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General discussionWelcome to the fresher, better GOG.com!(1812 posts)(1812 posts)
(1812 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted August 27, 2014
New features, local currency option, new payment methods, store credit, and an updated look for GOG.com!

For almost six years now we strive to bring you not only the best in DRM-Free gaming, but also to give you the greatest experience possible. To that end we're always looking for ways to improve our site and service. Today, we're rolling out a vastly updated version of our store with an improved interface, sleek new look, and lots of handy new features. Let's take a quick tour, shall we?

Video: Welcome to the fresher, better GOG.com!

First of all we are giving you more DRM-free content: movies! We are starting with 20 documentaries about internet and gaming culture but we aim high! You can find more on this in the appropriate newspost, so let's focus on the other features we're rolling out.

We wanted to give you more choice as to how you pay for things on GOG.com. Now it's up to you if you want to pay in US Dollars, or in the currency primarily used in your country, whether it's the Euro, Pounds Sterling, Australian Dollars, or Russian Roubles. That's four new currencies supported by GOG.com for your convenience. Still - the choice is yours, so if you want to stick to US dollars, just switch to it - you find this option at the bottom of each page. To make buying things at GOG.com an even more flexible process, we're introducing some new payment methods: Sofort, Giropay, Webmoney, and Yandex.

All this also means that users for whom the local currency pricing has been enabled will have an option to select one of two different prices for each game in our catalog. Of course, we stand by the simple truth that $1 does not equal 1€, so a game with a $5.99 price tag will cost 4.49 Euro, 3.69 British Pounds, 6.49 Australian Dollars, and 219 Roubles respectively. $9.99 translates to 7.49 Euro, 5.99 Pounds Sterling, 10.89 Australian Dollars, and 359 Roubles. In a perfect world we would apply the same method of pricing to all of the games we offer. However, things are a little bit more complicated, and there are some games in our catalog that follow a different region-based pricing scheme. However, we wouldn't be GOG.com if we didn't find a way to make right by the users who end up paying relatively more for such titles. Here's where the Fair Price Package comes in!

The Fair Price Package applies to all of the titles which we couldn't include in our standard pricing scheme. If you end up paying more for a game than its standard US Dollar price, we'll refund you the difference out of our own pocket. The refunded value will be added to your account in Store Credit in the currency of your purchase. That's right, no more gift codes, you'll be getting Store Credit that you can use to purchase anything on GOG.com or partially pay for an item that's more expensive. More choice, ease of use, and less limitations!

Finally, the GOG.com store has gotten itself a substantial visual revamp. We went for a fresh, mobile-friendly design that should make it even easier to find the games you want, notice the hot promos, and see what's new. The main page, catalog view, product pages, and checkout have been updated and also lay the groundwork for even more overhaul, coming within the next few months together with many of the GOG Galaxy features. We hope you like it!

PS. Unfortunately, we need to drop some titles from our classic catalog. In such cases, we always do our best to give you an advance warning and a last chance to purchase such games - preferably with a considerable discount. Check this news post to find out which titles are being removed from our catalog, when will it happen, and what parting discounts for them do we currently offer.
Post edited August 27, 2014 by G-Doc
Posted August 30, 2014
Your page says:
GOG.com is the 2nd biggest independent distribution platform of PC, MAC & Linux games worldwide.
Measured in what? If we only take legal platforms into consideration, both Steam and Desura offer more games.
Posted August 30, 2014
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Protoss: Your page says:

GOG.com is the 2nd biggest independent distribution platform of PC, MAC & Linux games worldwide.
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Protoss: Measured in what? If we only take legal platforms into consideration, both Steam and Desura offer more games.
Maybe they should change it to the biggest independent drm-free distribution platfrom of PC, MAC & Linux games worldwide cause that is true for now.

The other thing is the lie about gog having 825 games cause a few day ago there were only around 740 games on gog before the change to the new website.
Posted August 30, 2014
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timppu: I find it curious though so many people say now that the old design was perfect, "don't fix what is not broken" and "they should hire some actual web designers". Earlier I recall hearing only complaints about the old site (and I complained too about the hovering menus, how hard it is to log out on mobile devices).

Writing this on my tablet as it was easier to take this to my bed while drinking morning coffee. I have the keyboard docking station attached, though.
I don't know if the site setup was perfect, but it was workable... Most of my concerns were other features that weren't part of the main UI. Like maybe somehow to buy multiple copies of the same game and then having a pool of the games you could then request copies certificates combined with other games from similar pools or individually. That would let say, someone owning a small company (of 50 or less) could bulk buy a game. That would also be easier on GoG as the transaction fees from something like Paypal would take a smaller chunk of something especially if it's on discount. I've worked a little with paypal in the past on a small project to try and sell something at $1, and the transaction fee was something like 35 cents plus 2% the value of the transaction up to say $500. This meant a $1 sale only resulted in maybe 65 cents profit, while something at $2 was 160 cents profit.

