WELP, guess that part about only one sale being active didn't really become a problem. The last sales were mere seconds before 6 AM CET, so this has definitely been planned all along. Can't entirely blame them for eventually pulling the plug, but I'd hoped it would have run another 9 hours at least, so it would have lasted a full number of days.

I've shut down the Pi, and updated the detailed list since it wasn't working, and it didn't actually need all the currencies - so the detailed list now only has the number of copies remaining, but no prices. For the regional prices, see the full list.

For those who have just stepped into this thread for the first time and have no idea what I'm talking about, see http://www.gog.com/forum/general/double_insomnia_tracker_thread/post148

Any idea has to be passed through a filter of "If this were to be done, and I was a bad guy, how easily could I abuse it to my own advantage or even to just cause havoc?" People would most likely just click on that "vote to unkeane" button on every single game that came up that they didn't care about, and it wouldn't take long to get enough random people who are monitoring the site trying to just get freebies to force the sale to the next game prematurely. That would just be random people just being people though without any real ill will per se. But then it would be easy to write a python script containing a list of one's own wanted games such as the one that already exists out there (and thus just modify that script) to do:

while (game not on my wanted list) {
jam on the "vote to unkeane" button
}

Then fire that script up over the Tor network 100 times or similar.

One always has to take "gaming the system" into account to prevent abuse, and to think outside of the box about how one would go about trying to abuse anything and everything because there's always "that guy" who is going to do it. :)

I'm one of the "good guys" or so I like to think and my motto is that if a good guy like me can think of a way to beat the system in theory, then someone or 10 someones out there either have already written the script or are in the process of doing so.

Ultimately, GOG knows if this promo format is giving them that which they seek, to draw in new customers and bring in new revenue or not. That's true even if some portion of people don't like the format at all, or if it has real flaws. If it is working to bring in revenue and new customers they may tweak it here and there, but I wouldn't expect them to do anything to make it more complicated nor to make it easy for hackers to game to their advantage or cause disruption. If the promo is not bringing in customers or revenue at a rate they expected, then they'll rethink the whole promo and replace it with something else rather than add ugly hacks to it. Since this is the 3rd Insomnia promo though I think it's safe to say that economically it has worked out well for GOG, and they've refined the process a few times now to run a little smoother so as long as they're seeing the numbers they want to have, they're probably not going to institute any major changes that could disrupt the flow, but certainly nothing that will lower their sales figures to give people higher chances of winning freebies or to force the sale to end sooner. It would just work against their end goals.

Indeed, I remember that one also and that did seem to work out well. I like that method better than the Insomnia style personally. There were limits on the gameability of it, and the small timeframes gave someone less incentive to even consider it anyway.

Oh man, so it's finally over, huh?

I picked Gex and Labyrinth of time
I also got freebies some freebies. :D Got Among the sleep, Robin Hood, A bird's story and Septerra core for free.

I already had Septerra core and it's an interesting game, trust me, I tried several times to play it through :D. So I'll finally make a little giveaway when I come up with something more interesting than "yo, here's a giveaway".

Thanks for this (sad) information.

Yeah, this was one of the things I didn't like about the Time Machine sale back in the day - people would vote out some games very quickly if it didn't appeal to them.

I think a better solution would be to just have a time limit on each individual game. I haven't crunched the numbers (only recorded them), so I don't know how long the really slow games were up, but somewhere in the vicinity of 2-3 hours feels like a decent limit that keeps a suitable level of progress.

There is a python script on github to monitor GOG sales and fire off an alarm already. Don't have it bookmarked unfortunately.

One flaw in that idea is that people really really really do not like to know that they just got one discount and someone else a while later got a greater discount than they did. They feel sleighted and this already happens in GOG promos where a game is on discount for 50% by default but comes up in a flash sale for say 80% off for 10 minutes. People get very upset and some even to the point they claim they'll never shop here again. It would be a very bad idea to build that situation into a promo as a core premise of the promo knowing that people really dislike it when someone else gets a better deal than they do in a short time difference. It could also cause people to avoid buying a game now hoping (with gamble fever) that it comes on sale cheaper later and then if it doesn't and is more expensive later they just decide not to buy it because they feel bad they could have bought it cheaper and lost out and don't want to pay the higher price (even if it is still a great price) simply because they know it can go lower. May sound like a fun thing perhaps, but making things too complicated is more likely to bite them in the end especially if people feel bad about missing out. Already enough of that happens. :)

I demand all remaining games and movies to be on sale at the same time for a few hours, with no copies limit. It would be faster than the insomnia style and people would get what they forcibly missed.

What a bizarre ending.Bit surprising and anticlimactic.Did Neverending Nightmares show up in the last sales?Guess i missed it one way or another.

I don't recall that sale enough to remember any gaming of the system going on but if a system has any weaknesses it will almost always be gamed by someone so it wouldn't surprise me.

Personally I do favour the time based sales over the quantity based ones myself, but most of the suggestions that any of us make to "improve" the Insomnia sale basically boil down to "We don't like Insomnia sale, use a different promo format, okthxbye" :) It would change the sale (to our liking) enough that it is no longer "insomnia" that is to say, so I'm not sure they'd consider doing that if the existing sale format is actually drawing in good revenue and customers. I'm insomnia'd out myself, which is to say each new insomnia sale I buy less and pay less attention. They do get me a little more active in the forums than usual but not so much with my wallet. :) I buy wayyy more games during the other promos than with Insomnia.

So I'm with you in that if I could edit the Insomnia web code I'd put a 20-30 minute limit on a game showing up, upon which time the game bumps over and the remaining unsold copies are remembered, then after the 3 repeats are done, bring back all of the slow-sellers for MEGA Insomnia for diehards that like to be keaned all day long for 3 days. That would make us happy but probably reduce the revenue inbound and new signups though. :)

No, it didn't.
Don't worry though. Games in previous insomnia promos were parts of the next big regular sales with the same discount (even as parts of a bundle).

"Lumino City" and "Anomaly Defenders" keaned all night.

I think it would have been funny if they swapped out one of the two Fresh game panes for a video pane, and had a video play during the last 2 hours on page load that showed Marcin Iwinski talking to some game media journalist who asks him "So what happens when Insomnia sale ends anyway, how do you know when it's over?" and then they basically re-enact the ending of the Sopranos.

Then when Insomnia sale ends, the entire webpage turns black for 10 minutes.

The only problem with that, is they'd end up having to dust off their ole <span class="bold">monk robes</span> again due to all of the people who have absolutely sense of humour whatsoever. ;o)

Vow. I did not see this one coming. I really thought the promo would go one day more and finish totally. Ah, well anyway it was a good time.

That's good to hear. Also I have to say thank you for doing this tracking. It's been very helpful.


My Insane Stats Spreadsheet of the Insomnia! It's nearly complete.