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General discussion (archive)GOG patching process for modern games is terrible(158 posts)(158 posts)
(158 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 19, 2013
I'm a long time member who considers DRM free to be an important thing, but I am still being driven to get modern games elsewhere. The reason: patching.

The GOG patching process for games like Shadow Warrior is terrible. It's not the downloading an exe part that is the problem, it's the delay, the frequent need to redownload the entire game again, and in Shadow Warrior's case even having to uninstall and reinstall. It's just not acceptable.

When you add on the often missing features of a GOG release it becomes more and more a poor option even with DRM free being a strong factor. I do wish I purchased Shadow Warrior on Steam instead, and am staring at the $10 sale price right now wondering if I want to rebuy it. That's not something I should have to consider.

Either fix the patching process or watch modern game sales stagnate.
Posted December 19, 2013
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StingingVelvet: I'm a long time member who considers DRM free to be an important thing, but I am still being driven to get modern games elsewhere. The reason: patching.

The GOG patching process for games like Shadow Warrior is terrible. It's not the downloading an exe part that is the problem, it's the delay, the frequent need to redownload the entire game again, and in Shadow Warrior's case even having to uninstall and reinstall. It's just not acceptable.

When you add on the often missing features of a GOG release it becomes more and more a poor option even with DRM free being a strong factor. I do wish I purchased Shadow Warrior on Steam instead, and am staring at the $10 sale price right now wondering if I want to rebuy it. That's not something I should have to consider.

Either fix the patching process or watch modern game sales stagnate.
I have a feeling that the bottleneck is not GOG, but the devs placing support for GOG versions of their software at the very back of the line. If we should be pressuring anyone, it's the devs of the games that have these issues.

That said, I remember the days of having to send update requests by mail to the publishers in order to have a floppy disk patch physically mailed back to me. It took months. Even with these current issues, to me, these all the golden halcyon days of game patching...
Posted December 19, 2013
I'll agree with you on this one.
To be honest in case of new games I rather have the devs handle patching themselves, like an updatelauncher you get with certain mmo's with the only difference is that it asks wether you want to update or not.
Though I don't like the way how Steam handles it either, when I launch the Steam client it always takes ages to update the library which I really don't want if I want to quickly play a game.
Posted December 19, 2013
I like to be able to not install a patch for a game that was released in a rushed manner as a complete waste of my precious time.

I like to be able to accept to go through the hassle of installing a patchy excuse of a sorry fix of an unforgivable clunky game which I still like for some random reason.

I like to be able to not install a minor fix to a game while thinking 'hey guys, if you are monitoring how many people are getting your patch, then be aware I'm not part of them. I played with your game, got my fun, now I'm through with it, take care of this (relatively) free piece of informative statistic.





What I don't like is people sneaky-patching their mess on my rig without me noticing. I miss fun there. It's like having my permission stolen.
Posted December 19, 2013
As clunky as GOG's system is, from a customer service standpoint it keeps us from having to deal with shotgun game changes. That doesn't mean that it's not cumbersome, just that it's good to know that someone somewhere is testing the changes.
Posted December 19, 2013
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Strijkbout: To be honest in case of new games I rather have the devs handle patching themselves, like an updatelauncher you get with certain mmo's with the only difference is that it asks wether you want to update or not.
At first glance this makes a lot of sense. The developers are in the best position to know what their patches are actually doing and what's the best way to apply them. However, in practice that means more work for the developers to support the GOG version rather than the Steam version (which handles much of that for them). I do think that some level of initiative and support from GOG is necessary to compete with Steam and the convenience it offers developers in this respect.
Though I don't like the way how Steam handles it either, when I launch the Steam client it always takes ages to update the library which I really don't want if I want to quickly play a game.
A better balance would be to display all available updates to you, and allow you to decide if and when to actually get those updates.
Posted December 19, 2013
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Strijkbout: Though I don't like the way how Steam handles it either, when I launch the Steam client it always takes ages to update the library which I really don't want if I want to quickly play a game.
Steam's made to be running all the time and updating in the background, right or wrong.

Steam isn't flawless by any means, but the heart of my point is that GOG's process is so broken I would take Steam over it.
Posted December 19, 2013
This service was built around the idea of releasing old games that had long finished their support cycle. Modern games being sold here is simply a profit deal for GOG. The entire service would need to be built from the ground up to offer the luxuries that other services currently offer.
Posted December 19, 2013
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StingingVelvet: Steam's made to be running all the time and updating in the background, right or wrong.

Steam isn't flawless by any means, but the heart of my point is that GOG's process is so broken I would take Steam over it.
I've got it set not to start with Windows as I don't play a lot of games on Steam and I only want to activate it when I want to play a Steam game.
The bloated thing about Steam is it assumes it can hijack my computer sucking up bandwith and cpu power when it wants to.
Posted December 19, 2013
I've never really noticed an issue. I think you're just forgetting about times before the digital age where if code was broken, you were SOL.


Also, I'm detecting a bit of PEBKAC.
Post edited December 19, 2013 by Darvond
Posted December 19, 2013
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StingingVelvet: The GOG patching process for games like Shadow Warrior is terrible. It's not the downloading an exe part that is the problem, it's the delay, the frequent need to redownload the entire game again, and in Shadow Warrior's case even having to uninstall and reinstall. It's just not acceptable.[...]
What? Isn't there the possibility to download the single patch executable (even from official site) and then apply it?
I'm quite new here, so this seems very strange to me.
Posted December 19, 2013
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Darvond: I've never really noticed an issue. I think you're just forgetting about times before the digital age where if code was broken, you were SOL.
While this is true to an extent, on the other hand the developers know that patching is ubiquitous and develop accordingly. Many release versions of games today are essentially still in beta.
Posted December 19, 2013
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phaolo: What? Isn't there the possibility to download the single patch executable (even from official site) and then apply it? I'm quite new here, so this seems very strange to me.
They "changed the game so much" you have to uninstall and reinstall for the latest patches.
Posted December 19, 2013
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Darvond: I've never really noticed an issue. I think you're just forgetting about times before the digital age where if code was broken, you were SOL.
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Darvin: While this is true to an extent, on the other hand the developers know that patching is ubiquitous and develop accordingly. Many release versions of games today are essentially still in beta.
It is also a matter in how far a dev wants to go to support and finetune a game into the future, there are a lot of games that need patching but most devs went to start new projects.
Posted December 19, 2013
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Darvond: I've never really noticed an issue. I think you're just forgetting about times before the digital age where if code was broken, you were SOL.

Also, I'm detecting a bit of PEBKAC.
I have no idea what you are trying to say.
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General discussion (archive)GOG patching process for modern games is terrible(158 posts)(158 posts)
(158 posts)