It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
avatar
rjbuffchix: One could point out that general consumers are also "tapped out" on Steam and Steam-like features. Look already at the outrage caused by Epic,
Indeed, let's look at the "outrage" caused by Epic. That's a fictional narrative that is blown ludicrously out of proportion by a very small handful/minority of very vocal critics on the internet.

Meanwhile, in actual reality, that outrage has had zero effect on Epic Games Stores' sales. They had 85 million customers within the first 5 months of opening, and no doubt that number has increased a lot since then. Their games are selling like hot-cakes. Many of their well-known sequel games sold way more copies on Epic Games Store than their famous & popular previous entries ever sold on Steam.

In other words, the "outrage" over Epic Games Store exclusives is a completely moot point. But if one were to believe everything they read on the internet, then one would accept the extremely untrue idea that the outrage over Epic Games Store is causing them to lose a very significant margin of sales.

The same kind of effect is also evident regarding GOG, in threads like this.

A lot of people say things like "the fans" or "the original customers," and then proceed onto rants about how Galaxy is "betraying the vision of GOG" and "not what GOG customers want." Meanwhile, in actual reality, contrary to what often-repeated internet outrage would have one believe, the majority of GOG customers willingly choose to use Galaxy, and like doing so. We/they realize that GOG would be worse off - not better - if it didn't have Galaxy and thus was unable to offer features like Achievements, Cloud Saves, a quick & easy place to launch all your GOG games from, etc. etc.

That is to say, Galaxy is nowhere nearly so despised by the overall GOG userbase as many posters on GOG forums would have one believe. And although such posters take it upon themselves to be the spokesmen for "original" or "real" GOG customers, they actually don't have any credible authority to speak for those groups, many/most of whom most likely do not actually share their hatred of Galaxy.
avatar
rjbuffchix: One could point out that general consumers are also "tapped out" on Steam and Steam-like features. Look already at the outrage caused by Epic,
avatar
Ancient-Red-Dragon: Indeed, let's look at the "outrage" caused by Epic. That's a fictional narrative that is blown ludicrously out of proportion by a very small handful/minority of very vocal critics on the internet.

Meanwhile, in actual reality, that outrage has had zero effect on Epic Games Stores' sales. They had 85 million customers within the first 5 months of opening, and no doubt that number has increased a lot since then. Their games are selling like hot-cakes. Many of their well-known sequel games sold way more copies on Epic Games Store than their famous & popular previous entries ever sold on Steam.
Would you mind using actual reality to estimate how many of those 85 million are from Fortnite? The outrage is quite clearly over what Epic can do with the money going forward and thus the effect, purchasing-wise, of the outrage will only be seen going forward into the future, with Epic exclusives that get "taken away" from Steam, as it were.

avatar
Ancient-Red-Dragon: Meanwhile, in actual reality, contrary to what often-repeated internet outrage would have one believe, the majority of GOG customers willingly choose to use Galaxy
I'm sure that GOG making Galaxy the de facto default option, and also apparent glitches in the past where it was even bundled into offline installers, had nothing to do with this! To not make this obvious extrapolation while just blithely acting as though Galaxy was a willing choice of all Galaxy users is a rather generous and, some would say, intellectually dishonest reading of the situation.

avatar
Ancient-Red-Dragon: We/they realize that GOG would be worse off - not better - if it didn't have Galaxy and thus was unable to offer features like Achievements, Cloud Saves, a quick & easy place to launch all your GOG games from, etc. etc.
No, not "worse off". Different. Possibly even better off in the long run in that it would be more differentiated, in a market of proprietary clients and achievement systems. Also, my desktop is a quick & easy place to launch GOG games from. So is my "Games" folder.

