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Huh, i'm always late to the party....

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Goodaltgamer: Hence why JMICH and others suggested originator only but jamyskis did put forward in his post which you could see in post2.

IF SOME F*CKING ASSHOLES WOULD NOT MISUSE THE DOWNVOTING PROCESS. instead of saying what they don't like in there.

And you know what, in the moment I am too pissed off to continue.You know what, shall this place go down in hell. In the moment I don't care. I spend fucking hours of my own time which feel just wasted, I could have spend with something better. JUST BECAUSE SOME ASSHOLES ARE TOO F*CKING LAZY TO SAY A F*CKING SINGLE WORD OR TRY TO REASON.
Don't want to sound like a douche but it's kind of ironic considering the discussions that we had. Don't get me wrong, i understand you, i had the same reaction a few months ago...
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zeogold: Maybe because he's somebody who's been given a difficult job, has been open and communicating about everything, and has at least expressed the will to help?
If you're on a desert island waiting to get rescued and you see 2 boats go past that could've rescued you and suddenly a 3rd boat is approaching, do you not bother to get the attention of that boat because of the last 2 that ignored you, instead preferring to starve to death? Or, in your case, hurl insults at the 3rd boat and tell the people in it you hope they sink?
It's a sucky analogy, I know, but being overly-cynical about this is literally less than helpful.
Here's the problem, you say that it's a 3rd boat but all i see is a person drifting on top of a plank. Now, i expected the help to come in different forms, with supplies, tools or at least with a plan. I don't know about you but if i'm going to be rescued by someone then i hope that the person is prepared and knows what is doing, i don't want to hear "It's going to be ok, i'm here for you and were going work together to work our way out of here".
"Fuck, i'm going to die here, ain't i?" is the reaction that i'll get from it. I rather have someone that will say "Ok, this has been though but i have a plan, this is what we're going to do...

Gog is the problem, this is a warzone and they just gave the new recruit a stick and said "Ok, go end the war!".
Post edited November 17, 2016 by Cyraxpt

If he wants to take the first step in fixing the forums, the start is to solve the scammer alt problem.
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Vainamoinen: Yo GOG, we have a problem here with our legal gray zone game key trading that costs you revenue. Plz fix thx!

Yeaaahhh, top priority for GOG, I guess. :p

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timppu: If by "preventing" you mean banning people who say any of those things.
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Vainamoinen: Here's the suggestion the Double Fine forum rules have for those cases:

Harassment, intimidation, abuse, discrimination, or any derogatory or demeaning behavior by any member of these forums is totally unacceptable, and will result in banishment.

If you post anything that is racist, sexist, or homophobic, the forums will come alive and bite you on the face. It will hold on tight, no matter how much you scream, and not let go until you tolerate all humanity and promise to change your ways. Then it will let go, but by then it will have laid eggs in your sinus cavities, and if you ever post anything like that again the eggs will hatch, and you will sneeze earwigs for years.

We reserve the right to delete any malicious posts, or to just re-edit them to make the original author look like a horrible person.

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Vainamoinen: GOG could start out with that and then just go from there. :)
Pot Kettle Black...

You personally attack and harass people on this forum for their opinions on a regular basis. You are just a typical hypocrite. But apparently because you think you are so "right", you think it's okay to call people names and belittle them which you have been doing for years. You need to get over yourself. You are the perfect example of why so many have problems with "those crazy liberals".

Do you think false flagging someone as a racist by editing in the word Jew into their post and then reporting it is legal under the Terms of Service? Nope, you think you are above the law.
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Trilarion: Hi

It's a bit obvious that the technical support of the forums feature-wise never was priority. However, I think indirectly it's a selling point too, or isn't it? After all Steam has nice community features that are IMHO a bit more comfortable than GOG ones. So if selling games is the priority there should be some emphasis on improving the profiles, the account and the forums features too (especially of the game specific forums).

When you say it's not a necessary part of the selling aspect I kind of agree only on a technical level. Indirectly it seems somewhat important, probably not easy to estimate.

Please keep up with your work and if by chance you see a programmer around with some spare time (fat chance I know), tell him we would like it if he could have a look at the feature wishlist and implement some of those. Out of sheer gratefulness and joy we even might buy some additional games from GOG and after all, isn't selling games the priority?

