So, IS it fair?
For me it is the biggest grit I have with this site. Most of the games I have given away are games I really enjoyed and as such I want them to be played and then it ends up with a collector or card farmer. Everytime this is brought up people say the same thing: The winner can do what he wants to with the game. Which is right since SG rules do not specify anything.
Sometimes there are even worse answers. Someone said one time (not to me) if you can't accept people not playing your game stop gifting and the problem is solved. Which reads like (exaggerated) if you can't accept people being assholes stop being nice. The problem will not be solved by people stopping to gift games. What I am missing here on the site is (and this word is far too strong for what I want to say but I don't have a better one at the moment) respect towards the games (for them to be played) and the giveaway creators. I made private giveaways where I stated people shall not enter if they only collect games. Win still was going to a collector. So private giveaways do not solve the problem and groups do not solve the problem.
I really really wish that CG would add a single line to the site guidelines: Only enter for games you intend to play. But this will most likely not happen. It is a waste if games go to people who have no intention of playing them. I understand that it may take some time for them to play them or that there are other reasons which keeps you from playing specific games. But if you have played less than 50 % of your won games you are doing it wrong. If you win more than 30 games per month you are doing it wrong. I do not understand why people enter giveaways in order to take away the chances from people actually interested in PLAYING those games. It is just bad behaviour.
At this point I am really thinking about creating an own group with the requirement that you have atleast played 75 % of your won games. The number is quite low but it would be a beginning.
PS: This is of course all my opinion. People have different reasons for entering giveaways and have a right to their own opinions. Also I'm not condemning games collectors. I just don't like it if they use this site for this purpose instead of buying the games. It seems worthless to me to collect games and not to play them. Then again I collect achievements ..... we can now argue which is more worthless: Collecting something with an use but not using it or collectin something with no use at all.
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That doesn't much surprise me, people can be so selfish (for a lack of better words). I don't see why somebody would enter a giveaway if they don't want the game/don't know if they'll even bother to play it. Every time I hit enter, I make sure it's something I want. If it catches my eye but I've never heard of it, I check it out to see what it's about. If I don't like what I see - I ignore it, if I don't want it, I won't try to get it. And what about stuff like food drives or Salvation Army's? There's so many people who go to those places for free food, even though they have enough money to pay the rent, have three squares a day plus snacks, and still have money left over. And for every cunt who does that, a poor person starves that day. Way different concept, but the principle is the same.
And my thoughts exactly, to stop giving stuff away, to make private giveaways, that doesn't really solve the issue. Even if SG made a rule on it, it could never be completely enforced. People will still farm this site just to add a few numbers to their game/card collection.
If you made such a group, I'd support it however I can. That would be great for both the kindhearted who enjoy giving stuff away, and people who, for example, can't afford paying for entertainment.
And well, just for the heck of throwing it in there, I feel like achievements aren't quite meaningless. It's kinda like unlocking a bonus character or secret weapon or level back in the old gaming days: you don't need it to have the best gaming experience and you'd do just fine without it, but it gives you a little extra bang for your buck. I find myself initially replaying a game just for achievements, then realizing how much I loved the game all over again. Then that'll be the only game I play for a few weeks. But like you said, it's just my opinion. I can see why people think they're worthless, and they have every right to see it that way!
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Comparisons to stuff like food are always a bit troublesome since those are essentials for living and people are acknowledging greedy behaviour in such case ore easily. But yea, the basic principle "greed" is the same.
Well, it should only be a guideline. You can't and you shouldn't enforce such rules since there are a lot of things that can happening (like the game being a nearly unplayable mess, looking at you Deadly Premonition). But a back up by the site guidelines would be helpful to get people thinking about their behaviour.
Like I said, I just wish people would also regard more of the creators side. Not all of us are dumping their unneeded keys here.
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You see this is one of the points . I like to play a game to the end or more than one time and I like the old games that I played , so I have games that are seen in my library that I never played on Steam but for example Gothic 2 that I have 0h but in fact I finished this game at leat 3 time before and plan to play it more than one time .
So yes depends you don't know the context
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I really really wish that CG would add a single line to the site guidelines: Only enter for games you intend to play.
One problem is that you cannot measure "intent". Another problem is that the games are very different - in length, difficulty, quality etc.
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No, of course you can't. Therefore this can and shall not be a rule. But as a simple statement for a guideline it would be a good thing ... I think. Also if you have an user who has played less than 20 % of his won games you should be allowed to question his intention.
This is not meant for enforcement or such. It just is something for silencing people who sayt that they have not to care about what the creators want.
