Today marks 10 years since their October 2015 competition, “Jailhouse Stock” – a competition by GOG and Introversion Software to give away more than $100 worth of GOG game codes and Prison Architect T-shirts and other promotional goods - closed with the winners meant to have been contacted and the prizes given out shortly afterwards.

There has been nothing but silence after the initial post except a vague promise to look into it three years after. In the meantime other contests have come and gone, including some others which also have ended without the promised prizes being given out.

Admittedly the IP for Prison Architect was sold by Introversion Software to Paradox in 2019, but this was over 3 years after the close of the contest.

There have been at least three discussion threads on GOG forums drawing attention to this competition in particular, and a similar number for the Frostpunk giveaway which was also abandoned. The original (and official) discussion threads were locked by moderators for no apparent reason except presumably to try and sweep discussion of these abandoned competitions under the carpet.

Some say that these unfulfilled competitions are not really that relevant now as nobody lost anything and many of the GOG staff that would have organised these competitions are certainly no longer still working at GOG due to the high turnover and length of time.

But with GOG’s most recent marketing campaigns centering around the GOG preservation program including begging for optional donations at the time of checkout, and also their nascent GOG Patron scheme – their message is very much “Trust us to keep your favourite games safe and give us extra money to support that mission.” – and it is hard to trust GOG with its past record of flaking out on promises.

I loved the 17th anniversary.

Okay.

As one person may make mistakes and should learn from them and move on, the same way a company may have some miscalculations in its workings and learn from them too. That doesn’t make it an unreliable company. It can happen to anyone (person or company). We all learn and move on. Maybe you should forget those competitions and do the same.

Have you tried getting in contact with an EU legal centre or a Polish office accordingly?

Well, I know of one company that does such things the following way:

1) procure agreements for stuff to give away from Partners, sponsors, what have you
2) make giveaways and contests and such with the most possibly hype
3) the CEOs grab what they want, then distribute the rest to their buddies
4) if anything is left over, the staff gets to pick from the crumbs
5) inthe unlikely case truly anything still is left, the favourite (read: most lucrative) customers get them

6) in only one single case, an actual participant of the contest got a prize. And from what I read, in GOGs versions, this would be infinitely more than what has been handed out.

And yes, if this would have been a one-time thing, then I would chalk it off, but from what I gather, this is an ongoing effort and this took place year after year, despite obvious complaints. So, no, this is not something to just shrug off, even though I know full well we cannot influence it. It are these continued little missteps that progressively undermine trust, and trust is the most valuable asset one can have in these crummy times.

And keeping silent has never been a successful way to correct misbehaviour.

What is it about DRM-free that brings out the crazies, exacly? This is just bizarre.

I don't get what this has to do with DRM? It's about a competition win. It's possible that some people did win it, but GOG decided to not publicly name winners for whatever (data protection?) reasons. But then it also would have caused less confusion if they just made a post saying "The competition has closed, congratulations to the winners!" rather than the usual weird wall of silence.

Sir, this is the Internet.

And what exactly is crazy here? It is, indeed, quite shameful and an extremely bad look for the company to do something like this. And to do that multiple times just boggles the mind. Worse yet, without any apology, explanation or acknowledgement of fault. It absolutely paints a picture of an unreliable company with no respect for their customers and woeful communication with said customer base. The fact that you and others instead mock criticizing it is the best proof of the damage it has done to GOG's image - it has become so normalized the very idea of GOG being held to a better standard is seen as crazy.

And that same company which multiple times outright fooled it's customers like this (intentionally or not) now asks for donations and monthly subscriptions basicaly on "because you like us so much" and "trust me, bro" basis.

But no, it's the person bringing this up that's crazy :D

youtube.com/watch?v=NQrbxYup5cE

I agree, GOG should be dragged before court in Den Haag for this crime against humanity.

I hadn't heard of this before, but if true, I agree this is shameful behavior and you are right to stand up and call it out. How hard would it be for GOG to at least give out some game codes to those who won those competitions, to make amends?

(misread)

Is it possible that the contest merely slipped through the cracks? Perhaps the person in charge of the contest left the company it was reassigned elsewhere.

Has anyone ever reached out to GOG Support to inquire about the results of the contest?

Have the winners ever reached out to the company to request their prize??

What's just bizarre is that there are people not only not bothered by this, but even bothered by those who refuse to "move on" and let it be forgotten.