You say that like you're getting one over on them. But they've successfully got you to download their shitty software. You think they aren't aware of what they're doing?
Not the other guy but I download them through heroic, install a crack, repack, store on my NAS. That is, if the game is one I'd like to keep for the future.
So yeah some of us are absolutely taking those free games AS free games without downloading their software. A couple of mine have been "loaned" to friends and family, even.
Full transparency though, I've played precisely one game on epic games store, Alan Wake 2 because I like Remedy as a developer and want to support them. Alan Wake 2 will never come out on any other platform and I'm not buying a console to play one game.
Okay but redeeming the games doesn't actually do anything. Epic doesn't care. You're not messing with them by just having an account if you don't use it
I'm sure they're fully aware that some percentage of people will redeem the games with no intent of actually playing them.
The whole point is to generate word of mouth for their store. You're out here doing their job for them, talking about how many free games you've gotten from them.
Lol No, fuck Epic. I'm saying don't brag about shit that doesn't matter. Like "Hooray, I'm playing right into their marketing scheme. Surely they must be furious!"
That's certainly an opinion. Mine is that participating in leeching their freebies and not actually engaging in the platform in a meaningful way costs them money with zero benefit. They're giving away games to get people into their ecosystem. If players aren't participating in the ecosystem, then it's not working and just costing money. This is techbro 101.
You're entitled to your opinion. But you're not changing my mind on this.
They know what they're trying to do, which is to bait people into spending money on their platform so they can have revenue numbers to show developers to get them to release on their platform to get people to want to spend money with them without bait.
Taking the bait but not getting caught in the trap isn't quite pulling one over on them, but it's also not what they were hoping for, so it's not not taking advantage.