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General discussionGOG, if you want to attract new customers...(184 posts)(184 posts)
(184 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 15, 2023
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Ancient-Red-Dragon: Having said that, I can see how having a vision can be good, sometimes, if it's the right vision and if it's done well...but on the other hand, visions can also lead to disaster and endless black holes of wasted money, like Galaxy 2.0's creation and heavy marketing was for many years.
Maybe not a vision, but I'd at the very least, like them to have a visible Kanban or a Rational Unified Process?
Posted March 15, 2023
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The tacky, sexist porn that is frequently splattered all over the front page is really a turn-off, and drives new customers away. You want to attract new customers - stop shoving it in our faces. It's not a good thing. This place used to be about GAMES, not 'ooh boobies'.

Me and my friends had actually stopped coming to GOG because we're so sick of it. But I was lured back by Colossal Cave.
Posted March 15, 2023
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FrodoBaggins: The tacky, sexist porn that is frequently splattered all over the front page is really a turn-off, and drives new customers away. You want to attract new customers - stop shoving it in our faces. It's not a good thing. This place used to be about GAMES, not 'ooh boobies'.

Me and my friends had actually stopped coming to GOG because we're so sick of it. But I was lured back by Colossal Cave.
What porn are you talking about? On the front page, all I see are games. I have seen actually porn games searching through steam. Which I filter not to show me, but they still keep popping up.
Post edited March 15, 2023 by Syphon72
Posted March 15, 2023
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FrodoBaggins: The tacky, sexist porn that is frequently splattered all over the front page is really a turn-off, and drives new customers away. You want to attract new customers - stop shoving it in our faces. It's not a good thing. This place used to be about GAMES, not 'ooh boobies'.
I personally have no problem with it, but knowing how most of society sees such things I do think it was a bad sign.
Posted March 15, 2023
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Johnathanamz: If you want to use GOG Galaxy then go ahead.

I how ever will never ever use GOG Galaxy.
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Syphon72: I'm just on GOG to buy games, so store not a big concern to me. But GOG should figure out a plan or something to fix the on going issues with their store.
I actually care about the stores where I purchase video games from.
Posted March 15, 2023
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StingingVelvet: I personally have no problem with it, but knowing how most of society sees such things I do think it was a bad sign.
I don't either (my beguilement lies in the abject lack of quality), but COPPA might have words, or other laws regulating content for public stores. The fact that GOG can't even be bothered with a proper beaded curtain second in spite of idiotically simple solutions being available (I even got one in an itch.io bundle) just doesn't sit right with me.

This isn't some new thing, it's established law which basically states that nobody under 13 should be on anything involving money. While it doesn't extend to the regulation of content, it does somewhat imply the need for safety; and there's voluntary organizations like the RTA.

...I dunno. Just the brazen way those NSFW sale cards show up on the front page screams, "DUDEBRO" to me.
Posted March 15, 2023
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Syphon72: I'm just on GOG to buy games, so store not a big concern to me. But GOG should figure out a plan or something to fix the on going issues with their store.
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Johnathanamz: I actually care about the stores where I purchase video games from.
That's cool. GOG store works fine for me, when comes to buying games. I never have many issues. Once I download the game or updates, I don't touch GOG store too much.
Post edited March 15, 2023 by Syphon72
Posted March 15, 2023
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HKayn: Everyone in this thread should read the the Glassdoor reviews of (ex-)GOG employees. Almost all reviews, whether positive or negative, repeat the same point.
Interesting reading, thanks.

2 canteens (Vegan and normal).
haha
Posted March 15, 2023
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Darvond: ...I dunno. Just the brazen way those NSFW sale cards show up on the front page screams, "DUDEBRO" to me.
Maybe, and GOG have hinted at that stuff before, but I was more thinking "desperate for attention."
Posted March 15, 2023
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Syphon72: What game are you talking about?
most games that have a coupon to buy multiple series.. but its nearly every game that i go look at, thats 10-15+ years old

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Ancient-Red-Dragon: I remember the last time when GOG had a "big vision:" that was when they seemingly dumped every single spare dollar that they possibly could into creating & marketing "Galaxy 2.0," based on the very mistaken premise that most gamers will love to have "all their games in one place" that isn't Steam, and therefore they would, in theory, flock to Galaxy 2.0, and also become new GOG customers en masse, because Galaxy 2.0 was supposedly finally going to fulfill their apparent lifelong dream to have all of their games in one place that isn't Steam.
I prefer Galaxy as a launcher to Steam, I would love it if they would turn it into a community open source project as i feel the community would pick up its shortfalls, add customization, port it to Linux etc
Posted March 15, 2023
You know things are rough when you get people like me to agree with threads like this lol. But really, I agree with most of what you said here. I love this site, service and company but they feel like they've given up on the momentum they had when they first started trying to fix stuff. It was promising at first but it's like they don't care anymore, which is frustrating. Honestly, I just wish they'd be a bit more transparent; I'm far more patient with a company when they're open about what they're up to, why they're doing certain things and where certain projects are in development.

