Your list is very reasonable. You can add my name to it.

Months ago, GOG edited one of my reviews. In "Cave Story +", the last couple of lines of my review essentially said:
-"There's a controversy with the publisher that you may look up".
-(as my review concluded this version isn't worth much over the free official release) I wrote a reminder that you could get this game for free and buy Kero Blaster on GOG to support the developer.

GOG deleted these lines and emailed me about having infringed their review guidelines. I asked them to remove my whole review as I didn't want having it butchered. Which they did.

That led me to eventually discover this thread. I'm not active on the forums and I didn't experience anything weird due to never have used Galaxy and to the kind of games I buy. I simply had no idea of what was going on.

When I joined this site, I remember being so dazzled by GOG's principles that I didn't mind rebuying here half of my Steam collection just to support them. Then my spending shrinked gradually after hearing about some controversial incidents and having trouble with the curation rejecting great games. It's so sad to know how far things have changed since then.

After I spend my current store credit I don't feel like spending more money here until I see at least some change in a better direction.

Two for two making posts with personal attacks. Got anything else, such as perhaps posts that would contribute to the discussion? I'm not against seeing disagreement and hashing out points of view; in fact, I welcome it. I have had some cool conversations with users in this topic and others. But these little "snipes" at other users without anything else isn't really discussion, it's just unproductive namecalling.

I'll get you started. Is the criticism you're making something like "the boycotters are acting 'entitled'" ?

Oh, boy, this thread became a thorn in the eye of the Gog's staff. Good job, keep the thread alive, and completely ignore the intruder trolls, whose only goal is to contribute to the lockdown of the thread. You know, such types support real life lockdowns as well, and whatever else the government tells them.

there has been many attempts from fanboys to get it locked but they completely failed. In other words, they are mad.

Lemme guess.....the controversy was perhaps some PC culture/woke stuff re: that game?
(GOG seems to remove that and also review content/reviews which might discourage purchases sometimes)
That said, I wish users could edit their reviews as easily as GOG seems to be able to.

He doesn't seem alone.

But he still buying game's on GOG.
So now censorship is okay?

Reduced spending still affect's GOG's bottom line....and it can sometimes be more effective than doing a full boycott.

Take OP, for example: cutting back from 1000 a year to 20......to me(and likely others here as well) that's impressive.

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Thread Update

Just passing along that Ramor will not be posting with us for about 1 week.....that is all.
(If anyone wants to know more, they can PM that user or myself)

That not how boycott works. But keep doing you.

Question: how does your copy pasted definition disprove my point about reduced spending?
(btw you seem to have missed that this is more a boycott/reduced spending initiative, not just a boycott)

I think you missed the word not in that bit. ;)

Speaking of......

We're not all fully boycotting, so that's all well and good then, now isn't it? o.0 ;)

Sorry to hear you have a disability.......that said, and as an aside: for some odd reason, your way of speaking seems awfully familiar.
(of course, perhaps i'm just imagining things)

Just what it says on the tin.

Alright, I'll leave it as not all are fully boycotting. I'm going to support GOG and other places like Zoom. The more DRM free stores the better. IMO

No need to say sorry, but thank you. Have we talked on discord before? Lol

No PC stuff. Many people think the publisher has taken advantage of the dev. Now the IP of Cave Story (a cornerstone free indie game) is in the hands of Nicalis (a previously conflictive publisher), who issued DMCAs to block Cave Story fanprojects.

I remember when GOG deleted the first review: someone used the review system to call a game "jewish propaganda". GOG wrote a long apologetic announcement to clarify the situation because knew that deleting a review crossed a line. Clients had to know this was exceptional and where boundaries were. Now reviews are deleted en masse based on guidelines that prioritize sales over consumer ability to warn each other about context around games. Things have changed.

I am not joining the boycott for this, though.

I understand that running a business is difficult, and that you need to be strong to make a stand against the world. I coped with many of the initial letdowns from GOG, and I would have endured GOG making concessions to twitter mobs, Chinese censoring, fixed pricing requirements, corporate PR/moderation, commercial curation, etc. (not to all of these, but to some of these). As in a strategy game, you can abandon a position to strengthen others, just to keep advancing, but you never give up on your main mission.

I didn't delve too deep in every controversy because I didn't expect GOG to become the paladin of gamers' rights. But I expect GOG to be, at least, faithful to its DRM-free core value, and maybe to make ocassional good stands in other fronts. However, now it appears to me that GOG is slipping in every front, including its core value. I don't need to see every point of the list fixed, but I need to see some change, and a clear enforcement of the DRM-free core principle.

I like the informative nature of this thread. I also like that this boycott is not trying to destroy GOG, but to become a collective customer complaint so that GOG changes for better.

Now I realize I was hesitant to investigate further because GOG is one of the last places I had to buy DRM-free games. Desura closed. Humble didn't care about DRM-free after getting bought by IGN. At least we have Itch. Also, it's a pity that so many boycotters seem to hate japanese eroge games, because these are typically released DRM-free. If you want to buy these kind of titles outside of GOG, search KaguraGames.

Thanks

Dunno.....I just get the odd feeling i've talked with you(or someone that sounds like you) in the past.

(underlining mine) Well said.

Also yes, support zoom if you can......they need all the support they can get :)
(if you want an old school game suggestion - Curse: Eye Of Isis is a very fun game that plays like old-school resident evil, but with an Egyptian curse theme)

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First off, thanks for the info, and I also wanted to say this is a very well written post. That said:

Yes, things have changed....and not for the better in a number of ways.

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To the Thread

In the end, we all likely want the same thing....good & fairly priced DRM-free games from stores that treat customers fairly and try to uphold said principles. This is why I think we should all encourage such by frequenting stores that do better at such things a bit more, and also be more welcoming of all who want such(even reduced spenders).