Greetings community,

I want to discuss for a moment about bundle giveaways. You see, they've been a plague on SG. No one hates them more than Loko. I sometimes remove at least 50 a day for the last few weeks, but they just keep on submitting. People have been reporting them like crazy, which is great, but I usually end up with hundreds in my reported queue, which isn't so great. So, we fielded the community for what would be fair and thought about it long and hard. We've decided on a new way to handle bundles and I really hope majority of the community is satisfied with our response.

What we were worried about the most is hurting past "legitimate" giveaways, as we have no way of filtering if you submitted Bastion before the date it was thrown in a bundle. So, consider this a heads up and we apologize for the inconvenience in advance. Fortunately, Skyrim isn't in any of the bundles, so it should only affect the people that have massively submitted bundle titles. We also have been actively suspending bundle abusers (I call them bundlers) instead of seeking out and removing hundreds of giveaways.

The admin will update with something more official soon.

This has already been a really wicked summer and I hope everyone has been enjoying SteamGifts and the latest crazy deals.

-best regards
loko

1 decade ago*

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So wait, what are you guys doing? Just removing all the giveaways in the bundles?

1 decade ago
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We will shoot anyone on sight that makes a bundle giveaway.

1 decade ago
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That seems like the best idea so far. Let's go with that.

1 decade ago
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Make sure to use incendiary ammo.

1 decade ago
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Don't! One of them entered my current giveaway (in which I explicitly stated "no bundlers"), and it might go up in flames!

1 decade ago
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+1

1 decade ago
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The less infidels we have, the more Oxygen we can have

1 decade ago
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That would be insanely irresponsible.

1 decade ago
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I didn't get this part either. It's like I skipped a line. What are you going to do?

1 decade ago
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they are going to ban or suspent some1 who makes bundle key giveaways (thats what i think)

1 decade ago
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We've already been suspending abusers, but that's been very inefficient.

1 decade ago
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I said in the post that cg will post something more official explaining the mess soon.

1 decade ago
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for full list of bundle games:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=36343902&postcount=17

Even Killing Floor was a bundle game i wonder how u guys are gonna handle this huge list of games.. I also gave away some games before they were in any bundle like amnesia..

1 decade ago
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Sounds like no contribution for bundle game giveaways to me.

1 decade ago
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DEATH TO THE INFIDEL BUNDLERS.

1 decade ago
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You have me on your side.

1 decade ago
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I brought a torch and pitchfork

1 decade ago
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And I brought my hillbilly hat. You ready?

1 decade ago
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And my axe!

1 decade ago
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 decade ago
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This day has come.

1 decade ago
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Heh. Sorry, Murat. It seems you got caught in the crossfire.

1 decade ago
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Take my naginata.

1 decade ago
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You have my Sword

1 decade ago
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And my Axe

1 decade ago
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And my bow.

1 decade ago
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and my vuvuzela!

1 decade ago
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And my whistle!

1 decade ago
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I brought cake

1 decade ago
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Bring the cake on the table, let's devastate it and then kill some bundlers! VIVA LA ROBOLUTION!

1 decade ago
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hahahaha !!!

1 decade ago
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BUNDLERS THEM BEASTS.

What about asking in the Create Giveaway page if the game is a tradable gift or a key, and do an additional check to see if the game was on a bundle. Then... I don't know, reject the giveaway if it's a key and warn the user to submit the full bundle.

This can also be checked by doing an inventory check... just like tf2 raffles site does, there's no way to fake a giveaway, it takes the item from your inventory. Though I don't know if Steam API let's you do that.

1 decade ago
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That was a past suggestion, but we really don't want a system to simply reject giveaways being submitted. That could be very confusing to a lot of people.

1 decade ago
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I'm all about warnings in bold red text then. It should do the trick. From a UX standpoint, doing some popup/sliding/blinking text does wonders.

1 decade ago
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I'd rather keep thoughcrime out of the giveaway process.

1 decade ago
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Sounds doubleplusungood.

1 decade ago
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Also, it may be helpful to put a note on the giveaway creation page explicitly stating that you can't submit single bundle keys.

