About Those Secret Codes and Twitch Drops - A DORK Diary
KabamDORK
Administrator Administrator › Posts: 215
Howdy Summoners,
Saw a lot of dust up about Twitch Drops and Secret Codes out there and figured I'd just address it head on.
First... Sorry about those Twitch Drops! That was on me. Nothing was bugged or broken, I used my template for creating a new campaign but failed to update the time, resulting in the drops activating an hour later than it was supposed to. We've since released a promo code that had all the rewards in it for any of you that missed them "twitchdropcomp". In the future, we'll just allow for much more time and pad it accordingly to not run into that issue again.
As for Giveaways in general, here's some historical reference:
Originally, when I stepped in, there were promo codes given out at the end of the stream, and to my knowledge, I believe we were either doing a code OR a giveaway of a champion in Twitch chat at the time. Further, the champion giveaway was at one point just a SINGLE 7* for ONE person.. ONLY on Twitch. It then moved into 1 Featured 7* Champ and 1 7* Champ each for ONE person only, with 5 runner up winners getting 6* versions. It was usually pretty rare early on that there would be codes AND Champion giveaways in the same stream.
Now, the initial purpose of the promo codes was to encourage people to come watch the stream LIVE on Twitch. But as you can imagine, the promo codes didn't exactly require you to watch the stream, but only to watch whatever platform you follow for MCOC content to inevitably see someone share the code. Max viewership of the livestream was a far cry from the number of redemptions of the code, for example.
What you may not know is, Twitch Drops were always the destination and just needed to be built out and implemented. Once that happened, they replaced the promo codes, as you saw in 2025.
Some improvements I wanted to make was removing some of the exclusivity of Twitch in terms of the giveaways, which at the time was only the Champion Choice giveaway at the end of the stream. While we also streamed on YouTube, the giveaways were only able to be given to those in Twitch Chat, so we expanded this out to Gleam to include all people watching the stream to be able to enter to win. It also doubled as a solution to the insane amount of codeword spam in the chat through out the stream which was kneecapping our ability to interact with the audience effectively.
Additionally, we added a second giveaway to give more people an opportunity to win something with the Titan Crystal Giveaways earlier in the Stream ( which is pretty wild when you compare it historically to what our streams used to offer ).
As you might expect with change, this move was met with disappointment as it was a change in the previous process, but also, we had some challenges with its initial implementation ( sound familiar? ).
But, I feel we've gotten a better handle on the Gleam aspect of it, and we're better for it, now including MOAR people!
Enter Secret Codes - As I continually Oliver Twist our LiveOps department for more opportunities to give things away… I pitched the idea of Secret Codes and thought this could be a fun way to give players yet another opportunity to win a cool thing in small numbers. They gave me some fuel in the form of 7* Crystals to run with and test this thing out. These were 2 single redemption codes as It was an extremely small test, but I'm hoping to expand it a bit in the future with some tweaks.
First, I want to address the comms on this better. I may have leaned in a bit too much into the SECRET aspect. I'll rectify that next stream and make sure people know exactly what this whole thing entails in order to have a chance to win.
Second, I hear the feedback that people were too busy trying to figure out the code rather than listening to all the awesome puns coming their way ( Totally understand that! ). So, we'll likely set up a time that the codes activate, but it won't be too far beyond the end of the stream as the point is for you to be there live.
Third, if we find people just don't like it, we'll just remove it, as the purpose of this isn't to upset.
Alright I think this Dork Diary has gone on long enough... Stay Dorky and I'll see you.. ALL up in the next Livestream!
-Potimus..
Saw a lot of dust up about Twitch Drops and Secret Codes out there and figured I'd just address it head on.
First... Sorry about those Twitch Drops! That was on me. Nothing was bugged or broken, I used my template for creating a new campaign but failed to update the time, resulting in the drops activating an hour later than it was supposed to. We've since released a promo code that had all the rewards in it for any of you that missed them "twitchdropcomp". In the future, we'll just allow for much more time and pad it accordingly to not run into that issue again.
As for Giveaways in general, here's some historical reference:
Originally, when I stepped in, there were promo codes given out at the end of the stream, and to my knowledge, I believe we were either doing a code OR a giveaway of a champion in Twitch chat at the time. Further, the champion giveaway was at one point just a SINGLE 7* for ONE person.. ONLY on Twitch. It then moved into 1 Featured 7* Champ and 1 7* Champ each for ONE person only, with 5 runner up winners getting 6* versions. It was usually pretty rare early on that there would be codes AND Champion giveaways in the same stream.