Maybe the biggest annoyance is that there's bugs that weren't there before. I have an 'updates' number but i have no idea what updated; So i'm assuming it's replies rather than game updates (and for now i was right, but it's still a shot in the dark). It's much like Microsoft each time they roll out a new version of windows, that issues that were resolved and fixed have been unfixed in their NEW version, and quite often we'd rather have something that works rather than more eye-candy. But that hasn't stopped M$ from having like 400 Billion Dollars in assets...
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jema: For starters lets just agree to disagree on the supposedly new and improved layout and let me ask you this. Why have you redesigned the site to be more "mobile friendly" when you do _not_ sell mobile games?
That was one of my first set of thoughts on it. Big and bulky is mostly to counteract heavily imprecise touch commands that cover something like a 30x30 area vs a mouse that gets closer to 2x2. Yeah i know there are more people using mobile stuff to check updates, but it shouldn't' be forced on everyone. I'd probably enjoy the layout if i pulled my tablet out and checked if i got any forum updates, but i hate the layout on the PC because it's so.... bulky...
Post edited August 30, 2014 by rtcvb32
Posted August 30, 2014
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jema: For starters lets just agree to disagree on the supposedly new and improved layout and let me ask you this. Why have you redesigned the site to be more "mobile friendly" when you do _not_ sell mobile games?
This is a very narrow way to look at this. I've bought quite a lot of products using my phone or tablet and I'm not talking about mobile apps here. Click this link please:
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/22/65-of-all-email-gets-opened-first-on-a-mobile-device-and-thats-great-news-for-marketers/

So if sales are the source of GOG revenue and their newsletters are their major way to inform customers about new releases and promos, then losing UP TO 65% of conversions simply because their website is completely unusable on any mobile devices... I'd say it a it's a very valid reason to go mobile friendly.
Posted August 30, 2014
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d2t: This is a very narrow way to look at this. I've bought quite a lot of products using my phone or tablet and I'm not talking about mobile apps here. Click this link please:
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/22/65-of-all-email-gets-opened-first-on-a-mobile-device-and-thats-great-news-for-marketers/

So if sales are the source of GOG revenue and their newsletters are their major way to inform customers about new releases and promos, then losing UP TO 65% of conversions simply because their website is completely unusable on any mobile devices... I'd say it a it's a very valid reason to go mobile friendly.
That is a good point but most mobile users report that the new website does not render properly. You just can't make one website that fits all devices. Gog should have made a mobile website and a desktop website as everybody else does and not one site for everything. Im sure this website looks good on tablets but on pcs it looks abysmal.
Post edited August 30, 2014 by Matruchus
Posted August 30, 2014
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coffeecup: Include Fanboy's Annoyance or Social Media Block list.

<snip>

These filters should cover it here (and on other sites).
Those handle the icons... But there's still the buttons at the bottom of the screen... I haven't tried purchasing anything else just yet so...

If you have element hiding addon, the following line works:

gog.com##.main-footer__socials.container
Posted August 30, 2014
It seems more than the half of the posts are against the new design. That means it stays so and there wont be a way back. May I ask what the real reason was to change the design?
Posted August 30, 2014
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Lohengriehn: May I ask what the real reason was to change the design?
I'm guessing someone was bored. I always change the look of things when I'm bored!
Posted August 30, 2014
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jema: For starters lets just agree to disagree on the supposedly new and improved layout and let me ask you this. Why have you redesigned the site to be more "mobile friendly" when you do _not_ sell mobile games?
Because a shitload of people are browsing the internet with mobile devices.

I'm running some websites myself (that's what I do for a living). When everyone is at work, approximately 40% of my visitors use mobile devices. Late in the evening and on weekends, 60% of my visitors use mobile devices! Okay, I'm not selling PC games, but... The numbers are pretty clear: There are too many people browsing with phones and tablets. You HAVE to have a mobile friendly site - and a responsive design is the best way to do this. Why? Because you'll have one website for everyone. For mobile users, "normal" desktop users AND for Windows 8 Internet Explorer App (the Metro UI fullscreen crap) users!

