Very irritating game.After a slow start, I've managed to get a piece or more each day (although contributions would not be turned away) and traded on SlickDeals for a few more. So I have a nice list of events for which, if the U.S. athletes take gold, I get a prize. But...
1. Roughly half my potential prize list is comic books. And normally, this would not irritate me. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised when I first saw 'Comic: ARV $2.99' on the master rundown. Because I very mistakenly thought that if you got that prize, they sent you a coupon good for $2.99 at your local comics shop. And if they somehow turned out to be cumulative and I hit on a few of them, maybe I could get a graphic novel or two. Not in any way a bad prize.
It turned out to be a comic book. Singular. One issue, one character, mailed to me sometime in October. And that character? Is Sonic The Hedgehog. This title has roughly a one in thirty-five chance to come up every time you're randomly assigned an event. And it's half. my. bloody. list.
I have won two of them.
They won't let me trade down.
2. You can pretty much guess on #2: if that much of my list is Sonic The Arrogant, then I logically have very few chances at MCR points. Right. They're the vast majority of the prizes -- over two-thirds -- and I keep getting the same stupid comic.
3. The possible events comprise the entire list where a U.S. athlete is entered. I have not gotten dressage. Everything else is up for grabs. You can imagine the odds on some of the more obscure sports. Typically, my even-more-stupid-than-they-were-an-entry-ago comics have come from swimming events. And you can get multiple prizes on a single event if you draw it enough times -- but as noted at SD, there's no illusion of control here. You can't enter in the least-used hours and increase your odds. All you can do is try to find pieces and hope that both the computer and the Olympic judges are merciful. Good luck with that.
(At one point, I thought the events where the U.S. was most likely to win gold (basketball, both sides) were being held back for the biggest prizes only. A SlickDealer proved me wrong by coming up with Men's Basketball -- for Guess What.)
4. The only other prize on my list is music downloads. Which would normally be fine as a low-level win, but it's Universal Republic Records only and they pick the available artists & tracks. Haven't won one yet, so the point is moot -- for now.
5. And most important: I'm not having fun. With the Monopoly game, I was able to pile up enough MCR bonus points to feel I was accomplishing something. Here? Piece entry feels like a chore. I've gotten a single MCR bonus code out of this. It was more of a 'oh, well: I guess I might as well put in some more entries' than a 'yay'.
The instant win food prizes are better than they've been in a while, yes: it's nice to have smoothies on the list and my circle is enjoying all the iced coffee. But I started asking around for these things because I thought I might have two bites at the bonus points apple this year.
The first apple is rotten.
The SlickDeals thread feels this may be the worst McD promotion ever. That feeling is gaining support.