Amazon PCDD - Important Update New Community Manager Incoming!

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Amazon DVG Deals

Amazon DVG Deals

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Hey CAGS,

I’ve got some news I’m both excited and sad to share with you at the same time. I’ll be leaving the Digital Video Games team in Mid-March to join the marketing team for Amazon.com’s Loyalty and Rewards program, Amazon Coins. My boss and I have talked extensively about how to maintain and continue our presence here and across the other communities we’ve created in the past couple of years. To that end I’d like to introduce you to Josh, who take over monitoring, updating, and responding to this thread. Josh will be ramping up over the next couple of weeks, he  will be posting shortly to introduce himself.

Now that the “what’s going on” part of the message is out of the way I want to tell you all how much I love CAG and the posters here. This was the first community I joined when I started this job (anyone still remember that first thread?) and all of you have had a huge hand in shaping how we think about and execute Community Development and Management here at Amazon, which has in turn shaped my career these last two and a half years.

I started to write out a section calling out the regular posters and realized the list would be both overly long and incomplete at the same time. Instead I’d like to thank you all again, you all have my deep and sincere gratitude. I’ll still be around and my gaming accounts aren’t going anywhere so feel free to hit me up anytime you want to chat. I’ll probably still hang out in the thread too :).

Thanks again everyone, let me or Josh know if you have any questions!

The Indie Store has launched!
Amazon.com is launching a storefront dedicated to supporting and promoting PC/Mac/Web-based Indie Games. Our Digital Video Games team is a small group of passionate gamers and we’re all really excited to help Indie developers reach more customers quickly by providing a quick and simple process for bringing their games to market. Additionally we’ll be supporting the Indie Store with a ton of promotions, both at and after launch. Many of these promotions are designed to give the developer the opportunity to maximize their revenue. For example, Amazon is forfeiting all royalties from bundle sales and passing them along directly to the developer, we’ve also created an “Indie Spotlight” program to help customers learn more about the games and developers they love. We view the Indie developers as some of the most creative in the industry and we want to help them continue to create new and innovative experience for customers.

Why we are doing this:

  • Allow customers to discover an entirely new category of games on Amazon.com
  • Help developers reach new customers quickly. Our onboarding process is straightforward and we want to sell every Indie game available
  • We want to leverage our strengths to support and help the developers who are driving forward innovation and creativity in the games industry
General Information

Hi CAGs,
I'll be posting deals we're running on Digital Games (PC/Mac, Free to Play, Sony/Microsoft Points/Subs).

I'm also here to answer questions you might have, get you closer to the developers by hosting Q&As, setting up podcasts, live streaming gameplay etc. If I don't respond to a question you have in thread please send me a PM. These ping my email address and make it more likely that I will see your question and respond more quickly.

Cheers,
Tony


FYI. EA Games sold by Amazon will not activate on Steam.
F.A.Q.S.:

1. Does the game I'm buying from Amazon Activate on Steam/Origin/Uplay? What DRM does the game use?

There are two places to identify DRM on a digital video game detail page:

At the top of the page, below the title:

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In the "Product Description" section:

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2. Note on Electronic Arts Games - For the most part, EA games sold on Amazon do not activate on Steam. Most activate on Origin.

3. Note on DRM with limited activations:

Our Policy



4. Sometimes I'll do giveaways.

5. I work with developers and publishers to get fun (or at least what I think is fun) content to share with you all. Here are some examples:

a. Check out the Pax Gameplay videos here: Xcom: Enemy Unknown I played Xcom with Jake, the Creative Director for the game, a few months before the game came out Also, on this page, check out the Q&A, also a community driven event.

b. Check out the interview on this page: Borderlands 2 we did this interview at E3 with Randy Pitchford this year.

c. We've partnered with the ++GoodGames Podcast to feature many of the games we carry. They talk to the developers about the game development process, how the games are conceptualized and managed, all kinds of fun stuff. I'm working on putting together full link list and will update when I have it.

What else do we sell?

Xbox Live Points and Subscriptions:

1600 Microsoft Live Points
4000 Microsoft Live Points
12 Month XBOX Live Subscription
3 Month XBOX Live Subscription]
12 Month + 1 XBOX Live Subscription

PSN+ Subscriptions and PSN Points:

$20 PSN Points
$50 PSN Points
12 Month PSN+ Subscription
3 Month PSN+ Subscription

We also have a Free-2-Play store supported by our GameConnect technology. Gameconnect allows you to link your Amazon.com account with free-2-play and MMO accounts so that you can buy things like in game currency, premium game time/subscriptions, in game items, etc. on Amazon.com using your Amazon.com payment options and have this content delivered directly into your game.

