I was planning on writing this after E3, but I figured "Hey, when the heck are we going to do another raffle?" Well, the answer to that question was "Anime Expo" and I really wished I'd written this piece. So, now I'm writing it to defend myself when any and all possible future raffles arise.

First off, your chances of winning are pretty low. I mean, we were getting probably upwards of 600 entries to dig through during the day's final raffle, and we were giving away 10 prizes. So while my methods below will actually increase your chance, they may not increase them so much that you actually win.

1) Be present.

I can't tell you how many "instant losers" I drew. One guy in the crowd keeping track said that I drew 12...and I was only giving away 5 prizes that round. All you had to do to win was write your name down and be there, and these folks could only complete half of the equation. If a raffle says you must be present to win, BE PRESENT. If the raffle's at 2pm, it's at 2pm SHARP, because there are going to be people crowding around the booth to find out if they won, so we're not going to wait for you.

(Side note: Don't come up to the booth after we drew, and ask if we called your name. Even if we did, you don't get a prize.)

2) Write legibly.

If you have to write in all block caps, please do so. If I can't read your name, I'm going to make the best go of it, but there's a chance I mangle it so horribly you don't know which randomly selected name I'm calling. So, if you're not the best penman, go with big, easy to read, block letters.

3) If the sign strongly suggests that you sign up for the newsletter, sign up for the newsletter.

One of the things people didn't quite catch onto was that, if you were a member of the Atlus Faithful, or if you wanted to become one, we were giving out extra prizes if we drew your name. We had it written on the board. You're already filling out the form, so you obviously are interested in us as a company. You may as well go in for the extra goodies.

If you can obey these simple rules, you'll make everything go a little bit smoother. If things are going smoothly, that encourages us to raffle off more stuff. If we raffle off morer stuff, you have a better chance of winning. We love seeing people's reactions to winning, but the thrill of of that moment gets worn down a bit when people are yelling at us to hurry up and draw another name.

While I'm on the subject of contests, though, we're doing a month-long Droplitz contest on Xbox Live Arcade. Sure, you can sit around and try and win 1 vs. 100 prizes from Microsoft, but if you want to show off your gaming skillz for a chance to win XBLA Points, (1st prize is 4000, 2-5th get 1600.) then play to win! Don't be discouraged by the current high scores, as a lot of them are Atus employees, and we aren't eligible. (For example, I'm currently in 8th.)