$0,04 on one shady site (i won't post a link 😊), so people farm cv.
I believe this game will be in bundle list ^^
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Which shady site? I don't see anything on stramground. You can at least give a name so it can be added to the bundle list.
I've been seeing a lot of giveaways that might be coming from "these sites" but can't seem to find them. Like Astral Hero, The Dark Tales of Katarina, Project:Surviving etc but can't seem to find the site.
And I just accepted a trade for The Challenge lol that doesn't look so fair anymore hah, my luck.
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well, there are +20 more sites with keys for $0,01-0,04 (not only steamground)
remember this from valve??
These fake developers take advantage of a feature we provide to all developers on Steam, which is the ability to generate Steam keys for their games. They generate many thousands of these keys and hand them out to bots running Steam accounts, which then idle away in their games to collect Trading Cards. Even if no real players ever see or buy one of these fake games, their developers make money by farming cards.
Money from cards and money from selling keys for few cents ^^
And thats why valve will close greenlight 😊
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Yes I remember. No way of farming games for cards and selling them anymore, even the ones that you get from sites like steamground that is again less shady than these other ones. :(
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They're not getting rid of steam trading cards. They're just getting rid of greenlight and making it so that games have to hit iirc, a certain threshold of active players or players who have hit an amount of achievements showing the games are being played rather than just idled for cards before trading cards will be an option.
TLDR: Trading Cards and card farming aren't going away. Just trying to limit card trash games.
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Most popular guess around internet (since Valve never said how exactly it will work) for that threshhold is "game must sell 9001 copies through Steam without sales" and cd-key activations will nearly completely not matter.
So for game like this - they'll never get cards.
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sell 9001 copies through Steam without sales
Without sales lol. Even with sales that number is huge for indies. No (small) game will get cards anymore then. badum
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The number was an "over 9000!!!!" joke.
But yeah, that's the general guess - if you're a completely new guy, Valve'll want to see if you can sell your game through Steam and they will not search whole internet to see if you don't make some massive giveaways or massive russian-store-10-cent sales. They'll want to see if people want to buy fully priced game, not on some -99% deal.
Number "9001" probably can be changed even to 1000 copies - who will buy $1 game knowing he'll get cards worth 20-30 cents? Which in turn will make it obvious there are real people who want to play it, not just card-farmers.
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Someone posted it in the comments on a couple of the giveaways. I don't see any reason not to post it here. I would not suggest buying from them, but I don't see why it would hurt to let people know where it is coming from and they can buy at their own risk if they want to. I don't have a problem with people farming CV as long as the game gets bundled, most users do it in one way or another.
I have never used this site, know nothing about it, and I am not recommending it.
http://domenkeys.akens.ru/
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Yes, well it seems to only support russian payment methods, so no way of getting it anyhow.
Still this site should be known by the moderators so these games can be added to the bundle list at this cheap of a price Just as games from steam that are over 95% off in Russian region are added to the bundle list.
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Still this site should be known by the moderators so these games can be added to the bundle list at this cheap of a price
A thread posted in Bugs/Suggestions would be more helpful in that regard, as cg and shobo are more likely to take notice of the discussion there (and for the record, the moderators do not handle the bundle list; only two people can add to or modify it, and that is cg or shobo).
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Pretty sure I know the shady site you are talking about. They are a huge dealer in stolen/black market keys.
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Don't trust any of these site that don't use the Steam API
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I was willing to buying the game directly, but since the site only accepts russian payment methods, there is nothing I can do :/ I guess I'll just have to be lucky enough to win one of the GAs :P
Thank you for the info, AllTracTurbo <3
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Shady websites and (rather) poor game. In short - no, thanks.
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101% legit. 20 seconds on these sites:
pls, remove scam links.
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Not sure if it is a scam. From what I read, you get points from completing surveys and then you can use those points to get games. Considering the game is being sold for $0.04 on another site, I don't see why they would need to scam anyone when the game is worth so little.
I did remove those links though because I don't think that is where the giveaway creators were getting the keys from and I would rather not send people to those sites.
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game added to bundle-list
https://www.steamgifts.com/bundle-games/search?q=The%20Challenge
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That's good :)
I just checked the bundle list about 5 minutes ago and it wasn't there. It must have just been added.
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check my pics with win list - someone win gta5.... steam key :D
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the sites with that classic 2-4 second updating popup about rewards earned are carbon copy and pasted with various names and are all scam sites. no amount of work will get you anything on them.
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Be very carefull with this site.
