[Part 2/3, split up because it was too long for one post, but there was no error message about length.]
It’s pretty obvious that what really happened is that perhaps GOG was threatened with being blocked in China if they released the game. Whether the threat came from the Chinese government, or was a veiled one from anonymous messages, only GOG knows. There may be other elements involved. They were probably also told that if they revealed any of this, they would also be blocked. Someone (or someones) high up in GOG made the decision to go along with it, and cancel the game. They also decided not to tell the truth about their reasons, so put up a disingenuous announcement. They knew that questions would be asked, since it is so obviously fishy, so they also stated that they would not respond to any questions about it, and made sure all their staff who deal with the public (support, social media etc) were told not to comment or respond to any mention of Devotion, and to hope it all just went away.
The point is (if this supposition is even partway correct – which GOG refuse to comment on, so it’s all we have): as every person and company does, they’d been presented with a choice. On the one hand was sticking to your principles, behaving ethically, being honest, but accepting that you would probably make less profit. So they could have gone ahead and released the game (which, just to be clear, is not illegal, and the current version hasn’t got the secret Easter Egg/joke that upset some people). They could have also made a statement about the covert pressure they were under not to release it: which would help to reveal the behind-the-scenes attempt to censor something in countries where there is nothing to censor. The end result might well be being blocked from China, but that would mean LESS potential money, not NO money. A business in the rest of the world can still make huge profit. But, instead, GOG chose to bow down to the covert threat. They cancelled the game’s release. They kept the real reasons secret. They made a disingenuous statement which is mildly insulting to their supporters. And they kept silent about the issue after that.
I tried asking GOG about this. I raised it in their forum. Before long, they threatened to close my account if I “broke community guidelines” again (presumably removing access to all the games I’ve bought, without any form of refund or compensation). No doubt they sent the same threat to others, to try and stop people asking questions. I asked on social media. They blocked me on Twitter. Even if I wanted to, there’s no way I could share links to their games or sales on that platform any more. I emailed their support, asking about this. They sent a confusing email, but it seemed that they had already marked it as solved without answering, and when I queries that, there was silence. I tried again a few weeks later and the same thing happened.
In itself, that behaviour – burying their head in the sand and ignoring customers – is irritating. But it also exposes a definite lie. Their website has a specific promise at
https://www.gog.com/about_gog under their “Customer-first approach” (I suspect they will remove this in the near future):
“Direct contact with GOG Team. Have a question, need help or you just want to talk about great PC games? Reach out on GOG forums, tweet at us or drop us a message on Facebook, and we'll get back to you.”
They portray themselves as helpful and friendly, but they go further: they state that they’ll respond via those channels. And that is a lie, because they have ignored thousands of messages in all those places. They have responded to other comments, unrelated to Devotion; but on that topic, dead silence. The staff clearly have orders not to respond, whatever their personal feelings, whatever the truth, whatever the policy on the website says. That makes a lie of the GOG statement, a lie to all their customers. The implication of friendliness and trustworthiness is actually no different from the false promise from any big company that puts increased profits before ethics. And the sadness is that the decision is probably made by people higher up in the company who never have to deal with the public, who don’t follow the threads and what is said, who don’t bother with comments from customers, who aren’t even directly reachable. Everything is filtered through support staff, and once they have been told to ignore something, it disappears under the carpet forever.
That is not treating customers with respect. It’s a lousy attitude. It’s disappointing when people have developed loyalty, because they had believed they knew what the company stood for, and that it was something good.
And this is why I am so bothered by it. I didn’t see myself solely as a customer in a financial transaction. I saw myself as involved with one of the good guys, with a movement. To see it play out like this has been rather depressing. From a company like Steam, Epic, EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Blizzard or whatever, I would not have been surprised. To see it from GOG is kind of heart-breaking.
Every single day I hoped GOG would see sense. There was a way back. They could apologise to their customers. They could release the game. They could tell the truth. They could stick to their principles. Every day when we get up we have similar choices in our lives as individuals: to be better people, or worse people. To go for the job that pays more, working for a company we know is bad, or to go for the lower-paid job with an ethical organisation. To stick to our principles, whatever they are (fidelity, honesty, faithfulness etc) or to sidestep them for some material benefit or pleasure. Yes, being less ethical may well provide material rewards, but don’t expect to be respected for making that choice. And there is probably very little self respect either. And yet, the beauty of life, is that no matter how bad you have been, you can still at any point choose to turn things around. The past has momentum, but just as it took time to create it, you can slow it and change it.