Plus a lot of us have already pre-ordered the game, so we're trying to win copies of a game we already bought.

Agreed totally.    Normally, if I talk about a game to my friends and it turns out they give it a try and don't like it, its just different tastes. No big deal.

Now? Are they going to accept that, or think I deliberately gave them bad game advice (instead of because I thought they'd like the game) to win a contest? Not cool. I'm actually talking LESS to people about Elemental then I was before.

Well all this is hypothetical. I mean I'm rank #11 and I haven't done any spamming at all. For those in the top 10, maybe a couple people are spamming, but I think that's why it's good to have this kind of community counter-point going on in the forums: those who would think about spamming to get more points would feel less inclined to do so if it was publicly known that they were doing it. Since we can all click and check on what other people are submitting, there is a certain kind of shame in spamming for prizes. The stricter requirements for points is also a good step forward.

In general, I think as more people do the easy stuff, like adding things to their wishlist and digging islanddog's posts, they won't be able to get much more points unless they do something special. I at least am having trouble thinking of what to do next since I haven't even gotten the beta yet. With an active community policing itself combined with transparency and a stricter way of rewarding points, I think this marketing plan would overall be good for elemental.

They never said they wouldn't award points for negative user previews, just that it has to include the thing the user is looking forward to most. So if I were to write out a well thought out review that detailed why the game will fail and provide examples, but I really like the dynasty system and say so, I would expect to get the same number of points as someone who writes an equally well thought out review as to why it won't fail, provided examples, and said they look forward to the dynasty system. If I didn't get a similar number of points for my negative review as the positive reviewer, you can be sure that I'd raise hell about it, and I'm confidant that most people here would too.

Could we gain points in the Elemental Army by linking forums posts where we explain why we don't like the concept of the Army itself ?

i preorderd the game too

but 1 more limited edition cant be bad

Just take into account people that even if you DO follow the rules based upon what is written. You may be in for a surprise when you get many rejected ones. Even though, you as it may of been were communicating and participating on various forums. 

Oh and don't even try to submit your Diggs, cause they'll get rejected out of hand, even if you only do exactly as they say. Which is digg an article by Island Dog.

Why am I putting this here? Honesty, I spent several hours last night, going through the digg submissions, and going through various forums, joining in the conversations as they related to the actual topic on hand. And I checked this morning, and found many rejected. No statement why.

Now, I do admit in some cases when I was documenting sort of the reason for why I was submitting the Quest reward, when I was trying to edit what I had put in there, in some case I inadvertently hit submit, so they were cut off. But the links themselves should of been sufficient.

So, just note, if you follow the rules as written, you may be wasting effort. And what you may be doing after a good long weekly session of D&D with your friends, inspired you to review the "Quests" and what they entail, and could in theory require. And your inspiration may be met with cold hard rejection.

So this army idea isn't as they say all roses, and great marketing, if they aren't going to, you know reward the people who put in effort and try to participate.

Ye are too obssesed about this topic.

If your attitue is of spammer when talking about the game, it won't matter if you are taking part of the Army or not. If you take a responsible approach (which would involve selective targeting, to be informative and take all the time needed,...), it won't matter either and you will leave a positive impression (Army or not).

It'd had been better if no prizes were given but less people would be interested into helping for free and as it is now it helps to create some buzz. Good or bad? As long as it's not apocaliptic, it's enough to make sure that more people know that there is a game called Elemental. Also gives more Impulse exposure, which matters a lot for Stardock.

The Army is not there to sell the game but to actually inform and let people know about the game. If someone abuses the system or didn't get the point of it, well, shit happens. (and rules of the Army don't obligue you to submit any quest even if you did any!!!! In fact, you can keep doing quests without joining the Army!!!1!!one111!!!)

