^ From Steam itself. Which means someone could in theory amass quite a large account of games bought from resellers but since they never paid Steam directly they'll have certain "community" features locked on the platform.

Ironic then that places like Fanatical, which are resellers themselves, use the limited account status as a barrier to giving freebies out from their platform. I would have thought it'd made more sense to limit it to those who have purchased from Fanatical itself, not Steam. Backwards they have it I would think.

Can you link the threads you are referring to?
Free Games = Temporary keys?

Also I believe we do have a thread for posting good game deals / bundles.
Is that still around?

Most of the threads related to various kinds of giveaways:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/massive_giveaways_blog/page98
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/free_temporary_keys_giveaway_central_topic/page183
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/list_of_free_games_on_gog
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/amazon_prime_games_and_drm
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/current_games_included_in_amazon_prime_subscription
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/updated_itchio_giveaways
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/free_open_source_games
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/permanently_and_temporarilygiveaway_free_mobile_games_on_android_and_ios_that_are_good_enough_to_b
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/giveaway_a_bunch_of_steam_keys
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/free_games_and_3rd_party_mods_the_updated_list
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/free_games_and_potato_pcs

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_community_giveaway_6th_edition
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_community_giveaway_tradition_discussion_and_poll
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_gog_community_gifting_thread
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/nongog_gifting_thread

Yes, I meant the "free (temporary) keys" thread when I said free games.

And Slick has listed even more threads than I knew of / follow.

There are so many different discussions/threads, and every now and then there's something interesting/exciting in all of them...

I'd prefer a massive giveaway thread that has it all, so I only have to monitor one discussion, one that only includes the giveaways and no discussion about it. Like a newsticker.

Why don't we have one for all, but without the endless discussions about the "free-ness" of the giveaways in the posts?

BTW, if I need an internet connection, i.e. I have to pay an ISP: is a downloadable giveaway then really free?!?

This argument has been happening since the days of mail order public domain/freeware software catalogs. If you have to pay between $2 and $3.50 for a diskette and postage/S&H, is it really free software?

Generally it was considered free as long as profits were not being made off the ISP costs or the diskette costs.

Yes, and such arguments will always be coming. The problem is that one posted game may be free/available to one person, but not to another.

Examples: You need an e-mail address to register before you can download a game. Yes, I know, having an e-mail address isn't much of a restriction, but still I'd consider it more restrictive than, say, it you only need to click and just grab a copy without the requirement of first creating an account (free or trial)...
Free for new registered accounts: Why should this not be considered a freebie? It's free under the condition that you're new to the website, so isn't this something that is free for certain people as well?
A giveaway, but only in certain countries. Again, why complain if it's not available to you?

My point is, all this discussion about separating into three or more discussion threads, where certain conditions have to be met, will ultimately only confuse people who know of a freebie or giveaway, because they first have to find out it it's temporarily free, only in certain countries free, only free for newly registered accounts, only free for <I don't know what limitation one could think of>.... And risk being lectured on the restriction by others, should they get it wrong...

And then we have those never ending "it's not really free" discussions all over the freebie/giveaway thread... Which is fine if that's what the thread is: giveaways and freebies, and general discussions about it or anything on the topic. Only, I don't think that's the case, neither is it (apparently) what people want.

My proposition stands: make only two discussion topics/threads: 1. The (massive) giveaway and freebie thread. 2. The discussions for said thread. Post only (under those conditions) free games (temporary or not, A++ or shovelware) in the first, but discuss in the second!

And for those wanting a separation into "completely free", "only if you create an account", "only if you pay for an account", combined with "only A++ titles" down to "shovelware", are free to create independent sub-threads, that should add everything to the one "massive giveaway/freebies thread" as well. Or take from there and CC it into the independent sub-threads. If someone (a group of someones) volunteers to do the work...

My 2¢...

And that's different from the current situation where you have the "central topic" that people were posting everything in and the various other topics that were later creared for specific kinds of giveaways by those bothered by the mix... how, exactly?

Aha. That's interesting, because how on earth is that clear to anyone? Where does it say, that the "temporary keys giveaway central topic" is supposed to be the central thread for all freebies? If I post a "now permanently free" game there, isn't this against what the "central topic" clearly states?

Also, the sticky post only lists available threads/discussions, but 1) without a structure, and 2) with unclear names:

We have:
- Massive Giveaways Blog
- Free (temporary) keys giveaway central topic.
- Updated Itch.io giveaways

So, where is the central discussion for all = itch.io shovelware, temporary GOG giveaways AND Amazon Prime Gaming "freebies" (with the trial period it's completely free, if you qualify for the trial)?

Edit: And where is the/a discussion thread mentioned in the sticky post?

MysterD, here are two links for Thief:

https://www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=174

https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150989

The 2nd link is a basic post about modifying the game(s). I favored the necroage theme myself, but graphics are subjective.

The first link is the first page ofthe forum with other threads that might interest you. For example, you can see a thread on adding a portable lantern to the game.

HTH

That actually sounds more like a classic ShareWare model than a demo.

Can people please post actual giveaways, and not obviously F2P games so as to not further degrade the thread from posts which don't serve its purpose?

I'm talking about the links to games which are not free yet in other stores, not any kind of reminders. This weeks freebies were already announced in a post last week, without links. And someone will certainly post links to them tomorrow when they're actually free. So, don't worry, you will not miss the freebies, they're up for an entire week.

I'm also not talking about linking to any kind of competitions. I have no idea where you get that from. Try not to twist the narrative to serve your own purpose. Whatever that purpose is supposed to be.

I can't seem to find a single link to games in other stores on the last couple of pages of the thread you linked to. There's a couple of links to Reddit, which is completely irrelevant, as Reddit is not a competitor of GOG.

This thread you linked to, which you suggest are being used all the time, also seems to have been dead for more than 2 years until it was necroed in November last year. There's 10 new posts there since September 29, 2021, and it's been dead again since November.

There's not a single valid point in your post, except when you try to twist the narrative.

Most links have expired offers that are...expired, and are still up. That someone even made the mere mention (and no link) to bring up an upcoming giveaway is not the end of the world nor does that even violate what you've been trying to say.

I'm already well, well, well aware of Epic giveaways. But it was a mere reminder. You're making a big deal without a salient point.
You literally made a point of saying that one is not allowed to bring up third party competition sites and link to them. You're now twisting your own words and trying to backtrack. The threads that got locked were so mostly because they went awry for other reasons. You're not making any good points about Reddit over people who use those sources for informational purposes. Get real!

The thread I linked to was an example of all the things you said was "disallowed", which is one of several that even remain standing today. It's not a locked thread, despise everything you claimed was in violation. These threads existed for a reason.

You're not making the point you think you're trying to make, and just blowing things out of proportion.