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Giveaway closed!

Winner: benderz
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For so long we've enjoyed regular weekly giveaways from extraordinary, generous GOGlodytes. Sadly, many of them don't even visit the forum any more. I don't need to name names; we know who they are.

Let's be clear, I am *not* as generous as these people, but I will do my best fill the void in their absence, a la Lou and The Sigil. As for the rest of you? Well, you guys totally rock as well and I want to share with you some GOGgy goodness :)

At least until the World Cup starting in June, I'm going to be giving away some of my favourite games of all time (and maybe some leftover crap I don't want) :P

Up for grabs this week: Syndicate Plus.

Rules for entry:
- 200+ rep
- There will definitely be exceptions - just ask :)
- You can only enter for yourself
- Earn an extra entry if you suggest (and I use) a giveaway idea to keep things interesting in following weeks.

This week's entry is easy. Answer this question: If regional pricing ends up breaking GOG, where will you go to regularly get DRM-free goodness?

Not in.
But if regional pricing does break GOG (I am sure that although unfair it will be accepted in time) then I will just keep buying games from Shiny Loot, IGS and Gamers Gate. I already buy from them and it is all about the DRM-free that keeps me then the price. I want to know I own my game and can play it off line at the bottom of the ocean without an internet connection, then have to log in every week or have my game killed by a greedy developer.
Knowing the price was the same was nice, it felt different as I felt things were fair, but I know I cannot live in a happy place forever.

+1 for the giveaway, but I'm not in. I will, however, answer your question.

The next best place for me is GamersGate. It's not perfect; in a matter of fact, many games that are available DRM-Free on GOG are only available as a Steam key or with SecuRom on the site. And yet, it has old DRM-Free games that GOG doesn't have (like Aliens vs Predator, Gun Metal, Majesty, X-Com, etc.) and a good chunk of old DRM-Free games that GOG does have.

Not in, but thanks.

Bundles - Groupees, IGS, etc.

Not in but two questions:
1) Can have the phone number of your avatar because she's smokin'.
2) Not a huge soccer fan but I do watch the cup and TBH I haven't heard anything about Hungary going into the tournament. Are we looking at a sleeper here or is it the same old 3 or 4 teams trading off cup victories?

1) Yes, here you are :)
2) You haven't heard anything about Hungary because the team hasn't made anything worthy of a headline in 30 years. It's mostly wistful memory of The Golden Era, but we're slowly running out of people with actual memories of that time. The future is bleak.
The World Cup, however, will be awesome! In my opinion, there are 7 nations that genuinely expect themselves to take home the cup. It's as competitive as it gets :D

Not sure if that's an easy one, i mean for some games there are just no replacement.
Especially if you refuse to use steam.

Anyway not in but +1.

Since the 2002 World Cup, they haven't been anywhere near as invincible as they used to be. But you make a good point; it'd be a nightmare trying to beat them inside a full and loud Maracana. I saw Brazilian club team Corinthians beat Chelsea at the final of the Club World Cup in Tokyo a couple of years ago. The Brazilian supporters "only" filled 1/4 of the stadium, but it was one of the most deafening, most passionate set of supporters I'd ever seen. I can barely imagine what it must be like when the whole stadium is full of Brazilians supporting the national team :S

not in but +1 for the great idea :)

Nicely done! Not in of course.

As to the question though, I'll probably use Gamersgate and Desura more often for a start.

Not in but thanks for the GA!

I'd truly hate seeing GOG close it's doors due to regional pricing - that alone probably wouldn't be enough to do it though. For my part, I'm not rabid about any delivery method for games and I spread my gaming dollars all over various sites mostly to get the best price I can (I guess if I were working I'd have more money, less time and be less concerned about getting the lowest price...)

Anyway, I really like ShinyLoot and I hope to see them grow their catalogue (in the same way I hope to see GOG grow their catalogue too). GreenManGaming is ok but their client, like Desura, has it's plus/negatives. GamersGate never seems to have games on my wish list on sale - they seem to cater to a different audience than me and their gifting method is pretty horrible. Amazon is horrible for perusing a list of games (maybe I just can't figure out their search methodology but sheesh, it really bites) and while they've made strides towards adding indie games and doing sales, it still feels like they're catering to a different audience for the most part since, like GamersGate, older games that I might consider adding to my playlist never seem to go on sale.

Ultimately, I think the regional pricing is all about tax - the EU is struggling and one way to fix a struggling economy is to collect tax wherever you can. So adding tax to digital items makes a kind of sense. But that means calculating the tax in the local currency. But as many have pointed out, regional pricing opens up a whole can of worms....

Frankly, I kind of wish GOG had not decided to grow it's catalogue in this method but I do know that running a business requires money and continually growing your customer base with new offerings. So I can't really blame them for changing their business model (I might not like it but I can understand it).

Thanks for the giveaway! Count me in :)

One thing that I've found awesome in giveaways is puzzles. You could ask participants to solve a puzzle for an extra entry. My favorite kind is crosswords; another giveaway I entered a while back had a crossword invented by the OP, and all the answers were about video games. 'Twas truly a blast :3

Well, I'm not that fond of GamersGate, so...Desura? Although, for some reason, it won't let me download games from its server on my school's internet, so I'd probably just resort to buying games directly from the developer's website (or maybe from Humble Bundle).

Please count me in Dzsono, thank you so much for your generosity ! :-)

And for answering your question, I'll continue to use my usual stores. GamersGate and Desura, and Steam. The last one isn't DRM free, but it's a good store.

Not in but, thank you Dzsono for your generosity. Gamersgate and Shinyloot also have DRM free games. And although I hate GG's regional pricing also, Shinyloot is still ok so far.