About KLEI: Crabpack and the Giveaway experience.

[Prinha]

I participated in 6 giveaways from 5 different streamers. 

Three of them I didn't know beforehand and also didn't quite like just browsed the category for giveaway titled streams. Luckily I just had to type !giveaway or something in the chat and be done with it.
Two other streamers I know and watch occasionally. This is because I only watch DST streams occasionally ever since Glermz quit and invest my time on twitch in streams from other games normally. 

One of the latter streamers made his chat type !meow and proceeded to make fun of "his kittens" as he called it. I was pretty apalled since that kind of humour is not my thing but in the end the desire to get the skin won over not wanting to partake in that kitten fantasy of his. Stuff like that is honestly the reason why I prefer his edited videos to his live stream. Some things just gross me out. :/

The last streamer put his giveaway into discord where all I had to do was to click a reaction on a bot announcement every so often. This way I took part two times before I won. (Still can't believe that I actually won something for once!). Didn't even have to watch his stream though I watch regardless. His discord is a great DST source so I was hanging out there anyways. Perfect for me.

Edited March 18, 2025 by Prinha

[gaymime]

so i havent had this issue with dst but i am =currently= having this issue with cult of the lamb that DOES dictate how to win skins and i am sure anyone who has joined the totem system would agree it feels a bit uncomfortable when you are in a chat you don't want to be in and won't go back to and are made to "play along".

[ZoomZoomBang]

I was thinking of making a thread about this before, I'm glad someone posted about this. I read through all the replies here, and also participated in some giveaways and I'd like to add some things I've observed:

• I saw at least one ambassador lock the giveaway behind subscribing, which seems like it should be against the rules or at the very least be unethical due to essentially selling the skin codes.
• I've seen multiple streamers be frustrated at chat because of people constantly asking about the crabpack.
• I've seen at least one ambassador who didn't have any mention of a giveaway in their title be asked multiple times during their stream about the crabpack and if they're doing a giveaway or if they had any codes left.
• I'm somewhat socially awkward and it felt awkward to be joining giveaways in streams I'd never watched before, but the ambassadors I followed before either don't stream anymore or aren't playing DST at the moment.
• I've seen some people win in one streamer's giveaway, only to join other streamers giveaways (2 that I saw) later, so clearly some people aren't winning these just for their own accounts. At least with Twitch drops you had to link your Klei account with your Twitch one and could only earn the rewards once (per Twitch account).
• Sometimes there are 0 Klei ambassadors online, highlighting a lack of ambassadors due to the ambassadorship applications being closed for the past few years.
• There isn't a Twitch drop (for watching 3 hours) this update, when they've done one for every single update before this one. I'm really hoping this doesn't mean they're stopping Twitch drops for these giveaways entirely.
• I'm not sure how desirable or popular the Crabpack is (relative to other skins), but I can imagine people in streams getting a lot nastier/saltier when these giveaways are for an expensive skin like the Tesla Coil Lantern skin (currently $94 on the Steam marketplace).

I'm glad I eventually won one but overall I think players who wanted the skin (and maybe some ambassadors) are unsatisfied with how this event has played out. Hopefully the Twitch drops for watchtime come back, as I felt those were a lot fairer for everyone involved.

[gaymime]

12 minutes ago, ZoomZoomBang said:

• I saw at least one ambassador lock the giveaway behind subscribing, which seems like it should be against the rules or at the very least be unethical due to essentially selling the skin codes.

that is definitely something you need to tell klei about.

[Daniel86268]

Yea, this is horrible. I tried getting a skin code for a few hours, and then just gave up due to frustration.

I just want to play the game and have skins. I don't want to join lots of random streams trying to get lucky in some raffles.

Please just give us some puzzles or other challenges where players can earn the skin instead of giving out a limited amount of them that streamers use to bait people who just want the skin into their channels.

[DegenerateFurry]

Yeah, I say bring back the old system, or do something like this:

14 minutes ago, Daniel86268 said:

Yea, this is horrible. I tried getting a skin code for a few hours, and then just gave up due to frustration.

