Twitter

I have a Nintendo Wii. It seems to amaze some people who only know me as '7th Prestige' that I have a system that is primarily known for being host to 1st Party Nintendo games or shovelware aimed at kids/families. I am always quick to point out that I did not purchase said Wii, I won it.



Who/where did I win it? From 1up.com, formerly known as games.com. I think. The name/site changed a long time ago and my memory is not what it used to be. Either way, I won a Wii from them and therefore, didn't have to buy one myself. Awesome. Got the obligatory setup out of the way.


What irritates me is 1up's new setup for their contests, an almost daily giveaway run primarily through Twitter. The object of the contests are to sit on the 1up site, refresh the page constantly, and hope you see the secret message before anyone else and then reply to the Twitter feed with the secret message. Doesn't sound too bad, right?

While waiting for the message to appear on the site, the Twitter feed will give "hints" and "clues" to when the code will appear. These messages include such vague descriptions as "the next message is right around the corner" or "posting before the end of the hour." That last one wouldn't be so bad if they ever did just that. But they don't. Ever.

And having to refresh the page is an annoyance. I did it, one time, on the minute, every minute, for almost two hours and still missed the message! I wasn't the only one. 1up's reply? Try deleting the cookies before refreshing or using FireFox.

I use Internet Explorer *Shock* *Gasp* But up until IE8, it was the fastest and most reliable browser for me. I've tried FireFox, and no matter what my setup was, it was always slower than Microsoft's offering. I even timed it once.

And to have to delete my cookies every time I want to refresh the page (almost a requirement for the giveaways)? That borders on insanity.

I miss the old contests, even if it was an electronic version of throwing my name into a hat.