So, when a person enters a giveaway they supposedly want the game, right? Therefore, once they win (woo-hoo) they're supposed to be all excited and want to activate the game right away.

But why don't some do that? SG rules clearly state that you're supposed to activate the game with your account, not trade it, gift it or store it in your inventory (cause that's where it would have stayed -- in the giveaway-er's inventory if he/she/it hadn't been generous).

I think its not only against the rules, but it's disrespectful to the person making the giveaway and to the people who entered the giveaway. Some people actually want to play the games that some users don't even bother to activate after winning (yes, I feel like ranting, sorry).

Anyway, the point of that rule -- to not trade/gift the game BUT activate it -- is (I assume) to make people enter giveaways for games they would actually play instead of just joining all giveaways they can. I've noticed that, in some cases, the rule is being broken.

So, my question is... does anyone check if winners actually activate the games they've won? What's the "punishment" if they don't activate it?

--- I would gladly spend some of my free time to "check winners" and report them or something... and I'm sure there'd be other volunteers too since this would make the site a better place and eliminate those who want to get free games with the sole purpose of trading them for something else.

12 years ago*

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You know people don't even have to make their profile public...

12 years ago
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Don't they have to do that to sync their accounts?

12 years ago
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Turn on for a second, sync it, turn it off.

12 years ago
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You can make it private again after syncing.

I would be weary of witch hunting. I think people activating games is good, and hopefully people are only entering for games they want and will play, but if someone is too busy right after they win something, are we looking to make sure they're playing the games? Should we be harassing them about how much they're playing?

I think going anywhere beyond checking that they aren't trying to pass the game on to someone else is the slippery slope to be avoided.

12 years ago
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No one said anything about playing. Not even installing. Just activating/unpacking the gift => adding it to the steam games library.

It takes 1 click, too much to ask for? Hey, wait a minute, it takes 1 click to accept the gift. 2 clicks might be too much for someone getting something for free. Horrendous effort on their behalf, my god, can't believe I actually expect people to do that :)

12 years ago
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You seem to have misunderstood my concern for objection, but I do find your hostility amusing.

12 years ago
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I'm glad you do :P -- but don't get me wrong, there's no hostility towards you/your reply.

And I understood your objection. So, no witch hunting... we just let this kind of people go on doing what they're doing? If you have any other idea, I'd love to hear it.

12 years ago
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And I understood your objection. So, no witch hunting... we just let this kind of people go on doing what they're doing? If you have any other idea, I'd love to hear it.

We get it, you only want someone worthy and deserving to receive your game. I don't care. If I cared I would vet the recipients of my gifts, I'd offer them all up on Facebook for friends and make sure they'd play it/not gift it, on pain of un-friending/shunning. But I don't. The ones that I have gifted to friends on Facebook, I've never checked...

If the games I gifted were passed around for the rest of time, I wouldn't care. If someone sold one of them for a million dollars to a clueless oligarch, I wouldn't care. (Maybe a little on that one... ;)

What I do care about is the idea of a bunch of self-righteous, self-appointed prefects policing the recipients of my gifts.

12 years ago
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+1

I think this should ideally be something between the giver and the recipient.

12 years ago
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12 years ago
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When we say "7 days" for the submitter and winner to complete the giveaway process, this includes activating the game on your own account. If it goes over 7 days without the winner activating the game, we investigate.

12 years ago
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12 years ago
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technically you can still see most private profiles by brute forcing the request path.

12 years ago
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"I would gladly spend some of my free time to "check winners" and report them or something"

You were that kid that the teacher "left in charge" in grade school because you enjoyed squealing on anyone chewing gum to boost your ego, weren't you. ಠ_ಠ

I understand the meaning behind the rules... but this constant need to police these things seems a little ridiculous. I'm sure there are people that want the free stuff just to trade... but for each of them I'd bet there are probably 10 other people that would love to give away stuff to their friends as a gift because they can't afford it... or because they can't afford multiple copies of a multiplayer game they want to play with their friends. I know I've had that happen many times: I see another copy of dungeon defenders or sanctum and I would love to enter it and give it to a good friend of mine so we could play together... and while this would be like getting a gift myself so I can play... it's against the rules so I don't. Yeah... everyone hates the selfish people for glomming on the charity of others, but this kind of draconian apple polishing is just douchey. Seems to me there could be a middle ground.

