What do you think about giveaway groups?

Indifferent. My only problem with this is that I'm a poor bastard, so can't really stay in such a group that requires a ratio.

If people want to keep gifting so their win stat can climb higher, that is their choice.

"When groups are about increasing chances, how is it alright for them to decrease the chances of people that only enter public giveaways?"

• people who only enter publics are free to form groups aswell, or not ?

I agree that some of the private groups on here have quite high demands of new users and seem like their rules are setup to make it quite easy to take advantage of an applicant, but it is ultimately your decision to join or apply for these groups. It sometimes seems like they are designed to reward older members of the group at the cost of the applicant. I understand the need to make sure someone isn't leeching your group, but with active moderation that really shouldn't be too hard to track.

I guess I look at it like this, if I really want a game I can buy it rather then spend the same amount of money to do GA's and hopefully get into a group long enough to enter the GA for the game I want.

Besides, I'd much rather make my GA's for the people who are using the forums or making me laugh on here then just to a big group. I think the Midsummer Madness event going on right now is a great example of how groups are good on here, and that's really kind of opened my eyes as to how I will do my GA's in the future.

Also - private GA's that require forum use, reading, interaction seem to have a much lower number of entrants even when it's a hugely Wishlisted game. Checking my current GA's tells you that.

generally groups are ok, but i see your point....of course if people do only group giveaways ( and i talk about that small "wichteln"-groups" and still enter public ones it might be seen as a bit selfish.Someone recently suggested a kind of level system that handles groups, public giveaways different, can´t find it right now.

Giveaway groups are fine, but the ones that offer bundle keys for spamming invites to friends just to swell their numbers so that they can get free keys from devs is nothing but a scam.

demanding an entry GA is not so groups may become even richer exploiting new members. It is set to ensure that group is leecher free - aka no such a situation: "leecher enters group, start joining all GAs possible, wins several of them, when finally asked when he gonna give something back, he quits the group and finds another one to leech". Afaik 99% of groups require just one entry GA, not multiple ones before you're allowed to enter other members GAs. And if they require your entry Ga to meet some criteria - non-bundled, 10$ value etc, it only means that other GAs you will be able to win also meet this criteria - again it weeds out leechers. you get a chance to win non-bundled GAs, you should give back non-bundle GAs as well.

As for exploiting (o.O) the site - common mistake a lot of ppl make "if there were no these bad elitist groups, all these awesome group GAs would end up in public giving me chance to win them". Wrong - a lot of ppl buy specific GA just to give it to specific group. If they were not in this group it doesn't mean they would list all their group GAs as public ones.

I don't mind nor do I really care. I stick to the Steamgifts forums, and I'm just fine that way. I win a bit, and gift a bit, but never join any gifting groups due to unstable funds and not being able to afford even the cheapest games most of the times.

I strongly disagree.

Don't like them? Don't join them.
Like them? Join them and follow their requirements.
Don't like their requirements? Make your own.

Besides, the creator of the giveaway is not obligated to make a group only giveaway. He chooses to and so there is no point to argue about that. In fact, everyone should be thankful that he has the kindness to gift.

There are literally hundreds of public giveaways everyday and dozens of invite-only giveaways for those who complete puzzles so there are literally hundreds of chances for everyone to win something. And i will close with a final rhetoric question: We might forget something crucial, is this website about giving away or winning games?

Love 'em, even though I don't take part in any of them. (Private)

I've never been in any private giveaway groups, so take my opinion for what it is, jaded lol, jk. I think public giveaway creators are creating them for everyone, and I doubt most of them care if someone who's a member of a private group joins and wins their giveaway. All but 1 of my giveaway, keydrops have been done privately through forum, which is a manner of speaking a private group, as a majority of people who use the site, dont use the forum. So am I too a shit for joining public giveaways?

Also, there are tons of public, small(ish) giveaway groups, if you're just feeling left out ;)

Someone reply to me so I remember to contribute here, since I recently created a group mostly for GA purposes.

You can get killed for this thread

View attached image.

I'm only in one giveaway group(and will never be in more than one), and it just has a "1 group GA a month" requirement...Which is fine. I plan on doing 2 a month, 2 whitelists a month and the rest public. By far I do more public GAs than private, and I think most people do honestly....unless they are in so many groups that they all their games are having to be group gifts.

Um .... i see it this way.
A random Nice person (Most of times) tough it would be a good idea , to gather other Nice people in a circle ... and make a group with them.
Then they gift stuff to each other , using RNGezus , and make a small community ... using the GA's as an excuse to get to know eachother ... chat away ... have fun ... etc.
Thats , how things should be.

