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General discussionRemember when GOG was cool?(65 posts)(65 posts)
(65 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted January 16, 2021
I still remember when Hockey Powder (parody of Turkish Pepper) was cool.

We used to lick it, snort it, sip it, and smoke it, but eventually I grew out of that obsession too...

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S85UpfvE06w/T-NpviJxduI/AAAAAAAADno/IcBd7KXAklI/s640/sdfg+045.JPG
Post edited January 16, 2021 by sanscript
Posted January 16, 2021
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Panaias: You know what I miss more?

Participation of staff in forums. They were replying to users, even making jokes, but in general were there to support in any way. They gave the impression of "presence" and we appreciated it a lot. Hell, sometimes (e.g. when a site bug appeared) they even made "fun" of themselves and helped clear the misty atmosphere.

Now they seem to only appear in "emergencies", but even so, not in the "emergencies" most users would like a word from them.

I also miss the old site form, I know it's been discussed infinitely but it was simple to the eye and just worked.

Next, I miss the old sales format too. Now it's just sales all the time (3 main sales each week). I loved the sole main weekend sale. And often they surprised us with the odd flash sale or something like that.

Also, a store that sells digital games should have at least a catalog sorting by price - this never existed here, but I'm just saying :)
Beat me to it, Well said sir.
Posted January 16, 2021
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Gersen: The thing is that if they stayed like that they would probably be long dead. Being niche is "cool" and all but only as long as you are in a "niche".

At the beginning of Gog nobody cared about old games, they weren't available on Steam and there was nowhere to purchase them legally except maybe on eBay. So get the rights, tweak the game to work on modern system, scan a couple of manual, get some OST and voila, they had their niche.

The problem is that after a couple of years right owners noticed there was a market for said old games and those games started appearing on Steam too effectively destroying Gog niche. Added to that that Gog didn't had the "convenience" of Steam as they didn't had a client handling download / install / update.

So Gog didn't really any choice but diversify it's catalogue or die. And of course all sort of issue came with selling new games, the one world one price, doesn't exists on Steam so how to force devs to accept it on Gog ? same with Extra / OST, you have them being sold separately on Steam you cannot ask devs to give them for free with the base game. So in the end when it comes to pricing, release structure, DLC, etc... they didn't really had any choice but to align with Steam.
And now we ended up with Steam, but worse because patches take forever to show up for the GOG versions. Begging the question: what is the point of buying anything on GOG anymore? Steam used to be about quantity, while GOG was about quality. Now that quality's no longer on the table, what is?
Post edited January 16, 2021 by KentGAllard
Posted January 16, 2021
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Gersen: The thing is that if they stayed like that they would probably be long dead. Being niche is "cool" and all but only as long as you are in a "niche".

At the beginning of Gog nobody cared about old games, they weren't available on Steam and there was nowhere to purchase them legally except maybe on eBay. So get the rights, tweak the game to work on modern system, scan a couple of manual, get some OST and voila, they had their niche.

The problem is that after a couple of years right owners noticed there was a market for said old games and those games started appearing on Steam too effectively destroying Gog niche. Added to that that Gog didn't had the "convenience" of Steam as they didn't had a client handling download / install / update.

So Gog didn't really any choice but diversify it's catalogue or die. And of course all sort of issue came with selling new games, the one world one price, doesn't exists on Steam so how to force devs to accept it on Gog ? same with Extra / OST, you have them being sold separately on Steam you cannot ask devs to give them for free with the base game. So in the end when it comes to pricing, release structure, DLC, etc... they didn't really had any choice but to align with Steam.
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KentGAllard: And now we ended up with Steam, but worse because patches take forever to show up for the GOG versions. Begging the question: what is the point of buying anything on GOG anymore? Steam used to be about quantity, while GOG was about quality. Now that quality's no longer on the table, what is?
No drm
Posted January 16, 2021
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KentGAllard: GOG used to be cool. It was the go-to storefront for retro games (what's with its original full name being Good Old Games) and it had two accessible price points - 4.99 and 9.99. It wasn't the same heap of indie titles nobody wanted that Steam turned into and you didn't have to search high and low to get to something you'd actually want to buy. That was cool.

Wish GOG stayed like that instead of eschewing all of the above.
I don't wish GOG stayed like that. Doing that would just vastly limit the selection of games that GOG could offer.

And that also probably would have caused them go to bankrupt many years ago already, because you can't keep selling the same few old games to the same customers forever. They only need to buy any copy of a game once, then that game has no more sales potential for them. So they would almost certainly have ran out of money if they had tried to maintain that unviable business plan for many years (which is probably exactly why they abandoned it).
Posted January 16, 2021
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StrongSoldier: No drm
A distinction that grows more and more academic each time they forget to update an offline installer.

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Ancient-Red-Dragon: I don't wish GOG stayed like that. Doing that would just vastly limit the selection of games that GOG could offer.

