Since you're already in contact with these fine chaps, feel free to let them know that it was my money that likely went into buying their tickets to New York and that I would have appreciated a bugfix for that utterly broken game they released here.

But hey, tough luck, amirite!?

Well. My reply to their sentence was "not friendly" to say the least. Now I am a bit scared that I might have overreacted. If they reply to this telling me this is all a big misunderstanding I guess I would rather like to apologize to them for jumping to the wrong conclusions. I really don't like the position I am in at the moment. So I will wait a bit if they clarify things or if GOG gives me additional informations. No more "jumping to conclusion" anymore. Maybe I completely overreacted ... I am not sure anymore about anything at the moment.

Then if you're wrong you'll just have to send them an apology. Their reply IS poorly worded, which is why it leaves room to interpretation.

Regardless of how things will turn out, thank you for raising awareness on the matter.

And if that should be the case I surely will do so.

There is still work related to releasing (new) games, like all the material to the web site, preparing and testing (and maintaining) the standalone installers etc.

Also there may be other things slowing down releases to GOG, like GOG wanting new games to support new Galaxy features like cloud saving, achievements, multiplayer support etc. Not sure how much GOG helps bringing those to games, probably at least some as they want GOG games to have such Galaxy features (rather than that publishers going only where the fence is the lowest etc., doing only the bare minimum (meaning no extra Galaxy features)).

Plus, of course, not all publishers even want to release on GOG.

Testing Galaxy probably takes lots of effort yes, but we don't know how many old games they have in the pipeline just being retested over and over again, trying to find working fixes and cracks that they work on different Windows 10 configurations too, and integrating nGlide or dgVoodoo or ScummVM with them.

Also, we don't even know how many people they have assigned to their "old classics testing team". Two? Four? A hundred? They all want salary too.

The question was not whether the games should be tested, of course they should. The question was who should test them. If GOG decides to test every game they ever release, and also all updates they ever receive, that is awful lot of work and money for something that the developers should have (and usually has) already done.

As I said, Valve doesn't test (non-Valve) Steam games either, they expect that the developers/publishers do the testing. I'm pretty sure Humble Store works in a similar way, a hands-off approach. EA Origin and UPlay are irrelevant to this discussion as they mainly release games of their own (EA and Ubisoft games), so it isn't even relevant to ponder whether it is the developers or the store service staff that do the testing for the games.

We can only speculate about these issues, as unfortunately we have no concrete insight as to how Gog operates. Still, my main concern is another:

I was of course referring to Gog in the part you quoted. It goes without saying that the devs should test their own games, even though it's best to remember that small indie teams obviously can't afford the same level of QA that an AAA studio with professional betatesters can reach. Let's cut some slack to the small guys.

But as to whether or not Gog should do any testing, for me - as an end user - it's a matter of cost/benefit. To be more specific: how extensive is the work they do, and how much does it slow down updates? It's not uncommon for Gog games to fall week (sometimes months) behind in patches. If that is mostly due to their testing, I'm not sure it's really worth it. Sure, sometimes they might be able to spot a few critical bugs that the devs didn't notice, but at the price of delaying also legit updates.

And it's also a matter of clarity: on Steam, if a game is horribly bugged and doesn't get fixed I know who to blame. On Gog you're always left to wonder on whether it's the devs who are not sending updates, or it's Gog who are horribly slow at compiling them (like in this case).

As I said many times in the past, given that Gog's still releasing buggy games anyway (and I mean VERY buggy) and they ultimately can't fix the games themselves, I'd be totally fine with a hands-off approach IF that meant having quicker updates. And Gog is probably starting to think the same, because IIRC some devs can now update games directly through Galaxy, whereas offline installers are still handled by Gog. And if something goes wrong, Galaxy allows rollback to earlier builds so it's a win-win.

^But this is concerning updates only. If I were Gog I'd still test an upcoming release as extensively as possible to make sure launch goes as smoothly as it can.

I wouldn't pirate this, it doesn't even look up to snuff.

You and me both. Well, not with this of course. It was rather clear to me how vague it all was. But I have definitely jumped to conclusions before. Most likely.

You and me, we have something in common here. I'm almost sure of it. But don't get to thinking we'll be hanging out together and going around not jumping to conclusions everywhere. I don't need no sidekick mucking up my style in not making assumptions. I'm sure you'll do fine enough on your own, kid.

But I am looking forward to seeing a bit more of myself in you. Yep, it'll be good to be reminded of myself more often as I look around at everyone around here. Can't get enough of that. Me. Me me me me me.

Oh, and good luck with that apology. Keep in mind a true apology comes with a commitment to do something different next time, usually to do something specific. But don't worry, it's not a promise to be perfect, as that couldn't possibly be believed after goofing up so badly. Having a specific commitment is about giving people something else to look forward to other than whatever calamity we helped cause in the first place. Of course in this particular circumstance by "we" I mean "you".

If it's of any consolation, it could have been worse. You could have been right.

Don't forget - I still might be. No reply from the devs until now and no additional informations on GOG which are confirming or denying what my assumption was. So far everything is possible and for now it's up to them and GOG to tell me otherwise. I never had any problems in apologising when I was wrong btw. It's always coming from my heart because I want to treat people fair and the way they deserve it. So I don't worry about this step at all should it come to this. At the moment I am sitiing here and waiting ... not uying the game ... yet.

Meanwhile the game has been removed from GOG connect
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_whats_up_with_gog_connect_thread/post111

Coincidence?

Welp, for what it's worth, I just got a refund for Perception, despite buying it all the way back in September, despite having downloaded and played it. I let support know that the game, as it is currently sold, is broken and that the devs seem unwilling or incapable to fix it. Support was like "Where did they say they won't fix the gog version?" and I'm like "I dunno man, they didn't reply to my inquiries, so all I have to go on is this thread right here." They're like "You want wallet funds with that?" and I'm like "Fine" and totally got a refund.

Make of that info what you will. I even said that if they can get those patches here, I'd be fine with withdrawing my refund request. Keep in mind that Hello Neighbor was patched less than 24 hours after refunds for that game had been granted, so not all hope is lost. But as it stands, you'd be well-advised to avoid Perception for the time being.

Did it get an update?

My eyes must be playing tricks on me, because the Steam version is cheaper now too: €16.79 on Steam VS €22.99 on gog. They're really giving it to us into every conceivable orifice, aren't they?

What's stopping them releasing standalone patches the same as in the olden days?

Not sure why I clicked this post originally, but am glad i did. I always felt i was getting the short end of the stick purchasing on GOG over Steam. Then I found your GOG Mix on 2nd class citizens... Wow. I didnt realize it was that bad. As a guy who buys here more for old, out of date games it didnt really impact me originally. but now that they offer more new fare that i am interested in, its much more painful. This doesnt even cover the multiplayer pain of not having anyone to play with due to lack of cross platform support. Not a dev problem of course, but another penalty to buying from GOG.