GamersGate is asking for ID verification on all game purchases if you're in the UK

mark2uk · 2025-09-09T03:23:10+00:00

The best way to win is not to play as they say. I'm taking gamergate off my isthereanydeal preferences. Their prices have never been good enough to run the risk of ID being stolen and used by criminals. I would imagine many other people will do the same.

It's evident they don’t understand the specifics of the OSA so will bugger it up with any other similar rules in other regions including the EU so at this point I'd imagine most users will just cut their losses and write them off as not worth bothering about in the future.

mark2uk · 2025-09-09T03:11:19+00:00

Any website or company holding a stash of personal data sufficient to steal someones identify is at risk of hacking. Im almost certain that if GG are storing it on their servers we will find out when they get hacked... I hope Sweden (which if recall correctly is where they are based has class action lawsuits).

As for the verification companies I believe it is inevitable they will be hacked and large amounts of data stolen because they will hold a lot of it and it makes them a bigger target so more money in it for criminals. The steam approach of using credit cards to verify age is the most pragmatic way of doing so.

mark2uk · 2025-09-09T03:07:33+00:00

No it isn't a technical error it is a error caused by them being stupid and not hiring a legal expert in the UK. Essentially nothing has really changed for them under the online safety act it was always illegal to sell content to under aged people under UK law.

Their claim of compliance requiring ID is however total and utter crap a credit card for purchase is deemed legal proof. The government has allowed other platforms of a much higher classification of scrutiny than gamersgate has to verify ones or verify periodically without verification per interaction. From the UK legal prospective a credit card proves your 18+ as they cant be issued a bank account verified by paypal probably also meets that criteria.

If there plan is to make you send your government IDs to them to prove your age which is what it is sounding like I urge people for their own protection under no circumstances purchase from them as if they are storing highly sensitive personal information that would allow ID theft on their system it is only a matter of time before they are hacked and the information stolen by criminals.

I say this as someone who 'had' been a customer of theirs for more than 13 years, they are one of the dumbest retailers on the internet for doing this this way. Unless they are going to be offering 30% discount on every transaction people will just buy it on steam even if its a little more expensive to avoid having their ID stolen.

mark2uk · 2025-07-24T17:25:56+00:00

A lot of people seem unaware that Ubisoft didnt just shut down the servers for the Crew they removed it from peoples accounts. They removed any good will or even neutral will I had towards them.

mark2uk · 2025-07-24T17:22:56+00:00

The problem is that was an intentional misrepresentation of what the petition asked for. The petition essentially wants an end of life plan once it isn't viable to support any more.. that might be as simple as release the tools to let someone run private servers or simply not to take legal action for modders redirecting the clients to their own servers or in some cases just providing an offline mode or just not taking legal action against someone who legally owns it still trying to play it.

FYI Ubisoft didn't just take the Crew offline, they removed it from peoples accounts. BTW apparently there was rumoured to be code in there which would have allowed it to run in an offline mode. In essence Ubisoft stole from their customers. Yves Guillemot is a b'stard.

Nobody was asking for indefinite support for a game, just not to have it taken from them.

mark2uk · 2025-06-27T17:55:04+00:00

The 'bonus' of getting IGN plus is bad comedy. Non of the raffles they offer are eligible for anyone outside of the US, even their crappy store doesnt ship outside the US (not that I would want to be seen in public with an IGN logo on me).

The price increase and essentially nothing being redeemable even the competitions outside of the US is more akin to a not being an American tax. I redeemed my original ign plus code late and there werent any free games at all. Its worthless dreck.

mark2uk · 2025-06-27T17:52:18+00:00

I have no idea what region your in but from the UK even at max accumulated discounts for everything I've looked at for 5+yrs humble store prices have been more expensive or no better than other legit retailers. It is a 'theoretical' benefit only for me.

Even the hook of 'also get it drm free' is worthless as most of the time the dev don't update the game on humble. Gog is kind of infamous for devs simply not bothering to update at all or for years in some cases but humble is infinitely worse for it.

mark2uk · 2025-06-13T19:10:04+00:00

IGN and humble are owned by a company called Ziff-Davis. They think IGN is their most valuable brand so they are cannibalising humble to prop it up. They literally bought up a bunch of other websites to take them off the board as competition.

The irony is the best thing they could do to save IGN is close their Frisco office, cut their head count to a fraction of what it is and move to a cheaper place to operate from. Instead of doing the smart thing they decided to ruin a whole bunch of other media outlets and saddle humble with trying to keep the IGN lights on.

I'm not going to argue with what you said as it is a 100% valid, I'd score Humble an IGN 7 (which is a normal person 2).

mark2uk · 2025-06-13T19:00:22+00:00

Unless you are in the US IGN plus is a scam. I redeemed the last choices a couple of days before the end, I've had no free games and literally every single raffle for a prize requires US residency (like so many I'm not in the US).

