? I don't understand your post. Of course they are advertising, but they are also free. The files need to be hosted somewhere, and the right location was Bethesda official site. But they are free, you don't need an account to download them, there's no DRM, they are totally free.

I don't frequent the Steam forums so I'm a bit curious... are the forum regulars over there as whiny and cheap as they are here? Seriously, I'm not trying to be a djurk or anything.

Thing is, Morrowind is still worth twenty bucks. Well over a decade later, it's still worth playing, and when you play it, you don't just dip your toes in and get to a credits roll. You shake cobwebs off your feet, coming back to consciousness after a 50 hour binge, your mind still stuck in crypts, running from greater Bonelords and Daedroth, hitting that Divine Intervention moments before going into one of those urns, yourself. You still see the moons and stars from when you flew up above the Vivec prison, or you remember crawling around in the shell of a crab large enough to be the dwellings of the Redoran nobility.

If you can't hack the gameplay or don't want to do the reading, no price will be low enough for you, but if you like exploring a world, Morrowind still gives you more for $20 than anything else at that price point. Just because something's old doesn't mean it's not still worth the price of a meal for two at Subway or Taco Bell >.>

A big difference is that GOG is actually offering support for their versions of the games.

I would rather buy them in a pack for 9.99 - for now I'll have to wait for a promo on Morrowind (own CD with addons)

That's very true. Good luck on getting Bethesda to help you run the games you can get for free on their website. I would've personally prefered them to be free without a purchase but I'm sure it was Bethesda's call.

My points is that although they are free, they are not value-less. "There's no such thing as a free lunch" applies here. So GOG can use them to draw in a purchase, Bethesda can use them to draw people to their site. Bethesda clearly does not want them as freebies to draw people to GOG's site.

So, yes. They are free. But they are clearly being used as a marketing tool by Bethesda for a specific purpose.

Also, if GOG has the talkie version, then that's a huge bonus! I can't wait to play it! (but I will -- I just got Inquisitor from IAmSinistar! He's a very good peep!)

I do. :)

I figure it won't be lonh before they're offered for free in a big sale, not just to Bethesda buyers.

In many cases, I'd say it's quite a bit worse over there, although as GOG has been growing so has their customers' entitlement/whininess complex. *le sigh*

While I'd like to say all these big discounts haven't affected my buying habit, I know it isn't really true. =/ That said, I've gotten to a point again so that I do a considerable bigger evaluation of whether a game is worth a purchase or not, no matter the price. I've bought too many games in the past that I haven't played and may never play simply because of "deal!" My backlog shows no sign of shrinkage even with purchase of serious interest, so I've become quite a bit pickier with them. That's a good thing.

Every fanbase is the worst. ;)

I view it as "hey, at least the games are here for your GOG account; they're freeware so if you really want to play them get them elsewhere", and don't think this was really up to GOG.

Exactly! At the very least they're here, on GOG, DRM-free for our purchasing pleasure... and half of the forum is complaining. Sure, the games cost some money, but they're here. I mean, I'd rather Bethesda charge an arm & a leg for its games than simply act as though GOG doesn't exist. At least they're here; we have a DRM-free option that doesn't involve Steam in any way shape or form; can no one here appreciate how cool that is?

Well, I get 2 games for free that were for free anyways. Had a bad feeling about this when I bought "The Elder Scrolls Anthology which also has included Arena and Daggerfall but at least I get a disc and map for the money I paid.

Don´t get me wrong. I love GOG and the games they recently released "EOB Trilogy" but what does Bethesda thinks? People are stupid. Buying Doom again for a higher price they offered it on STEAM? Sorry Bethesda...

It's Bethesda's decision.