https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games
--
So tired and achy even without COVID-19. Need more tree and hair cuts! 2022 isn't any better and different so far. :(
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/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games

It is ridiculous how many games are just given away on these services.
I had most of these already but I just added a few more thanks to your
post. Thank you.

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

> >https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games

> It is ridiculous how many games are just given away on these services.
> I had most of these already but I just added a few more thanks to your
> post. Thank you.

You're welcome. I saw it from its e-mail so I shared it here. ;)
--
So tired and achy even without COVID-19. Need more tree and hair cuts! 2022 isn't any better and different so far. :(
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
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On 2022-01-07, Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> wrote:
> https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games

Oh wow this is amazing... finally I get a chance to try Ultima!

--
Don't be afraid of the deep...
--[ bbs.bottomlessabyss.net | https | telnet=2023 ]--
--[ /query geeknix on libera.chat | tilde.chat ]--

On Sat, 08 Jan 2022 00:44:48 GMT, Geeknix
<usenet@apple.geeknix135.net> wrote:

>On 2022-01-07, Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> wrote:
>> https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games
>
>Oh wow this is amazing... finally I get a chance to try Ultima!

If you mean Ultima 4, take a look at this. Do not use it if you want a
'pure' experience however. -->

https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Ultima_IV_Upgrade_Patch

On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games

*--

I don't really see anything that interests me and is missing from my
GOG library. Any suggestions?

The freebies may be over by now.

-pw

On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 15:15:05 -0500, Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com>
wrote:
>On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>>https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games

>It is ridiculous how many games are just given away on these services.
>I had most of these already but I just added a few more thanks to your
>post. Thank you.

The only new one on that list was "Open TTD", and even that wasn't
that 'new', nor was it newly free (it's been available as a free open
source game since its introduction almost 18 years ago). The above
link is just a convenient compilation of games GOG has been offering
gratis over the years ("Ultima IV", for example, has been free on GOG
pretty much from the start).

It's a useful link (and thank you, Ant, for sharing it), but not
really a good example of the surplus of freebies available, or at
least not when compared to other services. While welcome additions to
the library, 30 free games in 14 years doesn't really hold a candle to
what Amazon or Epic is doing... or even Steam.

But maybe I'm just sore because I already have all those games ;-)

On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games

*---

How do I even find these games in GOG Galaxy's lousy interface??

-pw

On 2022-01-09, PW <iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:
>>https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games
> How do I even find these games in GOG Galaxy's lousy interface??

I followed the link from their newsletter. Maybe it isn't linked from
their site navigation so only visible to those who read the newsletter!?

--
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--[ bbs.bottomlessabyss.net | https | telnet=2023 ]--
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On Sun, 09 Jan 2022 05:07:41 GMT, Geeknix
<usenet@apple.geeknix135.net> wrote:

>On 2022-01-09, PW <iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:
>>>https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games
>> How do I even find these games in GOG Galaxy's lousy interface??
>
>I followed the link from their newsletter. Maybe it isn't linked from
>their site navigation so only visible to those who read the newsletter!?

*--

Hi,

I clicked on the posted link. Added some. But GOG told me that
because I already had one they could only be gifted to someone.

I am not going to go through my entire GOG Galazy library to see which
one(s) I already own!

Thanks,

-wp

On Sat, 08 Jan 2022 16:08:56 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>But maybe I'm just sore because I already have all those games ;-)

Ok, thanks for the explanation.

I was missing four or five from this list.

On Sat, 08 Jan 2022 21:21:50 -0700, PW
<iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:
>On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:

>>https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games

>How do I even find these games in GOG Galaxy's lousy interface??

Despite the inclusion of a storefront in Galaxy's options, I don't
think the company really considers it the primary portal to their
storefront. They expect - rightly or wrongly - that if you are going
to buy from GOG, then you are going to open a web-browser and navigate
to http://www.gog.com. Galaxy is intended primarily as a game
launcher, which is - I think - why the "store" option is listed so far
down on the sidebar.

(This belief by GOG is not entirely unmerited. There is a very vocal
contingent of GOG customers who are very much opposed to even the idea
of a GOG client, seeing it as a stepping stone towards online DRM. Its
why Galaxy remains an entirely optional method of installing and
running games).