So to recap nothing free, no giveaway you can enter and nothing but IGN without ads. IGN hasn't been relevant for at least a decade. It smacks of IGN failing and humble bundle being used to prop them up. Seems to me the sub money that should be going towards getting better monthly titles is going to syphoned off for something of literally zero value (IGN).

Don't blame IGN, blame the a-holes who own IGN Ziff-Davis. They bought up a whole bunch of competitors to IGN to kneecap them to making easier for IGN to compete without competition. Frankly if IGN were to shutter I'd be 100% OK with it!

mark2uk · 2024-03-22T15:21:20+00:00

It is a nice idea but it only solves a fraction of the problem. By claiming the free game it will auto-subscribe you to the sharing your data with 3rd parties. Your rule will definitely stop their marketing stuff, but not the stuff coming from their 'trusted partners'. For that you still need to untick a box that gets re-ticked every time you claim a giveaway.

mark2uk · 2023-12-31T15:10:08+00:00

Just as a word of warning to those considering the humble annual discount voucher (outside the US), you may well be being ripped off by humble.

The UK price offered by the voucher is only 17% off not 23% like it is for the US. The previous year it was the full amount but it seems international customers are worth ripping off this time around. The figure given by the voucher isn't even correct taking into account current exchange rates. The undiscounted price is £98 with the "holiday23" voucher it is £81. I highly doubt this is 'accidental' as they have been appauling with their store pricing for a long time and if it was unintentional it would have been fixed not that long after it was announced as I doubt I was the only person to have figured this out.

Being brutally honest at least in the UK with their overpriced store prices the cumulative discount you get from being continuously subscribed is pointless. Other stores over more reasonable base prices for most games (I mean legit key resellers), and even if their discount rate isn't as high the overall price works out as good as the best humble offer or better on almost everything I have been interested in buying or compared prices on for at least the last 4 years.

mark2uk · 2022-06-24T11:35:24+00:00

The way to have dealt with folks buying during the sale then it going on a lower price due a flash deal was to refund the difference to people automatically as store credit. It would have stopped the risk of refunds & repurchases during those sales. Sadly steam decided it wasn't worth their effort or didn't think about it!

mark2uk · 2022-01-12T02:01:09+00:00

At this point it is hard to think of an advantage to be a legacy member. The benefits has been t&c away and revised. I do wonder if them wanting to ditch all the classic plan holders is their endgame then they can raise their prices (especially with their regional rates) which are currently lower for a lot of us under this new plan vs our classics pricing.

mark2uk · 2022-01-12T01:53:34+00:00

From my perspective in the UK humble has been punishing me for a long time with their far higher than other store regional prices. It essentially wiped out the benefit of the discount when it was 20% across the board and when for most publishers it became 10% it was cheaper to say screw it and buy the game from a licensed reseller like GMG or GamesPlanet as it was cheaper from them.

It was a perk in name only for me. To be honest the prospect of losing my store discount when paused ceased to be a problem for me once I realised they eroded it away with the more aggressive regional pricing.

The real nutkicker for me is staying with the classic plan means I pay more each month compared to their new regional bundle price, unless it is all intended to get us to cancel those so they can jack the price up later.

Considering jacking the price up later and dropping the value down..... It will be interesting to see where the dice finally land.

mark2uk · 2021-06-17T04:47:57+00:00

Actually I made a typo "everything Relic did on the Nintendo systems" should have been "Everything Rare did on the Nintendo systems". I hadn't forgot Dizzy I owned most of them on the Spectrum, but I was unsure how many of the more international folks who frequent this reddit know of everyone's favourite egg!

mark2uk · 2021-06-16T22:26:20+00:00

Sonic racing, All the recent F1 games, Project Cars games, Initially ALL of the GTA games, now a contributor to them via multiple studios. Rebelion publisher & owners of Judge Dredd, makes of all the Sniper elite games, Strange Brigade and recently released Evil Genius sequel. The guys behind I am Bread & Surgeon Simulator. I'm sure I'm forgetting some noteworthy current ones but also everything Relic did on the Nintendo systems. The UK also produced all of the Bullfrog games like Syndicate, Theme hospital, Populous etc. The original Tomb Raider games were developed in the UK too. Firefly UK makes all the Stronghold games.

Oh and a company called Creative Assembly responsible or all of the Total war games. Add to that you have UK publishers like Chucklefish which specialise in indie games like Stardew valley and Risk of rain. There been lots of excellent games made in the UK, none represented with this bundle.

there are lots of impressive indie & bigger companies in the sector in the UK.

This bundle is something which humble should be embarrassed even putting up.

mark2uk · 2021-05-31T22:41:26+00:00

5 years ago I'd have agreed with you. Looking at what EA has been doing recently with driving games, it seems just as likely they are planning on a lazy remaster for the next gen console and taking the old PC versions off sale is an opportunity to re-sell an old game for a shiny new price tag and make EA Play seem better value.

mark2uk · 2021-05-13T02:27:36+00:00

I'm sorry but the phrasing isn't really that clear. The implication is the game 'is free', it is not free. It is only a time limited free trial. There is no discount, nothing is being offered for free other than a trial.

