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Best for developers!!!

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Every time a developer releases a game, he gets emails from the fastest growing industry - key resellers. Some folks are lazy and go with "Imma famous youtuber, gibe keys now", other show surprising creativity and even construct elaborate fake sites.

This attention is probably overwhelming for many indie developers who secretly believe that their game is the best ever and it's just a matter of time until it's discovered by a youtuber with 8 million followers. So when they get an email from famousyoutuber@hotmail.com, they send 5-50 keys (you can't say no to a famous youtuber who wants to give away your keys to his followers, can you?) and anxiously wait for the video.

We got over 50 fake requests last week. Got this little gem this morning:

Subject: Best for Developers!!!
email: info@gamesradar.com (spoofed, of course)

cleardot.gif

Good day!
Welcome GamesRadar+.

We liked you game. We want to offer cooperation. You probably know that on our website daily visited by millions of players.
So games that we write, or remove reviews are rapidly becoming popular.
If you want your game has been widely publicized,
you provide us please press kit and a few keys on Steam.

Send your answer here: gamesradarplus@gmail.com
Because we have given a dispute with the company that is hosting it and we limited the number of messages we receive.
Thank you very much!
We will thank you, but everything depends on you !!!

http://www.gamesradar.com/
https://www.twitch.tv/gamesradar
They sent it to a bunch of other developers (cc'd them openly) and got a reply within an hour from a developer who just hit reply to all:

Hello GamesRadar,

Thanks for getting in touch :) Below are three Steam Keys you can use for review or promotion:

[3 keys]

[name of the game] is a short game… One play-through takes about 15-25 minutes, though there are 12 different endings to discover and multiple choices to make.

For more information and assets, please check out our press kit: [link removed]

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or if there’s anything else you need! :)
More legit-looking attempts:

I'm Daniel Muller, a leading manager of the gaming portal Gggmanlives.
We have a new section in the show, for which we select the interesting games that come in every day.
We really liked your game, and we would be happy to do a review on it. If you are not difficult, could you share with us a press kit and a pair of keys to our testers?
We would be happy to cooperate with you.

My channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/Gggmanlives/featured
Sincerely,
Daniel
George Denev <business.gameboxbg@gmail.com>

Hello,
I am George from gamebox.bg and i am glad to contact you. My team would like to make review of your new game Dungeon Rats and show it to our community. If you can to prove us 1-2 or more copies of the game we will be really, really happy. At GameBox, we're all about having fun, but when it comes to reviews we take things seriously. Reviewing games is the most important thing we do, because this is when we help you make a decision about how to spend your money. Our goal is twofold: Offer a critical view of how a game succeeds or fails at what it’s trying to do, and to give you all the info needed to determine if a game is worth your time and hard-earned cash. We will try to contact you for the review soon as its possible.

Regards,
George
Greetings!
I would like to suggest cooperation. I am a game journalist. I make reviews on PC games and post them on a popular gaming portal. I saw some gameplay videos of your game "Dungeon Rats" and it really trilled me. If you give me some copies of the game for me and my teammate, I would write a review on your game and publish it on a site. Afterwards, I will send you the links on my review. Also I will be grateful if you include me into your press list of your future
projects.

Best regards - GameReviewBomb - team

Daniel
Greetings!
I am writing you to suggest cooperation. I am an editor on a site devoted to PC games. I saw some material videos of your game Dungeon Rats and it seems quite interesting to me. If you give me some copies of the game for me and my partner, I would write a review on your game and publish it on a site. Afterwards, I will send you the link on my review. Also I will be grateful if you include me into your press list of your future projects.

Best wishes,

Blasting Games
Hi,

I'm a big fan of computer games. Sorry for bad english. I have heard that developers sometimes fissile their games, so I wrote to you. I really liked your game The Age of Decadence , and I wanted to play it, but I don't have money. Please share with me, and if possible with my two friends the keys to the game or gifts. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please
We will post the review in Steam for you game

Sorry if prevented.
Yours faithfully,
Hello my name is Dragan and i am very interested in your new game Dungeon Rats,but i do not have enought money to buy it,would you mind sending me 1 key so that i can try it out???
 
Last edited:

PlanHex

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
2,053
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
This is great, do post more if/when you get them. :lol:

If you are not difficult, could you share with us a press kit and a pair of keys to our testers?
I love that passive aggressive "don't be difficult, just send us the keys", like "Daniel" is gonna come over with a baseball bat if you don't pay for protection.

Also, did you alert those poor bastards that fell for the scam and hit reply-all?
 

Goral

Arcane
Patron
The Real Fanboy
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
3,552
Location
Poland
Didn't Iron Tower also get duped by some of the youtubers when AoD was released? From what I remember you were giving away keys to many nonames who asked for it (although some of them were given away by some PR agency that you hired IIRC).
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
I didn't want to crash their dreams. I mean, you're jumping up and down because your game will be featured in Games Radar, well on its way of "rapidly becoming popular", you already told your friends and that super hot neighbor. Is now a really good time to be told that gamesradarplus@gmail.com is probably not a legit email? Let them enjoy the moment a bit longer.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Didn't Iron Tower also get duped by some of the youtubers when AoD was released? From what I remember you were giving away keys to many nonames who asked for it (although some of them were given away by some PR agency that you hired IIRC).
We always check if the email matches. We got about 40 requests from youtubers, 30 were obviously fake, 5 had matching emails but dead accounts that didn't post any videos in more than a year, 5 were real but had very small following (like 1000 followers, 20-50 views per video). So in general, the no-name youtubers are the only ones who'd reach out to you because people who have "names" are too busy and have requests coming in all the time.

