Point Distribution

Personally, I get so many points nowadays that i enter givaways based on how pretty the cover art is. But in the past i couldnt even get everything from my wishlist to enter, so personally, i prefer the "chore" which is right now, than having no point for things i would actually like

I like a fixed, time based distribution as well. It made sense when the site was "young" to have it be based on giveaways created, because it required budgeting to enter the giveaways that interest you most. Now there are so many points that only bots and really dedicated users can even harness most of the points, so this change would discourage botting and encourage targeted giveaway entries while still allowing for plenty of points for users.

For someone like me, who enters only for games from my wishlist, and is almost constantly capped at 300, this would actually increase odds of winning. Because in my case points are no issue at all, so it all comes down to the number of entries.

Idea is nice, but... I believe it needs some rethinking, otherwise it won't work as intended.

If some AAA game gets nice discount - SG usually become overflown with it's giveaways. Let's say 30 per day, quite a possible number if the discount is awesome. And an average AAA game takes 40-60 points to enter. So, with the new system you will be able to enter only 8 to 12 GAs during one day. So, this addition seriously lowers one's chances to win. And chances to win per giveaway will increase only by a little bit by lowering number of entries (of those, who spent all their points).
Points will become *even more rare, so this will further encourage spending them ASAP, not allowing them to idle, using bots and scripts for that (and people will find the way to avoid detection, for sure). Also, while you are looking into making SG experience more relaxed - it could become even more routine: there's a way to stockpile points by entering long-lasting "expensive" GA's and then leaving them when you need to "withdraw" points. People will start doing this more often.

That's a shame I can't come up with a way of avoiding the above, but still I need to point that out if it wasn't noted before.

Keep the regeneration as it is but create a second pool of points.

The first is the one we already have, the ones with P we can spend;
The second will contains new P that have been regenerated since user's last visit. Prevent bots to use P from this pool with a captcha (like in "solve captcha to get P".. a bit like those daily reward present in some games)
It's not a captcha for joining every GA, so it's not like users have to do it often.
You could leave the decision of "when to solve the captcha" up to the user (like when they need points, or even every 15' like it's at the moment) or limit its use to once per hour(s)/day. So it really isn't "since user's last visit" but more "since user last withdrew points".

+ May stop bots
+ Keeps giving P to users based on GAs created

- Can be counter-intuitive for new users :\
- Captchas

Alternatively, you could automatically add some P to the actual pool and add the option to withdraw more (always within the actual limit) with the captchas..
Or do as you please and we all will adapt =P

Sounds good I almost never go under 200 points, so better for me :D

Btw, since you're at it, instead of refunding 100% of the points when people remove their entries, they should get a bit less, maybe only 50% of them back (or 75%, idk). Just to make it harder to "bank" points or else this update won't be as effective as it should be.

Yeah, that makes points more valuable and people will think more about what they want to win!
The only thing that bothers me is inability to enter newly created giveaways due to slow point distribution, but I shouldn't participate in every giveaway, right?

I would just decrease the point regeneration (like 2x for example) and increase the pool to around 500 points.

Can someone explain to me how does it work now? Cos I've understood nothing :P

I don't like it - better set the cap to 600 or 1000, and leave the old rules. It's no use if you have fixed amount of points each hour, but there are, for example, 2 bundles, both containing games you want the most. Meaning you would have to choose one of them. Yes, I'm aware that in suggested change there is a dreamlike increase in chances of winnig, but is it really so? I think that with this change awesome games will get even more entries, while trashy old games will get fewer, or none at all - which means that there are fewer chances of winning and fewer cv for ga creators.

I don't like fixed points generation. Points should be generated based on overall number of giveaways, and their value. If current algorithm generates too many points due to too many giveaways being created, then we should lower the amount of points being generated, not make them fixed regardless of number of the giveaways. Generating fixed amount of points will be a step back compared to current solution, not step forward.

Another solution - just bump the cap if people waking up in the middle of the night is the problem. Also solves the problem without step back, although I like first solution more as excessive number of points is bigger problem than the cap itself.

I'm fairly new to the site, rarely use all the points and only enter for games that seem interesting and I'd like to play, but my two cents:

When there are high-value GAs created, why not have extra points for those GAs only? I mean, if Steam goes crazy and gives away all AC games for 1 Euro for a week, it's only logical that we'll all swarm to enter those GAs. If I understand correctly, the problem is that bots will harvest the extra points and enter every low-points GA available. But, if in the AC scenario, there are let's say "flash" points that you can use (up to 50% of the needed points per GA, let's not get crazy here) only for the AC GAs, wouldn't this help?

For example, let's say we all get 2000 points a week (I like the week because it's long enough for the bots to spend everything the first few days and short enough so that new bundles and sales are available at reset). If AC Origins gets on a flash sale (I'm a dreamer) and we get lots and lots of GAs for it, with 100 points cost, 20 "flash" points are added to our account with each GA (or 50 points, or 5, I don't know how you calculate it). So, people who want to enter those specific GAs get a boost.

I would be OK with the admin deciding which games should get this special treatment.

