This is the last time I check for reviews. Yet another blank review placed here by someone who just HAS to be first. Is everyone 12 years old? Why even bother?

Aliza, Whiterabbit is a fellow moderator on here and does this to help us decide if we want the game or not. No need to be rude.

Anu, I appreciate your reply but anyone can copy paste. Sorry if I sounded rude. I shouldn't have said anything, I should've just ignored reviews.

Aliza,

Hello Aliza, I posted the review last night just after midnight, so I don't understand why you would be seeing no review?

Regarding your comment about anyone can copy paste, well that is true, but the point is that I'm not willing to spend hours writing a review of a game, when I've seen reviews that basically say the same thing as I would. also, its not just a matter of copying and pasting. I still have to play the game first, then research to find appropriate material. Most of the screen captures are my own originals, and if a game is one I really enjoy, I'll post my own thoughts on it as I did today. I always reference other peoples work, which again is an acceptable practice. I'm sure we are all capable of researching the games given away here, but not everyone has the time to do that, which is one of the reasons I post reviews here. Another reason has always been as a thank you to the giveaway team for bringing all these games to us for free.

The links to other material in today's review are to support my comments. If I was being paid to post reviews, things would be different as I would feel duty bound to write original reviews of all the games given away here, but as I'm not paid a penny, posting links to other reviews is in my opinion acceptable. I'm still spending an inordinate amount of time preparing and researching these games as well as adding other information so that anyone who doesn't like the days giveaway can find other free games.

My reviews are usually the first to be posted because I am an administrator on this site and have access to the comments section before it becomes live. I was given this position about 11 years ago when I needed access to reviews I was posting due to typo and grammatical errors, which once posted, were not editable. Because of this I was constantly posting comments asking the then moderator to edit my typos and grammar and sometimes to add extra information about the game being given away. Then, about the time the giveaway project moved to 'weekends only' (around Easter 2008), they gave me access to the administration panel so that i could edit my reviews. By this time my reviews had expanded from a paragraph to several and were more in depth. I then suggested that I moderate the comments and forums, as we did get some trolls and advertisers occasionally and the site wasn't moderated 24/7. So began my moderating on this site. I always try to get a review posted before the games go live, so that the community can see if the game is one they will possibly like; though this isn't always possible. I felt it was important back when the giveaway project first started because many community members were still on internet connections with limited bandwidth. It's not as important now becasue most community members more than likely have unlimited download capabilities, with no extra charges if you download terabytes of data each month.

I did post a comment several weeks ago to say that my reviews would be reduced in size significantly as I was spending an inordinate amount of time playing the games that were to be given away (usually I'd already purchased the game, so could check it out before the game went live) as well as writing the reviews and researching the games that were being given away and also moderating. When the site resumed weekday game giveaways last November, it became too much for me as I also had other responsibilities such as family (especially my two kids as they are at a nexus in their lives and require a lot more support) as well as hobbies and other projects to attend to. I was spending upwards of 4 to 6 hours every day working on these games and moderating here and over in the forums (for free as I am just a volunteer), so many of my other activities were being neglected..

When the site first opened back in 2006, there 'was' an element of 'hey I posted first' from some community members, but I've not seen that behavior for over 12 years now as most of the giveaway community are decent, mature and respectful adults. (though we do still get the occasional troll, but they are totally ignored. You don't see those as the site has included software to filter them out, and once I see them their comments are either deleted or consigned to the spam bin. Only if I approve their comments would the community see them. Most of which you wouldn't want to see as they are usually disgusting in nature.

I hope this clarifies things for you?

Anu, Thanks for your support Anu :)

Aliza,

"This is the last time I check for reviews."

From the top of the page to the end of the review text [just before the screen shots], took 2 whole strokes of the mouse scroll wheel. Such a tremendous amount of effort wasted when you could be off trolling other sites!

"Why even bother?"

So kindly tell me, why did you?

Whiterabbit-uk,
You are welcome - I wouldn't have said a word if it weren't you and just some ridiculous FIRST comment but all of us regular visitors know about your good work and how you are always helpfull - and to be honest I don't understand Aliza's problem.