How to REALLY get Free Gems in ourWorld

by Adam

There are dozens of blogs and sites dedicated to the unending quest for free ourWorld Gems.  Many provide the latest Gem Codes and details on any Gem related offers that might be going on.  I'm going to try to list every consistent way a player can get free Gems, plus the advantages or disadvantages of each offer.  I'm not including contests, like the Webhunts, as they do not provide Gems to a large number of players.

Invite Friends - ourWorld's original free Gem offer. Invite new players to play via Email or Link (like the one to the left), and as they gain levels you get Gems. 1 per level gained, awarded every 5th level.  This can be quite lucrative, as one player who linked from this blog reached level 100, providing my account with 100 free Gems.
Advantages: Once new players accept the invite and play, free Gems just appear without any additional effort from the referrer.
Disadvantages:  Players making fake accounts and leveling them have forced us to cap how the Gems are awarded. While this has no effect on players who use the program as intended (inviting new players) players who are cheating the system with accounts they make themselves become confused then the Gems stop coming.

ourWorld Newsletter - About once per month, ourWorld releases an electronic Newsletter that includes the game's latest features and a Gem Code worth 10 Gems.
Advantages: Gem Code works once for everybody.
Disadvantages: Players under 13 don't get the newsletter. Newsletter is released on an irregular schedule. The Gem Code works once per account and expires a few weeks after the Newsletter is released.

ourWorld Toolbar - Every Monday, around 12pm PST, players who have installed the ourWorld Toolbar get a new Gem Code worth 10 Gems.  The code only works when the game is launched through the Toolbar, preventing non-Toolbar users from getting the Gems.
Advantage: More free Gems are awarded via the Toolbar than any other method.  Also, it's not a terrible Toolbar. I've installed it both at work and at home.
Disadvantage: Players who's accounts are created on Facebook and Tagged can't use the toolbar, nor can players using less mainstream web browsers.  Some players (and their parents) are afraid the toolbar will harm their computers. Despite false rumors to the contrary, the thing is not capable of harming anyone's computer. The Gem Codes work once per account and expire after one week.

Gambit & Super Rewards - Some game sites use these (and similar) programs as their sole source of income.  They are essentially sites with hundreds of promotional offers, both free and otherwise.  The companies that host the offers pay Gambit & Super Rewards when the offers are completed, and ourWorld gets a cut.  The reward for the player is paid out in Gems.
Advantage: These offers are the only way a player can get a large number of Gems without actually purchasing them. Some are very easy, requiring little more than a few minutes of attention.
Disavantage: The offers change rapidly and there is no way for ourWorld to review all of them.  ourWorld selects the 'safest' offers available, but there are still complaints about spam and other problems.  Not all the offers are truly free, so players must pay attention when selecting them. There are also many reports of 'completed' offers not paying out, though ourWorld has no say in whether or not an offer is checked off as completed. These problems have improved dramatically in the last few months, as the promo offer industry has gone through a bit of shake up recently.


TMPSocial - ourWorld's latest free Gem offer appears directly in some ourWorld players' inboxes.  Players follow the link, view the material or add the Facebook app, and up to 20 Gems are awarded.
Advantage: Easy, quick, and the Gem payout is larger than the usual Gambit or Super Rewards offer for the effort required.
Disadvantage: Not all players get the offers. New players and younger players don't get them.  Facebook has been required for most of them.  There have been a few reports of Gems not being awarded, but we haven't been able to verify the reasons. Like Gambit and Super Rewards, ourWorld only awards the Gems when TMPSocial tells us the offer was successfully completed. 

I'm sure I've forgotten something, but that's the basic list.  The business of games like ourWorld is to sell Gems, not give them away, so if somebody says you can get a lot of Gems for free, it's either a scam or there's a catch.  Even most of these offers aren't really free.  Players are being paid in Gems for performing an action ourWorld is getting paid real money for (not much money, but some.)

If you look at it, shelling out $5.99 for 150 Gems and membership is probably the easiest way to get Gems of them all.  Coming soon, $10 ourWorld Gift cards for 1 month Resident +300 Gems will be appearing in US stores everywhere! (Photo coming soon as well!)

Adam!!!
http://gameguts.blogspot.com/

Viralality

Success of online games depends on 'going viral' and ourWorld is no exception. We continue to work on improving our presence on social networking sites like Facebook and Tagged as well as partnering with an ever growing assortment of gaming portals, including MiniClip.

The basic process of "going viral" is to making it easy and rewarding for individuals to share what you do with their friends and family. The tricky parts are designing "easy" and measuring "rewarding" in ways that actually matter to both the you and your existing players.

