The Great Steam Treasure Hunt Begins! [UPDATE- 16th-17th Tasks]

[Hectic Glenn]

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[br]The fun never ends at Valve as they continue the holiday season fun with the Great Steam Treasure Hunt. From now till 20th Dec you can complete objectives across Steam games with achievements, achieving top scores, joining Steam groups etc. set on the Great Steam Treasure Hunt page. [br]There will be 4 new tasks every 48 hours which apply to specific games which will be on sale at the time. But what do you get for completing these tasks?

Completing a objective qualifies you for a drawing to win the top 5 games on your Wishlist. Each objective has its own drawing, so the more you complete, the better your chances. At the end of the Great Steam Treasure Hunt, there will also be three grand prize winners, each awarded 100 individual Steam games of their choosing. Importantly, our lawyers tell us at this point to say, "No purchase necessary" and to check out the official rules here)

Objectives for the 12th-13th will be:

• It's Better to Give: Send a gift to a friend[br]
• Take One for the Team: Make a Sacrifice in Call of Duty: Black Ops[br]
• Breaker, Breaker: Set a leaderboard score of at least 11,200,000 for 'Bonus Mode' in Shatter[br]
• Zombie Zoo: Create a Crass Menagerie in Left 4 Dead 2

Shatter is on sale for 75% off. Naturally there are TF2 hats to unlock too by completing tasks (yes!) - see all the details on the Great Steam Treasure Hunt page.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Well...already got half of them done. Yay.

 

[kupocake]

Their business minds really work a mile a minute... this is an insane bit of convergence between all the stuff they've been making these last few years. Truly remarkable.

edit: I just hope a load of the games I bought recently come up. I really cannot afford them. That and my card got blocked by my bank because I dared to use it. ****ers.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Tell them to stop blocking?

 

[bam23]

100 games :monkee:

 

[Otto-Grainer]

Dang it, Valve! Why must you always tempt me most when I'm working!? Anyway, this is awesome.



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[Krynn72]

So is this what we're getting instead of a December sale? Guess I should just buy the game I've been waiting for at regular price.

Sweepstakes are gay.

 

[joule]

Alternate entrance is at least a bit interesting.

Alternate Entry: To manually enter the Sweepstakes, each eligible entrant must print his or her name, address, city, state, country, postal code, email address, Steam account name, and telephone number, as well as the name of the Treasure Hunt objective that the entry is for, on a self-addressed 4x6 note card and mail the completed form to: Valve Corporation, P.O. Box 1688, Bellevue, WA 98009-1688. Note cards mailed in envelopes will not be accepted. No e-mailed or faxed alternate entries are eligible. Facsimiles, photocopies or mechanical reproductions of entries will be void. An alternate entry must be postmarked during the applicable Treasure Hunt period to be eligible. To be eligible for the Grand Prize Drawing, an alternative entrant must have entered at least 10 Treasure Hunt objective drawings and then provide an additional alternative entry for the Grand Prize Drawing, postmarked December 20, 2010. Alternate entries received after December 31, 2010 will not be eligible for any Sweepstakes. Each user may submit one alternative entry per Treasure Hunt objective. Proof of sending or submitting an alternate entry is not proof of receipt of such alternate entry.

 

[Silent Presence]

So is this what we're getting instead of a December sale? Guess I should just buy the game I've been waiting for at regular price.

Sweepstakes are gay.

Well A) we are getting several game sales everyday and B) this ends on the 20th, so I doubt this is all there is.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

It's like a stretched out x-mas eve.

 

[Avoidist]

I like that I have three times more chance than your average joe this round, but there's the problem of everyone who has an avatar already has an in. And I'm not buying ruse just for a bit more infinitesimally small odds and a hat I won't be able to get in the long run without buying every game they dish up.

By the way, does anyone know anyone at all that won in the last lot, i.e. through these forums or a friend?

 

[Paulaner]

Valve, stop these little silly games. I want a proper Christmas sale!

 

[Ren.182]

I'm sure we'll get a proper Christmas sale.

