Free Giveaway Ideas!

[Chalex4]

It's a new year, and I think it's about time we had another ATK giveaway!

So far I've set aside about £50 for prizes, and on top of that there will be some hosting packages (http://www.atkcommunity.com/hosting.php) going. Of course, if everyone gave an extra £5 that would increase the pot considerably making it much more exciting.

So, why do I need you? Ideas!! This must be more of a competition than last time, so please post what kind of competition you'd like to have. It should also be attractive to new members but IDEALLY the top prizes could only be received by long-standing members.

As to what the £50 would go on, there needs to be a spread of items. Low and higher value. If we had some games in there, what games are you interested in? Maybe some cheap Indie ones like Plants vs. Zombies? Or should I just bulk order a tonne of mousemats instead :p?

[Mr.Big]

well, i say it has to be some game on steam or something that doesent need shipping expenses :P, but tbh i just say some game on steam

[D_K_Head]

what big said. Game over steam... playtime for the MMO addicts...

We're an easy group to buy for...

[Vicious Horizon]

Yeah, steam definately - I think we should find a few games that we're willing to actually play - and have a competition and x amount of people get prizes.

[Colonel Mitch]

2 tickets for i40 won in a zero hour comp :D

[Chalex4]

Thanks for the ideas guys, but what specific games were you thinking of?

At the moment I'm tempted to wait until I have funds around the ~£100 mark, but it's worth thinking about it now.

[Colonel Mitch]

2 tickets for i40 won in a zero hour comp :D

As above - ZERO HOUR!!!! (Thats c&c Generals)

[Target]

lol, ultimate battle chess for MW2 on steams?????

[D_K_Head]

lol, ultimate battle chess for MW2 on steams?????

this.

[Calneon]

Or, CSS deathmatch tourney.

[Target]

Maybe not ultimate battle chess, but something rts that no ones really played for MW2 on steam plox

[Colonel Mitch]

Maybe not ultimate battle chess, but something rts that no ones really played for MW2 on steam plox

How about the other way.

RTS but something weve ALL played (if you haven't theres something wrong with you)... Age Of Empires: Rise Of Rome.

Yep thats AOE1

[ez64]

I wouldn't mind something older like that ya AOE 1 or 2, RA1/2? Would be a good laugh anyway we should be playing those games more often.

Easy to play online these days as well with gameranger as the netcode on those games was dire and never worked.

[Colonel Mitch]

I wouldn't mind something older like that ya AOE 1 or 2, RA1/2? Would be a good laugh anyway we should be playing those games more often.

Easy to play online these days as well with gameranger as the netcode on those games was dire and never worked.

Id prefer AOE1 to 2, the gameplay jsut generaly seemed to flow better IMO, havent played RA1 or 2 ever before so would rather not have them, but I no they have the DREADED build pane from normal C&C which i CANT STAND.... lol ;0

[ez64]

NEVER PLAYED RA1 OR 2 DEAR GOD MAN......

$110 kennels and $11 attack dogs that can take out $1000 worth of infantry are where its at!

[Colonel Mitch]

NEVER PLAYED RA1 OR 2 DEAR GOD MAN......

$11 kennels and $5 attack dogs that can take out $1000 worth of infantry are where its at!

But they have the build pane..... i grow weary of "UNABLE TO COMPLY BUILDING IN PROGRESS" constantly...

[D_K_Head]

you've never played Red Alert? what the hell is wrong with you?

[Colonel Mitch]

as said above I HATE THE WAY THE GAME WORKS...

Standard C&C jsut pisses me off with loads of waiting and lack of choice at start of game

[Chalex4]

The problem is that it's too predictable who'd win the RTS competitions, so I'd like something which all the members could partake in with an equal chance of winning.

What about a forum challenge? Post an image of something?

[D_K_Head]

chalex, not that any of ATK feels that you are biased, but anything that dosen't have clear victory conditions would be bitched about until NEXT year...

