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General discussionGOG Has Lost Its Value Proposition, Original Mission and Market Niche(73 posts)(73 posts)
(73 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 07, 2020
low rated
I am a very casual gamer, but every 18-24 months or so I'll hunker down for serious modding and game play. As a fan of playing "Grand Old Games", I LOVED the original GOG Downloader approach, which gave me standalone games that could be played under the original OS using retro or, when possible, modern hardware.

In that spirit, over the years I kept some old hardware around for dedicated Win98SE and XP gaming, looking forward to playing some of my GOG games as they were originally intended, and with an authentic retro environment. I recently built two such systems and was hoping to port some GOG games over.

No longer an option under today's GOG, or one made far more cumbersome.

GOG has become quite nearly a carbon copy of Steam, with games requiring the client and so on. Yes, I realize there are a few workarounds and so on, but basically, GOG HAS LOST ITS VALUE PROPOSITION and market niche.

I decided to post this after receiving yet another bundled game offer from Steam, and believe this time I will take them up on it, as I have decided to stop investing any monies in GOG. In the past, I'd pick up a few games on GOG thinking I'd save them for my retro gaming builds, only to now find that is far less possible.

If I really, truly wish to play a grand old game again, the old approach of either original copies, abandonware or the occasional bootleg will have to suffice, with all the advantages that does bring for using retro hardware. Meanwhile, GOG's competitors have a better offer in the world of compromised, DRM or client-only gaming.

TLDR: GOG should be about grand old gaming, not about aping the worst practices of the competition. The upshot: GOG will not be getting my gaming dollars unless there is no other option for a game I need, which I will preferentially source elsewhere whenever possible.
Posted August 07, 2020
high rated
From your post it's not clear at all what are you upset about.
Posted August 07, 2020
What games require Galaxy for playing by yourself? Have you tried the offline installers?
Post edited August 07, 2020 by DoomSooth
Posted August 07, 2020
What are these GRAND OLD GAMES you've been musing about? If you want to go to abandonware sites nobody going to stop you.

People got these really strange expectations for GOG.
Posted August 07, 2020
avatar
DoomSooth: What games require Galaxy for playing by yourself? Have you tried the offline installers?
Only game I can think of is Gwent but that's a multiplayer CCG. with AI sparing if you buy packs and never face a real opponent.
Posted August 07, 2020
high rated
GOG was never about running old games on old hardware, it was originally about running old games on modern hardware. Many of the original operating systems were never supported.
The only game that requires client that I can think of is Gwent, and that requires it for obvious reasons.
Posted August 07, 2020
high rated
You can't realistically expect GOG to support Windows 98 or XP, which not even Microsoft supports anymore.
Posted August 07, 2020
high rated
The original idea GOG had was to run old games in modern hardware and OS's, there has been no change in that. It was never a place to buy old games to run on old HW and OS's.
Posted August 07, 2020
The only thing I would add here to previous posts is that even with the offline installers, GOG are cutting off old compatability, and linking in possible further issues up the road. The reason being is galaxy.dll (and possibly other things, I don’t think anyone checks every update). Also there are some (or have been anyways) games which have such a high multiplayer content as to make them effectively online only (goblins inc, Witcher adventure game, that sword fighting one which I can’t remember the name of) (and yes, there are excuses for everything).
Posted August 07, 2020
avatar
Hlafordlaes: GOG HAS LOST ITS VALUE PROPOSITION and market niche.
No it hasn't.

But if that quoted statement is true, then name an alternative store to GOG that offers:

- Every game is DRM-free (at least in the singleplayer portion of it)

- Every game offers an offline backup installer download

- The store has a selection of games that is on par with GOG in terms of both a) numbers of games offered and b) quality of games offered.

I contend there is no such alternative store.

So long as that remains true (which will probably be forever and/or until/if/when GOG goes bankrupt one day), then GOG is still the best & only good store for fulfilling it's intended purpose.

I also completely disagree with your statement that "GOG should be about grand old gaming." No it shouldn't. And if it had very unwisely tried to have old games & only old games, then it would have, very deservedly, already have gone bankrupt many years ago.
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Melvinica: From your post it's not clear at all what are you upset about.
I think he's upset because GOG offers games that were made for post-Windows XP-era operating systems, and he thinks GOG should not offer any games newer than that XP era.
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ConsulCaesar: You can't realistically expect GOG to support Windows 98 or XP, which not even Microsoft supports anymore.
Neither do hardware vendors, so it's impossible to use modern hardware with such OSes since you can't get drivers for it that work with those OSes.

