I've only been on here about a week, but I've tossed a couple games into the ring. Why not? Seems like a fun and generous thing to do.

However, I have noticed that the vast majority of users I examine have provided nothing to the community, but have entered hundreds of giveaways. Not terrible, but it seems like a bit of an imbalance.

Other than a warm fuzzy feeling, what incentive is there for a user to provide gifts to the community? It seems that donating is equally as satisfactory as not.

On top of this, it seems that it creates a user base of people competing largely over the giveaways with no desire to contribute at all, which over time will just continue to degrade the system.

I feel as though there should be some balancing measure, such as tiers or an algorithm to reward those who are giving their own gifts/money into the community. Right now, it definitely seems like the smarter user would just create accounts and let them accumulate points in order to grab up what gifts they can.

Also, please, if this has been discussed elsewhere I would appreciate the link to it.

Thanks!

13 years ago*

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If we made a change to that, it would cease to be random, wouldn't be gifts, and would result in us getting screamed at.

13 years ago
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Personally I'd feel much better about gifting if more people took 15 seconds to say thank you... Kind of saddening when 900 people enter and 33 say thank you or any thing at all. Feels to me like a large portion of the members just want free stuff and don't particularly care about who is giving it to them.

13 years ago
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They actually don't know who is giving it to them... And from those 900 people, 600 people doesn't speak English at all or well...
Also yea - most people just want gifts.

13 years ago
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yeah I know, but hell I'd take a comment in Russian as at least it is something.

13 years ago
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I've actually gone to google translate a few times to see what the russian meant :) kinda fun and interesting!

13 years ago
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It can be annoying if the phrase you need to translate is in the description of the giveaway... If it's Russian - you've got yourself a region warning. If there is a comment in Russian - it MIGHT (not likely) tell you that the game is region-restricted or isn't.

13 years ago
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First of all - you need to spend $30 on your account. I don't think it's worth spending that when your chance of winning often is 0.0x%.
Second of all - I agree with Cult.

13 years ago
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$50*

13 years ago
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I'm not completely disagreeing, but I also don't think it's so black and white, either.
I see a wealth of users who literally have contributed nothing and yet complain about how many they can enter, or worse, I encountered some guy in another thread who just insulted me, and refused to answer my honest question. I noticed he had won two giveaways, had entered hundreds, and contributed nothing. Yet somehow he is completely able to spit on me in the forum.

Even a simple badge or special recognition for those who are willingly giving away valuable things to others would be nice.

As to whether it would cease to be random, I disagree. It would definitely have a weighted bias, but it would still be fairly random. Who would scream, by the way? Steam? Users? Why is it that people being given free games have a right to scream about anything?

I really like the core concept of steamgifts, and myself and each of my friends have $1200+ of games on our accounts. I think this kind of user should be appreciated in some way other than an auto-respond "thanks". Doing so could foster a long standing relationship with those users who regularly come upon extra copies of games. So far, my main interaction has been some guy shitting on my question, and he has never even given a gift.

13 years ago
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A badge isn't a bad idea.

13 years ago
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Tiered badges, even better. I've only given away roughly $18 worth of games while I tentatively evaluate steamgifts.com, and some users I'm sure have given away hundreds. They deserve even better recognition than me, surely.
Anyone giving away free games as gifts should be revered, IMO. The idea that I've already been met with some degree of aggression rather than the opposite is appalling.

13 years ago
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"Why is it that people being given free games have a right to scream about anything?" Why don't they? Just curious how you'd answer... Don't take this personally.
Also - why would a user with $1200+ games on his account should be appreciated? Why is he better than a user with $30 games on his account?
As for that guy - you can't know if he deliberately not giving you a game (and has 500 games in his account), or he is simply poor and not able to buy a game to giveaway, maybe even not able to buy it for himself. Or maybe you do, just didn't mention it... Just pointing out a possibility.
Oh, and a badge is a nice idea.

13 years ago
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I don't think they have a right to scream because they are being given free things without contributing. This is a basic tenet of receiving gifts. You don't have a right to complain about how much of something free you get, or whether somebody else also got more or less free things than you. It shows a complete lack of appreciation and is extremely disrespectful.

I apologize if I gave the impression that somebody having $1200+ games deserved implicit respect. What I meant was, this community should be warm and welcoming and hope to keep those who regularly buy games and have the ability to gift them. Somebody who gives from their $30 account should also be respected, but my point was meant to indicate that it is very easy to scare away valuable contributors, and that should be avoided. This shouldn't be seen as an opportunity to ransack somebody's generosity. It will be detected and have a detrimental affect, methinks.

That guy may not have the means, I agree. My point was that he is taking from people and as a contribution turning around and acting in a way that is a negative contribution to the community (in this particular experience I had).

EDIT: I also now feel really weird about creating giveaways where people who are rude to me might benefit from my generosity. I wouldn't mind a way to block certain users from receiving gifts from me. Again, I buy a lot of games, and if steamgifts works out would like to see it become a way for me to give away my extra games to people... but now I have this nagging remote possibility that people who are dicks to me might still take things from me, and that just rubs me wrongly.

