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General discussionGOG neglecting offline installers(51 posts)(51 posts)
(51 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 02, 2020
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mm324: I have to have something to do while I sit in my underground bunker.
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teceem: Run in a hamster wheel while playing games?
How'd you know that's how I recharge the battery packs?!
Posted December 02, 2020
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SumofOne: I think the whole problem comes with having staff. Didn't GoG fire some people some time ago?
Just over a week ago, I received this email regarding a support ticket:

"This is an automated message, do not reply to it.

Due to GOG.COM Summer Sale, as well as the COVID-19 virus and its impact on our daily operations, our Support is currently facing an overwhelming number of tickets, so anyone waiting for a reply may expect delays up to 2-4 weeks. If you submitted for a refund request, we will process it based on the submission date. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding."

If they can't even update their auto-response to keep it current (the summer sale ended on June 15th) then there's not much hope for the rest of their service.
Posted December 02, 2020
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teceem: Run in a hamster wheel while playing games?
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mm324: How'd you know that's how I recharge the battery packs?!
Elemental dear Watson ... and ... all that sweating also gave you away ... plus your cheese craving.
Posted December 02, 2020
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Seems like a combination between management issues and employee shortage.

They should either let the developers themselves handle the offline installer, or just make the process more automated . Obviously it would make things smoother, but they didn't.

If they just want to keep things manual, then their number of employees, combined with their working location requirement, certainly won't make do. Maybe it's a good time for them to loosen their hiring requirements a little -- it's not like you have to go all the way to Poland to pack an installer, right? Just hire some guy on the internet or something!

Judging by the fact that GOG is still continuously updating the installers of old/ more obscure games, they're apparently still trying to keep them up. But their current method just won't do.
Posted December 02, 2020
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MatchaKitsunebi: Seems like a combination between management issues and employee shortage.

They should either let the developers themselves handle the offline installer, or just make the process more automated . Obviously it would make things smoother, but they didn't.

If they just want to keep things manual, then their number of employees, combined with their working location requirement, certainly won't make do. Maybe it's a good time for them to loosen their hiring requirements a little -- it's not like you have to go all the way to Poland to pack an installer, right? Just hire some guy on the internet or something!

Judging by the fact that GOG is still continuously updating the installers of old/ more obscure games, they're apparently still trying to keep them up. But their current method just won't do.
As I've always generally advocated, it may just be time for CDPR to branch out fully bite the taxation bullet so Warsaw can have better roads/grift.

They're hiring a support rep with English, but that famous old chestnut is there:

Please be informed that we reserve the right to contact only selected applicants. The hired individual will need to work in-house, in our office based in Warsaw, Poland.
[Emphasis mine.]

To which I kindly request: Please stop having a lark at the expense of the potential staffing opportunities and JUST HIRE EXTERNALLY.

Addendum to reply: On Linux they're still using an out of date installer that's still getting updates, so it's not like there's an excuse for not just upgrading to the new version.
Post edited December 03, 2020 by Darvond
Posted December 05, 2020
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SumofOne: I think the whole problem comes with having staff. Didn't GoG fire some people some time ago?
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AstralWanderer: Just over a week ago, I received this email regarding a support ticket:

"This is an automated message, do not reply to it.

Due to GOG.COM Summer Sale, as well as the COVID-19 virus and its impact on our daily operations, our Support is currently facing an overwhelming number of tickets, so anyone waiting for a reply may expect delays up to 2-4 weeks. If you submitted for a refund request, we will process it based on the submission date. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding."

