+1

GOG am hoping you are reading this:)

I didn't, for a good reason. Starting to argue with your customers is not very professional, and it is already clear that people who demand GOG to continue supporting the obsolete GOG Downloader would never accept a "no" as an answer, no matter how well GOG rationalized it.

I am sure GOG staff has other work to do besides arguing with hardheads, especially since they can't openly tell some of their customers that their ideas are silly and they are simply wrong. I can. :)

Ignore - can't get quoting right...

That's such nonsense. GOG used to explain things just to show their customers that they care. It is not about arguing it is about a simple explanation and answering some questions that have been posed here. But good that you don't need any communication. In this case you must feel right at home ... because you don't get any.

Also sometimes "they are simply wrong" just does not cut it. So far you did not give me a true explanation of what is so difficult and time consuming to support here and you also did not give me an alternative that does the sanme the downlaoder did. "They are simply wrong" is what you say and you are calling others "hardheads". Not being able or willing to argue is the definition of being a hardhead.

Essentially you seem to be saying "I got one thing, but that isn't/wasn't enough....we deserve and should get more"?

Imo everyone(in general, for many things) should look more at/focus more on what they get/the positives rather than what they don't/the negatives.

(That isn't to say people should take every negative thing a company/person does and accept it, though, or that people should just sit back and "take" whatever anyone/any company does)

Not to denigrate them(though it will likely come off as such), but it will likely be a very small amount(of those who aren't just talk), and others will likely fill in the gaps.

Also imo leaving over such things is a bit of an overreaction(dunno if this is the best term for what I mean).

We already have kickstarter/etc for similar(in terms of getting games made as we want them to be) and they usually do their "jobs" well.........it'd also allow customers to vote with their wallet and get things done by attracting what a good number of companies seem to want more of: People's money.

Tbh if I may be blunt I think you might be worrying too much about such things.....I think people should do things and at least try them and THEN if such things happen THEN we cross that bridge if need be if it comes up.


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That's the thing...they could be more than you think and less than I think.....they were still more than zero, most likely, and took some time(if a small amount) away from other things.

(Dunno how much time/money was spent, though, and am curious...but it's likely GOG will never tell us)

I agree they should be willing to tell us more and should be doing so.

1. There are...I use them all the time for bigger games(They ARE cut into smaller chunks due to file system limitations, though).

2. I dunno as I never used it.

3. People who use GOG galaxy likely do so because they don't mind using it and it likely works for them.

As for GOG DLer, some likely used it because "it worked"(some even said so in this thread) more so than that nothing else would work(as in why change if what one uses works already?), or they have/had spotty internet connections.

The amounts must still be small, though for GOG to be dropping it.

Wrong. Back when e.g. GOG started adding Galaxy installers into all offline installers (increasing their size unneededly), they did react to their customers' wishes, twice even.

First, as the quick solution, they started offering two versions of the offline installers, with and without the embedded Galaxy installer.

Then, later when it was pointed out to them, they finally started offering only one version of the offline installers, without embedded Galaxy installer. Instead, they made the Galaxy option more visible in the download pages, but that was fine with me, as long as the non-Galaxy installers are still available.

As for GOG Downloader, I am pretty sure GOG can see how many people are actually using that old obsolete client, and decided they are supporting too few users by continuing to support it, including creating and adding GOG Downloader links for newer games. GOG probably doesn't want to tell these users "sorry, but there are only like 20 of you, so we can't rationalize for supporting the old client only for you" as, while it might be true, it would make those few people even more sad and angry.

+1 and *slow clap*
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As I said, that was likely them meaning well when small, but as they grew it was likely more for good PR.

(That said I miss such things as the "french monk" videos and other things)

As he said, some wouldn't likely take a no for an answer and would keep wanting GOG to change their minds....some are like that(in general and on anything).....and GOG likely doesn't want to go back-forth with some such types in circles needlessly.

Sorry, but didn't we not just talk about COMMUNICATION - or did we talk about reaction?

Yes, they did this after noticing they were about to lose nearly all of their customers. Great job and also ... has nothing to do with the communication I am hoping for. They did react here as well and scratched the downloader - they just did not explain much which is the reason for so many questions and quite a few displeased customers.

They redesigned the web page in a kind that nearly everything was worse than it was before and shoved the Galaxy installer right into your face. Again - great job ... without user based scripts this probably would have annoyed me much more than it did in the end - but I've learned that GOG simply is not usuable without the help of the community. Unfortunately GOG never noticed how often the community helped their sales and still does ...