GOG trying to support the ultra-niche idea of making its games run specifically on dead OSes...that would be a surefire recipe for bankruptcy. But I'm sure GOG's owners realize that and hence would never pursue such an insane course of action.
Post edited August 07, 2020 by Ancient-Red-Dragon
Posted August 07, 2020
low rated
avatar
Hlafordlaes: I decided to post this after receiving yet another bundled game offer from Steam, and believe this time I will take them up on it, as I have decided to stop investing any monies in GOG. In the past, I'd pick up a few games on GOG thinking I'd save them for my retro gaming builds, only to now find that is far less possible.
It is still possible for some games....for some of them GOG provides what is essentially a disc image in their own format.
(I believe, though could be wrong, that it just needs to have the extension changed)

Also for others(dosbox games now in ScummVM) one can run them in dosbox if they can locate a copy of the game's exe file(s) and put it in the folder, and then point dosbox at it.

Sidenote: I agree with some others.....GOG is one of the best for games(vs other stores, that is) as their games are DRM-free and not tied to a client. Not many others do that(zoom-platform is one).
===================

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Ancient-Red-Dragon: I think he's upset because GOG offers games that were made for post-Windows XP-era operating systems, and he thinks GOG should not offer any games newer than that XP era.
I think it's also that they want to run the games in older OSs(that were made for such OSs originally, that is).
Post edited August 07, 2020 by GameRacer
Posted August 07, 2020
avatar
Hlafordlaes: GOG has become quite nearly a carbon copy of Steam, with games requiring the client and so on.
What games?
Posted August 07, 2020
high rated
This would be solved if something that shows up in quite a number of places on the wishlist would be fulfilled:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/iso_image_of_the_original_games_disks_as_bonus
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/provide_original_files_andor_disk_images_with_gog_purchase
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/images_of_original_installation_media
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/provide_disk_images_of_original_install_media
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/offer_original_cd_isos_and_untouched_original_files_for_use_on_legacy_hardware_for_old_titles
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/original_but_fully_patched_versions_of_games
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/original_but_fully_patched_versions_of_games
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/release_original_unpatched_versions_of_games_for_legacy_hardware_users
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/original_game_files
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/original_diskette_and_cd_images
(Just on a quick search, and didn't include entries specific to DOS or Win 9x titles or those with less than 10 votes.)
Posted August 07, 2020
avatar
Hlafordlaes: In that spirit, over the years I kept some old hardware around for dedicated Win98SE and XP gaming, looking forward to playing some of my GOG games as they were originally intended, and with an authentic retro environment. I recently built two such systems and was hoping to port some GOG games over.
On a side note, I hope you at least got rid of the CRT monitors - those things were awful for your eyes. I am so glad we got rid of those things. Maybe they're fine for occasional retro gaming, but to have it as a main monitor, back in the day... I could see fireworks going off in my retina before falling asleep.
Posted August 07, 2020
avatar
Hlafordlaes: I am a very casual gamer, but every 18-24 months or so I'll hunker down for serious modding and game play. As a fan of playing "Grand Old Games", I LOVED the original GOG Downloader approach, which gave me standalone games that could be played under the original OS using retro or, when possible, modern hardware.

In that spirit, over the years I kept some old hardware around for dedicated Win98SE and XP gaming, looking forward to playing some of my GOG games as they were originally intended, and with an authentic retro environment. I recently built two such systems and was hoping to port some GOG games over.

No longer an option under today's GOG, or one made far more cumbersome.

GOG has become quite nearly a carbon copy of Steam, with games requiring the client and so on. Yes, I realize there are a few workarounds and so on, but basically, GOG HAS LOST ITS VALUE PROPOSITION and market niche.

I decided to post this after receiving yet another bundled game offer from Steam, and believe this time I will take them up on it, as I have decided to stop investing any monies in GOG. In the past, I'd pick up a few games on GOG thinking I'd save them for my retro gaming builds, only to now find that is far less possible.

If I really, truly wish to play a grand old game again, the old approach of either original copies, abandonware or the occasional bootleg will have to suffice, with all the advantages that does bring for using retro hardware. Meanwhile, GOG's competitors have a better offer in the world of compromised, DRM or client-only gaming.

TLDR: GOG should be about grand old gaming, not about aping the worst practices of the competition. The upshot: GOG will not be getting my gaming dollars unless there is no other option for a game I need, which I will preferentially source elsewhere whenever possible.
In terms of old games... well, as times progress to are new games becoming old ones. When Gog was new Skyrim was some hype no one played yet; by now its old (still not on gog and all involved should of course ashamed by it but not the point).

In terms of annoying client nonsense leg-humping plus giving up on all but DRM free principles... yeah, guilty.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGOG Has Lost Its Value Proposition, Original Mission and Market Niche(73 posts)(73 posts)
(73 posts)