The Pinata sale is. in my opinion, just like buying mystery boxes for various online games. You may not get what you want (like a character skin), but you will get something.

No clue.

I remember getting copies of Zombie shooter and the like from that group. Although it might have been leprechaun chests at the time... But it was the same thing i think...

I look at this particular sale this way: when my wishlisted games ARE on sale, they're usually $7-$10. Everything I have a passing interest in that falls below $5 I'll pick up impulsively. In fact I've made it a habit to only buy games under $10 regardless of the sale price. So as far as I'm concerned, it's worth three shots to get a game I want (Pillars, Soma...) and if I DON'T cave and buy a fourth pinata then I'll be happy with the sale in general. I know there's gotta be an expectation value algorithm hidden in there somewhere but that's the best I can figure it.

At least 2 times before.

You mean so embarrassingly stupid we could basically present no counter argument if aliens showed up and cited it as reason to exterminate the human race?

So.is this more of a gamble than pre-ordrring a game?

I actually quite like the mystery sales as an excuse to try new things, payoff and price aside, almost every game on GOG is a quality title. So Unlike taking a blind swing at a title I don't recognize in the bargain bin, I'll get a game that at least for fans of the genre was considered good.

That being said I'll probably sit this one out, My backlog is getitng a little bit dense.

I just hate getting games I already have on Steam in the pinata thing. Really puts me off from trying for another. I really wish I could just give the game I got away rather than risk winding up with another copy of a single player game I already beat years ago. Pitfalls of digital I guess.

Looks like this is the 5th iteration:
Luck of the Irish - Mar 2014
Mutator - Oct 2014
Indie Pinata - Sep 2015
Mystery Deal (Part of the Winter Sale) - Dec 2015

The egg-themed one was an Insomnia - Mar 2016

First saw the front page today and got excited to participate in some sort of new event.

But these sorts of events are disappointing when the real sales are locked behind gambling.

That is just not a good thing.

I got Capitalism II so just my luck. It's the exact same price as a scratch card lottery ticket in Sweden and I usually walk away with nothing to show for it in about the same time as clicking that taco donkey.

Only problem is on the tangent that it's not legal to sell lottery tickets to under 18's though but gaming and digital services are full of schemes tricking kids to participate in unboxing lotteries. I'd bet on a smackdown soon when the IRS or EU realizes it's millions of lottery drawings going untaxed every day to kids.

Pinatas with guaranteed something back, don't care much.

Yeaaaaaahh, you know, it really can be GOG's problem. Saying that casino's have no responsibility is incredibly disingenuous.

Shouldn't we have though.
As a theoretical example a baker, who laces 1 out of however many loaves of bread with rat poison or may have had in close proximity to it and therefore under a duty of care should not be selling it.
How maliciously heinous is his act?
Reprehensible if he cares to know, maybe not so much if he feigns ignorance.
say 1 in 5 becomes sick and dies. In a place of abundance he goes out of business and is raked over hot coals as a devil of a man.
1 in 10000 and in a place of abundance he gets a severe fine and is forced into health standard changes or will be shut down; but otherwise he is still an outstanding community member.
In a place of low abundance his acts become 'much' more tolerable, but he is no less maliciously ignorant.
Would it be a good thing not to have food safety also being applied to the places of low socio-economic abundance?
Is it in fact more prudent where acts that cause harm have had the lack of oversight to in fact flourish?
Gambling isn't like a drug, it's quite often swept under the rug and victims so harshly blamed they even start blaming themselves; when it is in fact the nature of gambling to thrive on addiction.
Companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on behavioral experiments and psycho analysis to perfect it's addiction.
Isn't asking Joe-I just grew up- random human being who hasn't invested 50% of his labor into combating the exploitation of his own chemically bound animalistic behavior from the nuclear proliferation of such malicious work actually quite reasonable?
What about when he actually has paid tax for proper governance to do just that?

Go have a look at gwent the card game and try and tell me it has NOTHING to do with gambling addiction; or that the developer should have no duty of care in what it encourages?

Just because it's not currently illegal, doesn't make it any less morally reprehensible and feigned ignorance is never a plausible defense once law catches up to community expectations.
Gambling in gaming is a shameful practice and requires continued community backlash to get the development and distribution network to pull back before they are forced to act ethically when community pressure rises enough to create law which will be far more serious for them and much less flexible and forgiving.

I love when people misplace responsibility to justify weak will.

Volenti non fit iniuria - enough said

I love when people start blaming the victims.
Always harsh with other people's mistakes and indulgent with their own.

*(in the example of the casino)