I've won some games I didn't like, but none that I didn't want to try. If a game looks like something I'd rather not play at all, it goes on my ever-increasing filter list instead of me entering for it.

Heck of a puzzle, by the way. I almost didn't know what to do, but after the hints popped up, I went back to map the smallest one and noticed the question mark. That and some graph paper later.... here I am.

View attached image.

For the most part there is a reason for every game I enter. Either the artwork draws me in, a word in the title, or it's something I specifically want to play. I do tend make exceptions for puzzles, that take at least little while to solve, because that greedy part of me wants to get something out of the time I spent. Also "junk" trains if I haven't won in a while.
I'm bad about playing games, especially on Steam, and most things I enter I know there's very little chance I'll boot up.
I guess that pretty much means I'm a +1 lecher and am just trying to justify it.
My main exception to my greed is I don't enter "really good" games, in private giveaways, unless I truly intended to play it one day.

That "?" stumped me for quite a while. I spent way too long trying to figure out how to express, what I thought was, a picture of a key.
I was going down the puzzle rabbit hole trying to over interpret things. Looking at Admirals of the English Fleet and poets. Till eventually I gave up and while doing dishes a stupid thought came to me, or at least I thought it was at the time.

It's 4 in the morning, but I the puzzle drew me in and I couldn't stop once I had begun. o_o;; Though I know putting this all together was quite the undertaking, I really enjoyed the whole thing.

As for me, I ended up on steamgifts largely because I was looking for a place to unload the occasional key from a bundle. I hate for spare keys to go to waste, and so I wander over here when I can't farm them off on any of my friends. The first few days I was fascinated enough to sit around trying to spend all my points, but that wore off fast for me and I really only enter things I'm actually interested in playing now. So, out of the few games I've picked up here, I've played them. They were fair to middling, but I got my fun out of them.

Yes, it happened to me. So I stopped to enter games I don't want. Well, I do enter those multy-copies giveaways, because games are crap anyway, and nobody will enjoy it, so why not have it for the cards. But now it's even worse. I win the game I want, and then I don't have time to play it... or my PC is not good enough to start it and I don't have money for upgrade yet... or I start to play and realize I'm so bad at this game it's just masochism to play it further... And then I feel guilt, because someone would actually play it, not just enjoy from having it in library. Oh well. Maybe some day I will retire from work, will have enough money to buy a decent PC and will play all days long. It's a beautiful dream, only thing that spoils it - it's a fear of arthritis.

I won a few games I didn't care about when I first came to SG. Like you, I just entered for almost any old jazz at the beginning. Luckily that didn't last long, and for a long time now I've only entered for games I actually want or perhaps never even heard of but having checked out the store page they seemed interesting. There may well be a couple of games I won here that I'll never even install, but hopefully those days are long gone.

Anyway, that was an incredible effort you put in to this event. It took me about 3.5 hours just to do the warehouse bit and ending puzzles, so I've no idea how much time you put in! Thanks for all of it!

Oh, and I found the bloody Bromine in the end. ^^

Hello, I've finally finished aaahhh ;; Thank you for the puzzle(s)! Confusing at times, but I had some fun with it. :D Whew. I was just clicking and storing stuff in a spreadsheet and my eyes already hurt a bit. Can't imagine how much time and effort organizing that took. Hats off to you for managing to do all that. ^^;;

As for the question, well, I only mostly enter for games I think I'd like to play. I've never entered a giveaway for the +1, but I have entered (and won) a game I thought I'd play, but ended up not playing because I changed my mind after seeing the gameplay. :^( Now I only enter when I'm sure I'll be willing to play it after looking through the store page and. ((Though actually playing them is a different matter altogether ;; I've been trying to play my wins but I've recently been stalled by uni... ;-;))

I keep thinking about this Dennis guy. And all the italic-marked words in descriptions. Is this another ending or I'm just being paranoid? I'll never know..

No, I never won a game that I did not want at least to try. But I do have a couple of wins that turned out to be not so good that I expected.
I was entering only for games I want since I joined this site, I think just because why trying to win something you don't want (even if it's a good game), when you can win something you do want? I'm not a collector and I don't idle, so +1 and cards are not the reasons for me :) And as my wishlist is quite big, I have something to enter mostly always.
Also I really have time to play my wins, for now, according to my own notes, I've completed 40 out of 53 of my wins, so I can't feel a lot of guilt for not playing my wins :)

When I first joined the site I certainly made an effort to spend most of my points but thankfully didn't win anything for a long time, so I had time to come to my senses and only enter things I'd actually play. I'd say I've been legitimately excited about all my wins at the time, though having played them all, there are a couple that I probably would've passed on in retrospect. That said, the average play rate for any game won on this site is pretty abysmal, so I have almost no faith that those wins would've gone to people that a) play it more than me or at all, and/or b) would've liked the game more than me. Odds are they would've just been idled for cards. That's probably true of the games you won as well, though I think it's an interesting idea to try gifting those games.

