Puzzles to find giveaway links are stupid

I'm going to pretend, for a minute, that you actually meant what you said. That is because there are people out there who actually feel this way. While I understand the sentiment, and I applaud anyone speaking out over what he or she perceives to be an injustice, I think people are misunderstanding a couple of things.

First, everyone should understand that the reason why people set up hoops and obstacles to their giveaways is to reduce the number of people who enter. This increases the odds of winning for whomever does enter. Instead of competing with 5000 other people, you are competing against maybe 500, sometimes even less than 100. There are various ways to do this, of course. Here are the most common:

1) Limit the GA to a Steam group (only those in your clique can enter);
2) Limit the GA by contribution level (only those wealthy enough can enter);
3) Make the giveaway hidden (only "insiders" can enter--similar to #1);
4) Require a puzzle be solved (only those smart enough can enter);
5) Make the giveaway last one hour (only those logged on at that time can enter).

Sometimes, you will see more than one method being implemented for a particular giveaway. You may also hear some people trying to rationalize what they are doing, but that's all rubbish. It all comes down to the same thing: keeping people out of the giveaway in order to raise the odds of any one person winning.

Which brings me to the second thing everyone should understand. Someone who is giving something away as a gift has every right to give it to whomever they please. If Joe Shmoe wants to restrict his giveaway to blind ducks with a peg-leg, he is perfectly within his rights. He doesn't have to give anything away at all if he doesn't want, and if he does want, then he is allowed to choose the recipient. It is up to Joe who will receive his gift (or not), and "fair" does not enter into the picture unless and until Joe decides to impose that upon himself.

Life is not fair, but we may choose to try and be fair or not.

I am not trying to make excuses for anyone's behavior, I am merely trying to help people understand. Hopefully, that will allow them to cut through the crap and put things in perspective so that they are not overly bothered by the self-serving decisions others make in their own private affairs. We are all individuals, so don't be surprised to find others who don't think the way you do.

I see what you did there sir, very clever, very clever indeed.

I hate puzzle

I hate puzzles that suck, but this was nice.

I am fine with puzzles that are that, puzzles, when you give someone ALL the pieces and tell them to put it together.
But I can't stand "puzzles" where you have to guess what the author was thinking or figure something that is logical and intuitive only to the author.

Finding them is hard. Really. Even so it can be fun. Surprises can be fun too. Hard ones.
Pretty much hard. Right? It's not so much to ask. Never say never. Certainly can happen. Eureka moment!
Or, For instance, Be Aggressive!

NERF J00 I ALREADY OWN SKYRIM!

GL non owners for even greater game! ;D

They are Jerks!!