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Entering a new year is like leveling up in a game – new adventures and challenges await, which you approach with all previously gained skills. This is a moment that drives us, and today we’d like to give you a general overview of what is to come this year on GOG, but without spoilers – no one likes those.

2021 went with many exciting activities on GOG as well as – let’s be open about it – with some hard knocks. All of those events allow us to gain more experience, learn from our successes and mistakes and grow in our constant pursuit of delivering you the best gamer-centric platform – with a selection of exceptional games, from timeless classics to new releases, and respect for ownership. This approach won’t change this year either, and we’d like to let you know about two areas that we’re putting in the spotlight in 2022.

Let’s start with the platform experience. This is a big one, as we want you to have the best experience when buying the game of your choosing, browsing the catalog, checking the best deals and new releases, finding hidden gems, or discovering that next game to play! There is a lot we can improve here – we know – and this year our development teams’ pipelines are full of projects we hope you’ll enjoy. While we won’t be sharing the exact features just yet, we want to highlight the few that have already been released and are available on GOG, which should give you a good sense of things to come.

First and foremost is the new and improved catalog that has recently gone live to all users. It brings you a new way to carry out more customized searches, sort and filter games by price and release date range, genres, and tags. With your help, we were able to first test the new catalog by slowly rolling it out to more users, monitoring its performance, and gathering initial feedback. Judging by some of your comments, we can already see you appreciate the ease of navigating the offer, especially during bigger sales, and how fast the catalog works – thanks! Our devs are planning further improvements like expanding the tags system – adding new ones, improving filtering, or giving an option to exclude tags from results. Oh, and one more thing – we've heard you were missing the "all-time bestsellers" sorting option. Well, it's back!



Secondly, we want to keep on improving your experience with GOG GALAXY. The client remains an important part of our platform and offers a unique way of interacting with GOG, if you decide to use it. Our approach right now focuses on making the main view in GOG GALAXY more dynamic and live – one way to do it is to show what cool stuff is happening on the platform, something you may have noticed during the Winter Sale when we highlighted the event and the giveaways. In the coming weeks, we will be testing some more changes in the client, so if you’d like to see them first, make sure to toggle the “Experimental features and updates” option in the settings.

And since we’re on the topic of testing, there are more features to come this year, and we’d like to keep you involved in the process. That’s why, before releasing improvements to all users, we will be asking some of you to test these ideas and share your feedback with us, just as we did with the new catalog. With some features, we’ll want to surprise you, so expect the unexpected improvements as well!

And what is the second area of our focus, you may ask. It’s games, of course! But not just any games – it’s about classics. While we’re years from calling ourselves Good Old Games, we remember our roots, and those games will always have a special place in our hearts and on GOG. We get that actions speak louder than words, that’s why we will increase our activities around classic games. This means a plethora of things – from preparing articles and interviews about those meaningful titles, running dedicated sales and special deals, through adding more digital goodies all the way to releasing even more classic games we all miss. As for the latter, obviously we’ll keep those surprises a secret for now, but looking at the classics we brought back in Q4 2021, like Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain or Star Trek: Armada I & II, you get what we’re aiming for.



Just like with the store experience, the same goes for classic games – you may have already seen our first activities around them. For some time now we’re cooperating with The Video Game History Foundation on the Throwback Thursday initiative. Putting a spotlight on our favorite “good old games”, and adding personal stories from the GOG Team members was a no-brainer and we don’t know why it took us so long! The formula is still evolving though, so expect some updates here as well.

During the Winter Sale, thanks to the Foundation’s huge archive of assets, we were able to add new bonus goodies to titles like Tomb Raider 1+2+3, , [url=https://www.gog.com/en/game/total_anihilation_commander_pack]Total Annihilation, Thief The Dark Project, and more. Your reception was amazing – for the very first time we’ve put on sale The Video Game History Foundation Support Pack, a bundle from which all proceeds go to the Foundation. Thanks to you, we managed to gather more than $4,000 USD that will support preserving, celebrating, and teaching the history of video games. You’re the best – thank you!



That is all for now – while we don’t want to spoil any specific features, releases, or activities, we hope you like this small heads-up from us at GOG. Let us know if this type of update is something you would like to see more often, what is missing that you would definitely want us to share (having in mind sometimes we just can’t reveal some of the stuff), and share constructive feedback about our plans for 2022!
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richlind33: GOG's selling rape porn now. Here's how it's described...

This Game may contain content not appropriate for all ages or may not be appropriate for viewing at work.

