For me the base game still doesn't show....

So they didn't fix it yet then. Still send a support ticket/email thingy in.

What it all boils down to is:

People that bought the SOTS Gold Edition (base game + 2 DLC package) FIRST and then bought another copy of the base game get the base game twice (one for gifting).

People that bought the SOTS Gold Edition (base game + 2 DLC package) AFTER they bought the base game don't get a second giftable copy of the base game. And although this has never been the case with gog.com before (you always got giftable copies of games you already owned from a bundle), it was not communicated. In fact, the game card of SOTS Gold Edition STILL says, that you get three items. Nowhere it's mentioned that this only applies to customers who don't already own the base game.

While I am one of those with the base game already and would not mind a better deal, your post is extremely misleading.

First case:
a.You buy GOLD
b. You buy Regular Edition as a gift
Result: you own GOLD and a gift code for Regular

Second case (same as first but switch editions):
a. You buy Regular
b. You buy GOLD as a gift
Result: you own Regular and a gift code for GOLD

Third case (the misleading one):
a. You buy Regular
b. You buy GOLD for yourself
Result: you own GOLD

Fourth case:
a. You buy Regular
b. You buy DLC and GOLD Upgrade
Result: you own GOLD


GOLD is not a bundle, it's a separate product. Not that I would mind if it were a bundle...

Good. Thank you.

Actually, when you click on Sword of the Stars: The Pit - Gold Edition DLC on Steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/258930/
you can see the same: Downloadable Content - Requires the base game Sword of the Stars: The Pit - Mind Games on Steam in order to play.

If it was not mentioned earlier there, it is obvious, that Steam just don't care too much...

Ok, thanks for the answer. :)
Also cyboff already pointed out that on Steam it is the same – only that I was not able to read correctly …

You are right. I overlooked it, only read “You need the Steam version of the main game” (or something similar, translated from German) and I thought it’s SOTSTP main game, but it is Mind Pit “main game” which itself is a DLC, and when you click on it, you read another issue: “You need the Steam version of the main game SOTSTP” … so it’s indirectly a double precondition.
I like GOG because they point it out at one place that you need the main game and the Mind Games DLC. :)

patthefatrat's post is not misleading at all -- it's absolutely true. If you go to page A and purchase before you go to page B and purchase, you pay the same exact price but do not get the same stuff as if you go to page B and purchase before you go to page A and purchase. patthefatrat's point is a good one, as the arbitrariness of that outcome is just another factor adding to the confusion for a buyer trying to figure out what the hell they're going to get when they hit the "buy" button.

It is in fact your post which is not just misleading, but flat-out false.

Where your post goes off the rails is when you falsely and inaccurately declare the intent of the purchaser for the entire purchase as either "as a gift" or "for yourself". This is wrong for multiple reasons:

1. An example -- for your "Third case" where you say "b. You buy GOLD for yourself". For most people (not necessarily all) that would likely be a false presumption. Their likely intent would not be to buy the whole of the gold edition for themselves. Their likely intent would instead be to get the two DLCs for themselves and a giftcode for the base game which they can give to someone else. If their intent was only to get the gold edition for themselves, then (assuming they are not unwary and not falling into the trap GOG has laid), they could just buy the two DLCs and not pay the greater price of the full gold edition.

2. In order for the sale to be valid, the buyer has to be able to predict what they are getting when they hit the "buy" button. The GOG purchasing system (or you) making false "predictions" about the buyer's intent does not a valid sale make. That is completely backwards -- it is the buyer that has to be able to make predictions about the purchasing system (what will happen when they hit the "buy" button), not the purchasing system that has to make predictions about the purchaser (their intent). Furthermore, what the purchasing system is going to do should be kept easy for the purchaser to predict -- if the purchasing system is basically some AI trying to make predictions about the purchaser's intent, it's going to be much harder for the customer to have any idea what is going to happen when they hit the "buy" button.

3. Even if the GOG purchasing system were in the business of predicting customer's intent, and even if it (falsely) predicted the customer was only purchasing the gold edition "for themselves", why would it not then offer to change their order over to the 2 DLCs rather than taking the extra money for the whole gold edition and eating the difference?

That is false as well, because when you buy the gold edition, the base game disappears (as a separate product) off your shelf. I.e., the GOG site is not only not treating the gold edition as a bundle, it is also not treating these as separate products either. (Not that an "extra" copy of the base game on one's shelf is particularly useful once the gold edition is there, it nevertheless clearly shows that the system is not treating them as separate products the same way it treats other products that actually are separate.)

EDIT: I would like to clarify point #2 above. It is actually OK for the purchasing system to be an AI and make predictions, but ONLY if any actions it wishes to take as a result of such predictions are clearly and accurately explained to the customer and approved by the customer before the transaction is completed.

Hoo boy, they really didn't think this through, did they?

You would have a point if my post was not simply presenting how things work (currently at least; I'll be happy if they change to be more advantageous for people with the base edition, since that's the position I'm in). Kinda hard to be "false" when all I'm doing is showing all the cases of how things work, rather than just 2 conveniently chosen like most people crying out here.

Your post did NOT "simply present how things work". You could have done so if you had stated something like "You buy GOLD without clicking the 'gift it' button". Rather your post stated "You buy GOLD for yourself". These are two different things on GOG.

That someone does not click on the 'gift it' button when they buy items on GOG does not necessarily mean that they don't intend to get gift codes for the ones they already own, nor that they don't have (reasonable) expectations that the GOG site (based on how it has always worked) will provide said gift codes.

The distinction between not clicking 'gift it' and not expecting gift codes should be obvious (to anyone familiar with how the GOG site has always worked), but apparently you didn't get it (or are failing to grasp its relevance). So I tried to explain that to you in my post (see item #1 in post #160) but apparently you are still having comprehension problems.

You failed to acknowledge this distinction, and then you took your failure and used it as your entire basis for calling patthefatrat's post "misleading". patthefatrat's post is 100% factually correct, and (unlike your post) really does "simply present how things work". How is that supposed to be "misleading"? You have provided zero sound reasoning for your "misleading" claim, and I stand by my characterization of your post as "flat-out false".

You are just demonstrating your lack of comprehension again. There is only one "trap scenario" (a scenario where GOG's purchasing system will do something completely unexpected by many GOG users) under discussion here -- someone who already owns the base game (and possibly the first DLC) buys the gold edition. Any example demonstrating that this "trap scenario" results in GOG's site not exhibiting its normal behavior (and subsequently defying reasonable customer expectations) is OF COURSE going to reference that "trap scenario". When you try to criticize people for using such "conveniently chosen" scenarios, what you are really doing is criticizing them for pointing out the problem with GOG's site.

EDIT: BTW, if you want to talk honestly and accurately about a sale/exchange (such as what happens when one hits the "buy" button on GOG), you have to talk about the transfer of goods/services/money in both directions. E.g., what a gog customer pays and what they in exchange receive from gog. Your post #154 talks about what you "own" rather than what you "receive" which does not really provide information about the exchange (unless you show ownership both before and after the exchange and compute what was received from the difference).

But aren't those two scenarios I chose the ones which are the essence of this 160-something entries long thread?I'm just pointing out what the problem is. No one before said that if you do A before B rather than B before A that you get two different outcomes. I thought that would clarify the mess with this whole situation.

Of course there is no problem for anyone who didn't have the base game and just bought it or for anyone who owned the base game and just bough the Mind Games DLC. But what good does mentioning this do? Should't this always be the case? Buying something and getting what you expect?