It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
high rated
avatar
tag+: Maybe the boycott needs more leadership, more /aproaching/negotiation with the GOG management.
I tried. Several times. Through several mods and through support. Even reducing the requests down to a very simple one: remove the DRM from the Cyberpunk rewards, for starters, to show that they mean to return to DRM-free. Some didn't reply at all. The others said "we can't do anything about this ourselves, but our superiors are aware of the situation."

And that's all. From time to time I politely ask whether there is any new development, but the (non-)reactions stay the same.
avatar
tag+: Maybe the boycott needs more leadership, more /aproaching/negotiation with the GOG management.
Or at least draw a line of the lowest limit before the ship sinks everybody onboard... you know: mitigate the very well observed stupidity on the other side :)
The thing is that for a boycott to be successful it needs two things :

1. A significant enough number of peoples following it (significant either in number or by noise)

and, probably the most important :

2. A clear goal.

And while we can argue on the former, this "boycott" definitely totally lack the later; look at this thread it ranges from selling Devotion to unfriend Tim Sweeney on facebook , this thread is not a boycott thread it's a venting thread where anybody having any sort of grief against Gog or CDPR comes to vent.

Even if Gog decided to "do something" they wouldn't have any clue where to start as they wouldn't know who boycott them for what reason and whenever or not what they would be doing would be enough or not. For this boycott to have any chance of ever being successful it should have concentrated on one, maximum two, similar goals, not on a whole shopping list of them.

Thant being said I honestly don't think that Gog issues have anything to do with this boycott, it's not the first time Gog has similar issue, in 2019 they already let go 10% of their employees. I think that if anything it's the continuation of EPIC screwing it up for everybody by forcing store to lower their margins.
Post edited November 30, 2021 by Gersen
GOG is by far the most consumer friendly digital distribution service out there, there is no reason why it should be 'losing' money. The only way it can, is if upper management is screwing up somehow. Just yesterday I made a vow to never purchase a game from Steam or the Epic Game Store again, due to the presence of DRM. I'm not as big a gamer as I used to be, so the current library will serve me well for a while, but the lack of Capcom and Square Enix releases is a bummer for me personally. I want to buy titles like Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, DRM-free on GOG, but for whatever reason these titles just aren't here.

I don't know if that can be chocked up to GOG management dropping the ball or what, but I definitely think more 'needs' to be done if GOG is to continue. Sure, it is the place for 'Good Old Games', but it can be so much more than that and it should be more than that. I want DRM-free gaming to 'stick', I don't want Steam and other draconian DRM measures to win the war, and thus saddle gamers with glorified rentals forever.

What GOG is doing is ludicrous, they should not be cutting back but doubling down. Polish GOG Galaxy, release a native Linux version, offer Proton, and court more Japanese developers to release their titles. Old, or new.
low rated
The boycott has not been successful because they are a marginal number of users who have participated in it.

They are the problematic users who should be banned as requested from social networks to gog.com

Hopefully these users went to steam because they want to make the only non-drm store disappear and impose their ideas on the majority of users.
I do not support a boycott personally, at least not a permanent one, but a message needs to be sent that GOG is doing things 'wrong'. They should not compromise the values they claim to support, or throw in the towel.
low rated
avatar
tag+: Maybe the boycott needs more leadership, more /aproaching/negotiation with the GOG management.
avatar
Lifthrasil: I tried. Several times. Through several mods and through support. Even reducing the requests down to a very simple one: remove the DRM from the Cyberpunk rewards, for starters, to show that they mean to return to DRM-free. Some didn't reply at all. The others said "we can't do anything about this ourselves, but our superiors are aware of the situation."

And that's all. From time to time I politely ask whether there is any new development, but the (non-)reactions stay the same.
That is totally sad man. I am sorry that I cannot say anything else: I am speechless :(

avatar
tag+: Maybe the boycott needs more leadership, more /aproaching/negotiation with the GOG management.
Or at least draw a line of the lowest limit before the ship sinks everybody onboard... you know: mitigate the very well observed stupidity on the other side :)
avatar
Gersen: The thing is that for a boycott to be successful it needs two things :

1. A significant enough number of peoples following it (significant either in number or by noise)

and, probably the most important :

2. A clear goal.

And while we can argue on the former, this "boycott" definitely totally lack the later; look at this thread it ranges from selling Devotion to unfriend Tim Sweeney on facebook , this thread is not a boycott thread it's a venting thread where anybody having any sort of grief against Gog or CDPR comes to vent.

Even if Gog decided to "do something" they wouldn't have any clue where to start as they wouldn't know who boycott them for what reason and whenever or not what they would be doing would be enough or not. For this boycott to have any chance of ever being successful it should have concentrated on one, maximum two, similar goals, not on a whole shopping list of them.

