"Gamified" giveaways...

[Guest]

So I see that the new Origin PC GW2 contest, like the Steelseries contest before it, is another one of those "gamified" giveaways where you get "entries" for doing various actions that mostly amount to signing up to be bombarded by marketing on every single platform available and annoying all of your followers and friends by posting about the giveaway or referring them (and their contact information) to it. This one is at least slightly better than some others because there isn't a thing where you get entries for doing some action (like posting or tweeting) every single day of the contest - all the tasks seem to be one-and-done. But am I wrong in thinking these contests should just be lottery fun where you throw your name in and hope, and not another damn thing for us to babysit and make work out of?

Am I the only one that sees these things and is just "Nope, hard pass."? Or is this just me being cranky and other people are cool with this format?

[voltaicbore.8012]

I am also in the "hard pass" category. I didn't even look into the details of this one, but in the past decade+ of seeing this mess, I have zero interest in doing free marketing for some company for the chance to get their stuff. So maybe you and I are just cranky, but frankly I think it's justified.

[Taril.8619]

Pro Tip: If you actually want to participate in these things, use a throwaway account. Or a hundred.

But yeah, I'll hard pass. Mostly because I know that people who actually care about these things, can just make tons of throwaway accounts to particpate and making any feeble attempt I make to just you know, do things once and be done with it have practically 0% chance of actually winning.

Such is the way of these things that are just marketing garbage getting you to like and share (Often post/retweet) their stuff, only to fail miserably because it ends up being a plethora of throwaway accounts yelling into the wind with their 0 followers, 0 friends and unused email accounts...

[Guest]

@"Taril.8619" said:

That's a good point, because even if you take it "seriously" and spend a bunch of time doing all the actions they want you to, you're fighting botters who have made flooding these type of contests a scripted process to actually win anything. So you really are, as voltaic said, just giving them an absolute treasure-trove of marketing data and impressions for nothing. (Not to mention again, wasting a bunch of your time, annoying your friends, and condemning yourself to unsubscribe hell after the contest is over to stop hearing about their latest sale every other day on every platform you use).

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I just do the 'Watch this video' or 'Open this page site' ones. No need to give any information. You don't even need to watch the videos or read the site pages.

[Danikat.8537]

One reason they might not want to do a straight-forward lottery where you just enter your name and a winner is picked at random is that's classified as gambling in a lot of places (including, I think, several US states). That doesn't make it impossible to do but it means there's extra taxes and regulations to deal with, which can quickly add up to so much hassle it's not worth doing. You either exclude those places (and we get a forum full of "Why won't Anet let me enter?") and reduce the pool of people who can enter or run a different kind of contest. The laws on what is and is not a lottery are horribly confusing but I think by requiring some effort on the part of entrants beyond simply submitting their name it gets around the common definition that a lottery is purely random chance.

The second reason is because like most promotions this is a form of advertising. The company are not running it because they really want to give someone a free PC. They're running it as a way to get as many people as possible in a potential customer base looking at the specs and design of one of their PCs and sharing that info with as many people as possible in the hope that some of them will become future customers. It works too, even if it's not direct. I was once told that it takes an average of 3-5 "encounters" with a brand before someone will buy from them. That can be everything from seeing an advert or their products in a store to a friend talking about it or seeing the logo around. So even if no one buys from them as a direct result of entering the contest or seeing a social media post from a friend who entered it still serves the purpose of getting their brand out there and making it more familiar.

And yes, if you're unhappy with that the solution is to not enter the contest. Or only enter using methods you are comfortable with.

(Edit: In case it sounds like I'm defending the idea, I'm not happy with it either and won't be entering. A free PC would be nice, but it's not worth the hassle of having to sign up for all this stuff and then cancel it later on. Especially if it's like a certain previous Anet partnership where I actually had to go through the GDPR complaints procedure to get them to stop emailing me, but that was the fault of a partner who didn't even seem to realise people outside the USA had access to the internet or know how their own app worked.)

