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General discussionGOG 2022 update #3: The future that comes from the past(130 posts)(130 posts)
(130 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 06, 2022
Through the years, as GOG evolved, we explored many directions, and developed in ways that supported the needs presented by them. As mentioned in the first 2022 update, one of the things we’d like to do this year is to come back to our classic games roots, with the knowledge and experience that we gained during GOG’s existence.

Originally, GOG stood for Good Old Games. The idea for the company was born from the wish to play older games in a legal and easy-to-use way. As the classic games hold a special place in our heart, we’d like to devote more attention to highlighting them. It means that our goal is for GOG to become, once again, the best place for the classic PC games.

Our job isn’t to simply release the games that are already on the market. It’s to make them available to everyone - that oftentimes means fixing them, and making sure that they will run on the modern systems that you have. So far we achieved that by our internal work, and various cooperations with DOSBox or ScummVM, among others. Did you know there are a few titles on GOG that the DOSBox crew prepared special, dedicated versions of their great software? Our efforts to bring back some of the beloved games go beyond technical fixes.



In some cases, we also have to solve various legal contrivances to be able to release the games, as some of the rights and ownerships have been lost to time. Some of the titles that can be enjoyed thanks to these efforts are: Diablo + Hellfire, Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper Gold™, Deus Ex™ GOTY Edition, System Shock: Enhanced Edition, and of course the main star of today - The Wheel of Time, to which we added modern OS compatibility and hi-res support.

To help those classic games shine again, and get discovered by more people, we also do our best to support our releases with initiatives like Throwback Thursday, interviews with developers and other ways to look behind the scenes. If you like to collect the extra goodies connected to the games, such as guidebooks, wallpapers, concept arts and much more, there is a good chance that some of the ones you’ve gotten on GOG are thanks to our cooperation with The Video Game History Foundation.

But you know most of this already – so what’s next?! The newest development in the area of classics’ visibility and discoverability is the revival of Good Old Games concept. We’re starting with adding the “Good Old Game” tag, which will showcase over 500 games that our Team has deemed iconic classics – games that are older than 10 years and are critically acclaimed, stand the test of time, defined certain mechanics, or simply created new genres. You’ll find there games like Bioshock, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout or Gothic. Of course, this is in part our subjective choice, but we hope to inspire you to check them out for yourselves, have fun with them, and see if you agree with our assessment.



Why did we decide to pivot in this direction? Because we believe that celebrating and preserving classic games is important. They have the power to connect generations. They have the power to evoke nostalgia. They have the power to teach us about what came before and shaped the games we enjoy today. And they deserve to be remembered, and available for everyone to enjoy.

This is just another step to give Good Old Games a well-deserved spot on GOG. The invitation is here and it’s waiting for you! Rediscover with us the games that have been universally loved or search for hidden gems that didn’t get their time in the spotlight. Whatever you choose, we commit to bringing you the best classics experience out there: playable offline, compatible with new OSs, packed with additional digital goodies, and with the ability to back up anywhere at any time to ensure that the games we offer are playable for years to come.
Posted April 07, 2022
Good to hear we're going to have some more work on older games. HOWEVER, I'm concerned about existing titles that no long er work on modern systems (Pure Pinball 2 and Tomb Raider II come to mind) that are still on sale here. Are games that have again been left behind by Windows updates going to be updated?
Posted April 07, 2022
How about adding a tag to games that have been updated/patched by GOG. After all that is the most important difference between a game on GOG and a game on other digital platforms. It's the main selling point in my opinion.
Posted April 07, 2022
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SmollestLight: It's completely fine to disagree with us that 10 years isn't old enough :) That is also why we focus on games that are critically acclaimed, stand the test of time, defined certain mechanics, or simply created new genres.
Since it looks like you include more recent remakes, please tag the older Falcom games like Trails in the Sky (and Zero and Azure once they arrive), most of the Ys games (only VIII and IX are less than 10 years from initial release), Xanadu Next, and possibly both Zwei games and Gurumin. Maybe the Zwei games and Gurumin are a bit arguable, but I'd still include them even though there was a lot I didn't like about the Zwei games. There are unique mechanics in the Zwei games that are interesting even if they haven't been influential and getting translated releases almost or more than a decade after initial release seems like a reasonable sign of standing the test of time. Xanadu Next is the first iteration of what became the modern Ys style starting with Seven.

