Thre are also other studios from Ukraine and those are very well able to deliver. Ask Frogware for example.

If Whale Rock asks for charity money ... that's one thing. But at the moment they sell promises and have several games in development and add new ones and - war or not - I'd call that fraud. Ask

They'd better finish what they already sold before starting something new.

You mean the Sherlock Holmes games people? I don't know, I used to love their games, but Devil's Daughter was just awful, one of the worst adventure games I've played. And Chapter One looks even worse by a mile.

Let's not forget: GER: Hinterm Horizont EN: Behind the Horizon A single developer, providing updates, listening to feedback, offering support, exemplary. This is the kind of game I would have bought without second thought and at full price upon release.

Well, I find Chapter One (edit: CH2 The Awakening) awesome. But let's not just talk about taste here, but about how complete their games are.
Can you honestly say that Frogwares games are worse than the Unity-Asset-Swaps that WhaleRock delivers (or not, they still have a lot of 'in development').

I wonder if GOG is as happy as you are to run the reputation of GOG (such that remains) into the ground to throw a few hundred dollars to a shady company whose greatest talent seems to be running bots to manipulate reviews.

Controversy aside, I still wouldn't support this game myself as iirc Camus tried to justify Sisyphus' suffering, which is at odds with my worldview.

or the remaining 80% of their games!
So, what you are saying is that we should hope these devs are conscripted? Hmm... I'm intrigued by your views and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
I'm just kidding, of course. Crappy devs or not, no one deserves to experience war and much less to risk ending as a corpse in a battlefield.
But on the other hand... if they are conscripted there won't be shovelware being made while they're away. It's a temporary relief at least.

Well that's the thing, I don't think anyone here is under any illusion that these games don't bypass curation entirely out of pity. At the same time, everyone knows that these games are asset flips, so it's not like anyone here is going to get "tricked". If someone wants to pity-buy them, then let them pity-buy and move on. I really don't understand why ignoring these games is so hard. I wish they were better and had better GOG implementation, but I have still pity-bought them, given the circumstances.

As for curation, I was always against it. It's hard enough to convince devs to go DRM-Free, the last thing a DRM-Free store should do is bar willing ones.

(rant)

Between GOG trying to move DRM games into the catalogue without us looking (ie Hitman) -- and using the defense of "we didn't know" -- and...

... removing games upon release due to "financial pressures," and now...

... completely undermining the validity of their curation by continuing to release asset-flips while seemingly allowing purposeful manipulation of reviews on said asset-flips...

... I'm not sure what GOG stands for anymore.

Do they stand for anything?

I started coming here because GOG vehemently stood for DRM-free games.

I accepted the "excuse" of curation to cover what I expected was the reality -- they can't afford (or don't have the clout) to attract AAA releases day one.

But now...

... it seems like they are being controlled by banks...

... and...

... possibly willing to go against any stated position for banks, ideology (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt that they believe in something)... or both.

So what if this is ideological?

There are a million organizations aiding the people of Ukraine. Why not align with them in a promotion instead of aligning with...

... a developer who never had a particularly good reputation as they continually pass off truck loads of low-quality asset-flips and manipulate the review system? Or heck, you have GOOD Ukrainian developers on GOG already... WITH FINISHED GAMES!

Is there still curation at GOG?

If no... LET THE MANY GOOD, FINISHED GAMES IN!

I've spoken to many devs who claimed they were either neglected by GOG to the point of forgetting release here or turned down outright (some still uncertain exactly what the issue was with their games!) -- who had finished games -- who -- if Whale Rock can release asset flips here -- should be here as well!

I want to cheer lead GOG. I want this store to succeed. But every few weeks they pull another thing like this that seems to show I care more them than they do about themselves.

Well, if Sony does by CDPR and GOG happens to be in the CDP mix, guess this all will be moot anyway.

They won't. CDPR denied the rumors.

And sadly I think this is what we get from the so called curation. Someone at Whale Rock knows someone who knows someone at GOG.

I am not one who yells "they don't care about the customers" easyily, even if they reject good games.
But seeing how a company like Whale Rock gets pushed for basically doing nothing ... that does make me question, for whom's benefit the people at GOG really work towards. It certainly is not the customers and it also can't be the store, because this really puts it in a bad light.

What is sad is that the heavy burden won’t be with Whale Rock Games, but GOG in general because of pushing this crap. So much for maintaining standards when it comes to products.

If they want to help developers in Ukraine, then fine, but there are quality devs that are worth so much more that will not abandon their titles. Nothing like making cheap products that are in early access, only to drop development of them without a word and start something new and repeating the cycle, ad infinitum.

Concerning Ukraine and the ongoing war, economic hardships aside, I wouldn’t be shocked if this wasn’t a ploy to gain favor with GOG’s ESG overlords. Quality products be damned if your credit line might be hanging in the balance if you don’t.

I for one have been severely underwhelmed by the quality of the games this year. Seems like they are taking a quantity approach, in which will come back to bite GOG in the ass, sooner, rather than later. Fatigue of such titles has at least set in for me and I don’t look forward to releases the same way that I did. It is getting tougher to care when there are less and less quality titles that I want to play showing up here.

I really don’t believe they have any idea the long term damage that they are doing to GOG with this sort of approach. There definitely are enough titles that they reject outright that would do a hell of a lot better and improve their good standings and brand recognition. Sadly it is hard to believe that they give a shit anymore about either.

Kinda scary that GOG is really releasing those "unfinished" (being REALLY polite here) games, while good unfinished/in dev games are not even announced here yet.

Yes Im talking about SELACO.

Someone had to say it. I am just sick of these low quality and probably soon to be abandoned products be given a free pass because of reasons... The fact that they feel the need to astroturf the hell out of reviews is maddening on top of it. Those really are scummy tactics by someone that wishes to pull the wool over the eyes of uninformed customers and know fully well what they are doing and why. Apparently they aren't above lying, cheating or stealing to make ends meet and it is sickening as well as frustrating to see.

That's what makes this situation so transparent -- there are many good, finished games (known to the community) that have been denied while Whale Rock keeps getting asset-flips released, continually promoted, and defended (via "strange" reviews).