I deal with several 'Gaming interfaces' to get information about a game, but I most like GOG and all its buying and browsing system. I find GOG's system transparent and fair, and formost: simple in the handling of game files. When I read Steam posts I always read 'Game crashes...My savegames disappear...I cannot apply mods....etc." In GOG I don't have these problems.

The back side of this coin is: Several times I had to convince some gamemakers to publish their games on GOG, saying that GOG doesnt' need to hide from competitors like Steam, Gamersgate or other Interface systems.
But one aspect of GOG should disappear with the time: the "O" in GOG starts to get obsolete. GOG delivers high quality games at fair prices wether old or not.

Congratulations GOG, and go on with this nice work!

gg

If you really have a talent for that, maybe get hired... Seriously - getting the license to publish big and/or popular games is the biggest problem for GOG, because publishers still very much believe in DRM and GOG is DRM-free.

As for the O in GOG... it doesn't get obsolete, because there are "new old" games every year... and a number of them finds their way here. I too have problems to perceive games like Fallout: New Vegas as "old", but objectively they are.

Well, it doesn't help when GOG rejects titles that could explode. I would imagine that if Mojang wanted to distribute on GOG back in the day, GOG would've rejected them as "too niche." So is anything that existed for 1 whole second. One has to draw a line, and making that line objective is untenable.

oh, i understand. However there's also plenty of fire-and-forget games here. I recently found out Windward is another such game. It runs, but it's buggy. And then there's plenty of games that i have had a hard time getting to work. I just chalk it up to my specs, but i know better for some titles. When i get a new computer, i alone will probably end up flooding support.

Fire-and-forget games here... sadly true. GOG selling a game is them taking a risk. On Steam, you complain, and the game gets removed from your account and you get your money back. GOG simply can't do that - you download the game, and it's yours.

That said, in my experience GOG support has always been very forthcoming and helpful. I've had cases when I bought a game, downloaded it (gogrepo...) and half a year later when I actually wanted to play it and couldn't get it to work I was still offered store credit... GOG support might not be the fastest sometimes, by usually they really care, and if your work with them, and talk to them politely, they will work it out to your satisfaction.

All said, I'm not spending any more money on GOG.

So, all this good work the OP is hinting at, is not customer visible.

Can I quote you on that?

About the 'O': I must say that when first comming to GOG I have bought a new title (the space game No Man's Sky), new because released on GOG, Steam, PS4 at the same time, and I cannot slightly see that this decision would be a financially bad one for GOG or for the gamemaker. For most people DRM seems to be an argument for not publishing (not immediately) on GOG, but the truth is that copyright infringements or law battles are far more dangerous financially for gamemakers rather than DRM-free digital releases only accessible for clients.

Also I just have the naive vision that when one really enjoys a game he will end-up buying it - but he still doesn't want to be restrained by an intrusive gaming interface. So I think DRM is not a big argument in favor of Steam or other similar interfaces that create more problems than necessary for the gamer.

The forums are depressingly negative I must admit. Probably returning to the boards during the hullabaloo and aftermath of the Twitter drama and supposed disposal of a popular moderator/social media handler around here (it's been such a huge gap since I attended the boards at all I don't even know who Linko was - last I paid attention to the people working at GOG was, I don't remember his name, the American guy with the short beard, he used to do a "This Week on GOG" bit on YouTube a long time ago - anyone know who I'm talking about/what happened to him? The only other GOG person I could name was a user by the name of JudasIscariot - he had a Planescape: Torment avatar. Never really interacted with him but he seemed chill from my recollections). You had angry armchair social media slacktivists shouting angry things (well, there was doxing too, which was horrid and inexcusable and was the stray that severed the fat ugly camel known as Rock Paper Shotgun clean in half for me forever), people countering back, GOG repeatedly backpedaling and kowtowing for the slightest of indiscretions they made and now, what? A lot of unnecessary wounds were made over this pissfight. The wounds will be stitched up and heal bit by bit over time perhaps but scars never go away.

But despite not knowing anything about Linko, I do wish some transparency on GOG's part, and that Linko himself eventually comes out to speak on the matter himself if he's legally allowed. You don't need your master's in electrical engineering to see the mass friction this has caused between GOG and its userbase.

And then there are all the other general complaints that I'm just kind of shrugging at. The heavily derided site redesign, criticisms of their choice in games to release/not release, accusations of stagnation (no real evolution in being a real competitive player in the gaming distributor scene besides "no DRM" and some bells and whistles - I don't know what to say to this really, complaints in this area have been been pretty specific), games apparently not getting the updates that their Steam equivalents get, bet it a developer issue or GOG not being more forthright with the people they do business with (I don't know much what's going on here either).

Overall...last time I was even semi-active around the forums the overall aura was more pleasant. In the wake of...so many things that's changed for the worse it seems. I imagine if a good number of people here didn't already invest heavily in their own gaming library over the years here on GOG those people probably wouldn't be sticking around here. The atmosphere is of people frustrated and disappointed with how things have been it seems giving off an air of bitterness and dismay.

Reminds me of the term "hate-watching." Usually in reference to a TV show people once was invested in that's turned to garbage and the only reason they continue watching is to see how much further downhill the dumpster fire will slide. I'm getting that from a number of people here, especially those who stick around despite having vowed to never purchase anything from here again, moving on to itch.io or something.

While the community here can get petty (like about Underworld: Ascendant which...turned out to be a not-so-great game based on consensus; too bad), maybe GOG should do better in interacting with their community and quit leaving everyone in the dark about issues so many people care about. But again, I've only been semi-active on the forum again as of very recently and am out of the loop on a number of things during a big gap I was not part of. So who am I to speak. I'll leave off that the past several years in general have been the worst I've seen everywhere I go. People's personal experiences differ, I can only speak for myself, but for me it feels like I've left Earth some time ago and am now trapped in some circle of Hell. Not because of GOG, no, just in general. I won't go any further than that.

Woah people, stop what you're doing! We're graced with the presence of the one true GOG customer!

The EnigmaticT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_XfpcLJE2U

I don't think to be alone in this :)

Actually it's highly disputed if the regional prices are really fair. I don't think they (GOG) or anyone else is actually doing regional prices to be fair or to do some good for the customer. In this regard I think they are in line with many others including Steam.

GOG delivers games with regional prices whether old or not.

But then they do deliver many games at high quality, but not all (sometimes certain aspects of the games are not working, at other occasions they really need a long time to update (mustn't be their fault actually)).

GOG delivers mostly high quality games with regional prices whether old or not.

The problem is that the games I would like to have are not on GOG (again, doesn't have to be their fault).

GOG delivers some, mostly high quality games with regional prices whether old or not.

Yep, I think that's about right.