Big Fish Affiliate Program Cancelled

Many of you already noticed that our Big Fish Links on the pages started disappearing the last couple days as we have been removing them one by one.

Big Fish sadly made the decision to cancel their affiliate program for all and will no longer be offering their small percentage given to us if links were used to purchase.
It was GameBoomers only "advertising" and since they are no longer offering any incentive to keep a link on our website, I decided to remove them all. We may in the future decide to add a different company if we get an offer that is from a very reputable website. Big Fish was always the top in customer service so partnering with them was a no-brainer. We are sorry that they made the decision to cancel any incentive programs but we wish them well.

Marian will continue to post the daily announcements since it is a welcomed addition to casual users but it is at her discretion if she wants to announce a specific game.

If anyone has any favorite places and wish to share, please feel free to add to this thread.

Ana

I'm sorry to hear Big Fish made that decision, Ana.
Thank you for letting us know what happened.

Hi, Ana!

Thanks for the explanation. It's unfortunate that Big Fish cancelled their affiliate program. I just purchased a game I demoed last week and used the link that Jenny provided in her response to my other post. It worked like a charm, but I'm sad that Gameboomers probably won't receive a percentage. I wonder if Big Fish realizes how many games they have sold as a result of their affiliation with Gameboomers because this is the site where I initially learned about them 11 years ago. Gameboomers is my Home Page and, if not for Marian's daily description of their new offering, I would have missed a whole slew of them.

Susan

I could not agree more with Susie07, if not for Gameboomers I would not be a Big Fish member nor would I have purchased so many of their games!

That goes for me, too !!

Sad news. But thanks for letting us know, BrownEyedTigre.
And thank YOU Marian for your long term valued and regular information about Big Fish games.

😶😶😶

Thanks for that sad news Ana. I have not seen anything good coming out of the changes that Big Fish has been making this year.

Sad to hear this news. I, like many, was introduced to Big Fish by Gameboomers and bought most of my games from links here. Thanks Marian for diligently getting all the game info to us. I appreciate all you do

I appreciate all the kind comments.

Wow. Can't help but wonder what prompted this decision. Either they are in financial trouble (which I doubt) or they are making so much money outside of game sales that they don't need our help to survive. Greed is a dangerous companion. Either way, it takes some of the Boom out of Gameboomers. Sad to see.

[quote=Tally Ho. Either way, it takes some of the Boom out of Gameboomers. Sad to see. [/quote]

Not for me !! I was a Gameboomer fan long before I ever heard of Big Fish. And will continue to be one.
Big Fish no longer valueing the revenue they gain via Gameboomer members is just rather a sad state of affairs, to my mind.

Mad, I didn't take what Tally Ho to mean it takes anything away from GameBoomers other than help support us.

I first learned about Big Fish through a friend’s recommendation. To be honest I don’t remember how I found out about Gameboomers. It’s been a long time. Any way, I’ll miss linking to BFG theough GB. But I put a link to the Big Fish site on my homescreen. There’s been a lot of changes and restructuring going on at Big Fish according to some articles I’ve read. We can always still count on GB to keep us up to date on new games.

OK, BrownEyedTigre.

You're right, Ana. This year the economy has had unpredictable effects on everything; this was probably one of those.

I think they are changing their pricing model.
Instead of pay once for a game and be done with it (redownload and replay
at will) they're moving to more of a rental system -- pay and then keep
paying for as long as you want to play the game.

Of course that means that websites like Gameboomers won't be
as useful to their sales, despite that as of this time they are still
offering games as "buy it and it's yours."

Hi everyone, I've been out of touch for over a week, our landlord was changing all the floors in our house. It's really a shame that BF did this, I would love to know what is going on there. The choice of games have been going down hill lately & I know they have been redoing their walkthroughs, which by the way is not fixed. They have doubles for some walkthroughs, broken links for the pictures & some are not even there anymore. Makes me wonder if I should get an external hard drive & download all my games just in case. For some reason they just aren't the same company anymore. I guess it's just a wait & see game.

Reinstalling games they said you were actually "purchasing" won't
be a problem, so you shouldn't have to do that.
Also keep in mind the games you install to an external drive still have to be
"activated" using the Big Fish Client on the computer that will be running
them or they'll only run as demos, for 60 or 90 minutes.


They're not the same company.
They've been sold several times.
The Wikipedia has some info.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Fish_Games



I didn't realize they'd laid off half their workforce so recently.
I feel bad for the people who lost their jobs.

