Dear GOG,

Do you plan for adding a functionality for users to mark games they own from different sources (Steam, box editions etc.) so they don't show up in promo bundles or searches, or at least show as owned items, even though they are not owned via GOG?

That would make browsing much simpler and clearer.

I, of course, don't mean it to work in a way that would make it possible for me to download additional content for games I don't own via GOG. I just wanted to have my library better represented on my GOG account.

Regards,

Maciej

Many people would like to have this but at the moment it is not clear if it ever will be added. So don't get your hope up.
But you can add your vote to the community wishlist entry to show your support for this feature.
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/mark_games_as_already_owned_without_purchase

Am I the only one who thinks that's a ridiculous idea from a business standpoint?
I can't believe so many people actually voted for that feature.
Is that a feature in any other store? No, of course not. Ever wondered why? Because it's terrible for business, that's why! They want you to buy as many games as possible, even if that means buying the same game twice. Why would they want to remind you own games in competitor stores and potentially lose sales?
You can manage multiple libraries on isthereanydeal.com for example, don't ask GOG to do that job for you!

It is called wishlist, so you can wish for features even if they might not be realistic ;-)
And I do not think it would be that terrible for business, for example on amazon I often mark books as owned so that they are not suggested to me anymore when I already bought them from other sources. And up until now amazon did not have to go out of business just because of that feature ;-)

Well then, games owned on GOG also should not be marked as owned. And everything should be marked as wishlisted. That way people will buy everything!

I think the best way to make business, especially for a store like GOG, that has an image of a very customer friendly and fair company, is to provide the users with usefull, requested features and make buying games on GOG as pleasent and simple as possible. If someone will get frustrated having to double check his collections on other online store, and searching through his physicall collection, it's likely they will just give up and buy nothing. If they don't have to worry about already owned games, it's much simpler and faster to look throught the offered games.

And if someone accidentaly buys a game they already own it will frustrate them, they will feel they wasted money, and will be less likely to buy again in the future.

I think such a feature offers far more potential profit than potential loss.

That's a good point. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad for business but I don't think it would be beneficial either.
Also, it's hard to compare the scope of Amazon with GOG. Amazon sells so much more than just books and they have the largest share of the book market online. It think it makes more sense for them to have such a feature considering paper books are still a thing and people still buy those. It's hard to say the same about video games discs. Those are good points but what percentage of the GOG population accidentally buys games they already own?
What percentage would be discouraged from buying a DRM-free version of the game they love and already own in another store if they had marked it as already owned before?

Do you still think that it offers more potential than loss?

Honestly for me it does not really make a difference. sure the games here might be digital but that does not mean I will buy them several times. So I think it would be a nice to have feature. But on the other side I have a list where I have all games I own in and also I know almost all games I own so I normally do not have a problem with buying games several times without realizing it. So I do not necessarily need such a feature :D

I can see from a consumer standpoint why people would like this, but from a business standpoint I don't see it being either significantly negative or positive.
It won't cost or generate revenue, but it would generate a bit of 'goodwill'.
But it would also cost them to get their (not all that great) webdevs working on the feature.
A separate individual non-affiliated catalog website would make more sense really.

Well then what profit is there, in not marking games as owned, if not in hoping people will forget? 0? Why would that discurage anyone? It's just for easier browsing, it's not going to make buying the game here also impossible. You don't even need to use it. After all GOG won't now if you own a game elsewhere. You'd have to mark it as such, which you don't have to do.

Perhaps you guys are right.
Like Smannesman said, apparently it's something people want so it would "generate goodwill" and it's hard to say which impact it would have on the business. In my opinion, it's a negative one but I could be wrong.
Personally, I don't see the need for such as feature.

I just keep a database of all the games I own from every store. It's time consuming but convenient to have.

Sorry, but that's not true. Hoping that someone accidentally buys a game he already owns elsewhere (which GOG clearly isn't - see "Final Sale"), isn't a viable business model. You'll make a small handful of bucks, but your customers won't be happy at all.

I think a store could sell more games when they'd allow their users to hide owned games - wether it's owned on their platform or elsewhere. Do I browse through GOG's catalog? No. Why not? Because it's 19 pages of "Have it on GOG, have the retail, Steam, GOG, retail, retail, GOG, Steam, ..." That's not fun. Give me an option to hide owned and "owned" games and maybe I'll have a look through the other games... and buy something I didn't even know of!

It's even worse on Steam with their new recommendation-stuff. Steam won't stop recommending me The Legend of Heroes, Mark of the Ninja, the old Thief and Deus Ex games, Shovel Knight, The Witcher 1 and 2, Stalker series, Outlast, Shadowrun, Divinity: Original Sin, etc. I already have those games on GOG. This makes their recommendations absolutely useless! I won't buy shit based on them. Yes, I could click this small "not interested" link to get rid of them. But Steam would take this as a "Bah, don't show me those crap games anymore" and refine its algorithm to show me games not similar to them. So... I have two choices: 1. Get good games recommended, which I'll never buy and 2. Tell Steam that I don't like those kind of games, which will end in recommendations of games I don't like. That's not how you make people buy more ;)

I wish for an anti-wish-list of games! I'd like to be able to mark games as 'not wanted', for various reasons:

* I already own the game in other service
* I consider the game overpriced
* The game is being sold with separate DLC/bonus content (I'm only interested in complete editions, and GOG has a different gamecard for many of those)
* The game belongs to a genre/publisher I don't want to have anything to do with

And other stuff... it's not a strictly necesary feature, but it'd help me to avoid compulsive purchases I can regret later. And yes, I know there's a money-back guarantee, and that I should use some self-restraint in the first place; that's what I already do, so it wouldn't be mandatory and definetely not a priority, just a nice-to-have feature. And I'd gladly provide feedback to GOG in case they want to know my reasons for any anti-wish (like a survey).

Hiding games you own on GOG is already a feature... Is the overlap of Steam and GOG's library that big to justify it? I guess so.
That's a good point, though. It would be advantageous to hide "owned" games when it comes to browsing the library. I didn't think about it before because OP and the wishlist focused on the promotional offers.

100% agree. Let's start a wishlist for an anti-wish-list and anti-whishlist while we're wishlisting!

Seriously, though. That's a pretty good idea. I'd vote for it.

*flings poo on voting card