Why isn't Beat The GMAT letting winners pick the prizes?

[DavidP]

Hi All,

I'm writing this topic because multiple people have emailed me over the last week about this topic. Namely, why isn't Beat The GMAT letting winners pick their prizes rather than just assigning the prizes to them? After all, some players may not need the prizes that they get and would prefer other prizes instead.

In an ideal world, we would simply created a ranked list of winners and then let them pick their prizes in the order in which the winners were picked. Unfortunately, however, we're not living in an ideal world. If we were to have winners pick prizes in some rank order, then the logistical challenge of distributing almost 700 prizes would increase by an order of magnitude because we'd have to wait until each winner picked the prize and then notify the next winner in the line. Also, what happens if a winner doesn't pick a prize? Then everyone would have to wait until either that winner actually picked a prize or until we disqualified that player.

We've lets winners pick prizes before for competitions where the # of winners was less than 10 people and where we only gave away prizes at the end. It works well in those situations. But a "winners pick" solution isn't scalable in a game where we're giving away almost 700 prizes in multiple drawings.

So when we were first thinking about how to do the Challenge, the Beat The GMAT team decided that we needed to just assign prizes in order to be able to support the Challenge with a reasonable amount of effort. If we couldn't support the Challenge, then we wouldn't have been able to actually have a Challenge.

Ultimately, we recognize that our prize assignment process may not give the best results to all winners. But we hope that enough winners want their prizes so that our Challenge is a worthwhile endeavor. And, of course, we hope that everyone wants the Grand Prize...

[hemantofkanpur]

Interesting point that you have raised here David.I,indeed,did not realise this problem.However,there can be 2 solutions.

1.A thread where people can exchange their prizes(before redeeming them).This exchange can be automatic i.e. both the willing players wanting to exchange their prize will have to,say,press a particular button and their prizes will get exchanged in the database.I can explain further how this can be implemented,if need be.

2 From the next week onwards,every participant has to rank all the items up for grab in that particular week with the item that they want the most getting rank 1,their second preference getting rank 2 and so on.Thus, the item that they want the least will get the last rank.Participants who do not rank the items will be assigned a default list of item rank.Now,after the lottery,

The winner automatically gets the item he has ranked 1st,the runner up automatically gets the highest ranked item on his list that is still available and so on.Since this process will be automatic,people will be assigned their winning prize instantly and,still,will make sure people get,to a larger extent,the prize of their choice.

Of course,both of the above are humble suggestions and you are the best person to decide.Also,I do realise that it might not be that easy to implement.
Regards,
Hemant

[harsh.champ]

Hey David,

I also concur with the 1st point of 'hemantofkanpur". Maybe it would be better if we can let the winners exchange their prizes.

For Example:-A GMAT Course will not be helpful to someone who has already given the GMAT and working on his application.
A Consultancy course will better suit that person.

IMO,after all the prizes have been distributed,it would be lot helpful to many people if we can let them willingly exchange their prizes.

Just my point of view.

[IsaiasAlonso]

I agree. For example, I was just awarded the Premium Subsciption to the BTG Questions, but I had already purchased these questions. I would have assumed that BTG would have verified if any players previously purchased these questions.

[DavidP]

hi all, i totally appreciate your desire to pick the prizes. unfortunately, we can't change our system because it would be unmanageable for us. several of you have raised interesting ideas about creating automated exchanges of prizes. but as you can appreciate, creating any kind of automated system requires a lot of effort - even creating the basic game hasn't been easy. @isias, if you want, you can always give your free practice questions to a friend.

[ugoyal]

hi all, i totally appreciate your desire to pick the prizes. unfortunately, we can't change our system because it would be unmanageable for us. several of you have raised interesting ideas about creating automated exchanges of prizes. but as you can appreciate, creating any kind of automated system requires a lot of effort - even creating the basic game hasn't been easy. @isias, if you want, you can always give your free practice questions to a friend.

Hi David,

First I want to thank you for this wonderful effort. It has been like a shot in the arm for my GMAT prep.

The automatic distribution of prizes is a valid concern. The idea of an automatic distribution of prizes based on a preference list can be worked out. Broadly speaking, this is one way we can make it work:

1. Before the drawings of any week, each player gives his order of preference for the prizes (for that week)

2. When the draw is done, the player with rank1 will get the prize on top of his preference. Then the rank2 player will get the award on the top of his preference list, provided that prize is still available....and so on we can run down the list.

3. If the player does not gives any preference before the draw is done, then he/she will be assigned a prize randomly (the way it is being done as of now)

For example:
Player 1 (preference - A, B, C, D, E) - Gets Prize A
Player 2 (preference - A, B, C, D, E) - Gets Prize B (since A is already been given to player 1)
Player 3 (no preference) - Gets a random prize (any from C,D,E), say D
Player 4 (preference - A, B, C, D, E) - Gets Prize C (since A,B are already been given)

I am not aware of the algorithm which is being used right now. But I believe that this can be implemented. David, if you need a helping hand, I can code this out. Just let me know.

[DavidP]

Thanks for the suggestion. Thanks also for the kind offer to code. I agree with you that the algorithm to take into account user preferences is pretty trivial. The real challenge isn't necessarily coding the algorithm. Frankly, most of the algorithms required for a message board or blog are trivial. The real challenge is that it takes time to code the UI to make everything work smoothly for the user and to test all the code. At this point, we're still working on new ways to earn points which will be revealed in the next couple days.

Thanks again for the suggestion. But we're not going to change the system. If you can't use your prize, then you can always give it to someone else who can use it. This decision is final. And so I'm locking this topic.

hi all, i totally appreciate your desire to pick the prizes. unfortunately, we can't change our system because it would be unmanageable for us. several of you have raised interesting ideas about creating automated exchanges of prizes. but as you can appreciate, creating any kind of automated system requires a lot of effort - even creating the basic game hasn't been easy. @isias, if you want, you can always give your free practice questions to a friend.

Hi David,

First I want to thank you for this wonderful effort. It has been like a shot in the arm for my GMAT prep.

The automatic distribution of prizes is a valid concern. The idea of an automatic distribution of prizes based on a preference list can be worked out. Broadly speaking, this is one way we can make it work:

1. Before the drawings of any week, each player gives his order of preference for the prizes (for that week)

2. When the draw is done, the player with rank1 will get the prize on top of his preference. Then the rank2 player will get the award on the top of his preference list, provided that prize is still available....and so on we can run down the list.

3. If the player does not gives any preference before the draw is done, then he/she will be assigned a prize randomly (the way it is being done as of now)

For example:
Player 1 (preference - A, B, C, D, E) - Gets Prize A
Player 2 (preference - A, B, C, D, E) - Gets Prize B (since A is already been given to player 1)
Player 3 (no preference) - Gets a random prize (any from C,D,E), say D
Player 4 (preference - A, B, C, D, E) - Gets Prize C (since A,B are already been given)

I am not aware of the algorithm which is being used right now. But I believe that this can be implemented. David, if you need a helping hand, I can code this out. Just let me know.