to see if users need more slots for trains, boxes or other festive activities, as I decided I should give this a priority. So that no one would get answer with more slots after Christmas is over.
If I have 20 min before work to help someone - I'd much more likely adjust someone region or look into deletion that requires SM intervention, add some games to bundle list, than explaining why users can't enter in DLC or "why my level down??". Even if second tickets were created earlier we can't do anything about them.
And I'd outright close any tickets from users that aren't even active on SG anymore. Perhaps a clean-slate, close any tickets older than a year and let users recreate them if they are still of interest / relevant to them. That way staff doesn't get discouraged by the giant mountain of unanswered tickets, and you can actually start working on clearing it.
As I said - it's not like EA customer service where tickets are assigned to moderators and they have 5 min to answer. Fact that there are many old tickets does not impair support ability to answer to new ones.
If it would be up to me I'd change how support works in general, and implement those ugly questionnaires that no-one likes, before user can even send the ticket. So we would not get questions "Why my level down", "Why no one can enter DLC", "Game has 0 CV", "I activated different game, can I mark as received", "Winner did not mark as received! (giveaway ended 3h ago)" etc., and could focus on more complex issues that are not something that can be covered by simple answer from FAQ.
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lol - dont you people have enough tickets - giggle :P
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What a coinkidink, I was just browsing through some old files and found my "wrappings" from last year, so I thought "gee I wonder if there's an event like that going on at SG now"... and would you look at that, I'm only one day late.
...now all I need to find is a bit of budget so not everything I put in there will suck. Hmm.
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I like the added uncertainty of the new peek feature, but one thing that's bugged me throughout the past 2 similar events is how slow the boxes page is to load sometimes, is it possible for a loading optimization to help users with crappy internet like myself?
Especially with boxes that have the same gif/pic on all sides, like load it once maybe instead of once for each side with a note stating that it didn't load all sides because they are all the same.
or something like "click the box to load" would also be helpful, that way the page wouldn't get stuck in a loading loop where it loads the boxes one by one top down and instead we'd choose which box to load.
Thanks and happy Holidays!
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Hi SG,
Santa has been running a little behind schedule, but the gift boxes have made another return to SteamGifts for 2020! There have been a few tweaks this year which are noted further below.
https://www.steamgifts.com/happy-holidays
How it works
Creating a gift box and giveaway
Opening gift boxes
Changes for 2020
How it works:
You can peek into 10 gift boxes each day. When you peek in a gift box, you'll see a random number of games (2-4) and one of them is contained within the gift box. You can then decide whether or not you want to open the gift box. This should stop trolling because if a user creates a box with the design for a highly desirable game, you can peek to see if it's actually one of the options. It should also help everyone to find boxes that better interest them, while still keeping a bit of mystery and excitement in the event.
No spoilers. Please do not share what games you found or what was contained inside of a gift box.
Happy holidays!
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