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An option for this would be for GOG to release games that have already been made free/public/domain/open source by the original creator/publisher. That way there is little to no cost to put it up aside from getting the program to run on modern hardware. This can have some benefits:

-Gives people some free games with little risk on GOG in terms of finance.
-Many games are classic/older games which would appease those wanting older titles.
-Give a classic game that may have been overlooked at original release a second chance to shine.
-Allows more casual people access to a game they may not be able to get running on a modern PC if they do not know how to operate shell programs or editing/adding files to get it to run.
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wolfsite: An option for this would be for GOG to release games that have already been made free/public/domain/open source by the original creator/publisher. That way there is little to no cost to put it up aside from getting the program to run on modern hardware. This can have some benefits:

-Gives people some free games with little risk on GOG in terms of finance.
-Many games are classic/older games which would appease those wanting older titles.
-Give a classic game that may have been overlooked at original release a second chance to shine.
-Allows more casual people access to a game they may not be able to get running on a modern PC if they do not know how to operate shell programs or editing/adding files to get it to run.
Good ideas...by doing so GOG could act partly like a public library for freeware games(that used to be AAA titles/etc).
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hedwards: All the free games and gifts are more or less what destroyed the community. It's still OK, but a faint shadow of what it once was. It even got to the point where they've had to admit that moderation was necessary.

Also, if you're poor, I can totally relate,, there are tons of genuine freeware and shareware games out there from olden times that are great. Not nautical enthusiasm required.
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GameRager: 1. You could also say it bolstered the community by bringing in some actually nice people along with the freeloaders. Also, saying the forums are much worse now is(imo) stretching it just a bit. There were some shady types back when the forums first started as well as spammers/scammers, just like now.

As for moderation: I think they also started doing it both to placate the ones making the biggest complaints/as a gesture of goodwill & also for good PR(in the eyes of newcomers/oldtimers).

2. Agreed on the last bit wholeheartedly. :)
I can't agree with you there, the forum used to be rather special, one of the few places on the net that hadn't been ruined by a bunch of griefers and beggars.

Why do you think that folks were demanding moderation if there hadn't been a change? For the first couple years of the forum it was a relatively minor nuisance. It just got to the point where GOG could no longer pretend like there wasn't a problem.

As for some nice people along with the freeloaders, some is the operative word there, having all these generous prizes being given out both by GOG and by individual users definitely shifted the scale substantially towards freeloaders.

That whole years' long thread about scammers and people that don't abide by the rules of the giveaway is a really good example of what I'm talking about. You can't give things away and expect that people are going to honor the commitment after getting their loot. At least not if you're not restricting the gift to people you know to be good actors.
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GameRager: Agreed, but on the other hand I also think even the poorest deserve some form of entertainment(of any sort).
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TerriblePurpose: And if it's video games that are their passion for entertainment, they can get a ton of free games from several legal sources. There's absolutely no need to go begging GOG to put more games up for free. If the OP just grabbed free games from all the places that offer them, while also watching for others to pop up, they'd have enough games to play for years.
This == true

At this point, there are tons of great games out there that have either been freed or were always for free from the beginning. And while there is a lot of crap out there, there are some great games that are legitimately free and in some cases they're actually better than what's for sale.
Post edited May 15, 2019 by hedwards
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hedwards: I can't agree with you there, the forum used to be rather special, one of the few places on the net that hadn't been ruined by a bunch of griefers and beggars.

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Why do you think that folks were demanding moderation if there hadn't been a change? For the first couple years of the forum it was a relatively minor nuisance. It just got to the point where GOG could no longer pretend like there wasn't a problem.

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As for some nice people along with the freeloaders, some is the operative word there, having all these generous prizes being given out both by GOG and by individual users definitely shifted the scale substantially towards freeloaders.
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That whole years' long thread about scammers and people that don't abide by the rules of the giveaway is a really good example of what I'm talking about. You can't give things away and expect that people are going to honor the commitment after getting their loot. At least not if you're not restricting the gift to people you know to be good actors.
There we're beggars and scammers back then too(albeit to a lesser degree), and some were pretty infuriating/bothersome iirc.

