um where ur programmer friend go...i was kinda thinking you were playing joke on us or something and created new account saying "he is your programmer friend"...then you kinda abandon him...just kinda curious...not saying u made new account or anything...well i am but not saying it is my clear oppinion...
o wait nvm i see him...guess i rushed to post rather than read the last few posts...
um where ur programmer friend go...i was kinda thinking you were playing joke on us or something and created new account saying "he is your programmer friend"...then you kinda abandon him...just kinda curious...not saying u made new account or anything...well i am but not saying it is my clear oppinion...
o wait nvm i see him...guess i rushed to post rather than read the last few posts...
I'm more of a lurker to the forums than an active member, I just saw that a friend of mine won...so I came along with the ride to give him some good humor
--- "I have never met a man so ignorant I could learn nothing from him"
um where ur programmer friend go...i was kinda thinking you were playing joke on us or something and created new account saying "he is your programmer friend"...then you kinda abandon him...just kinda curious...not saying u made new account or anything...well i am but not saying it is my clear oppinion...
o wait nvm i see him...guess i rushed to post rather than read the last few posts...
I'm more of a lurker to the forums than an active member, I just saw that a friend of mine won...so I came along with the ride to give him some good humor
o lol...i rather be active than just read at stuff knowing in your heart theres nothing to do about it
This sounds like nothing less than good karma. I'm sure all the naysayers will be getting coal in their stockings this year. Post a few pics of the rig when you get it.
Interesting... I find the chances of someone joining in 2006 and winning 3 contests well... Impossible.
That's the equivelant of being struck by lightning while holding a winning lottery ticket in a crashing plane.
based on possible numbers, and supposed "random" pickings, it should be impossible. But i get the feeling we might not get told how thier "random" drawings really work. There might be a couple variable they do not want to mention.
To be honest lol.. since i joined early 2004. always the first place in this kind of contests was someone from USA.... i said to myself oh hey they dont want shipping costs around the world and why give a prize to an "outsider".
lets just forget my paranoia lol but if its true that guy won 3 times... i mean common.. the chances are like 1 in a few hundred million.
clearly there is no RANDOM drawing here....
Personally I lost any kind of trust in this website
To be honest lol.. since i joined early 2004. always the first place in this kind of contests was someone from USA.... i said to myself oh hey they dont want shipping costs around the world and why give a prize to an "outsider".
lets just forget my paranoia lol but if its true that guy won 3 times... i mean common.. the chances are like 1 in a few hundred million.
clearly there is no RANDOM drawing here....
Personally I lost any kind of trust in this website
I feel the same way. It should not have happened. Its like winning the 20 million dollar lottery 3 times in a row .
But hey, congrats to Dracis anyway. Not sure what kind of arrangement you made with the staff, but congrats.
WTG Dracis! Happy someone won that can actually make very very good use of the new computer.
And for all the other people complaining about you winning 3 times in about a year all I can say is it is better to be lucky than good any day of the week. If they need something else to complain about how about trying to explain how people hit the lottery multiple times!!! I even heard about a person winning a big money lottery 3 times. UGH...people nowadays got nothing better to do than complain it seems. Maybe they just need to be quiet and go to their local party store or gas station and buy a lottery ticket.
PS - I have also won prizes here multiple times (not sure if it is 2 or 3) but was only able to confirm one prize because I missed the others due to health problems. Anyways congrats again on your win Dracis and I hope you enjoy it
------------------------------------------- Control is an illusion!
well, i was thinking about it and it actually is kind of impossible to win 3 times in a year, when let's say 100,000 people try for each one, well if there was no cheating at all then this guy should try a real world lottery maybe ull be lucky there too
Who knows how many people actually entered though... At any given point in time there are usually under 300 members online. Of course that doesn't mean there are under 300 active members who would have entered the contest, but with that few logged in, I don't think it's too likely that five hundred times that many entered the contest.
Who knows how many people actually entered though... At any given point in time there are usually under 300 members online. Of course that doesn't mean there are under 300 active members who would have entered the contest, but with that few logged in, I don't think it's too likely that five hundred times that many entered the contest.
we also have to take into account most members do not actually log in every time. People come here to read up on MMORPGs and forums. Many have accounts, many do no. Over the course of one day though you can have over 1000 people log in and log off only to be replaced by someone else logging in. Also taking into account this contest has been going for one month, and the prize in question, I would say the numbers are quite high.