5. Price Matching notes: Generally we do not match international retailers (GMG, Gamersgate, etc) or physical retailers (Best Buy, Newegg.com, etc.)
To check out the Free-2-Play games we offer you can visit our storefront here: Free-2-Play Store

 
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Bruticis said:
Exactly
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MysterD said:
your*

you're = you are

Example: You are the person known as Neuro5i5.

your = used for possession.

Example: Hey, Neuro - is that your book?

(Translations:

Hey, Neuro - Is that Neuro's book?

Hey, Neuro - is that the book of Neuro?)
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Oh, sorry, I was going to write 'You're obviously confused because you must have left your Mentos in the other windmill', but changed my mind and wrote something else instead.

 
Neuro5i5 said:
I think the easiest way to 'fix' the EC program, should it continue, is to do away with the notion of having a $5 voucher in hand. Just make a list of EC games at whatever end price Amazon has them set to. Instead of a dollar amount voucher, all your voucher would allow you to do is actually purchase said games from the EC list. You have 7 vouchers, you can purchase 7 games. I think getting rid of any dollar value to the voucher itself would alleviate a good portion of the confusion and complaining of price jacking or whatever. All it would be is like a ticket to get you in the door however many times you want to purchase something.
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That wouldn't work. I don't think Amazon has a way to hide products, so you'd have a ton of people upset they would see these games at a price they want and wouldn't be able to purchase them. I'm sure a ton of people are buying stuff like Sim City or these Rockstar bundles even without an EC coupon.

 
Neuro5i5 said:
I think the easiest way to 'fix' the EC program, should it continue, is to do away with the notion of having a $5 voucher in hand. Just make a list of EC games at whatever end price Amazon has them set to. Instead of a dollar amount voucher, all your voucher would allow you to do is actually purchase said games from the EC list. You have 7 vouchers, you can purchase 7 games. I think getting rid of any dollar value to the voucher itself would alleviate a good portion of the confusion and complaining of price jacking or whatever. All it would be is like a ticket to get you in the door however many times you want to purchase something.
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This is actually worse. Right now you know the value of your other purchases and can assign your EC codes a not-so arbitrary amount up to $5. With this you wouldn't and don't fix the complaining at all because that's entirely rooted in what it was before the sale and what it's on sale for now. It pretty much fixes nothing while trying to mask something that was never a problem in the first place.

 
DarkZero104 said:
This is actually worse. Right now you know the value of your other purchases and can assign your EC codes a not-so arbitrary amount up to $5. With this you wouldn't and don't fix the complaining at all because that's entirely rooted in what it was before the sale and what it's on sale for now. It pretty much fixes nothing while trying to mask something that was never a problem in the first place.
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Eur the exception to everything cause ewe can't be pleased.

 
I'm pretty easy to please! It just isn't a good idea because it doesn't actually fix anything and tries to make problems out of things that aren't. Honestly, the EC right now just doesn't work if this is going to be how publishers respond. There are better roads and better options to take. 

 
Just finished Marlow Briggs. I think they did a good job setting it up for a sequel. The mini game in the credits was just about the harder than anything in the game itself, though. -_-

 
Thermopyle said:
Just finished Marlow Briggs. I think they did a good job setting it up for a sequel. The mini game in the credits was just about the harder than anything in the game itself, though. -_-
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it was kind of hard....i think i got 9 out of the 10 things. i was very satisfied with the purchase overall.

 
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walkonshadows said:
Here's all the GInput files for all 3 games that were posted before. The zips include a complete copy of the html page they were downloaded from (the install notes and such):

GInput 0.3 (for GTA: San Andreas) https://mega.co.nz/#!XcEywTZC!d08K-0V2B4DKMpV9y1uwFQ7CkHEtQdcZ-FrNzZS5Gh0

GInput 1.02 (for GTA: III) https://mega.co.nz/#!bRMwEBoY!EFLGCmnOCHqtYJcUuUmC8TqK_5BPDm1k1gTY88oKGYw

GInput 1.02 (for GTA: Vice City) https://mega.co.nz/#!OJVFRZCY!Jg_3721KOmjQu3TF21b2hUNsYiZ_vB5m1rQwy6Y9Z5g
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Much appreciated thanks. I don't know what was wrong with that site. It's good to have an alternate source for these much needed files. Thanks for pming me the files as well.