Now, the initial purpose of the promo codes was to encourage people to come watch the stream LIVE on Twitch. But as you can imagine, the promo codes didn't exactly require you to watch the stream, but only to watch whatever platform you follow for MCOC content to inevitably see someone share the code. Max viewership of the livestream was a far cry from the number of redemptions of the code, for example.
What you may not know is, Twitch Drops were always the destination and just needed to be built out and implemented. Once that happened, they replaced the promo codes, as you saw in 2025.
Some improvements I wanted to make was removing some of the exclusivity of Twitch in terms of the giveaways, which at the time was only the Champion Choice giveaway at the end of the stream. While we also streamed on YouTube, the giveaways were only able to be given to those in Twitch Chat, so we expanded this out to Gleam to include all people watching the stream to be able to enter to win. It also doubled as a solution to the insane amount of codeword spam in the chat through out the stream which was kneecapping our ability to interact with the audience effectively.
Additionally, we added a second giveaway to give more people an opportunity to win something with the Titan Crystal Giveaways earlier in the Stream ( which is pretty wild when you compare it historically to what our streams used to offer ).
As you might expect with change, this move was met with disappointment as it was a change in the previous process, but also, we had some challenges with its initial implementation ( sound familiar? ).
But, I feel we've gotten a better handle on the Gleam aspect of it, and we're better for it, now including MOAR people!
Enter Secret Codes - As I continually Oliver Twist our LiveOps department for more opportunities to give things away… I pitched the idea of Secret Codes and thought this could be a fun way to give players yet another opportunity to win a cool thing in small numbers. They gave me some fuel in the form of 7* Crystals to run with and test this thing out. These were 2 single redemption codes as It was an extremely small test, but I'm hoping to expand it a bit in the future with some tweaks.
First, I want to address the comms on this better. I may have leaned in a bit too much into the SECRET aspect. I'll rectify that next stream and make sure people know exactly what this whole thing entails in order to have a chance to win.
Second, I hear the feedback that people were too busy trying to figure out the code rather than listening to all the awesome puns coming their way ( Totally understand that! ). So, we'll likely set up a time that the codes activate, but it won't be too far beyond the end of the stream as the point is for you to be there live.
Third, if we find people just don't like it, we'll just remove it, as the purpose of this isn't to upset.
Alright I think this Dork Diary has gone on long enough... Stay Dorky and I'll see you.. ALL up in the next Livestream!
-Potimus..
Post edited by KabamDORK on
32
Comments
Here are my takeaways:
1. Even if the hints to secret codes will be as Captian Obvious, you will have to limit the redemption amount, which will upset people anyway, especially if an item will have a bigger value.
2. If you will not limit the redemption amount and make it available for a longer time, it will lose the whole purpose of the "Secretness" to it. Any code will be immediately shared when will be confirmed as redeemable.
3. The Twitch drops mechanics, when it works properly, is the best thing that will make the viewer "sit through" the whole stream to get incremented rewards at the end. So I would work with this system as it gives almost no way around to shortcut it. Maybe upgrade the rewards to attract more viewers, add some exclusive pfps or funny titles. Something I can get only from watching this particular stream.
4. Ultimate way to increase the livestream audience. It is mostly about the quality and structure of the stream itself. If I know that I will hear some exciting and valuable info I would want to be one of the 1st to see, thus make it to the stream, It will motivate me more than 3 revives and 5 energy refills. Create experiences that would make the streams desirable to even rewatch.
Easier said than done. But there is always a room for improvement.
I think this would help increase the presence of MCOC on Twitch as well, which would in turn help the livestreams. Instead of Drops only being a once-a-month ordeal. Plenty of other games have this, so I'm curious.
I'm on crutches and I managed to keep the stream on for the one before last.it took me nearly 3 hours to get home because my twitch account had to be verified again,then my gleam account.then the stream kept failing.after all that I claimed my twitch drops,all 3 of them,and kabam sent me 3 energy revives.i emailed support and kabam told me it was all down to twitch and they had to sort it.of course this was untrue because twitch can't send mcoc items.after getting everything verified by twitch and confirming I had done everything right,qualified for all 3 drops,linked my account correctly and claimed all 3 drops properly I was then told by kabam "we don't give personal compensation,keep an eye out in game for news of compensation"
So what's the point of watching to be treated like this?
Remove this content.truth isn't allowed
Bringing back memories. Although it was rather not a good book.
