Hello all, I'm Kyeeo, and I want to talk to you about my opinions on the contribution system and it's rules on this website.
I believe that the way contribution system for giveaways is unfair. I have given away approximately $37 dollars of steam keys, but I have only been credited for around $5. I actually purchased all of the codes that I gave away, but still received reductions and negations as if I had obtained them through humble bundle or another free or heavily reduced price digital storefront. When I talked to mods they said that there was no way to verify their origin and linked me to a blacklist of reduced or no valued titles, https://www.steamgifts.com/bundle-games . At the time of posting this list is around 14K games long and growing. This seems ridiculous, especially when some of these games date back to bundles from 2014 and the list is growing larger with every bundle, yet not counting steam sales for some reason as far as I can tell. It seems unlikely that a person has saved a steam code from a humble bundle 5 years ago and only now is going to give it away (Especially at heavily reduced value). While on the topic of reduced value, only giving 15% seems like a real game stop return policy move for a community run site.
The leveling system of $1 to $5K with increasing intervals of levels 1-10 seems fine to me if the reduced value is increased and/or the no value is removed, possibly by adding a timer for games of a few years that will return them to full value.
My issue with the leveling system however is that you can LEVEL DOWN. If you give away a copy of a game and that game has its base price cut, not a temporary sale, the credit you received for the price you originally paid is cut as well while you still payed, for the sake of my argument, $60 for a game you now only get say $20 contributor credit for despite giving it away months before a price drop (If I misunderstood this part of the FAQ, or any other for that matter, correct/roast me). This seems like a cheap shot that could be solved with a system similar to the one that reduces or negates the value of games that were given away before their humble bundles that keeps track of price drops at specific dates.
Either way I'm going to keep entering and hosting giveaways, but to be heard and maybe even acted upon would be nice.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Now its discussion time...

5 years ago

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Might sound like a dick but of the 5 games you have given away I have one takeaway.;;
I probably wouldn't pay 5 dollars for all 5 of those games, let alone the 37 you have claim to have paid. Retail price doesn't reflect actual value.
The system is fine as it stands. No one is forcing you to giveaway your keys and as mentioned already you can trade and even sell them if you wish to!

5 years ago
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On this topic, I'm wondering why some old humble bundle games aren't considered bundled? Like Dark Souls 3 or Kerbal Space Program

5 years ago
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Because games are added to bundle list if the price is discounted 95% (IIRC) from the base price - 100 dollar game is sold for 5 dollars, or in this case if a bundle is worth more then 100 dollars but the price of the bundle is 5 dollars.

In cases for DS3 and KSP they where in monthly bundles that had their base price fairly lower that didnt reach that 95% discount. So none of the games in those bundles where considered bundled (as is case for several monthly bundles)

5 years ago
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Ah, that explains alot. I thought all bundles make a game 'bundled'

5 years ago
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I thought that's how it was originally as well but it's mainly what ChrisKutcher mentioned. A good example of games that sometimes don't get "bundle" status due to not reaching the discounted 95% marker are the HB monthly games.

The "bundled" status should be looked at as rather a "reduced CV" status as not all games that get this are bundled. If there's a good amount of copies of game being sold on the grey market(examples: G2A and Russian sites) that reach around that threshold they can be marked with that status as well.

5 years ago
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I guess this new Lego bundle displays exactly what we're talking about - tier 1 and 2 gets reduced CV while tier 3 games doesn't.

5 years ago
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System is fine. It works fine.

Living under a rock isnt really an excuse. Bundles are heavily "advertised" here on forums and its easy to check which games have been in bundles. And as far as I have noticed most of these bundled games drop their sale prices instantly. Monthly games go for sale on steam for the price of monthly, same goes for regular bundle games... Not even mentioning all the stores on internet that sell keys. After being in a bundle the price drops down in sales.
You buying such a game at full price is you being unaware. Thats not a reason to change the system.

Your argument about "20 years from now" doesnt stand as well.What if 20 years from now total world annihilation happens and we deal with bullets/caps/corn.

5 years ago
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It seems unlikely that a person has saved a steam code from a humble bundle 5

Of course I saved them. And a huge pack of previously free games too. Some of them older than 5 years. And I'm not the only one like that. Your assumptions are so wrong it's not even funny. I really hope this is just a honest mistake and you are not pretending that you don't know it just to abuse the system.

And, about dropping CV... there are three different reasons for that:

  1. The game you give away is bundled retroactively.
  2. CV of the game you give away experienced a bug, and was showed incorrectly high on site. It was fixed, and your level drops.
  3. Price of the game in steam become lower (or even the game become free), so CV is dropped too.