I just want to play the game and have skins. I don't want to join lots of random streams trying to get lucky in some raffles.

Please just give us some puzzles or other challenges where players can earn the skin instead of giving out a limited amount of them that streamers use to bait people who just want the skin into their channels.

Puzzles (like the old Metheus ones, or some kind of in-game challenges) would be a much more enjoyable system than "you have to actively watch this streamer you're literally only watching to get a code when you'd never normally even engage with that kind of content and aren't enjoying it". 

Although, in-game challenges would be heavily cheatable (if you tied it to killing Crab King, for instance, you could just set your damage multiplier to 10000 via console command and one-shot him), but that doesn't really bother me. 

Edited March 18, 2025 by DegenerateFurry

[Cheggf]

I think they should've just made the skin available for purchase immediately and done a giveaway where everyone who's username on the Klei forums starts with a C gets the skin for free. That would've been a lot better.

[DegenerateFurry]

32 minutes ago, Cheggf said:

I think they should've just made the skin available for purchase immediately and done a giveaway where everyone who's username on the Klei forums starts with a C gets the skin for free. That would've been a lot better.

Oh, nah, c'mon, it should be everyone whose username starts with a D. 

[JazzyGames]

As a streamer I totally get why users would see this giveaway process as more work than putting on a stream in the background and waiting to earn Twitch drops, which I why I decided to move giveaways to my Discord. I like to think that it’s less trouble for people who just want a chance at the item and infinitely better than the !ticket spam that was flooding my DST streams.

It’s not a perfect system and I know other Ambassadors have been struggling with their own methods, but I do think it was nice for Klei to offer a handful of skins for free and look forward to everyone being able to purchase them soon. Thanks for being patient while we figure this out.

[Daniel86268]

On 3/19/2025 at 1:36 AM, JazzyGames said:

As a streamer I totally get why users would see this giveaway process as more work than putting on a stream in the background and waiting to earn Twitch drops, which I why I decided to move giveaways to my Discord. I like to think that it’s less trouble for people who just want a chance at the item and infinitely better than the !ticket spam that was flooding my DST streams.

It’s not a perfect system and I know other Ambassadors have been struggling with their own methods, but I do think it was nice for Klei to offer a handful of skins for free and look forward to everyone being able to purchase them soon. Thanks for being patient while we figure this out.

I think just having a limited amount of skins being given out is a fundamentally flawed System.

I physically can't work for getting a skin. I can only hope for luck. I hate luck based gambling.

Edited March 23, 2025 by Daniel86268

[A Pufferfish]

Oh man! I'm late to this!

 

Always glad to see pepple voice their opinions on the topic!!!

[Derreck]

How can i get the resurrected skin for crab pack for playstation?

[Hollow soul 3]

I totally dropped watching streams for dst. Sucks that we can't get twitch drops any more, but this system sucks. I'm not going to spend hours watching a stream to maybe get something. 

[Griver84]

On 3/18/2025 at 7:36 PM, JazzyGames said:

As a streamer I totally get why users would see this giveaway process as more work than putting on a stream in the background and waiting to earn Twitch drops, which I why I decided to move giveaways to my Discord. I like to think that it’s less trouble for people who just want a chance at the item and infinitely better than the !ticket spam that was flooding my DST streams.

It’s not a perfect system and I know other Ambassadors have been struggling with their own methods, but I do think it was nice for Klei to offer a handful of skins for free and look forward to everyone being able to purchase them soon. Thanks for being patient while we figure this out.

Hey! Another Streamer and Klei Ambassador jumping in here.

Honestly from my perspective when they first came out I was trying to do giveaways every 30 mins in my streams. Mostly due to the amount of people joining (tried to make it feel like a random chance but there weren't many entries), eventually I've gone down the path of just throwing them at people who asked. Never made anyone follow, subscribe or even join my discord, but that's just the way I've approached it, As JazzzyGames put it, other creators each went different routes to give their codes away. Klei has done a lot for me over the years and these codes are a way for me to easily give back to the community that supports me so much. 