Yeah, but 100,000 entrees would require over 3,000 new people to come and enter daily. Well, that's ignoring where it said this:
" As a reward to dedicated members, they will receive an additional chance at winning for every 5 day(s) they have logged into MMORPG.COM, up to a maximum of 5 chances. Only one login per day will be counted. Only dates from 04/05/07 through 05/02/07 will be counted"
but with such a big contest, I'm sure plenty of people would log in just to help their chances of winning. If everyone did that, then it's just as likely to win as it would have been without giving extra chances. If not every one did that, then odds favor Dracis because he logs in daily.
I guess there could have just been a spark in the number of people who entered in the first few days. ie: 25,000 daily for the first three days and 1,000 daily every day after that., but it stills seems a little unlikely.
#1 Our contests are random (as random as computers can replicate, without elaborating - it is impossible for computers to recreate true "randomness" as we see in our analog real world).
#2 Contest entries...this one had about 15,000 after we cleared out the cheating entries
#3 The winner of this contest was mentioned as winning two other contests. Well note that these contests had 200 prizes and roughly 10,000 entries. If the user logged in every day then the odds of winning are pretty decent.
#4 Most contests with 10 prizes or more will have many re-draws when users fail to claim prizes in the 24 hours we allow. So a contest with 200 prizes probably had 4-6 redraws. So in truth the winner of this contest won 3 out of probably 12 or more drawings (or at least this very likely could have been the case).
#5 I love this website and its community. I would never do anything like people are accusing in this thread...ever. I care too much about our reputation and my personal reputation.
#6 Random means random things will happen. I have personally sat at a roullette wheel and watched 24 red numbers in a row hit one after the other (and as a black-better it about killed me!). I can't tell you the true reason this guy won 3 contests...but if I could rub his head I think I would
I know we have a lot of folks here in tinfoil hats these days...but I can assure you the accusations made here are 100% false.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Just to bring up some points here everyone. #1 Our contests are random (as random as computers can replicate, without elaborating - it is impossible for computers to recreate true "randomness" as we see in our analog real world). #2 Contest entries...this one had about 15,000 after we cleared out the cheating entries #3 The winner of this contest was mentioned as winning two other contests. Well note that these contests had 200 prizes and roughly 10,000 entries. If the user logged in every day then the odds of winning are pretty decent. #4 Most contests with 10 prizes or more will have many re-draws when users fail to claim prizes in the 24 hours we allow. So a contest with 200 prizes probably had 4-6 redraws. So in truth the winner of this contest won 3 out of probably 12 or more drawings (or at least this very likely could have been the case). #5 I love this website and its community. I would never do anything like people are accusing in this thread...ever. I care too much about our reputation and my personal reputation. #6 Random means random things will happen. I have personally sat at a roullette wheel and watched 24 red numbers in a row hit one after the other (and as a black-better it about killed me!). I can't tell you the true reason this guy won 3 contests...but if I could rub his head I think I would I know we have a lot of folks here in tinfoil hats these days...but I can assure you the accusations made here are 100% false.
#1, obviously there is some outside influence, i mean there is a user/staff who activates the code that picks a name and or number matching a name based off the system put in place. Whos to say that staff member did not do it more than once? There isnt. But we also have to accept that it is not perfect.
#2 I could totally imagine some kids at home making 20 accounts and trying to log into all 20 of them every day, lol. Talk about a waste of time.
#5 I think we all love the community if not the website itself.
I wouldnt go as far to use the term "tin foil hat people". Im sure you realise yourself that a small series of events has caused a logical doubting of the contest.
The first one that might be considered bad timing, was at the time of the draw, the website was absent/shutdown, followed by a message stating that things were getting moved over onto another computer, including the random draw, yet, then 45 minutes later the contest was open again after being closed. Another break, and within seconds of it being announced, though late and unusual, the prize was claimed.
