Contest After Thoughts: The Snowball Effect

For ease of following, this post is divides into 3 parts. (1) Data from the contest (2) Why I attemted this contest (3) Particiant Feedback.

Part 1: Contest Data:

My first prize-giving competition is over, with PriusGuy2004 winning the 4,000 Micosoft points. Each entrant was assigned a number (and only counted once, if you send the code through Twitter and Xbox), and then I used a random number generator on my ipod to pick the winner. Now, before you all scatter to the winds, I thought I'd share some info and feedback from the contest.

Congrats to everyone, as every person who submitted the code had the numbers in the right order.

When I started the contest, I had only 18 followers. Over the weekend, that number has risen to 79, an increase of 61 people.

Over the 3 days of the contest, this blog registered 2,038 hits, including 1,084 on Friday... by far the busiest day this blog has ever seen. (Full disclosure: The way my hit counter is set up, every time someone loads a page, it counts as a hit. So, if one person got every post right in sequence on the very first try, they'd likely count for 7 hits. That means this number isn't quite as impressive as it looks, but still, that's a lot of activity.)

Of course, the next question is about the attrition rate. Now that the contest is over, and a winner has been named, how many people are going to stick around, and how many will be gone for good? I'm hoping looking through this blog and reading a little of what's on offer here will be enough to convince the majority to stick around. Only time will tell on this one.

Part 2: Why have this contest?

Naturally, I want to try to build up my audience on Twitter and this blog, as the more eyes I can get on my work, the better that is for my future goals (such as working in the game industry, for example). Besides offering up some fun shenanigans and a bribe to get people to check my Twitter and blog, I wanted to see first hand what I call the "Snowball Effect." (I got a degree in Sociology folks, wanting to conduct 'social experiments' comes with the territory) Imagine a small snowball rolling down hill. As it goes, it picks up speed, growing by leaps and bounds as it picks up speed. The same sort of effect can be replicated in the Twitter-verse.

I started with 18 followers. As far as I can recall, only 2 of my original 18 retweeted my message. Using their follower counts as a guide, from just 2 retweets, my message reached almost 400 people! And once those 400 retweeted to their lists of followers, the number of people my message may have reached quickly becomes too difficult to accurately track. I'd have to add up the follower counts of every one of my followers to even come close, but considering one of the participants has about 1,600 followers (and another on quick glance had 1,000), I'd say the message got out as well as I could have hoped. That's a lot of views from an initial dispersal group of just TWO people!!!

Seeing firsthand how data can spread through something like Twitter was a valuable lesson to learn, as the transmission of data through places like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube will play a part in the novel I'm slowly, gradually working on. Seeing a good snowball from this end of it was worth the 4,000 Microsoft points alone, but any additional following is one hell of a bonus.

Part 3: Participant Feedback

So, was this contest any fun? Here's what a lot of you said (note I'm using the GT or Screen name form the source of the message; sorry for any typos):

ChainsawCharlIe: nice scavenger hunt

PriusGuy2004: Thanks for the contest! Nice job on the scavenger hunt!

Kasanagi2k5: Thank you for hosting such an awesome contest.

Azazel Hellion3: That was fun. I don't know how you will do this... Thanks for the contest.

il Radd: very interesting way to do a contest.

alee67: Thanks for this generous giveaway!

NeT ReAPeR ZERO: Hi Nate, thanks to your contest I finally had to succumb to the evil trend that is Twitter and create an account just to follow you. The scavenger hunt was a pretty neat idea, but a bit too easy.

Neo_Ravager: This was something different, but I don't mind working for a chance to win & variety is the spice of life.

PenultimateHero: Good morning Nate. After an hour rummaging through your blog yesterday, I finally found all six numbers.

