Point System Updates

Borderlands GOTY, my love :( So many giveaways, so little points. I've already removed my entries from dozens of other wishlisted giveaways that aren't ending soon so I could enter more of them, and I'm still struggling. God :(

edit: i got the game!! thanks guys ♥

I was always excited to visit this site and check my points. The thrill of joining a giveaway even though there are 1k++ entries already entered.

I don't even understand the math people are using that there are more chances of winning. How can it be more chances if I can only enter 4-5 games everyday with the same number of entries (participants) , vs 20 giveaways with the same number of entries before?

It is not about the winning for me. The fun was joining, the fun of dreaming you'll get that win. Now it is really really boring. This point system is worse for me in my book.

Current Borderlands flood proves the change was bad. Especially without raising the giveaway time ending.

Agree with above, new point system does not allow enough entries for top games. Bring back the dynamic points.

After a few days of visiting SG I decided that I don't like the new point system. I'm struggling so hard now with my points plus I have to visit the site every couple of hours just to enter in 1-2 giveaways top (!). It doesn't matter if the point cap has been increased to 500 or 5000 since I can't earn more than 20 per hour which 100% I will spend instantly.

This new system is disaster, I have problem to enter in most giveaways when new bundles come out. Please go back to previous point system :(

either people are spamming the the giveaways or i really dont see how people dont have enough points during the day. i enter 12 giveaways today and i still have above 300 points.

I understand both sides, but with this change its really frustrating so see many GA you wont be able to enter (even though I hide maaaany games I wouldnt play or seem not interesting for me) and it kinda sucks the fun and thrill out of visiting the site, like someone mentioned above ^^'
If a better "GIVE" ratio would regain points faster, its not Pay2Win, imo, because this site lives on people making GAs and that way people would give more, I think (I would :P) I am only LV4 and would understand, if a LV8, who didnt win much before, gets more points. I dont know... its hard to find a fair way, I know, but this new way isnt a good option either :S

i think its just a big change for some people who were able to enter practically everything. maybe its a good number or maybe its a little low, but i dont think people should be able to enter for almost everything on the site and those people will get accustomed to the lower amount of giveaways they can try for.

i agree with Archi, he have explained everything clearly & efficiently. SteamGift must be based on gift created and not a random generated points not accurate with number of games given.
you will face 2 situations:

• people not joining all giveways they want, and saving points for a futur need.
• frustrated people who can't manage their points to join giveaways they want. 500 pts can be depleted in 10-18 good games (monthlies, RPG Maker like, joining a game they want recently bundled several times..)

this will result to :

• joining small groups for higher odds
• less giveaways to the community
• leak of quantity / quality, since people would prefer to join many small giveways (5p - 15p) instead of big ones
• banking points
• R.I.P Trains

well in the other hand there are few other positive points, but i must say it's not that good after all.
well it's maybe my opinion, not everyone have the same logic, but SteamGift is dedicated to give / receive games. People do choices if they come to win, or they are generous to give, or they do both.. it's not about look i have given more or i'm pretty lucky winning games. it's about gifting, sharing & taking if needed. better to leave it open to gifters & gifted without many restrictions, cause even with point's generated quickly, it was hard to win games in public giveaways, now with this new update, it will be almost impossible!

@cg I think the max point for a GA should be 60 in order to reflect the $60 of average new release game. 50 points max seems arbitrary to match up with 500 point total.

Previous system was the same as with no points. You can enter to all giveaways which you want for weeks further - I think that's not as it should be.
So we are have two paths:
1) No points to enter, you can participate in every giveaway. Too much points = no points. Big amount of entries on each giveaway.
2) Restrict amount of points, so you need to prioritise what to enter. Lesser amount of entries (depends on quality of the game).
I think current system works, maybe it needs some calibration in future, in my opinion we are on the right way.

Also, I think better to delete the maximum number of points to enter and set it to 100P as it was (or even delete this restriction, number of points fully depends on game cost) and add more points per hour to compensate it.

Here's my take on it all:

Perhaps the point system did need an overhaul, but I feel it was turned down too low. The site is growing, so it should be that points are more abundant, so users can take advantage of the growing site. Perhaps the old system became too generous, but now I feel that it's way too lean instead. I'll elaborate a bit (too much as always...) on this;

I thought that SG was one of the best meta-games available, I could easily sit here for hours a day. I made sure my wish-listed games was entered, I read comments, I discussed with people, enjoyed myself. I then went on to recommended and group GA:s and did the same there, then I went to public to see if anything fun popped up there. I got a buzz every time I opened SG; perhaps there was a win, perhaps there was an interesting answer from someone, perhaps a fun discussion.
Now however, my points don't even last 1/5th through that. That leaves me with few options; either I look for a very few of the most interesting games, or join several ones with lowest joiners - essentially turning the site to a strategic hurdle instead of a fun place. Now this changes my whole attitude, I come here to do simple math to utilize the sites main purpose, to win games. I personally don't enjoy scrolling lists up and down to find the best chance, so I just join the first I see to get it over with, and leave.

