How do you feel about SG Tools restricted giveaways?
Annoying as fuck, and that's when the site is working properly. Adds five more silly clicks as a barrier for some bundled game.
Most of the time I just close out when I'm redirected to the steam login page.
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"Most of the time I just close out when I'm redirected to the steam login page."
What do you mean with that?
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Agree. All those clicks, site is a hit whore. And "rules are secret" is just terrible UE, very much inconsistent with SG itself.
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I don't use it for making giveaways but it's fine for whoever wants to use it I guess 🤷
At the end of the day SGTools is just a tool, the people using it are the ones excluding/including people. If you take it away, it will just be replaced by something else.
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Yeah, I remember when whitelisting became a big thing and that's where all the exclusiveness went, but I see far less whitelisted giveaways now than when I stopped posting here frequently, all seemingly replaced by SG Tools giveaways.
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Here's a recap of the SGTools drama in case you missed it https://brorlandi.github.io/StarWarsIntroCreator/#!/AKSWR3lcoZMNtGmqRw83
It was a pretty big deal to like... 5 people at the time 🙀
Whitelist or invite-only? I don't see how WL would be replaced by SGT 🤔
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XD What did I just watch? That was hilarious...after I fixed my volume so it wouldn't blow my ears out anyway =P
And I didn't say it was, I just made an observation, but it is possible. Some persons whitelist others based on specific criteria. But now you can just use SG Tools and set specific rules like maybe you only whitelist those with a certain ratio, now you don't need to because SG tools does it for you. Shrug Just an idea. I just remember whitelists and threads about whitelists being as common as SG tool giveaways are now however many months/years ago it was when I was last really active on these forums.
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Yeah some people now use SGT to recruit for their WL but isn't it basically the same thing as before? Just earlier it was a manual process of the person looking at your ratio, and now it's through whatever heretic magic SGT uses to figure it out.
Unless you mean people don't bother even making a WL anymore and just do SGT stuff, I guess that is something to think about 🤔
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The latter, is what I meant. I mean I don't know for sure, I didn't ask anyone. There's just a LOT less whitelist giveaways posted and threads about whitelists than there were during my last activity here. They used to be everywhere! Was extremely hard to not find half a dozen of them within a couple of minutes of reading the day's new threads. Now i see only see one every few days posted on here.
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Nothing wrong with it.
GIves the creator more options for their GAs.
What's bad with that?
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I used it for one giveaway, and I'll never use it again for giveaways.
I prefer to report rule-breakers rather than avoid them and leave them for others to deal with.
If someone else wants to use it - fine. I won't.
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I've had to hand out games to people with multiple unactivated and multiple wins because their suspension was "already served". Honestly, I'd rather not. Hence I like it, but it's fine if we disagree, I just wanted to make a point.
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90+% of my giveaways are public, the rest are group and whitelist (with the occasional invite only) and will likely remain that way.
I enter public giveaways, and don't feel like leaving those people out, particularly not with custom rules.
I have nothing against those that use it, but I have reasons why I don't.
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I don't mind it provided they don't make a giveaway with idiotic rules.
(Private vs Public Giveaways, Real CV Won vs Real CV Sent, etc)
I don't even like the concept of "Real CV". What someone spent on a game shouldn't matter.
To me they're saving me a lot more money than what was spent on it.
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it's a very nice and pleasant way to be elitist ^^
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Interesting way to put it, lol.
And sorry if this is off topic but I have a question for you. I see you've played Stories: The Path of Destinies. I tried that out at PAX East last year and have been tempted to buy it. Would you recommend it? If so, at full price? Or on sale?
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i should also add that using sgtools is the perfect way to let everyone else on sg deal with rule breakers by isolating themselves in a safe environment (no rule breakers = no one to report = offenders on public giveaways still running around on sg). there's probably nothing more selfish than this behavior. ❤️
yes, i'm currently playing stories, but unless devs invest some time in polishing the game i would avoid it. there are bugs that force you to restart areas because the character gets stuck (or objects like elevators that don't move properly), huge loading times that make no sense for a game like this (we're talking about 2-3 minutes in modern PCs!) and random crashes (probably because of memory leaks?).
i mean, the game IS fun and pretty original, but these issues take away all the joy i could have playing it...
