Thanks for the answer. Like you, I certainly don't want GOG to promote illicit activities that hurt gamers and developers. However, I haven't actually seen anyone promoting the thing you stated above. Maybe I overlooked it, but your post above actually is the first one in the whole thread that even gave me the idea that someone might try this. I'm also not sure what could be gained by taking the same trial twice since you _have_ access to everything by taking the trial once.


I'm not thinking you're on a high horse either, but I _am_ very confident that every marketing guy I ever worked with would disagree with your above statement, and wholeheartedly agree with SirPrimalform's.

Usually, when you do such promos, you _don't care_ whether people enter with the intention to certainly buy something, or with the intention to _perhaps_ buy something, or with the intention to definitely buy nothing ever at all. What matters to you is that they _do_ enter. Once they are there, you present them your products, trying to entice people into staying no matter what their previous intention was.

I don't know about Canada, but here in Germany there are often people giving free newspaper samples away at supermarkets. They give you a free paper, you give them your address, and if you don't revoke it within a couple of days, you'll have a subscription to said newspaper. It's the same business principle as the one that IGN is using. Now, contrary to what you might think, these people actively try to convince people to take the paper even if those are adamant about not getting a subscription. They will point out that there are no strings attached, that it's perfectly okay to cancel the subscription, etc. This is how the marketing works. They hope that either the newspaper in question is good enough to change your opinion, or that you simply don't care enough or forget to cancel the subscription. In any case, the only thing that matters to them is to give you the free paper (and get your address), period.

IGN is doing exactly the same. They are giving stuff away for free, hoping that people come in and have a look. Once people are in, IGN showers them with an impressive amount of offers. You cannot even access a single offer without getting to a page that lists all of them, and that's exactly as IGN wants it to be. Their whole offer is based one this one, decade-old, sales principle: Lure people in with FREE! stuff, show them all you have to offer once you got their attention, and then hope that enough of them stay. Just like SirPrimalform already explained.

I accepted their offer with the intention of definitely not paying for their service. I got in, had a look, and I have to admit that I contemplated for a moment whether the service might be worth the money after all. But then I decided that (for me) it isn't, and cancelled it. I don't feel like having done anything immoral at all, and my moral compass is usually pretty strong.

I had the very same problem and Foxhack helped me on the last page.
Try to create a new account, that should solve your problem.

Read my words carefully. "Yes, taking food samples when you know you'll never buy anything".

Now, I don't give a shit if you don't take me seriously, but you're contradicting the "never" part if you accept the free food as a promotion.

Free samples are meant to convince people who originally had no real intention of buying the product to buy it (though in a slightly more sinister way than you might think. Basically it is a way of guilt tripping you into buying the product. Have you noticed how the people who hand out free samples tends to try to argue for their product in such a way that it gets rather awkward to say no to buying it?)

Even one who "knows" might be persuaded otherwise, given a good enough argument (in this case, the argument being the free sample).

The company offering the free sample very well realises that many who try their sample will not actually become customers, but they accept that loss for what they do gain (people who wouldn't have bought the product without the free sample, but did because of it).

I read your words perfectly the first time, the point is that they're trying to change my mind. Just because I don't think they'll be able to doesn't mean it's impossible. Free trials are meant for everyone (taking multiple free samples would be wrong though).

I am familiar with aggressive marketing techniques, but thank you anyways in your attempt to educate me.

My only major point of contention is that I firmly believe they do care if you're interested in the product. Maybe not the salesperson, but someone in charge of finances is bound to have realistic goals when he sets out to lose money on a promotion.

Now, I'm not going to do this (but maybe I should), but if I directed IGN's attention to this thread, I don't think they'd be in particular agreement.

That worked, thank you.
And thanks to Foxhack since he helped you which allowed you to help me. =D

Edit: I must be blind, how do I obtain said game keys?

Edit2: Nvm. Worked in Chrome, was just firefox messing up.

Well, take may newspaper example above. Do you deem it immoral to take a newspaper in such a situation?

Would you deem it immoral to participate in a free bus trip with an included sales pitch event, when the person inviting you tells you that it's absolutely okay to not buy anything as long as you participate in the event? (There's a whole business around such trips here in Germany.)

Would you deem it immoral to download a free version of Skyrim that replaces the main menu with a cornflakes ad, if you don't think you'll ever buy cornflakes of this brand?

None of this is substantially different from the IGN promo. The main task of marketing is to get people's attention so that you can show them what you have to offer. It's totally okay if they are skeptical about your product, or even determined not to buy it. Once you have their attention, you can often change this.

Not if you are (or were) interested, but whether you can become interested (enough to buy) by sampling.

A person who has no intention of buying the product and one who's on the fence can both be convinced into a buying customer (though the former might be more difficult depending on whether he has an objection or simply no interest, and the latter can be lost if the sample isn't good enough). One who is already interested enough to buy requires no sampling.

They would be happy that people are talking about IGN.

Really. I'm 100% sure of that. I'm usually reluctant to make such statements, since the accuracy of my statements concerns me a lot, but in this case, I really have no doubts that every marketing person I know would be happy that word about IGN is spread on 3rd party forums.

This.

I would never have even considered looking at this promo, let alone considered buying into IGN Prime if it wasn't for the reassurance I received from the opinions about it I have seen on this forum.

(for everyone that has taken the time to reply, I thank you and direct you to this response)

I understand the marketing principles behind this, and how they define "know" or "uninterested". But if you the acquirer of free promotions know (and when I say know I mean it with a certain amount of conviction) you will never give proceeds in any way to the promoting party, than yes, for you to accept (when you have a choice not to) the promotion is immoral.

So to answer your questions psyringe:

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

And yes.

I have a problem with my prime account. I signed up for it, it went through and I got a receipt and welcome email saying that I was not a prime member. But no matter what I do, no matter which browser I use I can't access any of the prime features. When I try to download any of the free games I'm just asked to sign up for the free trial (and I'm told that the free trial is already active when I try to sign up again). I also can't sign up for a trial on a new account since my credit card is already attached to my first account. Their support aren't answering either, even though I sent a ticket 4 days ago.

Any ideas? Maybe I'll just forget it, I did manage to chancel the auto-renewal so it's not going to charge me at least.

Well, that's fine and good and I hope what you say is meaningful.

The tone of this thread, had not suggested that to me however, but if that changes, I suppose my objection would also shift. Sort of. The opening post would probably need a rehaul, at least.