But if you really want to use Galaxy to locate free games on GOG, it's
not that hard.

Open Galaxy. On the side-bar on the left, click "more offers". In the
main window, change price range so it reads "0.00" in both boxes.
Voilà; all the free games GOG has on offer.

(It's pretty much the same as how you'd do it on their website. It's
also something I can't seem to replicate on Steam, so - while I'll
never be one to praise GOG's design - they do have that as an
advantage over Valve's product ;-)

On Sun, 09 Jan 2022 14:12:39 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Sat, 08 Jan 2022 21:21:50 -0700, PW
><iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:
>>On Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:30:47 -0600, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:
>
>>>https://www.gog.com/partner/free_games
>
>>How do I even find these games in GOG Galaxy's lousy interface??
>
>Despite the inclusion of a storefront in Galaxy's options, I don't
>think the company really considers it the primary portal to their
>storefront. They expect - rightly or wrongly - that if you are going
>to buy from GOG, then you are going to open a web-browser and navigate
>to http://www.gog.com. Galaxy is intended primarily as a game
>launcher, which is - I think - why the "store" option is listed so far
>down on the sidebar.
>
>(This belief by GOG is not entirely unmerited. There is a very vocal
>contingent of GOG customers who are very much opposed to even the idea
>of a GOG client, seeing it as a stepping stone towards online DRM. Its
>why Galaxy remains an entirely optional method of installing and
>running games).
>
>But if you really want to use Galaxy to locate free games on GOG, it's
>not that hard.
>
>Open Galaxy. On the side-bar on the left, click "more offers". In the
>main window, change price range so it reads "0.00" in both boxes.
>Voilà; all the free games GOG has on offer.
>
>(It's pretty much the same as how you'd do it on their website. It's
>also something I can't seem to replicate on Steam, so - while I'll
>never be one to praise GOG's design - they do have that as an
>advantage over Valve's product ;-)
>

*---

Aren't you too smart Spalls!!

Hey - it also works if I click the checkbox for "Show only free
games"! :-)

I went through all 4 pages of free games. Only one interested me and
it's a demo of a crude lookng game that I saw on Steam that hasn't
been released in full (Death Trap) but Galaxy tells me that it can
only be gifted because I already have it. I checked the entire list
of owned games and it isn't there. Same for the other 8 in my cart
that I selected using the web page.

Oh well. Don't really care. Just need to figure out how to remove
them all so if I do actually buy something from GOG they won't get in
my way.

Thanks!

On 09/01/2022 19:12, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> (It's pretty much the same as how you'd do it on their website. It's
> also something I can't seem to replicate on Steam, so - while I'll
> never be one to praise GOG's design - they do have that as an
> advantage over Valve's product ;-)
>

You can use Browse by Genre->Free To Play. Personally it looks like a
pile of dross so I'm not sure I'd bother!

On Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:09:20 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:

>On 09/01/2022 19:12, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> (It's pretty much the same as how you'd do it on their website. It's
>> also something I can't seem to replicate on Steam, so - while I'll
>> never be one to praise GOG's design - they do have that as an
>> advantage over Valve's product ;-)

>You can use Browse by Genre->Free To Play. Personally it looks like a
>pile of dross so I'm not sure I'd bother!

I'd written a long response about how many of GOG's free offerings
were anything but dross, then I realized that you meant the
free-to-play stuff on Steam, and I'd be hard pressed to disagree.

Of course, I tend to differentiate between games labeled "free" and
those labeled "free to play", although I will be the first to admit
there is a great deal of overlap between the two. Still,
"free-to-play" games tend to be developed with the idea that the
customer won't have to pay a dime to start playing, whereas "free"
games I think of as products you pay for up front, but have been given
a 100% discount. The former tend to have a lot of monetizations and
grind built into them; the latter I view as complete games that are
being offered gratis as some sort of promotion.

I certainly don't blame Valve for not doing a better job of
differentiating the two, however. I'm not sure I can see a way to do
it that wouldn't instantly be gamed by publishers anyway.

