Here are some answers you asked quoted from the FAQ
"How are giveaway winners selected?
All giveaway entries are treated equally, and when a giveaway ends, the site will randomly select a winner. Users that are suspended during the selection process are unable to win, and their entries will be excluded when the winner is generated."
"What are "No Value", "Reduced Value", and "Full Value" giveaways? How do they affect my overall contributor value?
When creating a giveaway and selecting a game, you'll notice "No Value" games are marked with a double asterisk (*), and "Reduced Value" games with a single asterisk (). If you hover over those icons, you'll see the effective date for the value adjustments.
Games typically receive no value or reduced value when they're featured in bundles, heavily discounted, or available for free in online promotions. Their values are adjusted this way to better represent their true value. Keep in mind, the asterisk icons are just for reference, and the value of a game can be backdated if we need to make retroactive changes.
Games fall into one of the below three categories.
No Value:
No contributor value when given away after the effective date.
Reduced Value
15% contributor value when given away after the effective date.
Full Value
100% contributor value when given away."
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don*t start to argue with people complaining about lvls and their own cv ;)
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Did you realy read all of FAQ?
I am asking this since a segments before What are levels, and how can I increase my level? (the part of which you linked) is a segment called What are "No Value", "Reduced Value", and "Full Value" giveaways? How do they affect my overall contributor value? it is a part of a big segment called Contributor Value and Levels.
That segment basically explains the so called "problem" you have. In which it states that some games give no value to level, some give reduced value (15% of the price given as CV) and some give full value.
No value are games that were given away for free and reduced value have games that were bundled.
As for the number you see on the profile page that is not CV but the price of the games you have given away not to be confused with CV, mouse over that number and you will see your CV.
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Oh, i focused a little too much on the last part of the FAQ then, and didn't re-read the part above, my bad...
So if a game was free once in its life, it will always be considered 0 here ?
So all the games that Epic gives for free, for example ?
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So? Epic doesn't matter, again, this isn't Epicgifts, you can't give away Epic games here, it needs to be not only a free game for Steam but also giftable, meaning a key because let's say there is a game temp free on Steam, you can't gift that so it doesn't matter to this website.
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The FAQ is not misleading, althought the profile page could use a bit of polish. It shows for you that you sent $58 in gifts, but as explained clearly in the FAQ, what counts is contributor value. Hover over those $58 and you'll see your CV ($3). I think the profile should show both without needing to hover.
About winning... it's luck. Recently I had 80% of winning a game, and I still didn't win anything. Took me a while to get my first game. And it's different to spend 50p in a game with 8,000 entries than spending them in 5 games with 1000 entries. Still, it's luck. My stats say I'm at -3.87 gifts (11 less than I should, and I never understood what's the difference).
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Don't worry. It's not that it's hard or complex, it's just that it's full of details to take into account. I also commited my mistakes when starting here, although I did read the FAQ entirely before registering. Just be patient, ask about your doubts and you'll find this is an excellent community helpful and understanding.
Also, if you hover over the number of gifts, it breaks down on full/reduced/null value and other numbers.
I think this thread could serve as a good reason to put both "gifted value" and "contributed value" side by side, and when clicking on them, redirect to the appropiate FAQ section. Just a suggestion. (Probably better than the last one(s) I made)
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You already got your answer for the FAQ so about the winning part, it may take a while but if you keep entering you will eventually win something.
The thing is at level one the public GA often have lots of entries so of course the chances are lower.
Beside leveling up there's several things you could do to improve your chances though. You could try joining a group where the odds are usually way better,
try looking in the discussion for invite only GA and puzzles those will also have much better odds. It's not usual to have to enter several thousand giveaways before winning your first one
so don't lose hope, good luck!
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For better chances at winning, try doing puzzles and generally pay attention to the forums. There are also groups you might be able to join, for better chances.
Check out Unlucky7 - A group for those that won 7 or fewer games
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Zero wins in 1200 giveaways is pretty common. If you look at the number of entries most Level 0/1 giveaways have, they can have between 2,000 and 10,000 depending on the popularity of the game and the length of the giveaway. I'd imagine the average chance to win one of those GA's is probably 1 in 2,500 or worse.
To boost your odds, you probably want to consider joining some of the various Steamgift groups. They usually have a much smaller pool of entrants, but you need to meet and follow all the membership requirements (if any). Check the Group Recruitment sub-forum for more details.
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Hello,
TL;DR : I think the FAQ is not clear at all, and even leads people to understand things the wrong way about their levels.
I read the FAQ the first day i discovered steamgifts, and i had the idea that i would win some cool new games from time to time here while discharging games i don't want (which is a fair trade), being also aware that a lot of people were concurrents. So first thing i did, was a modest contribution of my own, to get to level one already. I thought that would open for me a new dimension where maybe the odds were better. It appears that even at level 10 you can have giveaways with thousands of people. But there were more giveaways, so more chances to win stuff.
I then tried to reach level 2, and i discovered it was not what i thought it was. The FAQ gives values for levels :
Level 0: $0.00
Level 1: $0.01 - $25
Level 2: $25 - $50
And what i see in my profile is : Gifts Sent : 7 ($58.93)
I should even qualify for level 3 from what i thought ! But i then discovered it was not that simple, i found out about the Steamgifts calculator, and i saw that my gifts were worth 5-6 bucks only. I even saw that Satellite Reign, which costs 30 isn't even considered here, being flagged as a bundled freely given game or something like that, but even if i didn't pay 30 for this, i bought the Australian Relief bundle, it has to cost at least something, no ? Why ?
And so, your FAQ is misleading, and you should add something about the value of games, bundles, and how the way is going to be far longer than what we think to reach other levels.
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