Verified Actual Gamer Program Information [See Best Answer / 2021-10-08 update]

[codespunk]

I respect LTT. They're a successful media company and Linus is fair and reasonable. There is no way they would do something like this just for subs.

[Drek]

They could say it was just too complicated and they're in over their heads so they're going to stop trying. The whole premise of this stunt is to gain subs off of the continued card shortage, I hope I'm wrong but they've dragged it out for two weeks now.

[codespunk]

18 minutes ago, pasi123567 said:

Seems like you don't even know LTT at all...

Linus is doing the gaming community a solid by putting in this kind of effort at all. I consider it a gift that someone like Linus is stepping up to do this kind of thing when there is so much price gouging by scalpers and retailers.

 

Hardware sales have razor thin margins and given the time and investment needed by his staff to handle the inventory, repackaging, and shipping, plus the accounting process to handle VAT and tariffs, and then international shipping on top of that, I would argue that this first attempt at hardware sales will be more of a break-even or even a loss with the value to them as experience for higher volume sales after triage.

 

[arbyyyyh]

23 minutes ago, codespunk said:

Linus is doing the gaming community a solid by putting in this kind of effort at all. I consider it a gift that someone like Linus is stepping up to do this kind of thing when there is so much price gouging by scalpers and retailers.

 

Hardware sales have razor thin margins and given the time and investment needed by his staff to handle the inventory, repackaging, and shipping, plus the accounting process to handle VAT and tariffs, and then international shipping on top of that, I would argue that this first attempt at hardware sales will be more of a break-even or even a loss with the value to them as experience for higher volume sales after triage.

 

Agreed, that said, as someone who used to handle international shipping, I wouldn't expect it to be THAT difficult to handle the logistics of getting boxes out the door. I'm hoping that the cause for delay is to really ensure that they're "bot proof". Being lttstore.com is just a Shopify shop, there's an API that can be fairly easily exploited just like Nvidia's Digital River store was. Unless they're doing something like making you verify steam hours or SOMETHING along those lines, I'm sort of at a loss as to how this is going to work. I saw people theorizing about trivia related to their videos, but I don't think that's likely either. I anticipate some sort of "GO NOW GO GET THEM RIGHT THIS SECOND" type intro to a video and them selling out in about a minute or so if that much.

[THICC_DUDE]

Is a video still expected today? I'm trying to get a Radeon card I just want to see this awesome idea happen and let the homies know.

[MCDELTAT]

1 hour ago, Drek said:

Seeming more like a scheme to get a bunch of subs, I wonder if they even have the cards, all they've shown was a pile of brown boxes.

 

1 hour ago, pasi123567 said:

Seems like you don't even know LTT at all...

This is the only correct answer. Been watching LTT daily for about 5 years now, and can't say I've ever seen that in his character. Of course, it would be even worse for them in the long run. Gain a few subs to lose a bunch more? Smart....

[Andreas Lilja]

Y'all behaving like starving people who spot a UN food truck. 

[Burgerbob]

4 hours ago, iAstro said:

Only reason I feel like it would be today is that if it isn't done today, they will have to discuss it on the WAN show and reveal that it would be tomorrow.

I kinda feel like it'll be today because

1. It's a little suspect that they haven't released a video yet today, maybe they're prepping some things last minute

2. What better way to verify actual gamers than by releasing it on a Friday night

[Anonymouser]

36 minutes ago, Burgerbob said:

I kinda feel like it'll be today because

1. It's a little suspect that they haven't released a video yet today, maybe they're prepping some things last minute

2. What better way to verify actual gamers than by releasing it on a Friday night

I'm pretty sure they don't release any videos on Friday, so #1 is perfectly normal and expected. It's usually just the WAN show. Occasionally they may do a showcase/sponsored video on Friday, but it's usually just WAN show.