avatar
Ancient-Red-Dragon: That is to say, Galaxy is nowhere nearly so despised by the overall GOG userbase as many posters on GOG forums would have one believe. And although such posters take it upon themselves to be the spokesmen for "original" or "real" GOG customers, they actually don't have any credible authority to speak for those groups, many/most of whom most likely do not actually share their hatred of Galaxy.
I do not intend this as an insult, but this is delving into incoherence. "Groups" are comprised of individuals. I am an individual who has commonalities with a certain group of buyers past and present. I often use a term like "old-school minded users". Not a perfect term, but I feel it reflects the commonalities of many (not all) old school users both original members and people like me with later join dates, but who feel drawn to the older (and imo superior) ways of doing things. If any post of mine is taken by an older or even newer user as misrepresentative of them, that is not my intention and I welcome them to correct me. But by implying I don't know how they feel, based on shared commonalities, is to imply I don't know how I feel. It's a fancy way of saying "shut up".
"Despised", "hated". I think there's a whole lot of "putting words into people's mouths" here to over-exaggerate some talking points. Personally, I don't "hate" Galaxy, but as someone not remotely interested in achievements, cloud saves or game-time tracking, I've genuinely never understood exactly what the advantage is of opening a client through the Windows Start menu then using that client to open a game indirectly, taking at least 3x more clicks vs simply opening the game directly from the same Windows Start Menu that's naturally vendor neutral and genuinely has everything (GOG, Steam, itch, Humble, CD-ROM, floppy disk, direct DOSBox shortcuts, direct ScummVM shortcuts, emulators, etc), "all in one place" without needing to divide a game collection up into store-specific clients or remember where you bought anything from so you open the correct client first time if you shop around.

Is it the pretty box-art vs icons, because that's all I can see that's different. How do gamers manage to start up game utilities (Borderless Windowed, MSI Afterburner, xpadder, etc) without using a special "Game Utility" client / launcher? Why does no-one need a special "Microsoft Client" to start Word or Excel vs doing it directly? Or needing a special "Video Application Launcher" just to start Handbrake, VLC, etc? It never has made any sense to me why games are "special" in that taking 2-3x more clicks launching them indirectly via vendor-level segmentation is somehow an "advantage" over vendor-neutral single-click direct-shortcuts? Doubly so for old games that aren't available on any store's client (NOLF, Dune, Freelancer, etc).
Post edited June 28, 2019 by AB2012
I feel like they've been losing focus on fans alright, but the issue for me is not Galaxy.. it's that they're communicating & engaging with the community less and less.. instead of blues who listen to us and talk about what's going on and coming up, I feel like we're left with a faceless corporate entity that only talks back when it's about business; never more than absolutely required.

That's kind of a big deal personally since the Judas, vangog, etc. were one of the biggest reasons I actually decided to stay here instead of just buying a game and moving on.
Post edited June 28, 2019 by clarry
avatar
.Ra: what is zoom?
This.
avatar
clarry: I feel like they've been losing focus on fans alright, but the issue for me is not Galaxy.. it's that they're communicating & engaging with the community less and less.. instead of blues who listen to us and talk about what's going on and coming up, I feel like we're left with a faceless corporate entity that only talks back when it's about business; never more than absolutely required.

That's kind of a big deal since the Judas, vangog, etc. were one of the biggest reasons I actually decided to stay here instead of just buying a game and moving on.
It's giving up on their mission and ideals first. But yeah, that too. Remember all the interaction and engagement back in the day, how the users/community really mattered, how involved the blues were, TET, what contests used to mean, actually doing stuff, maybe even sending emails that someone actually went through and checked, not just randomness through some third party addon, likely requiring social media, and generic freebies (not that the freebies are bad, but not at the expense of that engagement), how they were working with and asking the community to help out, spread the word, those who could also help them track down games and rights and fixes. In more recent years, pfft, just business, staff to customer relations.
Post edited June 28, 2019 by Cavalary
avatar
Tauto: It's a business,not a fan club.
Good point, but one must remember that one usually gains more flies with honey than with vinegar.
avatar
rjbuffchix: A point I've made many times: A mom-and-pop store cannot realistically compete with Walmart. If trying to adopt the same features as Walmart, the mom-and-pop store goes out of business as it cannot price the same as Walmart nor does it have the market recognition (even if it started to gain a foothold, Walmart could still likely undercut it). Where the mom-and-pop store can succeed is by catering to a niche better than Walmart can, or perhaps by providing better service in a more subjective sense (e.g., more eco-friendly, more appealing to certain politics, et cetera).
*Long Slow Clap*
avatar
GameRager: 2. They are having trouble lately, though. Their last income report states they had very narrow net profit margins.
avatar
FrodoBaggins: That's probably cos GOG have made the site since unusable for most browsers when they downgraded last year.
If you don't use the browser that GOG tells you to use, you can't see the games and you can't buy the games. Thus, less people are buying games and GOG's profits go down.