Did I already mention that the Steam plattform and community features really look quite polished. ;)
I think it's a question of resources. According to this article, GOG's revenue was 16.5M in the first 6 months of 2016. Let's say that for the year it will double to $33M. This, however, is revenue not profit. After all the expenses the actual profit would be substantially less.

Let's imagine for the sake of the argument that the total profit is $10M. Now, a senior developer's salary is something like $100,000 to $150,000. Sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on the area. Going with the lowest, and assuming they would need a team of three such developers to make a perfect forum, that's $300K. That's 3% of all the company's profit.

We can also safely assume that less than 1% of customers actually use the forum. It is also fairly reasonable to say that those of us who do use it would still buy games on GOG even if the forum didn't exist.

So ... lose ≈3% of profit to appease ≈0.5% of customers, resulting in ≈0% additional revenue. Sounds like bad business.
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Trilarion: Hi

It's a bit obvious that the technical support of the forums feature-wise never was priority. However, I think indirectly it's a selling point too, or isn't it? After all Steam has nice community features that are IMHO a bit more comfortable than GOG ones. So if selling games is the priority there should be some emphasis on improving the profiles, the account and the forums features too (especially of the game specific forums).

When you say it's not a necessary part of the selling aspect I kind of agree only on a technical level. Indirectly it seems somewhat important, probably not easy to estimate.

Please keep up with your work and if by chance you see a programmer around with some spare time (fat chance I know), tell him we would like it if he could have a look at the feature wishlist and implement some of those. Out of sheer gratefulness and joy we even might buy some additional games from GOG and after all, isn't selling games the priority?

Did I already mention that the Steam plattform and community features really look quite polished. ;)
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Alaric.us: I think it's a question of resources. According to this article, GOG's revenue was 16.5M in the first 6 months of 2016. Let's say that for the year it will double to $33M. This, however, is revenue not profit. After all the expenses the actual profit would be substantially less.

Let's imagine for the sake of the argument that the total profit is $10M. Now, a senior developer's salary is something like $100,000 to $150,000. Sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on the area. Going with the lowest, and assuming they would need a team of three such developers to make a perfect forum, that's $300K. That's 3% of all the company's profit.

We can also safely assume that less than 1% of customers actually use the forum. It is also fairly reasonable to say that those of us who do use it would still buy games on GOG even if the forum didn't exist.

So ... lose ≈3% of profit to appease ≈0.5% of customers, resulting in ≈0% additional revenue. Sounds like bad business.
Try GoG division profit of something like $72,000 for the last quarter (That's what I recall someone saying in response to last week's quarterly press conference)....

All those articles always exaggerate the value of GoG. The revenue figures always include the 70% that get paid out to developers. All expenses have to come out of the 30% that is left. While the software development division is doing much better right now, they know those profits will dwindle and all that will be left will be expenses until they can roll out the next game.

Edit: Gain for 3rd quarter - GoG division = 298,000 PLN = 71,536.60 USD
For the first 3 quarters = 5,606,000 PLN = 1,345,752.37 USD though.
Post edited November 17, 2016 by RWarehall
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RWarehall: You personally attack and harass people on this forum for their opinions on a regular basis. You are just a typical hypocrite. But apparently because you think you are so "right", you think it's okay to call people names and belittle them which you have been doing for years. You need to get over yourself. You are the perfect example of why so many have problems with "those crazy liberals".

Do you think false flagging someone as a racist by editing in the word Jew into their post and then reporting it is legal under the Terms of Service? Nope, you think you are above the law.
Look, I get that you have issues with him, but can we go with less personal attacks and more attacks at his argument?
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Vainamoinen: Here's the suggestion the Double Fine forum rules have for those cases:

Harassment, intimidation, abuse, discrimination, or any derogatory or demeaning behavior by any member of these forums is totally unacceptable, and will result in banishment.

If you post anything that is racist, sexist, or homophobic, the forums will come alive and bite you on the face. It will hold on tight, no matter how much you scream, and not let go until you tolerate all humanity and promise to change your ways. Then it will let go, but by then it will have laid eggs in your sinus cavities, and if you ever post anything like that again the eggs will hatch, and you will sneeze earwigs for years.