It matters a great deal, Wintersong. When people hear word of mouth, as soon as they realize it's from someone trying to win a contest, it's discounted completely as spam. This really isn't a lot different then the old style "hey check this page out!" links with referrer querystrings that people used to post, where they'd make $0.05 a click. Those were dismissed as spam. The perception here won't be a lot different, and perception is everything.

With no prizes, it's just word of mouth. People telling their friends, and such. That's healthy. Prizes compromise that.

The whole point is to sell more copies of the game. This is a business, after all.

It sounds like your Digg submissions were rejected because of some confusion on how they were linked, the system is designed so that if something is rejected it can be re-evaluated and we will look at them again and award points where they are deserved.  

Thanks for bringing it to our attention, remember there are a lot of submissions so there will be mistakes from time to time but they can be fixed.

Edit: also for the comments about word of mouth being compromised by having it be for a contest...  We have never sold our games on hype.  The word of mouth is to get people to realize the game exists and check it out for themselves, I would hope Elemental will sell itself to people as its an awesome game.

I know personally I never read into the opinions of others about a game (especially one that isn't out), however, I will dig into whatever information is presented about it through official channels and for Elemental there is a LOT of that. 

I joined the army without knowing what it was... Is there any way I can 'unjoin' the army? Or maybe retire or desert or something. I don't mind being AWOL. But frankly I'd like that crossed swords under my name to go away...

Plenty of people have the best of intentions, and I've at no point suggested that I thought Stardock's motives were anything less than totally honest. Yet often those with the best of intentions can, due to that particular form of blindness caused by the assumption that honesty and good faith is universal rather than extremely limited, cause the worst things to happen. 

In this case, Stardock has created a contest that gives incentives for word of mouth publicity from its fanbase with the intention of rewarding individuals who choose to proselytize on their behalf. The unfortunate side effect is that people who don't know Stardock can be forgiven for viewing that as a significant negative -- they'd prefer people to tell them a game is great because the game is great, not because they have a chance of winning a prize for doing so. Witness, if you will, the phenomenon of individuals who are overly verbal about their support for a specific gaming company being dismissed as fanboys -- how much worse when they can be called corporate shills or prize hunters rather than just insulted for their excessive ardor. Or, alternatively, look at the many examples of reviewers whose motives are called into question due to the ridiculous suspicion of an improperly close relationship with a specific publisher. There are plenty of people on the internet who wholeheartedly believe those silly conspiracy theories about magazines being paid for good reviews -- giving them something similar that is actually true will only add fuel to the fire, and risk Stardock's reputation in the bargain.

And as I said before, I think that this contest is especially insensitive of the concerns of smaller forums, where, if internet trends are anything like real life trends, the majority of individuals tend to congregate. In smaller forums, there is a much greater siege mentality due to the existence of spambots and the fear of corporate shills and VMs hollowing out the mutual trust necessary for honest discourse. As a result, these smaller forums are hostile towards newer members whose posts have the suspicion of impropriety -- and there's no better way to make someone's motives suspicious than to offer rewards for a specific course of action. Since those smaller forums also tend to be congregation points for niche consumer groups -- board game aficionados, classic adventure game players, grognards and the like -- that also happen to be some of Stardock's target groups, potentially damaging relations with them seems a particularly poor choice. 

While this might not hurt Stardock today, creating the impression that their fans are motivated more by prizes than by an honest appreciation for good games is a sure method of damaging those fan's long term credibility, and thus their ability to continue the sort of grass roots advertising that helped make Stardock such a success in the first place. This contest risks turning one of Stardock's strengths into a liability, and increasing its vulnerability in a marketplace dominated by large corporations with sizable game development budgets. Since I really do appreciate the efforts of this company, I'd hate to see that happen. 

So, now what?  Stop enlistment in the army and consider it over until the game is released and/or has a demo?  Then start another contest?    Might work as I'd say 80% of the movement was done over this week, the rest will be trickles in comparrison.  The event worked, the word is out there, and gears are in motion.    Might be a good compromise?