Brainstorming some ideas for beta key giveaways for the luck-challenged folks: Those of us who have several accounts with different computer specs opted in, have participated in dozens of fansite giveaways, as well as the official sweepstakes giveaways by Blizzard, and haven't gotten a beta key after more than 3 months.
Basically, all these giveaways thus far have been based upon luck; you put all the names in a hat and draw a couple winners. It's done like this because it's the easiest and fairest way to do these kinds of things. I know there have been a few fansite competitions that are based on some talent, like the avatar contest at Diablo Expressions recently (which I got in the top 5 finalists for!), but these kinds of contests include a subjective selection bias that isn't present in other "random" giveaways, so they are generally avoided.
What I am suggesting are contests that are not based entirely on luck of the draw, but lack that dreaded selection bias. Here are a few ideas:
1. First Come First Serve
Blizzard announces that they will post up 20 beta keys on their Facebook page sometime during the work day on date X
As the date draws closer, they may make it more specific, i.e., between 3pm and 4pm PST of that day
When the beta keys are posted, those fast enough to copy them and activate them in their account page will get beta access
2. Puzzles, Scavenger Hunt, Races
Blizzard announces that they will be putting up some kind of game on the D3 website on X date at X time
When the game (puzzle, scavenger hunt, word find etc.) is up on the website, the first 100 people to complete it will receive beta keys that they can activate at their leisure.
This would just be a nice way for Blizzard to say to us unlucky people, "We want you to prove how much you want a beta key".
Feel free to post any other ideas for potential contests.
iam in the same boat bro! Sometimes it just isn't fair, but hey it will all be releases on the same day. I am a Diablo 1 players from when I was 15 played forever, same with D2 and all that jazz....its painful to watch and sometime just plain maddening.
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Sometimes you don't always know where you stand... until you know that you won't run away.
Actually this isn't true. The biggest german fansite had a non-luck based challenge, that anyone with enough determination (such as myself) was able to win. There were 4 keys given away like this.
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"Traitors! Even in death, the armies of Khanduras will still obey their king!"
Actually this isn't true. The biggest german fansite had a non-luck based challenge, that anyone with enough determination (such as myself) was able to win. There were 4 keys given away like this.
What website is this? I was unaware of such a contest
Testing a beta is a lot better with Random. It is frustrating in this case for the player but for Blizzard random is the way to go. If you don't go random (reward the fastest (100 first) or the cleverest (solve a puzzle)) you create bias in your pool of players. The average player is no longer average.
A better way would be to stratify the pool of potential beta testers, which they do based on their computer spec and could be done on other factors (like number of games you play). In the end, Blizzard also chose a very simple way to do it.
There is no such thing as luck. It's a concept entirely made up by human minds.
A lottery is the fairest and most effective way to distribute a scarce resource (the beta key) to a large homogeneous group of people (the Diablo fans).
Quote from name="Ardikus" timestamp="1325130967" post="722137 »
What website is this? I was unaware of such a contest
indiablo.de, was around 3 month ago. It is probably the biggest non-english d2/d3 site of europe, has tons of content. If you don't speak the language it's hard to notice the giveaways obviously.
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"Traitors! Even in death, the armies of Khanduras will still obey their king!"
A lottery is the fairest and most effective way to distribute a scarce resource (the beta key) to a large homogeneous group of people (the Diablo fans).
I already acknowledged this this in the second paragraph of my original post, "It's done like this because it's the easiest and fairest way to do these kinds of things."
And not to spoil your philosophical discovery, but "luck" is generally attributed to outcomes that we had very little to no control over, i.e., winning a beta key from a sweepstakes: you submit your name and relinquish control of the outcome to the sponsor. What I suggested, you do have control over the outcome, by being on the website on time, being fast enough to copy, paste and submit the key, being fast enough to complete the puzzle etc.
I dunno if you've ever seen a time based "speed" giveaway, but I've tried several of them (mainly super sale online items). Those are very "luck" and macro based. I've seen them disappear after 3seconds, even though I was there with 10,000 others refreshing the page. Overall a much more frustrating process then a simple lottery system.
Puzzles are ok for single key giveaways, but for multikey, I could see the original intent get lost. The first person to get the puzzle would tell all his friends (multikey reward I guess), then probably would get posted somewhere.
More keys would be better then less keys though
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Basically, all these giveaways thus far have been based upon luck; you put all the names in a hat and draw a couple winners. It's done like this because it's the easiest and fairest way to do these kinds of things. I know there have been a few fansite competitions that are based on some talent, like the avatar contest at Diablo Expressions recently (which I got in the top 5 finalists for!), but these kinds of contests include a subjective selection bias that isn't present in other "random" giveaways, so they are generally avoided.
What I am suggesting are contests that are not based entirely on luck of the draw, but lack that dreaded selection bias. Here are a few ideas:
1. First Come First Serve
This would just be a nice way for Blizzard to say to us unlucky people, "We want you to prove how much you want a beta key".
Feel free to post any other ideas for potential contests.
What website is this? I was unaware of such a contest
A better way would be to stratify the pool of potential beta testers, which they do based on their computer spec and could be done on other factors (like number of games you play). In the end, Blizzard also chose a very simple way to do it.
A lottery is the fairest and most effective way to distribute a scarce resource (the beta key) to a large homogeneous group of people (the Diablo fans).
indiablo.de, was around 3 month ago. It is probably the biggest non-english d2/d3 site of europe, has tons of content. If you don't speak the language it's hard to notice the giveaways obviously.
I already acknowledged this this in the second paragraph of my original post, "It's done like this because it's the easiest and fairest way to do these kinds of things."
And not to spoil your philosophical discovery, but "luck" is generally attributed to outcomes that we had very little to no control over, i.e., winning a beta key from a sweepstakes: you submit your name and relinquish control of the outcome to the sponsor. What I suggested, you do have control over the outcome, by being on the website on time, being fast enough to copy, paste and submit the key, being fast enough to complete the puzzle etc.
Puzzles are ok for single key giveaways, but for multikey, I could see the original intent get lost. The first person to get the puzzle would tell all his friends (multikey reward I guess), then probably would get posted somewhere.
More keys would be better then less keys though