I have no idea why anyone would buy those Surprise Games...

It's simple: GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL, GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL!

The newest member in this thread joined back in 2014: thomq. At this point he and the rest of us have been here 4+ years, and there's a good chance that we've had plenty of opportunities to pick up the titles we would normally buy without this gimmick.

So I think this is aimed more toward newer customers with small libraries, those who embrace all genres, and the collectors. Myself, I'm none of those, and I have already picked up most of the titles that spark enough interest to whip out the credit card. In light of that, there is zero draw for me to participate in the random / mystery / surprise sales gimmick. It's not surprising that a lot of other folks also are not attracted to it and will be underwhelmed by the outcomes.

the only surprises i like these days are when long awaited bethesda rpgs randomly pop onto gog's front page or when my wife gets into full on bj mode.

lol.

I share the sentiment.

Every time I decided to try the mystery games, something really trashy popped up.
Not worth the money.

Pretty much


If there was an overwhelming number of games you were interested in and a few iffy ones, and having a good discount to go for several of them, I'd call that a reason to play in the surprise gimmick.

Unfortunately I've only had a handful i played and actually liked of surprise sales. And the few 'good' games I'd be interested in i hardly ever got, seems they had limited supply like they were thrown in there more as bait and less as something you could get.

I think transparency of what games there are (and odds of getting them, assuming it's not evenly distributed) would be preferred.

what if I don't want Syberia 3, Urban Empires or Planet Nomads, I would never play them. How would that help me?

That goes back to the matter that we've (us in the thread to that point) all been here 4+ years and are likely to have bought a large chunk of what we want from the catalog. So that's why I figured it mostly appealed to those three types of buyer I listed earlier. But sure, IF you haven't filled out your library and IF the list of games has a lot of appealing titles at a price that works for you, then yeah, you have a decent chance of getting some stuff you'll enjoy. And also some you won't enjoy.

Either way, it's a side gimmick that doesn't hurt the base sale format. I won't complain about the mystery aspect, but also have no personal desire or reason to participate. Figure at least some people are in the same boat.

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Would be nice if some of the proceeds went to a local charity....

If you want to send money to a Polish charity you're free to do so. Forcing that on everybody would be wrong on many levels.

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Agreed but some of us like having such an option. Granted the few times I;ve bought something from Humble, I just spilt the money between Humble and the developers as I don;t like the charity in question.

And as mentioned a whole bunch of times previously, nothing is making you buy the hats, stars, etc....

edit: Fine, you can send it to their beer tower fund. :)

Your idea would either make the hats cost more (the buyers lose out) or mean that GOG, pubs, devs earned less (the sellers lose out).

If we're sensible, nobody needs to lose out. As I've already said, the option is already there for you and others that feel the same way - just donate to a Polish charity directly, there are plenty out there.