I am pretty sure = you assume - I can do this the same as you can ... why don't they just TELL us?

obsolete client = who decides this? It was working and it still is the only tool that can do this. There's no other tool yet that does exactly the same. Not even Galaxy since Galaxy does not show update flags for not installed games.

including creating and adding GOG downloader links
1) We are not talking about INCLUDING - that is basically the ONLY thing which requires work and
2) how much work do you think this would be? Again: That is why I want answers from those who know the answers!

So let's summarize: You just pointed out some of the worst decisiuons GOG made and how feedback of the community helped them not losing their customers. You also tried to explain to me how they are still ciommunicating by not doing any communication but simply react to things. Last but not least you told me that communication is not necessary because you assume several things.

This seems like a good decision. If anyone actually needs a downloader there should be plenty of programs to choose from.
I trust that GOG will continue to provide the offline installation files available for download.
Still, it is a good practice too keep your own backups of the game installation files, just in case something unexpected would happen.

You are nitpicking. They reversed their decisions due to customer reaction, which is all that matters in the end.

But yes, they also replied to some of the messages in those lengthy discussions (like explaining their motives behind it), but again to me it more important how they act, than what they say. I have common sense, I can easily understand or at least guess their motives behind different decisions even if I might find them unpleasant personally and disagree with them (like I did disagree with the idea of adding the Galaxy installer on each and every separate game installer).

Maybe some then need them to spell everything out in detail before it goes through.

Using common sense, their motives behind this were:

1. Even if they said already 5 years ago they are not supporting GOG Downloader anymore, they might still be getting support calls and complaints of it not working, e.g. missing or non-functional GOG Downloader links.

2. For GOG Downloader users to be able to download their games with it, GOG would have to add those separate links for them. That is still extra work. Also if and when they redesign or alter the web pages, they'd get complaints of they didn't remember to include those GOG Downloader links in the new design.

3. They may fear new users may find it confusing that there are so many different ways to access one's games on GOG, so they finally decided to remove the least popular option of them.

They don't need to spell that all out in detail, it is not that hard to figure out really. And even if they did spell all that out, the naysayers just wouldn't accept it but would be even angrier because the GOG staff spelled out the obvious. The people who want GOG to keep supporting the obsolete client don't accept "no" as an answer, no matter how it was explained. That much is obvious, so in that sense any extra communication from GOG would be useless and just add noise to the forum.

Yes I assume it is technically possible for them to track how many of their customers keep selecting the GOG Downloader links. It is not rocket science, it is web science. I made no claim whether they are doing it or not, just that they CAN if they want to.

What would it help if they spelled out there are so few GOG Downloader users left that they don't believe it makes sense to use any time to keep it up? That would make those users feel even more miserable, and angrier too.

They said already five years ago they are not supporting GOG Downloader anymore. Apparently they have exceeded what they promised, because adding GOG Downloader links to new games is still supporting is, as is adding the links to any new web page designs.

It is silly they should waste time gathering and giving exact figures how many hours they've spent during the last five years for GOG Downloader. Even if they did that, the naysayers would still not accept it.

Again you are just nitpicking with semantics. You take "communication" more literally, as in GOG trying to explain over and over again to hardheads certain decisions.

I consider "communication" more broadly here, meaning interaction with customers, which also means their reactions and do they seem to listen to their customers (many people in this thread has claimed they don't listen to their customers at all, while I gave examples where they clearly did just that, reversed their earlier decisions due to customer feedback).

As said, I am less interested in them spelling out different decisions, I am more interested in what they do and how they react.

If your idea is that GOG's business decisions should be made by the customers with some kind of voting system... that is an inane idea. This is not a democracy, only those who have actually invested money on the GOG business (and might lose that money in case GOG folds) have any say on the decisions. Customers can give feedback, but ultimately customers can only decide whether they remain as customers or not.

Moreover, it is silly to think a business should disclose data about its daily operations etc. to customers. Disclosing too much might bring legal trouble to GOG, if e.g. the share owners felt it hurt them.

Windows Downloader 3.6.0 stable

Mac Downloader

I completely agree. I will not use Galaxy and browser downloads stopped working for me a while ago. Not only is it annoying to download so many files and manage them, but the bin files were all corrupted and support could not help me. It was fine if it was just the exe, but most games have the exe and one or more bin files. I started using the downloader because of this and it worked perfectly and conveniently. I guess I have to bug support again about getting this fixed since it waz their suggestion to use the downloader when they couldnt figure out why every file I download is corrupted. That was a year or two ago and I wasnt even aware of the downloader before that.

This...not trying to intentionally or overly offend anyone when I say this, but GOG is a business people frequent.....not our close family or best friends(and anyone who buys from them should expect things[decisions, etc] from them with that in mind).

Big question.
Can i install GOG galaxy and use it purely as a downloader? (no install or checking to see what i have installed etc)