2 free games, that's awesome!

On the bright side, I got some games out of this I was thinking of getting in the holiday sale. So I'm set somewhat there.

Yeah about an hour ago.

Did Theme Hospital showed up lately ? I had to get some sleep .... Hope I didn't miss it !

Oxi-moron detected. End promo in same sentence as Jack Keanes.

Figures. :(

Saw it last night but hasn't been around for a while I think.

It was already up twice.

Literally had me crying and in stomach aches.

This game is legendary status now!

Any idea when I can expect Lords of Midnight?

No, no, all free games go on sale, so if it's coming up, it's coming up xP

I think the main thing these days is that, well, consoles have pretty much taken over, and PC gamers (myself included, TBH) see a drop in game quality because developers (well, publishers, really) release too many PC games that are really designed for consoles and the console market.

Has Thief 3 showed up recently ?

I can agree that it can be frustrating to click on the "free" button and get "sorry, you missed out" time and time again but if you take a few minutes to consider what GOG stands for, and the fantastic service they provide with DRM-free games, GOG's consumer friendly vibe, and look at all they've done to date they really do have a stellar reputation in the world of gaming.

GOG is experimenting right now with something they've never done before and it's going to have its pros and cons naturally as they can't predict how things will play out in advance all the time. They are giving out free games, yes - but they are not giving out free games to all customers universally this time like with the one day giveaways or the recent Internet speed test promo thing, this is a limited freebie offering and as such it means some of us will get a free game and some of us wont. It's nothing to be angry about really, they're giving things away for free under no obligation to do so. Would you be less angry and continue to buy from them if they never gave any free games away at all to anyone, and instead had the promo without that?

I think GOG deserves some slack here. They've never done this before in this manner and it is clear that there are elements of the promo that are suboptimal such as the way the freebies are being handled and also the Jack Keane 2 neverending roadblock sale last night for 5 hours. I'm sure they did not anticipate either of these things happening the way they did. GOG's goal is to try to make their customers happy and give good deals and build a loyal relationship with us. But there is a certain amount of uncertainty and experimentation in all of this too and some trial and error involved with keeping things fresh and exciting.

One of the things a few people have mentioned now is that the individual game promos should have a cutoff timer of say 15 minutes or so, so if the stock run doesn't drop to zero one game doesn't stall the whole promo for 5 hours. That is a sensible thing to do and I wouldn't be surprised if GOG implements something like that the next time they do something like this. Now, what about the freebies? Well, they will analyze what works and doesn't work with that too and most likely try to provide a better mechanism for freebies which gets people excited while feeling they have an actual chance in the future and without nasty server error messages to frustrate people. One way that could be done is to allow people to enter a mini-contest for a freebie for say... 60 seconds. Everyone logged into their account gets say 30-60 seconds to enter for a chance, then they choose n people at random. Nobody sees any errors or feels cheated, and everyone has a fair chance that doesn't rely on the speed of their Internet connection per se. Anyway it's just an idea.

I got irritated as anyone by the way freebies are handled, but not angry at GOG and no sense of entitlement or anything, I just don't bother worrying about the freebies anymore as it's just not worth the time and effort to care about it for me personally. The sale prices are still great, and I think GOG will do a post mortem after the sale and decide what worked and what didn't and use that to fuel an even better promo in the future, and they'll probably handle freebies better in the future too.

Regardless though, GOG is a great company and I applaud their efforts to bring us a deal and do something fresh and new even if it has some rough spots around the edges. They're still my #1 preferred gaming distributor regardless of any temporary frustrations the website has from time to time or other things that are minor in the grand scheme of things.

If I could offer some advice it would just be to take a breather and forget about the freebie promos and just enjoy the sale, and whatever GOG has to offer us next. They continue to grow and bring us loyal customers more of what we love - more DRM-free games at great prices. That is what it is all about.