Anyway, this is an impressive puzzle you've put together. I'd say I feel sorry for the amount of time this must have taken you, but on the other hand, you've effectively tricked a bunch of people into drawing a 24x24 maze, so I think everyone feels some of your pain...literally...my hand is sort of sore from drawing that thing and if I never see another maze in my life, I'll die happy. Thanks for the puzzle, the effort and piles upon piles of disappointment. I'm sure these pre-release games will make some people happy, at least.

I was part of other "giveaway communities" before joining sg (mostly on reddit, on a much smaller scale than here) so I knew to enter only for games that I at least had some interest in. That being said, I still have some unplayed wins that I'm not entirely sure when I'll get to so it didn't entirely work out lmao. But for the most part, I've had more good surprises (games that I only somewhat wanted to try out and that became favorites) than games I didn't end up enjoying

Thanks for all this disappointing madness by the way <3

No, never blindly entered giveaways. Sometimes when I have max points for too long, I checked what might be interesting for me in open giveaways, but almost all time I ended up with nothing.

Thanks for really challenging puzzle.

Dude that was CRAZY! Thanks!!

When I first joined the site, 5 years ago, I was septical too but after few months and thousand entries I finally won my first game, it was Space Pirates And Zombies. I was so happy because I had only a dozen games, mostly f2p.
Few months later I joined a group with some kind of points system based on numbers of entries, so I started to build up my library with some nice games. I did that for 1 year. Couple month after the Steamgift v2 release I had to stop my internet activities because of personal problems.
I came back almost 1 year and half later. I had few hundred games at this point, and I started to spend all my points everyday (winning almost 1 ga/day) , I also discovered Tremorgames and within a year I got like 1,5k or 1,6k games.
And 1 year later, I have now 2,7k games and I use only the wishlist, recommended and group tab on the site, entering everyday couple ga for games I really want.

Now tbh I entered everything I could in your puzzle, I focused on the puzzle itself more than looking at all those DISAPPOINTING™ games.
This is one of the best puzzle I ever solved, thanks again!

Ps: I'm still planning to play every single game I own at some point, even tho it might be not so realistic.

I don't think I've ever won anything I didn't want at the time. In retrospect there have been some that I've regretted winning. I've been very fortunate to win some really great games from some very generous people. I count you among them, so thank you. :3

That maze was insane... and amazing... Thank you!

Every game I enter I am cognizant of the idea that I'm supposed to play it, so I don't enter for games I am not willing to play. Most of the games I've entered for on this site are already on my wishlist, anyway. Actually getting around to playing them, on the other hand, is another story. Some days I'm probably spending more time trying to win games than I am playing them.

I didn't feel bad about winning lousy games until I started trying to play my SG win backlog. I've learned some things and adjusted my entering accordingly. I've also tried to be a little more picky about what I put on my wishlist, even trimming some mediocre-looking things that have been there for years. Yeah, sooner or later, I'm gonna have to play Brilliant Bob. What was I thinking?

As you might expect, while this ziggurat offered plenty of games I don't own, I barely entered for any.

I joined this site to win games, but wound up giving about as much as I get. Not complaining, just thought it was interesting considering that's not what I originally intended.

Also, you are now on my whitelist. Thanks again!

There is one game I won that I don't want. I entered it thinking it was a different game, because the title icon was similar. Oops. I idled it for cards, but it looks like a trash game, so I don't want to use my limited time to test that idea. Then there is another game I won, but didn't understand how hard it is without a controller, so...

But I almost always try to win only games that I want to play.

I feel an obligation to actually finish games that I've won, so I check everything before entering a giveaway to be (reasonably) sure I'm going to have fun playing it.

Guilty! I used to enter a lot of stuff just for +1... Not doing it anymore though. However, this insane maze tempted me again in entering a lot of stuff! It just feels that time spent on your amazing puzzle should be rewarded in some way. Surely, I will try to finish any more or less big title I will win here. Thank you very much for this event!

For me, the most fun part was creating a script that crawls the maze and forms the map :)

View attached image.

View attached image.

when i started using SG i joined everything too .. later only those with cards or achievement .. atm i hardly join anything (though i joined many games from your puzzle) .. i only check my wishlist (and even there i seldom join) or look occasionally at the discussions for puzzles or sth like that
i dont want to ruin my ratio for a bad game .. and i dont want to "steal" a game someone else could have won who would really have played it
but well, many ppl here dont play there wins, so i shouldnt feel bad if i win and dont play
and i still have keys lying around that could fix my ratio again (though not nearly as many as you have)
so you live in LA? ;3

Great event fiftykyu... must have been crazy crating the maze with 1000+ games. The most GA in the event I created was non-puzzle event with just 10-12 games and I still remember how my energy was drained maintaining the links and everything.