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Yes, but what would a timespan to play the game be? How much time? What if the game didn't run on the person's computer (because the game itself is broken)? What if the game turned out just bad (or inappropriate) and to play it would be a waste of time? What if it was played in offline mode? Or the games are hidden?
In the end - who would go on and check those profiles? And if the profiles are private?
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Well in that case you can only "implement" it yourself. I wouldn't expect people to follow (or even read) recommendations when half of them don't know the rules (and break them).
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Many of the people who play the game collecting game are the ones that give away games.
Most people have more time than money but some people really do have more money than time and want to collect games they like but don't have the time to play. Maybe when I get a vacation, maybe when I retire I'll have time to play all these games.....
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^this.
I have a huge backlog, and I don't have much time to play right now, what little time I have I do some "social play" with friends, and this excludes most single player titles and those my friends don't own or don't like. It definitely is my intention playing most games I won (except the bundle trash with 5% positive reviews that exists only for a +1 in a collection, i.e. Digital Homicide games), but I need time, thus a vacation or getting a little sick (enough to stay at home from work, not so much I can't sit or use my PC). Or i win a big sum in a lottery and I don't have to work anymore. Or retirement (i need some 35 more years of contribution to get there though).
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I have a backlog of over 400 games that i want to play and i still need to drop the free cards from over 300 other games.
And sometimes new games come out and i give it priority over others, like portal knights, stardew valley, and for now the neptunia U.
I dint even started the Witcher 3 and i brought the game and the season pass i am still on the griphon quest and on fallout 4 i still need to reach diamond city...
I guess some people has time to play things others dont have.
But if you really want to give things out to people that may or will actually play it right way try looking at your steam friends wishlist and gift something to them.
^it works very well and if some of them are IRL friends it will work even better.
I am not gonna say that if someone won something here on SG they need to play it or they dont really need, but since they are the owner of the game they will do what they want, and for me every win is a new something on the backlog.
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Don't care with people who win games from me.
Do care somewhat that I do it to others. My intentions are to play everything I win but things happen in real life, or I get bogged down in some of my favourite games without realising almost. Did join a backlog group about 6 weeks ago and still intend to really go through my wins in that but I haven't been great so far, although I did rack up over 200 hours in one of them so far. It was Football Manager 2015 and while some of it was idling afk, I did play thorugh 4 full seasons watching highlights of every football match my team(s) were in. Think that was pretty good and I'm now happy I've considerable amount of that one and it's now time to move on to other wins.
Anyway, I've really cut down on the number of giveways I'm entering - just tallied it up and I'm at 16 entries and 3 wins so far this year. I really don't want to add too many more wins to the pile of awesomeness until I've played a good chunk of them.
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That's a really good mindset, I wish other people thought that way... including myself, probably. Ya know what they say: life happens. Things such as work, school, friends, and family are more important than games, after all.
I could never get irritated because someone had a life, it's just when people have the time to put 5,000 hours into Team Fortress in a single year, but never make an effort to play a game they won from a giveaway, or they enter giveaways for games that don't even interest them. I dunno, I just try to get as much use as possible from something that somebody else paid for q:
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1) It's annoying for sure, but it's none of our business what they do with it. I won The Witcher 1 and I'll be playing it in the future for sure, but not in the near month or so. It's fine if you don't play the game. I'm happy to know that someone will feel happy for winning something. :)
2) What bothers me is that there are people who win hundreds of games and give nothing back (except for the one cheap bundle game to get to lvl 1). It's scummy, but even that's fairly ok for me, if they won't start making up excuses for it, like "I'm too poor, since I only have 10+ AAA $30+ games!" and "If we weren't here, then SG wouldn't work, so you should thank us!"
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Hehe, I know I won your game Mugknight. I'm really sorry that I haven't played Witcher yet. It's just that I've been extremely busy lately and the time I've had, I've been putting into finishing the rest of my games. BUT my viewers have been bugging me about playing The Witcher, so I'll get around to it soon! :)
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I can see that side of the debate, as well. I suppose just the thought of winning is enough to put a smile on somebody's face. After all, I felt really good when I won a free Taco Bell taco on the coin grabber thing! Food is slightly more important, but the principle still applies, I suppose q:
And yeah, that would bug me too. I understand not having money, but if someone won 100's of games, they could at least make the effort to say, put a dollar in a jar every week until they've scrounged up enough to get a decent priced game to contribute to the community.
