Questions
by Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
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Answers
by Jimmy Yang, President of JACT
The Internet is a strange and dangerous place. Every day thousands of
people are scammed out of their time, money, property and identities.
Yet there are still some services that seem “too good to be
true” but are actually run by honest, hard-working
individuals that are striving for success. Recently, Ten Ton
Hammer’s Cody “Micajah” Bye had a
conversation with Jimmy Yang whose
target="_blank">JACT service (which offers free
prizes and products simply for playing video games) often falls under
that “too good to be true” stigma time and time
again. To clear the air, Jimmy opened himself up to Ten Ton
Hammer’s questions, and he answered every inquiry we threw
his way. If you’re interested in winning more free prizes
than the ones you already get with Ten Ton Hammer, check JACT out!
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JACT will
support WoW's Wrath of the Lich King.
Ten Ton Hammer: To start,
can you give our readers a brief summary of what JACT is all about?
What kind of service do you provide gamers? What sort of prizes do you
offer?
Jimmg Yang:
JACT was created in an effort to build a community large enough to
leverage our strength in numbers. Simply, we want to have
enough users to go to sponsors and say, “Hey, you can
advertise here with us because we have the audience you want.
What we want in return are your products and services we can share with
our community.” Of course we want to
build a viable business as well. So in order to do this we
built a rewards system for gamers. The idea was to have a
complete synergy between JACT, the gamer, and the advertiser.
More succinctly, JACT is about providing a link between advertisers and
the coveted demographic of PC gamers.
We provide gamers with a software client (called Eamonn) that tracks
gaming behavior. As they play, they accrue credits called
JACT Bux. JACT Bux are used to redeem prizes in
JACT’s online Mall. Prizes range from relatively
low redemption value, such as guitar picks, to relatively high
redemption values, such as iPods. JACT also offers PC and
console games, DVDs, gaming gear, a load of other
prizes. Prize selection changes constantly.
Additionally, we try to be as responsive as we can to the prize
requests of our users. If enough users want something in the
mall, then we do our very best to be able to put that prize in the
mall. For those who like a little bit of chance, we have
weekly prize drawings that gamers can participate in, and, on occasion,
we offer larger prizes in our drawings. In July, we awarded
an Xbox 360 Elite, and, on December 12, we will draw the winner of a
brand new gaming rig sponsored by iBuyPower.
Ten Ton Hammer: Is there
any sort of membership fee? The prizes seem pretty extravagant. What
sort of business model do you operate on?
Yang: JACT
users do not have to pay anything for membership. All of our
prize offerings are sponsored by advertisers. When users are
browsing the mall, they are served ads based on the games they play,
the prizes they view, and their general demographic characteristics,
such as age and location. Additionally, companies covet
gamers because they are so influential in the proliferation of new
products and because they have been so difficult to reach.
Accordingly, companies sponsor prizes to be awarded by JACT because
those companies want those products in the hands of the
gamer. This is how we are able to give away prizes without
our users incurring any costs. And the upside for gamers is
that our users can potentially have access to new product releases
before everyone else. So from that standpoint we can also act
as a virtual product launch platform, allowing specialized companies to
release new products to members of our community and gauge the response
to those products.
Ten Ton Hammer:
There are a number of massively multiplayer online games on your
“supported games list” including
href="http://wow.tentonhammer.com/" target="_blank">World
of Warcraft,
EverQuest
II, and
target="_blank">Lord of the Rings Online. How
exactly does a game make
it on that list? Are gamers “rewarded” the same for
each type of game they play? Will we see upcoming MMOGs like
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/73"
target="_blank">Stargate
Worlds and
target="_blank">Warhammer Online on this list?
Yang: We
attempt to accommodate our users as much as possible. We are
already planning to add Stargate: Worlds and Warhammer Online to our
supported games. And, obviously, we are already planning for
WotLK. Ultimately, if enough of our users want JACT to
support a game, we will do everything within our power to add it to our
list. But it’s not all about just MMOs or strategy
games. We are also in the initial stages of rolling
out competition-based gaming on our servers. Currently, we
have a Counter-Strike Source plug-in that allows gamers to earn rewards
based on their performance. Everyone likes a little
competition.
Ten Ton Hammer: How do
gamers redeem the “BUX” that they earn? Is it as
simple as shopping online, albeit with your virtual money?
Yang: Yes.
If gamers have enough BUX and have shopped online, then they are good
to go.
Ten Ton Hammer: Will JACT
always be free to the consumer?
Yang: JACT
membership will always be free to the gamer. In the future,
if our users want us to provide additional services, we may offer those
at a premium.
Ten Ton Hammer: What are
your eventual goals for JACT? Where do you see your website going? What
sort of offerings will you have in the future?
Yang: We
want JACT to become the premier online destination, where gamers and
advertisers can coexist, and get value out of it We hope that
anybody playing PC games will want to be part of the JACT community.
In the future, we would love to see our strength in numbers
become so great that we draw sponsorship for prizes like cars,
vacations, and other big ticket items. As far as the website
is concerned, building around our community and their wants and needs
is always the plan for the future.
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Warhammer
Online is also a game supported by JACT services.
Ten Ton Hammer: Is there
any way for users to read feedback about previous giveaways? On a
similar line of thought, will gamers be able to share their experiences
with other users if they enjoyed the services that JACT provided?
Yang: JACT
provides a platform for users to submit their own unedited, unbiased
reviews that are posted publicly within JACT’s community
section. If users prefer a more structured soap box, we
encourage them to fill out a survey in which they can rate us and share
with us their questions, concerns, and suggestions. We rely
on feedback from our users to make our service better.
Additionally, we greatly appreciate users sharing their positive
impressions of JACT with others. And, to show that we’re
serious about our appreciation, we offer a referral program that
results in bonus BUX when users invite their friends to join.
Ten Ton Hammer: Is there
anything else you can tell Ten Ton Hammer readers and gamers interested
in JACT?
Yang: Well,
I want to be completely transparent on what we do here at
JACT. From the onset we have gotten a lot of the
“too good to be true” or
“sounds like a scam” type responses. I
want to take this opportunity to address the critics. . We
created the JACT community with the idea that strength in numbers
effectively attracts sponsors. Our demographic is highly
coveted by advertisers, so JACT created the rewards system as a
conduit. What we are talking about is basically bartering for
sponsorship with our audience’s viewership.
It’s that simple. What one gamer cannot accomplish,
100,000 can. It’s nothing new. Product
placement exists on TV and movies, at live marketing events where
companies hand out samples, in consumer research programs that welcome
outreach to the consumer. Those are all similar to what we
are doing.
Also, people should think of our service as they would their credit
card points or airline miles. They are not going to be
getting rewards overnight, but if they were going to travel or swipe a
card anyways, why not get a little something more? The
mentality should be “Well, I’m gaming
anyway” instead of “What!?, I can’t get
prizes overnight.” We are always looking for ways
to improve our service for the gamer, but the rewards program is the
core of it. Sometimes something “too good to be
true” can happen because the idea is good enough and is
carried out with honesty, integrity and dedication.
We’d like to think JACT is one of those examples.