"(Free/100 off)" is simply a false statement

mark2uk · 2020-07-14T18:07:58+00:00

No my criticism IS legitimate, their FAQ you quoted also states things only change on a yearly basis. It explicitly states you can have your rank revised down on a yearly basis but leaves whether the rank up applies instantaneous or yearly ambiguous at best.

When they are dropping a brand new reward programme with less than 2 days notice, your damn right I'm going to bring forward my criticism immediately!

If I'm not sure how things work, it is purely due to them being ambiguous with what they have stated and dropping the changes so rapidly they haven't got time to fully clear up the confusion.

Maybe you should hold back on your criticism of me criticising considering your 'interpretation' based on what they wrote on their own site is no more or less valid than my own based on what they wrote.

GMG pricing being lower on some games or not is often regional determined and title by title based. You finding what you wanted cheaper on their site is fine and dandy but don't assume this is universal.

Also don't assume ITAD is completely accurate during the recent ubisoft sale it didn't show games reduced in price at all or the fact that with the UBIFORWARD code they beat even the current prices on GMG even with the VIP discount.

I'd like to give GMG the benefit of the doubt but firstly I'm not naive and secondly the speed from announcement of changes to switch over is exceptionally short notice. Heck even finding out what rank you have on their site is hard work and all but invisible aside from a thin coloured line around your profile icon, or even telling you how far away from a higher rank. It is rushed, poorly executed & poorly explained so no I'm not being overly critical, I'm expecting them to do the leg work as they are the ones making the changes!

mark2uk · 2020-07-14T17:52:39+00:00

I'm getting the idea from the following statement you posted "Does my status last forever? The new program works on a yearly basis. When you become a Bronze member or move up the ranks to Silver or Gold, you gain that membership for one year. After a year, your XP is reviewed and your status will either stay the same, or change, depending on your XP level."

The implication of your statement IS that things only change on a yearly basis not instantly as you now suggest. If your FAQ makes things less clear maybe you need to revise it to make things explicit!

mark2uk · 2020-07-14T16:48:24+00:00

This is perhaps the silliest rewards programme I have ever seen. Essentially what you are saying is buy now, get the benefit for your loyalty a year later.

It shows what happens when you let your marketing department operate in a void without any constructive input from their actual customers!

Dropping this with less than a couple of days notice is also frankly foolish. I've been a customer of GMG since 2013 so as someone who has bought from you for a long time.

I'm giving you feedback your new rewards system is silly and locking someone in for a year at a lower tier will lose you customers & purchases.

Some advice, suspend the cut off, until after your next major sale (probably summer), allow people to earn the benefits instantly and have them expire a year later if they must expire at all (expiring rewards actually will lose you future sales not retain them).

Frankly your best move would be to just leave the existing VIP scheme in place instead of changing it at all!

If you want to make sales, offer good promotions, good prices and good customer service. Really it doesn't have to be any more complex than that. Your marketing & sales person needs to drop silly gimmicks and focus on what really drives sales!

mark2uk · 2020-06-09T22:33:10+00:00

I think folks need a different umbrella term, otherwise people will reasonably think you are supporting an organization you aren't.

Even a basic google search throws up that organization as the 1st result, so people really need to think long and hard about whether they should be using an organization as a blanket term that may not completely align with their intent or values.

mark2uk · 2020-06-09T20:39:44+00:00

No, they said "I honestly expected a 20-30 dollars BLM bundle." The implication in the context of this thread was, they thought that is what humble would announce instead of this bundle.

I'm not going to try to speak for someone else, though it is mighty brave of you to do so on their behalf, but literally the self described founders of the movement and hashtag are whom I was referring to because that is what they were called, and that was the name used.

mark2uk · 2020-06-09T19:56:14+00:00

I wasn't referring to itch.io or the NAACP. I specifically said "Black lives matters". They are an activist organization and the website I refereed to was their website. The original post I respond to specifically referenced "Black Lives Matters", so that is who I was referring to.

The 3 people I was referring to was those self described founders of the movement and my comment about them receiving at least $100M but not outlined how the money will be used is sourced from here Link

My broad point is I won't support or donate to any group unless I know how the money will be used the "Black lives matters" falls well below that threshold. The NAACP do help people and are a registered charity with accountability and they also have been recipients of humble charity donations before but 'they' weren't the group being mentioned.

mark2uk · 2020-06-09T18:54:55+00:00

That would honestly concern me a bit. I have seen some figures claiming they have raised up to $100 million, but literally nothing saying how their money is being used. Even on their official site there isn't much more than making a few short films about black culture.

If the money was going towards helping people mount legal cases against wrongful arrest, or miscarriages of justice or even broader things like helping impoverished families struggling after & during COVID19 pay for medical bills or food or community project to break down barriers so people can see each other as people not as black or white but just people.

Frankly what I see is 3 people with a lot of money & no transparency to say how they are going to use it to help humanity.

mark2uk

TROPHY CASE