You should contact the creator, give him/her a chance to provide you with a valid key and then mark it not received at the end of the 7 days if the creator of the GA has failed to give you a working key. Hope it works out for you Tbreaker!
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Thanks! But if you think about it, it's a flaw in the system :p
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I'm not sure how that can be considered a flaw. There's no way for SG, or anyone for that matter, to check if a key is valid.
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Well, the site is run by generous people and there are bound to be people who will try to take advantage of the system. If that's the case with this GA creator. It might be a simple misunderstanding too. I just recently had a giveaway end where the winner contacted me and told me the key I gave him was duplicated. I checked his account to make sure he didn't pull a fast one on me, he didn't, and provided him with a new one. Things happen. Hope its a simple mistake on his/her's part though and it gets resolved quickly. I haven't had food today so blame it on that if that made no sense :P
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Yeah, well, I guess it's just a misunderstanding, but I feel bad for the guy :/ Who knows, maybe when Itell him this he will be thinking "this guy cheated on me" or something like that...
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It's possible (and I KNOW this from recent personal experience) that he had tried to give it away elsewhere, was told either 'no thank you' or that he'd taken too long to send it (due to the winning account being an alt and the giver not realising until a week later) and that he should just make another GA with it...but not being told that the key had been used in the meantime...
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One 'not received' mark doesn't destroy someone. He won't get banned or get in trouble; he'll just have one fewer giveaway slot. Problems like these happen sometimes.
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Shit happens. Might as well do the big boy/girl thing and contact the contributor first as Fyantastic stated. Anything beyond that advice is just meh, much like creating a thread asking what to do and then complaining about the answers given. Just meh. Just contact and see what the issue is. If not resolved, mark as not received after 7 days.
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Once you've asked the GA creator for a working key, if they can't provide one, wait for a week then mark as not received, that's all you can do.
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Yes, that's all you can do.
Sometimes when I do public GA this is one of thing that I fear : duplicated key. Sometimes the person giving out the giveaway is not at fault, because some people do claim that their key is duplicated, giving out their key to someone else. The person giving out the giveaway can't prove that the key is working (because there is no method to verify the key without activating it) thus sometimes the person giving out the giveaway have to purchase that game/bundle again, only to prevent getting a stain on their record.
On the other hand, the person that receives the GA and find it duplicated don't also have the means to prove their innocence, the person giving out the GA, innocent or guilty, will always think that the person who receives it and find it duplicated has given it to someone else. The reason is that the key is robust enough : it could not be guessed, so that only the person winning the GA, and the person created the GA that knows the key to the game.
I for one suggest that SG should also have protection from winners who gave out their key and claim that is duplicated.
That's why for the most of the time I stick to "invite-only" giveaways with people I know, or small groups that I know. Even if I gave out a key to the public, I always do it during the bundle (so that the price is cheap) or I have spare keys. I know that most of the people are honest, but some people do scam other people.
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It's just like that... I think that Steamgifts should make exceptions with these cases, I mean, sparing both users, in the case that neither of them is guilty of going against the rules.
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You shouldn't be marking it as received. If you don't activate a win on your account, then you are going against the rule.
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The hard thing is if this happens, one of them is at fault, but there is no method to prove which one is correct.
If the key is duplicated, there are few possible causes :
- The key has been activated, either by accident or design, by the creator - Creator's fault.
- They key has been given away to other people, either by accident or design, by the winner - Winner's fault.
The key itself is robust enough, for now, so the chance of Steam is at fault, or the chance of the other vendor such as Indie Gala are at fault, are really slim, next to none.
In this case, SG's policy is to err on the side of the winners.
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It's also not impossible that the key was already invalid when the creator received it. (Occasionally eg. bundles will give already-used keys due to a glitch.)
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He's not going to get suspended or anything like that. The only thing that will happen is that the game will show up as unreceived.
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I was never really thinking about this, but this is really bad. Too bad cg can do nothing about it, since it's Steam's fault.
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It's not really a Steam fault. The key is robust because there are no methods of verifying it outside of Steam, so that your key is secure, and can't be known by other people.
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There are no methods of verifying key at all, in or out of Steam, except for activating it. You can try contacting support and asking them if the key is activate though, but they're really slow, and I don't know what the chances are for them to answer, altho they did it for me twice.
With all these "security" changes, one would think they'd finally add something like that, or at least to transfer CDKeys into steam gifts, but naah, ain't no way in hell they're going to add something useful to steam for once.
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The problem with allowing people to verify the validity of Steam keys is that someone could use a keygen and try keys util he find valid ones and sells them to unsuspecting users.
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A simple limit of like checking 2-5 keys a day would solve that.
This is why i recommended translating cdkeys into gifts. Since selling gifts for money is not allowed by Valve, you'd be trading for the gift, and if in the end that gift gets revoked, you get your items back.
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You forget about zombie botnets, thats millions of PCs. And number of people trying to 'get a free game' not thinking that it is theft
Sooner or later legit buyer will try to activate his just bought boxed game and will see duped key. It could be you gettin -rep for selling used keys
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Translating CD keys into steam gifts is a great idea, but having a system that are capable of pointing out valid CD keys is the same like begging to be hacked. The reason that steam key is "secure" is that no one outside Steam, SG, you, and your winner knows the key. Steam only have it for activation, SG is only displaying it to you and your winner.
Or perhaps, there are weakness in SG?
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Well, it would be a system on the back-end of Steam's servers, if they manage security well it shouldn't be an issue.