So, 1 - is completely normal and fair, it does not needs to be changed.
2 and 3 are similar cases, and should be dealt together. 2 actually should not happen at all, and there are some technical ways to avoid this, but all of those won't work in 100% of cases. This is the hardest case, I think best what can be done - is some handy way for support to do it manually, instead of automatic. This will allow to handle 3, which is, actually, unfair and should be prevented, and this can be made completely automatically by recording game price history. If someone bought game for 20$, and after 5 years price was reduced to 5$, user must still have CV=20, not 5.

5 years ago*
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People anyway will abuse it with high amounts of low priced games :D

5 years ago*
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I agree that it's a problem, and discourages giving good games which have ever been bundled, but from my point of view CV by itself is a bad thing. I can think of no way to make a CV system that's both fair and practical, and beyond that, I think that the idea that people who give more are more worthy of winning is simply bad.

CV is a way to encourage gifting more, but unfortunately it, and whitelisting / blacklisting, end up as ways to make a community more divided and toxic. Far as I can see, SG is pretty much dead as a community. As a giveaway site, it's still functioning, but the stats don't tell me what percentage of giveaways are circlejerk giveaways, going to people who've given hundreds of games and won hundreds of games.

5 years ago
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Coffee anyone?

5 years ago
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no cofee!, but i can give u hot chocolate if u want (>'-')>°['] hahaha

5 years ago
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Sure it's cold enough. ;)

5 years ago
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Hahahahaha ^_^

5 years ago
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i think the reason why who build this community set it in this way is for avoid that people giveaway only old games and no one giveaway new games so i think the CV is ok,if they not do this then this community will become only full of old old games giveaway (and this is not good for sg because there will be a little bit of someone that give triple aaa or new games in my opinion,this is why me too try when\if i can also if i'm very very poor to give witcher3,cod etc. when if i find it at cheap or deals and not only old or indie games)

Not only this but i think the SG admin of this community is a risk of fraud too because have one little "hole" that criminals can use for fraud sg admin , because in my opinion put entry of $100 account steam is not enough from protect himselph from criminals\hackers\frauds etc. , because people can subscribe to this website,stolen then 69$ games winned keys then sell it (instead of activate it) and then get banned from sg (but they just not fucking care because with 210$ value that they stolen they can make another new 100$ steam account very easy and resubscribe from new counties ip fake user data and so on...)
So in my opinion not only the CV system is right but the sg admin must to up the 100$ steam account entry to 200$ requirement because if him not do this i think one day or another him will start to have problem about people fraud him.
Then.. maybe i'm wrong because i'm not hacker,not developer,not expert of security (i'm handicap\stupid brain too for health problems after more my family passed away) and i have 0 aknoledge about community and\or giveaways,but i think in my opinion sg admin must up to 200$ entry because 100$ account is not enough people can make new account stolen keys sell for 210 and fraud him.
Viceversa if the admin of SG up the value to 200$ the problem is fixed at the root start because also if someone stolen 3 keys 69$ and get banned then the 210$ that criminals get is not worth enough than do all the procedure for fraud sg.
But this is just my stupid idea,because i'm ignorance about this and i have 0 experience and 0 aknoledge about this so maybe 99% for sure i'm wrong,but i think better i write this here so that if one day sg or moderator read this and i was right him can know this and if i was right fix that.

I think we are LUCKY that SG enable people to give away old games (also if they 0 value or devalued value low) because in my life i has know many community where there is limit to give only NEW games (released in the last 5 months) and if who not give will be kicked out, so... i like the freedom that SG give to their user about this , for they can give also old or little indie or low value games too or 0 too.
Another think to say is most of people\users ignore the fact that SG is also a TOOL\software (and is free) , there is many other company\people that ask to PAY MONEY for give what SG give for free right now, Because SG give to users ability to manage giveaways for FREE and this is awesome for me , because before if i want to giveaway one game i must to do it on reddit,social,youtube etc. but is very boring and hard to do... because there is not the system for do it,SG is perfect for this and is free so... is really incredible,for example if i want to make a giveaway for my social or channels , i not need to boring myselph to study\learn how to create a software for it or go to find gleam\reddit or other alternatives because there is already sg admin,moderator etc. that build sg for me and give all this tool for free and they in months in months and years per years pass make it always better update the platform for be better etc.

I personally also think that sg admin must to think right now what to do of his community when him stop to be alive (passed away etc.) , i mean is better if him already right now do all paper\document law things for decide who after him will "Inherit" this community because in my opinion if this community after him go in the "Wrong\Bad" hand is a very fucking shame problem (just see what is happen to TX or also to some modding\hack community too that born with Cretivity intention and then finish for be used from people that fraud children by ask money for mod that need to be free very very bad shit) , and believe me i see a lot of this things happen with other community and it was really sad to see,because the "Creator" of community is always the good and the best,then who come after and Inherit it always do shit,so it is important that SG not understimate this and choose since right now the good and right people in any canse after him who do.