And that also probably would have caused them go to bankrupt many years ago already, because you can't keep selling the same few old games to the same customers forever. They only need to buy any copy of a game once, then that game has no more sales potential for them. So they would almost certainly have ran out of money if they had tried to maintain that unviable business plan for many years (which is probably exactly why they abandoned it).
Well innit funny that some retro games now skip GOG and go straight to Steam. Doesn't really seem that they ran out of old games to sell to me.
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idbeholdME: Sorry, but I actually prefer a choice in whether or not I want to use such a patch. Most of them make changes beyond just getting the game to work like balancing changes and whatnot.
Those don't count as patches.
Post edited January 16, 2021 by KentGAllard
Posted January 16, 2021
I'm still here because GOG tore a page out of the book of abusive relationships and still offers us glimmers of how it was in the beginning, of the good times, when it releases true classics like the Heretic & Hexen collection. The rest of the "new stuff" I can certainly do without, including the new way of interacting with its community.
Posted January 16, 2021
Some things are better, some things are worse. I don't do this one-sided nostalgia thing.

With better, I mostly mean that GOG now sells newer games, DRM-free. As a store, I liked GOG better when it was smaller. But basically, I play games not stores.
Posted January 16, 2021
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Leroux: I remember manual sorting of the library which looked like retail game covers on an actual shelf. I remember GOG Mixes, a more attractive storefront that made use of the space in PC browsers more efficiently instead of catering to mobile scroll down devices, I remember nice looking desktop icons with a classic rectangular look. I remember old staff members like The Enigmatic T and JudasIscariot being in close contact with the GOG community in a fun way, on the forums just as much as or even more than on social media, and not just as moderators locking threads or banning people, or making non-sensical PR statements (although there was the occasional nonsense and screw up back in the days, too). I also remember when the laissez faire attitude without moderation actually worked because the community was small enough to not attract the attention of too many trolls and flamers, and when the most controversial topics were GOG vs. Steam threads, not My Politics/Ideology vs Yours..
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Breja: Man, you got me all misty eyed. If ever a post deserved a +1, it's this.
^ this....
Posted January 16, 2021
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KentGAllard: Well innit funny that some retro games now skip GOG and go straight to Steam. Doesn't really seem that they ran out of old games to sell to me.
And that's exactly why they had to abandon the idea of selling only old games. Rights owners, once they realized that old game still had a market, started selling their old game on Steam too or even only on Steam, after all why sell a game on a store that represent 3% of the market share when you can sell it on one that represents nearly 80% of it.

As I said earlier being niche is nice, but it only works it you have an actual "niche" to work with. And when your biggest "mainstream" competitor starts selling the same stuff you do it's no longer a viable "niche".
Posted January 16, 2021
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KentGAllard: Those don't count as patches.
You can call it whatever you wish, but many community patches often include extra stuff besides just the compatibility fix. Examples would be Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines (included on GOG) or Sacred 2 Community Patch (not included on GOG).
Posted January 16, 2021
2 months ago i could still redeem codes on my old pc. Now with the new redeem page i can only use an android phone to redeem codes which is almost new.
Bet many don't have that luck and can't redeem the redeem code page at all now due to captcha and google.
Posted January 16, 2021
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teceem: Some things are better, some things are worse. I don't do this one-sided nostalgia thing.

With better, I mostly mean that GOG now sells newer games, DRM-free. As a store, I liked GOG better when it was smaller. But basically, I play games not stores.
Ditto.
Posted January 17, 2021
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Breja: To be fair if they didn't start selling new indie games I probably never would have started shopping here. Sure, I picked up some cool retro stuff over the years, but being able to get new games DRM-free was the main draw for me.

It's just a sad irony that what brought me here was apparently the start of GOG's long journey to becoming a clone of Steam - the service I came here to avoid in the first place.
Couldn't agree more. I'm discovering a ton of old classics that I never played before, and having the possibility to get newer games here is really great too. If they stop providing DRM free games, there's absolutely NO reason to keep getting games here.
Posted January 17, 2021
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Panaias: Participation of staff in forums. They were replying to users, even making jokes, but in general were there to support in any way. They gave the impression of "presence" and we appreciated it a lot. Hell, sometimes (e.g. when a site bug appeared) they even made "fun" of themselves and helped clear the misty atmosphere.
^This... so much this. FCK everythings else, this is what I really miss the most.

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Matewis: Remember when gog was green? (and yellow)
It's still here... Barefoot Essentials FTW!
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Leroux: ... not My Politics/Ideology vs Yours. ...
We had those, but they were different. An actual exchange of arguments, not simple "me right and good, you wrong and evil and my bot army downvotes you to hell".

As you wrote, smaller community, and our love for games bridged all the gaps between us, be it politics or even religion.
Post edited January 17, 2021 by toxicTom
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRemember when GOG was cool?(65 posts)(65 posts)
(65 posts)