1 decade ago
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Some people don't particularly care if they submit a bundle key or not. I just recently saw a couple of threads where people got explained about why their giveaways were removed, yet they still created them AGAIN, after that.

1 decade ago
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Jerks or people with 32 IQ are everywhere and there's nothing we can do about that, except locating them and then ban.

1 decade ago
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Support, thanks for you, guys, doing.
Much love ♥

1 decade ago
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NOT GAY

1 decade ago
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Recently i made a public contributor giveaway with somewhat high contribution requirement and few people entered. I think there were perhaps 7 of them in the end and ofcourse the winner was some Russian who contributed a lot with Zombie Shooter keys and such. It kinda dissapointed me that i have to give a game to a jerk (considering that other 6 participants were with legit non-exploited giveaways) but i let him have it cause there wasnt much i could do.

/manly tear has been shed

1 decade ago
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you could have asked for a reroll i think

1 decade ago
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Yes, we've mentioned previously that we will reroll giveaways if the winner won a CG with nothing but bundle giveaways.

1 decade ago
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That's good to know. Was there a topic for that? Need to update my topic with it :P

1 decade ago
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There was a topic for it, yeah. It was in probably two announcements?

1 decade ago
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Here's the screenshot. No, it's not strange to have one, I'm using it in description when creating contributors only giveaways.

1 decade ago
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Is not it a bit unfair and confusing? Then what's the point giving value to the account of the bundler? Why not just charge the necessary points to people who want to enter the giveaway (ex: '9p to enter this bundle') but to not add value to the account of the sender? marking it as a 1 giveaway sent but $0 value
I know that this is impossible to do for the giveaways that just send a single game of the bundle, but you guys could start with the bundles such as IndieGala and HIB

1 decade ago
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ME LOVE YOU LONG TIME!

1 decade ago
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remembers me 2LiveCrew :D

1 decade ago
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I support what you are doing completely, but another idea might be to warn people that the game they are submitting has been found to have been in a giveaway and will only count for $0.01 contributor value.

That would seemingly be the best idea, as people who really want to give something away will, and those who only want to giveaway for contributor won't.

1 decade ago
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cant you just ban them, everyone will catch on quick enough if the bans start to happen, some ppl only submit bundles to up the contrbution money, so there are fewer entries in the higher contributor giveaways and more chance to win off 1 dollar bundles

1 decade ago
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We suspend them, but it's not punishable by a permanent ban. Most people stop submitting bundle keys after being suspended, so it's mostly been reasonable. There's over 150,000 people in this community, though.

1 decade ago
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wow, what about automatic restriction of of games in bundles?

1 decade ago
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As mentioned before, we don't want a pessimistic approach to keeping bundles out. We don't want the giveaway creation process full of warnings and pop-ups if you're submitting a game that's been in a bundle.

1 decade ago
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what about a 3 strike rule, abuse.
1, warning
2, suspension
3, ban

1 decade ago
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Again, not at all efficient.

1 decade ago
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Steam doesn't work in 3s. 1st abuse and you win a month suspension. Anything less would not get the point across. 2nd abuse permanent ban.

1 decade ago
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Steam doesn't like the number 3, anyway.

1 decade ago
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Trouble is people will simply hold onto the keys until the restriction is lifted. Unless you mean permanently, but that might not work either.

1 decade ago
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i actually dont even know the reason why keys are not allowed lol,

1 decade ago
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You can't submit keys from bundles at any point in time, only unused, giftable URLs. This is the problem, no one has been following this policy, so we have to do something in return.

1 decade ago
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yea i now that much and agree with it all, id just do the 3 strike rule

1 decade ago
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I saw plenty of humble bundles, indie gala, indie royale..

Not talking about "the ship" where the developer offered 2 + 2 extra copies for each copy purchased !

I think it is mostly unfair for those who play it "by the book" with bundles: one bundle is "worth" 4~6$, while individual games are usually worth > 50$.

The idea to change the value of "bundled games" to a few cents seems good..