(IE: the L4D draw)


I vote audiosurf...

[Bloo]

Clearly it should be a pacman contest.

[D_K_Head]

...or we could have something time consuming... who can finish the most L4D campaigns (or who can murder the most zombies during a campaign)

[Chalex4]

All the ideas are good, but I just want everyone to be able to enter without having to have a particular game.

I'll agree that the L4D prize draw never worked quite as planned, but remember that was a completely random draw. Everyone just wrote their names down, and one was randomly chosen. What I want to do here is have a skill based competition that everyone has a similar chance at winning (which is why I said forum based). But, as you said DK, perhaps those who spend more time have a greater chance.

[VoX]

I'll agree that the L4D prize draw never worked quite as planned


Oh I'd disagree :p.


Like the idea of post an image of something.

[ez64]

The AOE rts is really easy and none of us have played them in donkeys years.

[Target]

Testacoils FTW!!! But yeh build in progress......annoyin tick sounds, on hold cancelled. fail, such an annoyin way to build and mamoth tanks and v2 lauchers where win :D

[Target]

I think it should just be whoever has been on TS recently, which would cut the number dwn to about 4

[D_K_Head]

...why not do olympics? points for various different games... Like last man standing in generals 6 points... second 5, etc, etc...

in CS, top KDR, 2 points, second and third 1 point. Winning team gets 4...

I think we could have some fun with it, and we ARE a multigame community

[Calneon]

Whoever can post the most porn in an hour.

@ DK, not everyone has Generals and obviously it would be the person most skilled who would win.

[Bloo]

We could all make a diorama of a level from L4D1/2 and post the results on the site!

[D_K_Head]

We could all make a diorama of a level from L4D1/2 and post the results on the site!


...Isn't that a little disgusting? I mean, i'm all for community contests, but that sounds pretty shit...

[Target]

L4D versus 4 v 1 - 4 infected v 1 survivor see how far you can run before you get pwnd, one that gets the furthest wins

[Bloo]

...Isn't that a little disgusting? I mean, i'm all for community contests, but that sounds pretty shit...

Someone clearly missed the sarcasm tags.

[ez64]

Testacoils FTW!!! But yeh build in progress......annoyin tick sounds, on hold cancelled. fail, such an annoyin way to build and mamoth tanks and v2 lauchers where win :D

Testacoils..... that do not tickle ones balls with an AA battery

Tesla coils ie Nikola tesla....

[D_K_Head]

Someone clearly missed the sarcasm tags.

diorama - diarrhea

[Vicious Horizon]

We should have a multi-game thing.

AOE1
CnC ZH
CSS
TF2
L4D

I think everyone has at least one of those games, so we could make a spreadsheet (Oric) - and give everyone an equal number of matches to play, first place in a match gets x points, second gets y, so on and so on..

What do you guys think?

[Colonel Mitch]

We should have a multi-game thing.

AOE1
CnC ZH
CSS
TF2
L4D

I think everyone has at least one of those games, so we could make a spreadsheet (Oric) - and give everyone an equal number of matches to play, first place in a match gets x points, second gets y, so on and so on..

What do you guys think?


For once VH, thats actually a good idea!

[D_K_Head]

so when VH suggests the same idea, suddenly it's a good one? D:

[Colonel Mitch]

so when VH suggests the same idea, suddenly it's a good one? D:

VH's suggestion is doing it based on who has what game and seorting it out accordingly, not jsut everyone plays this.

[Calneon]

We should have a multi-game thing.

AOE1
CnC ZH
CSS
TF2
L4D

I think everyone has at least one of those games, so we could make a spreadsheet (Oric) - and give everyone an equal number of matches to play, first place in a match gets x points, second gets y, so on and so on..

What do you guys think?
I'm not sure what you mean, does everyone only play one game? How does that work?

[Mr.Big]

NO NO WRONG!!!