13 years ago
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I partially disagree with your point here. Everybody has a right to complain, regardless of the circumstances. If one complain that he received 1 gift in 100 tries, and another received 5 gifts in 10 giveaways, for example if he would say that... Hm. I actually see no logical way to accept or even make a logical complaint... Okay, next example:
If one would complain that people don't give away the games that he wants - that would partially be a valid complaint. Why should he respect a generous act that he doesn't use? If this would be true, we would have to respect a guy in Africa who shared a banana with his brother. Of course it would appear disrespectful in the giveaway'ers mind, because he is giving to the community, doing something good.
Just one example, I could think of more, but I don't think it's necessary. And more points of 'bad' complaints comes to mind, so it's kinda hard to think of them compared. That is why I disagree only partially.

Yes, I agree with that completely - it is easy to scare away generous people. But this site isn't really a place for generous people who actually want A LOT of respect. They will get some, but not many. 900 entries and 33 thanks is a good example of that.

That goes to the first point... So no comments on this one.

EDIT after your EDIT: I had the same idea just before reading your edit - blocks would be nice. On the other hand, I would get some blocks myself, because some children (also some cool people) don't like the fact that I'm posting links to my blog, or even the fact that I'm writing what I'm writing - a review. They also do not have arguments after I reply to their posts... But still - it's extremely annoying and also I would miss some giveaways. But still - I'm for this idea.
Also, you could make private giveaways until/if that feature will be implemented. Though you should think of a way for getting people in, I could help you with that if you want, but in a chat, because it's a matter of live-fast discussion.

13 years ago
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Groups of people we want to include in a giveaway might not be bad, and still, everyone wins. I actually gave a game away and "DapsRA" won it. He was so appreciative and friendly over steam after I sent it (and i received unfriendly reactions in the forum), that I just gave him another game too for the heck of it (frozen synapse) over steam instead of raffling it off. If I were able to start finding friendly/appreciative and non-hostile people I'd start forming some giveaways for those sorts of people.

13 years ago
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That's very nice of you.
The first word of your reply game me an idea - find these appreciative people and invite them into your own private Steam group. Then let them know that a giveaway is going on, and let them in.
Though don't evolve into an elitist group, or "don't giveaway, don't get a giveaway" type of group. Just gather nice people...

13 years ago
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What if the giver simply received an extra 5 points whenever he/she receives positive feedback? How would that create any problems or screaming?

13 years ago
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Hell, why not just give people 1% of the points that go into a raffle if they are the one raffling it? That way high value and high demand games are more ideal to raffle off instead of low value/low demand.

13 years ago
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This is how I thought the site would work when I first heard about it, and it makes more sense than the current system IMO.

13 years ago
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Love this idea.

13 years ago
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I think that any way of rewarding/incentivising people who give away their games is a great idea, I know people don’t give away their games for any personal gain, but lets face it, if it wasn't for their generosity this site wouldnt exist, let’s look after them as best we can.

13 years ago
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I've had more people bother me and complain to me than I have say Thank you. That being said, most din't message me anything and removed me right away from their friends so....

Oh, and for the badges, +rep. Needs hats on our avatars too.

13 years ago
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Steam adds anyone you exchange presents with to your friends list, I don't like that. I keep my friends list limited to the people that I regularly talk to and play games with, not everyone that I somehow know of, like people's facebook friend lists...

Though I always thank people left and right.

13 years ago
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That's funny... If you don't like the gift - don't enter the giveaway... Why enter a giveaway, and then complain that you got the gift instead of something else? It's stupid, I would block these people...

13 years ago
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I may not be fully awake, but the idea of awarding a 1% point value or whatever amount seems feasible, when the points issued to the population is inhibited...I like the reduced points, and having extra points to blow on giveaways as a REWARD to doing a giveaway seems pleasant. Of course, the giveaways would have to be valid in order to make it all worthwhile...Which would mean point-reward once the giveaway gifter got a positive...Hell, take it one step further and make negatives actually take AWAY points? I mean, unless they're being banned after 1 or 2 bogus giveaways.

13 years ago
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I actually signed up thinking that I would get some sort of... dare I say 'recognition' for putting up gifts. After searching around and asking my friend I learnt that there was no real incentive for people to give gifts. Reptuation? Badges? More points to spend?

Sure, there's that sudden danger of people putting up loads of expensive titles up but the thing is perhaps 'after' the gift had been sent and received that the gifter could have some sort of... I dunno... something better than the fuzzy feeling we get when gifting games to people xD. I'm pretty much reiterating what Dellmaker said. Atleast we should get something in return for our contributions.

13 years ago
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+1 to a lot of ideas in this thread.

Badges
1% or some portion of total points from a successful giveaway coupled with decreased general point creation.

Hope cg reads this thread.

13 years ago
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+1 Agreed. 1% of total points from successful give away and i also feel that the more you decrease general point creation the more it is actually beneficial for everyone to get the games they want. And if a 1% bonus for gifters was introduced, they would feel the benefits even more.

13 years ago
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Closed 13 years ago by Volte6.