 

[ríomhaire]

Yay I have two already done. I really hope the other objectives are for games I already own. This is kind of cool. Valve marketting is so goddamn crazy. They make bucketloads of money while making everyone love them at the same time.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I want my TF2 hats...

 

[ríomhaire]

Well it's easy when you get all the games for free

 

[Otto-Grainer]

Setting up an avatar for me isn't as easy as it sounds. Apart from having to think of something to make myself (not in the rules, just my own principle), I have to figure how to do it, then get through that bad feeling of pressing the "upload" button once I'm done. I never personally liked having avatars and would especially avoid it if it was recommended or suggested by someone. Not sure why, exactly. I'll be taking mine off as soon as the draw is over, but this temporary part feels horrible.

 

[Krynn72]

Poor Otto, what happened in your childhood to make you want to be so unrecognizable that you don't even want people to see a visual reminder of who you are?

 

[Otto-Grainer]

I DON'T KNOW!

 

[Avoidist]

Oooh, a technicality I had not spotted previously that makes this whole deal much more interesting:

Sponsor will select five (5) winners by random drawing for each Treasure Hunt objective for each 48-hour period within 24 hours from the end of the period.

In other words, only those that have completed the RUSE objective go into the draw for that objective. So the avatar one may have 1,000,000:1 odds or some such, but for those who have done the RUSE objective the odds are probably closer to 1000:1. I previously assumed that you simply had 4 tickets to one big pot.

So, is RUSE worth $33, and how easy is the achievement?

 

[Krynn72]

So, is RUSE worth $33, and how easy is the achievement?

Probably not very. Unless you've got a fast internet connection you'll probably only have like 3 hours to do it.

 

[Avoidist]

Good point, it would probably take me all the remaining time just to download it. I'll be interested to see tomorrow's competitions.

Edit: the language they use within the upper portion of the competition page seems to refer to a single collective drawing in contradiction to the previous line I posted. I wonder which it actually is.

 

[ríomhaire]

Good point, it would probably take me all the remaining time just to download it. I'll be interested to see tomorrow's competitions.

Edit: the language they use within the upper portion of the competition page seems to refer to a single collective drawing in contradiction to the previous line I posted. I wonder which it actually is.

Both. There's big draws for each achievement and then one big draw at the end for everyone who has completed at least ten achievements.

 

[Otto-Grainer]

Hmm, I think he meant "collective drawing" to be the selection of all four sub-objectives in each two-day period. So there's three versions of this in all that are separate:


[1]: The "Ultimate Treasure" draw that's still going to take place whatever the rest of the rules mean. In this you get one-hundred games of your choosing for free, if you win.

[2]: The 'One Group Per Each Four Objectives [OGEFO]' version which means, for instance, you're split up between the "RUSE" category and the "Avatar" one depending on which you choose in each '2-Day Draw'. Being in one pile can dramatically higher your chances of winning than being in another, but completing all four goals gives you the best chances you can get.

[3]: Then there's 'One Group For All Four Objectives [OGAFO]' which means your chances are just the same whether you pick only the "Chime" goal or only the "RUSE" one because you're in the same category regardless. Again, your odds still get better if you complete all four objectives, but you're far less likely to win in this version than in version 2.

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[Avoidist]

What Otto said. The language at the top is suggestive of [3], while the terms & conditions seem to imply [2].

Also it's four objectives, with five draws per objective :cheese:.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

The 8th-9th day drawing seems to be easy-ish, I already had the companion achievement for NV, and the undergarden achievment seemed to be easy enough. I like how the treasure hunt wishlist actually made me realise how many games I can look forward too in the near future. I actually played the Aaaaaaaaa demo a while back and couldn't understand why I didn't get the game earlier.

Lets just hope one of the future objectives is not the Strategic Genius achievement from Empire: TW

 

[Otto-Grainer]

Also it's four objectives, with five draws per objective :cheese:.

Oh yeah, my mistake. Hang on, what do you mean "five draws per objective"? What are these draws now?


