Games4Ever71:
... I don't have that kind of patience.
That statement sums it up well.
I'm closing in on 7 years here and there is a technique that served me well while racking up $20 to $30+ a month in credits. I have financial constraints that put me in a position of having $0 available for this game. I also set a time budget for this game. Time spent watching videos, attempting surveys and chatting on these forums is subtracted from the game play. That way it doesn't impact the rest of my life.
Videos are a "hit and run" for me. I set the laptop on the dining room counter and click on a video as I walk by doing other things. During the course of the day that adds up to a lot a videos played and I've done a lot of other work while they were playing.
Surveys are a different animal. With time you get to recognize certain companies to stay away from. Qualtrics is one company that puts surveys on here (through Peanut Labs) in order to collect the information without paying for completed surveys. WTG consciously condones companies like that defrauding their customers and will do nothing about it. That's the specific reason I quit doing them last summer. If WGT showed some courtesy in direct exchange with customers instead of clamming up I might still be doing them and gifting the majority of credits earned to those who don't get the opportunities. I've actually given away about 60,000 credits worth of equipment that way.
Remember, too, that it's a matter of numbers. 10,000 WGT people could be competing with 250,000 people from other sites for 200 survey slots. The surveys are third party sites, not limited to WGT. Chances of getting one are slim but answering honestly got me a fair number of surveys completed.
For me it was worth it. Those quick 5 credit survey rejections added up quickly enough. I simply subtracted the survey time from the game play time allocated. For me this game is a lot more about social interaction on the forums, being able to give a gift even when finances are so tight and playing an occasional game. Being a competitive gameplayer isn't important to me. Being social is.
I don't give the gifts now because WGT has taken a stance against their own customers in favor of companies perpetrating fraud on them. I boycott all surveys now and I'm sure they don't care.
For those still doing surveys, don't sign up for anything. No reputable survey company will ask for any peronally identifiable information as part of a survey. They will only ask for something like an email address or name if they are trying to get you to sign up for something (like a membership) or they want to contact you again. If you give them that information you will get spammed as they sell your name and address.
Almost 7 years and I have never spent a penny here. Not even a credit card on file. No spam from any survey or "other offer" companies. The system has worked well for me. But patience really is the key.