Ready to 
Twitter giveaways: The radio call-in show for the social generation
Brian Ambrozy
July 9, 2009 11:05 PM ET in Gaming
Get used to this key
There’s been a cute trend lately. Game publishers are using Twitter to give away codes for downloads of games. It seems like a good idea–follow our Twitter stream, see what we have to say, and eagerly hang on our every tweet until we release a magical code for Steam, PSN, or Xbox live.
When the codes are released, however, someone snaps them up in what has been scientifically verified (using science) to be .0000263 nanoseconds, which is faster than you can click cut and paste. Of course, for every casual person who subscribes to, say, @capcom_unity, there are four hundred and sixty seven frantic basement-dwellers who can fire up a “F5, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V” faster than a Japanese arcade player can say “Shoryuken”.
To show you how difficult it is to redeem codes on the Xbox 360, I tried it one night. EA Games was giving away codes for Hasbro Family Game Night. I refreshed the Twitter stream of EA Games’ @weezul a few times and lo and behold, one showed up. They look like this, for those who are unfamiliar with the way Xbox codes work: 5PX4Q-2YJH8-6PX2V-C4Y3P-K2PG9 or something equally nonsensical.
So, in order to redeem a code on the Xbox 360, you must have the code in hand, sign in to your profile, go to the marketplace, click redeem code, and then enter the code. If you happen to have the Chatpad for your 360, this is easier; but if you have to cursor around and enter them with the analog stick, it can be very tedious. Even a very dextrous person will spend about 15-25 seconds entering a 25 digit code.
I have news for you: By that time, 500 people who are faster than you have already beat you to it.
It’s basically impossible to win on the Xbox. I took my netbook over to the TV, sat there in the marketplace with my chatpad in hand, and continually hit F5 to refresh the Twitter page. The second it came up, I had already entered it, with no mistakes, and triumphantly hit X.
Already used.
Fail.
And you thought it would be easier on the PC. HAH
It seems like it would be easier on a PC with Steam installed. Today Capcom Unity was giving away Steam downloads of Street Fighter IV. Again, cut-n-paste to the rescue. I sat there with my toolkit, which consisted of the F5 key, and Ctrl-C. The Steam “redeem” window was open. I swear to you, about 2 seconds elapsed from the time the tweet showed up in my browser window and the time I pasted it into Steam.
I knew I had it this time. Free copy of Street Fighter IV, here I come.
It’s just like when I played Street Fighter 2 against {IC} rolleggroll. You can button-mash all you want, but you are dead before you even know what hit you. Duplicate product code. You lose. Go home, kid.
In 1993 I became friends with a night-time DJ on what was then a pretty cool radio station in Detroit called 96.3 (which has since become pop schlock, I think). We would talk on the phone during her shift, and she would put me on hold for a moment in between songs so she could, you know, do her job. Then she would come back and we would continue talking. One night she was giving away movie tickets to some pre-release big movie at the time (I do not remember, don’t ask), put me on hold to announce that “caller 15 will win two tickets to see blahblahblah”. She came back on the phone and was like “anyways, so yadda yadda yadda” and I said, “Allyson… don’t you have tickets to give away?” to which she replied, “Oh, do you want them?”
You figure it out.
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