In reallity , its bunch of people who buy a 20 game bundle twice a year , who join groups for the sake of hoarding games ... and host giveaways for games you can get for free or for a Single trading card from a random person in the Subway ... and who doesnt give a Single fuck bout anyone in their groups ... and only see it as a source of free stuff

TLDR: ... Its Okay Idea , but people exploit it too much .
To tired to go in detail atm , but ppl are mostly trash and just care bout themselves anyway ( even if they put a facade that they are nice and giving and stuff ... )

Alright so here's why I started my private GA group (with 100 members, so no, I'm not going after the free keys from devs):
1) I got tired of chasing down people and making them mark their GAs as received (this is the major reason).
2) I met genuinely nice people who I started playing coop with on steam and chatting and wanted to start a community with them.
3) I met great people who won very few giveaways but created a lot so I feel they deserved better chances.
4) Requirements aren't insane - level 2 CV and at least one ROW giveaway per month (may or may not be bundled - I understand everyone is in different situations; however I try to make non bundled indie GAs since I can't really afford newer AAA titles myself).
Finally, as far as CV and public GAs go, I don't really care about either - I still enter public GAs once in a while (even tho I rarely win those) and I still create public GAs. Plus anyone can enter these private groups (including mine), I'm just careful about making sure only people who deserve to win are invited (if someone wants to leech, let them leech public GAs).

TLDR: Anyone can give stuff away, anyone can enter/create a group, anyone can leech private/public gas. If someone thinks that members of those private groups are exploiting the CV, they should start creating giveaways with no level requirements.

Just my 2 pennies, cheers :D

I think you have a good point about groups being hypocritical for limiting who can win their games while freely entering games without requirements.

That's why, as a member of a few groups, I try to give away games equally to both. It makes me feel like I'm being fair and seems to work out well enough for me. I haven't experienced any of the scams or not received issues that some people have posted about on here by doing so either, which is great.

I don't know. I giveaway stuff when I have spare bundle games or when I have paypal cash from art commissions and there is something nice on sale, and I try and make it a bit of fun by hiding trains in pictures I drew or doing choose-your-own-adventures or stuff. And I enter giveaways for games I want and if I win something it is a real nice bonus!

My win ratio is crap but that is just because of the amount of stuff I gifted and because of the amount of giveaways I enter and I don't feel unlucky. I saw a few groups and was tempted because it might mean winning more games. But then I read the rules and I saw several dramas in discussions over people getting kicked and didn't see the point. If it is some group where you have to make regular private giveaways and maintain a strict ratio or get kicked then surely it is just buying games so you can win other games? You might as well just buy the games you really want in the first place.

I'm not saying I haven't joined a few groups that seemed really nice and I'm really grateful for being invited or allowed in. Just that I see a lot of private giveaway groups and I just don't get the appeal...

A few times I have seen people who just do private group giveaways and clearly benefit from those groups and also win public giveaways and take advantage of their CV without giving back to the wider community. Which seems a little rude as it clearly isn't a case that they can't afford to make giveaways. I try not to judge people but I would feel bad about doing that myself.

While I respect your right to have an opinion, this is not one I agree with. My reasons for disagreement stem from the following beliefs:

1. The person giving the gift has the right to give it to whomever he or she pleases.
2. As a corollary to point #1, the giver may include any restrictions he or she wishes.
3. If something is made available to "everyone," then anyone may claim it, regardless of need or circumstance.

It would seem your complaint is born out of a sense of entitlement. You feel you are not getting what you deserve. If you had won every giveaway you ever entered, you would not be complaining about "unfair" treatment. The truth is that Life is not fair. We human beings are lousy at determining exactly what someone does or doesn't deserve, and most of the time, nobody gets what they "should." The best we can do is to try and be fair in our dealings with others. You have control over your own actions, so put your main focus there..

In a way I agree with you. In certain specific cases, groups are used by some for no other purpose or intention than to be purposely exclusionary with their gifts. And for someone who uses them for that purpose, for them to enter public giveaways and accept a win from them -- from the very people they have treated as exclusionary, to me that somehow seems unethical. There are certain groups out there that are like that.

Ratio groups suck. But some people think I suck. C'est la vie.

Question is, if you make only whitelist giveaways, will you still be entering public giveaways?

This can be extended to any sort of limited giveaway:

If you create only level limited giveaway, do you have a right to enter unlimited giveaways?
If you only create forum giveaways, do you have a right to enter giveaways which aren't posted on the forum?
If you only create puzzle giveaways, do you have the right to enter non-puzzle giveaways?

My answers are: "sure". In short, the idea that how much people deserve to win is related to how much they give is only reasonable on a gift trading site, which SG indeed is, but that doesn't mean that there's anything morally right about that, and it's certainly nothing to be celebrated. If you look at it in the contest of a site where people just give out of generosity, and not to trade gifts, there would be very little correlation between how much people give and how worthy they are of winning.

It's not something that I particularly worry about.

What I would say is that in most of the groups I've been in, you only get an invite after fulfilling a certain criteria. That criteria is often level or CV-based so I I'd consider that they'd already earned their stripes for the most part through making public and/or forum-based giveaways in the past.

I suppose it would depend on what sort of levels we're specifically talking about. So far, for example, you seem to have made your levelled giveaways for level 1 and 2 by and large, and most of the ratio groups I've been involved in would require higher levels higher than that to join which would have to be acquired through those past public or forum GAs.

Personally, I never really entered that many public levelled GAs when I was more into groups than I currently am and I think a good proportion of the group members I've encountered are the same. They can lose their novelty.