5 years ago*
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Don't worry about the system, if you want to make a giveaway then do so. The levels are nothing more than a nice stat of how you've given.

5 years ago
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You're friendly neighborhood cat here. I would like to say 1 thing and one thing only. No.

5 years ago
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5 years ago
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At the time of posting this list is around 14K games long and growing. This seems ridiculous, especially when some of these games date back to bundles from 2014 and the list is growing larger with every bundle

Kind of got a point there, but this has been discussed a ton of times already and it's very doubtful anything will ever change.

You either join the CV farming crowd and use all the allowed exploits to pump it up, milking every last penny, or stop caring and just make GAs if or when you're feeling like it.

5 years ago
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The system isn't perfect, but so far no one has come up with a better (and feasible) solution that doesn't involve a shit-load of extra work by people who are already doing all this crap for free (or next to nothing).

It is what it is, so deal with it or don't. Make giveaways or don't.

5 years ago
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I am enjoying your more jaded outlook these days.

5 years ago
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After almost five years, I've seen far too many of these threads and read too many of the "altruistic" replies.

5 years ago
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I get what you mean and at this point, it would be more valuable to hold a list of games that are not reduced CV since there's waaaaaay less than those that have reduced CV but that's the way it goes. Humble Monthly games also used to be full value but because "some people" buy multiples copies for cheap off the grey market, they're now reduced value too. But you know what? It really doesn't matter much, trust me.

I'm making GAs because I have lots of keys I won't use and I don't care about all the trading hassle so SG is a good way to give them away to people who will get better use out of them than I do. My CV level is something that's just a bonus and I watch it rise (or fall) with amusement for than anything else. After months at level 5, and then level 6, I can tell you there is very little (to no) difference in odds when it comes to higher levels. You can participate in more GAs, technically, but there are way fewer GAs than you'd think at higher level so it's par for the course really.

5 years ago
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Registered 1 month ago, I want to talk to you about my opinions on the contribution system

Not to be rude, but you could have waited a bit longer before you decide everything is wrong and needs to change. In time, you're gonna realize CV doesn't matter.

5 years ago
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CV doesn't matter

Lol.

5 years ago
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I guess the upside is it incentivizes people to do steady giveaways to maintain lvl, if that is what they care about.

5 years ago
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Well, it's both fair and unfair. Unfair if You are unlucky. I somehow got reduced value, even though the game wasn't from bundle or even 0 value once. For... uncertain reasons. Because it was done after year, iirc. Nevermind.
Most of my games DOES come from bundle. And I'm okay with that. I mean 15% is very small, but it's still more than You pay for that anyway. I just give away games, I don't want, cause I already have them.

But for me, once You past the certain CV level, You should never got reverted. The progress is back but You don't lose the level, You already had.
For example, You got 6 lvl, right? But Your game got reduced value from 10 dollars to 1,5 dollar. You go back to, I dunno 5.95 lvl for example. But IMO it shouldn't steal You a level, so You are 6 and can enter 6 lvl giveaways, but Your progress is counted from 5.95, so You have to earn that points anyway.

5 years ago
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I have receipts for all of my giveaways and would like at least 3 extra levels.

5 years ago
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would you share one extra level with me?

5 years ago
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I need them all for leeching keys that people have saved from 5 year old humble bundles. I didn't buy all those sleazy keys in Russian markets for nothing!

View attached image.
5 years ago
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The contribution system is flawed in itself, it creates a lot of drama and a sense of elitism and that should have no place on a website dedicated to giving away games. That's the biggest issue with SG, always was, always will be.

5 years ago
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The system affects everyone equally.

5 years ago
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except lv0 users because they don't farm cv :3

damn lv0s exploiting the system 😑

5 years ago
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View attached image.
5 years ago
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CV / Levels doesn't mean anything to me.

I think people who care about levels are the type of people who just want to level to get into more restrictive giveaways which to me is just greedy. Give more, take less.

5 years ago
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5 years ago
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$5 is more than you deserve, TBH. The system is over generous.

5 years ago
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Dude, you have $2K contributor value on your account from what appears to be exclusively humble bundles. Chill. Not all of us are made of money.

5 years ago
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Of course you would take it as a personal attack, LOL.

5 years ago
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I don't feel attacked, you just need to chill my dude.

4 years ago
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br_AksI8F8M
Seriously, i don't care. Just give away stuff you don't need, do some restrictions if it's fancy (you want it to be played), or don't if you just want somebody else to be happy, even if it's just for a few cards.
Heck, i even just whitelist polite people with an okay'ish ratio nowadays.

My point being: why do YOU even complain?

5 years ago
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