On the front end, user would just enter cdkey, and it could say if it's valid/used or not, doesn't even need to show the name of the game.
It would be really useful, and could be great proof for SG.
Not sure tho, why you mention weakness in SG. This system wouldn't rely at all on SG, but could be used by SG's giveaway creators when making cdkey giveaways.
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that's what i also think... it's a grey area. you will never know if the one receiving the key or the one giving it already used/gifted it.
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I suppose Steam logs the date, time, account and IP when and where each key is activated (or maybe not, might be too much data to save).
Even if the data exists, surely there is no way for Steamgifts to access it.
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This happened to me 3 times. Like everyone else has already said, just let the giveaway creator know what has happened.
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For some reason, I wonder why there isn't just a link or a key when you win now, but maybe people want the communication between two parties.
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Actually, you can put a key or a link when you create the giveaway. That's how the OP received his key. People are free to use it or not though.
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I see what you mean now, and I also checked the create giveaway and noticed you can put the key to show once it ends or select as gift to do it later. Useful addition, heh.
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There's no true solution for this but as people have said there is a protocol to follow.
Luckily it isn't the sort of thing (creating giveaways with used keys or giving won keys to a third party) that can be done a lot by any single winner or giver because their account will just look like the boy who cried wolf and erode any reasonable benefit of the doubt.
There was a time during my brief and underwhelming time as a giver that I would plug the winner email into the gift URL link, but on some sites that means nothing, as it will only tell you the key is used; while on other sites you can forever see the email that it was gifted to.
Where the site logs and shows to you the email of the recipient of your gift link is the closest we can have to a system that can tell you where the key went, and even that is quite imperfect.
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Before "talk shit" occur, please consider that the people in this thread are discussing on how to protect the creators too from mischievous winners, that gave away the key to someone else and claiming that their key is duplicate. The protection for the winners is clear, winners could easily report the said creators, but there are no clear protection for creators from mischievous winners.
While "talking shit" in itself is already immature, "talking shit" to someone who has given away something, without getting something in return, is more immature. If you got problem with someone, try to do it with respect and dignity, even if you are the one who is correct and the other parties is the guilty one.
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This happened to me before too. I gave away a key of a bundled game. Indiegala said it wasn't used yet so I assumed I didn't activate the game and that I already had the game. Turns out indiegala was being buggy and I did use the key. So when I tried to give it away it was a duplicate. I bought the winner a different bundle to fix the issue even though it wasn't really was my fault.
So I would just have a talk with the person who is giving it away to see if you can come to an agreement, if not just mark it as not received.
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well the day i will get a user telling me it a duplicate key i send it (it the day i will stop giving aways free game) period!
we already being generous by giving game we paid for!!
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Well... You are giving away your first game ever... During one year period...
And if the key is duplicate, it's not the winners fault...
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Thief Gold was given out free some time back. I know I got it that way. Whatever though. Humans giveaway the most useless stuff sometimes. Sometimes it has already been used... ;)
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Well, it may not be your fault too.
Some winners are scammers, some creators are scammers.
But due to the current condition, I think winner-scammers and more plausible than creator-scammers.
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and it wont be my fault! all my key i got are unsure (the store or website were i purchase are)
for your information
i gaveaways for free over 500+ game in pass year all flawless
im hosting group buy for all IG bundle on ST and CAG (i have send over 9000+ bundle in pass 2 year all flawless)
active member of CAG (were i gave most of my game for free)
i decide to give a try here and see how community user are.
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You shouldn't give away something if you're unsure if it works at all...
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no one can be sure since no way to check a key. (but you not aware of that right...)
if you dont have something constructive to said sometime it better not to said anything at all IMO.
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I know that the keys are not always legit and I'll accept it. I'll return the key and then I'll buy a new one so winner will get his key.
I hope would do the same unless "not received" doesn't mean anything to you.
What I meant that you shouldn't just lose it if you give a faulty key without knowing it yourself...Because it really sounded like that
I understand what you're saying and I accept it. Some users will not be so forgiving but really... As you said before: "we already being generous by giving game we paid for!!" And I fully agree on that.
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well glad you agree on some part.
has for faulty key i cant check all i know im 110% sure all my key are unredeem
like say before it my first giveaways here (but i already giveaways over 500+ game last year on CAG site)
has for my key they should work (since i paid for them and they unredeem)
on CAG the way i was giving my game was simple i was putting a question and first to PM the answer was getting the game
(coz i use to post in my post all game key i was giving but SADLY many lurker.. so to avoid that i decide to go this way to give them and it work really well and i was sure no lurker were getting it.
anyways thx for your opinion and discussion
p.s. maybe i open a thread here and do same give my game aways same way i do on CAG put a question and first to answer with correct answer get the game
btw my last post here on that matter. goodday to all!
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I don't think you'll get much use of it anyway, does anyone still play Max Payne 3 multiplayer?
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But of course! It's actually better than CoD's multiplayer.
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Well, that's not so useful since it includes single player
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Not that useful, but I always find between 300-500 people playing the multiplayer, and that's enough for me.
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Not many people play single-player. Unless they like sandwich breaks, with all those unskippable cutscenes...
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Hey guys! Wow, first time I create one of these threads... Anyways, I won a giveaway of Max Payne 3: Season Pass, and a few hours ago, the creator sent the steam key by steamgifts (You know, one of these new things in SG v2). But, the problem is, the key is duplicated... Someone already activated it. So, besides letting the giveaway's creator know about this, what should I do? I don't want him or support to think I gave the key to someone else... Thanks for reading this far :p
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