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Very true, and that would lead to giving more games and making more people happy, after all. In this case, quantity should go over quality: I've seen people who buy games for $1 (not even on sale) and play it like it's the best video game ever. Plus, that gives more love to the independent developers that need the money more than AAA game devs :D
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I would hope people enter giveaways for games they would want to play, but I would be lying to say I have played trough all the games I have won. I do actually want to play the games I won, time seems to be the biggest problem though. During the winter sale I bought three games, and I haven't even played one of them (It's Hyperdimension Neptunia Rebirth 1). With little time I tend to stick to games that don't rely too much on continuity (so I end up playing only certain games). I also want to avoid going through a game part way, only to forget it.
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Can't argue with you about the laws of probabilities :V :D
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Why try to win them in the first place then? I check every game and if I'm able to run it. If I can't I don't enter it. What's the point taking someone's chances who is actually able to run the game. Now that's not about ethics, it's just fucking logical.
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steam in offline mode does not register playing time.
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Really? Then what's the point of the two hour refund limit? Someone could just play in offline mode for two weeks, beat it several times, and refund it, couldn't they?
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I guess so, yes. I was about to post a reply to this thread because of offline mode: I use it a lot (because if I don't my brother can't play my shared games), I can tell you that not only it doesn't register playing time, but also many games have their achievements NOT working in offline mode. For example there numerous games I played to the end of the main story, but if you check my profile it looks like I didn't get even the most basic achievement. Add to that the fact that sometimes you can simply not enjoy a game, or plan on playing it at a later time, and the answer is that you can't have an accurate info about all that. My 2 cents.
Edit: to answser your "what's the point" question, it's simple: card drops :)
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Oh, so it's the fault of the giveaway creator for not giving away the newest triple AAA titles? :D
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no, but i am talking from my own viewpoint. i am not giving the best games away because i dot have the money and only give games which i dont play by my own. But i cant ecpect people to play games i wouldnt play. They just enter the giveaway for the sake of winning not because they want a game that is worth 50 cents.
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Okay, that's true. I know people who play these games tho and I won some where I have to confes that I entered just for the odds as well. These times are over tho and I will definitely play these just like my other won games, to be respectful towards the giveaway creator.
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In an ideal world , only ppl who actually want the game would enter in a giveaway for it .
Thats why i only enter for wishlist stuff , no point hoarding games i dont plan on playing .
Thats just me tho :)
I honestly stoped caring bout what ppl do with the games i giveaway .... if someone has shit profile , i just blacklist him and thats it .
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I only enter GAs for games I intend to play (and want to play). But I have an ever-growing backlog, so I might not get to it for quite a while.
As an example, I won both Never Alone and Grim Fandango very recently. But I'm currently playing The Wolf Amongst Us, and have Tales from the Borderlands and To the Moon still untouched in my library. So there's a good chance I'll play those two games first, and I might be burned out on adventure games after that, so it could be months before I play one of those games
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I half agree. It's fair that they can enter, but not fair if they are just entering knowing they'll never play it. I won Knights of the Sky thinking it was a different game so only played it for about 10 minutes before uninstalling it, which I still feel bad about.
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I have a lot of games in my library which I have not yet touched (including the two games I've won), but they are all games I want to play. I only enter giveaways of games I wish to play; maybe not today, this month or even this year, but someday I will play.
Still, I kind of get your frustration. The people whom I find most annoying are the ones who enter every giveaway they can regardless of whether they find the game interesting or not. I wish people would stop entering giveaways of games they do not really want.
When creating a giveaway I wish there was an option to allow only people with the game on their wishlist to enter the giveaway.
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I made a big wishlist of games that I like ,with this is easier to enter GA :D
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ive won games but i havent played them only because im currently trying to beat borderlands and the binding of isaac afterbirth since i only play a couple games at a time. i only try to win things i know ill play but that doesnt mean i can play it now. especially since if you win is random and you cant see it coming
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So, if I would win a game and play it after a year, would you complain? :P How do you know they'll never play it? They could play it after a month or after a year. That's why backlog exists. Even if they aren't going to play it, there's nothing you can do. Life is unfair. :/
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I don't care if my leftovers are being played or not, I hate it when people don't say thanks though.
But if I spend some good money, even buying a game fullprice (so not gaining any advantage CV-wise) just because I love a game and want to share it, then seeing the winner just wanted to get a +1.. That makes me furious, yes. I, myself, only enter for games/videos I want to play/watch. There's still a great backlog but I know I will eventually play all those games (except for my first wins on here, those were a bad mistake XD).
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if that game is some bundled one, i really dont care.....but enter to AAA game, even 3 years old to just have it in library is sad (some dont play that game, bcs they want it, but dont have good pc to run it, which is sad too, when they enter)
i am one of the collectors, but only bundled one, i dont enter on bigger games, where is no chance o would play it (2328 hidden games already)
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Not all gametime gets recorded to Steam.
