Cataclysm Closed Beta Key Contest List of WinnersFollow

all seems a bit biased to me, said was giving away free beta keys, seems to have only gone to older memebers rahter than newbies

all seems a bit biased to me, said was giving away free beta keys, seems to have only gone to older memebers rahter than newbies

I agree that the contest wasn't handled in the most optimal way to make everyone happy, but I don't think they could make everyone happy. Blizzard likely game Zam the keys expecting them to give them away in contests - games of chance - and that's what they did. That means that they couldn't have been biased about who they gave the keys too based on posts or contribution. That's purely conjecture, though. I'm not sure what terms and conditions the keys were given out under.

That said, am I upset that the majority of winners were one time posters who wanted only to get a key and get the hell out? Damn right I am. And am I completely rabid over the few ungrateful posters who did win, and their second post ever was "weres mah key"? You better @#%^ing believe it.

But at the same time... fair is fair. What if they had given the keys to only long-time posters? It would have helped the forums, sure, but would it have brought more users to the site? Would it have put attention on an aging and increasingly neglected corner of the internet? Probably not. It might have even cast some negative attention and much drama when some posters weren't selected for one reason or another. What about if you thought your psts were excellent, but weren't selected? Would you be up in arms?

And what about the honestly intelligent, thoughtful people who simply hadn't stumbled upon here early enough to have enough posts to qualify for the contest? The Theos, teacakes, and Mazras (to pick a few at random) of the internet that weren't here for long enough to qualify, if they were here at all. If the contest was random, at least those people had a chance.

And that was really the only fair way to do this. If the moderators kept careful track of every individual's posts and noted who had contributions of significance and selected based on that, then there would always be the suspicion of mod favoritism, bribing, favoring subscribers, etc. It's like Two-Face said in the Dark Knight, "...the only morality in a cruel world is chance. Unbiased. Unprejudiced. Fair." Granted, he was a raving nuthouse, but his point is true. As long as the human equation is there, there would be suspicion of something less than fair going on.

Chance was the only completely fair way to go about things. I don't think that there was a truly good way, honestly. Almost any way I can think of would have left a sour taste in my mouth, just like what happened today.

It sucks, but that's the only way to do it. Just my two cents.

And even if they did set aside a number of keys for the contest - ignoring for argument's sake the mod favoritism and negative publicity issues - then what mod is there that knows the community well enough to know who would contribute or not? Would they have to go back and check the posters' entire histories and thoroughly research the candidates? Would they have to tell them that contributing is a condition for receiving a key? And how would they select the posters? Who would be more likely to contribute? Would they pick Gurus only? Premium Gurus only? Sages with an average rating above a certain level? Randomly among the "best" posters? Those with a high post count?

This. People who got voted in could always pass it on to the next guy in case they didn't want it. They even could have done separate polls for each class, to make sure each class forum got a key.

Anything would have been better (or more efficient and meaningful) than the 140-page swarm of failure that descended upon us. Talk about waste of time.

Edited, Aug 3rd 2010 5:11am by Mazra

Would they pick Gurus only? Premium Gurus only?