$50,000 Raised during Extra life 2013 - Help kids, Get stuff!

[BimboBaginss]

I came here to see if anyone had received an email yet, but then I noticed that he didn't say when on Monday, or even which Monday. Well played Sapience. Well played. Now I am going to go take my eggs and throw them at the losers who did the Name of the Wind playing cards on kickstarter.

[Datheor]

And another promise comes and goes, with no comment. Amazing. I wish I had this much latitude with promises in either business or personal life. And please, lets not go down the "he did not say which Monday" road. It has been blown off for something perceived as more important, or less difficult.

[gixxer1025]

And another promise comes and goes, with no comment. Amazing. I wish I had this much latitude with promises in either business or personal life. And please, lets not go down the "he did not say which Monday" road. It has been blown off for something perceived as more important, or less difficult.

If we can't trust in our community manager, who can we trust in? I mean really? C'mon, this is not the way it's suppose to be.

[Bel-Astarte]

I know it's frustrating, but there is no real reason to expect bad faith here.

[gixxer1025]

I am all for patience but, you're right. It is frustrating. Broken promises and hardly any updates. I mean the time is taken to post about 29 new toons and trips to Isengard but this matter is just so easily blown off and followed by excuses. As much as I hate to admit it, I have lost faith.

[Bel-Astarte]

As Sapience reported, our community responded in huge numbers to this drive-so organizing the reward process was I'm sure a little harder than expected.

I had the same frustrations last year, for much the same reasons. However, we did eventually get the rewards, and I expect we will this year as well.

Though an update would not be amiss. *Ahem*.

[Rainothon]

He'll come through. He did last year, he will this year.

Just take any ETA on it with a good grain of salt and you'll be fine.

[Datheor]

I know it's frustrating, but there is no real reason to expect bad faith here.

If this was the first or second delay, and was followed up on quickly, then great. But this has went a bit beyond it. Did I donate just for this? No, of course not. But when you make an offer, then follow through in a timely manner. We as a community did a very good job in donating. That alone means you put in extra effort to meet your (promised, not solicited) obligations.

[Sapience]

This should be going out shortly. It has been sent off to be emailed. So my ISP doesn't ban me outright for shipping off nearly 2k emails in a blast, our CS team (namely Victorie) has offered to send these through our mail service here. Which brings me to a VERY important point. DO NOT REPLY TO THE EMAIL YOU RECEIVE. CS is doing this as a favor, they will NOT be handling any requests, questions, comments, or other matters relating to Extra life. There is an email address included in the email. Please use that if you have any questions.


I'll post here again once it has gone out (in the next few hours is my guess).

For those who were part of 2012's efforts, I tried to live up to the promise of getting these out faster for 2013's effort and I think I lived up to that. Three months faster than last year, despite 3x as many names on the list!

[KadinKohle]

Thanks for the update Sapience, it's very much appreciated. I do have one question though if I may. Were all of the goal rewards given out as they were hit or will the coming emails contain those if someone won one of them as well as the general rewards for donating? I went back to the first post and I either missed it or didn't read it correctly.

Thanks again!

[Sapience]

Thanks for the update Sapience, it's very much appreciated. I do have one question though if I may. Were all of the goal rewards given out as they were hit or will the coming emails contain those if someone won one of them as well as the general rewards for donating? I went back to the first post and I either missed it or didn't read it correctly.

Thanks again!

The majority were sent when they were hit. There are two that haven't been sent: Largest single donation (this is hard, because the person is anon and I can't find any contact info or other info for them, but still working on it.) and the email for the lifetime and E3 tickets. Those are next now that I have everything distilled down data I an actually use.

For those who don't know, the way Extra life makes the data available is pretty much to show it to fund raisers on a web page. You then have to copy and paste, 10 donations at a time, the full contents of the page. You can cheat this a bit by scrolling to the end the using 'page up' to get all of your donors at one shot, but it takes a good 25 minutes to do with this many people.

Then you have to take what is basically a badly formatted document that's half tables and half broken tables, with place holder images all over it and tease out the names and emails. One at a time. then take that and put it into a usable format. So the short version is you have to manually edit each line and image of what ended up to be about a 6,000 row by 12 column spreadsheet with a handful of embedded columns and rows. You can spend 5 straight hours working on it and feel like you've done absolutely nothing because it's still a mess.

The fact that some data gets lumped into one table but the same data gets lumped into another and still again into a mix of tables other times makes it a true pain in the butt to deal with.
I have asked for an export feature, but looking at the 2014 pages so far It looks like the old system is still the only system. Sadly, it looks like the 4,000 characters per page is also still in effect.

[Bel-Astarte]

Then you have to take what is basically a badly formatted document that's half tables and half broken tables, with place holder images all over it and tease out the names and emails. One at a time. then take that and put it into a usable format. So the short version is you have to manually edit each line and image of what ended up to be about a 6,000 row by 12 column spreadsheet with a handful of embedded columns and rows. You can spend 5 straight hours working on it and feel like you've done absolutely nothing because it's still a mess.

The fact that some data gets lumped into one table but the same data gets lumped into another and still again into a mix of tables other times makes it a true pain in the butt to deal with.
I have asked for an export feature, but looking at the 2014 pages so far It looks like the old system is still the only system. Sadly, it looks like the 4,000 characters per page is also still in effect.

Whoa, that sounds like an epic mess to deal with.

