First off: This is not flame-bait and this is not a rant - there is a legitimate question in there somewhere. Citizens, hear me out!

I've been on GOG since 2010 (1713 days today, to be precise), and in that time I've purchased more games than I'd know how to count. In other words, I was a GOG loyalist, espousing its virtues from the rooftops and 'recruiting' several of my friends to use this as their default game store.

However.

I've actually been boycutting GOG ever since the flat price fiasco, as I was one of "those people" who believed in the three 'core values' back then - DRM-free, flat price worldwide and compatibility with new systems - and felt incredibly betrayed by the sudden dropping of one of them. Both on principle and because as someone living in a non-Euro European country, I got doubly screwed by the change - first by unfavorable conversion from $ to €, and then by an even more unfavorable conversion from € to my local currency, DKK. At least, that's how I understood it, I'm no economist.

Looking back today at GOG's apology, I still find it hard to be trusting: Point One seems tarnished by the recent archive password debacle (and yes, I know that was just to make things easier for the user - Steam uses the same excuse), Point Two seems shaky at best - although I'll admit I don't know if GOG has found some bulletproof way of updating exchange rates.
As for Point Three it seems straight-up false: At least I can't find any place to choose to pay in USD (which I would LOVE to, to bypass the double-exchange-rate nonsense). Did they go back on this or am I just blind?

Overall, GOG just struck me as happy amateurs who had no idea what they were doing, and charming as that may be, it emphasized the ever-present element of risk: I had to ask myself 'Can I trust GOG not to f*ck up more than they have done currently?', and the answer was a resounding 'no'. Asking the same of Steam (since, tbh, for me GOG was always more about the old games, the compatibility and the flat price than the DRM-freedom) made Steam come out on top - the Devil you know is better than the Devil you don't. So I actually moved back to my Steam library (mainly through Humble) out of sheer frustration.

However, one year has passed and a craving for some particular old adventure games had me thinking of GOG again. I really want to believe that GOG learned their lesson and stopped throwing their principles overboard in an attempt to become competitive... But obviously, I haven't been in the loop so I have no idea what's been going on.

So, a question for people who remember the whole rigmarole from a year ago, and felt burned by it back then: How did GOG regain your trust? Has GOG improved in your view? What principles does GOG have today that, in your eyes, make them superior to a competitor like Steam?

Regional pricing does not affect me, I think it's because I live in the United Stats of America.

The 2 things that gog.com is more superior than Steam for me. Is the video games being sold are compatible with modern Operating Systems (OS') and modern hardware. As well as being 100% Digital Rights Management (DRM) free.

Nope, that third point ain't false at all.

"I've actually been boycutting GOG ever since the flat price fiasco"


Boycutting is totally not cool.

Unless you're Jewish. In which case, at least you have an excuse.

Currently GOG has 8-10% or something marketshare so it can't set any trend, yet, on the market as a whole.
So it makes sense to implement regional prices (the "lesser evil" sort to speak) in order to grow more and reach an important marketshare that will give them the power to somehow influence the market. And only then make a push for flat worldwide prices, when normally it has a higher chance of success.

Think smart of it as loosing one battle but looking ahead on the long-term in order to win the war.
(of course DRM-free is non-negotiable so please don't bring this argument up).

At least that's my take in this matter, and despite the fact that I don't like regional pricing at all I understand the reasons behind why gog chosed to adopt it and thus came to neutral term with it.

Five weeks ago GOG still had "only" 132 regionally priced games. Today it has 974 (but "only" 104 of those affect Denmark).
Three months ago GOG had zero regionally banned games. Today it has 6 (4 in Australia, 2 in Germany).

There are valid medical reasons for boycutting. Rare, but it does happen.

My naive trust is gone but I still favor GoG over every other shop, even over the few DRM free stuff in the Humble Store because the Linux ports here mostly work out of the box even if they are often coming very late to the party.
Since DRM-free is obligatory for me, Steam is out of the question and so are all the pure resellers.

Shinyloot is even more amateurish and sometimes lying about the DRM-free status of some games, so does Desura and Gamers Gate has it's own little DRM like barrier. Indie Game Stand sells of a lot of unfinished stuff and pure garbage.