There's the future, for anyone that cares about honesty and integrity: the monetization of misogyny.
thats very sad :(
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Mori_Yuki: ...
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Sarafan: In general, [1] I agree that the whole thing should be more transparent and I understand people who don't like the necessity to add an exception to firewall to be able to play. I don't agree however that we should connect this with the fact of being capable of running the game without access to the internet. [2] Being able to play offline is not the same as being able to play online (while being connected to the internet) with a firewall exception. These are two separate things in my opinion.
[1] That is a very important facet since there is no DPA in any of the games I mentioned before. There is no document I can read before starting the game what data will be collected, whether it is anonymized, who gets access, will it be shared with a 3rd-party, who the responsible data protection person is, who to contact to ask that said data should be deleted etc. While it isn't strictly necessary to ask for consent, clicking on a button, it is mandatory to add this information.

[2] Not exactly. Single player games without MP components should not force shutdown when they aren't able to transmit data while being online or offline. Even if a game does have both single as well as multiplayer online or LAN components, if I don't wish to play Online or share data with anyone and don't refuse access they still work like they should. All I can't do is play or access multiplayer modes, which I don't.

The bottom line is that single player games w || w/o MP must be able to be executed, without being forced to disconnect any device from the internet to prevent data leaving said device. If that's not possible there has to be a warning on the store page, a DPA to read, maybe a button to allow or decline sharing of data as is the case in most Unity games.

If none of this exists then there is a problem that's not about how we think things should or should not be, what's acceptable and what's not. Even though this seems offtopic, it is relevant information and GOG should make a statement what their view is and how they are going to handle this. This is as much part of the shopping experience, to know exactly what you buy and what to expect.
Post edited February 08, 2022 by Mori_Yuki
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Cavalary: Can we please get this topic back on track? As in, comments about GOG's plans - and yes, also current state - aimed at GOG, and eventually discussions with GOG staff if/when they reply, NOT endless back and forth between users that drown out any on topic messages (and may even include some, but who'd bother to pick them out of the mess?).
Come on already, can count the on topic messages for the past few pages on my fingers here. If somebody who's not staff replies to counter your message aimed at staff, at most reply once, if even that, and then leave it be. Valid for both / all sides.
GOG has yet to address some of the concerns brought up in this thread and I find that disappointing. Communication should be open and transparent even when it comes to delicate topics, otherwise there's a risk of turning this into an echo chamber.
The blues went silent all of a sudden, what should we make of that?
What's more, a thread was recently locked without a proper explanation.
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GOG.com: Secondly, we want to keep on improving your experience with GOG GALAXY. The client remains an important part of our platform and offers a unique way of interacting with GOG, if you decide to use it. Our approach right now focuses on making the main view in GOG GALAXY more dynamic and live – one way to do it is to show what cool stuff is happening on the platform, something you may have noticed during the Winter Sale when we highlighted the event and the giveaways. In the coming weeks, we will be testing some more changes in the client, so if you’d like to see them first, make sure to toggle the “Experimental features and updates” option in the settings.
The "if you decide to use it" part here is good, but I am not happy about the prospect of even more bloat. Bloat is exactly why I stopped using Galaxy. You started adding more and more things that could only be done in Galaxy (like Galaxy-only game updates, Galaxy-only DLC, etc.) so I just stopped using it and downloaded my backup installers directly. In my mind, Galaxy should primarily function as a backup installer downloader/manager. Beyond that, it can act as a generic launcher for all games installed on your computer, but I wouldn't want to see it do much more than that. Also, I also have always liked Galaxy 2.0's simple interface and would really not like to see that change.
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GOG.com: And what is the second area of our focus, you may ask. It’s games, of course! But not just any games – it’s about classics. While we’re years from calling ourselves Good Old Games, we remember our roots, and those games will always have a special place in our hearts and on GOG. We get that actions speak louder than words, that’s why we will increase our activities around classic games.
I am happy to see this as well. If you all can "keep your eye on the ball" as it were and focus on releasing DRM-free games, then I would welcome more old games here and even new ones too whenever possible. (I'll also put in my usual plug for the MechWarrior/MechCommander series.) Your customers are here for DRM-free games, and it is important to understand and cater to your audience.

