Absolutely true, the cool thing about physical releases wasn't even whether you owned the game or not (you didn't have to think about stuff like that). The cool part was that you could see all the love the devs and the faith publishers had in the product they sold you just by looking at what's inside the box. Even if it was just the game and a manual, the manual was often colorful, thick and full of backstory and cool stuff like that.

I wish GOG would position themselves as offering "the complete game experience", with providing such manuals, guides, all packaged in with the games. It seems there used to be more of a focus on getting these "extras" (which used to come standard). I think there is a lot to be said for owning a complete product, and a lot of unmet demand in this area.

Also, cheers to OP. I have often said myself if it wasn't for GOG, I would not be PC gaming (and I had avoided PC gaming for a very long time, since I want to buy to own).

What do you think i'm convicing myself of? I already said there is criteria in place that I dislike/don't want....we seem to AGREE on that.....it's the fact that it seems to be biased and not objective that bothers me and you seem to not agree with me on that point.

I more meant casual to be a separate category of things they seem to want more of here(the curation team)....sorry for the confusion if there was any.

As for sims that might be casual: PC building sims, train sims, similar stuff....not the strategic sims and more complex/tactical geared stuff, of course.

Aside question: What if you MADE a corporation? Trust it or no?



I misss the old style manuals/guides.....most of that has gone by the wayside over time, sadly.....first big boxes and manuals(supposedly to be eco friendly and cut down on consumer costs), and then more and more over time.
+1

To be fair I APPLAUD those who stick to their guns and civilly say things that aren't the majrotu held stances no matter how people might react. It takes guts to do so, whereas just hiding one's unpopular stances or saying more "correct" things to get upvotes/likes is usually easier and more appealing to people nowadays.

The zero drm thing was enough for me to hand over some pennies for some great games! I just hope MANY more great retro games are coming as thats my preference in gaming. My steam collection bugs me big time these days, it feels like i dont own my games with thier website....

Yes.

Yes, but "she" has pink and blue hair and likes to be called "XIR". o.0

I'd never do that. Saying that I'm not a fan of the current economic model would be an euphemism; I think limited liability destroyed the world. No corp for or from me, ever.

I'm not against free market, but responsibility should always be full and personal, hence corporations are the equivalent of the Devil. Fictitious entities to move loads of money with almost guaranteed impunity.

I've been a big supporter of GOG since I joined in 2009, with over 850 games in my library and having gifted many more, running a lot of giveaways here, promoting GOG elsewhere, writing to publishers for more GOG releases, supporting GOG via my guides & Wine wrappers etc., however I've actually been losing a lot of enthusiasm for GOG lately, for various reasons:

- GOG often misses out on the Linux versions of games
- GOG frequently misses out on updates to games (it's also not uncommon for Mac/Linux builds in particular to remain neglected while the Windows versions are updated). We seem to get a lot of publishers that decide to abandon the GOG version after some time (or they'll simply never bother updating them here at all) leaving GOG users with an inferior version that's missing fixes, features & content provided elsewhere.
- Even after all this time there's still no sign of a Linux version of the Galaxy client (which also contributes to both of the above points: a common reason for not releasing Linux versions here is that Galaxy is not supported, and some games are no longer receiving Linux updates here due to Galaxy integration being added to the other versions)
- The policy that GOG seem to have adopted over the past year or so against GOG staff interacting with the community
- Apparently not revealing to publishers how sales are split between platforms (this would also explain the absence of many of the Mac/Linux ports here)
- GOG's "core values" gradually being softened and then dropped over time
- Lots of time and effort being put into things like poorly thought out website redesigns rather than actual improvements

Same.

Really the only thing that still keeps me buying from GOG is an ideological one, and it's hanging there by a string that's getting pulled tighter and tighter by all the reasons you stated. It could snap any day, and then I will end up finding my DRM-free games elsewhere. Or stop buying games altogether, like I did for years before I discovered GOG.

Oh come on, you are practically taunting the downvote brigade to go after you, lol.

I can relate to adamhm and clarry's comments about GOG losing some focus.

DRM-free is the main reason I started buying games here and it's now the only reason I currently prefer to buy here, but it's getting harder to justify when there are such major problems and frequent disappointments with buying from GOG.

