It's a python 2.x script.

It repeatedly polls the GOG website (every 4 seconds) and opens up an alarm youtube video when a promo whose game match certain patterns appear.

The patterns are simple regex patterns. You can edit the script and put a list of patterns that uniquely match the games you want (in my case, it's Deponia and Flatout).

Now, you can have a productive day without missing games on the promo.

Enjoy.

EDIT:

Link: https://github.com/Magnitus-/GOG-Insomnia-Promo-Script

Winter 2015 EDIT:

It's that time of the year again where I have to update my insomnia script... so much work (added like 3 lines and changed 2 :P).

While some people get busy watching the promos fly by, others can get busy doing work or playing games :P.

On a side note, even GOG seem to use Angular now. I should really get on that...

Spring 2016 EDIT:

Updated for march promo.

Except for the fact that this way you get the game you want to play, then proceed to play it.

Neat, but aren't there like five more games to go till the end?
Good if they run it again I suppose.

Very nice work, Magnitus! :) Heh, there's still ~79 games left of the third round. Sale will probably last another day or two at the current rate.

According to the list, there should be over 75 games left to go.

Not as productive as catching up on RESTful web design after you got the game, but still infinitely more productive than being constantly distracted by the promo page prior to getting the game ;) If it can help others too, all the better. Seems wasteful to hoard it all for myself :P. Quite a bit more than 5, but yeah, would have been even better 2 days ago.

I was waiting in front of the computer for a Flatout 2 promo while doing other stuff past my bed time when it hit me I could actually automate it and get some sleep.

I can be dumb about stuff like this sometimes.

Wishful thinking on my part probably :P
In that case it's actually more interesting now than when things were moving fast.

That is an awesome and clever script. Nicely done!

Ah, I see. So one of them is a disastrous waste of time and energy, being constantly taunted by flickering numbers and expiring counters, followed by dubious rewards, having to resort to frantically tap the F5 key to actually get anywhere. And the other is following this insomnia sale.

Cool, and seems very simple! (wow python)
Hey, but isn't 4 seconds too frequent? O_o

I find this sale a mindless waste of time. The only redeeming feature is that the discounts are ridiculously good for the most part, but they should find a better format to distribute a limited number of games at very steep discount.

When you play a game, you are being intellectually stimulated.

Similarly, the Playfair challenge and other contests in the past were fun and at times, challenging.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

The browser makes frequent ajax requests at that same URL (I got the URL by looking into the requests my browser was making to their website with Firebug) to update the counter on your display so if their servers can handle everyone's browsers making those requests repeatedly, it can certainly handle this script.

It the script made the request every couple of milliseconds and everyone used it, it would be another matter entirely, but that's not the case here.

Haha, someone had to do it... +1 for being such a crafty person! It's kinda like you're trying to 'play the house', not by cheating of course but by using your wits in a legit way! So there IS a formula after all...?
But doesn't your python script squeeze the fun out of the whole idea (python...squeeze....get it?), I mean the whole idea here is not to be productive, it's a great marketing event and a fun gimmick for people who decide not to be productive. Sort of in a "screw work, I'm ALT+TABBING to GOG" impulse. Knowing what will go on sale next would be like knowing what Mephisto/Diablo/Baal drop next time you boss run them, it would take the whole gambling factor out. This sale was never meant to be efficient and convenient for the customer, everything is normal as usual except that there is an added crazy thing going on on the front page and it adds kind of a 'town fair' atmosphere, something that's difficult to achieve on a website without people being able to mingle in a town square.

Ok, thanks.

And avoid all the useless runs? Totally worth it XD

I consider there are positive ways to be "inefficient" and negative ones.

Spending time with friends, playing a game, reflecting on things or just interacting with individuals on a forum enriches us to a degree and makes us richer (or just happier) people.

Waiting for a bar to scroll down... is just hard to justify. It doesn't really further my growth as a person and it doesn't make me happy.

I understand what they were trying to achieve, but it's a fail for me so I'd rather bypass it with a script.

In a high, we had religion classes and in them, we learned that there are 3 main motivators for following rules:

1) Fear of punishment for breaking them

2) Because everyone else is doing it

3) Because the reasoning behind the rule is sound

In this case, there is no real punishment for breaking this rule and the reasoning behind the format of the sale is not sound to me... and doing something because everyone else is doing it was never a good motivator for me.

I fully agree, watching the bar go down is a zombie thing, not in any way shape or form positive but posting on the forums and exchanging information and nonsense is fun. Whenever I catch myself zonking out on 'bar progress watching', I force myself out of it.
But forum activities in general are not as fun and constructive as doing actual things with people on location which is why I'm logging off in a sec to run off to the gym and throw around people. I did the same thing on Monday and ended up missing the exact games I wanted but have no regrets, sports is more important than getting a cheap deal.
More power to your script, if it works I'm impressed & amazed though I haven't tried it yet.