We reserve the right to delete any malicious posts, or to just re-edit them to make the original author look like a horrible person.

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Vainamoinen: GOG could start out with that and then just go from there. :)
But the question this leaves is what exactly constitutes racism, sexism, or homophobia. If the place is uber-sensitive whereby they'll consider you doing so much as taking a position against the Black Lives Matter movement and what it's become to be "racism", then the forum is obviously not a place of open discussion. We're GOG, we aren't Double Fine, and one of the things many people value about this place (although many people complain about it too) is how we all have the freedom to say whatever we like.
You can't let this place become a 4chan-level echo chamber where everybody's openly mudslinging every group they can, but you can't let it become a Tumblr-level echo chamber where nobody's allowed to say what they want, either. You simply can't have a "Carrying X opinion here is wrong!" approach.
Enforce rules to regulate conduct, not thought.
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Alaric.us: I think it's a question of resources. According to this article, GOG's revenue was 16.5M in the first 6 months of 2016. Let's say that for the year it will double to $33M. This, however, is revenue not profit. After all the expenses the actual profit would be substantially less.
Fixed your link. To be honest, I'm surprised GOG's pulling in even THAT much. I was told that their profits were...just over a few thousand dollars at one point? Maybe the year before last? I forget, but I can tell you they're definitely not making much in comparison to what CDPR's making with The Witcher series.
Post edited November 17, 2016 by zeogold
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ciomalau: .
Ha ha, you're a Romanian rent boy.

You're a homorentus.
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Alaric.us: I think it's a question of resources.
You know what would be great? Someone from gog actually saying that. Honest question, is there ANY comment from a blue stating that it's due to lack of resources? Because i find it hard to believe that the community comes up with solutions (scripts) and the staff is unable to do ANYTHING.
So ... lose ≈3% of profit to appease ≈0.5% of customers, resulting in ≈0% additional revenue. Sounds like bad business.
It's called investment. Do you think that new customers that visit the forum (either due to curiosity or help) get a good idea from gog? Do you think that they'll continue to purchase from gog?

I don't think that anyone expects the same quality of Steam forums but look at the cd projekt red forums, take a good look. Why can't we have that?
Sigh.. did we lose Goodaltgamer?

And where's fables?
Did she ban Tauto? :O
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Cyraxpt: I don't think that anyone expects the same quality of Steam forums but look at the cd projekt red forums, take a good look. Why can't we have that?
Realistically I don't believe new customers visit the forum at all. Forums have long been a dying breed of online communication. This is regardless of how you or I feel on the matter. A company exists to make money, and as such it is only understandable that they are unwilling to dedicate time and effort to something that their customer base doesn't really use. There are a few hundred users here at most, including those who post rarely or just lurk.

And one should not compare the amount of resources (and users) that Steam has to what GOG has. They are nowhere near the same weight category. That's basically comparing Walmart to Ye Olde Ma and Pa Shoppe.

A smaller company must focus on one thing. In case of GOG it has to be the store, not the forums. Now personally I'd love a properly designed, properly working, properly moderated forum. The reality, however, is such that it would be strange of us to expect it.
Somehow completely missed that..

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fables22: .
Welcome to the community! :)

Its good that we have a "Sheriff" around here. May your vision be true to see trough the deceptions (and make no mistake about that, some are cold blooded deceptive snakes) and your sanity stable enough to not go on wild banning spree while firming two (virtual) Uzis loud laughing like a madmen after a month or two.

Keep in mind that this place "ruggedness" is part of its charm; its actually the first forum I remember in which ppl start arguing on a thread, going into wild accusing and hostile attacks (usually point of banhammer in other places), to calming, understanding and maybe becoming buddys. Not daily and I could kick myself for not keeping the thread-links but thats gog.
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ciomalau: .
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Kleetus: Ha ha, you're a Romanian rent boy.

You're a homorentus.
even the lowest human is higher than the highest troll - think on that for a while
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Kleetus: Ha ha, you're a Romanian rent boy.
You're a homorentus.
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ciomalau: even the lowest human is higher than the highest troll - think on that for a while
Yeah, fan3l is probably better than both of you.
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ciomalau: even the lowest human is higher than the highest troll - think on that for a while
Geez, so sensitive, you must have a sore anal cavity.

