Interesting take

http://steamed.kotaku.com/steam-refunds-could-cause-some-big-problems-1708523970

It's always when it's Steam isn't it.... I don't remember anyone (well, "press") bringing these issues up when it came to Origin/GOG.

"Now what?"
No difference. Steam still sucks.

I think I'll wait and see whether the two-hour thing actually causes a bunch of people to take advantage of it before I get upset. I remember when GOG introduced their refunds, and there was plenty of "But what if people back up the downloader and then pretend they can't get the game working?" but I don't know that that actually happens a whole lot.

- My first point is about the accuracy (I bolded that) : it would have been nice to know what exactly is not in that category (is that just what is mentionned in the following points). As it is written, it is quite hollow.
- My second point is about the 'any reason' (I bolded that too).

Point is, it's not a big deal, just annoying as I said.

Cute how they mention 'denying refunds' then put 'customer service' as a link - as if denying people refunds is somehow in the interest of customers.

And then complaints on 'why they dont let reviews of games shorter than 5 minutes'. Seriously, it's healthy that people sell 5min games... yet its unhealthy to have expectations of longer than 5min games. What's unhealthy is that less-than-5 minute shovelware ends up on Steam.

Fuck, I'm defending GabeN? Hell's gonna freeze over one of these days. My fault of clicking on kotaku links.

It's the analogy of turning an aircraft carrier. That is a big company with the majority of the market's attention focused on it, so change doesn't come quick or easy.

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I don't use Steam at all but am having a tough time seeing this as a bad thing for the customers of any game store. Sure, it somewhat lessens the impact of one of gOg's selling points but if it works out well then maybe (?) it will be a shift toward other consumer-friendly policies throughout the industry.

Of course they are going to replace the downloader with Galaxy, since when Galaxy is finished it will do the same thing as the downloader does i.e. download installers and then not have to be touched for anything else or again for that matter till you seek to download another installer. So it's a waste of time and rescorces to maintain two programs that serve the same function to placate a small minority of people who seem to hate anything labeled as a client. All you have to do is just cick on the more button and then get "Backup & Extras" and there is the installers. Yes Galaxy has things some people may not be intrested in like achivements and all that fluff but again they are optional and when the feature is added can be completely disabled. And yes I get the well what's the point in making those who will never use the bloody thing for anything else but downloading installers and nothing else use it when they already have a program that does that for us?

Again I point out time, rescorces and money. In order to for them to have both Galaxy and the Downloader they need to have someone or a group of someones to mantain and update the software in case there are issues either currently or down the road. GOG is not Valve, EA or Ubisoft they are not a large multi-million to billion dollar company they are fairly small, bigger then they were a few years back but still small and so I don't think they have the manpower to divide up their staff where one maintains Galaxy and the other the Downloader, nor the money to hire a second group to mantian the downloader and even if they did what is the motivation to do so? if your running a company you invest your money into things you feel will at the very least cover the cost of a project but ideally you want to make a profit and the cost it would be to hire additional staff to maintain the downloader even if it only requires lets say one to two people would not be recouped by those too stubborn to let go of the downloader for whatever reason, unless Galaxy in it's final "release" state is a total buggy piece of shit, then okay I can see wanting to stick to the downloader after Galaxy is out of Beta but for now I don't see much logic in it(holding on to it after the fact) if Galaxy works as intended, possible minor issues aside.

So with that in mind of course they are going to start burying the downloader links as they have stated many times the downloader will no longer be updated from this point forward more then likely for the reasons I mentioned above. So why have links that activate a obsolete piece of software that should it "break" that is it out in the open?

Again outside of Galaxy when it is out of beta still having really nasty issues that seem to never get corrected, it's just doesn't make any sense.

The experience varies, actually. For the last ticket I submitted, I had to wait a week to get the initial response, but the follow up was done within the same day. The problem, which affects many more than just me, was not solved though, and may not be solved at all.