It wouldn't take that much for GOG to have better PR overall.
Posted March 15, 2023
It feels like the decision-makers kind of "gave up" after Cyberpunk2077 and Galaxy 2. That's kind of how the "state of the business" posts (was it early 2022?) feel, to me, in retrospect.

I've said this before but part of me wouldn't blame CDP for selling GOG (assuming that can actually happen, selling both the store/site and digital contents sold within it / "publishing/distribution contracts" or whatever). But is there really a company who can both afford to buy GOG and retain or improve caring about DRM-free single-player at least? I dunno.
Post edited March 15, 2023 by tfishell
Posted March 15, 2023
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StingingVelvet: To be fair they have tried many things but can't break into Steam's market share. There's only so much you can do. Epic is pouring money into temporary AAA exclusives and even that is doing very little. People have used Steam for 20 years at this point and like its features, and they want all their games in one place. They've also bought into Valve being a "good guy company." There's not much you can do against all that.

I also think a lot of this stuff is rooted in an archaic website first approach that they're scared to change because some people think a client is DRM in itself, which I will refrain from debating.

In short there's not much GOG can do but try and own their little niche and try to make it profitable.
I might be wrong in assuming gog has seen better days (it certainly feels that way to me though), but I'd argue there's a lot they could be doing to, at least, try to claw their way back to those numbers of yore. It's such a shame because if Glassdoor's reviews are to be taken as true, it seems gog employees want (or wanted) to improve the site and client just as much as we've been almost begging them to do so all these years. But if none of that drive remains, or is being shunned upon, or is not given enough resources to make a difference, then yes, I don't see any way by which gog can even begin to think about competing with Steam since, in a way, they are the ones who keep sending their users in the direction of Steam's front door :S

P.S: I've kept reading through the reviews posted over at Glassdoor and oh boy, what a sad and depressing state of affairs.
Post edited March 15, 2023 by Wirvington
Posted March 15, 2023
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Winwood113: If I were to hazard a guess, based on observation, I'd say this is because CDPR are planning on trying to roll out some kind of subscription service and they're focussing all their energies on that.
I can't see that working out. The reason why Microsoft, EA, etc, buy up so many other 3rd party studios is to have a "stable" of content that justifies a subscription (you need dozens to hundreds of games for that, certainly a lot more than just 4x games (Witcher 1-3 + Cyberpunk 2077)). And then you need to add DRM to them to enforce rendering the content unplayable when the subscription is cancelled...
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Teilwyn: Said it in a different topic, related to Galaxy, but this applies to GOG overall: They're in maintenance mode, or at least it that's what it seems like. You get the feeling that they're running a skeleton crew and keeping things working, just barely, with little to no interest in actually moving forward.
I think what worries people more is if it were a sign that CDPR were planning to sell GOG. Even the Glassdoor reviews by staff someone posted above said CDPR have been underinvesting in GOG for a while relative to every other game store. What do CDPR really want in the long run? GOG seem to have finances that are the worst of both worlds - all the ambition and expenses of making a full-blown Steam-like client + back-end infrastructure "because you need to be like Steam to take on Steam", but limited finances that often seem more suitable for a 'keeping it simple' itch.io style low-cost, low-maintenance store that doesn't impose elevated expectations (ie, no-one who buys itch.io games demands itch.io achievements, itch.io Deck, etc, because they accept the store is aiming for simplicity (which was also true of pre-2014 GOG)). It seems modern GOG is stuck in a paradox of the more they spend on adding Steam-like features to attract more people, they more they inadvertently attract certain groups of people who demand they be 100% exactly like Steam, which is practically unaffordable.

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tfishell: I've said this before but part of me wouldn't blame CDP for selling GOG (assuming that can actually happen, selling both the store/site and digital contents sold within it / "publishing/distribution contracts" or whatever). But is there really a company who can both afford to buy GOG and retain or improve caring about DRM-free single-player at least? I dunno.
I don't think there is. GOG are big enough that other small stores can't afford them. At the same time, there's obviously a reason why the newest Ubisoft game here (Rayman Origins) is now 11 years old, why the newest EA game (Dragon Age Origins) is 14 years old, why we don't have 25 year old Good Old Games from Microsoft like Age of Empires (despite DRM-Free disc versions existing). So the big players who could afford it have already signalled the extent of their 'interest'...
Post edited March 15, 2023 by AB2012
Posted March 15, 2023
Also needs The Monk and Trevor:)
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGOG, if you want to attract new customers...(184 posts)(184 posts)
(184 posts)