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I have been playing on this site from somewhere near the beginning and frankly, I'm getting bored. The number of ongoing games have seriously declined lately. More important, the same people seem to dominate all the lists. Thankfully, a good number of light players periodically win a prize, yet too many heavy players win too frequently. Drastic changes are need for this site to survive, in my opinion. It's not what you can "prove" with statistics. It's the perceptions of the players that is going to determine loyalty and widespread participation. Some aspects of the site, such as knowing when the game is ending, is very useful. Seeing the same names on top of every list all the time while ones self is mired in 50th place or lower is discouraging despite the knowledge that in reality any player with so much as one ticket can win any prize. A good part of the fun of using this particular site is the thrill of seeing ones own name at the top of some lists as a result of the effort and time one puts in. That is impossible to do except for a few hours at the beginning of a new quick game,due to the fact that some players are able to post every hour or very nearly so 24 hours a day for week after week. Interesting that a certain individual never misses getting a ticket in any hour for all the games the player dominates, yet the same player never claimed a prize that he had won in an hour he still got more tickets. Again, I think a lot of us are here more to have various kinds of fun in addition to hoping to win an occasional prize. I am fortunate in the respect that since I am retired, I can usually catch the one ticket per day games early in their posting, so I can be at or near the top of those lists as a reward for my diligence. Yet, I still think it would be nice to devise some sort of workable restrictions, if possible, to make it possible for more players to attain the top ten on more lists. It is especially aggravating to see a heavy player with three slots on the winner board while my best draw on that game might be 475th. I know that is just the way that random draws work when players with multiple tickets are involved. Problem is that when you have many games where the near 24 hours a day players have a couple of thousand tickets compared to 30 or 40 tickets for the average player, that is going to happen all too frequently and spoil some of the fun for the lighter players. I question whether a game site dominated by a relatively small core of heavy players, including some who may have found a way to automate their play, is the situation the supporting advertisers and potential supporting advertisers really want to see. Hopefully you are still working out ways to control and enhance the thrill of play for all the participants, in order to eventually make this a "must visit and play" site for huge numbers of site visitors. Right now, I think you still have a long ways to go to get this site ready for "prime time."
Is this site in decline?
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2 years ago#2
new member
Joined: Dec '08
Posts: 1I am totally with you. I have been using this site sense diggnation promoted it and I usually get tickets 2 times a day, sometimes more; and the closest i have come to winning is 11 place, and that was only once. I am starting to wonder if i am wasting my time on this site. Also it seems like when people do win it takes 5+ months to get the prize, some people still havent gotten a prize from August. It does suck when you see someones name on a list more than once. Maybe it could still get the tickets randomly but when it is finish it takes out any replicas, only leaving the highest ticket number. idk, just a thought.
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2 years ago#3
new member
Joined: Nov '08
Posts: 3Limiting the number of ticket per day is the only way to make this fair and allow all to fit in getting their fareshare of tickets. One ticket a day is probably not enough to generate traffic to the site. Randomly allowing ticket collecting might be an option to keep traffic up and still reward the frequent players as well as the occassional player.
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2 years ago#4
raffstar team member
Joined: Apr '08
Posts: 6Thanks for the feedback everyone. I feel your pain; like any startup, we launched with a number of preconceived notions about how the site should function and what features to include. Some have worked splendidly while others are being rethought to address the very issues you're discussing.
Initially it has been tough to gauge whether some of the issues we're experiencing (disparity between heavy and light players, multiple appearances on the top ten list, et al.) are simply due to the low number of members currently active on the site today. This ties into a larger challenge of growing the site at a healthy, but also financially sustainable rate. This is also the reason why prizes have been sparse recently.
We appreciate your participation in the early days and are doing our best to address what we can. There is ongoing internal discussion about each of scenarios (and suggestions) you've discussed, and we hope to make adjustments as soon as possible. Thanks again!
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2 years ago#5
new member
Joined: Nov '08
Posts: 4It looks like it is fizzeling out... If you look at your tickets on any prize, there are only about 60 others taken between the times that they are ready. Probably 50 hardcore participants and 30 - 50 regular but casual players. It really started to die after the xbox was awarded. And only 7 prizes for around a month???
<address>I have not ever seen the site advetised anywhere on the web, and Hak5 was the only video podcast to mention it and that was when they had a prize up for giveaway.</address> -
2 years ago#6
junior member
Joined: Nov '08
Posts: 5I think the site wouldn't be in such a decline if they actually sent out prizes. I won a Home Depot gift card back in September and have yet to receive my prize. I've also contacted them and haven't gotten a response.
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2 years ago#7
member
Joined: Apr '09
Posts: 19It is sad to hear that some of the winners are having such difficulties receiving their prizes. Certainly the hard core players have spent a great deal of effort playing on the site thus supporting the feedback needs. I can imagine the frustration of finally winning a prize only to start to seriously doubt if the prize will ever be delivered. I trust that situation is one the management is working hard to overcome.
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