12 years ago
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You must be new here.
This is steamgifts, where everyone has a chance to win games they would like to play. not to trade.
everyone has a fair chance to win. if you wanted your friend to have a copy, invite them to this site and let them win it themselves. as a gifter, i despise people who trade their wins away. that is not in the spirit of the website.
Getting winners who trade wins banned is never ridiculous.
Feel free to leave if you think we're scumbags for giving and people don't play the games we give.

12 years ago
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Well, Durandal, if you or anyone else would like/want/feel the need to gift a game to a friend... Simple: buy & gift it yourself. Or even trade for it. Like mustapusta says, invite that friend to SG. There are other options, you know...

It's not a healthy mentality you have there, to be generous based on other people's generosity. And again... it is disrespectful.

12 years ago
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What you're suggesting is the same thing as having multiple accounts.

12 years ago
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And you were the asshat that always got your class/group/friends in trouble by doing stupid shit, weren't you. ಠ_ಠ

12 years ago
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you should report them. make a ticket @ support.

12 years ago
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Keep doing what you are doing OP. You have my respect and my axe.

12 years ago
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I'm expecting the Axe Effect on the OP as well.

12 years ago
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LOL

12 years ago
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My first giveaway also was a dissapointment, a guy won, the email address I sent the game to was another guy on his friendlist, but none of the 2 has the game in their gamelist now. So no idea what they did with it. I am not sure if I ever will create another giveaway.

12 years ago
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As brazeris said, report them both. Only if we do this we can put an end to what's happening. Slowly, the people who ignore the rules will be banned or will stop ignoring them because they see SG taking action against them.

Less "automated" entries to every game one has points for, better chances for people who want a game to actually win it and enjoy it.

12 years ago
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Why didn't you report the members? This is a bannable offense and we take these matters very seriously.

12 years ago
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well i won only 1 game and i didnt use it in start only when its needed like few month ago played it with 1 friend and i dont see point being 100 games in game list and playing only 3~

sorry for bad eng

12 years ago
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It's one thing to install it and another to activate it :)

12 years ago
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I won only multiplayer games so far(well gMod has single player, but it's better online). And whenever I'd want to play them others can't because of poor internet or something and I hate playing with random people. So yeah, I did want those games but nobody wanna play with me D:

12 years ago
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I know exactly what you feel......

12 years ago
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Shouldn't have entered for multiplayer games since you know you couldn't actually enjoy them?

12 years ago
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Too hard to tell ahead of time. You only know if you want/will enjoy the game after winning it. One can also tell if they like the game if it just sits in their inventory, without being played.

feel my sarcasm :)

12 years ago
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Some people have said that they buy/win games and keep them in their inventory until they're ready to play them, so don't assume everyone who adds a game to their inventory is evil. Just most of them.

12 years ago
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+1

12 years ago
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I usually do it (in case I'll change my mind), but knowing the rules of this site, when I win something here i try to add it as soon as possible.

12 years ago
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+1

12 years ago
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I think SteamGifts is too lax on this point. I think the rules should read: "Make sure you have sufficient time to activate the game once you receive an e-mail confirmation and marked the gift as received. You then have 24 hours to activate. After 24 hours there will be a forced re-sync of your profile and if the game is not in your library, you will be banned."

I guess it's a bit technical, but I think there should be zero tolerance for trading/giving gifts to others.

12 years ago
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The 7 days policy allowing the winner and submitter to complete the giveaway process includes activating the game on the account you've won. After 7 days, we investigate the matter when reported. I assure you, we take these matters seriously and are not very lax when we discover a user activated a gift on another account or traded it away.