Everything else here sounds good. We'll see what 2022 brings.
Post edited February 20, 2022 by SpikedWallMan
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SpikedWallMan: The "if you decide to use it" part here is good, but I am not happy about the prospect of even more bloat. Bloat is exactly why I stopped using Galaxy. You started adding more and more things that could only be done in Galaxy (like Galaxy-only game updates, Galaxy-only DLC, etc.)
Don't forget the ability to buy DRMed Epic Fail games via the new store app in GOG Galaxy 2.0. I wonder if they plan to expand that "function" in 2022.
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SpikedWallMan: The "if you decide to use it" part here is good, but I am not happy about the prospect of even more bloat. Bloat is exactly why I stopped using Galaxy. You started adding more and more things that could only be done in Galaxy (like Galaxy-only game updates, Galaxy-only DLC, etc.)
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rjbuffchix: Don't forget the ability to buy DRMed Epic Fail games via the new store app in GOG Galaxy 2.0. I wonder if they plan to expand that "function" in 2022.
Yeah, and that too. I definitely don't want other storefronts in Galaxy and definitely won't consider using it again if that's what it devolves into.
Well, it's good news/bad news time!
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HunchBluntley: - Please bring back some way to search by company, even if just by typing a partial developer/publisher credit in the general search box like you used to be able to [...]
It seems they've now re-implemented this one on the dedicated search page -- which is good! But...
...They also seem to have updated the nav-bar search feature (which had still used their old search engine/algorithm) to use the same search as the main catalogue page. Which was inevitable, and, in the long view, desirable, but it means that the boldfaced part of the following excerpt is no longer true.
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HunchBluntley: - It would be nice if the name of any game that's only sold as part of a bundle, but whose title isn't necessarily part of that bundle's name, could also be indexed for searching so that the bundle containing that game comes up when the individual game is searched for. This was previously done in at least a handful of cases with the old search engine (which, again, can still be seen in the nav bar search feature -- for example, if you click the magnifying glass, then type "Menzoberranzan" [or just "menzo" if you can't be bothered to type the whole thing =D ], it will show Forgotten Realms: The Archives - Collection 3. [Somebody also made it so that searching "butcher" returns Diablo as a result. :) ]).
[Sigh] One step forward, one step back.

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Cavalary: Can we please get this topic back on track? As in, comments about GOG's plans - and yes, also current state - aimed at GOG, and eventually discussions with GOG staff if/when they reply, NOT endless back and forth between users that drown out any on topic messages (and may even include some, but who'd bother to pick them out of the mess?).
Come on already, can count the on topic messages for the past few pages on my fingers here. If somebody who's not staff replies to counter your message aimed at staff, at most reply once, if even that, and then leave it be. Valid for both / all sides.
Hear, hear!
Post edited February 15, 2022 by HunchBluntley
I would like to make a suggestion as regards the naming scheme of offline-installer files and an improvement over the current downloading system. It is easy to miss a .bin file and it doesn't help to have a number-mismatch during the installation process saying (part x is missing).

Expeditions: Rome (Part 1 of 8) 1.0e 1 MB
Expeditions: Rome (Part 2 of 8) 1.0e 4 GB -> setup_expeditions_rome_1.0e(53561)-1.bin
Expeditions: Rome (Part 3 of 8) 1.0e 4 GB -> setup_expeditions_rome_1.0e(53561)-2.bin
...
Expeditions: Rome (Part 8 of 8) 1.0e 1.4GB -> setup_expeditions_rome_1.0e(5361)-7.bin

Numbering only the .bin files (Part 1 ... Part 8) but not the executable should help avoid this.

To make the process of downloading multiple files more convenient and harder to miss files a check-box system would help. Being able to mark several files at once and clicking on a download button should be a good solution to the problem.
Post edited February 16, 2022 by Mori_Yuki
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GOG.com: ...
might be a longshot to actually get a response, but is there any chance I could get an explanation for how the Bestselling (recently) sorting option works? Long ago I read it was sorted by amount of money made by a game within a period of time (so an expensive game could rise to the top even if it sold few copies) - was that ever true, and if so, is it still true or is not now sorted by copies sold within a period of time?

I just ask because recently I've noticed pretty cheap (on sale) games rising to the top of Bestselling (recently), which seems different compared to a few months back.
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Cavalary: Can we please get this topic back on track? As in, comments about GOG's plans - and yes, also current state - aimed at GOG, and eventually discussions with GOG staff if/when they reply, NOT endless back and forth between users that drown out any on topic messages (and may even include some, but who'd bother to pick them out of the mess?).
Come on already, can count the on topic messages for the past few pages on my fingers here. If somebody who's not staff replies to counter your message aimed at staff, at most reply once, if even that, and then leave it be. Valid for both / all sides.
I'd love to discuss the plans, but we don't even know what those plans are to begin with. One cannot (validly) speculate the box of mystery.
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Galaxy.
Post edited February 19, 2022 by §pec†re
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Galaxy 2.
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It's such a good news you decided to confront the userbase and let us know some ideas and a bit of a timeline/future projects. Can you make it a regular issue, some sort of short yearly/monthly "fanzine" post, please? It will help the mood of this forum so much! Still I notice hints of "tight lips" about the one or two most hurting topics (DRMs and games promotion/selection) but I understand that they entail risks and require careful handling (the sides to "please" being two, and with sometimes opposite mindsets and needs). Keep going strong and thx
Post edited February 19, 2022 by marcob
1-No DRM

2-More gog galaxy 2.0 (achievement points, total percentage, more stability, remove games from the library...).Gog galaxy on linux

3-Improve technical support (I'm hard on the bot)

4-Application for smartphone (to be able to buy games from the smartphone)

5-More games without drm
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...And get rid of those rep trolls. They've added me a daily -6 as usual