As for the frustrations:

• I get there's not always an ambassador on. I know in the past I practically burnt myself out streaming due to trying to make sure there was an English speaker late at night for Twitch Drops, content, etc...
• I get the frustration of limited skins initially, especially since there's the promise of being able to buy them at some unspecified point down the road. But remember Klei is a publishing company now not just a developer. AKA They're a full on business that does in my opinion a pretty good job in trying to make sure we're all happy and enjoying Don't Starve as a whole.
• As for people trying to "scalp" codes - I'm not sure how other creators have handled it but I've made people whisper me on Twitch. This way it shows chat history and I've yet to have a duplicate winner come up. I may have just gotten lucky.
• As for bringing back the merch - sometimes that isn't always an option. As a content creator who has merch as well, sometimes you get a 1 time run of something and that's it. Usually due to logistics, pricing or shipping. You can make it the one time, but long term it isn't feasible. (I am not speaking on Klei's behalf here, I do not know their inner workings or logistics)

Now as for the overall and original topic of this thread... I do take a bit of issue with the fact that being aggravated by only requiring an entry into a giveaway by typing !ticket at bare minimum, a bit entitled. I know for myself that was it, a command, that's all anyone had to type and you know what? It got people chatting, I've even gained a few new regulars due to these codes. 

The codes given out are free to you, to use as you please and it always amazes me that people are offended by something free.

Overall, I personally think it was a success, not because I'm an Ambassador. But because I could tell that people I interacted with were genuinely happy that they'd won a code and found a streamer to interact with. Someone who saw them as a person, not just a username on the screen.

[Cheggf]

33 minutes ago, Griver84 said:

Now as for the overall and original topic of this thread... I do take a bit of issue with the fact that being aggravated by only requiring an entry into a giveaway by typing !ticket at bare minimum, a bit entitled.

Typing !ticket, hoping that the streamer actually has !ticket set up as a command to enter you into a drawing, and then spending who knows how long, possibly hours, watching a stream, actually watching it so you know when the giveaway is, all in the hopes of maybe if you're lucky you get the skin.

The skin is not going to cost $2,000. It will probably only cost a couple minutes of work worth of money, and I will be guaranteed to get it for a couple minutes of work at a job. Why would I ever want to waste who knows how long going to who knows how many streams just for a chance at something that isn't even valuable in the first place?

The real entitled thing here is you feeling like you're owed those free viewers and engagement that the giveaway generated for you. 

33 minutes ago, Griver84 said:

The codes given out are free to you, to use as you please and it always amazes me that people are offended by something free.

And yet here you are, being offended at this free forum post that cost $0 for you to read. 

Edited April 28, 2025 by Cheggf

[_mylilsunshine_]

2 hours ago, Griver84 said:

Now as for the overall and original topic of this thread... I do take a bit of issue with the fact that being aggravated by only requiring an entry into a giveaway by typing !ticket at bare minimum, a bit entitled. I know for myself that was it, a command, that's all anyone had to type and you know what? It got people chatting, I've even gained a few new regulars due to these codes. 

The codes given out are free to you, to use as you please and it always amazes me that people are offended by something free.

Genuinely asking, how does this read as 'offended' and 'entitled' to you:

Quote

While I am grateful for the Crabpack skin that I got for free without spending a single dime toward Klei or any streamer, [...] Usually, to enter a giveaway, you just have to type in !ticket or a keyword, and the winner will be drawn later. And I am okay with that.

Even in this thread there has not been a single soul who is aggravated with it doing the bare minimum for an entry.

Did you take this thread personally? Because you seem to misconstrued its intention when it was not meant to be personal nor critical.

Quote

"..people are offended by something free."

This notion always confuses me, cause what is it implying, exactly? It being free doesn't absolve it from criticism, and criticism ≠ ingratitude, it being free does not mean it is flawless. The value of a gift lies in its respect for the recipient’s dignity and autonomy. I am criticizing the methods and processes of giving and receiving, not criticizing Klei's act of putting the Crabpack out in the first place.