I just wanted to know what a Fucker Boy was?

When you wouldn't answer me I arrived at the most likely explanation, that it's a Romanian rent boy.

Ha ha, you're a Homorentus.

BTW, do you accept PayPal and Bitcoin or are you old school and Cash Only?
Post edited November 17, 2016 by Kleetus
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Alaric.us: Realistically I don't believe new customers visit the forum at all. Forums have long been a dying breed of online communication. This is regardless of how you or I feel on the matter. A company exists to make money, and as such it is only understandable that they are unwilling to dedicate time and effort to something that their customer base doesn't really use. There are a few hundred users here at most, including those who post rarely or just lurk.
So if they have doubts about how to run the games (especially the old ones) where should they check? And how can the population grow when the residents keep leaving?
And one should not compare the amount of resources (and users) that Steam has to what GOG has. They are nowhere near the same weight category. That's basically comparing Walmart to Ye Olde Ma and Pa Shoppe.
I didn't. I did compare it to CD Projekt red for obvious reasons.
The reality, however, is such that it would be strange of us to expect it.
But why? Are we sure that it would cost a fortune to have a decent working forum? A while back some gogger made a forum that was way better than the dump that we currently have, how come it's a big deal if it's gog creating one? And i don't want an answer from you, i want an answer from someone working at gog.
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Alaric.us: A smaller company must focus on one thing. In case of GOG it has to be the store, not the forums. Now personally I'd love a properly designed, properly working, properly moderated forum. The reality, however, is such that it would be strange of us to expect it.
Very good point that. Even the "heavily" populated forums tend to have a very small amount of people actually posting.

Kind of think the game-specific forums here is a sort of selling point, though. And not including them in some sort of popularity contest, but profiling them as somewhere you might go after buying, could in some ways be very useful. So maybe there are other soft pushes the community mods can do to encourage that, and split activity elsewhere in the same way based on why you arrive on the site might be an idea. Limit rep to post/thread-specific things in fora with multiple or rotating subjects, that sort of thing. And then maybe, maybe have more open use of kettle lid filters on those convergence type fora. Could also attract people in moderated sessions with devs, or have some round-table stuff in those parts of the forum, like gog had for a while.

Other than that - creating a newsworthy forum from user-discussion alone, like reddit somehow have ended up, that's like aiming for the apocalypse, isn't it. Fora like that end up growing like cancer until everything is horrifying, or it dies.

So I sort of wish that the community folks map out what they want to accomplish with different parts of the forum, so they have some sort of purpose. Like this part is for people who bought the game to discuss things in it. This part is for nagging Gog.com about a release. This part is for discussing news. This part is for trolling people about politics and telling everyone about your excellence in pimple-squishing. Here's a system for off-site support, here's a system for discussing features in glaxy, here's where you can volunteer suggestions that paid consultants would never come up with. That sort of thing.

Because as said, Gog has to create a product worth using, that then has value in some way. While even if it was possible, the value created by users waffling about randon stuff is not something that's not worth much to us as users.

You sort of hear that argument fielded by community managers working for a lot of companies, in private, that creating buzz around a release, or basically letting forum-users work as advertisement for their products (this is what a "properly moderated forum" really is - invariably) - is actually worth money.

Perhaps it is, but I sort of suspect that if parts of the forum actually had value to us as users, for anything else than entertaining ourselves with the usual internet wank, and that it's possible to contribute a little bit, participate on half-scheduled events, that sort of thing. Then that would be a useful product for Gog.com.

I mean, you could say that the only way to get developers and so on to talk to fans without a PR manager or three in between is to sanitize everything. But I think that it might be possible to make it work. From what I've been told, at least, devs tend to like talking directly with people who play their games (and think it's not as personal as when for example an author talks about a book, etc., so the barrier isn't as high). But they don't want to be swallowed up in the shouting matches, so they rather just stay away altogether. Even with aliases. Or, like in one example, a guy sat and tortured himself by reading all the fora he could come over.

Just saying that for indie-devs, smaller devs, or out of contract folks, Gog.com could possibly find a way to "create a product" out of that. That doesn't need have the appearance of a cult being granted a rare audience to the grand master, etc.