My favorite iteration of Big Fish was the first one.
They did some of their own game development back then, as with the MCF games.
Sometimes the owner would even drop by at Gameboomers and post.

Thanks Jenny100 for all the info. It's sad to see what is happening to BF. Like I said before, it's a wait & see game.

Thank you both 🙂

------

Not sure if I will want to "rent and keep paying for" future BF games, if that's the path they eventually decide to go down 👎

Hi, Mad!

That makes two of us. It also raises the question of what happens to our Game Club Credits? I don't often replay the games, but there are a few that I really enjoyed and have replayed several times. I'm not going to speculate about what these changes mean, but I'm hoping Big Fish is adding an option to rent games at a cheaper price instead of eliminating the option to buy altogether.

Susan

I've not been a "member" for years, myself, now. But understand your question about "Game Club Credits".

I do buy plenty of games from them though and I'm quite sure I won't feel willing to rent them instead

These articles might explain some of it (the reason for reorganization). ?

https://www.casino.org/news/big-fish-games-lays-off-staff-as-judge-approves-155-million-settlement/

https://www.geekwire.com/2020/big-f...s-part-class-action-settlement-gambling/

The type of credit that expires (the type you get with the purchase of 2 CE's or 6 SE's)
will expire after a month or two. No change there.

There used to be a type of Big Fish game credit that you could purchase for money.
I don't know if they still sell them, but those would not expire.

Hi, Jenny!

I was referring to the Game Club Credits that are credited to your account when the monthly membership fee is paid. One can be used to purchase a SE and two for a CE. Those never expire, but I'm wondering how they would be applied if Big Fish goes to rentals instead of purchases. Big Fish did have sales where we could purchase Game Club Credits for $6.99 each, but there haven't been any for quite a while.

Susan

Since you pay cash for those, you'll be able to purchase games with them.


I don't see Big Fish as going over 100% to "rentals" right away.
I think they'll offer legit game purchases for some time to come.
They may never move 100% to "rentals" even though some other
sellers of casual games seem to have done so.

Even if they did go over to rentals, the credits would probably
be worth $6.99 off the price of the rental fee.

Hi, Jenny!

Adding the option to rent games would not be a bad thing, assuming the cost will be a lot less. I won't be happy if they remove the option to buy, though, because I pick games up when they are on sale so I haven't paid full price in years . I have a few games that I've replayed (some more than once), but most are "once and done".

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Susan

I have several Big Fish games that I replay from time to time.
Some of the Dark Parables games and MCF games.
My favorite MCF game is Dire Grove.
Also one of the Christmas Stories series usually gets played around Christmas.

I have quite a few Big Fish games that I replay, and there would be more if I had more free time.

Hi, Jenny!

I also replay the Christmas games around Christmas, and the Halloween games around Halloween . I'm currently playing the new "Halloween Chronicles" and am looking forward to the new Christmas offerings. I believe "MCF: Dire Grove" was the first one I played, and then I bought the ones I missed before joining Big Fish. I really enjoy the Super Puzzles and always feel so proud of myself when I solve them because some of them take a lot of thought !

Susan

I have purchased a number of BigFish games using the Gameboomer link. Sorry that this site will no longer be getting the modest kickback from any future sales. I have been worrying about BigFish for awhile now. Never a good sign to see ownership changing so often, and then as some have alluded to they have reduced employee #s by a lot. I always thought the combo of gambling / gaming site was a weird one. I have a bought a LOT of BF games over the past 10 years and many I have yet to get to, so hope they can stay in business. I know some say you can download them to hard drive for future use, but I have had issues activating these games before. What I mean to say is I will activate a game, let it sit unplayed for a stretch, then when I try and play it a few months later the BigFish app instructs me to activate it again. Is there a time out or something for activation? Maybe it is just a glitch on my computer. In any case, because of this I don't have much faith I could download & activate my catalogue to an external drive and then come back to it down the road and have it all work.

Another main problem I have encountered is many of BigFish's older games (and some not so old) have disappeared from their library. Even if you purchased a copy, if you try and download it the game cannot be found. That seems kind of shady, because other portals like Steam still allow one to download games you bought even if they are no longer offered for sale to new buyers (I believe that is the case at least). I have been trying to play through my backlog, and that is how I have discovered this.

Edit: Jen, where did you hear that BigFish was moving to a rental system for their games? Your post was first I had heard of that. Is it a single game rental, or will they charge a monthly fee to play *any* game in their catalogue for a month?