(anything after this is general discussion, not at Klei nor any creator/ambassador)

The "free" doesn't really matter when it's the "how." You can give out free things and you can be snobbish about it, you can be condescending, or belittling, or exploitative. Does your 'free' stuff 'free' you from any criticism? "But they didn’t have to give anything in the first place!", true, but gratitude is earned through thoughtful acts, not transactional gestures.

Edited April 29, 2025 by _mylilsunshine_

[DemonRebuilt]

This whole crabpack experience has been interesting to say the least. I think most streamers, myself included, were at least a little overwhelmed by the amount of people scrambling to get their hands on a code at the beginning but putting all the giveaways in discord and leaving a pinned comment in my stream solved 99% of that for me. It ended up being quite a wholesome and humbling experience and I had many people connecting with me that didn't know I was still making content, or hadn't been active in DST for a while or just hadn't had the opportunity to reach out and say something and I'm really grateful for that.

I think it would have been better if there was also a way to purchase the skin or a date for when that would be available on top of giving codes to ambassadors and I assume that will be the plan moving forward if they continue to go down the ambassador route. Correct me if I'm wrong but most of the criticism here seems to be for the way that creators have chosen to manage their codes rather than the fact that codes are being given away? Surely you can't be upset with Klei for wanting to give away free codes in a way that best helps get exposure for their game and ambassadors at the same time?

Running the giveaway through spur of the moment Twitch keyword raffles and !tickets felt awful for me and I didn't like how it actively took me away from actually playing the game so I very quickly pivoted to something else but other creators might not have alternatives or may not have figured out how to implement a better system for this yet. Hopefully that is something that creators will get more of a handle on in future. I agree that belittling viewers for participating in giveaways is very icky, especially when the streamer is getting the code for free themselves and I would probably not watch their content going forward.

[_mylilsunshine_]

9 minutes ago, DemonRebuilt said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but most of the criticism here seems to be for the way that creators have chosen to manage their codes rather than the fact that codes are being given away? Surely you can't be upset with Klei for wanting to give away free codes in a way that best helps get exposure for their game and ambassadors at the same time?

I think it's a bit of both, at least that's what my thread intended, but mostly the criticism is for how Klei decided to implement this Resurrected skin program. A lot of people are willing to just pay for the skin outright, which, in the beginning Klei did state that it would be for sale, but there is no further elaboration on that just yet, so we've been waiting. A lot of people are willing to help boost the viewer count by joining in the stream, like how it is with the Twitch Drops, but giveaways require active participation which not everyone can provide, and processes vary between ambassadors so you would most likely have to figure it out every time.

I believe we are all aware of the transactional nature of this event, exposure vs. free skin, but I don't think it was the best way if we are talking about community retention.

[viblym]

I am not a fan of the methods that they chose to give out these skins, I do not find streamed DST content engaging enough nor do I particularly like watching streams enough to warrant watching them for skins. I'm fine with watching VODs from streamers I do like, but among the Klei Ambassadors I do not like watching any. I do like the idea of giving out skins via community engagement, but I do not feel comfortable as a person "putting myself out there" just to get the attention of a Twitch Streamer at the off-chance of getting a skin. When the responsibility of community engagement is put into the hands of a select few people to "pick out" community members for prizes, it doesn't seem to turn out well in my experience. The people put in charge of this often become disillusioned with the community, people who want these things may be demanding, parasocial, or spammy, and favoritism can absolutely occur when giving these things out.

If Klei had more fun ways of giving out Resurrected skins that weren't placed in the hands of a few streamers I'd be more inclined to give it a shot, like puzzles, fanart, mods, in-game events, etc. But those are all placed in the hands of the Ambassadors who are responsible for the codes.

All things considered it is nice that we are given a free option to get skins that were formerly attached to physical merchandise, all-in-all I hope the pricing of them when they become purchasable is forgiving, as many people I know who were unable to purchase physical merch were unable to because of shipping costs from where they lived, or even completely incapable of purchasing objects from where they lived. Resurrected skins are new in concept and release so I imagine things may change, but until the crab pack becomes available for purchase I wont be able to gauge how exactly I feel on it.

