This thread = "I want I want I want"

Bloody over entitled children.

I just updated 'Stardew Valley' and was asking myself why it took so long. Then 'WinPatrol' informed me that this update wanted to install GOG Galaxy. I had to go through this forum to find that the 'Options' page (which I rarely look at) of the installer was changed and now contained the installation of Galaxy as additional standard option.
I have to tell the people at 'GOG' that this kind of bad behaviour (hidden install of add. software) is usually reserved for guys doing some shady business.
Please consider informing your customers about changes of such kind in due time.

Peter.

Actually, it's "I don't fucking want", but whatever.

Is 2 months enough time for information or is more time needed?

Hi JMich,
although all of us, the forum regulars, have been informed, technically it was just a forum thread.

There has never been any announcement.

Who said anything about announcements? Pereh is asking for information to be posted in due time, and I'm mentioning that it has been posted 2 months ago. And not in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard", but on the de facto official communication platform of the store, aka the forum.

Yeah, an unmarked forum thread is totally enough as information about something vital to all users. It's absolutely impossible to miss. After all, all GOG customers are active on the forum and aware of every single thread. And it's not like any other, more efficient means of communicating something like this could possibly exist.

Seriously, no matter how badly GOG screws something up, some people will always defend it. It boggles the mind.

By the writing, I just think pereh meant an announcement.
But anyway that's what I understand, the way meant is not stated clearly.

But it was done in a way that's very reminiscent of how companies like to bury bad things deep within EULAs or by using small print etc. - by posting it only on the forums (which are used by only a tiny fraction of GOG's userbase), and as a regular post with little to distinguish it from other posts.

Look at GOG's other announcements: visible on GOG's front page and in the forums their threads use a blue icon with bold text to make them stand out. There was none of that with this announcement.

On top of this, there's no mention of the classic Galaxy-free installers in the account page where the Galaxy-bloated installers are presented. Users need to either know in advance that they need to use the menu to find the Galaxy-free installers (i.e. be part of the tiny fraction of GOG's userbase that visits the forum regularly), or encounter the option by random chance (having two sets of installers isn't very logical so it's reasonable for people to assume that the Galaxy-bloated installers are the only option).

... and this is exactly what people have been warning of, to deaf ears from both GOG and its forum defenders (which, when it comes to old time users, I still can't understand). For people who don't actively check the forum, which even applies to some regulars who actually tend to stick to certain discussions, not to mention the large mass of users, the change was completely unannounced and even the text included on the game page offers no hint that another installer is available, simply making it look that now Galaxy is mandatory, end of.
So, yep, text displayed needs to state clearly that a non-Galaxy installer is available and how to get to it, and there needs to be a profile setting to make said "classic" installer the default. No excuses, no ifs or buts about it. The only explanation for not having done that is to force as many as possible into Galaxy whether they want it or not.

O! RLY?

Because same thing gOg support told me. So I followed step by step your instructions while downloading Dragon's Dogma without Galaxy and I get this!

For some reason I can't attach my image.

If i would have pulled a turd like this,i sure as hell wouldn't brag about it in the forums or make some fancy announcements.Imagine this scenario: GOOD NEWS™: AS OF TODAY,WE HAVE CRAMMED OUR "OPTIONAL" ONLINE CLIENT INTO ALL OUR GAME INSTALLERS,SO THAT YOU CAN HAVE A BETTER OFFLINE EXPIRIENCE BY DEFAULT BECAUSE NOT EVERYBODY IS TECH-SAVVY.Sorry for the caps.I wanted to keep the immersion up ;).Cheers

You have to admit the 2 month time frame does only exist because the backlash.
GOG made a regular forum post about it on Tuesday 9. May and it should've been applied on the Friday in the same week.
Once more GOG receives credit for something GOG can not be credited for.

Sticky threads are invisible. Just see all the galaxy issue threads that pop in the forum instead of the pinned one on top.
People who don't visit the forum are also highly unlikely to see their PMs.
People have already complained about getting spam from GOG, even after turning off the e-mail notifications, yet you suggest GOG to email them about it.
You mean people actually read the Headlines section? Then why do they post about announced promos and releases when the news posts are up for over an hour?

Yes, they could have done a much better job about notifying us. I personally wouldn't have given any notification but done it the same way the v2.x installers were introduced, but I am a horrible human person.
You mean the blue lettering on the right is also invisible? That is much more visible to me than the blue dot, which could also mean that the thread is a review (quite old review at that as well, and most likely no longer in use).
And had Pereh posted on Friday the 10th of May (it was May, not March, wasn't it?) then yes, I would have agreed that there wasn't enough time. But he posted on July 11th, saying that there wasn't any warning in advance about the installers being changed.

Well I don't know about you but when I check the forum I normally read left to right & top to bottom and the first things I see are the post icon and title. Also I often don't bother checking who posted what until/unless I actually view the post itself.

When I saw the announcement my initial thought was that someone was asking about Galaxy being included in the installers, not that it was actually an announcement of such.


Again, few GOG users actually use GOG's forum and even fewer use the forums regularly, so it's VERY easy to miss a forum-exclusive announcement. Even more so when it looks like any other post with the only difference being that it's posted by a GOG staff member.

- It wasn't marked as an official GOG post or announcement. The only indicator of this is that it was posted by a GOG staff member, and that's only indicated by the small blue "(GOG)" text next to their name.
- It wasn't posted as a news article on the front page where people are more likely to see & pay attention to it
- Having two sets of offline installers is not logical, so it's reasonable to assume that the installers presented by default are the only ones available
- There's no mention of the existence of the Galaxy-free installer so there's no reason to go looking for them & plenty of reason to come here to complain

And as Executer noted, the original plan was to replace the "classic" installers so that *only* Galaxy-bloated installers would be available, and the announcement was posted mere days before this was due to happen. It was only due to the backlash that we've had this much time & that Galaxy-free installers are still available for the affected games.