Winning feels great, and that’s why a lot of games guarantee a win or an end state for a given amount of effort. Games should provide players with realistic expectations. This is absolutely not true, so more often than not, the player experiences disappointment and frustration, like I did. Still, this means that shoppers who participate in Safeway Monopoly have the expectation that after attaining a certain number of tickets through their effort at shopping a lot, they must be guaranteed a win, even if just a tiny one, because the odds couldn’t have been that bad. Encouraging players to “play” something they actually have no chance of winningĮveryone knows that the odds of winning the $1 million top prize are slim, but the smaller prizes seem attainable, even though it’s common knowledge that the odds are in the company’s control, with fewer of one ticket per set being printed. Playing Safeway Monopoly got me thinking about collection mechanics in games because of how poorly they were implemented in the design of this promotional event. In my frustration, I took a step back to analyse the problems with this form of “gamified” marketing. Safeway Monopoly (like the iterations of McDonald’s Monopoly I’d played with a fervour before it) left me feeling disappointed at having wasted my time tearing up game pieces, trying to stick them in the correct places on a convoluted board, and finding out that I was just one ticket away from most of the smaller prizes. I wasn’t holding out hope for the $1 million cash or the vacation home, but given that I had hundreds of game pieces by the end of the promotion, I was confident I’d get something, even just a $5 Safeway gift card. Since I had so many game pieces, I decided to give it a go, convinced that I would come away with at least one prize from the collection of sets of pieces, since collecting all pieces of a given set would win you the corresponding prize. a free bagel, or 50% off sour cream) and four game pieces to place on a Safeway Monopoly board. I had to do the shopping for a couple of big events, so at the cash register after some large purchases I was given stacks of Safeway Monopoly tickets, each a little paper packet from which you tear out a coupon that’s possibly an Instant Winner (e.g. The Administrator will randomly select the potential Sweepstakes winners from all eligible entries for each respective Division Sweepstakes Prize Pool and each Weekly Entry Period on or around each Weekly Entry Period.From February to April this year, Safeway ran its Monopoly promotion.(1,000,000) 1 Reward added to winner’s Account.(400,000) 5 Rewards added to winner’s Account.(100,000) Coupon good for $10 off a purchase of $10 or greater at a participating Acme, Albertsons, Carrs, Jewel-Osco, Pavilions, Randalls, Safeway, Shaw’s, Star Market, Tom Thumb, or Vons.(50,000) Coupon good for $20 off a purchase of $20 or greater at a participating Acme, Albertsons, Carrs, Jewel-Osco, Pavilions, Randalls, Safeway, Shaw’s, Star Market, Tom Thumb, or Vons.
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