A couple of thoughts. Portal and The Humble Bundle show up often because people simply have extra copies. I don't believe the majority of submitters are going out and buying Portal to give away. Therefore, I don't think rewarding obscure games would have any affect on the amount they're being submitted.
Changing the number of points based on how often the game shows up might cause some confusion. As well, doesn't it have the same value to those entering, regardless of how often it was gifted in the past?
However, I like the direction you're trying to go. It would be nice to know the level of interest for a particular game. What if users could create a wishlist of their top 10 gifts. Then we could simply display a list of the top games users would like to win. Giveaway creators could refer to this list when deciding on a gift to post. If we setup rewards for those creating giveaways in the future, they could get an added bonus for giving away games in high demand.
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I like that last bit. Maybe also it could notify you by email or an icon on the site if a game you're interested in is open for giveaway?
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Yeah, there are issues with the idea, I'd noticed a few right after I'd posted it. That's part of the reason I posted the suggestion. For your first point, yeah, you're probably right. I hadn't completely thought that one through. As for the second part, I can see how it would cause confusion. You're probably right about that. And for value, yeah, for the person entering the game will always have the same value.
A top 10 wishlist would be nice, and I agree that something like that would definitely be of use. But part of what I want to do is encourage people to give away games that they personally enjoy, but that are also relatively obscure. And a wishlist wouldn't necessarily cover that. For example, I can easily open Steam and point out a handful of games I'd like, but, for various reasons, haven't actually purchased. I'd put those games on a wishlist. But, beyond those games, there's bound to be a large number of games that I'd enjoy, but haven't heard of, or have heard of but didn't pay attention too, or that just wouldn't wind up on a wishlist, for some reason or another. I want people to have some form of encouragement to offer something like that; something that they enjoy, but that others may have never heard of.
If that makes sense, I'm kinda thinking aloud.
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First, let me explain the problem, as I see it, that I want to solve.
The problem: This website seems to have a very small number of games that are actually being given away. This is in complete contrast to the ridiculous number of games that Steam has for sale. These games also tend to be the more popular games that most people already own. So I was looking for a solution that would encourage members to give away more obscure games. This may just be me, but I imagined this site to be more of "share your favorite games" type of site, and less of a "get the popular games for free" type, and right now it seems to be leaning towards the latter.
So, the solution:
Make the number of points dependent upon the number of times the game has shown up in the past. The database already keeps track of all the giveaways that have happened, so calculating this wouldn't be difficult at all. This also has the side-effect of making the Humble Indie Bundle surge take care of itself, as opposed to adding a special case like an older thread was suggesting. The problem is figuring exactly what weighting you want place upon the historical prevalence of the game, which I don't have any suggestions for, at the moment, at least. The idea would also require a "this giveaway is worth X points" screen before creating a giveaway, but that shouldn't be difficult to add at all. This would also make the points an indicator of the game's worth to the community, and not just the monetary value of the game.
Thoughts?
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