Wow, this thread really did grow quite massive - which in itself is a good thing IMHO, as it shows that people care about what GOG is doing and in what direction it is going. Believe it or not, I did read every single post here and I have to say that both sides of the discussion have presented some valid and convincing arguments about why they think the 'Games in Development' concept is ultimately a good/bad thing.

After such an interesting read, I felt compelled to join the debate and get a few things off my chest, even though I generally tend to avoid such heatedly discussed and controversial topics.

First of all, I do not have any kind of sentiment towards Early Access games - I do not hate them, I do not love them, I am completely indifferent towards them. To be perfectly honest, not so long ago I didn't even know they existed. This means that I probably won't buy them, but I don't intend to actively boycott them either. But I feel that the topic of the discussion going on in this thread is not really about Early Access at all - it's once again (as it had been many times before) more about GOG's identity and its relationship with its users.

What I personally found most interesting was the debate between Breja and Siannah, which concerned the "don't like it, don't buy approach". I have to say that both sides have presented very valid and convincing arguments (even though my point of view is quite similar to the one expressed by Breja, I have to say that Siannah almost convinced me). It essentially boils down to this: whenever GOG introduces a new major feature to the store, users who do not like it can simply ignore it and continue to use the store as they did before, while the new feature may actually attract new customers and generate more revenue. Essentially, if you don't like GOG selling some types of games, no one forces you to buy them, and, if the mere existence of such features is unbearable to you - no one forces you to stay on GOG anymore. Seems logical, doesn't it? Well, in my opinion there's more to it than that.

When I first joined GOG (or, as it was then called, Good Old Games) I had no idea what 'DRM', 'Regional pricing', 'Early Access', 'Greenlight' or (believe it or not) 'Steam' meant. I have been living happily under my rock, playing my old games on a rusty old PC, running them from good old DVDs/CDs/floppy discs without any clients, Internet access, digital platforms and all that. Then I decided to play some truly classic RPGs, like the original Might and Magic. Aside from buying a used copy from Amazon/E-bay for a hefty sum (the large portion of which was actually shipping), my only alternative was buying it from a digital game store, and the only one that had it available happened to be Good Old Games - they actually had Might and Magic I-VI in a single package, with manuals, hint books, maps, soundtracks and plenty of other goodies. I thought to myself: "Wow, this is really neat, I've got to get this!" And so I did. It was my first purchase on Good Old Games and the first game ever I purchased in digital form.

Now, more than 5 years later, I know much more about the workings of the digital gaming market. I have grown wiser and I have drastically changed my opinions about what gaming is all about. Imagine my shock when i first learned the meaning of the dreadful acronym of DRM (What? You cannot make a backup copy of a game you've bought? You can only play your games via a third party client? What if the company supporting the client goes defunct?), the secret of Regional Pricing (What? People in different parts of the world pay different amounts of money for digital goods?) and the joys of DLCs (What? The developers have the gall to ask you to pay 5$ for a new skin for the character's right shoe and people actually pay the price?). As it happened, during this time Good Old Games was changing with me.

I didn't join GOG because it offered DRM-free games. I didn't join GOG because it was an alternative to Steam. I never once used Steam before creating a GOG account. I joined GOG because it offered classic games which were very hard to obtain legally perfectly customized to run on modern computers. I loved the atmosphere of the site, the design, the friendly community and staff, the fact that everything was so niche and isolated from what was currently considered hip and popular. Good Old Games website, with its vibrant yellow and green colors, was a calm, nostalgic place, a safe haven amidst the raging ocean of the modern gaming industry.

And then the actual business-related stuff started to gain prominence.

Now, don't get me wrong - I don't blame GOG for expanding their offer. From the company's point of view, everything they did was logical. Changing their name in 2012 and introducing brand new games to the catalogue; launching indie titles; dropping the 'One world, one price policy'; using more aggressive sales mechanics; introducing movies; introducing pre-orders; re-designing the website's look; and now introducing "Games in Development" - I am sure they have done all of that to remain competitive. Do I understand why they did this? Of course I do. Am I happy with it? No, I am not. So do I feel like I should just apply the "don't like it, don't buy approach" or even stop visiting the site altogether? No, can't do that really. Why? Because I have developed an emotional attachement to this store and I just refuse to let it go.

The main problem for me is the fact that I can no longer say what kind of store GOG is striving to be. What is meant to be its identity. At the start it was a digital gaming store selling old games which were no longer available or very hard to find. This (and the fact that they included many goodies with their games) was the main reason I loved the store so much. It was the perfect store for me and if it did stay like that forever (in its Good Old Games incarnation), I would rejoice. I didn't care about DRM back then at all (though if I did know what it was, I would care very much about it, as I do now, but it wasn't the DRM-free aspect that got me to join). When they added brand new, modern games to the catalogue as well, I thought "Well, they just had to do that, I mean how long can you sell retro games, they will run out one day and they have to make some profit". And I kept telling myself that every time when something else changed on GOG, until today, when I really took my time to stop and think about it carefully. And I came to a very sad conclusion indeed - GOG is becoming (or worse, has already become) just like all the other digital stores, save the DRM-free part. And with this realisation, some of the magic of this place was gone forever for me as well.

Despite all that, I still consider GOG to be the best store there is. I will continue to buy games here (heck, I was even among those who got a diploma and a T-shirt from the GOG-team for supporting them throughout the years), I will continue to visit the site, I will continue to take interest in how it changes. But the kind of attitude in which I felt compelled to support the site because I felt it was fighting for some greater good or a higher cause (I know, it sounds kind of cheesy, but that's actually how I felt) is completely gone now, I fear. This actually makes me really, genuinely sad. But I guess the disillusionment of a certain portion of the core userbase is the price every company has to pay for being able to stay competitive and run a viable business. I just naively hoped this would never be the case with this particular company.