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Calling all Forum Veterans to this thread, I need your help!


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Hello everyone, my name's Zillvr! (pronounced as zil-ver)
I made a topic in the key depot a month ago about looking for somebody to play DST with. Up until now, I still haven't found the right person to play the game with. The criteria I had back then was based on the estimated expected lag/delay in terms of my geographical distance from the player and their internet speeds, play time schedules, and interest with actually play testing DST and not simply play it.
 
I've had a handful of applicants from that thread and out of them only five(5) people almost fit the bill. Some of them gotten keys in their own way, and others didn't really seem to be interested in actually playtesting DST but just want to get in to get in simply out of curiosity for the game. The latter, seemed to me like the type that would stop playing the game entirely once they hit a wall and would never play the game again.
 
I've finally decided not to give the key to someone who must play with me, but to someone who hopefully deserves the key instead.
 
So here I am now in the general discussions hoping for some direction with what I instead plan to do with the extra key. I plan to give the extra key away the same way I've gotten the key, which was on random through kleientertainment's stream about a month ago. Video Proof: Skip to 1:03:20

 
But this is how I'll do it, I'll keep a thread open for however long is acceptable, and people can comment once to apply for a ticket* which would correspond to a number in the random list. Once I reach the acceptable deadline, no one can apply anymore. Then I will use a RNG to choose a number from the list and then give that key to that person with the corresponding number. A user has to answer a few questions and still need to fit certain requirements that I'm going to have before he/she gets a ticket. The ticket application requirements and questions will be listed below in the spoiler.
 

Ticket Application Requirements:
  • You didn't apply for closed BETA.
  • Steam account must not be private, so I can see your Game Activity.
  • You must at least be a junior member in the forums.
  • You must have Don't Starve in your game library, if you also have RoG even better. This will tell me you actually enjoy klei's products.
  • One ticket application per forum account per steam account. 
  • Only one post per person, private message me for any inquiries.
  • Multiple posts in this thread from the same person will be disqualified. Please keep the thread clean.

Ticket Application Questionnaire:

  • What is your Steam ID? Insert profile URL here.
  • Did you apply for closed BETA? If not, Why?
  • When did you get Don't Starve?
  • How many hours have you put into playing Don't Starve in total?

And this is where you forum veterans come in, I need help for the following things:

  • I need to find/decide what online RNG to use that is reliable and tamper-proof?
  • Do you have suggestions on how to take ticket applications? i.e. online programs that lets me make questionnaires and have people apply through there instead?
  • If I start the thread on Nov 25th, When should my deadline be?
  • Do you have any suggestions on what I should change/add/remove with/to/from the ticket application questions?
  • Any ideas on what other requirements I should ask for?
  • Roughly how many game hours a player has to have in DS to be considered a reliable player? Reliable, as in someone who actually enjoys the game, knows enough of the game to have considerable know-how. Someone who loves the game enough to keep coming back to it no matter how frustrating the game gets.
  • Do you have any ideas to safeguard against people applying multiple times?
  • Is there any way for me to have proof that someone did or didn't apply for BETA when it was available? I don't want to give the key to someone who will most likely get a key of their own in the future.
  • Any other crucial details I might have missed? Please let me know.

I will mention that this thread is not where you should apply. This is my way of contacting forum veterans for help and opinions on what to do about the giveaway. If you are here for the key please keep an eye out in the key depot, cause that is where I will post the real deal in the next few days.
 
To forum veterans, thank you for taking the time to read this long-winded post. Good day'eve everyone!

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Not the biggest help and I probably could not be the best help as forums go. But a good idea overall.

Better than many of the people in the key depot.

 

Though if you're going to randomly give a key to someone I can't see criteria matching up to all of your standards being necessary.

Some, yes.

If you are able to dig out a griefer or a scammer, then by all means, deny them any right to ownership.

 

But if the person happens to have poor latency or what not, I can't see that as being much of an issue for anyone but themselves.

As for how it should be done, perhaps finding a program which can take in a code word or an entry filling site that can track how many people are entered and hopefully can keep people from constantly reapplying.

 

Sadly I have never done giveaways before so my only workings have been with Tumblr and the RND.

Things like RaffleCopter do exist, aside from that, if you were to hold it on twitch with the same program as the devs use, it might help.

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@osmRhodey, the thing about the latency being a criteria in the start of op was for the old thread I had. This giveaway only considers a persons eligibility to a key that it would be put to good use. The criteria I'm using for the new giveaway is in the spoiler.

 

Which other criteria doesn't seem necessary aside from the latency, which was only for the old giveaway not this new one?

 

As for using twitch's randomizer, that would be good but people would have to be online when I'm online. And I'd want to be fair to majority of the people that actually wants to help with the BETA.

