How We're Planning to Fix Bundle Keys and Contributor Values (Option #1)

Hey everyone, it's no surprise we've been struggling with bundle keys lately, and we're bouncing a lot of ideas back and forth. One suggestion is below, and we're curious to hear what people have to think.

Proposed changes to contributor values

Bundle games, and those freely available at one time or another (Ex. Shadowgrounds), will only add a maximum of 20% to a user's non-bundle contributor value. For example, if a user has submitted $50.00 in non-bundle games, they would have a cap of $10.00 (20% of $50.00) for any bundle games submitted. Therefore, if they submit $10.00 or $10,000.00 in bundles, their contributor value would reach a maximum of $60.00. To further demonstrate, a few scenarios are below.

User #1

• Max Payne 3 ($59.99)
• Counter-Strike Source ($19.99)
• Far Cry 2 ($9.99)
• Half-Life 2 (9.99)
• Amnesia (Bundle Game $19.99)

Previous value: $119.95. New value: $119.95. They receive full value for Amnesia due to the amount of non-bundle games they have contributed.

User #2

• Counter-Strike Source ($19.99)
• Amnesia (Bundle Game $19.99)

Previous value: $39.98. New value: $23.99. The value of Amnesia drops from $19.99 to the max of $4.00 (20% of the Counter-Strike value) since their non-bundle contributions are quite low.

User #3

• Counter-Strike Source ($19.99)
• Amnesia (Bundle Game $19.99)
• Shadowgrounds Survivor (Bundle Game $9.99)
• Shadowgrounds Survivor (Bundle Game $9.99)
• Shadowgrounds Survivor (Bundle Game $9.99)

Old value: $69.95. New value: $23.99. Same as the above, the max of 20% is reached, so it cannot increase any further through bundle games.

User #4

• Amnesia (Bundle Game $19.99)
• Shadowgrounds Survivor (Bundle Game $9.99)

Old value: $29.98. New value: $0.00. With zero contributions not from bundles, their contributor value remains at zero.

How will this affect your contributor value

Add /update to the end of your profile URL, and you'll see a new contributor value in brackets, next to your existing one. This reflects the updated value, limiting bundle giveaways to 20%. This will have no affect on the vast majority of our users, and only begins to adjust values on those that have submitted a higher than usual amount of bundle games.

Proposed changes to what can be submitted

• Bundles can be listed anytime, whether the bundle is live or not.
• Individual bundle keys are allowed, since their value can no longer be exploited.

Lately, the rules are difficult to understand. Certain bundles can only be submitted at given times, and there are over 100 individual bundle games. Users submitting individual bundle keys, whether on accident or on purpose get a bad reputation, and it's the cause of countless arguments. It creates a lot of confusion and brings a negative feel to the entire community, which completely goes against what we're trying to accomplish. The above changes would mean anything can be submitted at any time, and the site will automatically keep contributor values in line. If someone enters a $120 contributor giveaway, you know a minimum of $100 is coming from non-bundle games.

Feedback

No changes have taken place yet. At the moment we're looking for feedback from the community to decide on a fair approach. Please post your thoughts below. Thanks!