POLL: Release Day Queue Positions

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WILTRON replied on 02-03-2010 1:27 PM

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sterlingdax:

Explain to me how the guy who stays up is more valuable to Goozex as a whole than the guy who stops by once or twice a month? Doesn't he have to trade games to get points? Sure you can buy them now at a discount, but at any other time, you're better off taking your dollars to the store.

The site shouldn't favor the addict any more than the casual user. it's another have/have not situation. Some folks don't have the money to put into a points balance, be it trading or otherwise. Those people are supposed to suffer?

wat? I don't understand half of your arguments.

How is this about who's more "valuable to Goozex"? It's about who is willing to put forth a small bit of extra effort to secure a better place in Queue.

Everyone on the planet, regardless of timezone, is given the same opportunity to get in queue at the first possible moment. If it doesn't matter that much, you just jump in line when you get around to it. It naturally filters out those people that don't care enough to make it happen. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. My choice the same as anyone elses.

Edit: For the record, I feel that while the lottery system might do a good job of eliminating any possible advantage for an individual, it will also result in many occasions where someone who really doesn't give a shit ends up in a great queue position.

Hmm, no possibility for individual effort to improve your position in queue ? ...

... LOTTERY SUPPORTERS ARE SOCIALISTS!

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mafafu replied on 02-03-2010 1:57 PM

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WILTRON:

it will also result in many occasions where someone who really doesn't give a shit ends up in a great queue position.

We have this now. There have been posts in the new release thread of users who request games just for the sake of it, with no real desire or expectation to play the game.

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devyanks90 replied on 02-03-2010 2:00 PM

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mafafu:

WILTRON:

it will also result in many occasions where someone who really doesn't give a shit ends up in a great queue position.

We have this know. There have been posts in the new release thread of users who request games just for the sake of it, with no real desire or expectation to play the game.

I did this for Mass Effect 2. It's in the mail.

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Kenny007 replied on 02-03-2010 2:02 PM

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mafafu:

WILTRON:

it will also result in many occasions where someone who really doesn't give a shit ends up in a great queue position.

We have this now. There have been posts in the new release thread of users who request games just for the sake of it, with no real desire or expectation to play the game.

lol like me.  I got #1 for Godfather II...and still haven't requested that.  lol.

Join the Goozex Pokerstars Club!

GreenManGaming

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Solatso replied on 02-03-2010 2:04 PM

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mafafu:

WILTRON:

it will also result in many occasions where someone who really doesn't give a shit ends up in a great queue position.

We have this now. There have been posts in the new release thread of users who request games just for the sake of it, with no real desire or expectation to play the game.

I've done that before but I put those titles on Hold so people can skip past me until I'm ready.

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WILTRON replied on 02-03-2010 2:08 PM

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I actually don't believe that you don't give a shit if you hit "I WANT" at the first possible moment. Regardless, you put forth the effort to make it happen. There will be far more instances in a lottery where people that only had a passing interest in the game end up in a good position.

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devyanks90 replied on 02-03-2010 2:12 PM

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WILTRON:

I actually don't believe that you don't give a shit if you hit "I WANT" at the first possible moment. Regardless, you put forth the effort to make it happen. There will be far more instances in a lottery where people that only had a passing interest in the game.

I'm in college so I'm awake at 1am anyways, therefore I'm not extending much extra effort (tabbed browsing ftw)

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cbyler replied on 02-03-2010 2:12 PM

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I have read all of the posts so far and made a few comments of my own.  There is going to be argument about this topic no matter what happens.  In order to move forward with some type of resolution, it seems there are a couple key questions that need to be answered before a decision can be made:

• How much is fairness to all users factored into this decision? Is it truly everyone has an equal opportunity (eliminating time zones, new vs. veteran user discrimination, server issues, etc.) or fair in the fact that everybody is informed of the policy and have the opportunity to act as they will?
• Will Goozex make ANY changes if it does not directly impact their marketing strategy and increase their bottom line? 

To start on fairness, I honestly cannot see a scenario where new users are not given equal rights.  If new users are not contributing to the site, the G-Team likely wants to increase participation as much as they can.  If new users are contributing to the site, the G-Team likely wants to continue to draw more new users.  Both would be for the purposes of increasing trades and revenue. 

If equal rights are required, then determining the rest of what makes up being fair is next.  Even if we tell all new users about the system, there is still a time gap that typically does not impact west coast goozers as much as east coast goozers.  Then there is also the issue of server lag.  Is that fair to all or unfair to all?  I could go either way on that. 

Either way, I don't think Goozex will do ANYTHING unless it will increase their bottom line.  That is why in the end I think a lottery will win out.  Hardcore goozers are not going to leave in bunches.  They have too much invested and believe in the trading system too much.  New users will be drawn to the lottery because of the factor of the unknown.  They will have to come back Wednesday morning to find out what place they got in line.  The more times a new user comes back to the site, the more likely they are to continue with the system.

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WILTRON replied on 02-03-2010 2:24 PM

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I have no clue what Goozex is going to do. They asked for feedback and I gave it. I certainly wouldn't storm off in a huff if they went with a lottery. If I was overwhelmed with a need for a game on release day, I'd scrape the money together to go buy it (*I'm looking at you Bioshock 2).

For me, the release day process is a tiny part of the Goozex service that has saved me ridiculous amounts of money over the years. I don't think I even paid attention to it until after I'd been here for a couple years.

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sillyphilly replied on 02-03-2010 2:28 PM

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I think a lottery system adds an unnecessary level of complication to a system that (bandwidth issues aside) already works pretty well.  First come first serve sounds more fair than a random crapshoot lottery if you ask me.  Goozex just needs to consider a few tweaks to the status quo is all:

A. Fix the server issue.  This is the most obvious since the traffic slows the site down to a crawl at activation time as everyone has already mentioned.