Rafflecopter seems like a great place to start. But it'll take a while for me to learn to use it.

Thanks for all the input!

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I know I'm nowhere near a veteran buuuut.... *hides in corner*

 

This idea I really like - thanks a million for your contribution!

 

My biggest concerns about previous giveaways is that they've always had me sitting wondering:

1. Does this person even own Don't Starve? Or have they just cottoned on that they can get $15+ for entering a competition?

2. Does this winner *EVEN OWN* DS?

 

3. Is this person going to arse around on DS for 5 minutes, figure "meh" and never pick it up again?

I really, really (enough 'really's?) like the idea of giving it to someone who will really get good use out of it with relatively easily verifiable information rather than just anyone. (there are plenty enough people holding out hands!)

I can't offer much of a suggestion on how you'd have the poll take place (I'll do a bit of research on it because I want to support your idea), but could another pre-requisite be current non-owners of DST?

I'm not even sure if this is check-able, as I'm not one of those lucky enough to have gotten a key yet, so I don't even know if the DST beta is a steam library game (which you can check) or standalone (which you can't).

 

The previous giveaways that had questionaires of "will you test bugs?", "How will you contribute" just strike me as a competition of who can bullshit the best. (not that I've been tempted to join in, of course  :listening_headphone

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I know I'm nowhere near a veteran buuuut.... *hides in corner*

 

This idea I really like - thanks a million for your contribution!

 

My biggest concerns about previous giveaways is that they've always had me sitting wondering:

1. Does this person even own Don't Starve? Or have they just cottoned on that they can get $15+ for entering a competition?

2. Does this winner *EVEN OWN* DS?

 

3. Is this person going to arse around on DS for 5 minutes, figure "meh" and never pick it up again?

I really, really (enough 'really's?) like the idea of giving it to someone who will really get good use out of it with relatively easily verifiable information rather than just anyone. (there are plenty enough people holding out hands!)

I can't offer much of a suggestion on how you'd have the poll take place (I'll do a bit of research on it because I want to support your idea), but could another pre-requisite be current non-owners of DST?

I'm not even sure if this is check-able, as I'm not one of those lucky enough to have gotten a key yet, so I don't even know if the DST beta is a steam library game (which you can check) or standalone (which you can't).

 

The previous giveaways that had questionaires of "will you test bugs?", "How will you contribute" just strike me as a competition of who can bullshit the best. (not that I've been tempted to join in, of course  :listening_headphone)

Thank you for posting. The thing about the BETA, as far as I can tell is that it isn't even shown on a DST players steam library like other games. Hope someone confirms this on their experience with DST on steam profiles. 

As for the essay-portion of questionnaires, I'd shy away from that. I did have that on my first giveaway, had some really bizarre replies on that one. Never again...

 

Thanks again, if you can find anything that can help speed this process along , that'll very much be welcome. 

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If I were you, I'd rather give that key to somebody who will test the game, gather information about the game, and try to improve the game.

Somebodty like mTe. :3T

That's the gist, I'll filter the applicants to that criteria the best I can, basing on their own content here in the forums including their answers in the questionnaire plus background info from their steam profile.

 

If you weren't able to apply for BETA when that was available before, feel free to apply once I roll out the real deal thread in the Key Depot in the next few days. 

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Thank you for posting. The thing about the BETA, as far as I can tell is that it isn't even shown on a DST players steam library like other games. Hope someone confirms this on their experience with DST on steam profiles. 

As for the essay-portion of questionnaires, I'd shy away from that. I did have that on my first giveaway, had some really bizarre replies on that one. Never again...

 

Thanks again, if you can find anything that can help speed this process along , that'll very much be welcome. 

 

Ah, that is a bit of a pain... Another alternative, is requiring a screen shot of their steam games library showing both the name of the account at the top right (to ensure you're looking at the right person's profile) and Don't Starve on their games list with no DST (it is alphabetic, so should be easy...?)

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Ah, that is a bit of a pain... Another alternative, is requiring a screen shot of their steam games library showing both the name of the account at the top right (to ensure you're looking at the right person's profile) and Don't Starve on their games list with no DST (it is alphabetic, so should be easy...?)

Screenshots can easily be faked, by editing out the DST BETA, or by removing the game from their steam account and taking a screenshot.

 

I have no knowledge whether Delete from Local Content for a BETA game would mean you would need another BETA key to redownload it. But basing from what I've researched, game keys are tied to your steam account and I believe this also include BETA games. So the loop to "screenshots of applicant's library to show whether he/she already has DST" is to Delete Local Content of the BETA Game and take the screenshot. 

 

If I'm mistaken, feel free to correct me. This goes to anyone with a better know-how about these kind of things.

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Screenshots can easily be faked, by editing out the DST BETA, or by removing the game from their steam account and taking a screenshot.

