Vainamoinen: A shitstorm that naturally extended to Season 2 in which not a single line was changed.
I already saidfit and I will say it again: The "shitstorm" for Season 2 was simply calling the devs out to reconsider their changes in Season 1 BECAUSE people would love to buy Season 2. If customers would tell me that they would love to buy not just my new game but also the one before it I would be delighted and maybe I would reconsider. It was THEIR decision to make the release of season 1 that problematic. Nobody forced them ... it was THEIR decision to not reconsider even after they released season 2 and people announced that they would buy that one as well in an instant if it wasn't for their decision in seaosn 1 ... nobody forced them.
I have had a lot of contacts with indie devs and those who had success were in most cases those who actually listened and talked to their potential customer base. I have no pity at all to those who don't and then start to complain about how the game won't sell or that people post their - completely valid - opinion about it.
Vainamoinen: Well I guess if you don't beat up the developers in your very special care for every new game of theirs, they start making the same "mistakes" again. Better to always slap them silly while they're young, all the grown up ones are assholes anyway. And a little extortion can't hurt. It's a nice game you have there, it would be so sad if something really bad happened to it. You better put that white dude back in who's trying to sound black, or ... whoooops, lookie, your game fell down. So sorry.
Please stop treating devs as if they are little kids - a dev who can't even handle a bit of constructive critizism (they brought on their own) should maybe stop developing games all together because the world out there is pretty rough - not juust on GOG. We are not talking about a new game, we are talking about an already existing game they tried to make better while still aiming at the original target group of Sam and Max - which usually does not like censoring very much. Censoring Sam and Max (we are NOT just talking about another voice as you tried to express, we are talking about changed lines) seems to be a joke on its own and it would have surprised me if the game would have been a success.
Vainamoinen: What's not to believe?
The developer was pondering the release here and eventually decided to delay it. Which was a great idea actually, because they released Season 2 on Steam to 97% positive reviews (much better reviews than Return to Monkey Island by the way). They released here two months later after GOG personnel kindly asked and got shitstormed AF immediately.
I still find it hard to believe that GOG actually asked a dev to release their new game here - especially since the first one wasn't a success. Do you have a source in which GOG confirmed this?
Vainamoinen: Four altered lines among 30.000 and a switched out voice actor for Season 1, if somebody gives me that as the reason not to buy an in many respects incredible remaster, I laugh, I shrug, and I say "you do you".
I wonder if you'd say the same thing if you'd buy a movie that was altered in this way. I would not buy a censored movie as well and so I can understand everybody who passed on this release.
Vainamoinen: But if that somebody goes on GOG and writes three iterations of the same slanderous review for the sequel without ever having touched the game, all of which get deleted by GOG, that dude is trying to exercise a bonkers revenge after a perceived personal insult. He's trying to tell the developer that his game is not welcome here. Which of course is a decision the dude can only make for himself by not buying it, but not for everybody else
as he's actively preventing games to release here.
I know that sometimes reviews here on GOG can hardly be called "review" and I guess that at least some people were that angry that they simply shouted and insulted ... it happened in the past and it will happen again ... but I still don't think that we are talking about hundreds of those and the fact that the game has been edited is ... well - still a fact and imo it is perfectly okay to inform people about it in a review - of course this should always happen in a calm and objective way.
Vainamoinen: We'll have to face the reality of the situation: review bombing does play a part in many developers' decision to delay or not even attempt a GOG release.
I don't think it is a fact at all - but you have your opinbion and I have mine.
Vainamoinen: Return to Monkey Island, possibly, included.
So no bad revies on Steam? No bad reviews on twitter, youtube, facebook ...? GOG was the only forum in which the artstyle was not very welcome? Maybe you should search the net a bit more .... the few discussions here about the artstyle were just a drop in regard to the discussions in Ron's blog, on twitter, facebook, youtube and steam as well ... yet the game is not released on GOG and GOGers asking about it will get ignored.
Vainamoinen: The Devil's Playhouse Remaster, definitely included. As long as GOG is Boycott Central, it shouldn't be surprising that customers get none of the newer games and are always treated as an absolute afterthought.
Boycott central? What on earth are you talking about?
Vainamoinen: I have nothing against people who boycott themselves into second class citizenship - I've done the same for over a decade by never using Steam. But I'm not dragging anybody down with me.
Those who decided to boycott also don't drag anybody with them. The boycott thread exists for several years now and the list of those who actively boycotted buying games on GOG are quite few (so you can hardly call this boycott central) ... also most of them simply want to change things that went wrong in the past. They don't boycott to bring GOG down they do so in the hope it might bring GOG to make things better.
Vainamoinen: The system always seemed a little strange to me. If the customers love a game, why would the opinions of non customers even interest me in the slightest?
Not owning the game here on GOG does not have to mean that they don't own it at all - maybe that is the reason ... also GOG started - as we all know - with good old games so they might hope that even those who'd played some of the games a long time ago will give those games a good review without even buying it.