Yes, the guys behind backpack.tf operate one (or several, not sure) and there's also http://www.steamcardexchange.net/. There might be more, but I don't care enough to check. I don't think either bot does 1:1 trades anymore.
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Yeah, ofc, there is no reason to use a 33% coupon, when you can get the game on sales much-much cheaper or even from a bundle ...
Below 66% coupons are worth nothing, nobody uses them; well nobody with common sense. (Some exceptions can be for new games, but those new games are used to be on sale for that discount anyway.)
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Not true, I remember when everybody were mad about 33% coupons for Skyrim.
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Yup, one of the 1% "low" coupon exception, like I mentioned. :) AAA games, new games, new AAA games. :)
But, do you really want to use a 33% coupon, when you know, the game will be sooner or later on possible a much higher sale? Maybe I'm just spoiled by bundles and sales, but I can't see myself using a 33% coupon; well, there is always backlog. :D :D
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Great idea ox. Mainly because with the trading cards you can get many coupons that most people won't use.
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Great idea, I might support you with a coupon or more.
And why don't you use some coupon credit system? I mean that you'd have to put some coupon before taking some other coupon from bot.
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Thanks for mentioning dota dispenser, I've donated about 20 dota gifts that were polluting my inventory
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Great idea. I don't really know how the Steam chat/trading API works, but I think the 'alternate' system would work better. That way people who can't spell would also be able to get coupons. ;) As for abuse, I think a simple limit of 1 coupon per day would work alright.
PS: Already own Civ, awesome giveaway!
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My thinking was that, if the bot had more than one of the same coupon, it would give them out in order of expiration date. That wouldn't outright prevent coupons from expiring, but it would reduce the odds of them expiring as much as possible.
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Thanks for all the comments everyone. It sounds like this would have a decent audience (or at least like 10 people lol) so I guess it's time to fix my computer's broken Node.js installation and get to work!
(for the tech savvy curious: Node.js is a tool used to power bots and server-type things like this project. The Dota 2 bot uses Node.js, and they conveniently linked to Steam libraries for Node.js that they use, which will make the process of making this bot a lot easier. Unfortunately, those libraries use Python, specifically Python 2.7, and I have Python 3.x installed, which seems to be causing problems, so I gotta get rid of it and then see if I can get it to work)
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Right, which is why I was looking for ways to protect against it. Since they have to send the bot a friend request, people wanting coupons will have to already have at least one game on their account. And I was thinking about having a 1 coupon per 24 hours rule or something.
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Inspired by Dota 2 Dispenser, I'm thinking about making my own bot for distributing coupons.
Donating coupons would work exactly like the Dota 2 bot, but requesting coupons would be a little more complicated: let's say Gabe wants a Half-Life 2 coupon. Gabe checks the bot's inventory and sees a coupon for 33% off. He adds the bot as a friend and sends him a message: "give half-life 2". The bot replies, "Sending 33% off coupon for Half-Life 2. Is this what you want?" Gabe replies "yes" and then the bot starts a trade to give him the coupon.
Alternative system for requesting coupons: I might end up making it so that Gabe can go to a website and look through a pretty list of games. Gabe would click on Half-Life 2 and would get a code. Gabe would then add the bot as a friend and send him the code, and then the bot would trade him the coupon.
Oh yeah and to prevent abuse, the bot might limit you to like 1 or 2 coupons per day, or refuse to give you another coupon until you've bought the game that your last coupon was for, or idk what other ideas might work.
So, what do the fine people of Steam Gifts think? Does this sound like a good idea the way I've described it? Do you want this game? Do you have any other suggestions? Thanks for reading all this and for any feedback you might have!
TLDR: Thinking of making a bot kinda like the Dota 2 dispenser, but for coupons instead of dotas. Through undetermined means, you would find a coupon you want in the bot's inventory and ask it to trade it to you (though it'd have to have some sort of anti-spam system). Thoughts?
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