Giveaways should be restricted to wishlist only

I have a second steam account (level 0 with no games) which has 2642 games on it's wishlist.

Not to be rude, but no one really needs a game.
Wanting and needing is very different.

I already support my neighbor (a single disabled mother with 3 children) and buy them stuff for school and take them there if I can.
I was just personally hoping to help people get games they really wanted instead of targeting pointless collectors.

+1. Take that, SalzStange!

+1

+1

Still, that doesn't mean they're not going to play it at some point (even if that could be the case). And I don't think a "have the game on your wishlist" requirement would have a huge impact. Pretty much all my wins were on my wishlist, and I still haven't played most of them. It doesn't mean I have no intent to, I just don't give them priority over the games I buy myself.

Anyway, if you really want to restrict your giveaways to people that have the game wishlisted or any other sort of requirements, the only tools at your disposal are the whitelist and group giveaways.

Maybe they just idle the games for cards

I will not lie and say I never entered a giveaway for a game that I didn't wanted THAT much. I'm guilty of sometimes have joined giveaways of games that I simply found interesting and wanted to give it a try, but if I think about today, they would be in very low priority and I wouldn't play them anytime soon.

And I feel bad for that.

I stopped doing that tho, I'm way more selective. Each day my views of why SG exists changes a bit so I guess I'm improving.

I do agree with you on that. I don't know about the wishlist system tho.

But about not playing, damn, I have bought games MYSELF and I still didn't played. But 100% it doesn't mean I never will... I play games mostly on vacations/holidays so I can go through months without touching a game I want to play. And sometimes I'm just not in the mood for some styles of games, and this mood (or lack of) can last for months.

Portal 1 is one of the games I want to play the most as I loved Portal 2 for XBOX, I bought in the first Steam sale after I created my account, and still never played. And I 100% totally will.

Oh gosh, a month? I've played wins that are half a year old and loved them. I absolutely love to comment on the GA after I've played a game for a number of hours, even months later to let the creator know that I actually enjoyed it.

Off topic, but that is actually a pretty good game so grats :D. Played it myself a few months ago and loads of fun with it :).

Actually, as you certainly know, (unless I'm mistaken and it changed back) there's no such thing as private rules anymore. The support won't grant him a reroll.

Thats a bit unrealistic if he would have 51...
Thats to serious...
It was just an example.
But I mean there is a difference between 50 and 500+

Another concern would be the choice of games added to the wishlist.
I have a visual novel game called Sunrider Academy on my wishlist for instance. Total times its been given away? No more than seven times. Its still pretty new, added to steam in April, to have that as one of my wishlist options would mean I'd likely never see it, or only maybe once every three months if lucky prior to if it ever goes into a bundle or on a 75%+ sale.
Sunrider Academy - Archive

Meanwhile, there have been 158 individual giveaways (not multiples, not counting 'Season Pass') created for Fallout 4. Albeit a number of them deleted, at double the cost too compared to Sunrider, if not higher. Though this is of course much more popular, and has a larger advertisement campaign, so to speak, going for it.
Fallout 4 - Archive, page 7

Should there be an option to have an option setting for a Wishlist Only entry Giveaway? Perhaps. Depending on implementation, the site already records the games on your wishlist plus when they were added, so it could already know when a game was wishlisted, versus wishlisted purposefully to enter.

Although it could also be said they could add the game to their wishlist purposefully to enter if it didn't show up publicly, but acted the same as invite only. Though, in that notation, there is already a system in place for invite-only giveaways, just without needing that extra step for wishlist entry. Leaving only the paragraph above as a viable solution.

The other point being that any limitation on the amount of "internal" wishlisted games, used only here, unless it was an OPTIONAL feature (see paragraph two above anyway) versus the "only" option, then almost everyone would add AAA list games, just for those chances, but would have to constantly rearrange for current bundles or stuff that they'd actually like that are lesser known.

THIS definitely, I have a ton of games on my wishlist, so that I get emailed when it goes on sale. Doesn't mean I really want the game, maybe a friend does and I want to keep an eye on the price differences. And as others have mentioned, I find most new games from SG anyway, so I won't have it on my wishlist if this is the first I've heard of it and it seems interesting...

If you want to PLAY the game, you can pirate it. If you want +1 in your steam library, achievements, boast to your friends, feel that you OWN it - that's a whole another story.

Maybe they expect an upgrade soon. Or sometime in the future. Or maybe they just didn't check the requirements. But waiting for the right hardware is just one of the hundreds of possible valid and sensible (for me) reasons not to play it. Or just not to play it right now.

Gosh, everyone has a budget to buy Hammerwatch - it was $0.01 in Humble Bundle. Too much fuss about nothing.

Why would I wishlist a game that my PC can't even handle.

In anticipation of getting a new one? I have lots of games on my wishlist that my computer can't run, but that I still wanted to keep track of. And now that I have a new gaming laptop arriving in a couple days, I'm glad I kept that list.

If you want to restrict your giveaways to wishlisters, it's great that SG allows you to do that via whitelist. But you need to keep in mind that people use wishlists in all kinds of different ways and that's not something you can control.

I was just picking at your word choice :P Need means absolute necessity, no one needs a game xD

Don't reveal their names, but put their Steam Gifts names there on that sites, just for yourself, that tool checks if the person did not activate his won games or if won multiple times same game.

like for example
http://www.sgtools.info/nonactivated/sviat
http://www.sgtools.info/multiple/sviat

I'm clear, I activated all my wins or didn't win multiple times, but there might be people who didn't, try with a different name.

