How to avoid the dreaded "Gift not received" for your giveaways.

Recently, there has been a rash of "not received" giveaways, despite the fact that it is both easy and simple to avoid the bad marks on your SG profile. Since it can be a bit daunting to wade through the Official FAQ, here is a list of things to remember when making a giveaway.

1) If you make a giveaway, YOU will be the one providing the game(s) to the winner(s). If you cannot afford to pay for the game, do not make the giveaway.

2) The game you provide to the winner(s) must be redeemable on Steam. Uplay or Origin keys are not acceptable. Winner(s) of the giveaway are required to mark "Gift not received" if he/she/they do not received a key or gift redeemable on Steam. Some unscrupulous winners have been known to activate the Origin or Uplay key after having marked the game as "not received," so just avoid such keys altogether.

NOTE: Some key sellers (like Green Man Gaming) provide a region-restricted key as they detect your region and assume the key is going to be for personal use. Always check that the key you're buying is going to be region-free if you intend to give it away. You don't want your winner being unable to activate the key in his or her region.

3) Make sure your winner redeems your gift when you give it. If you are going to have a problem with someone, it will happen at this point. Once the game shows up in his or her library, you have evidence the game was given. (You did check to see that the winner didn't already own the game, right?) If he or she refuses to redeem the game, you now have screenshots of your chat session, the key transfer, et cetera that you can give to SG Support to protect yourself (and nail the jerk). Remember: it is a requirement for winners to redeem their gifts. They cannot do anything else with them.

Those three things should go a long way toward keeping your profile clear of nasty red marks. You will still want to read through the FAQ (linked above), however. It will help you avoid looking dumb in front of your peers.

I trust my fellow SG users will remind me if I have forgotten anything important in this posting. D