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Why cant they just revert the website while they work on a solution? Petroleum corporations are faster at fixing their oil spills than GOG is at fixing a website.
Post edited December 11, 2018 by liltimmypoccet
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elcook: If you just look one post above yours, you'll see I'm saying we are taking this into consideration. At this moment this won't be changed, but we will look into it.
It doesn't help that you contradicted yourself. However, just like GOG will "look into" removing forum rep, etc. How many years has it been now? Look I know it's not your fault and that you can only do so much, I get that. But I'm tired of the old we will "look into it" line. We know exactly what this will result in... nothing. And if by some miracle it does, it will be so long from now that most users that care will just move on anyway, because god knows GOG can't implement even the most basic of features in any reasonable time-frame.

This is a stupid design choice. It impacts low bandwidth users, it impacts the performance in Galaxy and slow internet users, and there are vastly better ways to design this. It even impacts mobile because the hover shows when you touch a game card, and disrupts the ability to go to a store page. All of which could have been learned and feedback gained from a beta test before a wide roll out.

We are 2 months later and we are just now getting communication, and in typical fashion it doesn't address a lot of our bigger concerns but instead tells us that you aren't going to change, including the biggest issues we have with the redesign.

If GOG wants to work towards irrelevancy... so be it. Can't say we didn't warn you. This design was disliked not only here, but any many other communities like on Reddit and Discord. By both new and old GOG users, and Galaxy and non Galaxy users. That is an accomplishment and not a good one.

I realize now GOG is never going to be what I hoped it would be, a legit Steam competitor, and that is never going to happen with crappy design choices, bugs and broken features, and outdated website / forum. GOG doesn't have the luxury of being complacent. Others companies will do a much better job than GOG will.

So as I said, unless GOG makes some drastic changes / improvements and quickly. I'm done. And I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way. I'm done waiting for GOG to get it's crap together.
Post edited December 11, 2018 by BKGaming
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Well, at least this time the PR reply isn't outright condescending and passive - agressive like it was after the user profiles fiasco. I guess the bar is set so low at this point even that has to be considered a success.

Other than that though, I'm with Cavalry - it's a lot of PR text that says very little. GOG has a terrible track record of fulfilling actuall, concrete promises. Vague stuff like this is next to worthless. The only believable statements are the ones about the stuff that won't be fixed, because I guess GOG is really proud of just how amazingly bad those are.

I'd love to see GOG start climbing out of the hole it dug for itself this year, but that was a year of hard, hard digging and it's going to take a lot more that this to undo it.
Post edited December 11, 2018 by Breja
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elcook: [snip]
Thank you for addressing this, it's appreciated.
Just a few specific points:
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elcook: We have plans how to improve games discoverability on GOG, so rest assured this will be addressed. As for GOGMixes, at this time I cannot commit to anything if they will be back this way or another. The topic will definitely be brought back to the discussion.
If the feature has been problematic behind the scenes, it is understandable that you're looking for a replacement. Keep in mind, though, that the positive aspects of GOGMixes went beyond games discoverability, but things like the Second Class Customer mix also dealt with some unfortunate shortfalls of GOG, for example patch situation with certain titles. The fact that there is, to my knowledge, no way to check a game's version in the store, doesn't help here.
This is just one example for GOGMixes covering very valuable information that went beyond simple discoverability issues and which would have to be addressed to somewhat restore the appeal that GOGMixes had.

In other words: I appreciate the wish to remedy the lack of mixes, but it needs to be pointed out that something like the Curated Collections would not be a 1:1 replacement.

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elcook: News section at the bottom of the front page
We hear you, and we have at least a couple ideas how to address that. Since no solution has been chosen yet, let me keep it like that for now, and I’ll be more than happy to tell more once we have things moving.
That's great to read. Just something I want to point out:
The problem with the news at the bottom is the lack of immediate visibility. News should be something that's digestible at a glance when it comes to the front page. The bottom is bad for this, because it's out of the way. However, since it can be reached with the press of a key, it's not the worst position, either. Ideally don't bury the news somewhere in the middle where we'd be forced to hunt for them with the scroll wheel.