All the users see is a series of facts that played out, its only logical for doubt to appear. When one walks in the dark and hears a strange noise, they assume its possible that something might be dangerous ahead. Its this reaction of nature that is apparent here as well. Bad timing? perhaps. I am suprised however the staff decided to make this "move" at the same time as the draw. Normally one would do it way before, or after so there is no confusion. Yet, that choice was strangely absent, thus the result of confusion.
It was a very logical response. Though some made it seem like the end of the world, which is funny, the reaction of doubt based on a series of events didnt help.
Also the strange dissapearing of certain posts within this thread and perhaps a bit of strange behavior from the winner himself. How could one not find doubt. Either way, I dont personally care that much, and im not pointing any fingers, but the facts would naturally raise doubt.
I think it however, everyone has learned a bit of a lesson. Not to take this all seriously, but also to question everything mentally or verbally, and let it go. Its a healthy habit.
MMORPG.com might have learned that, 1. contests with only one winner will cause a backlash most likely. making sure there are subprizes is usually a good move to douse the fire that would follow. In this case, t-shirts or a discount from ordering a pc from ibuypower.com would have been wise. Im sure ibuypower would have gotten some business from that as well. 2. Contestants are in the dark, perhaps adding a function to see the % of a users chances to win for the main prize could appear when they visit the contest page, or even better let users watch a visual version of the random picking when it happens, aka streaming video or some thing they can see at the same time those to run the constest start the random picking. This would result in more people logging into and watching mmorpg.com. Which could also be used to for more expensive adverts durning the draw phase, aka smart marketing. Like the superbowl commercials.
Anyways, I dont think anyone should attack mmorpg.com personally, but we have to admit this wasnt the best held contest done by mmorpg.com. Human nature shows itself in the end.
When he was talking about as random as it can get, I think he was pointing out that a computer can't actually generate a genuinely random number, that's impossible. He wasn't refering in any was to a coder influencing a draw in any way..
----- The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
When he was talking about as random as it can get, I think he was pointing out that a computer can't actually generate a genuinely random number, that's impossible. He wasn't refering in any was to a coder influencing a draw in any way..
i didnt say he was wrong, only added to the fact that a person is still behind the randomness. Obviously, a computer cannot be completely random, but then most things are not. In this case random is a word we use to describe the drawing. Dont get me wrong, I understood everything he said, and did not dissagree with him, but rather added some perspective concerning the reactions found in this thread.
Just to bring up some points here everyone. #1 Our contests are random (as random as computers can replicate, without elaborating - it is impossible for computers to recreate true "randomness" as we see in our analog real world). #2 Contest entries...this one had about 15,000 after we cleared out the cheating entries #3 The winner of this contest was mentioned as winning two other contests. Well note that these contests had 200 prizes and roughly 10,000 entries. If the user logged in every day then the odds of winning are pretty decent. #4 Most contests with 10 prizes or more will have many re-draws when users fail to claim prizes in the 24 hours we allow. So a contest with 200 prizes probably had 4-6 redraws. So in truth the winner of this contest won 3 out of probably 12 or more drawings (or at least this very likely could have been the case). #5 I love this website and its community. I would never do anything like people are accusing in this thread...ever. I care too much about our reputation and my personal reputation. #6 Random means random things will happen. I have personally sat at a roullette wheel and watched 24 red numbers in a row hit one after the other (and as a black-better it about killed me!). I can't tell you the true reason this guy won 3 contests...but if I could rub his head I think I would I know we have a lot of folks here in tinfoil hats these days...but I can assure you the accusations made here are 100% false.
#1, obviously there is some outside influence, i mean there is a user/staff who activates the code that picks a name and or number matching a name based off the system put in place. Whos to say that staff member did not do it more than once? There isnt. But we also have to accept that it is not perfect.
#2 I could totally imagine some kids at home making 20 accounts and trying to log into all 20 of them every day, lol. Talk about a waste of time.
#5 I think we all love the community if not the website itself.
I wouldnt go as far to use the term "tin foil hat people". Im sure you realise yourself that a small series of events has caused a logical doubting of the contest.
The first one that might be considered bad timing, was at the time of the draw, the website was absent/shutdown, followed by a message stating that things were getting moved over onto another computer, including the random draw, yet, then 45 minutes later the contest was open again after being closed. Another break, and within seconds of it being announced, though late and unusual, the prize was claimed.