In the end, the great community, the lack of alternatives, the good service and the recent DRM free additions of Lucas Arts and Warner Brothers got me back on board but I'm miffed because even the old Airline Tycoon has gotten this RP treatment and I don't think anything was won with the introduction of regional pricing since it didn't get anyone to add AAA games here as was promised.

By now I've accepted reluctantly, that GoG is the only real chance of convincing the clueless CEOs of the big puplishers that DRM is utter bullshit. I'm still also voting with my wallet regarding the other core values though, even here.

Let's hope Bethesda signs a deal with GoG some day, maybe after Witcher 3.
This would really change the landscape.

Nah, I only really care about DRM-free.

They give credit though for regional pricing differences.

Honestly, the one world price thing is nice, if they can do it, but silly to have as a pillar of this business. The reason is that even if all the prices were equal, VATs exist and have to be paid, which make the prices unequal.

Taxes usually come off of the top... if so, a VAT of 25% means the product would need to be marked up over +33% to cover it. If it were a VAT of 33%, the product would need to be marked up at least +50% to cover it. I am jealous that I did not catch that first and make a horror yaoi joke.

As far as I can tell GOG doesn't have any principles they won't drop if they feel like they can make more money doing so.
Except perhaps for the DRM-free one since that's basically all they have left.
As for boycotting.. I feel like that would affect me a lot more than it would any business, so I'll just keep buying games where and when I want them.

Actually, the USD/EUR conversion used by GOG is usually very close to the average exchange rate and only deviates slightly when there is a huge increase or decrease in the euro price, before GOG has time to readjust. This deviation can be in both EUR or USD favour. There used to be a time when it was cheaper (compared to mean exchange rate) to buy in euro, and at times it's a bit mroe expensive. This generally depends on whether the price of euro is rising or falling. In general the GOG exchange is usually lagging behind, though sometimes in extreme cases (like the recent crash of the ruble), they try to anticipate what will and adjust accordingly, which might lead to even worse deviations, but these are rare cases.

Either way, you can pay only once for the coversion by your bank. Either USD->DKK or EUR->DKK (check the screenshot in Gragar's post). Assuming the rates charged by the bank are not dependent on the currency, you can choose whichever is better at the time. At the moment it's definitely USD, but as I said, sometimes it'd be better for you to choose euro as your price.

Regional pricing was never that big an issue to me, even if I preferred flat pricing in principle. Either way, I only buy a game if I find the price agreeable, regional pricing or not. Frankly, I was a bit surprised how big a deal the regional pricing seemed to be for some people.

All I want though is that GOG doesn't scare publishers away with its current regional pricing practices (Nordic Games?). If that is the case, then yes GOG should change the system to something simpler, once again. In this order:

1. Supported DRM-free.

2. GOG takes more pride and responsibility over the games they sell on their store, than Valve does with Steam, or Humble Bundle. I don't even mind if this causes patches to appear to GOG later than on Steam. For instance, getting the missing X-Wing and TIE Fighter games to the Star Wars collections, free of charge, is just one example of this.

3. The refund policy is also quite nice, but I personally don't see myself using it much. If a game refuses to run on my specific system, I probably still choose to keep the game, in case I can play it on my future PC. Take for example Gorky 17, on some of my PCs it runs fine, on others more or less crappily.

As some already said, it is possible to buy either in USD or EUR :) I always check the current exchange rate to check if it's better to buy in USD or in EUR at that particular moment.

When GOG adjusts the prices, it's better to buy in EUR, but right now it's better to buy in USD since EUR got a bit stronger. As long as they keep the option to pay in USD I am fine with local currencies.

It had 2 actually. The Witcher 2 (AU) was only available in Australia, while The Witcher 2 was not available in Australia. The occasional question from Australians about why TW2 is not listed as owned does show that there are 2 different games (as far as the game ID is concerned), and I think I have seen at least one person with both games on their shelf.

But noone ever counts TW2 for regional things, not pricing, not restrictions. I wonder why.

I think you understand the concept of VAT wrong. It doesn't represents 25% (or whatever %) of the product's price. It represent exactly a 25% markup. So if without 25% VAT something would cost $1, with 25% VAT applied it will cost 1.25.
And regional prices were never about VAT. They are about competing with physical retailers.