Thank you very much for taking the time to respond to the question presented, it's much appreciated.

I was humorously depicting the GOG marketing director as someone akin to Dr. Evil or similar with maniacal plans to control people's emotions by pushing buttons on his GOG sale promo console or somesuch. Just an allegedly failed attempt at humour. Can't be funny all the time I guess. :)

Nah, I like the image and it would have been funny in a fitting context, I just thought it was lacking a logical connection to what I wrote and it sounded like you were trying to mock (IMO) legitimate concerns with your humorous exaggerations. Anyway, no hard feelings, and I'm neither angry nor disappointed at GOG's decision to end the promo prematurely, I'm just sorry for the people who got burned by it and I think it could have been handled better.

This ^. Not particularly miffed about it anyway, but the Insomina Sale has become a unique symbol of gogness, and it deserves better than a saleus interruptus.

I thought it would be great to do a game battle.

400 copies of TIE Fighter vs 400 copies of Keane. When one sells out, they both sell out. New title!

But it would be great to have a time limit, too. Or the ticker goes down 1 every minute (remember that first insomnia promo? -- people could + or - 3 seconds to the timer).

Yes, there was some speculation that it would unfold that way too. That would be a very good sale, though cruel as well if they put two high demand titles up against each other. :D

Perhaps the younger crowd who can lose 2-3 days of sleep and keep kicking after resting for a little while?

Reading my own body i can tell i'm no longer in the young whipper-snapper branch anymore... My body complained heavily if i'm up for more than 20 hours at a time, and i end up doing 12 hour sleep catchup when i do...

Wrong. They even sent out a mail on Friday evening, announcing the final round:
"Your last shot at free games and deals up to 85% off - Insomnia final round!"

Although I enjoyed the slower last round as it gave me the chance to catch some games I missed the 2 rounds before, the sale indeed has lasted long enough. But that's not the point. What bothers me is this kind of "communication" which obviously gets worse the more GOG grows. That's disappointing.

Thanks for the update, even when it only comes half a day after you cancelled the sale. ;)
But as others already have said when you monitor the sale you better could have reduced the batch size for the games in the last round than pulling the plug without any notice.

Thank you for the response. It is much appreciated.

There were several excellent ideas for the next insomnia sale in this thread. Here's another one: Set a timer on how long a game can stay up, say an hour. Then put it back up in 6 to 8 hours with the count starting where it left off. If it doesn't sell all the copies at that time in an hour, then take it down and try again in 6 to 8 hours. Keep doing that until it's sold out, or pull the plug and wait for the next round. That way the game gets exposure in different time zones to maximize profit, and keeps our interest up because we know that there is a time limit.

Also, by pulling the plug after exposing the game to different time zones, you have now set a maximum time for the twice a year Double Insomnia Promo to run.

A shameless plug for the twice a year Double Insomnia Promo as opposed to a single whenever we feel like it promo. :)

It's always nice to hear from GOG but this post comes across as a bit too sloppy if you know what I mean. it doesn't really explain why but jokes about working schedules and the apology seems to be more like a side note while it probably should come first and be more prominent.

Why was the sale cut short? Because noone wanted to buy anymore? But there were some who wanted to buy. And GOG did not give any notice, just unplugged without any communication.

Regarding both GOG and also the message here, my impression is that PR skills could still be improved a bit. ;)

Personally, I'm glad it's over. Never was a fan of these 'first come first serve' sales. All this crap about crit hits and freebies and stalled out games on the front page ticker... it's all nonsense to me. I'm an old fashioned guy. I like a front page offering me deals and a page listing said deals. Having to be a coffee drinking, super mouse clicking fool with the sharp reflexes of a hawk doesn't really appeal to me while wanting to find a sale on video games. By the time the insomnia thing was over I felt like a methamphetamine addict while cramming for finals in school.

And for all my troubles I only ended buying one game anyway. A sale should offer good deals and a relaxed feeling on the part of customer. One should feel satisfied after a good deal, not headed to therapy. You guys running GOG are very troubled. You're all a bunch of sadists. You need help.

They have those sales weekly. The Insomnia sales are a special event and some of the chaos is implied by the name. If you want traditional sales, GoG does run plenty. No one forced anyone to participate in this particular one. I voluntarily played the insomnia sale and won 16 new titles for me and 3 to give away (I say won, but I paid for ALL but 1). I found games at such a good price I bought them in case I might want them down the road. These kinds of sales aren't for everyone, but some people love them. Not me personally, I got pretty stressed out about missing deals to the point my wife was genuinely upset for a short while until I realized that $12 wasn't worth getting worked up over. Then it was just fun.

You're right, they're not for everyone. Matter of opinion either way.

I don't like that idea. It removes one part from the Insomnia Sale, the Keaning. I enjoy it when from time to time a game takes a longer time to sell out, so that you at least can get some sleep. And seeing the not so good selling games even more often while waiting for the quickly sold out game you were missing last round is not really an improvement. ;)