Maybe it's too complicated techically or it would add to confusion, but to me it seems more fair.

I understand the point of entering less GAs with better odds, but psychologically it's the equivalent of the Little Match Girl looking through the glass at GAs she, can never, ever enter....

Are you open to the idea of testing it for maybe 3 months and listen for feedback and potentially reverse the change if it doesn't hit home so well? Not to say there shouldn't be a change, might have to tweak it going forward.

I would rather have the points cap made higher to counter it (something like 500). Not that I struggle with points, but there were dead moments I felt there was too little when some pricier games were bundled (they still end up 40/60 points).

I'm not that fond of a fixed point allocation by time though. Is there no other options than just the one you proposed?

I agree this month was crazy because of the bundlestar (Dollar Jumbo Bundle)[https://www.bundlestars.com/en/bundle/dollar-jumbo-bundle]. I beat myself a record of wins this month and won almost the entire bundle only on this site. I remember having spend several times my 300p per day (as I connect frequently to the site and probably developpe a kind of addiction).

But I'd like to still be able to enter at least all my group/whitelist giveaways. If people dont build their giveaway with a longer period, it will not be possible with this new point restriction. + some train + some extra public giveaways.

This month was exceptional. Whatever, for me, this new system will not be fun. I'm still happy to be able to participate to the community (in different ways, I just shared a long train (and took long times to build it) and a mega Spreadsheet for analyse of the past/futur giveaways) but I like to have this pleasure to log in and spend all my points several times per day (whatever the wins). It probably will be a kind of frustration if can't do it anymore.

I don't really concern myself with points that go over the limit.... I don't use them all anyway, I only enter giveaways on my wish list or giant ones with thousands of winners.

YES YES YES!!!! Finally!!

This ridiculous amount of points that are generated everyday only encourage card farmers to enter into everything just to win something, and earn few cents from cards. That's why they run auto-join scripts 24h/day.

Lowering points generation speed will lower it, as they will have to think what they really want to win and invest their points there. Not to mention that I could spend all my points after checking page to have 300 again after 1 - 2 hours after new huge bundle with "100p" games spam. I was thinking about lowering percentage of points that are generated when GA is made, but constant points amount no matter how big is Clickteam Fusion spam is even better.

View attached image.

And why don't you do it 5p/15mn x level the user is on..
So, L1 will have 5p/15min, L2 10p etc..? By this you will encourage a ppl to share more..

I believe if the point system is changed as you have illustrated, the greatest impact will be when new great bundles are released, for example humble monthly. There will be limited of points given and yet an high influx of new highly wanted giveaways created. That means within the first few days of bundle released, especially the first few hours, there might be insufficient points/participants in the supposedly competitive giveaways. Users who did not buy the bundle may want to join all the giveaway but is limited by the insufficient points received.

I do not mind the proposed fixed rate point system but I would suggest increasing the point cap to maybe a 1000? This way, users can save up during highly anticipated released of great bundles and still enjoy using the website. However,i foresee that if a huge increase in cap is implemented, there might be a decrease in usage of website which can impact the ad avenue which i believe is necessary for upkeep of website.

Therefore i suggest implementing a slight adjustment to the cap to maybe 400-500 and other than the proposed fixed point system, additional points (current point system) are given out every 15 minutes for unbundled games giveaways. (not sure if it can be implemented). As this will only benefit humble monthly bundles, there are still many great bundles out there which many might be interested in. Users might feel limited by the points especially during the first day of the bundle release. (which is already the case when i woke up to a new great bundle)

Reasonable enough idea, I suppose. I do sort of like the idea of point generation being tied to the amount of giveaways being created, as that means when there's a flood of giveaways created for a game I want, I have more points available to enter those giveaways, but if there's no way to effectively do this wihout the inflation problems you're detailing, then I suppose sacrifices would have to be made.

In line with what some others have said here, I'd think about revisiting the 300 point cap. If points are going to be generated at 480 per day, 480 seems like it might be a more reasonable cap.

I'm also a bit sceptical that point generation is the main thing causing entering giveaways to be a 'part-time job,' as you put it. More than point generation, the proliferation of short-duration giveaways (which I know I'm guilty of contributing to!) means I often log into the site more often than I need to to deal with points, just to check if there's a one-hour giveaway that I don't want to miss. Putting a six or twelve hour minimum on giveaway duration would do more to restore the site's 'fun' appeal than messing with the points at all.

It sounds like a great idea to me. Also I'd like to be able to sell my unused points for CS:GO skins.

Point generation should remain dynamic if we continue to have giveaways with a duration of one hour. To combat the floods you could quite easily make a small change to your algorithm so that each giveaway generates a lot less points.

With a fixed amount of points per a time period I would like to see a change to the minimum time period for a giveaway. A 12 or 24 hour giveaway provides all users across the globe a chance to enter with only one or two visits a day.

I'm fine with the change, but I sit at 300 points 99% of the time, so it won't affect me at all. I think it would help to make people more selective about what they enter, and cut down on people who enter everything without discrimination, thus increase the odds of winning for people who do discriminate.