The "?" part was confusing. Went back to map multiple times to thoroughly check every corner. That is what happens when you overthink.. XD
And also you including italic words in between... is it part of puzzle in anyway?

Like you I also used to enter every giveaways whether I was going to play or not. At least for half year after joining. After winning Duke Nukem Forever and Dragon's Dogma, the game that I wasn't sure I wanted to play or not, the game I didn't wish, I started thinking why I did join the site in first place, there are people who lack games to play and could have enjoyed those games. I am just wasting their chances as well as GA creator's money. So I stopped entering every random GA then.
As a guilt I did play Duke Nukem Forever and Dragon's Dogma. Thankfully I did enjoy those games. Planning to go for second run on Dragon's Dogma in the future.

Now for the questions you asked

Did you ever win a game you didn't want? Entered for the +1, the trading cards? Just had to spend all your points?

No I have won every game I wanted except the games mentioned above. Usually I never run out of points except the time I do remember when I ran out of points was when the Borderlands series and The Witness were given out.

How did you feel when you won? Woohoo! Oh, crap. At least I didn't pay for it... Something like that? :) Or maybe you felt guilty, or disappointed?

I was most excited when I won Plague Inc., Borderlands and Bioshock series. As for next part that was the thing that made me more choosy for what GA that I should enter.

I always feel Woohoo! when I win something :)

A few years back there where others pages similar to SG, I didnt had acces to spend my money on the internet so free games from strangers looked like a great idea, in one of this pages I won several Desura games, well, they were crap, (but still were games compared to the 5k achivements for a dollar "games" on steam this days) didnt like many of them, others when into steam wishlist when available,but that teached me to enter only thing I really was interested.

The bad point is I get interested in a lot (even knowing I'll be crap on said game) so enter maybe more GA than necesary, the backlog is gonna end having grandchildrens before I play everything. However, I have a rule, no idling for cards, and no cheating the achievements, supposedly to increase the intention on playing them, specially for the games with low interest from me.

I ended entering a lot of the maze GAs, seen a lot of wishlisted games from bundles I didnt buy. As my influx of money dont allow me to buy every bundle I only end buying bundles with at least 4 gamesin it that interest me, lesst than that and only wishlist the games I care and let the bundle pass. I get the game from SG or buy it later. With the big backlog I have, Im in no hurry for new games so,anything is a Gain, no disapponments. And everything get played sooner or later (probably later)

Winning GA feel great (yay! I was gona wait this game was on mega sale lol!!), but a few months ago I did a small puzzle train, extremely simple compared to this, and the cheering, the thanks, the discussion about the puzzle, feeling part of the community feeled awesome... extremely stressful cause my social anxiety, but really great indeed.

Now I must copycat the ziggurat someday... propably in a pyramid scheme , or a crop circle, or not, and be disapponting. That the spirit! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I end here before this coment end being longer thant the last maze. 😁

I have joined this site four years ago. I don't really remember how I found it or some details, I signed in. I have checked it and got really weird feeling about this place, it was so strange... they are giving away games? Is it legal? I did not enter for anything and left. Also completely forgot about SG.
Then last year I got email saying that SG is missing me. I was: O_O What? I have checked the site again, found huge amount of points on my account and I have also found an answer for my question: "What will I do with the games from Humble I don't want to use?" I was really happy, I can gift them to someone who will hopefully like and play them.
So I joined my first giveaways, participated in some events and also won some games. And it was great, I was so happy! Even more it was game I wanted. ;)
I consider myself a player and game collector. But I buy or enter for games I really want to play. My library is getting larger and larger, but everything there I WANT to play and WILL play! :D Some of the games I have on Steam I have played long time ago and I buy them to just have them there, you know, they wont broke down. yes, my CD crashed - exploded inside my PC once, it was horrible experience...

I still don't really understand why would someone give away big new game... can't even describe how grateful I am for that!! as I just take this site as an opportunity to find a new home for lonely games I wont play. But who knows, maybe one day I will also give those games away. ;)

This last year I started to participate on this site, I have found the community to be great and friendful! strange thing for me really, as I am not active on any social media I am trying to make some giveaways and also events, made two, yay! :D still I am little afraid that I will be considered bad for taking more than giving, but well... I suppose I need to live with that or stop taking. ;)

Yes, so I always check the store page and feel Woohoo!

I did it. I reached the top.