All the users see is a series of facts that played out, its only logical for doubt to appear. When one walks in the dark and hears a strange noise, they assume its possible that something might be dangerous ahead. Its this reaction of nature that is apparent here as well. Bad timing? perhaps. I am suprised however the staff decided to make this "move" at the same time as the draw. Normally one would do it way before, or after so there is no confusion. Yet, that choice was strangely absent, thus the result of confusion.
It was a very logical response. Though some made it seem like the end of the world, which is funny, the reaction of doubt based on a series of events didnt help.
Also the strange dissapearing of certain posts within this thread and perhaps a bit of strange behavior from the winner himself. How could one not find doubt. Either way, I dont personally care that much, and im not pointing any fingers, but the facts would naturally raise doubt.
I think it however, everyone has learned a bit of a lesson. Not to take this all seriously, but also to question everything mentally or verbally, and let it go. Its a healthy habit.
MMORPG.com might have learned that, 1. contests with only one winner will cause a backlash most likely. making sure there are subprizes is usually a good move to douse the fire that would follow. In this case, t-shirts or a discount from ordering a pc from ibuypower.com would have been wise. Im sure ibuypower would have gotten some business from that as well. 2. Contestants are in the dark, perhaps adding a function to see the % of a users chances to win for the main prize could appear when they visit the contest page, or even better let users watch a visual version of the random picking when it happens, aka streaming video or some thing they can see at the same time those to run the constest start the random picking. This would result in more people logging into and watching mmorpg.com. Which could also be used to for more expensive adverts durning the draw phase, aka smart marketing. Like the superbowl commercials.
Anyways, I dont think anyone should attack mmorpg.com personally, but we have to admit this wasnt the best held contest done by mmorpg.com. Human nature shows itself in the end.
Timing: Perhaps you were not aware...but our site was hit by hackers from China 5 days before the contest. They were using our website to spread a trojan virus to our members. We shut the entire site down for 3 days (which cost us a fortune) and installed a firewall and new secure network. This required all the servers (we have 11 of them) to be reformatted, and all new software installed. Then we had to give them all new IP addresses and this required us to adjust all of the paramters in our site code. We have always drawn our contests from contests.mmorpg.com - a seperate domain and server - this dates back to the old days when the contests used to slam our website from high traffic and we needed a non-congested place for people to claim tickets.
Basically, our first priority was to get the main site - MMORPG.com - back online - getting the contest drawing server over to the new firewall protected network was not a top priority - it could not draw the contest winner from the old network because it could not see the database server.
And for the record, I am the only person who draws the contest winners. It is a system that I wrote a long time ago and it is really simple. Click the "draw" button and it selects a random winner (or winners in most cases).
I think we held this contest with as much professionalism as we possibly could (given the circumstances following a full blown hacker attack preceeding the contest drawing date). This is how we do contests at MMORPG.com and if you don't like it - then don't enter them - plain and simple.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Just to bring up some points here everyone. #1 Our contests are random (as random as computers can replicate, without elaborating - it is impossible for computers to recreate true "randomness" as we see in our analog real world). #2 Contest ........................snip
Wow, yeah did not know that. You didnt have a firewall set up before? Yea I am familiar with what it must have taken to get it back up then.
I am not criticizing you, though you have to admit, if the majority of us were not familiar with the hacking incident if this did indeed happen. I believe you because I know how much money would be lost from such a move if you did it intentially, therefore it makes more sense. You have to admit, it was probably a rough time for you, and thus can be considered a rough time for the contest itself. Considering the senario, you did a damn good job then. Im sure you had some long nights.
Please understand that I am merely adding some perspective from the POV from some of those who felt something was fishy. And, in a sense, something was fishy, only it wasnt the contest but rather the hacking that took place.
There is one thing I am confused about though, some have claimed to have logged in every day since the contest started. If the website was down for 3 days, how was this possible? Was it really 3 days? Either way you did a good job at getting everything back up considering the circumstances then. No worries. No one is criticizing you personally.
Just to bring up some points here everyone. #1 Our contests are random (as random as computers can replicate, without elaborating - it is impossible for computers to recreate true "randomness" as we see in our analog real world). #2 Contest ........................snip
Wow, yeah did not know that. You didnt have a firewall set up before? Yea I am familiar with what it must have taken to get it back up then.