[Erebthoron]

After what date we can start QQ about the email adress is missing Will there be a extra email adress we can write to like ladt year?
Hope my wife and I got it right with our third donation :/

[Sapience]

After what date we can start QQ about the email adress is missing Will there be a extra email adress we can write to like ladt year?
Hope my wife and I got it right with our third donation :/

I'll post when I know all have been sent (which I still expect to be today). The email being sent clearly states what email address to reply to with problems, and it is the same as last year. I won't post it until all the emails go out because I know people will just send a question asking about the emails being sent.

So to save everyone the headache, I'll post that info AFTER I know the emails have all been sent.

[Littlesky]

Unless I misunderstand, the HD keys were drawn from the pool of contributors when that goal was hit - ie 28k, etc? If so seems to me that only the ones that donated very early on got a chance at all the possible keys and those that donated toward the end get a little bit shafted on the HD keys at least. Mind you, I didn't donate SOLELY for a key, but if that's the way it works... ah well. Too late to do much about that now. I'll keep an eye out for the email with the general rewards (the game title, etc) at least. I'll keep this in mind for this year's efforts.

[Sapience]

Unless I misunderstand, the HD keys were drawn from the pool of contributors when that goal was hit - ie 28k, etc? If so seems to me that only the ones that donated very early on got a chance at all the possible keys and those that donated toward the end get a little bit shafted on the HD keys at least. Mind you, I didn't donate SOLELY for a key, but if that's the way it works... ah well. Too late to do much about that now. I'll keep an eye out for the email with the general rewards (the game title, etc) at least. I'll keep this in mind for this year's efforts.

Some of the incentives were 100% aimed at causing people to take action AT THAT TIME, which was the reason for the immediate codes and give aways.

I'm thinking about next year and how to do things, so I'll definitely take the feedback to reconsider how some things are done. I'm trying to work out a way to do a more kickstarter like approach where you have donation levels and if you donate at that level, or the first X people to donate at that level, get Y item. Thinking of using Extra Life's donation levels they have present as the basis. Also, while I really like the largest single donation thing, I don't know if I'll keep it. Or maybe I'll add a 'largest overall' for an individual. A couple of people actually donated more over the course of the year than the person who donated the most in a single shot. That should be encouraged.

[Littlesky]

I do want to say you had a LOT to learn this year - this year you went way beyond what you expected you had to scramble to catch up, plus the whole figuring out how to get the emails out thing. I do like the idea of a somewhat more kickstarter type idea for next year (well, THIS year!) because there might be "rewards" that interest some people but not others, etc. I also think the overall-top would be better than a largest single donation... maybe make them separate, with different acknowledgments? Like for the single largest overall would get a title that reflects their donation-gathering skills... (my brain is not working with me to come up with an example. Thanks brain.) - and the single largest would be a title like "Extra Good-hearted" or something like that. Yes, I know lame, but you get my point. Both are commendable things to do, of course!

[Sapience]

I do want to say you had a LOT to learn this year - this year you went way beyond what you expected you had to scramble to catch up, plus the whole figuring out how to get the emails out thing. I do like the idea of a somewhat more kickstarter type idea for next year (well, THIS year!) because there might be "rewards" that interest some people but not others, etc. I also think the overall-top would be better than a largest single donation... maybe make them separate, with different acknowledgments? Like for the single largest overall would get a title that reflects their donation-gathering skills... (my brain is not working with me to come up with an example. Thanks brain.) - and the single largest would be a title like "Extra Good-hearted" or something like that. Yes, I know lame, but you get my point. Both are commendable things to do, of course!

I was thinking something more along the lines of an invitation to come visit the studio (get here on your own dime, but I'll give a tour, let you talk to devs and spring for lunch).

Actually, the lunch thing has been part of extra life both years. I give out a lunch on me at Legal Seafood to one person who comes to Boston for PAX East (actually 3 people last year).

[Sapience]

UPDATE: EMAILS HAVE BEEN SENT
(I know because I included myself in the mailing so I'd know when they actually arrived)


The title of the email is: Extra Life 2013 Thank You from Sapience

It will come from an official turbine.com email address. PLEASE do not reply to that email. Reply the the address inside the email if you have any issues.

[KadinKohle]

Thank you Sapience once again! Just got the email... Can also confirm all 4 codes worked!

[Littlesky]

Mmmm, lunch. Lunch would be good.

Hmm. No email in my box - and yes I checked spam. I wonder if I maybe entered email wrong or... blah. I technically donated $5 twice (once to you directly and once under my name to 'salt' it when I participated) Well. I'll give it til morning before I hassle you Off to have my second lunch.

[captainBA]

Thank you Sapience once again! Just got the email...

Same here, I am happy to have been part of this cause! Thank you Rick and Team Turbine!!

[Aldous]

Just got my e-mail with the prize codes.

Unfortunately, while the title codes went through fine on my account. The horse ones did not. When I entered the Perlino horse one, I got an e-mail back saying I received a Cloak of the Raven-friend on my characters. When I entered the code for the Cremelo, it came back saying it was not a valid code.

I'll try again a bit later. Anyone else having issues?

[KadinKohle]

Just got my e-mail with the prize codes.

Unfortunately, while the title codes went through fine on my account. The horse ones did not. When I entered the Perlino horse one, I got an e-mail back saying I received a Cloak of the Raven-friend on my characters. When I entered the code for the Cremelo, it came back saying it was not a valid code.

I'll try again a bit later. Anyone else having issues?

Was just coming to post this too. Logging in now to check. All codes worked but both mounts said they were for a cloak in the email. When I redeemed them though on the Turbine Account site, up top in green it did show promotional mount for both.

Okay, in game both mounts are in the mount tab. Must just be an email oddity.

[SilverHug]

Thanks Sapience! I got the email and I look forward to giving to 2014 as well. Who knows, maybe 6 figures this year, huh?