Prizes!

[Shadow XL]

Oh so this means I could be in with a chance as I'm in Australia, and they'll no doubt send it via sydney

Also means i might be in with a chance... i wish we knew at least what state it was going to once it reaches sydney.

[malcolmst]

Haven't posted for a while, so thought I'd do a bit of math about the odds of getting a prize :p

Ok... since no neowinians won one of the 15 grand prizes (and i'm assuming there were around 500 people who participated at least once in the forum during the game - who would have posted again if they won something), that means the odds are likely less than 1/500 to win one of those...

1/500 > 15/total players

so we can determine that the total # of players is most likely at least 15 * 500 = 7500 (but could be way more than that - and actually that is 7500 * the average neowinian score, not necessarily players)

now since there's about 450 additional prizes and if we assume optimistically that there really are only 7500 people... then we each have about a 6% chance of winning something. Well.. technically 0% to 6%... So optimistically, up to 30 of us should win something.

I could be way off with these numbers, and I didn't include anything about the # of points, but I'm thinking that most neowinians would have perfect or near-perfect scores..

Just a bit of math for fun while we wait for prize info :p

[bsb001]

The rest of the prizes are rolling in!

So the first thing I usually do when I get home from work is look down to the right at this little table in the entryway where the mail gets piled up. With all the people living here, it's usually covered in a mass of junk mail, bills, and things that showed up for people who have long since moved out.

But like everyone, I love getting things in the mail. The odds are that if it's not from Wilmington, DE, I'm going to open it. All of this leads up to me trying to describe the sheer and utter *joy* of laying my eyes on the plain white envelope with the Marden-Kane logo in the corner.

What followed was undoubtedly a personal best for why-is-this-stupid-envelope-in-the-way-of-my-correspondence. My eyes quickly darted from paragraph to paragraph, first confirming that yes, the letter was addressed to me. Then, the "Congratulations!" made my heart skip a beat. Account Executive Erica Valdellon instantly became my new best friend, as she was pleased to announce that I would soon be receiving three (3) Microsoft Games for Windows game titles.

All in all, it's been quite a wild ride. I look at the paper in my hands, and more importantly, feel it, as a kind of tangible and satisfying conclusion to the whole affair. After chasing this woman around the globe for a month, it's good to have something as a lasting reminder. Something that, for a change, isn't going to vanish.

.......unless the games uninstall themselves after 90 days.

Congrats!! I know it will be hard for me not to attack the mailman eveyday for awhile now. ;)

First off, Hi everyone /wave. I've been lurking for the past few weeks following your progress on the meta puzzle, it's been a blast :)

It's the city that the DHL pack entered the country by. I'm the UK 1st prize winner and it shows my pack as London, whereas I actually live half way up the country in Northampton. No idea how long it's going to be before MK contact me again, I did email Erica, the account manager at MK asking if she could confirm which pack I'd won but no reply yet. I'm guessing that they're waiting until everyone has responded or not before they kick off the next step.

Cool deal! So they had divided up the 1st place winners by location? Finially, more information is rolling in. Again congrats!

[crowen]

Hey all been on and off for a few days but if you havent seen this I though I would post it, I was looking through my local tampa bay florida paper and found this,

Going to Space

Here is the written article in case the link doesent work.

"One way or another, he's going to space

Brian Emmett, 31, won a free trip on a future spaceflight in a 2005 contest. As much as he wants to take the trip, he had to turn it down, because the tax consequence of accepting the trip (estimated retail value: $139,000) was about $25,000. But where there are taxes, there are loopholes, and Benson Space Co. found it. The San Diego-area company will "hire" Emmett and send him to space on one of its first tourist flights in a consulting position as a "test passenger." The IRS is probably quite " amused." Jim Benson says he sympathized with Emmett. "He had a dream, the dream got broken and we fixed it."

Anyway thought that was cool since we all found his story online not too long ago, good to know he gets to go anyway even though the taxes stopped him......so maybe the grand prize winner can spend the 50 thousand anyway....and skip the taxes ;) lol kidding kidding

just some intresting tidbits....take care guys

[Rob Veteran]

Tetravus - was an absolute joy to read your post, so expressive!

Codename 47 - yay for Northampton! Spent the first 18 years of my life there - whereabouts are you? I was an NSB-boy ;)

[matthewlefflercomputer]

The rest of the prizes are rolling in!

So the first thing I usually do when I get home from work is look down to the right at this little table in the entryway where the mail gets piled up. With all the people living here, it's usually covered in a mass of junk mail, bills, and things that showed up for people who have long since moved out.

But like everyone, I love getting things in the mail. The odds are that if it's not from Wilmington, DE, I'm going to open it. All of this leads up to me trying to describe the sheer and utter *joy* of laying my eyes on the plain white envelope with the Marden-Kane logo in the corner.

What followed was undoubtedly a personal best for why-is-this-stupid-envelope-in-the-way-of-my-correspondence. My eyes quickly darted from paragraph to paragraph, first confirming that yes, the letter was addressed to me. Then, the "Congratulations!" made my heart skip a beat. Account Executive Erica Valdellon instantly became my new best friend, as she was pleased to announce that I would soon be receiving three (3) Microsoft Games for Windows game titles.