The second part of this change is of course to fight scripts/bots. I agree with this, we should, these entries are lazy and some people take great offense by them (actually, I personally couldn't care less who or how anyone joins my GA:s, but as a community it will destroy things if not kept checked) but I don't feel this will do the job;
Yes, the number of entries by scripts/bots will of course decrease if there's less points to go around, but I do not believe less people will use them which really should be the goal. Doing it this way is like saying ''We will fight child pornography by removing all the children, but do nothing about the offenders....''
The script/bot users will likely not decrease at all, those who already are using them will continue, and I believe some will think the site is now to boring to spend time on and may turn to bots.
I myself know very little to nothing about scripts and how to stop them, I'll leave that to more advanced users, but I do not think this will be it, I'm afraid.

EDIT: Reading through my post, it reads more negative than I wished it to do - It is good that we look into how points are distributed, it is very good that site owners are interested in the site and are actively trying to make it better, and possibly this fix is the the fix to end all problems - it's just not tuned right at the moment (again, in my opinion of course...).

since the changes I can only enter about 10 giveaway per day Ignoring entering group giveaways

I wonder how this figures into our chances?
My probability of winning has nose dived since the change was made...
http://puu.sh/xWdQy/6d56b41da2.png

Point system sucks sooooooo much. Terrible timing too with all these Borderlands and Van Helsing GAs. Haven't even touched the VH ones because it's too costly. Odds are bad across the board for Borderlands 2. Only bad indies have better odds. The new system is drastically worse.

I really like this new change. it makes me think twice before I enter a giveaway. Now I just enter the giveaways that I will give them a try for sure.
My public giveaways page is only 2-3 pages long and I have enough points to enter all of the higher level giveaways there.

It may be a stupid request but, could we have a "number of giveaways entered per month" chart added to the stats (personal and/or community-wide)
if it's not hard to get the data I feel it would be nice to compare last months to upcoming ones (plus this transition month we are experiencing atm)

I did a quick search but couldn't find any mention of this in the thread.
I had entered a giveaway for "Rise of the Tomb Raider" (50p). Today, I decided it had too many entries and the chances were too slim for the valuable points, so I tried to leave. Being at 270 points, I got a warning saying I'd lose 20 points by doing that!
So, is the 500 point limit only enabled for "point generation" but not for "point relocation"? 270+50=320, so I was warned about the 300 point cap. Is that how it's intended to work, or is that a bug?

Also, what would happen if you win a game and your entries for other copies are refunded? 300 or 500?

Thanks in advance to anyone that can shed some light on this 😎

Wow, so many leechers complaining about new point system and don't even understand that they need to contribute to get a better chances

First, my apologizes about my not so good english. I hope it's understandable. :)
I have a lot of considerations to do, but i think i have to see the long run first.

Anyway, something is crystal clear to me:

• Users entering several times during a day is good or bad for SG?
• The bandwidth cost is higher than the possible ads income?

Why i'm saying it?
Because i had SG like a time killing game, when i'm tired to work.
I used to enter here several times in a day, to gambling points and to see games i don't know yet.
So a spend a lot o bandwidth, but i also occasionally click in an ad, because i'm killing time and the ads show me products i'm just considering.

Now, i'll access the site a lot less than before.
I'll spend less bandwidth but i'll also click a lot less in ads.

So it feels like limiting SG access to 1 or 2 times for a day.
Of course i can still accessing, but for what reason now?

You ruin my little game :) LOL

Also it seems to me that 0 point users will get increased chances to win.
Because at this points rate, i'll probably not enter 0 points GAs anymore, so they will have fewer entries.

It's like "punishing" people for accessing SG more times and rewarding people who don't make any giveaway.
But i'm not sure about this point.

Editing

The "Old" system feels like a rewarding system to people accessing more the site.
If accessing is something good for SG maintenance regardless the bandwidth cost, i think the old system was just perfect.
But if user traffic must be limited and ads income are from non users getting here for the first time, now it's better.

New SG Meta: Instead of constantly spending points, now you'll be constantly checking your entered giveaways, and if it has over 1,000, abandon ship! Consider jumping ship if 725 - 999 entries.

So a few days ago I posted a crap puzzle event thing and with so many people complaining they can't enter every giveaway they want I've decided to use it for some statistical analysis.

The event contained 65 giveaways. Under the old system there would have been 65 winners. Under the new system with so many people missing out on giveaways I was concerned that some people would miss out on games. However with all the giveaways ended and after some counting it appears I got 65 winners - exactly the same as under the old system.

Mind. Blown.

I realise it is a relatively small statistical sample and maybe further research should be done before drawing radical conclusions - but if that data was extrapolated across all of steam gifts it would mean that every time somebody gave a game away somebody would still win it. Exactly like what happened before.

It's almost as if the number of games won is determined by the number of games gifted rather than by any arbitrary points regeneration value. And whatever that arbitrary value might be then as long as it is the same for all users then the system might be considered somehow fair.

I'd like my Nobel prize for numbering now please.

https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/U4Vbb/what-should-giveaway-entry-costs-be

not sure how longer you want to run the poll.
votes are already at 1.3:1 ratio (354:273) in favor of increasing the maximum points to 100.

If I spend 3 times a day (every 8 hours) I have 160 points to spend. I tell myself that finalemet 300 or 500 changes nothing for me. That could have even gone up to 200.