Gamification experts take note: Valve is doing it right

primesuspect

Gamification experts take note: Valve is doing it right

ardichoke

They're definitely doin it right... unfortunately if they can't keep their site up it won't matter. How will you take all my money Steam if all I get from your site is 503 errors?!

Ilriyas

Oh God not again...I love the holiday events so much...but...I lost so much money on all those $5/$10 deals during the summer that I'd be afraid to look at my chequing if I bought into another.

I do however have to compliment Steams marketing they make me WANT to buy all these games just so I can get the holiday achievements.

...and then they put Sam and Max complete for 75% off...

Curse you Steam...

EDIT: WOAH 503 ERRORS EVERYWHERE!

boasist

Hahaha, we killed it!!

Game Blade

I believe Steam's site has crashed...also can anyone tell me if EverQuest 2 is worth the download

Thrax

FMW.

pigflipper

Good job Steam, can't even load the main store page, let alone the promo.

GameBlade: EQ2's free to play version is extremely crippled and you would need to spend $20-$30 to get even close to the full experience.

TiberiusLazarus

First 25$ spent. Damn you.

Cliff_Forster

As long as nobody asks me to change my Facebook avatar, if I like the brand, I'll usually play along. Gamification = making stuff fun? That's genius marketing? People sit in a room and get paid to think, gee, I wonder how to get someone to do this, uhhhhh, make it fun?? GENIUS!!!

primesuspect

As long as nobody asks me to change my Facebook avatar, if I like the brand, I'll usually play along. Gamification = making stuff fun? That's genius marketing? People sit in a room and get paid to think, gee, I wonder how to get someone to do this, uhhhhh, make it fun?? GENIUS!!!

Believe it or not, it is.

Straight_Man

The Boy Scout movement had two acronyms that are appropo methinks:

KISMIF - keep it simple, make it fun;

KISS - keep it simple stupid.

They used those, and taught them to leader trainer TRAINERS (wood badge classes), who in turn passed them down to boy leaders via adult leaders and boy leader training classes. The boy leaders used to use them a lot, and understood them. Making something fun and easy to do draws folks who will spend money, I guess is the lesson. Boy's parents liked the morality values the Boy Scouts taught, and spent money to send boys with troops for activiites which were fun and educational for the boys. Valve is doing it with gaming, and Steam as a vehicle also makes sense.

NiGHTS

The Forever Alone Bundle: Entire Steam Library

primesuspect

Actually I think it would sort of suck owning every single game on Steam. Only sort of.

If they allowed you to gift copies of the games you didn't want, that might be a lot cooler.

NiGHTS

Epic Holiday Giveaway. Unreleased games will be delivered to the winner at the time of their release. Prize value is the purchase price of those games at the time of the drawing. Odds of winning depend on the number of pieces of Coal remaining in all user Steam inventories at 10:00 am Pacific Standard Time on January 2, 2012. The winner is solely responsible for any taxes applicable to the prizes. The winner of the Grand Prize will be additionally awarded a one-time “true up” payment from Sponsor based upon U.S. income taxes owed by the winner.

Good Guy Valve: Awards $35K worth of games, offers to pick up the taxes owed on your new library as well.

primesuspect

Icing on the Cake of Amazing

primesuspect

To re-iterate how incredible this thing is... I just played a game I've owned for months (Anomaly: Warzone Earth), which is fun. To reward me for all this hard work of having fun and playing games, Valve has gifted me a copy of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity, for no reason other than they're awesome. I didn't have to buy anything. I am just participating in their meta-game.

jared

The Forever Alone Bundle: Entire Steam Library

I wonder how much space that would take up?

primesuspect

Earned five objectives tonight. Spiral Knights (luckily I had played this in the past, and somehow had 320 crowns so I didn't have to buy anything to get the achievement), Psychonauts, Orcs Must Die, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, and Bunch of Heroes (more like Bunch of Dicks). I now have three lumps of coal, a new game, and two nearly useless coupons. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Ilriyas

So freaking loving this Steam holiday already (My bank account however certainly isn't) checked my inventory and they gave me a free copy of CSS.

Think I'm going to grab a few of the on sale games today, anyone up for getting some holiday achievements?

primesuspect

Now have six lumps of coal, two games, and three coupons

Canti

I won 2 coal, a 50% off Valve coupon, and a 50% off "Rock of Ages" coupon. Gave the coupon to Zanthian being the only person on my friends list who wanted it. Can anyone actually use the half off Valve coupon? If you can it's yours.

CB

I wonder what the usage stats will be on these coupons, and if they'll offer them again next year. So far, I've seen only few people think that a coupon is useful, especially since most of the game were on more sale during the event. "Here's a coupon for later that's not as good as today's deal!"

If the coupons were a further discount off of the holiday price, I think they'd see more use.

Ryder

What is a 50% off Valve coupon? Is it good for any game 50% off ?

primesuspect

What is a 50% off Valve coupon? Is it good for any game 50% off ?

Any Valve game. Problem is, most people who would participate in this contest have all the Valve games, and besides, Valve hasn't made that many games

Basil

That and Valve titles are already half price in the sale.

Ilriyas

@Basil: So maybe if you combine them you can get a valve game for free?

Canti

That and Valve titles are already half price in the sale.

And that you can't use them on future Valve games.

Ryder

This could be addicting. You know I don't play games in the volume most of you do, but there were a couple cool games I looked at this morning for like 9.99 or even less.

primesuspect

Finally got my seventh coal. Decided I'm going to craft them all because the chances of winning a main prize are slim to none, and besides... Do I really want every single Steam game ever?

I turned in my seven coal and got a copy of Saw. I was a little nervous after I found out @Winfrey crafted a coupon. Whew.

primesuspect

I don't know what some of these publishers are hoping to accomplish. I did the CrimeCraft achievement tonight; the only thing I learned is that I find CrimeCraft to be a really bad game, even though it's free to play, and I will never, ever in a million years play it. The controls are awful, and the way to get the achievement basically highlights how bad they are.

Either way. Got it

Canti

I had a few good laughs playing it but not the kind that keep you playing it.