The Codes Page: Biggest Traffic, Biggest Risk

A true scene first

A player searching “game codes” wants exactly one thing: a working code to copy. That intent makes the codes page the highest-traffic query on the site, and players assume it updates daily and come back — Lesson 1 said return traffic is the most valuable kind. The other side of the coin: hand a player a dead code and he never returns — and tells his friends. Traffic king and accident magnet are the same page.

The manual’s thickest red line

Codes come only from lists you saw with your own eyes: the official Twitter, the official Discord, a developer stream. AI has no eyes — the codes it “knows” are stale or invented. The prompt below hard-codes it: “only from the list below; never invent or guess”. Feed your list into the placeholders; AI does layout and bookkeeping, not creation.

Create a codes page for <game name> (category: codes, slug: all-codes).
Codes may only come from the list below; never invent or "guess" one:
<code | reward | expiry | source>
Write all data into the frontmatter codes array (code/reward/status/expiryDate/source);
the body covers how-to-redeem steps + FAQ (H2s as questions), title includes month and year.
Run pnpm check-content && pnpm build; all green or not done.

You’ll see: a codes page with one-click copy buttons, Active and Expired auto-grouped. Check: every code has a source and an expiry; click a copy button yourself.

Double red lines for video-sourced material

Many codes come from someone else’s video. Video is fine as material — two lines, crossing either is an accident:

Numbers and codes spoken in a video count as unverified — the finished page wears draft: true until you verify by hand (redeem the code, check the number). Creators misquote and go stale constantly; they are not responsible for your site.
Other people’s scripts and captions are factual reference only — your prose must be fully rewritten. Copying their text invites copyright and duplicate-content trouble; embedding the original video in your page is the compliant move, copying its words is not.

The standard draft-to-live move

A draft: true page is visible only to you; production builds never publish it. The flow: publish as a draft placeholder → verify item by item when you have time (redeem each code, recheck each number) → flip the draft flag off. Pages you have verified are the ones players can visit every day.

Three classic mistakes (made for you in advance)

Asking AI to “come up with a few codes”: hand-crafting a fake. There is exactly one acceptable count: zero.
Reposting a video’s script as your article: unsafe and undifferentiated. Keep the facts, rewrite the sentences.
Dead codes never marked: flip status to expired and date the update. Players bounce after one dead code — expiry management is return-visit management.

Three words to know (just these)

Source: each code’s birth certificate — where you saw it, written down. Cited codes are credible codes.
Flip live: the moment verification finishes, the draft flag comes off, the page meets every player.
Expiry management: archiving dead codes promptly, active ones on top — returning players only read the newest section.

✅ Acceptance (all must hold)

☐ The codes page passes QA; every code has source and expiry
☐ A copy button actually works
☐ Every video-sourced item is either verified and live, or still flagged draft

Next lesson

“Got codes?” answered. The next player question is “who’s strong?” Next lesson: tier lists turn your judgment into tables — then give your pages their own images and video. Go to Lesson 15 · Tier Lists & Media