 
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Neuro5i5 said:
I think the easiest way to 'fix' the EC program, should it continue, is to do away with the notion of having a $5 voucher in hand. Just make a list of EC games at whatever end price Amazon has them set to. Instead of a dollar amount voucher, all your voucher would allow you to do is actually purchase said games from the EC list. You have 7 vouchers, you can purchase 7 games. I think getting rid of any dollar value to the voucher itself would alleviate a good portion of the confusion and complaining of price jacking or whatever. All it would be is like a ticket to get you in the door however many times you want to purchase something.
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Not sure it's really a fix: I think that one of the main selling points for publishers to do these kind of deals is the fact that their games are published with the pre-voucher price.

And visibility is everything in this business, so a publisher might agree to take a very deep dive on a game that will encourage coupon holders to buy it in masses (for example Tomb Raider right now at 4$ post coupon and sitting at #1 selling game). And this in turn will ignite even more sales at the pre-coupon price: you have to remember that the EC games are still promoted as a discounted deal to the majority of the people that not familiar with the EC coupons, and when people see that it's sitting so high in the charts this is a psychological approval for them "hey it seems like EVERYONE is buying this top selling game now so this must be an AMAZING deal! Must get this now!"

 
Darthstryk3R said:
Is there a list for the most recent deals added that's not in the OP? Thx
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This was one of the most recent lists:

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/topic/316950-amazon-pcdd-january-deals-8-max-payne-3-gta-iv-8-max-payne-3-la-noire-20-simcity-6-ace-patrol-bundle-and-more/?p=11470065

Also...

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (base-game) [Steam-version or UPlay-version] = $29.99 before coupon / $24.99 after coupon.

I don't know if there's anything else out there for deals, that I might've missed.

 
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swym said:
Not sure it's really a fix: I think that one of the main selling points for publishers to do these kind of deals is the fact that their games are published with the pre-voucher price.
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Vouchers have a psychological impact as though they are real money. This thread is full of people saying they are going to "waste" their vouchers by not using them. Which is ridiculous to think that you need to buy a $10 game you didn't really want just so you don't "waste" a coupon. I don't think that being given a list of sale games to choose from (because you're in the EC club) encourages the same spending.

 
Syntax Error said:
Vouchers have a psychological impact as though they are real money. This thread is full of people saying they are going to "waste" their vouchers by not using them. Which is ridiculous to think that you need to buy a $10 game you didn't really want just so you don't "waste" a coupon. I don't think that being given a list of sale games to choose from (because you're in the EC club) encourages the same spending.
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Well, for the people who stupidly bought 100 copies of Pizza Dude to get spare coupons...they'll be wasting their coupons.

For everybody else, Amazon had more than enough good deals to get the coupons naturally, so that the coupons are just a bonus, not something you literally bought. In which case you're right about the psychological effect thang.

 
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The $5 voucher is a big selling point for Amazon during the Christmas season sales where it matches most of what Steam puts up.  Why buy on Steam when you can get it for the same price on Amazon plus a $5 voucher?  This aspect of the promotion is solid, its the whole not having games/titles lined up in advance that was/is the downfall.  Another downfall is not having a system in place to track vouchers except through email.  I love Amazon, but giving out coupons without really showing people that they actually have coupons is ridiculous and I'd think Amazon could do better, but thats just me.

Most of the good deals come from price matches anyway (from my experience).  Say the EC promotion lasts for the month of January (or better yet February imo).  Have a set amount of titles that you will be offering on the EC, cap it at like 15 or something, could possibly even let some of the communities Tony posts in (CAG, reddit?) vote and nominate like 5 of them.  Then during the EC sale pricematch all US sites instead of only Steam and we'd have a good sale again. 

Allow vouchers to be had from purchases from whenever they usually start in November until the end of January then run the sale for the month of February. 

 
pasports31 said:
In all fairness, year round pcdd porno would probably sell pretty well.
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I wonder how well Seduce Me sells? I've been tempted to buy it a few times out of morbid curiosity, but reviews of it being just basically a glorified card game with scantily clad women doesn't really sound appealing.