1 decade ago
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I have a question for you gentlemen. When these 'Bundlers' have served their suspension, does their bundle games get deducted from their total contribution. If it doesn't, it would be a bit unfair to others.

1 decade ago
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If the giveaways are open, we remove them. If they're said and done, we leave them. It won't matter with the new system.

1 decade ago
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That sounds like $0ing all the bundle games. :?

1 decade ago
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No, when you have served your time your contribution stays that way

1 decade ago
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Death to the heretics!

1 decade ago
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WE LIVE TO SERVE FOR THE EMPEROR

1 decade ago
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Groups that do bundle key giveaways or even alone bundle key giveaways do we need to report them trough support? Cause there are a few private groups that like to do that kind of stuff.

1 decade ago
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Yes.

1 decade ago
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would be better to get rid of group giveaways, or something that just allow open groups to make giveaways

1 decade ago
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No.

1 decade ago
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That's never going to happen. The people who are the heart of the community here are mostly in private groups. You can stop being butthurt that no one wants you in their group and get over it any time now. It'd be a lot easier on you.

1 decade ago
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Finarry!!!! I've been wraiting for someting rike dis. I can't wrait to shee it impremented! :>

1 decade ago
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for the new people; what is a bundle giveaway and why is it bad?

I bought a 4pack to do my giveaways; was that bad?

1 decade ago
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No, I think you're fine. This concerns games from Indie Bundle games like Humble Bundle, Indie Gala/Royale etc. The ones directly from steam aren't affected by this.

1 decade ago
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no

Do you know indie bundles? Like 6 games for 1$? Single keys from one of those bundles are not allowed.

1 decade ago
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havent seen one of those yet.

kinda new to the whole pc gaming thing.

so I take it people would buy the 6 games for $1 and then gift them individually at their full steam retail price to get more contributor points?

1 decade ago
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yep

1 decade ago
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Bundlers can't read. They can't read FAQ, they can't read this.

1 decade ago
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They can, they're just exploiting them. I've seen submitters admit they knew that the game they were giving was against the rules.

1 decade ago
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You're probably right.

1 decade ago
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i think half the bundlers actually CAN read and just abandon humanity and go against the rules on purpose :)
edit: so basically what Lorkhan said^^

1 decade ago
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People rarely read ToS, F.A.Q etc unless they have problems.

1 decade ago
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I read them... so I don't stand out as the community asshole on SteamGifts

1 decade ago
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What about exploited IGN Prime keys? I've noticed a lot in the last 2-3 weeks, and there so obvious because they have 40 giveaways and ALL are IGN Prime key's (like 10 King Arthur II keys in 1 giveaway)

1 decade ago
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King Arthur II isn't on IGN prime though...It's King Arthur 1.

1 decade ago
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i saw a guy with 700$+ value with only ign prime giveaways... guess what he was russian..

1 decade ago
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Report them. Support is that way ^.

1 decade ago
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oops wrong one :P yea its King Arthur

1 decade ago
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Yep that is a big problem, too.

1 decade ago
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They should just be permabanned imo.

1 decade ago
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I don't really see how this is a problem? IGN Prime isn't exploitable anymore? Didn't they fix that like months ago.

1 decade ago
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People still have keys saved.

1 decade ago
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Hmm I have so many questions, I'm sure whatever is planned to be implemented will help fend off ppl exploiting but this WILL hurt legit ppl as well..guess we'll see

& so basically were not to buy anything from steam now that's ever been in a bundle? Myself and many others do get steam tradables and even flash them in chats and put up inventory pics too

1 decade ago
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Thanks. Looking forward to hearing from cg.

1 decade ago
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Streamlining the process like this is the best way forward, I'd think. I can imagine how bogged down Support becomes with each new influx of bundle games being given away. Dingdongbannu might work well. :3

1 decade ago
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Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure we can all agree that we appreciate the time and effort y'all put into making this site a better place for the community. Cheers to you people! (Yes, support. That's you too!) :D

1 decade ago
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please just drop value of ship to 0 and remove any past giveaways ty :)
I have no idea how I can prove my legit "bundle" giveaways were not bundle keys tho shall I take ss from my inventory history??