If they can't even update their auto-response to keep it current (the summer sale ended on June 15th) then there's not much hope for the rest of their service.
We are getting a winter sale soon though. So just change a word
Posted December 05, 2020
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GeraltOfRivia_PL: So just change a word
Why bother? It will be summer soon enough again. ;-)
Posted December 05, 2020
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Swedrami: It's likely just that they can't keep up with the sheer amount of updates that have to be thoroughly tested and repackaged into the offline installers. At least that's what it looks like to me.
Certain titles being prioritized over others as well as working from home slowing down things even further adds up too.
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Timboli: Perhaps it just is a priority thing ... with a heavy bias against offline installers, which should be pretty easy to set up and provide compared to Galaxy versions, where they have other elements to integrate, so more complex ... so a deliberate cop out really if you ask me.
I don't understand why they can't use the same repository for both. It would make infinitely more sense for Galaxy to download and install through the offline installers, therefore all installers would be updated at the same time. But that's too much like sense.
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GeraltOfRivia_PL: So just change a word
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Themken: Why bother? It will be summer soon enough again. ;-)
XD
Post edited December 05, 2020 by paladin181
Posted December 05, 2020
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paladin181: I don't understand why they can't use the same repository for both. It would make infinitely more sense for Galaxy to download and install through the offline installers, therefore all installers would be updated at the same time. But that's too much like sense.
The way they are doing it makes sense if you think they never wanted offline installers to continue this long and are only biding their time until they have the "numbers" to make everyone use Galaxy.
Posted December 05, 2020
**NULL**
Post edited December 05, 2020 by Lord_Kane
Posted December 05, 2020
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paladin181: I don't understand why they can't use the same repository for both. It would make infinitely more sense for Galaxy to download and install through the offline installers, therefore all installers would be updated at the same time. But that's too much like sense.
Indeed.

Surely the base files before they implement Galaxy aspects are the same. One would think there is little to nothing to do for an offline installer, and that really the offline installer exists before they make changes to it to support Galaxy ... surely any changes that might occur would be very minimal in any case ... and so I don't get the delay, unless it is deliberate due to a bias against offline installers and a bias for Galaxy ones.
Posted December 05, 2020
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rjbuffchix: The way they are doing it makes sense if you think they never wanted offline installers to continue this long and are only biding their time until they have the "numbers" to make everyone use Galaxy.
I don't know, but they might be in for a shock when they do.

I use Galaxy. It's very convenient.
But I also download and back up all the off-line installers.
The day off-line installers are gone, I've bought my last game on GOG. No point in preferring this store over any other then.

I've gotten all those freebies from Epic everyone else have. As well as a few on Steam.
But it wasn't until very recently I actually installed their launchers to play those games.
I have enough of a back-log on GOG. But with GOG's increasingly frequent missteps, I decided to 'branch out' a bit.
Particularly since I found out the games on Epic I was most interested in were actually DRM free, and a backup of the installed directory worked fine after copying them back onto a fresh SSD with a clean OS install.
Posted December 05, 2020
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paladin181: I don't understand why they can't use the same repository for both. It would make infinitely more sense for Galaxy to download and install through the offline installers, therefore all installers would be updated at the same time. But that's too much like sense.
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rjbuffchix: The way they are doing it makes sense if you think they never wanted offline installers to continue this long and are only biding their time until they have the "numbers" to make everyone use Galaxy.
I agree.
This situation about delayed and aparrently still involving some manual process offline installers, combined with the new Witcher 1 for Galaxy users giveaway, and factoring in the apparently somewhat precarious personell situation, point all to this.

As soon as the number of Galaxy users is high enough, or the number of downloads of the offline installers is low enough, some beancounter will declare that the offline installers are too expensive to maintain.
And boom: "Good news, everyone: Offline Installers will be discontinued, allowing us to focus our personell on support"

I would not be surprised if that happens within a year.
Posted December 05, 2020
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Ranayna: I agree.
This situation about delayed and aparrently still involving some manual process offline installers, combined with the new Witcher 1 for Galaxy users giveaway, and factoring in the apparently somewhat precarious personell situation, point all to this.

As soon as the number of Galaxy users is high enough, or the number of downloads of the offline installers is low enough, some beancounter will declare that the offline installers are too expensive to maintain.
And boom: "Good news, everyone: Offline Installers will be discontinued, allowing us to focus our personell on support"

I would not be surprised if that happens within a year.
Alas, this echoes the fears of many of us, who have seen the writing on the wall for some time.

That said, I'm not sure what the situation is with Offline versions if you download them using Galaxy? Galaxy of course provides both variants. Browser links may go the way of the Dodo, but perhaps they will still provide the same resulting files in Galaxy. Be a very sad day when forced to use Galaxy, especially as I believe it doesn't support Win 7 anymore.
Posted December 05, 2020
Does anybody know about their updating process? Are the offline installers created manually?
Since from my understanding this wouldn't be a practical way especially with increasing catalog and constant staff.

Similarly to Steam, GOG seems to handle their game files by depots for general, language-specific, 3rd-party-specific and GOG-specific files.
So why there is not just a script that regenerates the corresponding offline installer after update of any assigned depot?
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Community
General discussionGOG neglecting offline installers(51 posts)(51 posts)
(51 posts)