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elcook: We've changed the autoplay on game cards on the big header, and added all the controls there, so it's up to you if you want to play it or not.
If you mean when you hover over a game tile, this won't be changed.
I have to admit I don't get this. It's a problem with data caps, it cannot be avoided while checking a game's title or store page, and it's a mess with keyboard driven browsers. I can understand, if some of these gripes are seen as minor, but what's the point? I just don't understand, what's the upside? You're linking to trailer that's not meant for a thumbnail view. Half the time I can't see shit. This isn't helping anyone. On the contrary: in the two szenarios where these are unavoidable I am either
a) looking at something with a ton of entries made up of different editions or DLC, thus I either already own the game or clearly interested and try to find the proper version, but then get the same tiny trailer (imagine this with Stelaris) half a dozen times while sorting through it.
b) or am about to go to the game's page, where that same trailer is available to me, if I want to watch it.

I get that sometimes you come up with a feature you're really proud of and that becomes an important part of your vision for the project, but there's barely any use of this and most responses in this thread very clearly hate it. I think there was one guy who actually liked it.
It just strikes me as a really strange hill to die on.
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Well, finally some communication from GOG...

I still don't like the in-your-face! webdesign with oversized banners, buy buttons, pictures and autoplay videos. Please tune it down! It feels like GOG is constantly shouting at me to buy something while insulting my intelligence.

Please make everything "on demand". If I want to see videos I am perfectly able to click on a button "show videos", if I want to see pictures I am perfectly able to click on a button "show pictures", etc. Don't force me to look at stuff I don't want to see like autoplay videos. Don't force my browser to use bandwith on stuff I don't want to see, freezing the pages for several seconds and wasting my time. This is leading to a very bad customer experience, diminishing my goodwill to buy games here.

Limiting your userbase by limiting the browsers able to access your website is suicidal. At least make a basic but still functional text based website for all users of browsers that you don't want to support anymore as a fallback option.

So in conclusion: Just stop insulting your customers intelligence...

(sorry for my bad english)
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BKGaming:
Also an "achievement", alienating both those like you wanting GOG to be a full Steam competitor and get on with the times, and those like me wanting the opposite, what they started as, that group set on changing the industry even if it'll hamper the business side of things, and catering to a crowd with largely old school preferences, be it in games or site design. And, you know, like Geralt, having scruples.
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elcook: snip
And if it seems like I'm being hostile or disrespectful that isn't my intention. I do very much appreciate the communication so thank you for that. But I'm mad about this entire thing, and I'm tired. I've invested a lot in GOG and truly want GOG to succeed, but GOG no longer feels like it appreciates that investment or our business when it disregards our concerns and refuses to bring GOG to 2018 standards in a reasonable time-frame.
Post edited December 11, 2018 by BKGaming
Thank you for information about planned changes.
I didn't buy any game since the redesign, and will come back again buying, if the changes are really done and the site is no longer a multimedia show which hides game information, but is comfortable and precise searchable for games according to my taste.
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elcook: I’m reviving this topic as I believe it’s the biggest one focused on changes made on GOG.COM. Please bear with me as I’d like to address a few things that are both important for you and for us.
Well, thanks for the lengthy reply! The lack of communication for the past couple of months had me worried that gog will genuinely go ahead with the redesign and ignore all user feedback.

I've said my part in the past, so most of my concerns should have ended up on a check list somewhere along the line. But I'll voice my most pressing concern again:

BRING BACK LIST VIEW FOR THE CATALOGUE!

Seriously, this is the one make-or-break feature. Most of the other insultingly horrible shit that came with the redesign I can live with, but the current catalogue is an absolute pain in the ass to navigate. More so than I (and quite a few others, I'm sure) am willing to put up with.