There's nothing wrong with responsive designs. They can be really awesome and allow for extreme differences between mobile layout and desktop layout (resize your browser window from very small all the way up to fullscreen and look what happens - I love this site because it's showing the full power of a well done CSS). You don't have to do an "all mobile" design like GOG did. To be mobile friendly, you just have to be careful with all those fancy mouseover JavaScripts.

The old GOG wasn't useable with mobile devices. I've bought a game (or two?) from my smartphone during the last Insomnia promo. Horrible... It got even worse when I wanted to check what the notification wanted to tell me. I figured out it was for a message after getting to my messages with some kind of "workaround". They had to do something with their old design and I think the result is quite okay. Yes, you can see that they had mobile devices in their minds when they did the redesign, but... It's really not THAT bad ;)
Posted August 30, 2014
high rated
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d2t: This is a very narrow way to look at this. I've bought quite a lot of products using my phone or tablet and I'm not talking about mobile apps here. Click this link please:
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/22/65-of-all-email-gets-opened-first-on-a-mobile-device-and-thats-great-news-for-marketers/

So if sales are the source of GOG revenue and their newsletters are their major way to inform customers about new releases and promos, then losing UP TO 65% of conversions simply because their website is completely unusable on any mobile devices... I'd say it a it's a very valid reason to go mobile friendly.
I'm all for GOG having a mobile-friendly design, but I sure don't appreciate that it's at the cost of alsohaving a desktop-friendly one. As I said, the focus needs to be on user-friendly, no matter what device is used to access the site.
Posted August 30, 2014
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pbnjoe: Don't mistake me for an apologist, the site looks bland and lacks functionality, but I don't feel like this is gonna be the death of it.
I get your point, and of course, maybe this is not going to be the death of GOG, but a big component of the GOG success is the loyalty of the community that they (the GOG staff) has intelligently nurtured in the last years. The recent changes are causing disaffection among a part of the usual customers. Surely the managers of GOG do not want to alienate their customer base.

In simpler words, many are finding the new site less friendly, and are worried that the emphasis in good games (old or new) and honest, fair business might be lost.

The looks convey a lot of meaning, even if that is not the intention of the designers, and it does not have to be logical. People like brands, sites and products for a series of reasons. Now, the staff should take care not to lose what they already have. I like that I can check GOG on my mobile more easily, but I rarely buy games with it, but from my PC. And it is there where I take a look at my library, check mods, patches, write longish posts (such as this one)... Now in a much uglier and unfriendly-looking site.

EDIT: mobile
Post edited August 30, 2014 by Carradice
Posted August 30, 2014
I just remembered another thing I don't like from GOG's new website design: The fact that there are too many straight lines and corners. That is, the old design had mostly rounded edges on the site's elements but the new one has mostly sharp corners, which makes it look somewhat more austere (for an example, just compare the design of the "Last Chance" promo page-which follows the old design- with any other part of the site).
Plus, the elements on the top bar are not only in full caps(instead of both capital and small letters-the only exception is "Search")-which increases the austerity effect- but are also separated by straight lines, which makes them look as if they're in a cage or something.
All these, combined with the omnipresent grey, are perhaps the reasons the new interface seems to most people as sterile and impersonal in contrast to the older one. In conlusion, if GOG changed what I just mentioned, the new design would perhaps be more tolerable.
Posted August 30, 2014
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GOG.com: Finally, the GOG.com store has gotten itself a substantial visual revamp. We went for a fresh, mobile-friendly design that should make it even easier to find the games you want, notice the hot promos, and see what's new. The main page, catalog view, product pages, and checkout have been updated and also lay the groundwork for even more overhaul, coming within the next few months together with many of the GOG Galaxy features. We hope you like it!
Nope I don't like it, please give back the past PC-friendly design.
Now we have to scroll to have the important data.
Posted August 30, 2014
One thing I really think needs to be changed is that the bar with gog's policys needs to be made wider and pushed between the top games/movies grid offers and the lists for games and news so that it's not hidden like in this moment. The aestethics of the first webpage would be wastly improved that way by making the news and games list in to same height.
Plus the last deals and main widget should be fused in to one big widget with perhaps a bit faster changing speed and that would be great - those things are all easy to implement unless you used too much javascript on this webpage.

And as somebody stated to many sharp edges. Seriously even I with totally basic knowledge of webdesign know that sharp edges are bad and undesired.
Post edited August 30, 2014 by Matruchus
Posted August 30, 2014
Now the homepage shows movies and PC games mixed in the same row. Aghhhhhh :(

Bad, bad GOG...
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionWelcome to the fresher, better GOG.com!(1812 posts)(1812 posts)
(1812 posts)