Random number, thats really the only way to do this ( if this is gaming contests there is always the one who is better skilled that wins ) So random number is the most "fun" way to give it and has the best odds for everyone :) i liked the draw last time we did it, and it was very fun to watch the vid but dissapointing when i didint win xD, so yeah i vote for a random number draw.

[Bloo]

I definately agree with Mr Big here, I'd rather it be done randomly and not a tournament. Mostly because, though I can't speak for others, I don't see a point in entering a gaming competition because most of those games I haven't played in months/over a year, and never really played competitively anyway.

I just don't see the point in entering a competition I know I have no chance of winning.

[D_K_Head]

...I love how there are two sides to this... the confident regular gamers and those that want a random draw.

Still, it makes sense, if we're going for fair here. No need to overcomplicate it, random draw works fine.

[Vicious Horizon]

Fine, random draw.

[Colonel Mitch]

WE could do it as I did at teh nest (cybercafe) when we used to run competitons for games.

We would all play at least one game (usually CS over 3 maps), everyones score would be noted and added to get their total score (kills).

After getting everyones score and a total of every kill made, we would divide every score by the same number so that everyone had a score ranging from 1 usually up to around 20.

Then for every "1" score each player had they had 1 piece of paper with their name on placed in a tin, shaken up, and randomly drawn out.

The shaking and drawing was then repeated 3 times, and if someone won a prize they are discounted from second and third.

This was taken well because it meant that the better players had a higher chance of winning, but overall even if we had 1 person for 150 kills and everyone else with 75, the best person is more likely to not win anything, tho more likley than any other specific person.

Obviously this wouldn't work well with RTS games unless a stupid number of matches are played out, tho if games were to be played with no rules, IE rushing allowed, no unit restrictions, and we got 2 people to play repeatedly for say 1 hour you could get a significant number of wins and losses, tho this would be much more biased than a score based FPS

[D_K_Head]

mitch, that wouldn't work. The players who consider themselves lowskill would rather just have a random draw than play... plus it seems overly complicated

[Colonel Mitch]

mitch, that wouldn't work. The players who consider themselves lowskill would rather just have a random draw than play... plus it seems overly complicated

1. Its not overly complicated, its jsut a lot of text. If i wrote how to make a sandwich it would be just as long.

2. The point is to make it something to play for for the low skill players. Even if your not the best player you have a decent chance to play and have fun with everyone else, and between the low scoring people it entices competition.

From practice at the nest i can tell you it was almost always a noob taking first and second prize as the total number of tickets was far greater than the amount the 1 or 2 good players had.


Basically to run it on CS it works like this...

1. Get everyone on a map
2. Restartgame to reset scores.
3. End of map take screenshot of scores
4. Map2
5. Repeat 3.
6. Map3.
7. Repeat 3.
8.Total player scores across maps
9. Add all player scores together (ie. P1 score + P2 score + P3 score = 200)
10. 0.05 x above number (ie. 200 x 0.05 = 10) - This would make the Total numebr of tickets 20, but can be adjusted for accuracy depending on how many tickets you mind having
11. Divide all player totals by this number (ie player1 has score 79 so, 79 / 10 = 7.9, round to 8)
12. Place this number of tickets in hat for each player (ie. Player1 has 8 tickets in hat)
13. Draw.


EDIT: Also in this community none of us are particularly low skilled at CS. And only a few are particularly good at it.

[Isphera]

Whoever can post the most porn in an hour.

Do not tempt me.

I quite like Piers's idea above.

[Vicious Horizon]

I like Piers' idea, and is a good hybrid between the different ideas - I'm for that, unless anyone else has big problems with this.

[Calneon]

WE could do it as I did at teh nest (cybercafe) when we used to run competitons for games.

We would all play at least one game (usually CS over 3 maps), everyones score would be noted and added to get their total score (kills).

After getting everyones score and a total of every kill made, we would divide every score by the same number so that everyone had a score ranging from 1 usually up to around 20.