My wishlist includes Sorcerian (however the old Sierra release in English had a few major bugs as I recall) and Persona 4.
Posted April 07, 2022
Pleasantly surprised by these consistent updates. Keep em coming!
Posted April 07, 2022
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GOG.com: Through the years, as GOG metastasized...
Stop wasting energy on pathetic attempts at PR and FIX YOUR CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

Thanks in advance.
Posted April 07, 2022
This is great news, as long as you continue to offer all kinds of games. GOG is my go-to shop for most stuff I buy these days.
Posted April 07, 2022
Basically GOG is saying "No one wants to release their new games here."

But seriously, good on you GOG for getting back to your roots. I hope its not just because no major publisher will work with you to release newer titles.

I hope this is successful for you. I hope you're really getting back to basics and focusing on good, old, drm-free games. We need more drm-free, and classic games are awesome!

Soooo.... Skyrim when?
Posted April 07, 2022
Just heard some good news. Although this is a step in the right direction, I still struggle to think why GOG is so adamant on supporting Windows and Windows only. We are at a point in time where companies should be doubling down on 'Linux'.

With Windows 10 being in a sorry state, and Windows 11 even moreso, we need to be breaking away from the Microsoft monopoly. Not supporting it with yet more exclusive releases.

Linux isn't perfect, especially with how degenerate the community has gotten in recent years, but at least it's free and open. And for God's sake GOG, just open source the Galaxy client. We've been asking for that for years, and haven't gotten so much as a "we'll think about it" comment. I hate Steam, I deleted my Steam account just last week, but at least I give them credit for having a much better service and giving people every reason to shop there.

By all means, focus on older games if that's what you want. More power to you!. AAA games are a dying breed anyway, who needs em'?. But at least do us a solid, and work with your partners to port these games to Linux. Maybe even acquire Feral Interactive or something to help with that sort of thing, they seem to know their craft.
Post edited April 07, 2022 by Charlemagne22
Posted April 07, 2022
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StarBoundZA:
Here's the oldest post-beta snapshot of GOG's about/values page: here

And GOG's original definition of "old" was at least 3 years, but that was a hard rule, games newer than that weren't accepted until the Bigger. Fresher. Newer. moment of 2012.
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Charlemagne22: Just heard some good news. Although this is a step in the right direction, I still struggle to think why GOG is so adamant on supporting Windows and Windows only. We are at a point in time where companies should be doubling down on 'Linux'.

With Windows 10 being in a sorry state, and Windows 11 even moreso, we need to be breaking away from the Microsoft monopoly. Not supporting it with yet more exclusive releases.

Linux isn't perfect, especially with how degenerate the community has gotten in recent years, but at least it's free and open.
+1 to that (and without being a Linux user... yet)
Post edited April 07, 2022 by Cavalary
Posted April 07, 2022
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GOG.com: We’re starting with adding the “Good Old Game” tag, which will showcase over 500 games that our Team has deemed iconic classics –
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BreOl72: Over 500 you say?
I just selected that tag and then clicked "Hide all owned products"...holy shit...I own a lot of the Good Old Games.
:)
Heh, I have four out of ten pages of games featured on that list, looks like I too have a shit-ton of classics!
Posted April 07, 2022
Just keep up the DRM free, its the most convenient way to play. Hooray!
Posted April 07, 2022
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SmollestLight: ...
Minor layout suggestion: I don't know if there's a reason the "Release Date" slider is so far down the "narrow search results" bar on the left in the catalog (maybe you - GOG staff - anticipate it not being used often), but you might consider moving it up to "Release Status", above or under it. Or somehow make it more prominent.

