first :) going to dive in!

Very tempting at the moment, however I just spent the last of my 'spare' money on books so it will have to wait until payday.

Questions:

1, How is it possible that the game received reviews before its release date ( i mean time ) ?
2, Is this the only release for today ? What about us who are not interested in this game ?
3, Is that annoying banner really neccessary again ?

Most games get reviewed before release.

Very few games don't get reviews before release - either VERY BAD GAMES or ones that are very very special - like Red Dead 2.

By verified owners ? Because i meant that under my question .

It is slightly odd that just after release there are more reviews than comments in this thread..

I think a number of people participated in the beta/s.

Most of them (if not all of them -I'm undecided/uncertain on a few of them-) aren't reviews. They are "f'ck gog/cdpr" or "praise gog/cdpr" statments. Apparently they wanted the "big screen" for their big finale instead of a thread that will sink into the depth of the forgotten sometime from now.

Is there any way to avoid that, apart from not buying Thronebreaker? I would like to buy Thronebreaker, but I really don't want this GWENT-microtransactions-atrocity in my account!

Along the same vein, before I buy it: is Thronebreaker actually completely DRM-free? I.e. do non-Galaxy users get the same game as Galaxy users do? Or are there some hidden incentives for installing Galaxy? Sorry for sounding so suspicious, but anything connected to Gwent is cause to be suspicious.

In fairness, you could just hide it in your account. You don't have to download or play it. Complaining about getting a free game you don't want just seems like whining.

Yes, it IS whining. I am aware of that. I just hate GWENT and everything it stands for. Mandatory Galaxy use, microtransactions. All things that GOG promised to never do.

But then again, after seeing the desperate ad-video on the front page, I feel much less inclined to buy Thronebreaker anyhow. If they are so desperate to force the game on all visitors, it probably is really bad and wouldn't sell on it's own. Which is a shame, because playing Gwent in The Witcher 3 was really fun.

What is it with everyone hating on the Thronebreaker banner on the main page?
Of course GOG / CDPR wants to advertise their new product. Which company doesn't want to?
Some are also putting ads on the TV and I hear nobody complaining about it.

Also there have been big banners for other game releases or sales announcements.

I don't see anything wrong with that. Games don't sell well just because they are good. Every game needs advertisement in some form.

Probably GWENT/Thronebreaker is a good game, but I've grown such a profound dislike for any GWENT-related stuff that I wouldn't play it even for free.

The GWENT game was introduced in TW3. Tavern games can be fun, and add some extra flavour to fantasy games. But a CCG? It was completely out of place and ruined the immersion.

Then it was presented as a free-to-play galaxy game. And I have a very bad opinion on that kind of games...

Shortly afterwards, some occasional DDoS attacks on GOG (coincidence that these attacks started as GWENT grew in popularity?) affected ALL users, not only GWENT players.

So, if Thronebreaker had been released before all other GWENT appearances, I'd probably be interested in it. But now I just can't stand any GWENT related thing, and banners and splash screens aren't exactly helping me to change my mind about it...

I agree. I think that what they've done with Gwent is unfortunate. It goes against the core selling point of their storefront and undermines the reason a lot of us purchase games here.

At the same time it may be a positive thing, they are trying to get a piece of revenue that other companies are chasing cause there is a market for it. Lots of gamers in general terms like microtransactions, otherwise they wouldn't be profitable. If CDPR can get a piece of that revenue and not get greedy and keep the two profit models completely separate than I have no problem with them doing it. Gwent was never supposed to be anything but a microtransaction machine, they didn't advertise it as anything but. Time will tell whether or not it's a bad thing. If they release cyberpunk 2077 with loot box purchasing than I'd say there's more to worry about. Releasing Gwent on GOG goes against the implicit agreement GOG has with their consumers, but it is a game they developed, of course they will release it on their ready-made distribution platform.
The banners don't bother me, as you said, they have banners for other games all the time. The splash page before the site does bother me. It's an unnecessary extra step for me to get to your site, for no good reason. It's annoying because it interrupts what I'm doing, banner ads don't do that the same way.

And besides, shouldn't they be doing the heavy-handed advertising targeted towards people who aren't already on their platform and 100% aware that Thronebreaker was being released cause of the giant banner ad they've had up for weeks on end?