I am not criticizing you, though you have to admit, if the majority of us were not familiar with the hacking incident if this did indeed happen. I believe you because I know how much money would be lost from such a move if you did it intentially, therefore it makes more sense. You have to admit, it was probably a rough time for you, and thus can be considered a rough time for the contest itself. Considering the senario, you did a damn good job then. Im sure you had some long nights.
Please understand that I am merely adding some perspective from the POV from some of those who felt something was fishy. And, in a sense, something was fishy, only it wasnt the contest but rather the hacking that took place.
There is one thing I am confused about though, some have claimed to have logged in every day since the contest started. If the website was down for 3 days, how was this possible? Was it really 3 days? Either way you did a good job at getting everything back up considering the circumstances then. No worries. No one is criticizing you personally.
Ya, a quick search on our site and you will find about 50 topics with people screaming about the trojan virus that was coming from our site...it was as real as it gets
The site was down for 3 days...I think people mean they logged in every day that they could during the contest timeline. We only consider 25 days of logins max (1 tickets per 5 login days up to 5 tickets is the rule). The downtime did limit the amount of tickets that could be earned, however this was equal to all members so it gave no one an advantage.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
i use the option "stay logged in" and would like to know you count my visits on this site? does the counter recognize that i visit this site every day (3 or 5 times a day ) or do he think that i never left this site for over 3 months now?
hallo, i have one question: i use the option "stay logged in" and would like to know you count my visits on this site? does the counter recognize that i visit this site every day (3 or 5 times a day ) or do he think that i never left this site for over 3 months now?
Well, I use the same thing you do, I click on the auto login option in my profile. I do the same on literally every site I belong to, even my own. For some reason though, I do get logged out every few days. I'm not sure if it's my browser that does it or not, but it just happens. I will say that I do come here 5 or 6 times a day and MMORPG.com is probably the third or fourth site I visit each morning. I have been coming here a bit more lately due to all of this though.
As to getting the virus, all I had to do was view the site and I got virus warnings from my virus protection. I didn't even have to be logged in to get those warnings either.
Now, I know most of you folks won't believe this, but I feel after all the remarks thrown in my general direction I have to say this. If I thought for one second that there was any flaw, bug, or impropriety in the contest choosing, I wouldn't accept it. That's just the kind of person I am.
Originally posted by Dracis Originally posted by Possum hallo, i have one question: i use the option "stay logged in" and would like to know you count my visits on this site? does the counter recognize that i visit this site every day (3 or 5 times a day ) or do he think that i never left this site for over 3 months now?
Well, I use the same thing you do, I click on the auto login option in my profile. I do the same on literally every site I belong to, even my own. For some reason though, I do get logged out every few days. I'm not sure if it's my browser that does it or not, but it just happens. I will say that I do come here 5 or 6 times a day and MMORPG.com is probably the third or fourth site I visit each morning. I have been coming here a bit more lately due to all of this though. As to getting the virus, all I had to do was view the site and I got virus warnings from my virus protection. I didn't even have to be logged in to get those warnings either. Now, I know most of you folks won't believe this, but I feel after all the remarks thrown in my general direction I have to say this. If I thought for one second that there was any flaw, bug, or impropriety in the contest choosing, I wouldn't accept it. That's just the kind of person I am.
ok, thx for the answer.
and grats to your new comp...but the next one is mine
Comments
um where ur programmer friend go...i was kinda thinking you were playing joke on us or something and created new account saying "he is your programmer friend"...then you kinda abandon him...just kinda curious...not saying u made new account or anything...well i am but not saying it is my clear oppinion...
o wait nvm i see him...guess i rushed to post rather than read the last few posts...
---
"I have never met a man so ignorant I could learn nothing from him"
o lol...i rather be active than just read at stuff knowing in your heart theres nothing to do about it
Congratulations Dracis
This sounds like nothing less than good karma. I'm sure all the naysayers will be getting coal in their stockings this year. Post a few pics of the rig when you get it.
Good luck on your project btw.
lets just forget my paranoia lol but if its true that guy won 3 times... i mean common.. the chances are like 1 in a few hundred million.
clearly there is no RANDOM drawing here....