All in all, it's been quite a wild ride. I look at the paper in my hands, and more importantly, feel it, as a kind of tangible and satisfying conclusion to the whole affair. After chasing this woman around the globe for a month, it's good to have something as a lasting reminder. Something that, for a change, isn't going to vanish.

.......unless the games uninstall themselves after 90 days.

What carrier delivered the parcel? Was it DHL again? Was it an overnight parcel or just regular mail?

Edit: Where do you live?

Edited February 9, 2007 by matthewlefflercomputer

[blackhawk127]

Haven't posted for a while, so thought I'd do a bit of math about the odds of getting a prize :p

Ok... since no neowinians won one of the 15 grand prizes (and i'm assuming there were around 500 people who participated at least once in the forum during the game - who would have posted again if they won something), that means the odds are likely less than 1/500 to win one of those...

1/500 > 15/total players

so we can determine that the total # of players is most likely at least 15 * 500 = 7500 (but could be way more than that - and actually that is 7500 * the average neowinian score, not necessarily players)

now since there's about 450 additional prizes and if we assume optimistically that there really are only 7500 people... then we each have about a 6% chance of winning something. Well.. technically 0% to 6%... So optimistically, up to 30 of us should win something.

I could be way off with these numbers, and I didn't include anything about the # of points, but I'm thinking that most neowinians would have perfect or near-perfect scores..

Just a bit of math for fun while we wait for prize info :p

your math is way off the guy who ran the wikipedia had over 35k unique hits since the game started, and over 4 million hits total

[Codename 47]

Tetravus - was an absolute joy to read your post, so expressive!

Codename 47 - yay for Northampton! Spent the first 18 years of my life there - whereabouts are you? I was an NSB-boy ;)

I started off in Daventry, then moved out to a village called West Haddon (Near M1 Junction 18) for most of my life. Moved into Northampton for easier access to work and currently living in Far Cotton. Went to the local village Secondary school - Guilsborough, IIRC we had a bit of beef with you guys at football/rugby :rofl:

Kinda a double ARG boost for Northampton recently with the Perplex City cube being found here too!

[Rob Veteran]

Absolutely - Northamptonian pride. Actually scrap that, Abington St. really doesn't deserve praise!

[confusio]

so we can determine that the total # of players is most likely at least 15 * 500 = 7500 (but could be way more than that - and actually that is 7500 * the average neowinian score, not necessarily players)

I believe you are way off the actual number, I've been trying to get some decent numbers

to guesstimate the number of players, I've been monitoring the number of visits to the

different threads here, unfiction and the wiki, etc., still nothing that can be used as a

consistent input to any calculation but my guess is that the number could be probably

between 25000 to 30000, and still I may be off.

What surprises me is that I didn't see or I've not been able to find is any new media

coverage or activity about it in the blogsphere, there are few things out there and a lot

of buzz about MSFT asking the bloggers to return back or dispose the laptops distributed

during the pre-game, probably MSFT and AMD are waiting for a couple of days until

all the winners are certified to open the marketing faucet and start spitting out press

releases or marketing buzz.

About the total cost of the campaign, while about MSFT had a $300M budget related to Vista,

probably the vpg stunt could be in the $5-10M range, just a guess.

Cheers

[blackhawk127]

like i said above the wikipedia number is around 35k and rounded off at 36k unique hits

[Glitchrf]

Nice tickets. I really hope Favre at least gets a winning season this year.

I go to UW-Madison, btw :yes:

-Spenser

Madison denied me access, it would have been nice to go there.

[GF3]

Nice to see some Wisconsin people around here. MSOE representing :D

AWESOME my buddy Aoron Ratka goes to MSOE I think he is on the basketball team to. I am pretty sure they have one right? My sister goes to MIAD

[rottenrichard]

I believe you are way off the actual number, I've been trying to get some decent numbers

to guesstimate the number of players, I've been monitoring the number of visits to the

different threads here, unfiction and the wiki, etc., still nothing that can be used as a

consistent input to any calculation but my guess is that the number could be probably

between 25000 to 30000, and still I may be off.

I live north of Seattle and the fireworks display raised a bit of a rukus because no one knew they were going to happen. People called the police to find out what was happening and the press got into the act. The next morning it was all over the television and at that time they were told by Microsoft that there were 80,000 plus playing worldwide.

Speaking of the fireworks, I went down for the event and they were absolutly incrdible. This was a world class display played before a very small group. There couldn't have been 400 people there. The video was quite good if you moved it to Media Player and played it in full screen mode.

Rich

[Orbitjeff]

The rest of the prizes are rolling in!

So the first thing I usually do when I get home from work is look down to the right at this little table in the entryway where the mail gets piled up. With all the people living here, it's usually covered in a mass of junk mail, bills, and things that showed up for people who have long since moved out.

But like everyone, I love getting things in the mail. The odds are that if it's not from Wilmington, DE, I'm going to open it. All of this leads up to me trying to describe the sheer and utter *joy* of laying my eyes on the plain white envelope with the Marden-Kane logo in the corner.