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Ah I see, thank you for that! I wonder if it's the same on GoG then. GoG is usually very strict when it comes to how buggy of a game they allow on their website. Shadowrun Returns for example had far more bugs on the steam version than on the GoG version. I think I'll look into that, but if it's just as buggy I'll probably wait for a big sale or a bundle. Thanks again.
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I also played it and I had not a single bug during my playtime of roughly six hours. I also cannot share Mully's experience with the loading times, I didn't experience anything above the usual.
I liked the game very much, though after a while it became a bit repititve, as to unlock new story threads you had to replay older ones. I didn't complete the game, but I liked what I played a lot (finished all of the storylines at least once).
Fluid movement and character control, fun combat, a bit on the casual side (that's a plus for me), likeable characters and a lush environment. I'd recommend a sale purchase.
Oh, and on topic: I occasionally use sgtools if I want to give away a somewhat better game on the forum. It's a handy tool in my eyes.
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Oh? Interesting, thank you for the additional feedback! Sale purchase was what I was leaning to already so I'll definitely keep an eye on it when the next sales come around. But I'll likely pick it up on a GoG sale just in case to avoid any potential bugs. Might be a hardware thing that results in the bugs she said, and we may have similar hardware.
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I like them a lot and they have so much functionality to weed out the worst SG has got to offer. ^^
Most that complain about SGTools enter them anyway or can't enter them. :3 👍
Made over 2100 SGTools giveaways to date and I'm not looking back anymore to the days of constant re-rolls and wonderful winners.
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What are you thoughts on those that /can/ enter SG Tools giveaways but still complain about it? Just glancing through those that have complained on this thread, I haven't spotted anyone would be unable to enter those giveaways. (I only skimmed though.)
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What do you call someone that doesn't like something but still uses it so he or her can enter to gain/win something? :3
Also with can't enter them I meant those that can't enter SGTools giveaways because of (failing) the SGTools requirements.
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I don't know. I personally can't discern whether or not any of them actually enter the giveaways or not. But i guess opportunist would fit the bill? But I assume most of us on SG Tools are opportunists at least a little bit. Shrug I could be entirely wrong.
And I know. But the requirements I've seen the most are the ones like "Can't have not activated a gift" and occasionally"Must have a good ratio". But I don't see that many persons that post on these forums that don't meet those requirements. I know I always pass the checks, at least.
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I don't know.
It was a rhetorical question. ^^
And I know.
The SGTools gate really works as a barrier and it does stop people from entering according to the set SGTools requirements be it major SG rules breakers, cheaters, scammers, wonderful ratio's or something else.
In the end it's up to the individual SG giveaway creator to use what ever they like for making their giveaways, period. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with making SGTools protected giveaways and SGTools trains on SG. <3
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Shrug I never said there was anything wrong with it. I was just curious how you felt about those that still had the ability to enter but didn't want to use an out-of-site thing (I don't know what you would call it) for whatever reason they might have.
I mean i think it would be interesting if this was all integrated into SG somehow, but that's just me. Although maybe the devs don't want these features. Iunno. I'm working off my own imagination =P
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Shrug I never said there was anything wrong with it.
I was talking generally because like I said it's up to the individual giveaway creator how to make their own giveaways. Some like (difficult) puzzles as a barrier, some use WL or BL or CV level as barriers, some use group or private giveaways as a barrier, etc. SGTools is another tool/barrier amidst of all of the other tools/barriers.
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half of the giveaways on the forums are protected by SG Tools
Can you share your sources? It looks a high number to me. Last month almost 11k giveaways were private ones
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Lol that wasn't a fact, I thought that was obvious. That was just a random observation on my part that I made in the past week I have returned and clicked on everything as compared to what I observed back when I was last on the forums. I mean hey, it's like they say. 80% of all statistics are made up ;)
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While I often don't agree with the way they are being used I gererally think SGTool Entry filters are a good thing because they allow GA creators to avoid problems SteamGifts itself has been ignoring.
However I would prefer if they implemented some of the features into SteamGifts itself.
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hate ratio ones :( i have to give away $1000+ of games to remotely reach 1:1 on real value, let alone full value. i get that 1:1 or 2:1 ratio is ok for small amount of giveaways, but for higher amounts that totally sucks
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Yeah I've never liked ratio anything tbh, from blacklisting/whitelisting principles to the SGTools rule. They're meant to keep out those who only give away like half of what they win in low amounts, y'know, those SG community deems "Leechers" but I always see it keeping out folks like you instead, whose ratio is golden and who has given away more than I can even imagine owning and that's kind of a bummer. Let's say you won more than you gave, you've still given more than most persons with these rules ever will!