As someone memed on another less popular site when someone said "this site isnt as good as it used to be"....."x site was never good". This might be stretching it a bit(as this site has been good on many occasions), but the general sentiment of not looking through rose colored glasses when evaluating things is a good one, imo.
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People were demanding moderation since the problems sprang up.....over time more voices were added as newcomers added to their sentiments and eventually GOG caved into the pressure and added them. I'm not saying the issues haven't gotten more multiplied over time(all growing sites experience this kind of thing)...just that saying/alluding to the fact that the site has gotten vastly worse over time is a bit of stretch from where i'm standing.
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It depends on who you count as a freeloader...one who comes to the site just for the giveaways or one who contributes to the site but also enters all/many giveaways.

Also, as I said above this happens with all sites....this doesn't necessarily mean a site is vastly worse off for having such types on it. Also, many such freeloaders(the actual bad ones) are easy to spot and ignore by most.
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Giveaways(again imo) rules should be up to the one doing them, imo....if they want to give to all and be more fair then fine, and if they want to give only to trusted people to avoid people reselling keys/doing other bad things then also fine....but i'd rather let in a bunch of people if it means we get some new people/blood and the sites/community'business grows rather than letting the site/business stagnate over time due to limiting the community's size.
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GameRager: Giveaways(again imo) rules should be up to the one doing them, imo....if they want to give to all and be more fair then fine, and if they want to give only to trusted people to avoid people reselling keys/doing other bad things then also fine....but i'd rather let in a bunch of people if it means we get some new people/blood and the sites/community'business grows rather than letting the site/business stagnate over time due to limiting the community's size.
That seems awfully naive. It's like those women that show a bunch of skin and then are shocked and upset that people look. Trying to control what other people do is very, very hard and in the case of GOG, impossible as GOG rightly refuses to get involved in most of those situations.
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GameRager: Giveaways(again imo) rules should be up to the one doing them, imo....if they want to give to all and be more fair then fine, and if they want to give only to trusted people to avoid people reselling keys/doing other bad things then also fine....but i'd rather let in a bunch of people if it means we get some new people/blood and the sites/community'business grows rather than letting the site/business stagnate over time due to limiting the community's size.
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hedwards: That seems awfully naive. It's like those women that show a bunch of skin and then are shocked and upset that people look. Trying to control what other people do is very, very hard and in the case of GOG, impossible as GOG rightly refuses to get involved in most of those situations.
Yes, but GOG is first and foremost a business....as such, selling units is key to their continued growth/survival, regardless of what people do with their purchases afterwards.
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TARFU: "deserve"?

ooh...yeah...um, I'm going to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there. Yeah, no one really "deserves" anything or is entitled to "free stuff",...
This guy has never heard of OPM.
Post edited May 16, 2019 by richlind33
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hedwards: That seems awfully naive. It's like those women that show a bunch of skin and then are shocked and upset that people look. Trying to control what other people do is very, very hard and in the case of GOG, impossible as GOG rightly refuses to get involved in most of those situations.
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GameRager: Yes, but GOG is first and foremost a business....as such, selling units is key to their continued growth/survival, regardless of what people do with their purchases afterwards.
Freebies cost them money if the people being attracted by the giveaways aren't buying. Plus, GOG has been doing an awful lot the last few years to chase folks away.
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TARFU: "deserve"?

ooh...yeah...um, I'm going to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there. Yeah, no one really "deserves" anything or is entitled to "free stuff",...
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richlind33: This guy has never heard of OPM.
Where else is that free stuff going to come from other than via OPM?
Post edited May 16, 2019 by hedwards
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richlind33: This guy has never heard of OPM.
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hedwards: Where else is that free stuff going to come from other than via OPM?
"OPM" is the dirty little secret to making it to the top, not hard work and fair play, so is it any great surprise that the lumpen proles try to emulate their "betters"?
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TARFU: "deserve"?