Facebook has mastered easy. In fact, it became so easy that Facebook members who weren't interested in every last application began to complain about the massive number of referrals their friends were sending, both on purpose and through semi-automated systems. Facebook has began reigning in these referrals, making it a bit more difficult to get the word out if you're not already successful on the platform. Not impossible, just more difficult.

Rewarding is tricky because the purpose of referrals is getting new players. In ourWorld we give Gems (in game currency that normally costs real money) for referrals, but many, many of those referrals are fake, just people making accounts and leveling them up themselves for the free stuff. We've capped the awards players can make doing this, but clearly the goal of finding new players could be hit more squarely. The key to really nailing referral awards would be something that makes inviting actual, real, friends is really valuable, both to the player and to the friend.

Valuable to the current player is fairly easy. They've already bought into the game and in-game awards are meaningful. The people being invited, however, don't know anything about the game. Promises of Gems, Clothes, Furniture, or Power Items are essentially meaningless. The only thing in the game they know about is their friend. That means the invite needs to focus on spending online time in a cool world with your friend, and it has to be easy to do with no strings attached.

To the real keys to a viral feature: Easy, Rewarding, Easy, Friendship, Easy.

I think we can work with that.

Adam!!!
http://gameguts.blogspot.com/

Culture of Crime

When players find a loophole in a game that benefits them, most will exploit that loophole. In regards to online games, my view has always been that if it's possible, it's allowed. It's up to the designers and programmers to prevent and close loopholes, and not the players to police themselves.



In the case of ourWorld, a recent loophole closure prevented players from using 'dummy' accounts to buff up their main accounts through the game's gifting system. Many players had dozens of accounts, and a few had hundreds. Use of these dummy accounts let players get items that normally cost real money for free, in potentially unlimited amounts.

Here's the thing, we're not certain that practice was actually bad for the game. It may be that some number of Gems (the for-real-money currency of ourWorld) greater than we currently provide for free is what's best for the game's success. We're looking quite hard at this, actually. I'm not at all certain what the answer here is.

I am certain that closing the loophole was the correct course of action from a cultural standpoint. I think large numbers of players knowingly scamming a game is toxic to the community. Players shouldn't feel like they have to run what is obviously a scam to get the results they want from a game. Players who choose not to run the scam shouldn't feel like they're foolish for leaving 'free stuff' on the table. The entire situation creates discord and I'm glad that we've put a stop to it.

If it is decided that more free Gems injected into the ourWorld community is best for everyone, the process should be done inside the game, in a manner that's above board and for everyone. If it's not, well, then our job will be to make sure the game with the current level of Gem awards is still drop-dead-amazing. Time to go back to work!

Adam!!!
www.gameguts.blogspot.com

Movie Time!!!!

Once again we're having an ourWorld YouTube contest. If you're an ourWorld player, you might want to give it a shot, as the top prize is 1000 Gems and all valid entries will get rewarded.



http://www.youtube.com/ourworldmovies

For details, see the ourWorld Blog

-Adam!!!

Even Freedom isn't Free

One of the most common inquiries sent to ourWorld support are requests for more free stuff. Its not surprising as the ratio of free vs for-money content has shifted, gradually at first, but more so lately, towards stuff that only paying customers have access to.



We have a lot of kids playing, particularly younger teens. I understand they don't have control over whether or not they become customers as a credit card or PayPal account is required (we do accept by-mail payments, but its not a popular option.)

Just today we got a from a player who wanted us to make items cheaper because, and I quote "I honestly don't want to spend money for a online game. (No matter how cool the game is!)"

Her honesty is nice, but she is saying explicitly what the cynic in me thinks every time I read a message requesting we give more away for nothing. If she's never going to become a customer, her value to ourWorld is based on her contributions to the community and the number of paying customers she refers to the site. Statistically, that's not a huge value to us, so I have to say no. Over and over again.

We could give more away for free if:

• Doing so will radically increase the retention of Tourists, leading more to eventually become Customers. The numbers don't currently support this.
  
• We can increase the value of Tourists (through ads, promotional deals, or something else I haven't thought of.)
• The free items lead to additional purchases by the players who do spend.
  

If the players' requests don't have an impact on one of those three things, the answer has to remain a polite, but firm, no.

-Adam!!!

Who is that handsome anime-looking dude?

OurWorld is adding a new feature, an affiliate script that grants the player ourWorld Gems (the currency that normally costs $) if people use its link to join the site.

If you were to click on that avatar image and join ourWorld (and save and gain a couple levels) I'd get +10 Gems. Nice.

Wylde (that's the ourWorld me!)

I love this kind of stuff.