Just a small question about the "Contributor Only" giveaways.

:/
Personally:
-weed out the leechers ($30.01-)
-reward the contributors (30.01-5000.00)
Just because someone contributed a lot doesn't mean that they don't want to win games too. At least in my case, I've given away games that I didn't even own at the time of the giveaways. Sidenote: Poor guy.
The system is designed to reward generosity, but also encourages CV farming and viewing donating on SG as an investment rather than just something nice to do.

;__;

to inspire, YO

There are a variety of reasons why people here in Steamgifts on why they give a lot of gifts.

• Some people wants to show their dominance
• Use it as investment to get inside groups and leech
• They use SG as borderline advertising
• They want to increase their karma
• Giving gifts to someone makes them feel really good

Let's say someone contributes 1k in the 10 months. In the 12th month of his membership, his/her fav. game get's a sequel, but he can't afford it (at that moment, and he/she REAAALLY wants to play it). If someone creates a GA for that game with high CV req. and he/she decides to enter, he/she will have really high chance of winning (compared to non-cv public GAs).

Just my 2 cents.

A Wild steam key has appeared! QL2LR-ZF6X0-CE6CX

This is just crying about how you can't enter 1000+ CV giveaways in my eyes

I prefer doing giveaways above zero or above the bundle cutoff, but really, so long as people have contributed something, I'm good with them winning. Not even giving away a single bundle key is just shameful.

While I understand your point, and it does seem odd when there are $1k+ CV giveaways, you also have to remember that people's situations can change - such as getting laid off (like I did), getting a divorce, a natural disaster destroying their home, etc. So just because someone gave $1k in games last year, doesn't mean they can still afford to.

Just my 2¢

Key:D-XJHD-OOHK-RUTD

Let's not fall under the assumption that someone who has a CV of $1000 or above is necessarily rich. They probably got a lot of good deals on sales or trades. They also might be just very generous even when they don't have a lot of money. But supposing for a second that they were rich, why shouldn't they get a gift of thanks based on how much they have given? Does that one friend who buys tons of awesome gifts for everyone not deserve a gift back? They, too, deserve that happiness from winning something and receiving something... and especially of getting recognition for their contributions.

There's also the community aspect of it where the high contributors are friends. Since you cannot make a CV requirement that is vastly above your own, you know that the people making these high CV requirements are people with a lot of CV themselves. It's like a little community within a community. People generally know when they set a $2000 CV mark who meets that requirement.

As this is a perennial topic, I'm going to be rehashing some of what I've said, before.

TL;DR: CV is just another way to restrict entries.

I understand if you feel "left out" of some giveaways because they have requirements you can't meet, but there will be other opportunities. I, myself, am currently unable to enter several giveaways for games I really want because my CV is too low. Regardless, the current system has been vetted quite thoroughly, and actually works quite well. I'm not going to give you a wall of text explaining why and/or how it works so well, but I will mention a few things to keep in mind.

1) People use various kinds of restrictions in order to reduce the number of entries. They do this to increase the odds of winning for all qualified entrants. Those restrictions may take any form allowed by the moderators. A person giving something away has the right to specify who may receive it, even if other people don't like it. Here at SG, games that may be acquired for free (or close to free) have a modified CV. If fewer than two people enter a giveaway, no CV is given.

2) CV = contributor value = how SG keeps track of those who have spent their money on others within the community. It may not be a "perfect" system, but a better way of doing this has yet to be found. At the very least, it enables us to see, at a glance, one way in which a particular person has contributed to the SG community. When choosing which "group" to target for a giveaway, some people choose to "give back" to those who have given.

3) CV limits are one way to restrict entries, but there are many others. Among them are the following:

• F5 giveaways (also called "key drop" or "ninja" giveaways)
• Group giveaways
• Hidden giveaways
• Puzzle giveaways
• Private giveaways
• "Flash" or "Rush" giveaways
• "Hunter" giveaways
• "Restricted" giveaways (private giveaways with unusual requirements for entry)

How you set a giveaway up will determine the pool of possible entries. Every giveaway will exclude some people (yes, even public giveaways with no requirements), but the type of giveaway created will narrow down the number of entrants even more. Just like there will always be things other people have that we don't, there will always be giveaways we can't enter. This is one way in which life tests our patience. Life is neither equal nor fair, although we ourselves may strive to be. We can either accept that reality and deal with it, or we can allow it to cause us misery. Personally, I think misery sucks, so I try to just move on.