Thant being said I honestly don't think that Gog issues have anything to do with this boycott, it's not the first time Gog has similar issue, in 2019 they already let go 10% of their employees. I think that if anything it's the continuation of EPIC screwing it up for everybody by forcing store to lower their margins.
Totally fair and key points, indeed
low rated
The boycott has not been successful because they are a marginal number of users who have participated in it.

They are the problematic users who should be banned as requested from social networks to gog.com

Hopefully these users went to steam because they want to make the only non-drm store disappear and impose their ideas on the majority of users.
low rated
avatar
StrongSoldier: The boycott has not been successful because they are a marginal number of users who have participated in it.

They are the problematic users who should be banned as requested from social networks to gog.com

Hopefully these users went to steam because they want to make the only non-drm store disappear and impose their ideas on the majority of users.
LOL, imagine painting people that are protesting against A REGIME THAT LITERALLY IMPOSES THEIR IDEAS ON YOU as the exact opposite. Distorting reality, anyone?
Thanks god we don't live in a regime ourselves, but in a democracy, where we can freely express our thoughts.
Also, who said we want GOG to disappear? If that's what you got from the thread, you should probably re-read it from start.
Xi, is that you?

avatar
tag+: Maybe the boycott needs more leadership, more /aproaching/negotiation with the GOG management.
Or at least draw a line of the lowest limit before the ship sinks everybody onboard... you know: mitigate the very well observed stupidity on the other side :)
avatar
Gersen: The thing is that for a boycott to be successful it needs two things :

1. A significant enough number of peoples following it (significant either in number or by noise)

and, probably the most important :

2. A clear goal.

And while we can argue on the former, this "boycott" definitely totally lack the later; look at this thread it ranges from selling Devotion to unfriend Tim Sweeney on facebook , this thread is not a boycott thread it's a venting thread where anybody having any sort of grief against Gog or CDPR comes to vent.

Even if Gog decided to "do something" they wouldn't have any clue where to start as they wouldn't know who boycott them for what reason and whenever or not what they would be doing would be enough or not. For this boycott to have any chance of ever being successful it should have concentrated on one, maximum two, similar goals, not on a whole shopping list of them.

Thant being said I honestly don't think that Gog issues have anything to do with this boycott, it's not the first time Gog has similar issue, in 2019 they already let go 10% of their employees. I think that if anything it's the continuation of EPIC screwing it up for everybody by forcing store to lower their margins.
Pretty sure the goal was crystal clear from the start: reinstate Devotion and no DRMs in GOG. There are some other points of discussion, but those are just to add to the general point.
Just the 1st one would be a great start and I'm fairly sure the people here would be happy. Doesn't seem like an outlandish request.

avatar
tag+: Maybe the boycott needs more leadership, more /aproaching/negotiation with the GOG management.
avatar
Lifthrasil: I tried. Several times. Through several mods and through support. Even reducing the requests down to a very simple one: remove the DRM from the Cyberpunk rewards, for starters, to show that they mean to return to DRM-free. Some didn't reply at all. The others said "we can't do anything about this ourselves, but our superiors are aware of the situation."

And that's all. From time to time I politely ask whether there is any new development, but the (non-)reactions stay the same.
What's really unfortunate is that, from what you wrote, we can speculate some of the employees probably empathize with our complaints, but they can't do anything themselves, because of their position.
Post edited December 01, 2021 by Shendue
avatar
Ancient-Red-Dragon: But it's a complicated situation, since GOG going down will be a Loss for the Boycotters as well.
A short term loss certainly. But potentially a long-term gain if it allows suppliers who haven't tried to water down their DRM-free commitment to expand.
avatar
Zrevnur: Most of the money (apart from ~70% of sales to pay for games) is spent on this: "In the GOG.COM segment selling costs are generated mainly by marketing activities related to the GOG.COM platform, and by work on further development and support for sales carried out on this platform"
Hmmm...maybe GOG just need to target their marketing more then.
avatar
Shendue: What's really unfortunate is that, from what you wrote, we can speculate some of the employees probably empathize with our complaints, but they can't do anything themselves, because of their position.
That is the impression I got as well.
low rated
avatar
Shendue: Pretty sure the goal was crystal clear from the start: reinstate Devotion and no DRMs in GOG. There are some other points of discussion, but those are just to add to the general point.
That's already two totally different goals, that have totally different reasons for happening.

And what about the Epic deal ? no more incentive for Galaxy users ? more resources for offline installers ? No to mention all the peoples joining and leaving the boycott based on their current grief of the day.