Lakerz, I have a lot of Big Fish's older games and I have never had a problem downloading and installing a game from my Purchase History that has disappeared from the Big Fish catalogue. And I have done this many, many times, so not sure what is up with that. All I can say is that I have enough older (and some not so old) games to sink the Titanic and this has never happened to me.

I also haven't had a problem with playing games that I have backed up to an external drive that I then play months later.

I've had the problem of games deactivating with Vista, though not with XP.
With XP the games stay activated.

I've noticed with Vista that if I change the installation location of the game folder that
the game deactivates, and I have to reactivate it through the Game Manager.
For example if I move the game folder to an external drive.
With XP the game stays activated no matter where I move the game folder, as
long as I'm playing it on the same computer where I activated it.
With Vista/7/8/10 the game will need reactivating after moving the game folder.
I think this is "by design" and Big Fish just didn't bother to force reactivating
on XP.


I haven't had that happen.
Even the oldest games show up in my Game Manager, and I can reinstall them from there.
Since Big Fish is reorganizing their website, it may be that some games are temporarily
unavailable. They should eventually come back though.
The oldest game I reinstalled this year was from 2008.


I don't remember. It's not just Big Fish that's doing that, it's all casual game sellers.
They make more money with a rental system.


The latter. Play any game or games for a month, then you have to keep paying if you want
to continue playing those games. You rent access to them.
Players who never play games more than once may be able to play more games.
I don't play games that way. I only play and replay favorites, not any old thing.
So rental of their full library is not worthwhile for me.

I have not found this to be the case with my Windows 7 computer. I have moved game folders to an external drive for quite a while and when I put them back on my Windows 7 computer, the games have never needed reactivating.

You misunderstood.
On XP I can move the folder to the external drive and play from the external drive.
Or on XP I can move the folder from one location on the hard drive to a different
location on the hard drive and play from that 2nd location on the hard drive.
With Vista/7/8/10 if I move the folder and play from the new location, the activation times out.

Saving the folder on the external hard drive and then putting it back is not the same
as being able to play from any location. The activation info for games on the Vista/7/8/10 computer apparently saves the location where the game was activated from into the activation info,
and any change means the game has to be reactivated. So sure if you put the
folder back where it originally was it will keep activation, but it won't retain
activation if you try to play from a different location, whether on an external
drive or a different location on the main Windows hard drive.
On XP the game only had to be activated on the computer, and would play from
anywhere, including an external drive, as long as you used that computer to play it.

Yes, Jenny, I misunderstood. Thank you very much for the clarification!

I also still have my XP computer so this is useful information for me to have.

Huh, that is weird because I have had at least 10 previously bought games no longer offered for download from website or BF client. For example, one of the latest ones I encountered was Agatha Christie's Death On The Nile game. I think all of the Agatha Christie games left the BF site. I was not able to download & activate Death on the Nile anymore. Maybe it is just me.

Jen: thank you for the reply. Again, maybe it is just me. The PC I do most of my casual gaming on is Win7. Maybe I will download BF client on my Win10 laptop and see if same thing happens. My Win7 computer though definitely seems to have a temporary activation time span even though the game location never moves.

Edit: all of the Dream Chronicles games seem to have left the site also. Same with the National Geographic games

lakerz, I just went to my purchase history and Agatha Christie Death on the Nile is still there to download and install. Because they were removed from the website, it is still in your library to install and play.

I can still download and install it, and I have Win 7.

BrownEyedTigre & Connie - thanks for the info. Maybe the error lies on my side. When I go to my purchase history and click on the game (for example Agatha Christie Death on Nile), it doesn't download the game but instead loads up the BigFish game manager. Once that loads up, nothing happens in terms of the game loading. I have found the only way to download/activate BF games anymore is to use the search function on the BigFish manager and as long as it finds the game I can then download & activate it. However, if it doesn't find the game then that is that (for me at least). Maybe I am missing something?

I always use the Big Fish Game Manager. On the left hand side I click Purchase History. On the top right I have it set to sort by Game Title so they come up alphabetically. I don't type in a game name in the search area. Maybe try to do it this way if you haven't already done so?

Also, sorry if this is a stupid question but, are you sure you purchased this game as a Big Fish download or do you maybe have it on disc? I have this game on disc so it does not show up in my Big Fish library though I believe it will if I install the game from the disc, but only on the computer that I install the game on.