12 years ago
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Unless you actually trade a giftable copy of the game to the winner, they can't trade it anyways. I admittedly fail to see the point of this thread, as the rules specifically states you should only make giveaways for games you got a giftable copy of.

12 years ago
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They can. There is an option "Add game to Steam inventory".

12 years ago
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yeah its functionality changed to what was said above. Before you could blind link games to gift to a friend and it would only be redeemable straight to inventory. Now no matter how you gift it, it will still pop up the option to add to inventory or add to game library.

12 years ago
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I must say... I'm very happy to see that in only a few hours mods have seen this topic and taken the matter seriously. It's good to know that suggestions or things brought to their attention can make this community better and more pleasant.

P.S. Awesomeness :0

12 years ago
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I hunt for them. . . and find them. I think with the aid of othere's there's been around 30 people punished for it - that I know of.

12 years ago
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I plan on starting to do that as well. Even though there are opinions like Durandal's

"I would gladly spend some of my free time to "check winners" and report them or something"

You were that kid that the teacher "left in charge" in grade school because you enjoyed squealing on anyone chewing gum to boost your ego, weren't you. ಠ_ಠ"

I feel someone needs to do it so that people comply with the rules since there are people who believe rules are made to be broken or simply don't give a damn about them.

12 years ago
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make sure yu look past a week on closed. 2 weeks is better but I give it alt least a week. the ice ones are the one that trade allot.

12 years ago
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Thanks for the tip. Actually, this whole "thing" started with my own giveaway. The winner added me (probably wouldn't have checked on my own if she/he hadn't) and when I saw him/her in my list I thought... "Let's take a look around their profile to see what games are there"... and voila... gift not added to library.

I was disappointed to say the least and since I wanna make more giveaways when I can spare some, I want to make sure they reach the hands of someone who actually want them... not some opportunistic trader.

12 years ago
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If you need the warm-fuzzies you get from giving a gift and knowing it'll be lovingly received (or at least that if they do re-gift it they'll be discreet to save your feelings) then give a gift to someone you know in real life.

As far as I'm concerned all this is the equivalent of someone dropping off a coat they didn't want at a charity shop, then being upset when someone buys it cheaply and sells it for $100 on eBay. They win, because they were getting rid of the coat anyway and they feel good about the charity shop making money from it; the charity shop wins because they sell the coat and raise $5; the entrepeneur wins because they make $95 profit; the final buyer wins because they have the coat they wanted at a price they were willing to pay. The only problem comes if the original donor was not being honest about their reasons for donating the coat. If what the person really wanted was to donate the coat and have it find a good home raising some money for charity, then mission accomplished, no problemo.

12 years ago
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"If you need the warm-fuzzies you get from giving a gift and knowing it'll be lovingly received (or at least that if they do re-gift it they'll be discreet to save your feelings) then give a gift to someone you know in real life. "

This. Or someone on your friends list whom you actually know who's wishlisted the game you have. Or something like that.

12 years ago
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I remenber that in the rules of this site is stated "You must redeem the game on the account you entered with" so your example is not right. For me a better example would be: You see some homeless in the cold, so you think that your coat will be more useful to one of them, and you give it.
But the day after you see him selling your coat instead of using it or giving it to someone who really need it.

12 years ago
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You miss the point. I'm saying that ignoring that rule is analogous to the scenario I laid out.

12 years ago
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Yeah I feel your pain man. I had a giveaway for some game I had in my inventory for awhile so I decided to give it away. Seems that the winner didn't treally want it and ended up putting it back onto Steamgifts. I agree it's disrespectful but there's not a lot you can do about it. Most people on SG are leechers coming on every 2 weeks and entering every giveaway possible. Regardless of whether they actually want the game or not.
This was my game - http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/RAXIt/star-wars-jedi-knight-mysteries-of-the-sith
A week later it was being gifted again - http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/FSzVu/star-wars-jedi-knight-mysteries-of-the-sith

I'm not going to rage about it, afterall - I wasn't going to use it anyway and they won the gift fair and square, they can do whatever they want with it.