Garry_Grant: Brilliant idea to do a scavenger hunt to be eligible for your contest. :)

Phantoms_Heart: That was quite tough, but here is the code. Thank you for such a great contest!

xylofreak: that was fun good job with the hunt

Since the reception for the contest was so positive, I'm sure I'll do another in the future. Next time, I think I'm going to make it harder. Most of the clues led to a title of a post, and with the number and next clue at the top of the post, reading wasn't truly required (though I'm glad several of you did read through the blog).

The next one will require reading through posts, and possibly even direct people off-site, to things like my reviews for x360a. The rewards will be worth the effort though... I will be trying to pick up a little swag at PAX early in Sept. for the specific purpose of audience giveaways. We'll see if I'm successful at that. =)

Thanks again everyone for playing, and I hope you stick around!

Win 4,000 MSP! The Great Scavenger Hunt

As I close in on 300 blog posts, I though I'd have a little fun, and use this as a chance to build up a little blog and Twitter following through some fun shenanigans and a little bribery =)

So, here's the deal. Scattered across this blog are SIX PRIZE NUMBERS, which will form a six-digit code. If you can find all six numbers, you could win 4,000 Microsoft Points! I have to make you work for it a little bit... we're talking about $50 in points here! =)

THE RULES:

1. To be eligible, you MUST be following me on Twitter.

2. You must also RETWEET my tweet that announces this contest. I will also accept any RETWEETs of any subsequent tweets I make that specifically reference this contest. Be sure to knock out those two eligibility requirements right away!

3. Once you have found all six numbers, send them to me, in the correct order, via XBOX LIVE MESSAGE to my gamertag, which is also ThrawnOmega, or via Twitter Direct message.

4. A winner will be selected by random number generator at 11pm CST on Sunday, Aug. 15th. The winner will receive the code via Twitter Direct Message.

HOW TO PLAY:

I will leave you clues on which post has the next number in the code. Once you find the post with the first number, you will also find a clue to the second number, and so on. For the duration of the contest, I have moved my blog archive to the top right of the blog, to make your searching easier.

You will know you have found the right post if you see SCAVENGER HUNT at the top of the post. Good luck folks. Time to start raiding my back catalogue. Good luck and have fun!

CLUE #1: There is one completion on my gamercard that deserves a special place in the underworld for the unnecessary amount of time it takes, and it nearly ruined the fun of achievements for me. Find my rant about that game for first number.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Banner Entries / Month in Review

After losing the original post showing the entries, I've been very lazy about remaking it, but here we are. The banner contest pitted Silva against a friend of mine, Tim Keller. Silva is your winner of the contest; his banner is currently up at the top. Now Tim's efforts will at last receive their fair recongition.

CLICK IMAGES TO SEE THEM FULL SIZE.



This first one here is my favorite of Tim's banners, with a beautiful simplicity to it. I love the star destroyer blueprint background, and the color transition in the letters around Thrawn. This one will certainly see some use.



I'm a poor art critic, but I like to see a different Thrawn pic is in use here, and the shadow effect on the text.



I like the scrolled-back look to the text, like the opening scrolls of Star Wars movies. I'm not so much a fan of the way Thrawn was integrated into this pic though.
The fade effect against the black background doesn't look too good.

I'd like to thank Tim for his hard work. These will find their way into the rotation of blog banners as well. Of course, their can only be one winner, and Silva's a wizard at this stuff. Great looking text, flawlessly integrated Thrawn, and the colors just pop out. Well done sir.

Month in Review: September

I finally hopped on my 3 on, 3 off work schedule, which has been nice so far. Since my store had to wrap up our remodel, I ended up putting in some long hours, including a 70 hour work week. I squeezed in gaming as much as I could, getting a lot done in ODST, and worked some reviews. The rule of four made a comeback, and will remain in effect until the GSL starts.

Reviews Written:
Wolfenstein
Section 8
Darkest of Days

Special Topics:
None for the second month in a row... I need to get back on those.

Completed Games:
Darkest of Days

Gamerscore Progression:
Sept. Start: 106,094
Sept. End: 109,649
Change: 3,555... not too shabby.