iGame Radio

Haypi Kingdom is a new MMOG for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. To promote the game, the developers, Haypi, Inc, are running a contest. Winners of the contest can get an iPad and other prizes every 15 days. However, the press release that I received from the company was pretty confusing. For one, nowhere in the press release did they actually detail what the contest actually entailed. They only called it an “…upcoming PVP server competition where an iPad and other prizes will be awarded every 15 days.” Haypi also talked about how the “victory requires preparation and extensive knowledge of game tricks and strategies it does not scare off award-contenders.” It seemed pretty clear that the contest involved playing the game in some fashion.

So I was pretty surprised when I went to the forum, and the only contest that I found mentioned involved writing reviews. The prizes went from an iPad (or $500) through an iPod Touch, an iPod Shuffle, and in-game coinage. All contestants, whether they win or not, will get something because they entered the contest. In fact, reading through the rules, the contest really started to come off sounding as though the company was paying for reviews…without the media sites where the reviews would be posting knowing about it first (unless they read the contest rules and knew that the review they were posting was participating).

I wondered whether I was just confused, or getting some misinformation. All you have to do is read through their site and forum to see that English is decidedly not their primary language. I sent an email asking for some clarification. What I got was more confusing than clarifying. I’m going to quote it below in it’s entirety…their first statement was in response to my asking if the contest in the forum was the same as the contest mentioned in the press release.

Dear, thanks for your letter, In the forum, there is a competition mentioned
about publishing reviews…this is the same competition as mentioned below.

1. What is the definition of “published”? Would just being posted on
one’s own website qualify?
—u can make your review published in great game network station.

2. Are there any restrictions on who can’t participate in the competition?
—Anyone is welcome to participate in the competition, not only players but also enthusiasts who are interested in Haypi Kingdom as well,The persons who write best reviews will be awarded with amazing prizes!

3. The competition rules mentioned “The more influential the media are,the better chance you’ll have to get prizes!” in regards to publishing the reviews. How specifically does the media influence impact that ability to win prizes?
—u can make your review published in great game network station.

4. What are the steps you will take to determining who wins the prizes? will it be random, or some other method?
—The persons who write best reviews will be awarded with amazing prizes! for the detail ,u can refer to the rule in our forum .

Good luck!

Best wishes!
Apple :)
Haypi team

There are so many problems with this contest that I don’t know where to begin. Giving a reward for each review that they encourage to be published in the public space and/or commercial game sites comes off as writing paid reviews without actually giving that disclaimer before hand…a big ethical no-no. Then there’s the structure of the contest itself. Not limiting the contest to non-professionals means that a few professional reviewers could pop in and win all of the prizes, which would be super unfair to the fans of the game.

Their inability to properly address my questions (especially #3) means that they probably aren’t communicating all that well with the contest participants either. I’m glad to see that they have updated their contest rules and streamlined their forum for the contest. Even so, eventually all contests have trouble, and good communication is how you resolve the issues (personal experience talking here).

This is a contest waiting to have big, big problems. I would recommend that people think twice about entering it, and those who do, enter with eyes wide open.