On 10/01/2022 20:44, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:09:20 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:
>
>> On 09/01/2022 19:12, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>> (It's pretty much the same as how you'd do it on their website. It's
>>> also something I can't seem to replicate on Steam, so - while I'll
>>> never be one to praise GOG's design - they do have that as an
>>> advantage over Valve's product ;-)
>
>> You can use Browse by Genre->Free To Play. Personally it looks like a
>> pile of dross so I'm not sure I'd bother!
>
> I'd written a long response about how many of GOG's free offerings
> were anything but dross, then I realized that you meant the
> free-to-play stuff on Steam, and I'd be hard pressed to disagree.
>
> Of course, I tend to differentiate between games labeled "free" and
> those labeled "free to play", although I will be the first to admit
> there is a great deal of overlap between the two. Still,
> "free-to-play" games tend to be developed with the idea that the
> customer won't have to pay a dime to start playing, whereas "free"
> games I think of as products you pay for up front, but have been given
> a 100% discount. The former tend to have a lot of monetizations and
> grind built into them; the latter I view as complete games that are
> being offered gratis as some sort of promotion.
>
> I certainly don't blame Valve for not doing a better job of
> differentiating the two, however. I'm not sure I can see a way to do
> it that wouldn't instantly be gamed by publishers anyway.
>

I'd presume that Steam just don't feel the need (using their own cash)
to promote themselves. I'd love to see just how much money it's cost
Epic for their free games.

Saying that it would be nice if Steam had some sort of Giveaway genre
for games that you may have bought but the publisher is now saying they
are free.

On Tue, 11 Jan 2022 17:21:51 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:

>I'd presume that Steam just don't feel the need (using their own cash)
>to promote themselves. I'd love to see just how much money it's cost
>Epic for their free games.

Epic doesn't give a breakdown of its costs, but it projected a $139
million loss on the Epics Game Store for 2021 back in April.*
Considering that they had $700 million revenue from the store in 2020,
that indicates the project has costs close to $1 billion USD per year.
Of course, not all of this money is going to free games; there's the
usual cost of operation and development, and some of that revenue has
to be shared with their partners. Plus, their "minimum guarantee" they
make to some developers (essentially, an advance paid by Epic to
developers that guarantees a minimum amount of sales revenue) is also
a big chunk of that ($400 million in 2020 alone). But I wouldn't be
surprised if Epic spent at least a quarter of a billion USD on all
those freebies.

Epic doesn't expect to see any profit from EGS until 2027. Assuming
costs remain constant**, that's $5 billion dollars down the tubes
before they start getting anything back. That might give you an idea
of how successful Fortnite really is.

>Saying that it would be nice if Steam had some sort of Giveaway genre
>for games that you may have bought but the publisher is now saying they
>are free.

As you pointed out, Valve doesn't have any need for this sort of
promotion, which is somewhat worrisome in and of itself. They are in
such a dominant position that they need only do the bare minimum and
can still be assured of remaining top dog in the PC games marketplace.
In part they can afford this strategy because of customer inertia and
because they have such a head start on their competitors with regards
to features that it would take years for Epic/Amazon/EA/etc. to
supplant them. But I also get the impression that Gabe Newell -
Valve's president - isn't that canny a businessman, at least judging
by what we know of Valve's internal operations and their lack of
action over the past few years. Then again, he's worth $4 billion USD
and I'm not, so what do I know?

------------------------------------
*all numbers from link below. Take it up with them if you think
they're incorrect ;-)
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-04-10-epic-is-burning-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-on-epic-games-store-exclusives-in-its-war-against-steam

** a bold and almost certainly wrong thing

On 12/01/2022 03:24, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

>> Saying that it would be nice if Steam had some sort of Giveaway genre
>> for games that you may have bought but the publisher is now saying they
>> are free.
>
> As you pointed out, Valve doesn't have any need for this sort of
> promotion, which is somewhat worrisome in and of itself. They are in
> such a dominant position that they need only do the bare minimum and
> can still be assured of remaining top dog in the PC games marketplace.
> In part they can afford this strategy because of customer inertia and
> because they have such a head start on their competitors with regards
> to features that it would take years for Epic/Amazon/EA/etc. to
> supplant them. But I also get the impression that Gabe Newell -
> Valve's president - isn't that canny a businessman, at least judging
> by what we know of Valve's internal operations and their lack of
> action over the past few years. Then again, he's worth $4 billion USD
> and I'm not, so what do I know?
>

The person who came up with the idea of HL:2 is going to be a really big
draw so lets attach Steam to it, genius or luck?* I didn't really think
much of it at the time but here I am many years later and I pretty much
exclusively buy my games through it.