Personally I lost any kind of trust in this website
I feel the same way. It should not have happened. Its like winning the 20 million dollar lottery 3 times in a row
But hey, congrats to Dracis anyway. Not sure what kind of arrangement you made with the staff, but congrats.
WTG Dracis! Happy someone won that can actually make very very good use of the new computer.
And for all the other people complaining about you winning 3 times in about a year all I can say is it is better to be lucky than good any day of the week. If they need something else to complain about how about trying to explain how people hit the lottery multiple times!!! I even heard about a person winning a big money lottery 3 times. UGH...people nowadays got nothing better to do than complain it seems. Maybe they just need to be quiet and go to their local party store or gas station and buy a lottery ticket.
PS - I have also won prizes here multiple times (not sure if it is 2 or 3) but was only able to confirm one prize because I missed the others due to health problems. Anyways congrats again on your win Dracis and I hope you enjoy it
-------------------------------------------
Control is an illusion!
" As a reward to dedicated members, they will receive an additional chance at winning for every 5 day(s) they have logged into MMORPG.COM, up to a maximum of 5 chances. Only one login per day will be counted. Only dates from 04/05/07 through 05/02/07 will be counted"
but with such a big contest, I'm sure plenty of people would log in just to help their chances of winning. If everyone did that, then it's just as likely to win as it would have been without giving extra chances. If not every one did that, then odds favor Dracis because he logs in daily.
I guess there could have just been a spark in the number of people who entered in the first few days. ie: 25,000 daily for the first three days and 1,000 daily every day after that., but it stills seems a little unlikely.
Just to bring up some points here everyone.
#1 Our contests are random (as random as computers can replicate, without elaborating - it is impossible for computers to recreate true "randomness" as we see in our analog real world).
#2 Contest entries...this one had about 15,000 after we cleared out the cheating entries
#3 The winner of this contest was mentioned as winning two other contests. Well note that these contests had 200 prizes and roughly 10,000 entries. If the user logged in every day then the odds of winning are pretty decent.
#4 Most contests with 10 prizes or more will have many re-draws when users fail to claim prizes in the 24 hours we allow. So a contest with 200 prizes probably had 4-6 redraws. So in truth the winner of this contest won 3 out of probably 12 or more drawings (or at least this very likely could have been the case).
#5 I love this website and its community. I would never do anything like people are accusing in this thread...ever. I care too much about our reputation and my personal reputation.
#6 Random means random things will happen. I have personally sat at a roullette wheel and watched 24 red numbers in a row hit one after the other (and as a black-better it about killed me!). I can't tell you the true reason this guy won 3 contests...but if I could rub his head I think I would
I know we have a lot of folks here in tinfoil hats these days...but I can assure you the accusations made here are 100% false.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
#2 I could totally imagine some kids at home making 20 accounts and trying to log into all 20 of them every day, lol. Talk about a waste of time.
#5 I think we all love the community if not the website itself.
I wouldnt go as far to use the term "tin foil hat people". Im sure you realise yourself that a small series of events has caused a logical doubting of the contest.
The first one that might be considered bad timing, was at the time of the draw, the website was absent/shutdown, followed by a message stating that things were getting moved over onto another computer, including the random draw, yet, then 45 minutes later the contest was open again after being closed. Another break, and within seconds of it being announced, though late and unusual, the prize was claimed.
All the users see is a series of facts that played out, its only logical for doubt to appear. When one walks in the dark and hears a strange noise, they assume its possible that something might be dangerous ahead. Its this reaction of nature that is apparent here as well. Bad timing? perhaps. I am suprised however the staff decided to make this "move" at the same time as the draw. Normally one would do it way before, or after so there is no confusion. Yet, that choice was strangely absent, thus the result of confusion.
It was a very logical response. Though some made it seem like the end of the world, which is funny, the reaction of doubt based on a series of events didnt help.
Also the strange dissapearing of certain posts within this thread and perhaps a bit of strange behavior from the winner himself. How could one not find doubt. Either way, I dont personally care that much, and im not pointing any fingers, but the facts would naturally raise doubt.