Then for every "1" score each player had they had 1 piece of paper with their name on placed in a tin, shaken up, and randomly drawn out.

The shaking and drawing was then repeated 3 times, and if someone won a prize they are discounted from second and third.

This was taken well because it meant that the better players had a higher chance of winning, but overall even if we had 1 person for 150 kills and everyone else with 75, the best person is more likely to not win anything, tho more likley than any other specific person.

Obviously this wouldn't work well with RTS games unless a stupid number of matches are played out, tho if games were to be played with no rules, IE rushing allowed, no unit restrictions, and we got 2 people to play repeatedly for say 1 hour you could get a significant number of wins and losses, tho this would be much more biased than a score based FPS
Seems a bit complex (not sure I understood it all) but could work.

EDIT: Actually I quite like it.

[Colonel Mitch]

Seems a bit complex (not sure I understood it all) but could work.

EDIT: Actually I quite like it.

Its not complex its jsut hard to explain without a piece of paper and examples.

Also we always used Deathmatch so it wasnt die> wait > respawen... die > wait for the noobs. This also helped keep the scores closer.

[Target]

The only problem is you can have 20million tickects and still not win!!!!

[ez64]

It's very easy to understand tbh.

The more wins the more tickets and the more chances to win, however everyone else will still have tickets thus a good chance of winning.

the other part of stopping people winning more than one prize is just a filter on top of the game and tbh doesn't need to be there, unless the best prizes are counted first. (As the prize order will determine everything in this system) Ie Rubber duck is the 1st prize to be won = the person that has won the most tickets has the most chance of a rubber duck.

However the person with the least tickets has the most chance of winning the last prize drawn.

[Colonel Mitch]

The only problem is you can have 20million tickects and still not win!!!!

Thats the whole point.


It's very easy to understand tbh.

The more wins the more tickets and the more chances to win, however everyone else will still have tickets thus a good chance of winning.

the other part of stopping people winning more than one prize is just a filter on top of the game and tbh doesn't need to be there, unless the best prizes are counted first. (As the prize order will determine everything in this system) Ie Rubber duck is the 1st prize to be won = the person that has won the most tickets has the most chance of a rubber duck.

However the person with the least tickets has the most chance of winning the last prize drawn.


yeah that was the point. at the nest we had 1st 2nd and 3rd prize drawn in that order, dest being first, worst being third.

This prevented the winner of prize1 winning prizes 2 or 3 as well as this would be unfair. in our case if one person won twice itd still be pretty unfair unless we have loads of crappy prizes.

@ ez i think your saying u thought i meant the top player has a higer chance of winning prize 1 and is then discou ted either way, if so thats not right, nobody is discounted unless they win something, so if top scorer doesnt win first prize there still the most lilley t win second, and again third if they dont win that

[ez64]

I did mean discounted when they have won something, it's fair as long as the order drawn is best to rubber duck.

[Colonel Mitch]

I did mean discounted when they have won something, it's fair as long as the order drawn is best to rubber duck.

Indeed :)

Spoils the drama a bit but effectivley can still be done in reverse so long as the draw is made before results are read, tho personally id rather it wasnt done that was as it arouses suspicion, and i pefer to no whos won the bigstuff first too

[D_K_Head]

can I just speak out AGAINST any possible use of deathmatch? that mode sucks more cock that a model at the end of her contract

[Target]

At the nest we did teams , just like a normal match but u want kills and bomb defuses/plants to get as many tickets as possible :D But it fails as i had over 50kills and nxt was like 30 and still won nothing :S

[Mr.Big]

random number draw !

[Colonel Mitch]

At the nest we did teams , just like a normal match but u want kills and bomb defuses/plants to get as many tickets as possible :D But it fails as i had over 50kills and nxt was like 30 and still won nothing :S

which i again repeat is the point. your by far the best and still didnt win coz overall u only had like 30% chance of winning.