[Col_Hayes]

Well.  It looks like another week on the books, and no update?
My laptop is holding in for now, but bots continue to scoop up EVERY GPU in the land.
I just need 1 GPU to replace the 9xx series card that is soldered into my laptop
(I've got a case and power supply sitting here, with CPU/RAM/SSD on order, but no GPU)

 

[OneGuy83]

1 hour ago, Col_Hayes said:

Well.  It looks like another week on the books, and no update?
My laptop is holding in for now, but bots continue to scoop up EVERY GPU in the land.
I just need 1 GPU to replace the 9xx series card that is soldered into my laptop
(I've got a case and power supply sitting here, with CPU/RAM/SSD on order, but no GPU)

 

been having the same issue.. thankfully a 980TI seems to still be somewhat relevant in today's gaming yet. that being said i ordered a GeForce 1030 late Thursday and it arrived this afternoon so there's that at least (no its not to replace my 980TI... its for a HTPC build...

[Drek]

Sounds like they're going to continue to milk it for weeks.

[kubsakkk]

2 minutes ago, Drek said:

Sounds like they're going to continue to milk it for weeks.

yep

 

[TheBahrbarian]

Just now, Drek said:

Sounds like they're going to continue to milk it for weeks.

Damn dude, you sound really mad they're going through all this trouble to try and get some MSRP cards out to gamers. 

 

Considering LTT is actually not a GPU retailer, I can only imagine the headaches they're going through just to sell what's basically a handful of GPUs to help some people out in some frustrating times. Frankly, I hope they milk it as much as they can to make it worth the trouble they're probably going through.

[Mikey_McBride]

Linus just said that if too many people whine and complain about it, he'll just cancel the program and send the remaining GPUs/CPUs back.

 

So cut them some slack and just wait like the rest of us reasonable, level-headed Actual Gamers are doing.

[Starstryke]

YouTube apparently censored out my super chat but any idea on how we verify our Actual Gamer status ? Steam account names or something else ?

[FriedEngineer]

Just now, Starstryke said:

YouTube apparently censored out my super chat but any idea on how we verify our Actual Gamer status ? Steam account names or something else ?

Hasn't been announced yet to my knowledge.

[OneGuy83]

27 minutes ago, TheBahrbarian said:

Damn dude, you sound really mad they're going through all this trouble to try and get some MSRP cards out to gamers. 

 

Considering LTT is actually not a GPU retailer, I can only imagine the headaches they're going through just to sell what's basically a handful of GPUs to help some people out in some frustrating times. Frankly, I hope they milk it as much as they can to make it worth the trouble they're probably going through.

I think we all super appreciate the effort they're going to as a community... its awesome that Linus and his team of people are trying his best to accomplish this.

 

What we don't appreciate is having the carrot dangled in front of us and not being able to get said carrot. I hope that LMG and Floatplane has learned that they need to corss their T's and Dot their I's before they go about talking about things like this. It creates frustration because they have now, on two occasions, said "coming this week" and have failed to deliver. Its that issue that makes things frustrating. 

[Michael McChesney]

10 minutes ago, Starstryke said:

YouTube apparently censored out my super chat but any idea on how we verify our Actual Gamer status ? Steam account names or something else ?

I'm wondering the same thing.  It seemed they may just figure that if they announce the program is live in an LTT video, the cards are most likely going to go to regular LTT viewers who are most likely to be gamers.  But on tonight's WAN Show, Luke seemed pretty emphatic that they can guarantee the cards only go to gamers.  If you are going to confirm gamer status with Steam account names, does that mean they would need Steam to assist with the program?  Does anyone have any other ideas about how gamer status could be verified?  I suppose they could ask a question about Minecraft that someone that plays it will be able to answer.  But not everyone plays Minecraft.  Or perhaps they have a way to prevent bots from buying the cards and they figure if you are not a bot, you must be a gamer?

[OneGuy83]

2 minutes ago, Michael McChesney said:

I'm wondering the same thing.  It seemed they may just figure that if they announce the program is live in an LTT video, the cards are most likely going to go to regular LTT viewers who are most likely to be gamers.  But on tonight's WAN Show, Luke seemed pretty emphatic that they can guarantee the cards only go to gamers.  If you are going to confirm gamer status with Steam account names, does that mean they would need Steam to assist with the program?  Does anyone have any other ideas about how gamer status could be verified?  I suppose they could ask a question about Minecraft that someone that plays it will be able to answer.  But not everyone plays Minecraft.  Or perhaps they have a way to prevent bots from buying the cards and they figure if you are not a bot, you must be a gamer?

it certainly sounds like they're going to want some sort of proof of gameplay hours or something.. not sure exactly how they intend to get that data tho.