12 years ago
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Not really. They did win it fair and square, but they're not allowed to give it away again, here, nor trade it or gift it away elsewhere. It's against the rules (which have now been made even clearer by mods -- check the sticky).

It's now clearly stated that all winners have 7 days to accept and unpack/activate the games they won at giveaways. If they don't, I think they might be up for suspension/ban.

What's the most important thing that I want to point out is that this isn't about raging. As you said, it is disrespectful and it saddens me to see people do it. SG is a community, and a community is defined by its members. If such people are allowed to continue on SG, it will be a community defined by those people particularly, because - generally speaking - there are more people who break the rules as compared to those who don't.

And since this is a community, we can't rely on mods to do all the work. When we notice this or anything that goes against the rules happens, I think we need to report it. You should report what happened to you as well, I'll probably do it myself if you don't :)

12 years ago
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You should report this. Usually when that happens its just them gifting a new copy because they enjoyed playing what they won, but this guy doesn't even have it in his game library so what you described is exactly what happened. Report this, it is a ban-able offense.

12 years ago
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Agree with the OP.

The purpose of this site is to actually get a game other people would've left to collect dust in their inventory. It's sad for those people who really want the game to see others winning and not really caring about the game.

I only enter the giveaways of games that I will/want to buy as the others wouldn't make much sense to me.

12 years ago
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I don't oppose the rules as they stand, I understand why they exist and will abide by them as a recipient, but at the same time I hate the incessant whining that goes on here. Moreover, I find the prospect of other people instigating witch hunts against the recipients of MY gifts absolutely repugnant. If I give a game away and that person then gives it to someone else or trades it or sells it on to buy something they wanted more, I haven't lost anything. It's a random person I'm giving a gift to. I don't really know the people I've given games to from Adam (heh). As far as I'm concerned, as soon as you start requiring the recipient to abide by specific rules about how they use their "gift", it ceases to be a gift. In fact, I'd rather not place those conditions on my gifts at all. What next? Are we going to force gift recipients to play the games for at least as long as reviews say it takes to complete them?

tl;dr Personally, I couldn't care less if one of my past or future gifts was re-gifted, traded or sold. If the giver doesn't mind, it shouldn't matter.

12 years ago
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Perhaps the games you gift are games that aren't really worth playing after all.

12 years ago
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Wow, thanks for putting so much effort into your reply! Although English doesn't appear to be your first language, so maybe I shouldn't be so harsh. Care to elaborate? I enjoyed Portal and Cogs, hence the giveaways. That doesn't change how I feel about the gifts I give. If I give a friend something from their wishlist I wouldn't check up on their use of it so why would I give a flying love about a stranger?

12 years ago
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If a gift of mine goes to some twat who's just going to trade it away, I'm going to be pissed, as it could have gone to someone who genuinely wanted to play the shit out of it.

12 years ago
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What about someone who takes the gift and leaves it in their library unplayed or little-played?

12 years ago
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Good for you.

12 years ago
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Okay, can someone please explain to me, why is there such a big fuss over this?

Does it really matter that much if someone takes your gift and gifts or trades it away to someone else? The biggest reason for this new rule seems to be "because I, the giver, got duped, and I don't like that feeling".

And I doubt getting gifts for non-end-use purposes happens much at all. Points for entering giveaways are limited, and if you were such an avid trader, you'd be much better off just buying games and using them to trade rather than attempting to win stuff from 1/500 chances on SteamGifts. I know I usually have just enough points to enter all the giveaways I want, and not much more. Sure, I could enter all sorts of cheapo giveaways for the hell of it, but (1) they're not worth much in re-trading anyway and (2) based on what I've heard, a lot of people do this already. (I don't, though.) As for regifting, using SteamGifts as one's sugar-daddy to gift games to one's friends is just...improbable and plain stupid. So I'm reasonably certain that, excepting some cheap games, most entries on SteamGifts are already by people who legitimately want the game.

