Thank you for responding Destro. If I might add a few comments:-

It still sounds like you're confusing 2 different things. Few dispute the need for Galaxy for online stuff, but the issue is do you need the equivalent of Valve trying to download and reinstall Steam on every single game bought? Or Adobe bundling Acrobat Reader into every PDF file saved? Massive overkill and huge waste of bandwidth & storage space. Galaxy is something to be downloaded once and from then on should auto-update itself, not something that needs downloading with every single game "just in case". A more sensible solution if you're targeting newcomers to GOG is to install it upon creation of new GOG accounts (or via a link sent in a "Welcome to GOG" e-mail) and create an "idiot proof" guide to reinstalling it should they change computer (with screenshots). As mentioned yesterday, people are happy to do just that with Steam / uPlay / Origin.

Are you saying there will be TWO versions of Offline Installers (on top of already being able to download Galaxy directly as normal)? Having to repackage then upload every game twice over on every game update sounds like a maintenance nightmare that GOG staff will probably get tired of pretty quickly and "reassess" 6 months down the line...

I'm not sure a "middle-ground" makes any sense., You should only need to download Galaxy once and it makes more sense just to do it the same way Steam / UPlay / Origin, etc, work, by a single one-off bandwidth efficient direct download. People using Offline installers (who know what they're doing) still won't use Galaxy, and newbies will want the "proper" Galaxy, not just a cloud version which doesn't work at all offline.

As mentioned above, despite the positive tone, I don't believe this is going to last long given you're increasing your own workload for GOG staff for creating multiple "versions" of offline installers per game, per update...

I know what you're saying and personally I don't hate Galaxy or disagree with it. I do think you need to remember something though - A large chunk of GOG's branding is that you put in the effort to get old games to run. The last thing anyone wants (and the natural enemy to maximising longevity of older games) is add more "hoops to jump through" to get them to run in years to come. The "Online Only Cloud Galaxy version" you mentioned being one of them that's bound to confuse some of the same people you're trying to help simplify. There is only one Steam Client, but you seem to say there will be TWO Galaxies (one BIG and one "compact" that's online only) plus TWO versions of each off-line installer. That's really not simplifying anything for the newbies at all...

Thank you for the post, Destro.

1- can't you just add Galaxy to the list of files to download and make each game setup use that (as an opt-in)?
Duplicating the installers is a nice compromise... but also quite a mess.
2- ok, that seems better to me than adding 150Mb in each setup.

Btw, if Galaxy had an option to manage & update offline installers (properly), it would be easier for some of us to adopt it.

Thank you! That's all I wanted to hear and I can easily live with that solution.

But the next time you plan something like that, please think it through before you go to public with a bad solution that even some of your own employees didn't like. It was clear that your plans would create a shitstorm from your most loyal users (the ones that spent thousands of dollars here) and you could have easily avoided it, by presenting a good solution right from the start. Now once again trust was lost and everytime it gets harder and harder to regain it.

And please don't spent all your energy on Galaxy (even if we all know that it is important). Maybe fix some things on the website as well (like the alphabetical sorting of the collection which is broken for years now or the missing notifications for forum replies, chat and game updates), so that we don't have to feel like second-class customers all the time.

I have to agree whith this also it sound a bit confusing to end user.

But it's nice to see that GOG is listening.

Frankly, this has to be the least elegant solution to a problem that might not even exist. XD

How are those supposedly clueless new GOG users going to deal with the confusion of even MORE options? ;P

Why not just link to a promotion site with Galaxy downloader whenever users click on Account/Games with an optional button "No, thanks. Just take me to my game shelf" and a warning "You won't be able to use all online functions without Galaxy" or something like that, and then keep the shelf and the offline installers just as they are?

Not that this wouldn't be a hassle for those not interested in Galaxy, but it would certainly be the lesser evil, compared to this roundabout Galaxy-in-every-installer business. You could even make that promotion site a one time occurrence and store the users decision not to use Galaxy, I bet. Even if they should change their minds later on, at least then they'd already been enlightened about the existence and use of Galaxy and could find and install it on their own.

Thanks for listening GOG, I'm ok with “classic” installers, hope you won't change it in the future.

The "classic" installers will be hidden, probably as an extra. So the default download will be installed with galaxy. I.e. when a use just selects download game, this is the version they will have

Those who want the "classic" version must actively select it from other options. Which makes sense in relation to the explanation

Ok, first of all thank you for listening to us. Now, please listen to us more. What you propose sidesteps the immediate disaster but it increases your workflow manyfold, is bizarre and complicated, and we're not exactly confident anymore that you have our best interests in mind. This was an extremely poory thought-out idea, which you may have come to realize, and I urge you to return to the drawing board.

I can think of three suggestions on how to proceed and each of them are better than what you outline. I present to them here royalty-free in the hopes that you listen to me.

1) most obviously, forget the whole thing. It was a very bad idea that didn't go down well. My absolute favourite.

2) You already have multi-part installers. Add to them an extra part that is always named galaxy.bin. Make the installer notice if it is present, explain what it is and ASK NICELY if it should be installed at all. When you need to update galaxy, you just update this galaxy.bin, ONE FILE ON YOUR SERVERS, shared by every installer that wants it. One that NO ONE HAS TO DOWNLOAD AT ALL, is EASY TO SKIP by automated means, and DUPLICATES NO WORK for you. My second favourite.

3) Galaxy is not very useful without the network so it shouldn't be a big deal if the network is needed to install it. Instead of including Galaxy with the offline installer and defeating the whole point of offline installers in the first place, just include a screen that says "Galaxy is needed for <feature this> and <feature that>. Download and install? (requires network)". Increases installer size for maybe some kilobytes. I'll live with this.

Yes, this is o.k. for me. But you this approach of course is meaning that you guys would have to update two installers whenever an update needs to be made - so more work - and I really hope this will not lead to the fact that you will say "too much work to maintain both" in the future. If you really keep the classic installers updated as well I am totally all right with this approach. It could even have the benefit that game update flags (whenever they return ;)) could better indicate if there was a Galaxy only update or a real game update.

These solutions are pretty good.

I am pretty sure adaliabooks will find a way to help users here with adalia fundamentals when the time has come (and he himself has enough time). He did so with GOG downloader links vs. normal download links so there should be a way to integrate this as well ... of course I cannot speak fopr him - but there is hope. :)

I'm starting to agree with this. The argument was that a newbie coming to the site downloading an offline installer from the site would also get a change to automatically install Galaxy for all the online features (while installing a game)... but now he will be greeted by a download page that has two different versions, Galaxy and non-Galaxy. I presume their first question is which they should download and why, and why are there two versions to begin with.

It also depends how GOG is going to list them. Are they going to do it like with Darksiders, where the new Warmastered and old Legacy installers are on the same download page one after another, or is GOG going to "hide" the classic non-Galaxy versions to the Extras in order to confuse new users less, but of course only in those cases where there is the Galaxy-embedded version to begin with...

Also I am surprised GOG is fine with the idea how this increases their own workload, but then I guess that is their problem, as long as they keep also the non-Galaxy versions up to date...

And yes, as a gogrepo user, I see this potentially as the worst solution personally. Depends how exactly they differentiate between the Galaxy and non-Galaxy versions. If this means I end up downloading always both the Galaxy-embedded and Galaxy-free version, fuck it, I would much prefer there would only be the Galaxy-embedded version. Downloading two sets of The Witcher 3 for nothing...

I guess that does make more sense. It also makes me a bit less happy with the solution, but it's still better than what was supposed to be.

just brilliant !

wait... are you just trying to get recruited/a job at gog office right under our very nose here ? :)