[Maria Murtor.7253]

I find marketing campaigns like this disgusting. We are living in a world where companies paying huge amounts for personal data to use this informations for targeted advertising. Advertising is a scourge of our time. We don't need any more of it and I'm not willing to participate in marketing campaigns.

[Omega.6801]

Is this a US only thing again?

[Danikat.8537]

@"lokh.2695" said:Is this a US only thing again?

No, according to the terms and conditions there's only a relatively short list of places where you can't enter: "You must be 18 years old or over to participate and living outside of the following Restricted Countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Libya, Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan and Syria." I'm not sure why those countries are excluded, and it could be a different reason for each one on the list.

That other promotion with a cookie company is US-only, but I think that's understandable given at least one of the prizes is cookies. Even where you can ship food internationally I'm not sure I'd want to eat them when they arrived and I certainly wouldn't want to be legally responsible for someone else eating them after being in transit for who knows how long.

[Guest]

@"Danikat.8537" said:One reason they might not want to do a straight-forward lottery where you just enter your name and a winner is picked at random is that's classified as gambling in a lot of places (including, I think, several US states). That doesn't make it impossible to do but it means there's extra taxes and regulations to deal with, which can quickly add up to so much hassle it's not worth doing. You either exclude those places (and we get a forum full of "Why won't Anet let me enter?") and reduce the pool of people who can enter or run a different kind of contest. The laws on what is and is not a lottery are horribly confusing but I think by requiring some effort on the part of entrants beyond simply submitting their name it gets around the common definition that a lottery is purely random chance.

The second reason is because like most promotions this is a form of advertising. The company are not running it because they really want to give someone a free PC. They're running it as a way to get as many people as possible in a potential customer base looking at the specs and design of one of their PCs and sharing that info with as many people as possible in the hope that some of them will become future customers. It works too, even if it's not direct. I was once told that it takes an average of 3-5 "encounters" with a brand before someone will buy from them. That can be everything from seeing an advert or their products in a store to a friend talking about it or seeing the logo around. So even if no one buys from them as a direct result of entering the contest or seeing a social media post from a friend who entered it still serves the purpose of getting their brand out there and making it more familiar.

And yes, if you're unhappy with that the solution is to not enter the contest. Or only enter using methods you are comfortable with.

(Edit: In case it sounds like I'm defending the idea, I'm not happy with it either and won't be entering. A free PC would be nice, but it's not worth the hassle of having to sign up for all this stuff and then cancel it later on. Especially if it's like a certain previous Anet partnership where I actually had to go through the GDPR complaints procedure to get them to stop emailing me, but that was the fault of a partner who didn't even seem to realise people outside the USA had access to the internet or know how their own app worked.)

1. Could be a valid point. I'm less inclined to think this is a primary factor, because there have been sweepstakes and giveaways for decades prior to the advent of this current method, and they mostly managed to deal with it with a catchall "void where prohibited" statement. Especially if it doesn't cost you anything to enter (hence the "no purchase necessary" methods of entry for anything that offered entries based on buying something). I also feel like, as complex (and invasive) as some of the entry methods are, they are potentially running afoul of other laws even if they help avoid some gambling laws. Either way, something for the lawyers to figure out.

2. This is the main reason, I am sure. And I completely understand your points and why companies do giveaways. My feeling is that this current style of giveaway swings the benefit too far toward the company, though. In order to have the "best chance" at winning you have to give up a lot more of your time, access, personal information, and information of your friends. And as Taril pointed out, your odds are still diluted by those who have figured out how to bot them. I don't think the chance of winning anything is high enough to justify what you give them. That's a decision for everyone to make for themselves, of course, I was just curious if I'm the only one that resents being asked to turn into an unpaid marketing smurf as if it were some kind of cool, fun thing to do.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

I don't care about contests where I have to follow them on social media. This one, however, required my phone number and permission to text me. Asking for my phone number is a hard NOPE for me on any contest, petition, or pretty much anything. Internet spamming is one thing, life spamming is intolerable.