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elcook: GOGMixes. They were introduced back in 2010 and were never updated, which made the whole feature outdated.
Well, think of them as outdated all you want, but they had one major thing going for them: they worked! You could make on-the-spot adjustments to them. You could edit them, add stuff, remove stuff, even delete the thing if you were so inclined. Outdated or not, that already puts them waaaaaaaaaay ahead of the user reviews in terms of functionality.

Speaking of gogmixes (and the news being at the bottom of the front page): What's up with those "curated collections"? It's as if someone decided we need a few more extra tiles, but those ones are especially devoid of purpose. Did Slitherine and Activision slip you a few bucks extra for added 3-month long exposure on the front page? I don't get it. What's the point of these things?
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elcook: ...At this moment this won't be changed, but we will look into it.
Understandable but probably not what many people had hoped for. They had hoped for at least "tomorrow there will be switch in your settings to turn that "feature" off for anyone who doesn't like it". These people probably are still a bit disappointed.
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elcook: [cutting stuff 'cause it's too lenghty]
Apreciate the comunication per se, but it doesn't really look well. At all.
And most important: while you're at it, give us back manual sorting in our libraries. This is why I stopped buying from GOG.

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elcook: Site not working on old browser versions
As much as we’d like to, it’s impossible for us to keep support for all old versions of popular browsers. There is a reason why browsers are being updated by their creators (mainly being security reasons), and our main goal is to keep the site up to date with the latest versions.
And when it comes to IE support, due to the amount of work needed to support the website under IE combined with a very low margin of users, we decided to drop IE11 support entirely.
Just... don't change a site that was working perfectly before? Crazy idea, uh?

And it's not just IE, but also older (and better) versions of FF.
Post edited December 11, 2018 by Fuz
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Pond86: ... Thats like site design 101, never put on auto-playing videos.) Even Steam doesn't have them. ...
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Trilarion: Some news sites I visit have their videos on auto-playing and this is really annoying, especially when I have the sound volume high and suddenly a video starts playing without me expecting it, it may also annoy everyone around me.

GOG is unfortunately not alone.
This shit is like the popup windows in the nineties.
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liltimmypoccet: Why cant they just revert the website while they work on a solution? Petroleum corporations are faster at fixing their oil spills than GOG is at fixing a website.
The solution is "revert the website".

I swear this whole thing looks like some web designers at GOG were afraid to lose their job and decided that they HAD TO change things to look like they're important.
Post edited December 11, 2018 by Fuz
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wow.. "revive the topic" ... wow... *clap clap* ... like it was dead, or what. As far as I did notice, the site itself was dead, not this thread.
#Make GOG Great Again
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Ok, so I went through the new posts.. and my *blunt* conclusions:

Took you 2+ months to write something, and you (GOG) didn't even bother to read through it, or you don't comprehend English text, or you are insanely ignorant, and trying to aggressively push the PR talk on customers.

I mean the video autoplay, it must be clear from the comments and upvotes how many people have trouble with it, yet you are instantly sure that *that* won't change, just to turn around in next post ... this is both incompetence and ignorance in single package, you should have waited for Christmas to deliver it in a sale to have triple-package ... (oh wait, now I'm using again some sarcastic non-plain English, expecting you to understand the pun... who am I kidding).

And about the inability to support old browsers: it's super simple, just stick to basic HTML5 pages with minimal basic JS dealing with filters, basket and pay-out (and having HTML fall-back for those who have JS disabled).

You are eshop, not game developer or TV streaming service. This will probably also save you ton on the front-end web programmers, as you can keep like two and just pay them some quality courses to learn them HTML basics (finally)...

The other web "designers" can go toy with their own hobby stuff at home, mumbling latest buzzwords like "angular" and "microservices" there, in safe distance from real customers, who have to actually *use* the site, if they want to buy a game.

Or maybe some big shareholder is pushing this, feeling like the web has to look "good"... well, I'm voting with my wallet since the redesign, so I guess I'm either in minority, or your accounting is slacking on reports, or they are somewhat "slow", not getting it. No problem, for this moment, with this kind of response and understanding, my wallet-vote "won't change".