I think all of us can struggle to say what we mean or mean what we say. I put my foot in my mouth constantly :P

Re the witch hunt for scammers. I don't want to set off paranoia or divide the community further. If one finds they do get scammed, the best advice is to learn from it and take steps to prevent it happening again :) Remember we can only lose what we choose to, and a gift is a gift, even if it goes to whatever one's conception of the most horrid human being is. I have found that giving without the expectation of anything other than the joy of giving works best to make this thought process easier. I have also found that those who continually take(I definitely fit into that category when I was younger) get lessons in life that give them the opportunity to change, and if those lessons are ignored they are repeated more and more strongly. Those who do not reciprocate energy don't lead very fulfilling lives. If their focus is on "stuff" to the exclusion of others, they miss out on one of the major joys in life, and that is relationships with other beings. They can be with humans, other animals, plants...that is the "stuff" that is important in life to me :)

After my 11 year relationship ended with my fiance in 2010 I left everything I knew - my location, my stuff, my friends and went roaming with a backpack. That was the 2nd time in life I was homeless, but that time was my choice. Having no house, no bills, and a tent in the bush camped by a reservoir with all of my belongings able to fit into my pack, it was liberating. It was also lonely and one of those moments in life where I realised that as much as I love nature, I have a social monkey brain and human contact was important to me.

When I finally get this decent rest in(why am I still awake as it is nearing 3am??? lol) I will put together a few tips on how to minimise the chances of being scammed. The reason I haven't done it so far is that I want to ensure that my mind is functioning a bit better and to test a couple of things :)

Edit: just a small addition and the way I think about losing a game or few to greedy buggers. I already know that I have gifted in this sale stuff to the exact type of people I am warning others about in manic sleep-deprived moments. And I'm ok with that. The experience and connections made with others and trying to help brighten people's lives up was well and truly worth it. If that "cost" is a few $$$ and sending energy someone's way who might not "deserve" it, then perhaps I'd like to think that maybe the experience could even get that person to re-evaluate themselves and what they want in life :)

I wasn't around for the first Insomnia but the way the free games were awarded sounds incredibly frustrating. If there was one thing I'd like to change about the freebies this time around, it would be to be able to choose a gift code even if you don't already own the game, rather than it being dropped straight onto your shelf. Sure, GOG tech will exchange the game for a code if you ask them (they did with my Carmageddon 2), but it's additional work for us and for them. It stopped me clicking on a few games to purchase as gifts as I didn't want to add another game to my shelf if I was lucky enough to catch it for free. On second thought, perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing after all! :-)

Apart from that, it's been amazing fun. The first round to see what games were included, the second round catching up on what we missed the first time round and trying to find the patttern of the games as the came around again and then the third round... well what can you say about the third round? The interminable waits for some games to sell (Kea- I mean Theme Park, I'm looking at you!), the 'Oh what the hell I'll buy this one too' moments and the 'Jeez, I'm gonna buy this just to help get it off the screen' moments. But throughout it all was the helpful lists, (especially Pidgeot's script) the generous gifts that twice appeared out of the blue in my inbox, and the general banter of an incredibly welcoming community to this newbie amongst you. I'm so glad that I decided to stick around after I scored my free copy of Dungeon Keeper.

Thanks to everyone and I look forward to being a veteran at the next Insomnia Sale. :-)

I couldn't agree more. This is the first internet community I have EVER seen that manages to stay friendly, civil and helpful more or less ALL THE TIME towards each other.
The past few days have been both a highly pleasant surprise and a privilege.

I hope to talk to you all soon, either on the forums or at the next Insomnia Promo!

And thank you again fro everything and the Democracy 3!! ;)

This, exactly. Just wanted to pop on and thank everybody for the company, but you said exactly what I meant to, better than I could have. :) Thanks everybody!

That is awesome, I am glad you got the game who says technology isn't reliable. :)

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@Tarnicus

Thanks for sharing that Tarnicus. I feel like I can really relate. Joining the forum during this sale has actually been a really positive experience and I feel like I've been spreading that good will in person, too. Cheers to all the awesome people I've met this week!

nice too see so many people had a blast during the sale

ive missed most for me interesting games and came out of this whole thing with a free copy of bards tale but i can live with that

Ha haaa I'm back.

It's been a riot. You're all magnificent super-stars for all the reasons everyone else has already expressed. I could name-check but I'd forget loads and you know who you are.

If I learned anything it's that gaming is in a really good place right now, you just have to look at it from the right angle. That angle is here.

Peace and love

Thank you flickas for providing the image of all but the last comment on this thread that got taken down on Steam. The last comment is actually buried in these forums somewhere :)

Edit: I tracked down the final comment that wasn't in the screenshot *grins*

"Yeah as shiny as this new Theme Park "Studio" is, it's got nothing on the classic. The shiny new graphics actually DETRACT from the perfection that is the original Theme Park. In fact, if it had NO graphics it would be even BETTER!"

Seeing as everything has slowed to a crawl, especially that last game This Event Is Over, I'd just like to take a moment to assert our irrefutable, incontestable, undeniable, nonrecountable, absolute dominance over the official thread.

We've all surely earned a seat in Goghalla.

I just want to say....
I saw maybe four or five games in this sale that interested me at first. I snagged a few and I missed a few. This damn thing snowballed on me and I ended up buying 12 games I never even knew I wanted. Alas, no freebies. Not from GoG, anyway. I see that several people around here took advantage of this great sale to shine a little joy on other members. That's pretty cool. This is a cool place.

Well, before I step away from this thread for the first time that isn't sleep-related, I thought I would share a little something I made. It took minimal effort, to be sure, but I still thought you guys might like it.

Maybe the next time, they'll have a game like Defcon coming up early. Then we can all buy/gift it and pass time to get past Theme Parks/Grandpas/PiDs by blowing each other up in thermonuclear blasts..

(For those unfamiliar with it, the game is multiplayer strategy, proceeds in real time, always lasts exactly 1 hour, and always ends in the destruction of the world).

It took some searching (well this thread is almost 16,000 comments!!!) but I found the final comment that wasn't in the screenshot :)
That is a wonderful edit! Indeed it does and will :)

Edit: And it is now my desktop background for now, thank you :)