We did hire Evolve PR and I think they did a great job. We gave them 50 keys (AoD) and they distributed them to people registered with them. I'm sure that most of them were legit.

Edit:

Teresa B. Elliott <contact@spiel-news.de> (spoofed)

Dear sir or madam,

My name is Teresa B. Elliott and I am the press contact for www.Spiel-News.de. We are a website from germany who post every news related to games and hardware. We really love games, reviewing and writing articles! That's why I am emailing you, is there any possibility for us (our team exists of 4) to get game keys? Of course for your game, Dungeon Rats! That way we can play and review the game in a way that we test every aspect of it.

Greetings,
- Teresa
videogameb.info@gmail.com

Hello,
We are marketing team of http://www.videogameb.com/ ( becoming popular Korean site ). Our goal is to take the first place in Korean rating of websites. So, we are looking for new or interesting games such as Dungeon Rats to make reviews and popularize them at korean market.

What we offer:
1) Honest review
2) Pictures and screenshots (sometimes video)
3) At least 500 symbols
4) Rating system (optional)
5) As a result increasing sales at Korean market

If You are interesting in our proposition, please contact us, we will need the access to Your game (If it multiplayer or online will be better to have few keys for speeding up the process of reliase ) and your media-kit.

Sincerely,
Videogameb team.
Hi,
I'm the Youtube game blogger. I play games and make reviews.

I would like to play and make a review of the Dungeon Rats
Could you please send me a media-kit and a few keys of the game?

Thank you :P
 
Last edited:

huckc

Novice
Joined
Jul 4, 2016
Messages
33
Look at those exclamation marks though! You can't deny how exciting this is for you!!!

I wonder where these scammers are coming from, what their background is. I mean how desperate and morally bankrupt do you have to be in order to be a professional internet scammer preying on indie game developers. Yes, this is my calling, this is how I'll leave my mark on the world.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Subject: can I promote your game

Hi

I have a group on Steam with 17,000 members.

I'm trying to do some giveaways, could donate some keys? We may disclose your game

FAQ:

How many keys do you want?
Usually receive between 6-11 keys
Hello. I am moderator of "Buddies 4 Ever" group in steam and administrator of few adventure-quest sites. Our group and site consist of people, who love interesting and original games. Really love it and appreciate hard work of developers. So we try to follow most interesting of them, search some new interesting piece of arts, whats why we paid attention to you great game. We promote and support developers on this hard way, so can i have few keys for your game (for giveaways and promoting of your project)?
Good afternoon or good evening. I very love to play and writing video the game passing and reviews. Your game "Dungeon Rats" liked me very much and I would like to record a Let's play video (Video review) together with my let's players friends. Can you send some Steam keys, 3 or more, for me and my friends? And we will do a wonderful review of your game. And thank you for the work you have put into the game.
 

Zdzisiu

Arcane
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
3,489
The most interesting thing for me is the fact that they never ask for just one key, it is always "my team of 4" "we need a few keys" "send us between 2-6 keys".

Also, seeing all the bad English, I might have found a business opportunity. I will make their e-mails more professional and believable for a cut of the profits. That wouldn't be strictly illegal, right?
 

Wayward Son

Fails to keep valuable team members alive
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
1,866,294
Location
Anytown, USA
Hello I am Wayward Son of WaywardSonGaming, a YouTube channel that is going to be started and getting lots followers too soon. If you have the eyes, heart and tears, may you please provide game key for the team here (approx. 12) to review a game. Thanks upon you house. Email them to WaywardSon@gmail.coM
 

Leocruta

Novice
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
11
Location
COLD
Good afternoon or good evening. I very love to play and writing video the game passing and reviews. Your game "Dungeon Rats" liked me very much and I would like to record a Let's play video (Video review) together with my let's players friends. Can you send some Steam keys, 3 or more, for me and my friends? And we will do a wonderful review of your game. And thank you for the work you have put into the game.

This one's my favourite. I like how they seem oblivious to the possibility of you reading it during the morning. I like how they claim Dungeon Rats has developed some sort of attraction for them. I like how I cannot decipher the second sentence. Apparently they love to write video the game passing?
 

hivemind

Guest
Hi,

I'm a big fan of computer games. Sorry for bad english. I have heard that developers sometimes fissile their games, so I wrote to you. I really liked your game The Age of Decadence , and I wanted to play it, but I don't have money. Please share with me, and if possible with my two friends the keys to the game or gifts. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please
We will post the review in Steam for you game

Sorry if prevented.
Yours faithfully,
:lol:

This has to be a legit kid and not a scammer.
 

tindrli

Arcane
Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
4,465
Location
Dragodol
if i were you i would send that key to Dragan dude. on the end he is one of the "SKY PEOPLE"...and he seems sincere, apart from that sky people are famous for not forgetting things, and with your act of giving key could prevent war in your country in a future.
 

hivemind

Guest
How do steam keys even work for devs? Can you just generate infinite numbers of them and do whatever you want or do you need to go through some valve circles?
 

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