A way to verify whether or not winners actually play games?

Make a private giveaway, set the rules on "if you didn't play for x hour last y days, I'll have it rerolled". Other than that oyu can't do much and the site really has other update priorities than that.

That said, I haven't played a lot of the games I've won here, for the simple fact that I didn't have the time for it because of all the exams and house choirs. I do intend to, when I manage it.

If you're prepared to give a game to some random person you've never met and probably never will meet, you shouldn't care what happens after it leaves your ownership.

Trying to police game time on gifts won is taking this too far. There could be thousands of reasons why someone doesn't play a game after they win.

Sure, go ahead if you want contributors like me to go bye bye! Be an excellent way to shrink the giveaways overnight.

You have no right to tell people when to play a game they've won.

And more people would change their steam proile to private like you did so there will be no wy to veryfy hom much the game was played

I won SEGA collection recently and some few other games. I also bought few during sale. You seriously expect me to spend like 40-50 hours just to get all of them to 1 hour playtime? I really prefer to start one game and finish it before beginning next one.
To your idea: there should be something that at least checks if gift is activated. Time condition: yes but way more than month (half year or so), because some people work, some people travel (I had a little one week trip in July) and some have life...

Backlogs, holiday seasons or just generally busy. Consider the possibilities.

If I set my profile to private there a reason for that.
You have to respect people's privacy.

Well, I have games in my library i havent played yet for a number of reasons. I also have games i played like 3 minutes, then figured out it wasnt what i expected. Now the ones foolish enough to post on the forum, saying they dont like the game they won - they deserve to get the game removed (yeh not possible i know).

ive got a problem straight of the mark. ok i have a download allowance each month, if i go over the amounts then we get charged insane amounts so i can only download 2,3 games a month. so my problem would be that i cant download the game until the next month starts and then im getting bad ratings when i actually want to play the game. its still a good idea but its not fare for people who have a genuine excuse.

What does it MATTER? You give away a game, you've done your part. The winner can do whatever he likes with it.

i won bioshock 2 and it doesnt start

While I agree that there are people who enter lots of giveaways, even if they are not really interested in that specific game, I don't think you as a contributor should tell someone when and how much to play it. I won games I didn't play yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in them. I like to give proper playin' time to a game and enjoy it, being busy, it's harder. I also have games I bought and didn't play yet, obviously that doesn't mean I'm not interested. As a contributor, when you give away a game you always have the chance to give the game to a "collector". You either don't give away a game or just don't care.

I don't think it's fair. For instance, my only win has been Warlock and I'm not planning to play it in a while just because I'm kinda busy atm and still have stock from last steam sales, but it's a game I definitely want to play when I've got the time. If your idea was put on practice I'd be blacklisted just because I'm busy, seems unfair.

Terrible idea. If i win something then it's mine. I get to decide when or even if i'm going to play it.
If games go to waste because someone actually doesn't play a game he won, ever. Then so be it. Curse your own luck for not winning that game.

People have backlogs, real life and personal preference.. i bought 100 games in the Summer sale and i won't even touch half of them this year.. no one should be able to force me to play certain things just because i won them at a certain point in time.

Luckily everyone with power here understands that. I really don't see how anyone could think that it is a good idea..

I'm going to enjoy the day when self-important people stop trying to control everything they lay their eyes on…

You should be glad that your winners are actually redeeming your games... some people aren't even capable of that.

I haven't read all comments. Apart from the obvious objections, e.g. that not everyone has the time to play their won game right away, you've neglected to account for the fact that anyone could just start the game up, go off to school/work/sleep and as far as Steam knows, they've just logged 8 hours of play-time.