A lot of people don't understand that a lot of people own a lot of games here. More than you could possibly backup in a few weeks with a slow connection and an overloaded server which would have been the inevitable result. I mean the servers are still totally overloaded even though they updated them AND there is probably no need to backup for the next few weeks.
It is totally impossible that in the case of a shut down all would have went well. If you don't believe me, then you probably own only a handful of games here. GOG just totally antagonized the "big buyers" and collectors, which I assume are responsible for a very large share of their profit margin

Being angry on a breach of trust is not childish. I'm not angry because I couldn't download some games for a couple of days. I'm angry because I cared about something, grieved that it was gone, and then was told "har har, it was all a joke." I'm angry because I was being used as part of a publicity machine, making me spread word of GOG by posting news that wasn't true and my opinion, which turned out not to be relevant.

This doesn't mean that going against GOG because of this is a rational decision, but it's a valid emotional decision. I prefer to buy from merchants I can trust, both brick and mortar and online, and I'm willing to give some things up for that, like paying a higher price for products. I feel that this stunt was disrespectful to me as a customer and fan, and I'm therefore less inclined to buy at GOG.

I would agree with you, but by inserting the phrase "paying customers" into the equation it all kinda falls apart.

It was a bold move and will likely be talked about (for good or bad) for years to come. Simply saying "We're updating our site." wouldn't have done that. It made my day. It made me smile and feel like a part of a wider community. Good for them.

Thanks GOG!

In my opinion, they went too far.
An unambiguous announcement of launching a new site and Baldur's Gate would have been purely good publicity, but what they did made me weary of them, and I know people who probably became ex-customers because of it.
I'm not going to stop buying games at GOG.com, but this stunt mean they won't be my first choice anymore. That means I'm likely to choose Steam (DRM but reliable) over GOG.com (no DRM, but unreliable).

Well, there seems to be plenty of those (fanboys) around at the moment. It looks like anyone daring to say that they think this PR stunt was a stupid idea immediately gets jumped by 4 other people calling them "whiners", "spoiled children", etc. in the most patronizing tones imaginable. "Classy community" indeed. It does look like that's exactly what it's doing. Methinks someone didn't test their code properly.

My 2 cents:

I have a hard time understanding all the anger. This isn't a service like Steam, which could prevent you from playing your installed games or otherwise take them away from you. It all was just a matter of not being able to download games for a short time.

On the other hand, the move was definitely in questionable taste, and if I had invested as much in the community as some of the people here, I might feel different...

As it stands though, as a customer who has bought 30 games from this site, I don't feel in any way offended.

My 2 cents:

I have a hard time understanding all the anger. This isn't a service like Steam, which could prevent you from playing your installed games or otherwise take them away from you. It all was just a matter of not being able to download games for a short time.

On the other hand, the move was definitely in questionable taste, and if I had invested as much in the community as some of the people here, I might feel different...

As it stands though, as a customer who has bought 30 games from this site, I don't feel in any way offended.

Foolish. They lost customers they'd worked very hard to acquire. Truly "noobs" from a business viewpoint. Existing customers saw what amounted to an "out of business" sign and many may have deleted that bookmark. These are not necessities, they're recreation items.

As there's no such thing as bad publicity there may be a minor surge of new shoppers. They're going to be tempered by the news that brought them here and may not be so willing to drop their coin here.

I thought it was more than obvious that this was an 'end of beta' announcement, not an 'end of gog.com'. As they said in their video, there were more than enough clues.

They needed downtime for the upgrade anyway, so why not take the opportunity to get some headlines?

Great job guys, and glad to be back on the site :)

The PR stunt worked. I haven't seen that much ramblings about gog.com COMBINED over the last (nearly) 2 years.
And I highly doubt, that just the release of Baldurs Gate without this "transition" would have made even 1/4 of it.

Was it a stunt I'd accept again? No. Is it right to feel disgruntled about it? Possibly, depending on your point of view. Could they've pulled it off better? Yep.

To those screaming boycott and betrayal - if you feel that's your way, go ahead. Post your feelings to let them know once, but then be gone. Everything else is just not consequent and nobody's taking witchhunters seriously nowadays.

This sums up my reaction to the news. At first I found myself wondering which games had I backed up these months, then I felt sad that I didn't get Master of Orion as I planned on doing sometime in Nov (my bday).

After reading some of the replies on facebook I thought about the PR stunt someone claimed this to be but refrained from any further waste of time on the subject. If GOG was closing down, I'd just come back on thursday and get in line to download everything I payed for.

Seeing yesterday's video made me realise that this was a joke as was previously hinted. No bankrupt company would waste time on a list of accomplishments which were not important if said company was about to fold!

Was it taken a bit far? Yes, of course. But it did not harm my trust in the company nor did it placed some excruciating revolting sensation on every fiber of my body (as some of you seem to be implying!).

Plus we get some freebies next week!

Cheers!

Well I don't know about you but I'm seeing a vast improvement in speed, especially on the forums. Before the change the forums were infuriatingly slow for me and now they're fine.

Steam, Direct2Drive, Impulse, Gamersgate, or pretty much any other digital download service would not have pulled a similar prank. It's too risky. Too crazy. It would seem unprofessional to publishers. But, they wouldn't adapt a "No DRM" policy either for similar reasons.

It may have messed around with consumers' trust for a couple days, but ultimately it makes me trust them even more because they are willing to be a little crazy.

-1 for messing with
+1 for being brazen enough to do it

I say this PR stunt is a draw.