I see the point of ratio rules, but they can block out a lot of folks that don't deserve to be blocked out sometimes.
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I'm a bit in the middle on this. I think it's a good tool to make some custom rules (not just needing to have all wins activated or something basic like that), but on the other hand it also makes it easier for rulebreakers to go unpunished, since you won't notice them. I personally wouldn't use it for a GA, but I don't really mind it if people use it.
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I like that, that's a very unique opinion so far. I never thought of that.
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I like it. One additional point which isn't mentioned here is that you can use the checks (non activated/multiple) even without putting the GA there. It makes it far easier and more efficient to check potential rule breakers.
Also I can't see another possibility to check if people solved the puzzles to get to the GA.
On the other hand I don't really like the more exclusive gates (ratio, wishlist etc.), but it's the good right of the GA creator. They want their given away game to be played soon and if they think that this becomes more likely by sorting users out by these criteria, why not? If SGTools wouldn't exist, then scripts would be used. Or wishlist threads with manual checking. Or small groups.
In the end it's only more efficient, because it's automatized.
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i wish it was faster and it didn't make me click to get the link and then click the link to get to the giveaway. haven't tried putting my own giveaways behind it, but i've considered some rules it might support.
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I used to be against it, but I kind of just learned to accept how people want to do things differently. It makes much more sense to be accepting of a change than to try to convince others not to change. I'm now indifferent to it, to each his own, I just enter Group/Whitelist giveaways now so it doesn't bother me.
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CG said its all good, therefore, its all good.
If you don't like it, don't use it is my philosophy. I don't use it(think I've used it like twice) just because its annoying to set up.
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at first i didn't want to bother dealing with it for a looong time but since i got over myself like 3 days ago i don't mind if ppl use it. if they want to set up some more refined rules for their gibs then why not?
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I personally have never really used it and have no intention to use it for the time being. All my giveaways are all public and level 1 requirement and that is about it. I figure if I ever go the level of needing SGTools for the giveaway, it will be for high dollar giveaways or if I ever start doing puzzle giveaways. Just seems like a waste of time doing it for stuff that you can get for $2 or less from a bundle or 200 coins or less on Tremor games.
If I ever do something like a brand new AAA title when it is new like maybe Resident Evil 7 or Borderlands 3 when it comes out or something, you can best bet I would use SGTools though.
But honestly don't mind going through it to enter games at all, that is the prerogative of the guy who posted it.
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Since I'm against rules in giveaways, I would prefer if it wouldn't exist. People keep finding new ways to add new rules and exclude more and more people from their giveaways. Selective giving is not that much of the same as giving, but nevermind. Adding rules is kinda like saying that "all people with that characteristic are bad" and such. But anyway, with sgtools, you can also check your real contribution value, which is a really useful feature.
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I love it, but I can't say it's the only way I want to give games. In fact, most of my invite-only GAs this week were not SGTools protected, but mostly because I'm experimenting with stuff.
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I'm all for it, in my opinion people are absolutely allowed to impose any restrictions they want to the games they are giving away. Their money, their choice. Some rules I don't personally agree with but again, I support everyone's right in filtering who they want in their giveaways.
I've used SGTools in the past myself, but just for the basic SG rules (no inactivated and no multiwin) which I consider to be the most important ones. It is easier to just forbid them from entering because often their suspension has already been served and you can't catch new rulebreakers.
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So I wasn't really active on the forums during the rise of the use of SG Tools. Now that I finally check back again frequently I noticed about half of the giveaways on the forums are protected by SG Tools, which really surprises me as I thought the invite-only mechanic was where the exclusiveness ended. SG Tools added in means even more of a chance to win I suppose since it keeps others out and potentially even turns some away that are lazy or find SG Tools annoying. But then again, I have never heard any positive/negative opinions expressed about SG Tools except maybe by the giveaway creators that use it themselves.
So I just wanted to ask a question to all of you. How do you feel about SG Tools? Do you like it? Does it bother you? Would you use it to host your giveaways? Would you never touch it? Let me know!
And here's a giveaway for your time: https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/Kro05/dead-effect
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