I do like Steam and it's very much a evolutionary, not revolutionary,
platform going forward. I'm hoping that their strategy to keep their
position is one of improving user experience and not just 'bribing'
people to continue using it. The later is great in the short term (free
games everyone) but I'm not so sure about the long term.

As an aside I did have a quick look at Steam Labs and they do have a way
of searching that includes price although it's limited to £4 steps.

*At least I assume that was one of the main reasons.

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 09:21:35 +0000, JAB <noway@co.uk> wrote:

>On 12/01/2022 03:24, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>>> Saying that it would be nice if Steam had some sort of Giveaway genre
>>> for games that you may have bought but the publisher is now saying they
>>> are free.
>>
>> As you pointed out, Valve doesn't have any need for this sort of
>> promotion, which is somewhat worrisome in and of itself. They are in
>> such a dominant position that they need only do the bare minimum and
>> can still be assured of remaining top dog in the PC games marketplace.
>> In part they can afford this strategy because of customer inertia and
>> because they have such a head start on their competitors with regards
>> to features that it would take years for Epic/Amazon/EA/etc. to
>> supplant them. But I also get the impression that Gabe Newell -
>> Valve's president - isn't that canny a businessman, at least judging
>> by what we know of Valve's internal operations and their lack of
>> action over the past few years. Then again, he's worth $4 billion USD
>> and I'm not, so what do I know?
>>
>
>The person who came up with the idea of HL:2 is going to be a really big
>draw so lets attach Steam to it, genius or luck?*

**

>I didn't really think
>much of it at the time but here I am many years later and I pretty much
>exclusively buy my games through it.

Gabe is definitely a very clever man, I won't argue that. But that
doesn't necessarily mean that he's the best fit for running a
business. Valve's internal structure is very informal, to the point
where the company is often working at cross purposes. That anything
gets done seems more due to the dedication of its staff than because
of its leadership.

But saying anything specific is difficult; the general public gets
very little information about what goes on in Valve. It could be Gabe
is an incredible leader and a very savvy businessman. But that's not
the impression I'm getting. Personally, I think that Gabe doesn't
really care too much about whether Valve remains dominant or not; he's
done what he's wanted to, made more money than he could ever use, and
- so long as Valve survives as a business - it's all the same to him.
Which isn't a bad position to take, morally and philosophically, but
may not be the best if you're trying to run a business.

Steam has a lot of advantages. It's huge customer base is its biggest,
but that can quickly be eroded away. Its client boasts a lot of
features none of the others even come close to, from built-in mod
support, game streaming, family sharing, user reviews, and mature APIs
for voice-chat, multiplayer and screenshots. For nearly two decades,
the company has proven itself to be a trustworthy caretaker for PC
gaming, and - at least back when it was introduced - its revenue
sharing with developers was very generous compared to other
storefronts (both digital and brick-n-mortar). There's a well-deserved
reason there's so much customer inertia against leaving Steam for its
competitors; Valve has earned their loyalty.

But... those competitors are making inroads and becoming more of a
threat to Valve's core business. Their clients are becoming more
full-featured. Free games are buying them a huge customer base. The
competitors are becoming more attractive to developers thanks to lower
fees, minimum guaranteed income, and less competition (it's easier to
market your game on a platform that only has ten new games a month
compared to one where there's ten new games an hour).

And in response to all these challenges, Valve (led by Gabe) have
done... practically nothing. They are (seemingly) depending entirely
on their past reputation and current marketshare to protect them, and
while that isn't anything to be sneezed at, it isn't as rock-solid a
foundation as might be expected. Just ask MySpace, which dominated
social media... right up until Facebook blew them away.