We used deathmatch to keep it running continually so the noobs wernt jsut always daed and stuck waiting getting no score

Im not that bothered about a random number draw but it seems kinda stupid to do that as we are a GAMING community and we dont want to play any games....

[Target]

Lets be honest theres only me mitch cillit, and oric that have regularly been on ts and playin games together

[Vicious Horizon]

I've been sitting in the dark holes of games gone by, recent ones have passed me by tbh - So I'll need a bit of a warm-up :p

[Target]

I think we should keep the pot till i40 and then use it at the bar and have an ATK piss up :D and maybe buy some sort of lan prize, we can find some random game to play.

[D_K_Head]

I think we should keep the pot till i40 and then use it at the bar and have an ATK piss up :D and maybe buy some sort of lan prize, we can find some random game to play.

this sounds good. We'll all be on blue bands by then, right?

[VoX]

this sounds good. We'll all be on blue bands by then, right?


Blue bands is 18+, so won't be me.

[CILLIT BANG]

tbh akt is dead its now called FPCOC Freddie Piers Chris Oric Community and if u realy wana waste ur money i r most active on ts and best gamer ever gief copy of STO ;)


and clearly the best spella eva

[Colonel Mitch]

tbh akt is dead its now called FPCOC Freddie Piers Chris Oric Community and if u realy wana waste ur money i r most active on ts and best gamer ever gief copy of STO ;)


and clearly the best spella eva

lol @ frederick

[Mr.Big]

lol, hey im active here !!!, maby not playing games with youzes

atk has probably been my homepage for the last 2ish years damn

[Chalex4]

I think I'm going to stick my foot out here and say that I am not willing to make this a skill based competition on gaming performance. I know Mitch's equations were very clever, but to be honest, that's too complicated.

You guys have got to remember that this giveaway is also to try and attract new members, whilst also rewarding those who are much more long-standing. This leads me to think that it HAS to be forum based, since this is where most of us go the most.

To segregate new and old members, we could make it so that the top prize can only be won by a member with more than 50 posts and perhaps make the competition easier to those who have been in ATK longer.

However, by it's definition, a competition still requires skill (of some sort). This is why I think that only the top prize is skill based, but all of the <£20 prizes are more randomly drawn, but you must do SOMETHING to enter. For entry therefore, perhaps a screenshot that sums up community gameplay, or something like that? Everyone has a chance, but the best one wins the top prize. No massive photoshopping will be allowed (sorry vox :p).

[D_K_Head]

screenshot works

[VoX]

No massive photoshopping will be allowed (sorry vox :p).

Sadcryingface :( lol.


Screenshot that shows community eh? *Jumps onto PR* lol.

[Colonel Mitch]

Sounds fail. Also chalex how's this gynna attract new members?

[Vicious Horizon]

Sort of did last time, until we told them to fuck off in classic ATK style.

[ez64]

community gameplay

Tried to find that epic piers teamspeak idle picture but couldn't

You get the point though :D

[Colonel Mitch]

Tried to find that epic piers teamspeak idle picture but couldn't

You get the point though :D

so because i sleep from 7am to 5pm and am idle for 10 hours that means i cant ever play games? :P

at least ive been coming on TS and actually gaming with freddie n chris, and talking to DE and DP about gaming, and doing some MW2 with vox, bloo and chaz.

[CILLIT BANG]

maybe get a fuking TS3 server u slacker and why go on a gaming forum when noone plays ... retard ... heres my atk screenshot











oh look its nothing

[D_K_Head]

This seems more appropriate fred


http://a.abcnews.com/images/Health/ht_shock_060727_ssv.jpg

[Vicious Horizon]

Maybe we have other games to play, Freddie?

I come here less for the gaming and more for the social aspect, and we occasionally play games together, while it's not often I will admit, I think we all try and play together as often as possible.

(Don't get me wrong, that wasn't meant to be a bash XD)

[Colonel Mitch]

Maybe we have other games to play, Freddie?