I think it however, everyone has learned a bit of a lesson. Not to take this all seriously, but also to question everything mentally or verbally, and let it go. Its a healthy habit.
MMORPG.com might have learned that, 1. contests with only one winner will cause a backlash most likely. making sure there are subprizes is usually a good move to douse the fire that would follow. In this case, t-shirts or a discount from ordering a pc from ibuypower.com would have been wise. Im sure ibuypower would have gotten some business from that as well. 2. Contestants are in the dark, perhaps adding a function to see the % of a users chances to win for the main prize could appear when they visit the contest page, or even better let users watch a visual version of the random picking when it happens, aka streaming video or some thing they can see at the same time those to run the constest start the random picking. This would result in more people logging into and watching mmorpg.com. Which could also be used to for more expensive adverts durning the draw phase, aka smart marketing. Like the superbowl commercials.
Anyways, I dont think anyone should attack mmorpg.com personally, but we have to admit this wasnt the best held contest done by mmorpg.com. Human nature shows itself in the end.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
#2 I could totally imagine some kids at home making 20 accounts and trying to log into all 20 of them every day, lol. Talk about a waste of time.
#5 I think we all love the community if not the website itself.
I wouldnt go as far to use the term "tin foil hat people". Im sure you realise yourself that a small series of events has caused a logical doubting of the contest.
The first one that might be considered bad timing, was at the time of the draw, the website was absent/shutdown, followed by a message stating that things were getting moved over onto another computer, including the random draw, yet, then 45 minutes later the contest was open again after being closed. Another break, and within seconds of it being announced, though late and unusual, the prize was claimed.
All the users see is a series of facts that played out, its only logical for doubt to appear. When one walks in the dark and hears a strange noise, they assume its possible that something might be dangerous ahead. Its this reaction of nature that is apparent here as well. Bad timing? perhaps. I am suprised however the staff decided to make this "move" at the same time as the draw. Normally one would do it way before, or after so there is no confusion. Yet, that choice was strangely absent, thus the result of confusion.
It was a very logical response. Though some made it seem like the end of the world, which is funny, the reaction of doubt based on a series of events didnt help.
Also the strange dissapearing of certain posts within this thread and perhaps a bit of strange behavior from the winner himself. How could one not find doubt. Either way, I dont personally care that much, and im not pointing any fingers, but the facts would naturally raise doubt.
I think it however, everyone has learned a bit of a lesson. Not to take this all seriously, but also to question everything mentally or verbally, and let it go. Its a healthy habit.
MMORPG.com might have learned that, 1. contests with only one winner will cause a backlash most likely. making sure there are subprizes is usually a good move to douse the fire that would follow. In this case, t-shirts or a discount from ordering a pc from ibuypower.com would have been wise. Im sure ibuypower would have gotten some business from that as well. 2. Contestants are in the dark, perhaps adding a function to see the % of a users chances to win for the main prize could appear when they visit the contest page, or even better let users watch a visual version of the random picking when it happens, aka streaming video or some thing they can see at the same time those to run the constest start the random picking. This would result in more people logging into and watching mmorpg.com. Which could also be used to for more expensive adverts durning the draw phase, aka smart marketing. Like the superbowl commercials.
Anyways, I dont think anyone should attack mmorpg.com personally, but we have to admit this wasnt the best held contest done by mmorpg.com. Human nature shows itself in the end.
Timing: Perhaps you were not aware...but our site was hit by hackers from China 5 days before the contest. They were using our website to spread a trojan virus to our members. We shut the entire site down for 3 days (which cost us a fortune) and installed a firewall and new secure network. This required all the servers (we have 11 of them) to be reformatted, and all new software installed. Then we had to give them all new IP addresses and this required us to adjust all of the paramters in our site code. We have always drawn our contests from contests.mmorpg.com - a seperate domain and server - this dates back to the old days when the contests used to slam our website from high traffic and we needed a non-congested place for people to claim tickets.
Basically, our first priority was to get the main site - MMORPG.com - back online - getting the contest drawing server over to the new firewall protected network was not a top priority - it could not draw the contest winner from the old network because it could not see the database server.
And for the record, I am the only person who draws the contest winners. It is a system that I wrote a long time ago and it is really simple. Click the "draw" button and it selects a random winner (or winners in most cases).
