Steam gift giveaway of Altitude removed

Altitude is free and has been for over a year. Why should you be able to get contributor's value for a free game?

I'm guessing you tried to gift it as Altitude0, which is a misleading giveaway and against the rules.

-Altitude is free on Steam.
-Rinarin doesn't ask for +rep, so it's not her fault.

you can give it away, here on forum

I don't know anything about Altitude specifically, but I've heard that some people buy rare gift copies of things. Don't know why. :) Also don't know where you find those people. :) Or even how much they pay... :)

Anyway, if you have a gift copy of something you can't buy any more, maybe do some research before you try to give it away - it might be worth something. :) Or not. :)

Looking at its store page... It has since been released completely free.
So even though you DO have the gift copy in your inventory, it could be viewed as giving away a "free" game - which isn't allowed.
Though usually the "free" games aren't "free" on steam but usually still have a price tag, so it'd have been a zero point entry...

An oddity, but somewhat understandable given its current situation following the site rules, but one that could really have been allowed to pass kinda... not like you'd gain anything from it.

Probably be easiest to do a quick puzzle or gather entries to pick out names from a hat (or random.org) and give it away that way here on the forum side, avoid some of the hassle too with free to play games.

Though, ordinarily I'm sure it shouldn't even show up as a creatable giveaway .... Weird.

It does not matter how you got it.

If game was available for free in form of steam key, it gets removed from giveaway list permanently.

If you try to giveaway it as other game, your giveaway gets deleted.

And if i recall, discussing mod decisions can get you even in more trouble...

1more thing - why ppl would enter the ga when they can get it for free ?

I think the OP has a point here. He wanted to giveaway a license of a free game (super rare and different from what you get when you add it to your library on steam). He was not gifting some game that has been given away in masses. I think the better decission would have been to set the gift points to 0, as that's the actual price of the game today.
On the other hand, you should refrain from calling out the mod who deleted your giveaway and open a ticket instead if you think you have been mistreated.

Free games on Steam use one of two methods - some can be added to the library permanently, while others only appear when installed, but can be installed as long as you've activated the license for it before. Even if the game gets removed in future, I believe it's possible to still install it via a steam:// URL, as long as the license including it isn't changed to remove the game (this usually doesn't happen, except for with beta keys). However, some people do like having games permanently in their library even when not installed, so there may be a little demand for this gift.

I think you're better off holding on to this for now, though. At the moment, anyone who wants to access the game can - but if the game were to be removed from Steam in future, then spare gifts and keys would be the only way that people new to Steam in future (or who missed the game when it was free) could get the game at all.

I must be significantly more exhausted than I expected right now because I really cannot see the logic or reasoning behind giving away an old copy of a game that people can have and play on Steam for free.
What does the giveaway winner get exactly? A license? Who cares, they can play it for free... How do you even verify if they activated it afterwards?

If you wanna gain something out of that old copy try to sell it to "collectors" or something.

I'm unsure why Altitude reappeared on the giveaway list, but it looks like Rinarin removed the giveaway because Altitude is now available for free. As well, she left a comment on one of your other giveaways trying to clarify the situation.

I understand you're giving away a previous gift copy, but at the moment we don't allow users to give away games that are free, regardless of whether they have a prior gift or key for the game. Reason being, we can't leave free games on the giveaway list, otherwise users will give them away, and simply link winners to the Steam store. We also can't make an exception for your giveaway, otherwise it would be unfair to other users, since they'd be unable to post similar gifts with Altitude not being available on the giveaway list.