Granted, it's not "real" porn. I wonder how something that's like Sims but geared around "actual" relationships and sex and such would do on the market? I know Steam wouldn't carry it, but Amazon could expand into the AO games blue territory. ;)

 
Also if the EA guy is around, EA guy and Tony, after buying Into the Future and Island Paradise during the Sims 3 portion of the sale, I realized that there are a few "worlds" available on the Sims store not available at retail.  As such, I was wondering if it was possible to set up Simpoints to be available for purchase through Amazon, much like you've already done for the BioWare Points and Cartel Coins?

 
tmwfte said:
Also if the EA guy is around, EA guy and Tony, after buying Into the Future and Island Paradise during the Sims 3 portion of the sale, I realized that there are a few "worlds" available on the Sims store not available at retail. As such, I was wondering if it was possible to set up Simpoints to be available for purchase through Amazon, much like you've already done for the BioWare Points and Cartel Coins?
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You're doing this COMPLETELY wrong. You should be voicing your opinion that points systems, especially those that are exclusive to one game or even one company/publisher's games (EA, FUNCom, etc.) should be totally junked in favor of real world dollars. It translates into actual sale throughput instead of the umptine number of people who wait forever for a "sale" on those points never to buy them when they do go on a meager offering that isn't enough of a discount waiting forever for the GOTY (now with all the actual DLC) version to go on sale, which it never does, even when it's now the "complete" version (Mass Effect 3). Hell, even Micro$oft learned that lesson with the XBox Marketplace.

EA guy, you really want to move product? Then give us a real metric to be able to value whether we are actually getting a good deal or not. Drop the points, and let us use actual money. I'm not saying your strategy isn't working for you, it must be. But it's the difference between making a profit and making a windfall. Come on, your EA. You're not about to tell me you DON'T want to make more money, are you? All in favor of dropping stupid point systems and would actually buy more DLC if you could do so on your own terms, like this post.

 
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walkonshadows said:
You're doing this COMPLETELY wrong. You should be voicing your opinion that points systems, especially those that are exclusive to one game or even one company/publisher's games (EA, FUNCom, etc.) should be totally junked in favor of real world dollars. It translates into actual sale throughput instead of the umptine number of people who wait forever for a "sale" on those points never to buy them when they do go on a meager offering that isn't enough of a discount waiting forever for the GOTY (now with all the actual DLC) version to go on sale, which it never does, even when it's now the "complete" version (Mass Effect 3). Hell, even Micro$oft learned that lesson with the XBox Marketplace.

EA guy, you really want to move product? Then give us a real metric to be able to value whether we are actually getting a good deal or not. Drop the points, and let us use actual money. I'm not saying your strategy isn't working for you, it must be. But it's the difference between making a profit and making a windfall. Come on, your EA. You're not about to tell me you DON'T want to make more money, are you? All in favor of dropping stupid point systems and would actually buy more DLC if you could do so on your own terms, like this post.
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Personally, I like the idea of more types of points. GIMME MOAR

Suggestions:

- Bethesda points: Subsets

  1. Elder Scroll Points
  2. Fallout Points
  3. FPS Points
  4. Miscellaneous Points
- 2k Points

  1. Bioshock Points
  2. Civilization Points
  3. Xcom Points
  4. Borderlands Points
And many more!!! Those are just a few ideas. This wouldn't be annoying at all!!!

 
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pasports31 said:
Personally, I like the idea of more types of points. GIMME MOAR

Suggestions:

- Bethesda points: Subsets

  1. Elder Scroll Points
  2. Fallout Points
  3. FPS Points
  4. Miscellaneous Points
- 2k Points

  1. Bioshock Points
  2. Civilization Points
  3. Xcom Points
  4. Borderlands Points
And many more!!! Those are just a few ideas. This wouldn't be annoying at all!!!
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God I hope that the EA guy (and Bethesda/2k) know about sarcasm font! If not.... I know who to blame! :)

 
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pasports31 said:
Personally, I like the idea of more types of points. GIMME MOAR

Suggestions:

- Bethesda points: Subsets

  1. Elder Scroll Points
  2. Fallout Points
  3. FPS Points
  4. Miscellaneous Points
- 2k Points

  1. Bioshock Points
  2. Civilization Points
  3. Xcom Points
  4. Borderlands Points
And many more!!! Those are just a few ideas. This wouldn't be annoying at all!!!
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What about Amazon points to purchase those other points?

 
Neuro5i5 said:
What about Amazon points to purchase those other points?
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We also have EC coupons, too!

Man, I wish I could use my Amazon Points on DIGITAL products - since that's MOST of what I buy from Amazon (from Amazon DVG & MP3). Damn them and their archaic ways of making me have to buy ACTUAL RETAIL products that would be shipped to my house literally!