Giving something away doesn't have to have anything to do with giving it to people that specifically can't afford it. That's just one reason of many. And CV here of $500 or $1000, or even $5000 doesn't mean that people actually spent that much, or that it was even easy to spend that. Your whole idea is based on any number of dubious assumptions.

And even in a case where all your flawed assumptions are absolutely accurate... It's still perfectly valid to want to give something specifically to the people that are so generous, regardless of whether they can afford it. That's not the point. If Bill Gates walked up to me and gave me $10k, I'd still say thank you, right? Because it's not about whether THEY can afford stuff, it's about gratitude. Think about the people that give away the most on this site, and how much they contribute to this site being as fun as it is. Not just in the giveaways they do, but in their interactions with the community as a whole.

I think it's perfectly valid to want to say thanks to Delta for things like his epic b-day giveaway and the current Fortixcember deal, and not care about his CV or assume how he must be able to afford things. I think it's perfectly valid to make a giveaway to say thanks to someone like Zelg, who has put so much money and effort into incredible puzzle events. Khalaq has contributed tons to the community without ever having a win on record. And so on. There are dozens of people I can think of that all have high CVs, and I think every single one of them I'm met so far in the few months I've been on this site absolutely deserve our gratitude, be it in just showing appreciation for the things they do to make this community awesome, or in giveaways set up so specifically for the high CV groups to get something back as a thanks.

So yes, I wish I could enter $1k+ CV giveaways too, to have great odds at awesome games. But I realize exactly what my motivation there is, and I don't end up thus trying to justify it by arguing that any giveaway that has a CV required higher than my own just shouldn't exist because clearly those people can afford to buy it and thus I am more deserving... Which is, in the end, exactly what your post sounds like you are saying OP. It's not about you, or your CV, me or mine, or any one single person's idea of how giveaways should or should not be done. It's about giving for some, receiving for others. Some farm CV, and some just don't care because they just like to give. Regardless of the motivation of each individual, it's the combination of all those motivations that makes the site what it is, all the good and bad alike. And thus, that combination is what a bunch of us love.

They want to give a game to someone who has been generous enough to give away a large value in games :)

The cv number is also very misleading at times. I've seen quite a few people do 5+ giveaways of Serious Sam Complete Pack (or other cv exploiting games) just for cv when they very obviously didn't spend anywhere near that amount.

People who did giveaways deserve to win games back don't they? I do giveaways mainly with the aim to increase my CV to participate in contributor giveaways.

You know, if you look at the 'frontpage' of SG, you will see that the majority of the games actually don't have that much of a high CV requirement. Even counting in just triple A games.

So, in order to have people who have given a lot, get a rather decent chance of winning something back, it is quite nice for them to have a high CV giveaway, so they actually have a nice chance to win.

To be honest, if a real decent amount of giveaways would have high CV requirements, I would understand your point. But as it currently stands, it is not.

I roughly counted the number of giveaways I could see on the frontpage (which might differ for everyone, as I don't see already owned games and do see some from some groups).
Out of the ±400 number of giveaways (counted to 100, then used the number of pagedowns to reach that, to get to the bottom of the site, which was about 4 times that), only 22 have a CV requirement of 50 or higher. Which is actually not that high to be honest (bot the 22 giveaways as the CV of 50).

So, that equals to what, about 5%? Not really a big issue than I think. Stats for non bundled games might be a little different, but than again, does that really matter that much?

Make giveaways is never bad. People need to stop thinking that.

Because e-peen.

In related news:I will probably reach 500$ CV by christmas :)

Such a weird name for a lady :/

I am still relatively new here so when I put my keys up for grabs I don't pick contributors only. Now that being said I feel that any bundle games (humble bundle) deserve to be open for everyone considering they have are at a severely discounted rate. Any game that I pay full retail for or buy on Steam for any amount I will place for contributors only at the base cost of the game or DLC. But to each their own, it is just a system I worked out for myself.

My reason for puting a CV amount on a giveaway is:
If a person has never given away a game, they may not know they should come back and mark it as received or, they don't care enough to do it.