I am currently having this exact same problem.

I believe I formerly had the HW 2 DLC in my GOG account since I had HW 1 in my backlog, but now I no longer seem to have the HW 2 DLC.

So, how exactly am I supposed to access it?

I agree with the people complaining that DLCs should never be forced onto people who didn't want them.

But it is equally every bit as unacceptable to steal DLCs from people who do want them, which, as far as I can tell at the moment, that seems to be exactly what has happened with this situation.

I would like my DLC to become unstolen from me and returned to me.

And I expect many other GOG customers would also feel the same way. But a lot of them probably did not even realize yet that their DLC has been stolen from them, as indeed I myself did not until this morning, when I tried to access the DLC and then realized it was (apparently, unless I am missing something) stolen from me.

Stealing DLCs from people is no less outrageous than forcing DLCs onto people, and the stealing of DLCS must also cause mass outrage, just like I am now outraged about having my DLC stolen without me asking for nor consenting to that in any way.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/hard_west_2_how_to_acquire_the_faithful_outlaw_reward/post23

Thanks for the info.

However, that solution is still outrageous, because contacting GOG support is burdensome and takes a lot of time and energy. I shouldn't have to do all that in order to beg them to un-steal a DLC that they stole from me, and nor should any other customer either.

Accordingly, this problem is not actually solved, until such time as GOG provides an automatic solution that doesn't require any customer to contact support about this matter.

Which would be acceptable to you?

1: People who own Hard West 1 but not Hard West 2 receive the Hard West 2 DLC.

2: People who own Hard West 1 and Hard West 2 receive the Hard West 2 DLC.

3: People who don't own Hard West 1 but own Hard West 2 receive the Hard West 2 DLC.

4: People who neither own Hard West 1 nor Hard West 2 receive the Hard West 2 DLC.

solution (2) would be best, triggered at two occasions:
1. when the DLC was introduced
and
2. when one or both game are being bought. THAT should be the moment when the DLC gets added to the account.

So I found myself looking at the page for HW2 and I couldn't help but notice that some moderator removed all of the negative reviews complaining about the DLC, meanwhile they conveniently missed the 5/5 review that has nothing to do with the game and only mocks those for complaining about a "free gift".

Well, one who complains usually leaves a bad rating, so that's easy to miss.
Try to report it :)

Considering the time it took me to contact support was maybe 2 minutes, i had no obstacle navigating the support bot, and got a reply the next day on a weekend with the dlc code, you are complaining just for the sake of complaining, instead of solving your issue.

Of course it is. I absolutely agree.

That's because any other company/platform would have simply restricted the addition of that free DLC to users who owned "HW1" (prior to the relase of "HW2" already) AND also "HW2".

That way, owners of both games (more precisely: people who own both games, but bought the first game before the second came out) would have been rewarded for their ongoing support of the devs/publishers.

And people who didn't buy the first game prior to the release of the second game, would either have had to pay for the DLC (if they wanted it) or pass on it forever (or whatever else the devs/publishers decided, really).

THAT would have been the only reasonable way to handle this.
So - of course - GOG took the other way.

Somebody came to the GOG office on that fateful day in October '22, unpacked a digital crowbar, and used brute force to wedge a DLC (which is dependent on a particular base game), into all accounts with a different game.

Not a "stand-alone-DLC", mind you - but a DLC which needs "HW2" as base game.
You know - the kind of DLC, that GOG's own account-system refuses any of us to buy here, as long as we don't also own the base game here.

In other words: that employee with his/her digital crowbar, brute forced that DLC into a system that was not designed to contain/display any "no-stand-alone, but dependent on a base game" DLCs.

Therefore the system didn't allow the users to treat that DLC like any other game/stand-alone-DLC on their shelves...and denied the users the opportunity to simply hide that DLC.

And by not being able to hide it, the total number of games owned was erroneous by one (and permanently so...until one would buy the base game ("HW2"), of course).

I for one, would have been satisfied with the option to simply hide the DLC.

But apparently, GOG's employees, who were able to brute force that DLC into all accounts with "HW1" on them, were unable to also brute force the possibility, to hide the damn thing, into the system.

And that's how we ended with this subpar solution to a problem, which should never have become a problem in the first place.