What followed was undoubtedly a personal best for why-is-this-stupid-envelope-in-the-way-of-my-correspondence. My eyes quickly darted from paragraph to paragraph, first confirming that yes, the letter was addressed to me. Then, the "Congratulations!" made my heart skip a beat. Account Executive Erica Valdellon instantly became my new best friend, as she was pleased to announce that I would soon be receiving three (3) Microsoft Games for Windows game titles.

All in all, it's been quite a wild ride. I look at the paper in my hands, and more importantly, feel it, as a kind of tangible and satisfying conclusion to the whole affair. After chasing this woman around the globe for a month, it's good to have something as a lasting reminder. Something that, for a change, isn't going to vanish.

.......unless the games uninstall themselves after 90 days.

Dagnabit! You beat me to it!

I was driving home from work last night, and I stopped at the mailbox to get the mail. I then got back in my car and as I was pulling into the driveway I glanced down and saw a letter to my wife... Didnt think too much of it until I noticed it was from Marden-Kane.

I ran into the house so she could open it (silently cursing the fact that it was her name and not mine on the envelope) but she was off picking up our daughter... I called her but she apparently was on the phone...

I tried to wait. I really did!

I opened it, and she had won fourth prize (3 Microsoft games). I was so happy for her! So, a few answers:

1) It came by regular mail from the post office... Not from an overnight service

2) For fourth prize you apparently dont need to do anything: They will pick the game titles, and they will send them without a signature or anything (other than a change of address if you move within 6-8 weeks)

3) We live in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

4) She had 1100-1200 points. I cant remember what she said... She has started the last box, but couldnt finish the puzzles... And didnt want my help. (Darnit... I had 1330. D'oh!)

So woohoo! The prizes are a-comin!

[confusio]

I live north of Seattle and the fireworks display raised a bit of a rukus because no one knew they were going to happen. People called the police to find out what was happening and the press got into the act. The next morning it was all over the television and at that time they were told by Microsoft that there were 80,000 plus playing worldwide.

Speaking of the fireworks, I went down for the event and they were absolutly incrdible. This was a world class display played before a very small group. There couldn't have been 400 people there. The video was quite good if you moved it to Media Player and played it in full screen mode.

Rich

Great comments Rich, yes the fireworks were spectacular, also the music they picked was perfect for it,

somebody that was there posted a 85MB video of the fireworks, very good resolution and crisp image

in 640x480, and outstanding sound, the file name was vpfinale1.wmv, I'll try to find the link again.

The size and resolution of the projection screen was also impresive by looking at the videos.

I'm sure that it created a lot of local buzz, it was one of those onetime life events where you have to be there

to fully appreciate the magnitude and excitement. I was planning to go but had other priorities and had to cancel

my flight.

I'd love to know if somebody here recognized it or from the folks that put it together if they are reading, the

names of the songs played during the fireworks.

The 80,000 number sounds credible.

Thanks for your comments !!

Cheers

[tgeairn]

I'll try to find the link again.

The size and resolution of the projection screen was also impresive by looking at the videos.

Try http://www.hive.net/Member/Videos/vpfinale1.wmv

Although even that video doesn't capture the impact of the pounding music and sheer excitement of the event.

[Howie411]

Ran home for lunch today and got a letter from DHL, said I was chosen as a 2nd place winner. Whats funny is the letter said signature required yet they just left it on my door.

[confusio]

Hey !!!

Congratulations to the folks that are starting to get the winners notification.

I hope that learning that the process is in movement will help to calm down the

anxiety for some folks around here ...

Keep'em coming !!!

Cheers

[confusio]

...

Account Executive Erica Valdellon instantly became my new best friend ...

...

He,he, now we know what the "EV" stands for in the DHL reference ...

K'mon, Stop solving puzzles confusio !!! get back to work !!!

Cheers

[matthewlefflercomputer]

By my count no less than 6 winners so far have come from the Neowin/Unfiction community. That is very good! Even if there are say 800 in the community that means that there should only be about 5 winners from here. So we have at least met statistical probability even if no one else turns up a winner. But per the effort proportionally we are way below where we should be. ;)

[Tetravus]

What carrier delivered the parcel? Was it DHL again? Was it an overnight parcel or just regular mail?

Edit: Where do you live?

It was regular USPS First Class. The letter was dated February 2nd, but the postmark was February 6th. So two days to get from them in Manhasset to me in Seattle sounds about right.

[EcPercy]

I just got a letter today stating that I am a Fourth Prize Winner. I did not get a call or an e-mail notifying me of this.

Fourth Prize is:

"Sponsor's Choice of three (3) Microsoft Games for Windows game titles. Approximate Retail Value of Fourth Prize: $120"

I updated the wiki. I hope that the games are good. :D

Edited February 9, 2007 by EcPercy

[mrnygiants]

I too won 4th place, choice of 3 games. Kind of disapointed, as I was really hoping to win Vista Ultimate. Anyone want to trade? :)

[Fradam]

Seems like we mostly have 1st and 4th place winners...anyone hear about 2nd and 3rd place prizes yet besides like one person?

Edited February 9, 2007 by Fradam