At the same time I see Valve doing so much for Linux, such as contributing improvements to the Linux kernel, improvements to the Linux graphics drivers, assisting development of the Vulkan API, funding and supporting development of projects such as Wine/DXVK/D9VK (it's in large part thanks to Valve that we have The Witcher 3 running great on Linux now), creating tools and resources to support Linux development, etc. - I'm seriously reconsidering my position toward buying games on Steam.

It's a shame because GOG & Linux really should be a perfect fit for each other, given GOG's "core values" and the values behind Linux.

I don't use Linux, but i'll have to agree with this comment.

Main reason for me is classic games, but also DRM free. But with GOG's recent things I find myself spending less with them.

1st bit fair enough, but isn't that a bit hyperbolic(the LLC part)?

2nd bit: Eh, we still need large corps to do some things on large scales...small businesses cannot usually operate on a worldwide scale or larger.

First off, this is a well thought out and written reply. Now my reply back if I may:

1st bit: fair enough.....though this is partially up to game devs to provide such.

2nd bit: Same here.....devs have to provide said updates, so to me this is more a dev problem.

3rd bit: I think gog should provide a linux version of galaxy 2.0....we are on 100% agreement on this.

4th bit: This is a big one and I agree.....staff used to do video interviews and apologies(if any were needed) all the time, and blues would talk in the forums more often. Now we don't have any video interviews/etc and blues usually mainly only post to answer an odd question here and there or to mod people for swearing/etc.

I don't know if this is to mitigate or prevent such PR problems as they had with people getting upset over tweets/hashtags in the past, or because they simply lost care for the users as much as before, though.

5th bit: Even so one would assume it's more windows users overall given that more people use it as a desktop platform. More info would be welcome, though.

6th bit: Which bothers you the most? The dropping of the fair price package/global pricing? The adding of the botique curation system? Something else?

7th bit: I'd also like to see bugs fixed and more browsers supported so people don't have to use x browser to use the site or buy stuff.

Fwiw, I was mainly trying to be silly a bit and not overly mallicious, while stating how some feel the site is leaning lately in a comical fashion.

As for downvotes....eh, I don't mind them that much anymore.....if people get upset over silly jokes not meant to overly offend that's on them. ;)

All good points, but tbh i'd rather people support GOG(even by word of mouth or kind words to the staff) as GOG is one of the bigger/more well known DRM free sites and if it goes then likely less new companies will want to spring up in it's place if they see it fail.




Imo steam is ONLY doing it to get that sweet sweet linux user dollar/yen/euro/etc.

I imagine the criteria is "what is the least work".
This includes "what will cause the least ill-will, and prevent any possible legal complications (that are too expensive to fight)". This is why, for instance, it is easier to ban political commentary than pay someone to police the threads to maintain a "safe environment", since those who don't care don't mind, and those who do care will cause unnecessary costs that do not lead to revenue. (There is no income stream that can be tapped by being politically correct.)
Puppies deserve unconditional love.
The counter-argument is that corporations need limited (but not zero) liability to enable Schumpeter's gale [of creative destruction, whereby the assets of a failed enterprise are bought cheaply and redeployed by a new entity, hopefully to make a profit).

Henry Ford, for just one instance, went broke a couple of times before getting it right. The benefit is that, although bankruptcy is bad for employees and customers, when a company gets it right, the enterprise more than compensates for any losses by making much more for the (current) employees (pay & benefits) and customers (goods and services). The company has paid employees for a century, even though the earlier employees obviously lost out.

In fact, Ford created the penultimate business paradigm (it is named after him; we are now in the Post-Ford era, where mass production is moderated by bespoke customization) in large part by paying his employees enough to keep them from the competition AND to purchase his cars, thereby creating his own market.

Business is inherently risky. Employees, by law, understandably must be paid for their work, but an enterprise —— however beneficent, however well-intentioned —— can easily fail, and sometimes through no fault of theirs, just bad luck. (In this vein, a lot of self-employed people make the mistake of not paying themselves, since it reduces available working capital.) It's this risk that pays off, all things working as designed. When it works, everyone treats it like uovo di Colombo.
Since you have a reference to the open-source downloader in your thread: You appear to be wanting a Linux Galaxy client?

Maybe there isn't anyone (else) who does? I don't use the Windoze version, and I imagine Linux users are even less interested in an always-connected client.