Also in general, there are probably a lot more tags you could create if you wanted. (and I think you should eventually let people vote on the most appropriate tags, though I understand if you're wary of possible misuse)
Posted April 07, 2022
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SmollestLight: It's completely fine to disagree with us that 10 years isn't old enough :) That is also why we focus on games that are critically acclaimed, stand the test of time, defined certain mechanics, or simply created new genres.
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joveian: Since it looks like you include more recent remakes, please tag the older Falcom games like Trails in the Sky (and Zero and Azure once they arrive), most of the Ys games (only VIII and IX are less than 10 years from initial release), Xanadu Next, and possibly both Zwei games and Gurumin. Maybe the Zwei games and Gurumin are a bit arguable, but I'd still include them even though there was a lot I didn't like about the Zwei games. There are unique mechanics in the Zwei games that are interesting even if they haven't been influential and getting translated releases almost or more than a decade after initial release seems like a reasonable sign of standing the test of time. Xanadu Next is the first iteration of what became the modern Ys style starting with Seven.

My wishlist includes Sorcerian (however the old Sierra release in English had a few major bugs as I recall) and Persona 4.
It's kinda funny to think that Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure actually do qualify for the "Good Old Game" tag. The versions we're getting later this year are basically just remasters of 2010/2011 PSP games.

You could also probably throw in games like Dishonored and Fallout: New Vegas to this. Dishonored would qualify for the title this fall.


Also, I hope GOG update #4 is about a Linux client.
Post edited April 07, 2022 by Sheershaw
Posted April 07, 2022
low rated
Talk is cheap & gog has proved time & again that they'll go back on things the moment they become inconvenient.

I'd love to see good old games back but it's not viable long term for a company that felt the need to involve shareholders so either this is just another pr stunt to try & claw back some goodwill after a string of disasters, or it's another move of desperation because, as usual, management doesn't seem to have a clue how to keep this ship from sinking.
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Posted April 07, 2022
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GOG.com: ...
I think this return is good, you might even consider bringing back the classic font and yellow-green colors on special occasions. The "Good Old Games" brand and concept is so powerful, GOG was never able to truly shake it ;)

What can be done to ensure GOG has the resources to continually update games already released here? I wonder: if people know money will be used specifically for this, they might be willing to pay a fee or donate to it specifically. I've previously suggested doing compatibility improvements DLC or Kickstarter-like area for updates, if need be because I understand some of that (mainly the DLC idea) won't go over well with a percentage of the userbase. But I think a lot of people do like the idea of helping to keep classics alive even if they're already on the store, so I think looking into revenue streams for this is good.

It was mentioned on Reddit already and maybe here in the thread, but I do think you should look into emulation of good old console games.

I think aiming for double-dippers isn't a bad tactic either, though that requires deep discounts.

I'd be curious to know how many people actually won't buy a game here without Steam features ported to Galaxy (besides a fellow here obsessed with feature parity). Personally I don't use Galaxy so I don't care, and I hope GOG isn't currently rejecting games based on this.

It's unfortunate GOG's market share remains so small and you guys probably suffered because of CP2077 not doing well (though GOG does continue to make some decisions that baffle me and just push loyal fans away, right now locking benign threads; cosmetic Galaxy-required DLC doesn't really bother me personally) - what CDPR does affects you for better or worse. I assume we won't see activity from big-name publishers very often for the foreseeable future, in part because of the CP2077 fiasco, but hopefully Witcher 4 does much better and gets GOG renewed interest from publishers.

I suspect a lot of Good Old Games are with, unfortunately, billion-dollar publishers apathetic to GOG because of GOG's small market share (games that were easily cracked many years ago, so why not just toss them up on GOG too? Not worth the resources to do so?). And of course there are Good Old Games on Steam not here yet, but again they're owned by publishers who apparently don't want to deal with GOG anymore or at least for the near future.

Personally what I'd like to buy here (granted at a deep discount):
*Serious Sam 2 and 3 (no need for online features, imo)
*Dead Island (no need for online features, imo)
*the missing Humongous games
*Will Rock
*other FPSes like CoD Warchest

The upcoming indie horror FPS "Remorse The List" seems attainable and I'd like to be able to buy that here.
Post edited April 07, 2022 by tfishell
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Community
General discussionGOG 2022 update #3: The future that comes from the past(130 posts)(130 posts)
(130 posts)