https://twitter.com/sethdavis/status/558423882231582721

Do you buy regionally-priced games elsewhere and if so, why there but not here?

I think there are good number of GOGlodytes who would like to work there, but don't have the skills (myself included) or ability to move . I'm surprised the QA Tester position hasn't been filled yet, though, as generally people hop on that like wildfire. (Course if I were to get hired I'd want to be able to make actual useful changes for users, not just "fluff stuff".)

I do not. There are no special rules or exceptions, I don't buy games with regional pricing.

I think it's great that they secured the license to re-release the classic LucasArts games, and it is encouraging, but I'd still like to see more than the relative trickle of classic game releases. I'm interested in GoG for the classic games, I can (and do) buy AAA games just about anywhere else - usually cheaper.

You'll find this niche in nearly all communities, I remember back when I was playing around with Gametap's free/trial account and they changed to their web-based player, most people hated it and had nothing but problems using it, but you still had that small core group of people that saw no problem with jumping through hoops to get their games working.

Ok, I wasn't aware GOG is doing poorly as a business. In fact, I believed the exact opposite, with all that hiring of more staff, doing quite heavy development work and investment (Galaxy), adding a couple of big-name publishers (LucasArts and WB) and expanding their reportoire (yes, also the movies).

Not as well as Steam/Valve obviously, but then nothing does.

Oh well, now that I know the truth, I guess that's it then. Last one to log off today, would you please turn off the lights and shut down the site? Thanks. See y'all in next life.

If GOG staff doesn't get mad about it, you shouldn't either. In the end, if GOG felt it was a real problem, they could simply moderate such messages away.

I presume GOG wants to allow all kinds of discussion, also Steam discussion, in the forums in order to lure more gamers to discuss games and stuff here. The more people there are here discussing this and that (yes, even Steam), the more likely they are to buy games from GOG.

Funny thing is I've noticed when people come in and start dictating how GOG should be run and or why Steam is so great (everything Enebias described), that person usually gets their asses handed to them on a silver platter. XD I remember that guy he mentioned who called indie games crap a few weeks ago; we (yes we, I was part of it, I'm not proud) were merciless to the poor guy. Ditto for anyone glorifying Steam. You know better timppu but for anyone curious enough, go ahead and start a thread about everything Steam does better than GOG...and then barricade yourself. :P

Well... They are doing a fantastic job it seems: getting Disney and more recently Warner Bros. However, they're lacking in other areas:

The website: The forum has only the basic features. The website is also pretty basic...

Goodies: ...where are they?
For instance: I know for a fact that Knights of the Old Republic II has quite a few of them: HD movies and music for one, wallpapers, audio logs released before the game's launch and so on... Also, Obsidian (the developers) are going to Pillars of Eternity here soon enough so it means you've a relationship (or at least somewhere to start) with them. Ask them for some? I guess there could be some legal obstacles, but you've Disney's attention already!

Additionally, you're not very consistent. You announced lossless music support a while ago and games like: Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Age of Wonders, The Bard's Tale still do not have it. Why?

And yes, I do realize publisher might not be very helpful when it comes to extras but most of your releases lack these. It's one of your core pillars!

Movies: This... may have been shattered dream as the studios only can promise a specific geographical area, but is that true for older movies also... like the ones in the 50s? 40s?

Linux: Don't forget it ;)

:D

Then you know they're going somewhere they can dispose of a body

To be fair, the high definition movies and music files actually are included in the game files.

The recent addition of Lucas Arts and Warner Bros helped. Other than that... Addition of movies did not exactly strenghten my belief in GOG, but hey, after all, they're business - if they offer a better deal on a game, I take it, and I can just ignore the movies.

Know why I'm around the boards? 'Cause I can talk about anything I want. The moment GOG starts censoring discussions on a larger scale, I'm out of here. And since I get most of the site's news from the boards, a lot of my money would probably leave too. Besides, pointing one at competitor and telling GOG "Just do that" is actually constructive criticism, as opposed to not saying anything.

Yes! I got mentioned!

At any rate, community has ... Sort of stabilized, after the steady decline between 2010-2014. It's okay now. Used to be excellent. We do have tinyE tho. And guess what, we've had Steam discussions ever since 2008 :-P

Steam discussions are going to be a part of GoG for a long time, especially since the two are more often in competition than ever before. So loyalists are going to discuss Steam because it's a huge part of the PC gaming landscape, for better or worse, and we need to look at why people will buy games on Steam and not here (and vice versa), and if we like GoG, we try to figure out how to get people to buy this copy instead.

On the original topic, about the direction of GoG; I feel good. CDPR are doing everything they can to preserve the original ethos of DRM-free, and not just DRM-free but FAIR gaming. The fair price guarantee is awesome, and is something that they could have easily put in the "too-hard" basket to create, but they did it.
Obviously, they're going to run out of legally obtainable old releases some day, but as the Lucasfilm deal has shown, they're far from a dead horse in that end of the market, and they're actively trying to break deadlocks. (Inb4 Activision 4 MechWarrior, please!)
GoG's move into AAA gaming is not a bastardisation of their ethos, but out of desire to stay relevant, and not fade away into being a niche store- and they're keeping their dedication to goodies and fairness. Galaxy is another offshoot of this modernisation, and it's one I welcome, and am looking forward to. I'm hoping for a lot from Galaxy, but I think they can deliver.
Community is something that is hard for me to judge, but GoG forums are easily one of the most mature, friendly and generous forums that I've been on-there are trolls out there, but generally if they pop their heads up, they are swiftly and mercilessly executed in textual attack.

The ratio has hardly ever changed, the difference is that before, Steam discussions were fairly rational, whereas today, extremists of both camps jump on each other's throats. It's easy to forget something you don't care about that happened in a calm and rational manner, it's a bit more memorable with drama added.

Maybe I did not express myself correctly, so let me address any possible misunderstanding: I am certainly not against discussions involving Steam or games not on GOG, even thinking that would be ridiculous. Talking about PC games while omitting anything related to Steam would mean cutting out the majority of topics.
I'm all against censorship and for freedom of speech... just as long as we are *really* talking about freedom of speech, and not disguised advertising and gratuitous damaging. That does not enter in my concept of "freedom", which by the way was never equal to "I can do whatever the hell I please, anywhere and anytime".
In my post I was talking about people who actively try to sway the cusotmers here on the "other side" with different kinds of propaganda (seriously, you cannot deny that it happens at times. For example, I'm thinking about giveaways for Humble Bundle/Steam keys while GOG has the same games on promo at that moment) and people who do not lose a single occasion to put something regarding that store in every thread, invevitably ingiting a certain kind of unpleasant discussion -balatantly on purpose. This is just detrimental for the community overall and has nothing to do with constructive criticism.
Also, the same extremists Fenixp mentions can enter in the number: I cannot understand why a few people still bother to be here if everything they have to say is how GOG is inferior to the other and they have already every game elsewhere. Does anyone gain something from this? No.
Granted, there are also GOG fanatics who act in an ideantical manner to those I call "Steam cultists", even arriving to some sort of "religious" statements, yet (at least in my perception) they are much fewer and less out of place here - though always unpleasant and also quite embarassing.