I can just turn on a spare device that has Twitch installed and leave it running though (which I do, as I prefer to watch on YouTube), so even though you're trying to make sure people are watching and engaging with the stream, it's still fairly easy to bypass this and get all the Twitch rewards. (As long as you're not in a timezone where the stream starts at 2am) ☠️
I also like to catch a summary of the stream by Rich The Man, KT1 etc, and I felt like the old promo code method was like a celebration that you were doing the stream, rather than remuneration for our time specifically spent watching it on Twitch.
Catch you on the flippo-potamus, Dave ❤️
Enter your second mistake: thinking promo codes for everyone have the same value as the potential to win a giveaway. The value of promo codes lie in their certainty. It's a nice way of saying "hey thanks for tuning in." When you made them secret but didn't advertise a redemption limit, you made everyone expect relative certainty that was not reflected in reality. You made the promo code effectively a giveaway, and in so doing made people feel like they lost value they expected to receive.
Just because promo codes and giveaways occur at the end of a stream doesn't make them equal in value. Understand that people's disappointment flooded in because they felt you promised one thing but delivered, for all but 12 lucky people, nothing. Or worse, people felt you led them astray by advertising a promo code for anyone who found it, only to say "lol jk."
Communicate clearly what we should expect, and you won't have this problem.
1st code gives big rewards but has redemption limit, say first 300 people, anywhere in between, this can be secret code.
2nd code gives the usual rewards which has expiration of 2-3 days.
So people who wants to engage in stream gets rewarded but people who can't join also doesn't get left behind.
You and your colleagues use some variation of this far too often.
In my personal work life, I represent a community of users, and rely on engineers to satisfy the requirements and desires of those users.
In my experience, I have found that the best engineers seek guidance from end users prior to any implementation. Questions like "Hey, I'm planning to do X, Y, Z to address this complaint. Do you think they'll like that."
The worst engineers simply implement their idea with zero input from those closest to the problem, then hide behind how difficult it will be to roll back their changes.
Everytime I hear "stay tuned" I want to scream, cause what you're really saying is "We're planning to make a change without any community feedback, and pray that it's a good one."
Why do you insist on hiding your plans?
Tell the community what you're thinking. You will never reach 100% satisfaction, but if you share the details of what you're leaning towards, odds are you won't have 100% dissatisfaction either.
At the end of the day, remember that you're developing a mobile game played around the globe. You're not developing a classified program for the Canadian military. That is to say, you're allowed to talk openly about what your plans are, and seek feedback from your community of users.
Your point is taken, and you can see this was something we addressed in our most recent livestream. We shared a lot previous, however, were not able to build out some of those items which caused disappointment. In response, I believe we pulled back a bit too much in our sharing which caused a black hole of sorts which led to the opposite extreme. We addressed this and was the catalyst for the rather large share we had on the stream regarding EQ/SQ's, Battlegrounds, War, Quests that dynamically scale etc.. etc..
Stay Tuned for me at least more means, they're in development and we'll have more to share when it's ready to share.
There will definitely be moments where we have a more AMA style discussion where we may bounce some ideas off on a general direction, but other than that, we try to have at least some level of runway laid out before sharing too widely.
For that matter, they do include us in as much as they can when it comes to suggestions along the way. They're always looking for new ways to include us. However, at the end of the day they're producing the game. We won't be responsible for approving every decision. That's just facts, no printer.
I didn't want to quote everything and clog up the forums, but this first paragraph probably speaks volumes.
What is the criteria for something being "ready to share"?
I'll poke the relic topic again, cause it's something I'm personally pretty passionate about.
The last relics were released in July 2023. The "pause" was announced in August of 2023. Since then, on the rare occasion questions about them are answered, it's with a vague response along the lines of "We're working on something."
At some point, more clarity needs to be provided. We're approximately 21 months....nearly 2 years....since the last relic was released. Are we to believe that whatever is being worked on in that amount of time is still not "fleshed out" to where you can provide a consise status about their future?
It's very easy to draw a conclusion that the lack of information means that internally, you guys have already decided that there is no future, and instead of conveying that truth, you string us along with vague assertions to what's being worked on so that you can continue to monetize them.
If you're working on some new piece of content that no one even knows to ask about, then obviously you don't need to share anything about that.
When clarity can't be provided on existing content/features, that's frustrating. And to the topic of this thread, when expectations of a live stream exist, then the criteria to claim rewards starts negatively changing for no apparent reason, that also causes frustration.
Now you've taken the time to share your thought process with regards to the live streams, and I appreciate that. But if we're being honest, this is a reactionary response to backlash. Not a forethought that you chose to share to give the community advance notice of what you were doing, and why you were doing it.
I suggested they should seek guidance and feedback in advance of decisions being made. I probably should have even put some qualifiers on that comment with regards to the magnitude of changes being planned.