 

I have no knowledge whether Delete from Local Content for a BETA game would mean you would need another BETA key to redownload it. But basing from what I've researched, game keys are tied to your steam account and I believe this also include BETA games. So the loop to "screenshots of applicant's library to show whether he/she already has DST" is to Delete Local Content of the BETA Game and take the screenshot. 

 

If I'm mistaken, feel free to correct me. This goes to anyone with a better know-how about these kind of things.

 

The screenshots part, yes, OK, fair enough. I never intended it as a fail-safe method (obviously it's not), but it should at least help deter some of the chancers. (we can hope) Also, depending on how adept the person is at forging (with me as an example, I could do it, but it would probably be easily noticeable as I have no image manipulation background), you might even be able to see a slight rectangular discolouration if the screenshot has been fiddled with. You know where to look, so you should be able to recognize incorrect font, wrong colours, missing areas etc.

Again, by no means is this a failsafe, just a deterrent!

As for removing it from your Steam Library, of course it depends on how DST is linked to your account. (obviously I can't verify :-)) In the case of most games that have a key though, even after deleting local content, as the game is still linked to your account, it *SHOULD* still show up on your library even after installing, in case you want to download/install it again.

 

A prime example I can present is Team Fortress 2 - I played it for a while and have long since gotten over it and uninstalled it. It is a free game and doesn't even need a key, so no need for it to stay listed in my library, but it is. If it happens with TF2, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't with DST.

Is anyone with a copy of DST brave enough to help verify? :-)

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  • I need to find/decide what online RNG to use that is reliable and tamper-proof?
  • Do you have suggestions on how to take ticket applications? i.e. online programs that lets me make questionnaires and have people apply through there instead?
  • If I start the thread on Nov 25th, When should my deadline be?
  • Do you have any suggestions on what I should change/add/remove with/to/from the ticket application questions?
  • Any ideas on what other requirements I should ask for?
  • Roughly how many game hours a player has to have in DS to be considered a reliable player? Reliable, as in someone who actually enjoys the game, knows enough of the game to have considerable know-how. Someone who loves the game enough to keep coming back to it no matter how frustrating the game gets.
  • Do you have any ideas to safeguard against people applying multiple times?
  • Is there any way for me to have proof that someone did or didn't apply for BETA when it was available? I don't want to give the key to someone who will most likely get a key of their own in the future.
  • Any other crucial details I might have missed? Please let me know.

  1. Not sure, but will talk a little more below.
  2. I would use a Google Form that empties into a Google Spreadsheet. I'm sure there's a random number function for spreadsheets, so you could use that. Obviously you'd want to trim the list first to remove entries that weren't valid.
  3. Deadline... maybe 5 days? If you make it much longer, then there'll probably be a lot of people getting keys in the meantime anyway.
  4. A forum account link, and say they should post in the thread too, so you can make sure they're not just linking to a random forum account.
  5. Uh, no ideas.
  6. Maybe 100ish hours? But it probably depends a bit on how long they've had it, too. I don't think you can see that on Steam, though.
  7. Having them link their steam account is probably sufficient. There could be people with multiple accounts with the game, but it would take some dedication to get all of them to a 100-hour threshold.
  8. I doubt it. Given the number of people asking if they can find out if they applied (because they forgot), I don't think this is a criterion that you can really enforce.
  9. Nothing comes to mind.
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  1. Not sure, but will talk a little more below.
  2. I would use a Google Form that empties into a Google Spreadsheet. I'm sure there's a random number function for spreadsheets, so you could use that. Obviously you'd want to trim the list first to remove entries that weren't valid.
  3. Deadline... maybe 5 days? If you make it much longer, then there'll probably be a lot of people getting keys in the meantime anyway.
  4. A forum account link, and say they should post in the thread too, so you can make sure they're not just linking to a random forum account.
  5. Uh, no ideas.
  6. Maybe 100ish hours? But it probably depends a bit on how long they've had it, too. I don't think you can see that on Steam, though.
  7. Having them link their steam account is probably sufficient. There could be people with multiple accounts with the game, but it would take some dedication to get all of them to a 100-hour threshold.
  8. I doubt it. Given the number of people asking if they can find out if they applied (because they forgot), I don't think this is a criterion that you can really enforce.
  9. Nothing comes to mind.

 

 

2. I like. Sure, not the most elegant solution, but considering the amount of effort it would take to setup a third-party randomizer it might well be a better idea to just do it by hand. Of course, this all comes down to how many entries are expected. I wouldn't underestimate the amount of interest in keys though.

 

3. Perhaps a bit shorter, this gives an opportunity to find some workaround or hack to get multiple entries. Also, in all honesty, the shorter it is, the more chance of it going to someone desperate to get one, as if you want it THAT badly, you're typically scouring these forums on a regular basis to avoid missing any great opportunities.