And dang, another Steam Community one... I don't have that many friends and I don't want that many. Even if I did pick a few more people from my invites, I'll feel like a prick if I immediately removed them after the draw. And man, why can't I take off my Steam Avatar!? I don't have any of those games either and I'm too busy to buy and play them so this whole Treasure Hunt thing ain't working out too well for me. I hope you're all enjoying my whinging and complaints.

 

[Avoidist]

Probably bad use of the word draw on my part. Replace it with "winners".

Like that the New Vegas one doesn't have an associated special with it. Makes me glad I preordered way back when and potentially decreases the pool size.

 

[Hazar]

are you even allowed to compete glenn with your fancy (haxor) steam account?

 

[DEATH eVADER]

You only have to complete any 10 objectives from the list of objectives, and access steam on the 20th to be entered into the prize draw. What happens if you complete more than 10, do you have a higher chance of winning or does it not take that into account?

 

[Fatbubba]

As far as I know the only reason to get more than 10 objectives done is if you want the 15 objectives hat or the 28 objectives hat. So you should be good with 10 if you're only interested in getting a chance at the 100 free games.

 

[Otto-Grainer]

Probably bad use of the word draw on my part. Replace it with "winners".

Ah, I see. I wonder if your chances are better if you do the objectives early as well because if they pick a random 5-games winner every two and a half hours, your name may be picked up if it's still hangin' around for over a day.

Like that the New Vegas one doesn't have an associated special with it. Makes me glad I preordered way back when and potentially decreases the pool size.

True, but doesn't everyone have New Vegas by now?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

are you even allowed to compete glenn with your fancy (haxor) steam account?

Nope, not much point. My wishlist doesn't have the 10 items in it, you'll see in the screenshot. But I'm participating for the fun of completing a few objectives and getting a TF2 hat. Must. Have. Hat.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

As far as I know the only reason to get more than 10 objectives done is if you want the 15 objectives hat or the 28 objectives hat. So you should be good with 10 if you're only interested in getting a chance at the 100 free games.

Are you kidding, I don't want more games to fill up my account, I just want more hats, MORE HATS DAMNIT!

Each treasure hunt winner will receive the top five (5) games from his or her Steam Wish List. Grand Prize Winners will receive a Steam subscription to one hundred (100) individual games available on Steam as of December 20, 2010, as chosen by the winner.

I'm just confused is the 100 games that were available as of December 20 mean any product that was released before this date or does include any future release?

 

[scotland1]

AaAaAA!!! is the only game I have so far, so in total I have four objectives complete. I'm going to try and get 10 without buying anything.

 

[StarBob]

You know I remember that... A - game... jumping off stuff.... from that contest we had with the demo. I tried SO DAMN HARD to get that top score and I was still pretty far off. Now I bought it because it was cheap and I had a lot of fun playing it... just not $20 worth of fun. I bought that poker game and then didn't even do the task because Cataclysm came out. Hopefully I can do this one before Cataclysm pulls me back in.

The poker game is fun though I don't really care for the banter as much as I just want the unlockables.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

The poker game is fun though I don't really care for the banter as much as I just want the unlockables.

The banter does get stale after a while, its a shame there are not a wider array of characters that you can play with, or at the very least much more varied dialogue.

Blackjack and Roulette tables wouldn't hurt

 

[Krynn72]

I'm just confused is the 100 games that were available as of December 20 mean any product that was released before this date or does include any future release?

I'd assume that by "available" they mean you can purchase it on steam, meaning unreleased games that can be purchased on steam are fair game just like in the last contest. I'm sure that they won't allow you to save some for games that aren't listed on steam yet, like Half Life 3.

 

[bam23]

What's everyone got so far? I've been tempted by at least 2 games everyday but had to grip my wallet with a godfist before I gave in.

 

[Sheepo]

I've got eight, and can probably get 9 with the Beat Hazard one later. So far I've only bought Chime and Just Cause 2. I'm hoping to get the 15 accomplishment hat.