So, yeah, I sometimes doubt Gabe's leadership. I fully admit I am
operating on limited info, but Valve's actions haven't suggested
otherwise. VR isn't going to save them; it's too gimmicky, too
expensive, and not exclusive to the platform. "Half Life Alyx", as
welcome and excellent a game as it was, is too niche and too
short-lived a title to be more than a blip on the radar. The SteamDeck
merely enters them into an even more difficult marketplace - that of
console gaming - while doing little to strengthen their position in
the PC marketplace.

I don't think Steam is going away anytime soon. It is quite possible
they will outlast Epic and Amazon's (and other's) attempts to oust
them as the #1 PC gaming marketplace, but if that happens I don't
think it will be because of Gabe's incredible business acumen. It will
just be luck and because they got themselves well established long
before the competitors were even around.

>I do like Steam and it's very much a evolutionary, not revolutionary,
>platform going forward. I'm hoping that their strategy to keep their
>position is one of improving user experience and not just 'bribing'
>people to continue using it. The later is great in the short term (free
>games everyone) but I'm not so sure about the long term.

I generally like Steam too, and I agree that Epic's methodology
provides very superficial and short-term gains. I'm not saying Valve
needs to start offering everybody free games (well, not from a
business perspective; personally, I'd love it ;-) but they do need to
be seen as doing something. Because its competitors are trying to
build the better mousetrap and - while they haven't yet quite figured
it out - one day they'll manage it, and Valve will be left in the
dust. And since I do buy into the idea that Valve is a more
trustworthy guardian for PC gaming than Epic (or EA, or Ubisoft, or
Amazon, or... ), I worry about their inaction.

>*At least I assume that was one of the main reasons.

** I fully approve of the your use of footnotes ;-)

On Wednesday, January 12, 2022 at 5:15:46 PM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 09:21:35 +0000, JAB <no...@co.uk> wrote:
>
>response to all these challenges, Valve (led by Gabe) have
> done... practically nothing. They are (seemingly) depending entirely
> on their past reputation and current marketshare to protect them, and
> while that isn't anything to be sneezed at, it isn't as rock-solid a
> foundation as might be expected. Just ask MySpace, which dominated
> social media... right up until Facebook blew them away.

Reputation. Epic, and most of the other large game companies especially
with their own clients/storefronts have a bad reputation. I don't think
that necessarily matters to the majority of gamers though as people
continue to preorder and buy release day games riddled with bugs
to the point they're unplayable, and to play pay-to-win games like
Fortnight.

Epic is trying to buy goodwill with freebie games, and I can't say
that it's not working. But I'll stick to checking GoG and Steam for
games before Epic.

Gabe will not be at Valve forever, either eventually retiring, or passing too
what happens then is probably the usual corporate evil takeover. I hope
I don't live to see that day.

- Justisaur

On Thu, 13 Jan 2022 08:11:35 -0800 (PST), Justisaur
<justisaur@gmail.com> wrote:

>Epic is trying to buy goodwill with freebie games, and I can't say
>that it's not working. But I'll stick to checking GoG and Steam for
>games before Epic.

While Epic - unsurprisingly - remains cagey about the success of the
program, there have been some reports that show it hasn't been
tremendously successful method of bringing in new sales. Oh, it got a
lot of people to create accounts and download the client, but few
comparatively of them were converted into paying customers (and, as
their financials indicate, far below what was necessary to make good
against the expense of luring them in the first place). Their coupons
and exclusives have reportedly been more successful in that regard.
But with the freebies, people grab the games and then leave without
ever hanging around long enough to buy something else.

Then again, I don't think the free games really are there to make
people buy. They are just there to remove some of the friction behind
creating an account in the first place. After all, you are much more
likely to buy a game if you already have an account with a service
than you are if you first have to create an account before purchasing.
And in this regard, the freebie program has been a massive success.
The freebies are a lubricant that make the exclusives and coupons more
effective.

Plus, there is also a lot of inertia amongst gamers. Almost every PC
gamer has a Steam account; for many of them, the bulk of their PC
games are on Steam. All their friends are on Steam. Steam is familiar
and convenient. If they started using the Epic Game Store, they'd lose
that convenient access to all their games and friends. By giving
everybody free games, it bulks up their libraries, and makes it more
likely that your friends will follow you to EGS too. Epic's free game
offerings are a direct shot across Steam's bow, an attempt to take
away the main reason Steam remains such a dominant force.