6. If I'm not mistaken, you can check the amount of time on the game, but not how long they've had it. I stand to be corrected.

 

7. Also, if someone is willing to buy the game for each account in question, it would be easier to just buy a key and avoid the effort :)

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The screenshots part, yes, OK, fair enough. I never intended it as a fail-safe method (obviously it's not), but it should at least help deter some of the chancers. (we can hope) Also, depending on how adept the person is at forging (with me as an example, I could do it, but it would probably be easily noticeable as I have no image manipulation background), you might even be able to see a slight rectangular discolouration if the screenshot has been fiddled with. You know where to look, so you should be able to recognize incorrect font, wrong colours, missing areas etc.

Again, by no means is this a failsafe, just a deterrent!

As for removing it from your Steam Library, of course it depends on how DST is linked to your account. (obviously I can't verify :-)) In the case of most games that have a key though, even after deleting local content, as the game is still linked to your account, it *SHOULD* still show up on your library even after installing, in case you want to download/install it again.

 

A prime example I can present is Team Fortress 2 - I played it for a while and have long since gotten over it and uninstalled it. It is a free game and doesn't even need a key, so no need for it to stay listed in my library, but it is. If it happens with TF2, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't with DST.

Is anyone with a copy of DST brave enough to help verify? :-)

The thing about Delete Local Content would be up to the devs to verify how exactly the game is tied to the steam account.

 

I'll think about asking for a steam library screen shot since people can just ask their friends that don't have DST for their screenshots without actually telling them why. So many loopholes around determining if someone has or will have a DST key in their library. The idea is still up for debate though. 

 

Thanks again for the input.

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  1. Not sure, but will talk a little more below.
  2. I would use a Google Form that empties into a Google Spreadsheet. I'm sure there's a random number function for spreadsheets, so you could use that. Obviously you'd want to trim the list first to remove entries that weren't valid.
  3. Deadline... maybe 5 days? If you make it much longer, then there'll probably be a lot of people getting keys in the meantime anyway.
  4. A forum account link, and say they should post in the thread too, so you can make sure they're not just linking to a random forum account.
  5. Uh, no ideas.
  6. Maybe 100ish hours? But it probably depends a bit on how long they've had it, too. I don't think you can see that on Steam, though.
  7. Having them link their steam account is probably sufficient. There could be people with multiple accounts with the game, but it would take some dedication to get all of them to a 100-hour threshold.
  8. I doubt it. Given the number of people asking if they can find out if they applied (because they forgot), I don't think this is a criterion that you can really enforce.
  9. Nothing comes to mind.

 

Google Form is something I can learn to fully use in such a short time. I will now also ask for applicants to include the forum account URL they are using if I go the google form route. Thank you for the ideas. I'll consider all of them when I make the thread.

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Ah, another point I forgot...

 

I'm not so sure how reliable checking the game-time someone has is.

I know from experience that you can just leave the game open for 100 hours in the background (without playing) and hit that all in one go.

Steam hours played != number of hours ACTUALLY played.

 

Perhaps cross-reference hours played with hours played in last two weeks? (that you should be able to see on their profile)

I still wouldn't necessarily consider this a crucial decision-making factor though. Someone could have just bought the game recently like me (not that I'm below the 100 hours, but that's besides the point xD) and as a result obviously missed the beta sign-ups. Doesn't make them any less dedicated.

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I've been here for donks...

 

So, if you want your key to be used well with good intentions, then your best bet would be a person who is active on the forums, not necessarily from Don't Starve Beta to present, but it would help.

 

There are plenty of people on the forums more deserving of a key than say - myself.

 

 

Basically, number of posts made would be a good idea of how involved they are with Don't Starve, Together, and Klei Ent as a whole.

 

Do note that if you do consider this as one of the factors that I have been here pretty much since the start of Don't Starve and I have only got around 350 posts - others have WAY more.

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I've been here for donks...

 

So, if you want your key to be used well with good intentions, then your best bet would be a person who is active on the forums, not necessarily from Don't Starve Beta to present, but it would help.

 

There are plenty of people on the forums more deserving of a key than say - myself.

 

 

Basically, number of posts made would be a good idea of how involved they are with Don't Starve, Together, and Klei Ent as a whole.

 

Do note that if you do consider this as one of the factors that I have been here pretty much since the start of Don't Starve and I have only got around 350 posts - others have WAY more.

Yes, I actually plan to backtrack each applicant's recent and past posts/topics. That may take a while but I'd rather be sure the key will go to someone who'll actually be of help in BETA.

 

I'd also most likely base my judgement on post quality more than quantity.

 

Thanks for the input khray.

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