If someone comes here and sees just a bunch of blank squares and 'links' that don't even work, they're gonna know the site is broken, and they're not gonna hang around.
Good points....maybe they should invest some of that CDPR money(which CDPR likely shares with them to help them run the site/store) in fixing up the main site as wlel as the new client. :|
Post edited June 28, 2019 by GameRager
avatar
Tauto: It's a business,not a fan club.
avatar
GameRager: Good point, but one must remember that one usually gains more flies with honey than with vinegar.
avatar
rjbuffchix: A point I've made many times: A mom-and-pop store cannot realistically compete with Walmart. If trying to adopt the same features as Walmart, the mom-and-pop store goes out of business as it cannot price the same as Walmart nor does it have the market recognition (even if it started to gain a foothold, Walmart could still likely undercut it). Where the mom-and-pop store can succeed is by catering to a niche better than Walmart can, or perhaps by providing better service in a more subjective sense (e.g., more eco-friendly, more appealing to certain politics, et cetera).
avatar
GameRager: *Long Slow Clap*
avatar
FrodoBaggins: That's probably cos GOG have made the site since unusable for most browsers when they downgraded last year.
If you don't use the browser that GOG tells you to use, you can't see the games and you can't buy the games. Thus, less people are buying games and GOG's profits go down.

If someone comes here and sees just a bunch of blank squares and 'links' that don't even work, they're gonna know the site is broken, and they're not gonna hang around.
avatar
GameRager: Good points....maybe they should invest some of that CDPR money(which CDPR likely shares with them to help them run the site/store) in fixing up the main site as wlel as the new client. :|
Well,the honey is in the freebies that Gog kindly spreads around and the flies are just buzzing the honey,meanwhile vinegar is bitter because they missed the honey pot.
avatar
.Ra: what is zoom?
avatar
Cavalary: This.
avatar
clarry: I feel like they've been losing focus on fans alright, but the issue for me is not Galaxy.. it's that they're communicating & engaging with the community less and less.. instead of blues who listen to us and talk about what's going on and coming up, I feel like we're left with a faceless corporate entity that only talks back when it's about business; never more than absolutely required.

