So today's gift is... a link to a page about the shall we say, questionable preservation program.

Wow.

You know, maybe you should figure out how many decent "surprises" you actually have first, and then plan the Anniversary accordingly.

Man do people sound like whiny children on here, constantly complaining. Lol

But the again it wouldn't feel like GOG forms without the complaining.

After two empty days, a link to the "preservation" program as the daily gift feels pretty damn backhanded any way you slice it. Skipping a day would have felt more sincere than bad filler like that.

I'm not complaining, it's no skin off my back. I'm just saying that it's pretty poor planning and bad marketing to announce "Don't forget to check out our surprises every day for 12 days" and run out of cool things on the third day, and completely run out of even lame things on the fifth. It makes GOG look bad in my opinion. If you only have, say four big surprises, highlight those four dates.

Exactly, if you only have a couple of real, worthwhile surprises, just have less dates on your gift calendar so as to not waste people's time or get their hopes up.

Just because you're disappointed doesn't mean other will be.
How are you wasting your time by checking the GOG store to see what they have today? I'm positive you are already doing it without the sale going on.

Meh... No more hype now.

Believe it or not, I don't actually check GOG every day, infact lately it's been infrequent enough that I completely forgot about the anniversary until I just happened to log in the day it started. Also, I did cancel doing something else on night 3 so I could see what would drop because they really frontloaded the event and silly me actually thought GOG might actually keep some form of momentum up.

And silly me again logged on right on unlock time yesterday and again tonight in the hope that something else showed up because stuff I want is seemingly coming and my hopes are raised, I'm directly invested now and being met with something as vapid as a pack of wallpapers or an advertisment for a program we already know about is deflating and feels like I'm being strung along, like 'why did I even bother?'.

What is the value in stretching out the 'gifts' with empty filler, really? It makes it seem like the event is bigger and more planned out than it actually is, it actively sets people up for disappointment more than just having a couple of special marked days.

And that Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 bundle might come this sale. Or was that the Need for Speed classics bundle?

I'm sorry logging in is wasting too much time out of you're day.

Sorry, but I consider this wishful thinking of the highest order.
FC3 and 4 - Uplay + general attitude from Ubisoft, where they are extremely pro-DRM and anti-preservation (The Crew, anyone?)
Need for Speed - only if GOG was magically able to convince both EA and car manufacturers (and sort the music licenses where necessary) to release these titles.
Both of the abovementioned are quite unlikely. ;) But if by some miracle any of these options actually materialise... Let's say that I will be extremely impressed.
On the more positive note - the surprises can still happen - hints about C&C Ultimate Collection, Freelancer and general cooperation with Microsoft, Sony titles, maybe Capcom - there are still quite a few potential (and reachable) Good Old Games to be revealed. Maybe starting the sale with 3 high profile releases back to back built to much of an expectation. Or maybe it was justified and our minds will be blown again. We'll see.

Seriously.

Happy anniversary, GOG! May you have another successful year until the next anniversary.

^^^ Given how dirt cheap Far Cry 3 and Far Cry 4 are going for on Steam during sales, and these titles are ancient and about to be even older when Far Cry 7 debuts, Ubisoft might come to realize that opening up a whole new buyer base in GOG could bring in considerable revenue. And as for classic Need for Speed titles, they're all but forgotten and, I'd wonder, if approached by GOG, both the studio and the car companies, all watching sales fade, might be happy to get literally any incoming cash for games that originated back in the pre-HD days of the Playstation 2 ,Xbox, and when PC video cards featured 250 MB of RAM. Bethesda presumably took a risk in letting GOG have Oblivion and especially Skyrim, and look how that's turned out. More cash flow thanks to GOG users hungry for depreciated AAA titles by studios with the sense to not ignore any market.