Just want the world to be a better place :D
The internet is no different than the rest of the world- negative things just seem more apparent to us here.

If people are on steam playing games off and on several times a day but unable to activate a key?
There are tons of reasons that can occur- from having their internet quirk out while leaving a game up, to using Idlemaster type programs, etc.

Assumptions are typically hard to validate, for SG users.

If I (finally) win a game I would be super excited and instantly activate it and play it.
I wouldn't :P
For me, that'd be a waste of a game. Instead of taking the time to play it when I'd enjoy it most, I'm forcing myself to play it right then?
It sounds to me that games are pretty interchangable for you, for me, not so much.

I just want to make people sincerly happy :D
Pssh, when were humans ever sincerely happy? ;P
Good luck with the effort, though :)

The world is rarely so simple.

Sweetie, I'm in the middle of a move and can't afford to pay for it right now. Also, I'm a gamer too but I'm primarily a woman that needs to eat and feed my dog. Those are my priorities. I'm unemployed and, seeing as I'm an adult and don't have parents to support me, I can promise you that gaming is not among my top priorities right now ;)

I promise you, if you weren't so upset over this whole thing right now and, quite likely, so young or have ever been in a situation where you are litteraly hungry, you'd understand that gaming is never really a priority in life.

Also, things change. I'm planning on playing each and every game I own when I get the time for it...
After I make sure there's food on the table (both bought and prepared), clothes are in the closet (both bought and cleaned), the apartment is clean, the utilities are payed for and my dog's been taken out for a walk and fed.
Trust me, I'd love to be able to make gaming my "priority" ;)

If you did a Fallout 4 giveaway with a wishlist only option, you'd still get plenty of collectors.

Also, giveaways made public allow people to expand their game horizons and potentially experience new games that interest them. Not just games they want (like if they prefer only 1 genre of game)

Thing is I've had it done once or twice in the past so since it worked back then though it'd still apply to today.

Russian Roulette with a God is a perfect example xD
You need to survive because you have only one life but the God always wins =d
No,I'm not insane.

My two cents for the purpose of discussion - please don't take any of this personally:

As others have said, if you really need something, entering a lottery is never a good idea. To be upset about not winning such a thing is just naive. If you need something and can't get it for yourself, then there are proper charities in the world to help you, and they can and do prioritize people based on their level of need.

To make SG such a serious thing is, in my opinion, a bit silly - after all, it's about games, which are purely for entertainment. As an extension, I see SG as pure fun, both in terms of giving and winning. Yes, I get some extra enjoyment out of it when a winner is particularly grateful, but I'm not here to judge what makes them happy. I've given and won a good bit on SG, and I'm excited every single time I win, no matter if it's a game I've been waiting to buy for years, or some small bundle game that I might only get an hour's enjoyment out of.

Also, as many others have said, people have many different ways of using wishlists, many different ways they like to play games, many complications in life that may reduce or delay the time they can spend gaming, etc. I have very little time to play games right now, but know that that will change over the winter. If a game that I'm really interested in playing comes up on a huge sale tomorrow, should I not buy it if I know I'm not going to be able to play it for a few months? It's really no different on SG - I attempt to win games well in advance of having any time to play them, knowing that my chances of winning are small, and it may take months to win if I ever win at all, and the value and appreciation I get out of the win are no less just because I don't play it for a while.

Finally, though your intentions seem good - wanting to give games to other to spread happiness, with a desire to maximize that happiness - I think you really need to take a look at how judgmental and presumptuous you are being in the process. True giving is done without judgement or expectation, and I think that is a sentiment that the world could use a little more of. This may not be the case, or it may be without you realizing it, but reading all of this it really seems like your true goal is to maximize the amount of gratitude you receive.

I can easily see someone wanting a lot of different games. If you have a wide taste in games, and you're not super picky about exactly which game you play, but are fine with playing what you think seems like a good game and don't worry about the rest, then 800 or even 1000+ games is not unrealistic.

Well, I've read 500 books throughout the past few years, and those were the books I really wanted to read. I also have around 400 books on my wishlist, too, and I'd like to read them.
I have 300 items on my steam wishlist, and those are the things that have sparked my interest in one way or another.
You can't tell if someone REALLY WANTS or just simply wants those 500+ items on their wishlist. I doesn't necessarily mean that they would GET all those 500+ games. But you can't judge if they want or not want them.

What are the benefits?
Steam in online mode uses memory resources (and seems to have continuous cloud data updating, which also can slow things), I get better gameplay with it off.
It's a lot better now than it used to be, but it can still be noticeable in some games.
Also? I really don't like people poking around what games I'm playing. It's my private relaxation time- and as you noted yourself, there are some people that like poking around in that. It's a bit.. uncomfortable.

Well, we're talking single player games. No helping multiplayer ones. Sometimes there's a positive to people seeing you play those, as well.

I use offline mode quite alot. The benefits for me are that I dont get people nagging on me all the time when I just want to relax and play games.

The benefits of playing in offline mode:
You don't have 100+ hours of playtime shown on your profile page, when you're supposed to do something important instead.

silly as it is, I prefer not seeing that, it makes me feel guilty and even less productive

If its a public giveaway then you can't restrict it, if it's private they can't view it to comment on it. How do you expect this to work.

and the realistic part decided by who exactly?