I come here less for the gaming and more for the social aspect, and we occasionally play games together, while it's not often I will admit, I think we all try and play together as often as possible.

(Don't get me wrong, that wasn't meant to be a bash XD)

This is the problem to an extent. As were all friends obvs socializing is cool, but US socialising doesnt help the community grow, and it you look closley on your browsers title, and the HUGE banner it does say GAMING COMMUNITY.

It jsut seems that whenever i ask people wanna gdo this, fancy a game of this, unless its freddie, chris or chaz, its always - nah cba.

[Target]

yeh, like over the holidays not many people actually came on ts, however they were all on steam playing games!!!

[Chalex4]

Guys, I totally know where you're all coming from, but I can't justify giving £100 of my own money away just to you guys. The community as a whole wouldn't benefit.

However, if I spent £100 on google adsense then we'd get a massive boost in traffic. Probably almost 10 fold. I don't want to do that though, which is why I was wanting to run a giveaway to people who have signed up to ATK - old or new.

Obviously, we'd all have to do our bit in getting more people to know about the giveaway, but that wouldn't be too hard. Most people when they see "FREE STUFF" will give it a shot if it looks legit.

[D_K_Head]

...three reasons why i'm never on TS anymore...

1) I keep having to reinstall it due to a dodgy comp
2) Most of the time it's just pairs or threes of members in games I don't play
3) Some douchebag(s) that will remain unnamed being a bit too quick to use the admin options

I mostly play with friends or pub now... very few people seem to play source...

[Chalex4]

Oh, forgot to mention. My headset broke a while back, that's why I haven't been on TS. My new mic should be arriving soon, then I'll be on more.

[Calneon]

I don't play many games nowadays other than HoN (which I play enough to make up for not playing any others lol), and when I go on HoN I go on GR vent.

[Vicious Horizon]

I'm never on TS because my brother has stolen my headset with mic to go play VATSIM >.<

- Also, on an unrelated note, while previously my PC was not good enough to run CS:S - now it runs at 200fps, but the doors and people while running are really jerky =/ - I can play Crysis on full, but CS:S doesn't work? I call bull xD

[Colonel Mitch]

I'm never on TS because my brother has stolen my headset with mic to go play VATSIM >.<

- Also, on an unrelated note, while previously my PC was not good enough to run CS:S - now it runs at 200fps, but the doors and people while running are really jerky =/ - I can play Crysis on full, but CS:S doesn't work? I call bull xD

It could well be BECAUSE your getting 200fps. Thats not a multiple of 60, which can create tearing on screen. Turn the setting "wait for vertical sync" on in CSS settings, your FPS should drop to, and stay at 60, and it should be smooth.

[Vicious Horizon]

I capped my FPS at 60 with the command, which didn't do anything, but should I turn vsync on anyway?

(Lol, totally not used to having a computer that can process faster than 90fps at maximum XD)

[Colonel Mitch]

yes v synsc is a good thing

[Calneon]

yes v synsc is a good thing
It causes mouse lag in most of the games I turn it on in.

[D_K_Head]

I capped my FPS at 60 with the command, which didn't do anything, but should I turn vsync on anyway?

(Lol, totally not used to having a computer that can process faster than 90fps at maximum XD)

don't play in high-ping or non-dedicated servers, and check your connection

[Chalex4]

By the way, INXGaming doesn't yet host TS3 servers. When they do, I'll make sure we're upgraded :).

[Colonel Mitch]

I have V-sync forced by catalyst on all games and it causes me no issues :)

i BLAME NVIDIA ;)

[Vicious Horizon]

don't play in high-ping or non-dedicated servers, and check your connection

Same results both on and off-line servers (i.e. I click create game for offline), so nothing should be anything to do with connection.

I'm gonna check vsync at some point today, if I can pull myself away from ArmA II and Mass Effect.

(Also, this thread has gone a little off-topic XD Sorry)