Now, I ask, what exactly is the wrong in, say, a person entering to win a game that their friend wants? The rule that you can't enter to win a game you already have already precludes people from entering to get more copies of a game to share with their friends. Sure, that friend could just go on SteamGifts themselves (unless they're new to Steam in general), but does it really make a difference? And even if you outlaw this, you're STILL going to get 1000+ or 2000+ entries for high-profile games like Skyrim and Dota 2.

There's also the case with me where I don't have the most powerful computer, and I'm not sure whether I can run a certain game. I'd like to play that game, but perhaps I'd also like to keep it unredeemed in my inventory until I can confirm that I have a computer to run it; if in the meantime it turns out to be the perfect Christmas/birthday/whatever gift to a friend I'd like to give it to them. It's just a game, after all, people.

Broadly speaking, I agree with adamofgreyskull that the purpose to which a gift is used should be between the gifters and the recipients. Yes we should make sure that people don't defraud others by offering gifts they don't have, but this isn't about that. This is about "I thought I was giving a gift away to someone who would appreciate it, but I got tricked", as I can tell so far. Please respond with your argument if you think this is a bigger issue than what I've stated so far.

12 years ago
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it's not a new rule...

12 years ago
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Oh, it's not? I thought it was, given all the attention it's gotten recently.

12 years ago
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I did not read the whole thread but most of it so i dont know if someone already came up with my idea.
In case a friend of you has his or her birthday and u gift him or her something, wouldnt u also be pissed if that person gifts ur gift away to another friends for birthday for example. this goes out to all the ppl here saying that giving away the gift is okay.
i just cant understand that ppl are keeping the gifts they have won in their inventories and gift them away again lateron. for the ppl who than have the chance to win that gift "again" it seems as if that person is totally kind and generous but thats not the truth.
my first giveaway here was one in a private group. it wasnt an expensive one. the person who won it did not activate it for himself so i asked why not. the person than told me that he isnt interested in the game and that he will gift it away again. as it wasnt questionable the person was sure that this is a common way of handling something that has been gifted to u. i reported that guy and he will hopefully never get unbanned again. in my opinion such a behaviour it totally arrant and should not be tolerated.
why do u minimize someones chances on winning something (who really wants a game) by joining something that u will use for getting better reputation elsewhere???
to all the ppl here saying that they often keep gifts in their inventory to activate them later:
i dont get ur point. are u really telling that u dont have the time to activate as soon as u receive it?? WOW...it really takes a lot of time huh?

12 years ago
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I don't know about you, but if a gift I gave someone becomes gifted to someone else by the person I gave it to originally, I wouldn't feel very offended. As people say, it's the thought that counts. Gift-giving is very much an imperfect social process, an art, if you will.

And that's why I'm asking, is the whole point of this rule to prevent gifters from feeling bad that their games are being regifted? Because if this is the case, the new rule is kinda pointless in my opinion, unless it's such a pervasive opinion among the entire SteamGifts community that not having such a rule might drive people away, which I strongly doubt (as people are motivated to come here by the promise of free games anyway).

12 years ago
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of course its the thought that counts but how would u feel if u give something to someone for birthday and that person regifts ur present to another person for birthday?

12 years ago
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As I just said, I wouldn't feel all that offended. I might be more offended if they went and pawned it for money, but then again, if they were in a situation where they'd do that, then I probably gave them the wrong gift in the first place.

I understand you'd be offended, and that's why I'm asking whether this is a pervasive enough opinion among people on SteamGifts to justify this rule. I can get behind gifters individually checking the status of their gifts, but I don't like to see this as a site-wide rule requiring gift redemption.

12 years ago
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I remember there have been at least two games that have had 100 copies (Faerie Solitaire, and forget the other, but was in installments of 25). They just seem like the perfect giveaway for someone wanting to trade what they win. Tempted to sort through all the winners now >.>

12 years ago
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Closed 12 years ago by Sandrablabla.