Raising the level by using developers keys

Hm.. I really need to make some game and make GA for it.
No need to beg for keys to other developers..

Actually, there is already a rule for this: Only the first 5 gifts fully count, all further gifts give less and less Real CV. Especially the gifts of 100 or more keys have thereby a far lower value.

From the FAQ: "After you give away a game 5 times (whether in the same giveaway, or in multiple giveaways), it will begin decreasing in value. The value is decreased by 10% for each additional copy. This means if you decide to give away 8 copies of a $10 game, it would add $74.39 (10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 9 + 8.10 + 7.29) in value towards your level. This has little effect on the majority of users, but prevents individuals from receiving a high level from gifting a large number of promotional gifts, games obtained through pricing errors, or keys from contacting game developers."

you cant really moderate that. large number of keys can be bought too. or they will just gave away one by one.

also thats a call out what is forbidden so pls delete

As an experiment, i wrote a letter to one of the developers and spent only a couple of minutes to write, i received 11 keys.
Almost $200 Real CV, one email.

The game you gave away recently ?

Knew it was around, but them reaching level 10?

I don't think it's any worse than people who do giveaways almost exclusively for their small group of friends and then join lots of public giveaways with their boosted level. In fact at least the dev key giveaways are usually giving most users of the site a chance to win. But then I don't care much either way :p It's unlikely anything will ever be done to change it as far as I know.

Well, some of them are welcomed members in groups like Bundlelicious...well I dislike this people of leechers...
You can reach level 9 with begged keys from developer...what a joke...

What and irony that someone like you create thread like this :D
Let the fun begin

Maybe something like adding good point modifier for most wished games like in another giveaway site could help? Or positive point modifier for games with low "given away" count but good recent reviews on steam could somewhat help devolopers and new players? Or additional negative point modifier for games that are currently in early acess could help? Or epic devolopers whitelist, lol. Its all about point system and number balancing. And its not an easy decision.

I'm sure the moderators know about this method, but do nothing.

Libel.

Salty

eh. No worse than people who pick up 5 * 3 games of a crappy bundle for $3, and get $20 CV for it.

Once again, with the exception of CG throwing excellent games at us, there honestly aren't that GAs for lvl 10 to begin with so this isn't actually a real problem. Oh the lvl 10s get awesome giveaways. Like there isn't a secret club or anything. So getting irritated when at the core you still need to give 5k in games to get to lvl 10 is silly. Something that really isn't that easy to do. Most of these people work hard to keep getting games and it does help the dev's even a tiny bit. So eh.

It's not like high levels give any advantage. Public high-level (6+) giveaways make up so small part of the site that I don't think they can even be measured in hundredths of percents.

i dont mind. its not against the rules. people gain levels and access to better giveaways - good for them, its not my business. after all its "just" steamgifts, i dont know why so many get almost emotional about every little thing here, again its not against the rules. personally, i dont have the time or desire to rant about minor/trivial things. if you cant handle dealing with users that dont "deserve" their level, blacklists and groups exists. yeah its not cool to have to use those tools, but we are not living in a world where everyone acts ethically correct, if people want to do something about it they should rather use their energy on important stuff in RL, not on a gaming forum. thats just my opinion ofc :)

It's not that big of a deal, honestly. I mean, a huge chunk of the games being givenaway are leftovers from a bundle that are basically free. Take the Deep Silver bundle, for instance: $1, and you get 5 games worth what, $80? Let's say someone only wanted Saints Row 2 from the bundle - they saved $9, and got four extra games they don't care about. If they give the rest away, that's about $60-$70 CV added to their level, and they didn't pay a dime for them, since they were prepared to spend $9 more for SR2 alone.

It's not about how much one spends, it's the consideration that's important. One could ask for developer keys and just give them to their friends to save their friends money, trade them for games they want more and boost their feedback, or even sell them on G2A to make some cash. Choosing to to give them away to random people on here promotes the game, and is the more selfless thing to do, in my opinion q: Plus, it gives more people a chance to win :D

I feel a little jelly. And it makes me reflect on myself.

So all these giveaways...just to raise your sg level? No. There's also the "want to enter high level giveaways" part, too.
Maybe you should change your motivation. "This game is awesome and I want to support the developer!" Maybe.

About the question should it be regulated: It's up to cg. It's cg's site and it's cg who provided the place to host these giveaways
(which are provided by the community). It feels like an arms-race to me. One could just lie about the origin of the keys.
This doesn't mean we just become defeatist (we can't stop them! what could we do?!).
I guess you could blacklist them.

Suggestion: 1) Let users choose, when creating a giveaway, if they want CV for it or not, in a way similar to Steamcompanion. I'll not say I always use it there because you need to create 2 or more copies to have the option, but it could have some similar option here. So while there isn't a solution, people would know who is serious in this and who isn't. Who want to do to boost and who don't.