1 decade ago
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Just make it public problem solved.

1 decade ago
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make it public and they can see my inventory history from months ago? nope nothing is solved..

1 decade ago
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Thumbs up for improving the enormous workload all those bundle key giveaways are causing. Why can't people simply read the rules when joining this community!? Well, gonna wait and see what you're up to, but seems to be something with the points for bundle games...

1 decade ago
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So bundles not allowed or what?

1 decade ago
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They never were.

1 decade ago
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Wrong.
Bundles are allowed, but the individual keys from bundles are not.

1 decade ago
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Thats what I tought

1 decade ago
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You should make a new section of sg where everyone can create giveaways for bundle games, but they won't get contribution value and everyone can enter them for free / for 1 point.

1 decade ago
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They already have one.
It's called "Forum"

1 decade ago
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Thats ninja giveaways not fair giveaways :p

1 decade ago
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Have people "Post ONE comment"
Go to Random.org
Give game to that poster

1 decade ago
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The forum kind of fulfils that role. Still it doesn't suffice. People are submitting bundle games to cheat the system, not because there isn't a dedicated section for them.

1 decade ago
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They wouldn't be able to cheat the system anymore if a dedicated section existed and you can't compare posting keys in the forum with a giveaway.

1 decade ago
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Then they would submit them in the 'normal' section, assuming we still have that one for the ones that got the game from other sources.

1 decade ago
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Are you absolutely sure about that? I mean, yeah, some do that, but most of these guys just plain don't read the rules and FAQ, and they try to give away what they have. Most of them don't even read the forum.

Just think about it, what exactly would be the reason to cheat this system? To get in some contributor giveaways, that only grant you better odds at winning stuff? It's not like being a contributor means you get free stuff for granted and those odds are not really all that better than the public giveaways. The only people who are cheating the system are doing this for that one stupid reason, and they are the ones who have massive (couple of hundred dollars of value) amount of bundle games given away.

That being said, in my opinion if you set all values for all these games to $0 (which seems to be the case), you only sort out those few, and the rest will happily give away their bundle keys because they either don't care about the contributor system or they don't know what it means. But then again, I hope I'll be proven wrong.

1 decade ago
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"To get in some contributor giveaways, that only grant you better odds at winning stuff?"

That seems like a pretty good enough reason.
I've said it before and I will say it again: don't underestimate greed. When the contributor feature was introduced, bundle games spread like a plague badly. I guarantee you that if it weren't for contributor status, then we wouldn't see so many Ironclads, Making History's and Razors.

I agree that they should all be set to 0$. The ones that genuinely want to give out and nothing more, will not mind having their contributor status set back a few bucks.

1 decade ago
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Yes baby yes! :) Nice to hear and now lets hope the final result is good! <3

1 decade ago
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Toaster, irrelevant, but I think you dethroned xarabas. xD

1 decade ago
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When did that happen? :|

1 decade ago
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Yesterday? Today?

1 decade ago
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Tonight!

1 decade ago
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HOLY SHIT WAT.

TOASTER!

You have now earned my wrath!

1 decade ago
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Why not doing this: Until the moment the game was released in a bundle, it will have one type of entry, named "Bastion". After its released on a bundle people can't create giveaways for "Bastion".... Only for "Bastion [m]", and [m] or something like that would be to signalize the game was in a bundle and you will receive only $1 contribution or less...

This way people who created before will still have same contribution, and people who create after the game was in a bundle will get less ;)

1 decade ago
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This is not a suggestion thread. The suggestion thread was weeks ago. The decision has been made.

Not trying to single you out, but I'm seeing some people doing this and I want it to be noticeable.

1 decade ago
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^ This. Also people aren't honest enough to choose the entry that gives them the smaller contribution.

1 decade ago
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People wouldn't have to choose, the old type of entry (that gived full price) would be unusable, just the one with smaller contribution would be... So, all giveaways done after a bundle was released would have decreased value... ;)

1 decade ago
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Closed 1 decade ago by lokonopa.