I think we held this contest with as much professionalism as we possibly could (given the circumstances following a full blown hacker attack preceeding the contest drawing date). This is how we do contests at MMORPG.com and if you don't like it - then don't enter them - plain and simple.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
I am not criticizing you, though you have to admit, if the majority of us were not familiar with the hacking incident if this did indeed happen. I believe you because I know how much money would be lost from such a move if you did it intentially, therefore it makes more sense. You have to admit, it was probably a rough time for you, and thus can be considered a rough time for the contest itself. Considering the senario, you did a damn good job then. Im sure you had some long nights.
Please understand that I am merely adding some perspective from the POV from some of those who felt something was fishy. And, in a sense, something was fishy, only it wasnt the contest but rather the hacking that took place.
There is one thing I am confused about though, some have claimed to have logged in every day since the contest started. If the website was down for 3 days, how was this possible? Was it really 3 days? Either way you did a good job at getting everything back up considering the circumstances then. No worries. No one is criticizing you personally.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
I am not criticizing you, though you have to admit, if the majority of us were not familiar with the hacking incident if this did indeed happen. I believe you because I know how much money would be lost from such a move if you did it intentially, therefore it makes more sense. You have to admit, it was probably a rough time for you, and thus can be considered a rough time for the contest itself. Considering the senario, you did a damn good job then. Im sure you had some long nights.
Please understand that I am merely adding some perspective from the POV from some of those who felt something was fishy. And, in a sense, something was fishy, only it wasnt the contest but rather the hacking that took place.
There is one thing I am confused about though, some have claimed to have logged in every day since the contest started. If the website was down for 3 days, how was this possible? Was it really 3 days? Either way you did a good job at getting everything back up considering the circumstances then. No worries. No one is criticizing you personally.
Ya, a quick search on our site and you will find about 50 topics with people screaming about the trojan virus that was coming from our site...it was as real as it gets
The site was down for 3 days...I think people mean they logged in every day that they could during the contest timeline. We only consider 25 days of logins max (1 tickets per 5 login days up to 5 tickets is the rule). The downtime did limit the amount of tickets that could be earned, however this was equal to all members so it gave no one an advantage.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
hallo,
i have one question:
i use the option "stay logged in" and would like to know you count my visits on this site? does the counter recognize that i visit this site every day (3 or 5 times a day
) or do he think that i never left this site for over 3 months now?
what would i have to do to get infected by this trojan virus?
can it happen if i just rea/post on forums or do i have to download vids and screenies to get infected?
Well, I use the same thing you do, I click on the auto login option in my profile. I do the same on literally every site I belong to, even my own. For some reason though, I do get logged out every few days. I'm not sure if it's my browser that does it or not, but it just happens. I will say that I do come here 5 or 6 times a day and MMORPG.com is probably the third or fourth site I visit each morning. I have been coming here a bit more lately due to all of this though.
As to getting the virus, all I had to do was view the site and I got virus warnings from my virus protection. I didn't even have to be logged in to get those warnings either.
Now, I know most of you folks won't believe this, but I feel after all the remarks thrown in my general direction I have to say this. If I thought for one second that there was any flaw, bug, or impropriety in the contest choosing, I wouldn't accept it. That's just the kind of person I am.
Well, I use the same thing you do, I click on the auto login option in my profile. I do the same on literally every site I belong to, even my own. For some reason though, I do get logged out every few days. I'm not sure if it's my browser that does it or not, but it just happens. I will say that I do come here 5 or 6 times a day and MMORPG.com is probably the third or fourth site I visit each morning. I have been coming here a bit more lately due to all of this though.
As to getting the virus, all I had to do was view the site and I got virus warnings from my virus protection. I didn't even have to be logged in to get those warnings either.
Now, I know most of you folks won't believe this, but I feel after all the remarks thrown in my general direction I have to say this. If I thought for one second that there was any flaw, bug, or impropriety in the contest choosing, I wouldn't accept it. That's just the kind of person I am.
ok, thx for the answer.
and grats to your new comp...but the next one is mine
And once again the sore losers come crawling out of the woodwork. If I were Admin, I'd just stop giving prizes away all-together.
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"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb." -- Batman