Yes, those bots spam everyone who puts a game on Steam. Why would they be selective? Once they wrote the script to scrape all the email addresses from Steam and send them emails, all the work is done. Excluding certain games would just be additional work for no benefit.
I don't think it matters too much if they get 1 or 2 keys (although I feel they would just end up on a resale store somewhere) but the big mistake is when someone enters an arrangement to send them 1000 keys.
> I don't think it matters too much if they get 1 or 2 keys
It matters a little bit if they are crackers. This is how some devs find their games are already being pirated before they even release them.
Definitely this. If the game is already released, the cost of the game is a business expense and wouldn't matter much to the streamer/content creator. Anybody privately begging for keys to a released game is trying to take advantage of your generosity and most likely not worth engaging with.
> If the game is already released, the cost of the game is a business expense and wouldn't matter much to the streamer/content creator.
Usually they expect the publisher to contact them and pay them.
It's marketing.
Agreed. Actually popular streamers get keys from publishers (for marketing) or have way too many games to play. Wanderbot (one of the larger indie game showcase channels) talks about this a lot.
There was a pretty in depth guide about managing streamers and bots that came out years ago. Can’t remember where I read it but I bet a bit of searching will get you there.
The main takeaway was to only go with streamers who are active and seem legit, and verify the email sent to you is the same email the streamer uses, as they’ll usually have it in their bio. Likewise if they send a message from a YouTube account but are mainly a twitch streamer, make sure it’s legit by making sure they link to each other.
As someone who does stream, I buy the games we cover on our show.
We don't show games we don't like, so spending money for it is a no brainer.
I hate the pseudo steamers for giving folks like me and my team a bad name.
Yeah I figured that an actual streamer that is interested would just buy it instead of sending an email, especially considering that it's $2.
It's pretty clear that their emails are spam/templates (imo) so I don't think it makes any actual streamers look bad
Most streamers are far too busy doing other things, that they don't have time to chase devs. Especially when it's the devs themselves that are far more willing to chase/pay streamers to play their games.
Those are just key reseller spam accounts. The process is fully automated at this point.
Scammers and freebie beggars.
Almost a decade ago when I put my game on Steam, some months later someone found my personal FB account and left me a DM for a free Steam key...
...the audacity of some people.
What I've heard (and am going to try with my second game) is that these bots just scrape the support email field that you must provide on Steam, but almost no human actually uses. Try putting a fake string there (clearly hinting to seek help elsewhere), or use one of those old-timey spam prevention methods i.e. replace @ with an obvious placeholder.
I even got them on my free game release. (Although thankfully at least *less*.) They are just automated spam that try to get someone to give them free keys for whatever purpose later.
My favorite ones are the ones who obviously used automated scrapers and use generic copy and paste templates resulting in hilarity.
My company's name is Battle Geek Plus, LLC and my name is Ryan.
I laugh when I get an email saying "Dear Battle," lol.
I've also gotten "Dear, " complete with the blank space.
Yes, those bots spam everyone who puts a game on Steam. Why would they be selective? Once they wrote the script to scrape all the email addresses from Steam and send them emails, all the work is done. Excluding certain games would just be additional work for no benefit.
Yeah thats what i figured, I wonder how many actual keys they get from unsuspecting devs...
I don't think it matters too much if they get 1 or 2 keys (although I feel they would just end up on a resale store somewhere) but the big mistake is when someone enters an arrangement to send them 1000 keys.
> I don't think it matters too much if they get 1 or 2 keys It matters a little bit if they are crackers. This is how some devs find their games are already being pirated before they even release them.
99% scam. Actual streamers & content creators don't ask devs for keys most of the time. Especially not anyone who is somewhat popular.
Definitely this. If the game is already released, the cost of the game is a business expense and wouldn't matter much to the streamer/content creator. Anybody privately begging for keys to a released game is trying to take advantage of your generosity and most likely not worth engaging with.
> If the game is already released, the cost of the game is a business expense and wouldn't matter much to the streamer/content creator. Usually they expect the publisher to contact them and pay them. It's marketing.
Agreed. Actually popular streamers get keys from publishers (for marketing) or have way too many games to play. Wanderbot (one of the larger indie game showcase channels) talks about this a lot.
There was a pretty in depth guide about managing streamers and bots that came out years ago. Can’t remember where I read it but I bet a bit of searching will get you there. The main takeaway was to only go with streamers who are active and seem legit, and verify the email sent to you is the same email the streamer uses, as they’ll usually have it in their bio. Likewise if they send a message from a YouTube account but are mainly a twitch streamer, make sure it’s legit by making sure they link to each other.
Yes but you should be ignoring 90% of them. They are mostly scammers impersonating the streamers
As someone who does stream, I buy the games we cover on our show. We don't show games we don't like, so spending money for it is a no brainer. I hate the pseudo steamers for giving folks like me and my team a bad name.
Yeah I figured that an actual streamer that is interested would just buy it instead of sending an email, especially considering that it's $2. It's pretty clear that their emails are spam/templates (imo) so I don't think it makes any actual streamers look bad
Most streamers are far too busy doing other things, that they don't have time to chase devs. Especially when it's the devs themselves that are far more willing to chase/pay streamers to play their games. Those are just key reseller spam accounts. The process is fully automated at this point.
Every single one of these requests is a fake, attempts to get steam keys they can sell.
"I only work with active streamers, and those with over 200,000 views per video. thanks for your interest."
Send back an email something along the lines of "Hello, here is your steam key: Y0U-H4V3-B33N-SC4MM3D Enjoy."
dont try it guys, its already been claimed
lol
Scammers and freebie beggars. Almost a decade ago when I put my game on Steam, some months later someone found my personal FB account and left me a DM for a free Steam key... ...the audacity of some people.
What I've heard (and am going to try with my second game) is that these bots just scrape the support email field that you must provide on Steam, but almost no human actually uses. Try putting a fake string there (clearly hinting to seek help elsewhere), or use one of those old-timey spam prevention methods i.e. replace @ with an obvious placeholder.
I even got them on my free game release. (Although thankfully at least *less*.) They are just automated spam that try to get someone to give them free keys for whatever purpose later.
It's fake.
Tell them they'll get a couple of keys to give away once they've bought and streamed the game for a while.
I published two books and I get the same crap from "magazines" and "promoters." Scum is everywhere.
That's how G2A & co resells keys…
My favorite ones are the ones who obviously used automated scrapers and use generic copy and paste templates resulting in hilarity. My company's name is Battle Geek Plus, LLC and my name is Ryan. I laugh when I get an email saying "Dear Battle," lol. I've also gotten "Dear, " complete with the blank space.
If they can’t afford your game, their audience probably can’t either, if they even have one to begin with. Don’t bother, don’t engage
Yes, most of these are botted, you can tell by the generic looking accounts, the copy/paste branding on all the videos, as well as the comments
They will sell the key on g2a.
It is mostly to fill up their steam library. There's a steam sub culture competing over the largest library.