Voted. This game looks really nice and I'll keep it in the back of my head for a sale at Humble some day if it never shows here.

Well, that was the part I already knew. :)

The interesting bit is: Will they also have a 50% discount on Humble, just like on Steam for the entire week??

I asked support a while ago (around when it came out), and they said "we can't disclose rejection reasons". GOG rejection in general has a reputation of being somewhat arbitrary.

Actually by posting that link I meant directly letting Support know you want the game here, not that they would provide a reason for rejection. "Hey GOG, you want my money? Un-reject Dex" and such. Of course it's not a guarantee but it only takes a minute and enough passionate people might get GOG re-thinking.

Or maybe, simply, in this case GOG loses because of their (on the surface) stupidity, and Steam or Humble Store wins. *shrug*

I did say I want the game here, and also asked why it's not here yet ;) But sure, the more people will show interest in getting Dex here to GOG, the more likely they'll reconsider.

It's OK to occasionally/personally email a publisher about media you'd like to see published on their platform. However, organising mass emails/mass protest on forums is something that I found increasingly sketchy. It bloats the market demand far above what is actually there, and it it wastes the time of support people that's better spent elsewhere (you know, SUPPORT).

The wishlist is a good idea in principle (as long as the game in question isn't some controversial uber hyped nonsense product). One user, one vote, and an eventual good measurement of end consumer interest. Go vote there, almost 800 votes is really cool for such a retro style game.

Dex is, among the games clearly offered to GOG for publication, the game that makes me most annoyed that it's not available here. However, I absolutely understand that rejection reasons can not be disclosed under any circumstances, and I explicitly avoided the question when I emailed the developer.

But dammit, I don't like the Humble Store. It's not really a video game publisher, that is as occasional as it is incidental. They're a goddamn key reseller. They operate for the glory and prosperity of their master Valve.

I'm about to give them money. :(

Tomorrow, probably. Come on, Dreadlocks, get that DRM free version up and the discount in place.

GOG is a distributor, not a publisher really.

If you don't show your demand - no one will know about it. So it's not sketchy.

Why is that exactly? GOG doesn't even provide any clear criteria for rejection. So it's reasonable to ask what the reason is. Many already said in the past - it's seems like it's simply up to GOG's staff tastes, and tastes differ.

That idea is based on a common historic misconception of the "publisher" in the world of video games. GOG.com offers publishing services to business clients and is hence a publisher. Of course, distributor fits the bill as well. Yet in fact, as services like Steam or GOG are concerned with publishing services exclusively (and not with delivering physical goods or marketing any more), 'publisher' may be the far more fitting term for the present and the immediate future. At the time, the wikipedia lists both descriptors for GOG.

It is as I described it. People should write emails because they think it might help, not because some person on a forum told them so, gave them an email address and possibly designed a form letter to go with it. Organized demands and organized protest are forum cancer.

Absolute criteria hardly exist anyway, and any reason given by GOG could be found valid by some customers and invalid by others. The developer may be entitled to an answer, but you and I are not.

In any case, a rejection reason given by GOG to its customers would ALWAYS be an accusation towards the developer, and it could damage their sales on other platforms. Which could bring GOG in all sorts of legal troubles, besides losing any kind of position in the industry immediately. Big professional no no no no no.

Imagine GOG going "we didn't accept Hatred because it was too poorly programmed". Or "we didn't accept Dex because of basic system compatibility problems our support would be swarmed with". That would be a sick joke of PR. Rejection is a matter between publisher and developer. Deal with it.




...remember that one time Valve gave an oh so innocuous reason for rejecting a game on Greenlight? The one where Gabe Newell had to come forth and personally endorse the shitty thing just to make up for that? Yeah. Bad times.

In practice publisher can mean two things. Those who publish (print) physical media, and those who fund others to create something. The later meaning is the most common one (even though I agree it's not the best usage of the term). Some retail distributors also do publishing work (for instance they print physical game disks). GOG is not involved in any of that - they only work with digital distribution, and therefore they are clearly a distributor.


And unorganized ones go nowhere because they lack scale. So I don't see your point.

That's what I said.

Mob mentality is the point, and the utter risk.

What Derek Smart would like to stir in Star Citizen backers.
The kind of outrage nurtured here during the Hatred release.
Not a particularly good idea.

I've seen it in a fairly large scale as a moderator on a game developer's forum. People ask their forum peers to write a good chunk of emails to this one PR guy the address of whom they scooped up, just to ask for what they're actually legally entitled to and the developer promised, and the next day you get presented, behind the scenes, with the actual death threats the guy got as a direct reaction.

Eventually, you necessarily start banning some of those troublemakers for organized protest. "Just for posting an email address", indeed. :(

This is how it's done: You write a single email to support, get a standard reply because support knows as much as you do, and then you keep that profile low and don't stir that shit on forums just to coerce others to do the same thing. It really isn't worth it anyway and doesn't help at all to get what you want.

GOG wishlist: Good sauce, comparatively. Use at will.
Best chance to be actually seen by deciders.
My vote in the wishlist stands!

The Dex train has passed GOG station, according to the developer.

The developer could also feel too insulted by now to want to try again.

That's what I hoped... which is the reason why I asked. :(

Can be, but if they aren't about childish pride, but about actually reaching more users, that's not something to be blocked by. In the end, their audience are people, and not GOG.

Agreed, that would be silly. Hopefully that is not all that is holding it up from being re-addressed between both parties. Put the differences aside and work together for the consumer.