That's kind of a big deal since the Judas, vangog, etc. were one of the biggest reasons I actually decided to stay here instead of just buying a game and moving on.
avatar
Cavalary: It's giving up on their mission and ideals first. But yeah, that too. Remember all the interaction and engagement back in the day, how the users/community really mattered, how involved the blues were, TET, what contests used to mean, actually doing stuff, maybe even sending emails that someone actually went through and checked, not just randomness through some third party addon, likely requiring social media, and generic freebies (not that the freebies are bad, but not at the expense of that engagement), how they were working with and asking the community to help out, spread the word, those who could also help them track down games and rights and fixes. In more recent years, pfft, just business, staff to customer relations.
weird that I never heard of them. Do you know when they started and how serious they are?
avatar
.Ra: Do you know when they started and how serious they are?
Apparently Sep 9 2014. I learned of them from a thread around here, couldn't say when anymore though. And they seem serious, and enthusiastic. Very small though, and likely focused on other projects too.
They had some issues with GOG too, came to light at the time of GOG's fckdrm stunt when they refused to be associated due to what I gathered was them being convinced that GOG was among those (specifying they're hardly the only ones doing it) who stole their fix to make some old game work on modern systems and then launched it here too. There was something then about GOG getting in touch with them to try to sort it out, no idea what came of it.
avatar
.Ra: Do you know when they started and how serious they are?
avatar
Cavalary: Apparently Sep 9 2014. I learned of them from a thread around here, couldn't say when anymore though. And they seem serious, and enthusiastic. Very small though, and likely focused on other projects too.
They had some issues with GOG too, came to light at the time of GOG's fckdrm stunt when they refused to be associated due to what I gathered was them being convinced that GOG was among those (specifying they're hardly the only ones doing it) who stole their fix to make some old game work on modern systems and then launched it here too. There was something then about GOG getting in touch with them to try to sort it out, no idea what came of it.
It's interesting to see other drm free platforms,i'll keep an eye on them.
I'd never heard of Zoom, but they have Duke Nukem 3D on there if people are interested.
avatar
GameRager: 2. They are having trouble lately, though. Their last income report states they had very narrow net profit margins.
avatar
FrodoBaggins: That's probably cos GOG have made the site since unusable for most browsers when they downgraded last year.
If you don't use the browser that GOG tells you to use, you can't see the games and you can't buy the games. Thus, less people are buying games and GOG's profits go down.

If someone comes here and sees just a bunch of blank squares and 'links' that don't even work, they're gonna know the site is broken, and they're not gonna hang around.
GOG no longer supports Internet Explorer. Quite a few websites are moving in that direction.
Let's face it, we have more then our share of luddites, who want to live a world where XP reigns forever.That did not happen.
Post edited June 29, 2019 by dudalb
avatar
book99: GoG need to work on their relationship with developers and publishers. Developers leave by "mutual agreement." Why? Do they sign on for a 6 month deal and if selling DRM free does not live up to their sales goals they can go home and take their ball with them? There do seem to be some stable relationships but too many are tenuous. Sign on devs with strong ties and keep the games they sell up to date.
It makes very little sense from GOG's part to try and keep developers and games which don't really sell. There was still interesting little post about
Dead in Vinland: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/dead_in_vinland_interview_in_french_newspaper_le_monde

Basically, the game has sold about 7% of its total sales in GOG, which translated for only about 2000 sold copies for it. Considering it is on page 35 on GOG all-time best sellers, that really doesn't shed very good sales figures for any game after Vinland on the list. Does it make any sense to try and keep them by force if the sales just are not there and the devs feel it isn't worth their effort?
avatar
tomimt: Basically, the game has sold about 7% of its total sales in GOG, which translated for only about 2000 sold copies for it. Considering it is on page 35 on GOG all-time best sellers, that really doesn't shed very good sales figures for any game after Vinland on the list. Does it make any sense to try and keep them by force if the sales just are not there and the devs feel it isn't worth their effort?
Depends on how much effort it actually is.

I'd say that for a niche indie, it'd be absurd to leave those 20k EUR on the table. Also worth keeping in mind is that a lot of "lesser" games don't make that much at launch (Vinland was released only a year ago), but keeping it on the store for a decade can turn decent profit. People don't rush to buy indie titles at launch like they buy massively advertised and overhyped AAA titles.

EDIT: I don't also trust GOG's popularity sort to be based directly on number of copies sold. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin is on page 33, there is no fucking way it sold only ~2000 copies, about the same as Daikatana or some niche indie like Pid or Shattered Haven, or an ancient (and tbh not that good) racing game like Screamer 2.
Post edited June 29, 2019 by clarry
avatar
.Ra: It's interesting to see other drm free platforms
There are a bunch. (And an older thread.)
Post edited June 29, 2019 by Cavalary