Many SG users might be in for some drama if the dev is gonna make his move. :|
http://steamcommunity.com/app/496440/discussions/0/1291817208491401599/
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Yup, that's the risk the giveaways creators take by buying from shady sites. I specifically said that I was not recommending buying from them, I was simply trying to find out where the keys were coming from. I will update the OP.
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Can only agree, I did not buy my copies form there but was gifted them from a mate, but im certain that site would be the source.
Since im only in for 2 copies im not to worried, more about what mess it would make on other users/staff on the site. :|
But hopefully he is just "blocking" the unused once as he is writing and not revoking what has been activated, time will tell I guess.
So far it's still on my account
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Thanks for the update. It is not easy to understand some of the conversation using google to translate, but it is good that it is being looked into.
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It seems like the same thing is happening now with the game Beastiarium. It seems to be a common theme now where people are getting many copies of these games for free or cheap and getting full unbundled CV for them on SG. If you look through the history of giveaways, you can see that users have been giving away many copies of games like this and because the games are not on well known bundle sites, they are not getting bundled here and they get full CV.
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Is that on the site I linked in the OP? I checked it about an hour ago and again just now and I don't see those games on the list.
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in truth, this method has been in use for years?, and some of the accounts as high as level 10 got there in no small part due to this. The problem is that you cannot retroactively bundle them since you need to prove origin and timing. that's impossible. and who can keep track of all of these seemingly endless 2-4 ruble stores?
and if you start penalizing these, then what about the users with access to press keys from various sources? I don't see how you can set a clear standard of fairness with the burden of proof. People will game the system because they have access to low or no cost keys that many of us do not. Where do you even start?
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Yup keys got stolen :( Like Hexoscope, Hiiro, It's spring again, neverend, langoth, energy balance and every fucking game of the publisher, or maybe, just maybe, they sell their games there? And the devs weren't aware of that? History atleast checks out, every game of theirs excluding the new ones have been bundled and sold by pennies, so yeah they wouldn't be my first choice to get my game published
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*** English:
At the moment we decided not to block this pack of keys, because the players who received them are not to blame for the leak. Also, measures were taken to prevent repeated leakage of keys through a compromised account.
Officially, The Challenge is now sold only on STEAM, Humble Store and IndieGala Store.
#23 - steamcommunity topic
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Rather than being concerned if the keys are legit, I'm more skeptical whether the dev is telling the truth, or is somehow ignorant to the fact that literally all of Sometime You's catalog has been made available on Russian keyshops, and even on DIG for mere pennies. The dev saying the keys were stolen without providing any context, and taking no action seems even more fishy. Nearly all of the Russian sites only have keys from devs/publishers that are known sell-outs to the card farming market, so there's little reason to suspect different with this game.
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I agree, it does seem odd and I don't know the truth, I am just reporting what was said by the developer.
I feel like the developer probably didn't know what was going on and the keys probably are not stolen. If the keys were not stolen and the developer claims that, they need to be careful because they are hurting the name of the company selling the keys and that is grounds for a lawsuit, at least in the US, I don't know about laws in other countries.
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I noticed a bunch of 5 and 10 copy giveaways for the unbundled (now bundled) game "The Challenge" and I was wondering where they came from. I also saw other people asking in the giveaways where they are coming from. I did some searching and found some sites that give you points for completing surveys and then you can use those points to buy games. I guess that should not be considered a free game because you are working to get it, but it should probably be considered bundled.
(Removed the links because I don't think that is where these keys are coming from and I would rather not send those sites any more traffic)
Edit: The game is also for sale on a Russian site for $0.04. Warning: I have never used this site, know nothing about it, and I am not recommending it. Users have reported that this site only accepts Russian payment methods. http://domenkeys.akens.ru/
Update May 27: Someone asked the developer if the keys being sold for $0.04 are legit and the developer said that they were stolen and would be blocked. http://steamcommunity.com/app/496440/discussions/0/1291817208491401599/
Update 2: There is an investigation to find out what happened with the keys and they have not decided yet what they will do with the keys that have been sold.
Update 3: The developer has responded saying that they will not be revoking the keys that have already been sold. They say the keys were stolen and that they are only selling copies of their game on Steam.
You can translate the page with google if you want to read it. If you are using Chrome, you should be able to just right click the page and click "Translate to English".
More games, June 5: It seems like the same thing is happening now with the games Beastiarium, Woodlands, H.I.S.T.O.R.Y T.O.R.C.H.K.A, UltraGoodness, and Edge of Hearts. It seems to be a common theme now where people are getting many copies of these games really cheap and getting full unbundled CV for them on SG. If you go back through some of the history of giveaways, you can see that people have been giving away many copies of games like this and because the games are not on well known bundle sites, they are not getting bundled here and they get full CV.
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