Boycotting Gog because you want Hitman removed that's a boycott with a clear goal. Boycotting Gog because you want them to sell a game, not sell another one, you don't like the front page banner, you want Marcin Iwinski to change his haircut, etc... etc... is not.

avatar
Shendue: Just the 1st one would be a great start and I'm fairly sure the people here would be happy. Doesn't seem like an outlandish request.
But would it stop the boycott ?

The whole point of a boycott is : "We don't like X therefore we boycott you until you fix X" and when the company fixes X then the boycott ends, simple.

But if it becomes "We don't like X,Y,Z, α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, etc... therefore we boycott until you fix all of them and even others we didn't mention" then even if the company makes the effort for fix X and Z it might not have any effect on the boycott so they are less likely to bother trying, especially not with 120 peoples following said boycott.
avatar
Gersen: That's already two totally different goals, that have totally different reasons for happening.

And what about the Epic deal ? no more incentive for Galaxy users ? more resources for offline installers ? No to mention all the peoples joining and leaving the boycott based on their current grief of the day.

Boycotting Gog because you want Hitman removed that's a boycott with a clear goal. Boycotting Gog because you want them to sell a game, not sell another one, you don't like the front page banner, you want Marcin Iwinski to change his haircut, etc... etc... is not.
Devotion and DRM are obviously different issues but Epic, Galaxy, offline installers and Hitman are all tied in with DRM.
Post edited December 01, 2021 by HappyPunkPotato
low rated
avatar
Gersen: That's already two totally different goals, that have totally different reasons for happening.

And what about the Epic deal ? no more incentive for Galaxy users ? more resources for offline installers ? No to mention all the peoples joining and leaving the boycott based on their current grief of the day.

Boycotting Gog because you want Hitman removed that's a boycott with a clear goal. Boycotting Gog because you want them to sell a game, not sell another one, you don't like the front page banner, you want Marcin Iwinski to change his haircut, etc... etc... is not.
avatar
HappyPunkPotato: Devotion and DRM are obviously different issues but Epic, Galaxy, offline installers and Hitman are all tied in with DRM.
Devotion was more of an issue of preservation more than anything
avatar
Lifthrasil: The question is: will GOG be stupid enough to let that happen? Or will they finally mend their ways when they are in danger of continued financial losses or even bankruptcy?

The smart thing to do would be to look at the reasons why less people buy on GOG nowadays and then to remedy those reasons. ... But then again this is the GOG management we are talking about. 'Smart' isn't really within their abilities. Otherwise GOG wouldn't be where it is now.

But the glimmer of hope is, that they do react to pressure once it's big enough. They rowed back on the attempt of more DRM with Hitman. After the pressure was big enough. Maybe it will eventually penetrate their skulls that abandoning DRM-free will hurt their revenue. Then they'll have to decide whether they want to go down and be sold, or whether they finally try to fix GOG. The latter is, what I would call winning. The goal of the boycott isn't to destroy GOG, but to send a message in the only language that the GOG management understands: lost revenue.
This is very well said. As has been stated multiple times in this thread, the goal of the boycott has never been to cause GOG to fail. It is to send a clear message that they are going down the wrong path.
avatar
Gersen: That's already two totally different goals, that have totally different reasons for happening.

And what about the Epic deal ? no more incentive for Galaxy users ? more resources for offline installers ? No to mention all the peoples joining and leaving the boycott based on their current grief of the day.

Boycotting Gog because you want Hitman removed that's a boycott with a clear goal. Boycotting Gog because you want them to sell a game, not sell another one, you don't like the front page banner, you want Marcin Iwinski to change his haircut, etc... etc... is not.
Why can't a boycott have multiple goals, if company X has made multiple decisions that are objectionable? I'd say the goals of the boycott are fairly clear in the first post. There is a clear lists of grievances that people want to see addressed, focusing around two key themes: censorship and DRM encroachment.

Part of the problem with having a 'single goal' is that those who are boycotting GOG are not a homogenous block - different people are boycotting for different reasons. Because ... surprise, surprise ... GOG have made multiple objectionable missteps over the past couple of years (which is on them) and different people prioritize different ones.

So, it is also not really possible for that same reason to say that: "if items 1, 3 and 5 are addressed, then everyone who is boycotting will come back". I think the best we can say is that people are boycotting for a range of reasons, which I have tried to summarize in the first post. If GOG addresses one of those issues, some people might start buying again who were prioritizing that particular issue. The more of those issues GOG addresses, the more people are likely to return.

Honestly, I think its probable the best we can do, given the diverse train wreck of issues GOG has created over the past several years. Hell, there are other issues some people seem to be leaving/boycotting over that aren't even mentioned on the list: e.g. poor customer support, badly designed forum with bots downvoting. GOG seems to have a big (and growing) list of issues that they really need to start addressing. The list in post 1 should be a good starting point.