Gamification? I'm more concerned with the free games that I may be able to earn in the future.

Here is my point: in the last sale that let us earn free games at different XP milestones, I really had troubles finding the games that I wanted to buy to reach milestones - because I had already bought most of the games I wanted. I ended up buying some games that I did not even like to reach the final milestone to get the final free game. I wished I had not bought some of the games that I already had on GOG, so I could buy and use those games during the sale to reach the final milestone.

Since then, GOG has added many new games, most of which I already own on Steam. Now, if the XP milestones are coming back, then I would rather hold off on buying some of the games that are on sale now. I would save them for future milestones to earn free games. I am especially reluctant to spend money again on the same games that I already own on Steam. On the other hand, if I know that XP milestones are not coming back, then I may just grab them now.

It is kinda weird that this seasonal promo is not being as widely promoted as they usually are. It kinda feels like a weekend sale fanfare-wise, but much much bigger and with the nicer seasonal format. There are usually a few hooks to draw attention such as a freebie or the XP thing, a new release, something to build suspense for a pending announcement in a few days, or something else. Often when things are quiet there is a surprise looming even if they never mentioned it though. I wonder what the surprise is this time and what day it will land on? Guess we'll have to wait and see. :)

This sale really comes at a bad time for me... I intend to buy a PS4 to play Horizon: Zero Dawn, (based on the YouTube videos I've seen, Horizon is the best WRPG, even better than the Witcher 3;) and I don't really want to spend too much money on gaming in one month.

I think that was an experiment to see what it would do to the overall sales. Now they look and see if the amount of games they sell justifies the amount they give away.

A free game is always nice, but hardly obligatory, and I always think that the less "gimmicks" the better.

Yeah, no expectations for a free game as they've always been quite generous in that department over time. I wouldn't doubt if they have some kind of surprise or another in store for us though, whether it is an announcment, a game, a new service or feature or something as they do that sometimes too. :)

Well, we already had a new release during the sale in Party Hard, and with a hell of a launch discount too.

I have to agree here.

Frankly, I simply viewed them as nice bonuses while buying the games I really want. ;) That said, I think I only got maybe 2 or 3 games from that, seeing as those that are given away I often owned already (and haven't played; doh!)