 
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That reminds me, I have some cartel coins that I should probably use to buy some virtual auction house junk to sell for virtual credits that I will never use in SW:TOR.

 
walkonshadows said:
You're doing this COMPLETELY wrong. You should be voicing your opinion that points systems, especially those that are exclusive to one game or even one company/publisher's games (EA, FUNCom, etc.) should be totally junked in favor of real world dollars. It translates into actual sale throughput instead of the umptine number of people who wait forever for a "sale" on those points never to buy them when they do go on a meager offering that isn't enough of a discount waiting forever for the GOTY (now with all the actual DLC) version to go on sale, which it never does, even when it's now the "complete" version (Mass Effect 3). Hell, even Micro$oft learned that lesson with the XBox Marketplace.

EA guy, you really want to move product? Then give us a real metric to be able to value whether we are actually getting a good deal or not. Drop the points, and let us use actual money. I'm not saying your strategy isn't working for you, it must be. But it's the difference between making a profit and making a windfall. Come on, your EA. You're not about to tell me you DON'T want to make more money, are you? All in favor of dropping stupid point systems and would actually buy more DLC if you could do so on your own terms, like this post.
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As much as I agree in regard to application to BioWare points, you don't play Sims 3, do you? While there are larger collections that I suppose could be sold as "Stuff" packs at retail, as well as the Worlds (some of them are, some of them aren't), most amount to what are essentially microtransactions. Going to a strict dollar value when it comes to the material is fine and good, but it actually won't see a sell through on a third party site, because they're never going to carry "Magique Window" for ten cents or the several thousand other items that are available. It's like asking a third party site to carry all of a f2p game's in-game store. It would be nice if it happened, allowing you an alternate place to buy the material -- and use other funding means -- but ultimately it's a pipe dream unless there's an overhaul of how the content is delivered as well.

 
pasports31 said:
Personally, I like the idea of more types of points. GIMME MOAR

Suggestions:

- Bethesda points: Subsets

  1. Elder Scroll Points
  2. Fallout Points
  3. FPS Points
  4. Miscellaneous Points
- 2k Points

  1. Bioshock Points
  2. Civilization Points
  3. Xcom Points
  4. Borderlands Points
And many more!!! Those are just a few ideas. This wouldn't be annoying at all!!!
Click to expand...
You're doing it all wrong. We should demand point specific to each class you choose in a game. Oh you want to start TSW over as a Templar but you bought all Dragon points because you played as a Dragon? Time to buy more points. That's the best system.

On a side note, anyone notice there is now a Cart feature in the Amazon MP3 store? Hoping one for DVG isn't far behind.

 
So the problem seems to be, people think the EC sale is good but some don't like the fact it doesn't seem pre-organised.

But the fact that it doesn't seem pre-organised is because Tony keeps you up to date on developments. If deals were just announced as they happened it'd seem pre-organised.

So Tony, you know what to do next year ;)

 
MinDRIoT said:
So the problem seems to be, people think the EC sale is good but some don't like the fact it doesn't seem pre-organised.

But the fact that it doesn't seem pre-organised is because Tony keeps you up to date on developments. If deals were just announced as they happened it'd seem pre-organised.

So Tony, you know what to do next year ;)
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oh does he now or do we know so how u looking at my post of hot girls how u liking htem heh

 
I have 2 EC coupons. I think they are account linked, and I don't really want to spend money to use them. So if you want to use them, give me GC credit  to make up the difference and I'll purchase for you. Preferably low cost products. Tips appreciated! Just message me.

 
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As much as I'd like a good excuse to use another EC coupon, I'm way too on the fence with The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.  Anybody care to help justify it at this price?  

Has that feel like it will dip in retail price and be on sale even cheaper than post EC before I could ever really get to playing it.

Wasting EC promo isn't fun either.

 
hal said:
It's gotten better over the last year or so, but it's just a shell of the PC version.
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I actually only got it a couple months ago or so. Seems smooth and all, just never encountered a monster and had nowhere to go but straight down. Guess next time I feel like playing I'll have to try the largest size world and hope it is more engaging.

 
TreadLife said:
As much as I'd like a good excuse to use another EC coupon, I'm way too on the fence with The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. Anybody care to help justify it at this price?

Has that feel like it will dip in retail price and be on sale even cheaper than post EC before I could ever really get to playing it.

Wasting EC promo isn't fun either.
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Somewhere else has it for the same price without using an EC. Or at least did a couple of days ago, anyway.

 
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