ooh...yeah...um, I'm going to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there. Yeah, no one really "deserves" anything or is entitled to "free stuff",...
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richlind33: This guy has never heard of OPM.
How come anyone never heard of One Punch Man?
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GameRager: Yes, but GOG is first and foremost a business....as such, selling units is key to their continued growth/survival, regardless of what people do with their purchases afterwards.
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hedwards: Freebies cost them money if the people being attracted by the giveaways aren't buying. Plus, GOG has been doing an awful lot the last few years to chase folks away.
By that comment above that you replied to I was talking about new customers coming to GOG in general.

I agree they have been messing up on some fronts lately, though(the "too niche" excuse for some games[even good looking/popular ones], the various bugs on some browsers[even mainstream ones], etc).
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hedwards: Freebies cost them money if the people being attracted by the giveaways aren't buying. Plus, GOG has been doing an awful lot the last few years to chase folks away.
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GameRager: By that comment above that you replied to I was talking about new customers coming to GOG in general.

I agree they have been messing up on some fronts lately, though(the "too niche" excuse for some games[even good looking/popular ones], the various bugs on some browsers[even mainstream ones], etc).
I realize that, but bringing folks in via free stuff isn't something that works very well. The vast majority will get the freebie and then leave or stay as beggzars looking for handouts and generally posting dribble like this thread.
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richlind33: This guy has never heard of OPM.
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M3troid: How come anyone never heard of One Punch Man?
OPM is how you get down with OPP.
Post edited May 16, 2019 by hedwards
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hedwards: I realize that, but bringing folks in via free stuff isn't something that works very well. The vast majority will get the freebie and then leave or stay as beggzars looking for handouts and generally posting dribble like this thread.
If it brings in enough customers then usually a business will take the acceptable loss & focus on the revenue the actual customers brought in.

As for actual beggars(the scammers/ones who just stay for handouts & giveaways), many users can already handle them through making rules for their giveaways/ignoring them or reporting the actual scammers/troublemakers.

All in all, GOG's forum has it's issues but it's not as bad as say reddit/the chans/the steam forums/etc. There are many good users here and many good threads to partake in(non giveaways/etc), and the userbase can usually handle most of the issues that popup. As such, I feel this forum is a good bit above the quality of other sites in many respects, and see no major problem(that we or mods cannot solve) with adding more customers to the userbase....especially if we get some actual good users along with the bad.
I definitely agree with the OP.

We need more free games, only it is "free" as in "free speech", not so much as in "free beer". In other words, games freed from the claws of DRM.

But I kinda also agree with having more games that we don't need to pay for, exactly as explained by wolfsite. Why not add games that were made freeware by the rights owner?


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hedwards: ...bringing folks in via free stuff isn't something that works very well. The vast majority will get the freebie and then leave or stay as beggzars looking for handouts and generally posting dribble like this thread.
I gotta disagree, at least on the grounds that if it absolutely didn't work Gog wouldn't be doing it for all these years. Unless you have some insider knowledge of their retention statistics that no one here is privy of?
Oh yeah, I also have the personal reason that it worked for me. I bought a truckload of games in the years since, yet the game I got back then is still unplayed.

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Ancient-Red-Dragon: I don't think GOG should ever give away any more free games, because all that seems to accomplish is to cost GOG money, and yet it gives GOG no benefit. Just look at the 10th Anniversary when they gave away Shadow Warrior 2 for free, which was a high value game.

That sure didn't seem to help GOG grow their userbase or increase their sales at all.
I'm sorry, but do you have any source for this information or is it being pulled out of any dark unpleasant orifices?
Post edited May 16, 2019 by joppo
Most of the time when GOG is giving away a free game that I don't particularly care for, I won't even redeem the game because I know that it's probably costing GOG money to give that game away, and I'll probably never play it. I have a ton of games in my library that were free, or purchased at a dirt cheap price, so I have nothing to complain about.