The Community has really changed since I became a member. The site overhaul was a big deal to me and put me off of GOG for a while, then regional pricing and regional locking have really soured some of the longtime members. I know it doesn't affect me as much as others, but, when usually nice people become angrier, it makes being a part of the community more difficult. In GOG's attempt to reach out to the masses, we have ended up with some...questionable folk who seem content to ruin what used to be.

I know many of us would like to be selective here, but, alas, it's not up to us. And the blame doesn't entirely lie on GOG.

Edit: Holy crap! I've been using GOG for 4 years now and just noticed it.

I'm so tempted to have a giveaway, but that would make me a hypocrite :P

Maybe when I reach 5 years, I will.

I think that GOG needs to create an official Whiny Little Bitch forum. It will certainly clear a lot of shit out of this one.

I can say from personal experience that this art thing is more a matter of dedication and hard work, not so much of any miraculous gifts. ;)

But I understand what you guys are saying -- of course an art contest, in example, would limit the number of potential participants. Hence why I mentioned that the creators of such giveaway/contests just need to be more creative, and come up with all sorts of challenges and themes, so everyone can participate even if they don't have any amazing skills as artist, writer, musician etc. The main idea here is mostly that participants should invest some time and effort, and show they are really interested in the games on offer, and not joining solely because " Hey, it's free stuff"!".

Of course it also depends on the motivation to create a giveaway. If someone just wants to get rid of some codes they don't need, they can do it in any old way, and don't need to do anything fancy about it. ( But then I figure it also doesn't matter much who's going to receive them, including "scammers". )

On the other hand, I know some people like to create giveaways to celebrate special events in their own life, like a promotion at their job, and they buy ( sometimes expensive ) games specifically for those occasions. In those cases, I think it would solve various problems, and also make the experience more fun for everyone, if they don't simply drop the codes in a thread. Of course it's their money and their choice; just saying that putting a bit more thought into these giveaways, especially when the games on offer are valuable/on high demand, would potentially avoid some of the negative side effects of offering freebies on the web.

From my point of view, yeah, I'd like to get rid of the codes, but I'd like to give them to someone who really wants them, not someone padding their game collection or trying to make a buck off of something I gave out for free. Many of us who drop codes just want a thank you or, at least, confirmation that a game was taken, but that seems to be too much to ask for.

But thanks to Phc7006, I think I've found a new way to be generous and not have to deal with "scammers". It helps to have a public wishlist *wink wink*

It wouldn't make organizing a GA less fun for me.

Look, its really not that hard. You don't "NEED" a competition. All you need is to do a quick search for the winner after you've drawn a name. If all you see are posts saying "gimme gimme gimme"; or you see posts where someone has traded their won game away despite the rules of a giveaway stating its for one's own use; or you see posts talking about the winners scamming another out of games; then draw another name.

Just because we have some old user on this forum that thinks because he joined in 2008, he owns the place, this doesn't make him correct. It just makes him another harassing bully. He's the one who is intellectually challenged if he thinks one has no right to ask someone to use a code for himself or that the generous people on these forums are the cause of all of GoG's problems.

And if I may suggest for Steam keys, there is the GoG Steamgifts group. While normally one cannot track whether a Steam game is redeemed, on the GoG Steamgifts group, they have rules which limit leeching and all people are required to have a public profile. This allows one to check if someone actually redeemed your gift.

Alternatively, without Steamgifts, if you are worried about such things, one could always require the winner to tell you his Steam name, so you can check if it has been redeemed. And if they don't, the scammer got one game, just report it in the scammer thread and others can avoid that person in the future.

And of course most GoG keys, its easy, check which account redeemed it...

I've given away a whole lot of games in the past and if I got burned it would most likely be for uncontested Steam codes anyway. Every GoG code I gave away was redeemed by the intended recipient.

Just announcing up front that you expect a certain level of forum activity to enter and that you will do a search is enough that most of the questionable people stay away in the first place. And while the search sounds tedious, its not so bad, I've given away a couple dozen games at once and only had to search two or three as I recognized the rest.

My biggest problem with code drops (even semi-encoded ones) is that this tends to reward the people who are spending 24/7 trolling for free codes when they really should be playing other games they have won...

This is the second time this user is accusing me yet no proof provided.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/nongog_gifting_thread/post11208

^It's the other way round buddy, you need to provide proof your worth giving games to.

The user that i asked Gunjitsu from requested forum participation and i send it. Stop derailing things.
Now i see more users have problem with this user so i posted in this thread too.

nes fuck off and stop your alt comedy

He's not entirely wrong. This has even been brought up before. GOG's community as a whole, is way too nice. As the community has grown, the giveaways are being seen as an opportunity flip codes. The people who are doing giveaways with rules aren't the ones who I'd consider part of the problem. It's the people who give codes away with no strings attached who are. It's been awhile since I've done a giveaway, but the culture of the forums as they stand now, isn't very encouraging for me to EVER want to do so again.

It opens me up to potential verbal abuses for exclusion, hackers, whining and a host of other headaches I'd rather not deal with when I'm just trying to be nice.

So yes, the problem DOES seem to stem from too many giveaways without rules or strings. It may be a simplified way of viewing the issue, and the alternative does sort of suck, but I'd rather have the GOG forums be a better environment and forgo some free games, than have a GOG forums that's full of angry alt making scammers, which is what we're starting to shift to.

The thing is hedwards says the problem is giveaways WITH rules. He thinks they are unfair and ungenerous and that if you create a giveaway it should be open to everyone.
I'm more of the opinion that if I am giving something away that I have paid for, then it should be up to me who I give it to and if they have to meet certain requirements.

I have given games to low rep and relatively new people before but generally the winners are people I recognise as having participated in the forums.

Hell, Hedwards seems to think people have a right to flaunt those rules as he claims in his self-proclaimed brilliance that the giver cannot control the gift in the least. By that silly logic, he thinks anyone should be allowed to enter for a game they already own and just trade it away and the giver shouldn't have any right to complain.