How is this even possible?

It's possible if someone used a family-sharing function and played the game through and through last July, but now want to own it?

Or maybe they had a key that was after playing, revoked?

Sometimes the game has several packages and if you have Shadow of War you can enter for Shadow of War definitive edition for example. It's up to the creator to notice this and ask for a re-roll I guess.

I think there might be such cases

1. It is played at free weekend
2. The game's demo is played beforehand

I think NB264 had the best chance to be correct.
If there are DLCs with the base game in a GA they might be in a different package than how the winner obtained the same thing. Thus you can apply even having all parts of it.
Yes you should report it.

If you read the winner's comments on the giveaway page they finished the game through family sharing but now wanted to own it, too. There's a bit of a debate there about it.

Why do you care if the winner select your gift as received?

The game in question is a rare single player game on this page, that was given away only a handful of times.
The winner apperently has no problem to just get a game as a trophy for his collection to amass dust without ever being used.
I was part of this discussion and I still find it mind boggling egoistic to grab a rare game only to own it, while others could have fun with it.

In this case its even worse since I don't recollect that this game was even in any bundle, so the GA creator had to buy it on steam directly to give it away and literally throwing money down the drain.

I see some people here saying "hey its ok, he received it and marked it so all good". Well I beg to differ. While its not covered as a rule break I find it a very questionable choice.

Isn't it the same as entering a giveaway just to get +1 in your library? Since doing that is allowed in steamgifts, i don't think it's wrong for them to do the same. Besides, it can be tricky to check these kinds of rules.

Don't get me wrong though. I'd rather people to play their won games instead of just aiming for +1 or cards. But these people exist since long time ago, so i dont think that will change anytime soon.

Hi Ev
I get your point. From my perspective it's a bit of a dick move (and you know I know what I'm talking about, remember the cake :) ) from the winner.
Legit regarding the rules, but what's the point of entering a GA if one doesn't plan on playing the game soon ? I can understand the winner loved the game and wants to own it in case he wants to play it again in the future, but why not wait for the game to be bundled ? If it's not bundled, then obviously GAs will be rare. Therefore, entering after having already finished the game is taking a chance to play the game from others. Personally, if I love a game so much, I will want to it to be known and played. I remember buying Mass Effect licences for friends, back in the days :)

Seeing the edit(?s )and the explanation:

I learned something today about how family sharing works. I've used it a few times but didn't activate the game afterwards. (For a while I tried to win Inside, with that the situation would have been the same, gameplay and achievements years beforehand)

All in all, it's just a special case of "just to have it in my library" And this made me feel bad about games where I genuinely intended to play soon after winning it, then life got chaotic, and that was in 2017 :|

My limited experience with "family share" has been a little odd.
My gf has played some of my games, through her account, on my laptop, and when I later opened one of the games myself, without having played at all, the achievements started popping up.
I know it's not the same as your winner here, Eeev and I understand your frustration, but the whole Family Share thing can mess up stats in the weirdest way so it's something to bear in mind.

And yes we all do enter games we're not sure we'll ever have time to play maybe in years, but I do think entering a GA for a game you already completed just to "have it", is a little (or more) selfish.

Often I prefer to go back to a game I'm done and finished with again and again over starting something new. I don't know what others read in achievements, they mean nothing to me.

i've entered giveaways for a few games i've played through family share (only ever won one - mad max), but never something i've 100%'d.. and that list includes several triple-a titles that i wouldn't mind having in my library. it just seems kinda scummy if you ask me. i'd rather have the game go to someone who hasn't already mastered it, ya know. might give an exception if it's a game with unlimited replayability, like hades, slay the spire, monster train, etc. i still think it should be disclosed before entering the giveaway. final say should come down to the gifter.

1- he downloaded the game by pirate it, played it and when you buy the game and play it for first time it detect the "save file" and count the archivements (that happened to me with the final fantasy-hd game)

2- cheats to unlock all archivements

Eeev,
i am sad that i am be the one that need to say it but it give a other possibility, that is of course a black sheep one -and not listed somewhere above-.
I will not explain it here, that it don't animate someone, but i will explain it to you in a DM.

Oh and as a hint, i know that winner from other stuff and not in a positive way, so i am not really surprised.

Being family sharing the "culprit", I wonder if it's feasible, or fair for that matter, to prevent people who have achievements of a game they don't own, from joining GAs of that game. (I haven't thought about all the implications with like: free weekends, demoes, etc.)

I think I just found another possibility. If you go here you can "permanently remove" games from your account. I just did some testing: removed a game that I played long ago and had achievements in it, re-synced my steamgifts profile and I was able to enter giveaway for this game. Then I've restored the game (hence the "permanent removal") and all my playtime and achievements are still there :)

I think for me it depends on the game if it's a "dick move" or not.

If the game is a Singleplayer game that you prob. only play one time and then never again I would also so it's kinda shady.

But if there is a koop or multiplayer and the person can now play with the friend from family-sharing or if it would be a "sandbox game" that you can play over and over again I would say it's okay.

For me: With the gamepass I even don't enter these GAs anymore because I already can play these games.

As a support member, I would just like to point out that this thread is toeing a fine line of name-calling (not by OP, though) and sharing personal info. Someone above already mentioned the game title so the winner can be easily tracked by now (and they were by multiple people, as I was informed recently). I would have closed it by now for that alone, but alas, not a high enough clearance level.

Now, as a regular SG user, if the family sharing scenario is correct I find the behavior of a winner in a rather poor taste. Especially since it seems that they completed the game and even 100% it. Assuming you are really that impressed with a game after "trying it out", the best show of appreciation would be to buy it yourself and not yoink it from someone else who might be interested in trying it out as well. But that's just my opinion.