I know it’s been debated and discussed a lot but I’m curious to know if there is a true fair way to run the shop. At the moment it’s a very strong first come first serve system and a lot of the time, especially if you are inconvenienced by time-zones, you will find yourself missing out on a brilliant game that was promptly bought out by people that had been waiting there for a while for that exact moment.
Now obviously this system works for the stores purpose but it can leave a large quantity of people feeling cheated, but when you are running a store that works off of a limited amount of keys, how do you make it fair for everyone? I’m interested to see peoples thoughts on this because it is a pretty difficult thing. Also my suggestion would’ve been a countdown timer but after seeing a plethora of people suggest it and have it ultimately get turned down for numerous, highly creditable reasons I feel it would only make the problem worse!
I’ve already commented earlier on how “first-come-first-serve” is fair in it’s simplicity (vs a lottery for instance), i’m also against a more specific count down timer, reasons others mentioned + could just end up making it less fair regarding timezones
we have an aprox knowledge of when games might drop, and we can receive notification, so it’s just about being a bit more vigilant that day
now, a way to combat timezones, would be to vary up the drops so sometimes the shop restock time A, then time B, C etc etc, only issue with that is, a game “you” might like still happens to drop off timezone while when one of the drops closer to your timezone it’s a game you care less about
another way could be to release the games in batches, across the day, means shared for everyone, but also means “less” for those getting in first/the horde waiting at the door, and that they will have to try again later
a reservation or voting system could be put in place, pay (a ton) extra to reserve a game of a portion that’s put aside, if can’t afford that take chance on being first instead on the other portion
could make game “pre-availble” to view of sorts, and then people could pay a set amount of coins to vote which of “these x games” will be released this week, so you know ahead of release which will be avail, but still not when, so you know if it warrants to put in a little more effort from “us” and be first at the door
(ofc this could also be done with/without voting and coins, just felt like something that be reasonable to have an “entry fee” for)
sry i’m sick and just woke up so can’t remember the other ideas on the list, will have to check in and come back later
I too am a supporter of the first come first serve system, especially with the modifications you proposed regarding the batches of keys. The FCFS system is also great because it rewards participation and following the site as opposed to the luck of the draw system that @HerrNieschnell mentioned. I also feel that luck of the draw is even more of a let down for the ones that don’t manage to get the game out of it than just being greeted with a SOLD OUT text on the shop page.
I could also totally see multiple systems at work here: Roll out the main bulk of keys as batches each X days at constant intervals and reserve a smaller amount of keys for a lottery held during the downtime.