Plus there is always that residual sadness in me that Klei will be retiring more of their physical merchandise with nothing else to fill that gap. I wish they were more informative on what they were planning with their store, when they were going to stop manufacturing something, if they plan on manufacturing something again, etc.

[00petar00]

I don't really watch streams but I have every twitch drop because it is minimized in the background. I won't get this crab backpack skin because I don't like gambling in any sense and it just isn't fun to spend a long period of time hoping for a chance of getting something.

What If you are like me and don't want to watch twitch streams besides official klei ones? I often only watch youtube videos of content creators from time to time where it is more condensed and I can look for specific things.

While it can be limited to one per person on your twitch stream it doesn't mean that the same person can't go to another stream and get more codes to sell or trade.

If it is luck based someone can be very unlucky and not get it no matter how much they try. What about botting? AI has gotten pretty good these days so I don't doubt that If this becomes the norm even If it didn't happen this time it will start happening, you can say that twitch streamers can ask questions that AI couldn't answer but why can't the person behind the AI be notified when they win and come to claim prize?

Twitch drops are much more fair as everyone can get it and they aren't forced to interact with stream or even watch it. This still brings in views and while I can say that it is bad for twitch it is still good for DST visibility on the site and content creators.

 

Edited April 29, 2025 by 00petar00

[Dr. Safety]

I liked seeing the boost in twitch engagement with the few DS streamers I watch, but I could also tell that it was overwhelming. I think that having a clear schedule on when we can expect the item to be purchasable would help with this. With how slow development has been (rightfully so, I'm not complaining about update frequency), it's impossible to know whether the crabpack will be purchasable tomorrow or 2 years from now.

I think that this FOMO is what caused the biggest problem with this system, a stream with tons of viewers, with a sizeable percentage that don't actually want to watch. 

Edited April 29, 2025 by Dr. Safety

[landromat]

whole klei ambassador program just cuts any path for new dst streamers

As new streamer you have no drops, you have no crab packs, and because of that you have no viewers. 

I understand this program was made to fight with afk drop farming streamers but this is not the way

[JazzyGames]

52 minutes ago, landromat said:

As new streamer you have no drops, you have no crab packs, and because of that you have no viewers.

Gonna push back on this idea and I'm sure I will regret it.

The Ambassador program was not intended to replace the work and effort of growing a content channel on YouTube or Twitch. Plenty of us were able to create content and develop our brand long before Twitch drops and giveaways became a thing, so I find it slightly disingenuous to imply that channel growth is not possible without the Ambassador program. Conversely, I've seen plenty of DST streamers get inflated views during drops periods and giveaways but their numbers outside of that time were nowhere near the top of the category, so it's never a guarantee of viewers or channel growth.

I get the giveaway process was sorted and this was our first time as a group of creators giving away this volume of codes and it wasn't as streamlined as it could have been. I get all of that, and I'm saying maybe the solution is not to throw out the baby with the bathwater. The program is a good addition that has provided a lot of backend support for content creators. We'll do better with the rollout next time, I promise.

I will say though I am a bit surprised that the crab packs haven't gone on sale yet.

[nome]

4 hours ago, landromat said:

I understand this program was made to fight with afk drop farming streamers but this is not the way

We're actually beta-testing a new ambassador programme right now that's designed to automate more of the work, and thus hopefully allow us to lower the bar and let more streamers in. Stay tuned (but maybe not on the edge of your seat, see below about us having our plates full).

3 hours ago, JazzyGames said:

I will say though I am a bit surprised that the crab packs haven't gone on sale yet.

It's not some super secret plan, we've just been busy and haven't had time to finish the design & implementation yet.

[Cliffford W.]

2 hours ago, nome said:

We're actually beta-testing a new ambassador programme right now that's designed to automate more of the work, and thus hopefully allow us to lower the bar and let more streamers in. Stay tuned (but maybe not on the edge of your seat, see below about us having our plates full).

It's not some super secret plan, we've just been busy and haven't had time to finish the design & implementation yet.

Nome will we ever get the Resurrected Moldy Backpack