It sounds like your Game Manager might be afflicted with the 1404 error message bug. What you describe resembles this. If this is the case, the only remedy for re-downloading games from your Purchase History that have been removed from the website is to tell Customer Support your account now has this bug, and they will send you a link for the game. I have been told in the past that this bug is created when the game manager is unable to retrieve the security certificate for the game from the Big Fish server. Once afflicted with this bug, it does not go away, unfortunately.

Thanks for the continued help. Marian - yes that is exactly the problem I have! Sorry I failed to mention that before, my brain is fried I guess ha ha. But yeah, I have had that BF Game Manager 1404 error for a while now which prevents me from bringing up purchase history from within the app. You would think BF would fix this error, but I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the BF Manager several times and no luck. Thanks for the tip about requesting the game link from BF customer support. The few times in the past I've contacted them about this, they just apologize and give me a coupon code for free game to compensate. I never knew they had ability to send me direct download link. Thank you!

Yes, be sure to contact them about this. Tell them your account has the 1404 error message and that you want a download link for the game(s). They will explain the easy steps after that in order to get the entire game downloaded and activated. In the past, the solution for this issue was to provide the customer with an earlier version of the GM, but they no longer do that. I would also recommend that you open a second account if you haven't already for any future purchases such that they will not end up in the bugged account.

I have been told that this bug can pop up when you have close to one thousand or more games in your Purchase History. If anyone reading this is close to that amount, my advice is to open a second account for future purchases to protect the first account from possibly developing this glitch. You will still have the original account and access to all the games in it after you do this.

Thanks Marian for putting the number out there! I was wondering if 1,000 might be the bad luck number. I have over 800 and have been concerned since this issue was first mentioned by you. I haven't been buying so much from Big Fish lately but your suggestion of a second account sounds like a good idea. Do you then have two Game Managers on your desktop or how does it work?

For each account you will have a different user name and password. You will still use just the one game manager but you will need to sign into the account where the game you want to download has been purchased. Then, if you want to download a game from the other account, you sign out and sign back in with the other user name and password. I suppose that is a little bit of a hassle but it only takes a few seconds to do it.

I know people who have made it to 1200 games before the GM developed this glitch and for others it was more in the 900 to 1000 range. I put a number out there because the help Big Fish provides on their site refers to having a "large" purchase history. That's a bit vague, and some people subjectively might think 200 games is a large Purchase History and for others it might be 1500.

Thank you! That makes perfect sense about the one game manager, but does a different user name mean a different email? I don't seem to have an actual "user" name on Big Fish.

Yes, "large purchase history" can mean different things to different people. I consider mine to be quite large and getting to that "glitch" area.

Yes, the user name in this case means a different email address.

That's SUCH good information to know, Marian. Thank you very much !!

You are most welcome, Mad!

Kind of a sad state of affairs. I recently went to my purchase history and downloaded several older games with no problems. Have been working my way through all the old MCF games and replaying the Drawn series.

That sounds like a great replay, Drac. I haven't played some of those old games in so long that they would be like games I have never played.

Thanks Marian for all the info on game manager 1404 error. I will have to log into my BF purchase history to see what my game count is at, 1000 seems like a *REALLY* big number! I'd be shocked if it was that high, but then again I tend to buy the HOG / adventure lite games when I see them on sale.

Question though about creating a new account. Would that mean I have to be a Big Fish member twice over (pay monthly fee twice)? I don't mind paying it once, not sure I want to do it twice. Or do I cancel from BF game club in first account and re-join it in new account. Even if I quit it in original account (with 1404 error), BF still allows one to download/play all previously purchased games right?

You would just cancel the membership on the glitched account and start up a new membership with the new account. And yes, you will still be able to download and play all previously purchased games from the old account. No worries. That old account will still exist - you just won't be adding any new purchases to it.

Thanks Marian. I checked today and I have close to 550 games in my original account purchase history. A shocking high number to me but not as high as 1000. I will create a different account for any future purchases, though I will also prioritizing playing the backlog on original account (probably 50%)

Offhand I have not heard of this Game Manager bug with so (relatively speaking!) few purchases before. If you have been afflicted with it, though, good idea to create a different account for future purchases.

Got the new account created and deactivated old one. Good timing too as old one was about to charge me for another month. Made sure I used up my game credits first on old account. Now just gotta play the 270 odd HOG games on old account heh heh. Too much turkey in my belly tonight though, maybe this weekend. Happy Thanksgiving to the GameBoomers crew!

Happy Thanksgiving to you too, lakerz! It sounds like you got everything sorted now with the accounts.