B. Make a one click "add to active requests" button for new releases in the watch list that doesn't require multiple page loads to get a spot in queue.

C. Move the activation time to 2am Pacific - 5am Eastern.  This way EVERYONE has to say up late / get up early.

D. Probably the most contentious: Eliminate the On Hold request queue altogether.  Either you want the game at its current point value or you don't.  As it stands now everyone just adds & holds games they have no intention of activating in the near future.  I think Goozex tried limiting the Hold queue a while back but caved when everyone got up in arms about it.

My 2cents.

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BuryMe replied on 02-03-2010 2:36 PM

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sillyphilly:

Eliminate the On Hold request queue altogether.  Either you want the game at its current point value or you don't.  As it stands now everyone just adds & holds games they have no intention of activating in the near future.  I think Goozex tried limiting the Hold queue a while back but caved when everyone got up in arms about it.

There is nothing wrong with users planning which games they'll want in advance.

sillyphilly:

Move the activation time to 2am Pacific - 5am Eastern.  This way EVERYONE has to say up late / get up early.

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erock replied on 02-03-2010 2:38 PM

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cbyler:

...That is why in the end I think a lottery will win out.  Hardcore goozers are not going to leave in bunches.  They have too much invested and believe in the trading system too much.  New users will be drawn to the lottery because of the factor of the unknown.  They will have to come back Wednesday morning to find out what place they got in line.  The more times a new user comes back to the site, the more likely they are to continue with the system.

These are great point, but it's a classic the enemy you know vs the enemy you don't know.  We all know the currenty system uncool at best, totally broken some weeks.  But we all know what's going to happen.

A switch to a vanilla lottery has the possibility of both sucking and blowing at the same time.  My fear is that it sucks in massive numbers of new users and swells the lottery contestants.  I would say in the first few minutes of a release there may be 100 requests now?  I think when I've passed on the attempt and looked in the morning when I woke up high numbers are around 500 requests.  A lottery with those numbers would be ok.  It would certainly be fair.  If current numbers of the first week of release requests are currently 1000 (purely a guess), that lottery would start to be a lot less fun...for me at least.  Then comes the suck...the lottery and gooxez get popular.  What if the number of lottery entrants swells to 5000, maybe more.  Then comes the blow.  We all realize a 1 in 5000 chance of a decent spot is not awesome.  I would argue that a lot of that population would move away from goozex.

My argument is that a vanilla lottery is absolutely fair, would ease the technical limitations of the server and generally make sound common sense.  But it could also come with a lot of unknown consequences.

I want goozex to be around for a long time, if a lottery is the way to ensure that , awesome.  Just please be careful with the many successes you have built up over the years.

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kane182 replied on 02-03-2010 2:56 PM

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I haven't read every post in this thread, but I'd like to voice my input.

Lottery system and you can add anything to your watch list as soon as it is in the database.  Once it goes live and positions are picked EVERYONE gets put on hold.  This way user's have to make a conscience effort to log in and activate the item.

This way Joe Schmoe who added Bioshock 2 (7) months ago, but is no longer a real active user is not holding a place up in line and people are free to move past them until/if they log in and activate.

This to me seems fair to everyone.

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HighWindXIX replied on 02-03-2010 3:30 PM

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I voted status quo. I do not think the lottery is a good idea. At all. If I'm willing to wait through server lag and make sure I'm at my computer at the right time, I should be able to get a better spot than have it be random. Especially since I'm unlucky with that kind of thing! Hahaha! However, option 2 could be useful since if only one game became available at a time, it would ease up the load that the servers have to deal with. I don't think it would be terribly confusing as long as the Goozex date and time was labeled very plainly and well. Early morning hours though would be bad I would say. I think the time games usually become available is perfect.

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HighWindXIX replied on 02-03-2010 3:33 PM

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erock:

cbyler:

...That is why in the end I think a lottery will win out.  Hardcore goozers are not going to leave in bunches.  They have too much invested and believe in the trading system too much.  New users will be drawn to the lottery because of the factor of the unknown.  They will have to come back Wednesday morning to find out what place they got in line.  The more times a new user comes back to the site, the more likely they are to continue with the system.

These are great point, but it's a classic the enemy you know vs the enemy you don't know.  We all know the currenty system uncool at best, totally broken some weeks.  But we all know what's going to happen.

A switch to a vanilla lottery has the possibility of both sucking and blowing at the same time.  My fear is that it sucks in massive numbers of new users and swells the lottery contestants.  I would say in the first few minutes of a release there may be 100 requests now?  I think when I've passed on the attempt and looked in the morning when I woke up high numbers are around 500 requests.  A lottery with those numbers would be ok.  It would certainly be fair.  If current numbers of the first week of release requests are currently 1000 (purely a guess), that lottery would start to be a lot less fun...for me at least.  Then comes the suck...the lottery and gooxez get popular.  What if the number of lottery entrants swells to 5000, maybe more.  Then comes the blow.  We all realize a 1 in 5000 chance of a decent spot is not awesome.  I would argue that a lot of that population would move away from goozex.

My argument is that a vanilla lottery is absolutely fair, would ease the technical limitations of the server and generally make sound common sense.  But it could also come with a lot of unknown consequences.

I want goozex to be around for a long time, if a lottery is the way to ensure that , awesome.  Just please be careful with the many successes you have built up over the years.

If my beloved Goozex really is going to shift to this lottery, I might have to use it only to get old games as opposed to new releases because the prospect of getting stuck so far back in the line because of bad luck will likely drive me to buying the game at Gamestop.