Over the weekend, SOE made the decision to throw in the towel on their Twitter contest. They're now handing out the promised Station Cash rewards solely on the basis of each participating game's Facebook fan page.
As I wrote previously, SOE actually did a better job than most companies in designing their social media incentives. The plan was that everyone would win if what seemed to be a very attainable number of people added SOE games to their social media lists. The catch is that Twitter isn't anywhere near as large as Facebook, and apparently players were not willing to sign up for a service they don't use for the sole purpose of participating in an SOE advertising campaign.
Allowing Twitter to drag down the far more successful Facebook side of the promotion by leaving all of the prizes out of reach would have been counterproductive. The whole point was for players to encourage their friends to participate, and the inclusion of Twitter was threatening to Fail Whale the project by placing even the lowest prize level out of reach.
Incidentally, SOE just rolled out a weekend Haiti Relief drive. The result is a somewhat unique situation in which Station Pass subscribers to both EQ1 and EQ2 can turn in $5 in virtual currency they didn't pay for to secure a $10 donation to disaster relief. (Sadly, SOE has yet to credit Free Realms accounts, so EQ2-only subscribers who added a Free Realms character to their Station account probably won't get credited in time to participate.)
I was wondering about that promotion and the whole thing about the Station Cash.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked it if even trial users like myself could participate, but then I remembered there are other ways in which I could help Haiti from the Philippines. :)