For example I quite often patch the offline games with unofficial mods etc. When I just download the game via Steam and after that launch and play it without Steam running, no playing time gets recorded at all. Many (older) Steam games can also be launched and played without opening the Steam client. I am not online 24/7, and I like to play offline games more than online games anyway.
Obviously among those who own thousands of games, there are lots of games that haven't yet had time to play. But it doesn't mean that they won't get played eventually. I think it's strange that if you buy or get something it should be consumed asap. I can't and I won't. I play games in certain preference order, and I am buying and expecting to own these games the rest of my life. I have a goal to at least try playing all games I own via Steam; but some games turn out to be so bad or short that I won't play them for long.
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This kind of threads lead to mostly no good...
I will say this though..
If you won a car and enter a raffle for a car and win it shall you be damned to hell because you already have a car that you can drive and might just park this in his garage?even if the raffle was open to anyone who wanted to enter.I am just saying who are we to decide what people did with the item the win?I would not like anyone telling me how to live my life so why should i be the one to tell someone else.I will say i always do hope the game will go to someone who wants it and will play it i also take the risk of knowing it might not.
I get the owning the same game,but sometimes the same game has two different versions so i am okay with that say like Guacamelee which has the two versions though both are the same game so to speak one is missing some content while the other has the missing DLC.Though when you purchase the one with said missing DLC it adds another Guacamelee to your account instead of upgrading the old copy.So that i am okay with,same with Metro vs Metro Redux since they both add a new game to the library.
All i am saying is just make sure your not pointing out someone winning a game that is different from the other one in such a way that the only way to get it is by buying the other one.I do not see that as owning the same game twice if the only way to get the missing content or added features is by purchasing the game again.
Also no matter your intention if your going to give stuff away you have to take the risk of someone getting it that you do not want or does not really need it if you can not accept that then giving might not be your thing.It happens in real life not just on this site.I know people who will line up for free food just because it free and there no income limit or what not even know someone else might need it more then them.You can say it is wrong but really it is only wrong from a moral stand point as if there is no restrictions on said GA that means anyone can join for any reason.
Same with Steam Gifts if you want restrictions you have to place them in like using SG Tools or level.Though that still does not change that someone might try to get around it or does not care if they will play the game.At least you can keep out what some would call leeches. and help reduce the odds of someone you do not want to get it win it.
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So many people seem to participate in giveaways just to boost their game count, and they never play the games. I've seen single accounts that've won $100's worth of games, and upon looking at their profiles, they've pocketed them, but they've never even launched them. Heck, I've seen people win a game they already owned, leading to two copies of the same game in their library, both of which have never been launched
What are your thoughts on this? People spend their hard earned cash on these games to giveaway, and I feel that winning a game just to have a bigger library is taking advantage of the generosity of others. I also think it's unfair to other participants, there's people who would love to play these games, but maybe they can't afford it.
Also, I'm thinking about doing another giveaway soon, but I have one big concern: if the winner has a history of not playing the games they've won, am I able to request a new winner? I can't stand these leeches, I want to make sure the game goes to someone who's actually interested in the game, and plans to play it.
Edit: I didn't think so many people would respond, or this would be such a controversial topic. Lol. So I can't reply to everyone, but let me just say: as an open minded person, I see both sides of the debate, and agree that each side has reasonable responses. As someone who understands financial issues, however, I just think it's unethical (I should have used that word in the first place) to enter giveaways if you're not interested in a game in the first place. I also believe it's not right to accept the reward knowing it will never be played, and your intention is to add on to your 1,000 game library or your $1,000's of won games, when there's people out there who would kill to win said game. If it's a giveaway for some $1 game, no big deal what's done with it. But when you enter AAA titles or other such games that many people are interested in, it's taking away from someone who'd get an actual use out it.
Another point I'd like to bring up revolves on donating money to charities. When you go to a convenience store and they ask if you'd like to donate $5 to starving African children, don't you care where the money actually goes? Does it not bother you than a majority of the time, it goes to feed the wallets of money hungry shop owners? It wouldn't bother me if they asked straight up if I want to donate to help keep the store up and running, it's the lies that get me.
Or what about tip jars at fast food restraunts? Tips are for waiters/waitresses who literally make under $2 an hour and rely on tips to survive, not for some moron who doesn't even know how to operate a cash register and makes an undeserved $9/hr, and they want tips so they have more pot money (what? I'm just using a random example, I don't know anyone who does this. What are you talking about?). Why tip those who don't need it? Why giveaway to those greedy, self-centered leeches?
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