I've mentioned it in passing a few times over the forums (it may or may not have been registered by one or the other user) and on the Facebook page, but I just wanted to air one of my pet peeves about the GOG community.

One of the great things about GOG is the site's generosity. I know of precious few other distributors that freely give games away under reasonable conditions and probabilities. Free games at sites like GamersGate or Steam are usually (a) useless crap or (b) offered under almost impossible conditions.

One of the problems with GOG's approach is that it seems to have bred a vulture mentality where everyone seems to think that they are entitled to free games. Prime example: on the Facebook page this morning, all of the Realms of Arkania codes were gone within less than two minutes. I happened to be online at that time and happened to notice GOG's announcement, but that's the first time I've ever noticed this.

I don't doubt that - like me - some of the lucky winners just happened by chance to be online. To those who won and had the good grace to say thank you, I congratulate you.

However, I also don't doubt that there are far too many people hawking over the forums and Facebook pages in the hope of sponging off a code. This is most certainly evident in the amount of whinging going on whenever a GOG community member has the good grace to post a gift code or GOG gives codes away.

If you happened to be online and just missed it by chance, then fine - a mild expression of disappointment is OK.

If you were peering over your PC waiting for these codes to appear and still didn't manage to get them on time, that's your problem, if not rather sad. Begging for some kind of "restitution" is not acceptable in my eyes, nor is this kind of vulture-like behaviour.

Have the good grace to leave it as a mild sense of disappointment that you didn't win and quit with your sense of entitlement.

Rant over.

+1

I agree. And I want to add, it was only for a 6$ game! That's less than a Happy Meal!

What is it with all you people hawking over those free games. If you really want those games, without even paying such a small amount, stop bitching and pirate it already. Or better, invest the bitching time in something productive (or skip a meal) and buy the game!

Would it not be more like 2 x $3 games?

Vultures... good old games....

There can be only ONE culprit!

You are not alone in your dissapointment with this.

ban those facebooks idiots.

I did kind of feel disappointed that all the codes on Facebook had been redeemed within 2 minutes but it wasn't really a big deal. I was just surprised they went so quickly more than anything.

Me loling to all of this.

GOG came out with promo. Gog announced this promo. Gog wanted to giveaway 100 keys for games. They announced it earlier, so many people came by. It's NATURAL.

People took advantage and took the games. It's NORMAL BEHAVIOUR.

Ok, some people took the game just because it was for free, not because they wanted to play it. Maybe some of them will try to sell account.

But what's wrong with that:? I can't see.

What is wrong, people complaining about GOG giveaway contest like "whaaaa ;(;((((( you suck gog because I was too late, I hate you goooog!" --> these people are just stupid.

Accepting gifts is never a bad thing. Gog decided to giveaway these games like this - good for both sides.

Not everybody can afford 6 dollar game. In many countries that's ALOT of money. And vulturing over giveaways is still better than piracy.

Well, at least GOG did include 100 codes for the game on their Twitter page, so there was at least another outlet to get the codes. But at that time, the server did kind of get overwhelmed with queries.

The "must-have-free-things" condition sadly seems to be even more prevalent on the internet. Kinda reminds me of the videos I recently saw of swarms of bargain-hunters in the US after thanksgiving. I had to laugh at the absurdity...

It's not just facebook people but goggers who did this behavior.

The problem goes beyond that. The over-generosity of the community is causing this entitlement culture to form just as much, if not more, than GOG's own generosity.

So now it looks like the rep abuse and bickering are back again. But this time because people want free games so badly that they're prepared to do anything to get them. I don't find the kind of behaviour I'm seeing here acceptable in 8 year olds. I certainly don't find it acceptable here.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

When the 50% promotion starts, I'm sure that some of the negative aspects will be reduced.