[Starstryke]

5 minutes ago, OneGuy83 said:

it certainly sounds like they're going to want some sort of proof of gameplay hours or something.. not sure exactly how they intend to get that data tho.

That would be fair in my opinion. I can verify gameplay hours if asked but while I have a vast steam library but,  Minecraft and games like it have never been games I play. The closest I ever got was a little bit of Avorion.

[Michael McChesney]

15 minutes ago, OneGuy83 said:

I think we all super appreciate the effort they're going to as a community... its awesome that Linus and his team of people are trying his best to accomplish this.

 

What we don't appreciate is having the carrot dangled in front of us and not being able to get said carrot. I hope that LMG and Floatplane has learned that they need to corss their T's and Dot their I's before they go about talking about things like this. It creates frustration because they have now, on two occasions, said "coming this week" and have failed to deliver. Its that issue that makes things frustrating. 

I think we really need to cut them some slack because they are attempting something they haven't done before and encountered unexpected problems that they thought could be fixed within a week that actually took longer.  So Linus is not going to make any promises as to when it will be ready.  That seems reasonable.  If on the other hand it was the video itself we were waiting for as opposed to the program the video is going to explain and production problems delayed it two weeks in a row I might be less understanding.  I mean if Linus said, "we shot the video this week, but you know what?  The video needs to be edited before it can be uploaded.  We got some editing software, but our editors need to learn how to use it before they can edit the video."   Well LMG's whole business is video production and they certainly know how to edit videos.  Figuring out how to add tariffs in the shopping cart for every possible jurisdiction isn't their normal business.

[TakahaReo]

So! Here's what I can remember from the WAN show today, when they did talk about it (for those who missed it):

 

-It'll be ready when it's ready. There's a TON of stuff they've had to change for the system, as the one they'd been working on was NOT going to cut it for everything it had to handle (if I'm not mistaken), and they shouldn't have announced any kind of launch window like they did (Linus' words, not mine). 

 

-We don't know anything exact about how they're going to choose people, but we do know a number of cards- 500. There's 200 in-hand, and 300 more on the way (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'm kind of having an off day).

 

-If too many people go complaining because they didn't get a card, so on, they may genuinely just shut the whole thing down and return leftover cards to the distributors- so just...don't. I won't quote Linus' words on it, but it's along the lines of 'don't ruin it for everyone else because you didn't get one'.

 

- They acknowledged there's no way to know if someone who gets a card won't just flip it, but they're going to use some sort of method to stop botters and the like. Personally, I'm just hoping they get it right, whatever they do to stop it.

 

That's more or less what I can remember. So yeah! Hopefully that helps the potential question influx/serves as a nice little packet of info. I was really hoping for a launch this week (as my roommate is looking to finish a streaming build so he can try to get that going full-time and escape his current job predicament), but I understand that this is a massive undertaking compared to what they usually do, and just hope it all winds up going well in the end.

 

If they can get cards in the hands of actual gamers, who will hopefully use it for actual rigs, versus flipping it on Ebay or whatever, then I think it's worth it.

[OneGuy83]

4 minutes ago, Michael McChesney said:

I think we really need to cut them some slack because they are attempting something they haven't done before and encountered unexpected problems that they thought could be fixed within a week that actually took longer.  So Linus is not going to make any promises as to when it will be ready.  That seems reasonable.  If on the other hand it was the video itself we were waiting for as opposed to the program the video is going to explain and production problems delayed it two weeks in a row I might be less understanding.  I mean if Linus said, "we shot the video this week, but you know what?  The video needs to be edited before it can be uploaded.  We got some editing software, but our editors need to learn how to use it before they can edit the video."   Well LMG's whole business is video production and they certainly know how to edit videos.  Figuring out how to add tariffs in the shopping cart for every possible jurisdiction isn't their normal business.

I fully understand its extremely complicated what they are trying to do. I also want to re-iterate that everyone greatly appreciates the efforts that LMG is going to myself included.. 

 

Again its the management of expectations that has failed here.

[gophergun]

It seems inevitable that, based on the stock provided, more people will be disappointed than will get a card from this, but if they can set the expectation that most people won't be able to get a card they can mitigate that.