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JMich: Slow? I can cap an 100MB line when downloading a game from them through the downloader, not sure how that is considered slow. The extras are downloaded slower though, since the change to only have 1 parallel download, resulting in faster merging of the file at the end.
I'm just extrapolating from the posts on the main forum. Considering that I hardly buy new games here, it is actually difficult to find a game to test the download speed. Yet, apart from the "controversies" it might induce (but lets be honest, those are probably just the "its witchcraft" crowd), I can only see benefits.

Maybe they don't want to add it to some games but not to others, as I consider it highly unlikely that EA or Ubisoft would agree to this.
Post edited September 19, 2012 by SimonG
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SimonG: Their downloads are often criticize for being to slow, and they could save money on the bandwidth.
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JMich: Slow? I can cap an 100MB line when downloading a game from them through the downloader, not sure how that is considered slow. The extras are downloaded slower though, since the change to only have 1 parallel download, resulting in faster merging of the file at the end.
I also get around 3 Mbytes/sec from my work for GOG client downloads (except not extras), which is plenty fast for me. I don't know if it is the GOG servers or the corporate network capacity that throttles it to that. Extras are a different matter, they come much slower.

At home I get somewhat over 1 Mbytes/sec I think, which I presume is near the max speed of my home ADSL (sold to me as 8-10Mbit/s ADSL or somesuch).

Torrent download option in the client would be good too, as long as it is optional, because as said, certain networks may still try to block or throttle torrent downloads. I wouldn't surprised if I couldn't do torrent downloads from my work (corporate network), at least efficiently.

It could be a bit like I think the Battle.net client does it, I think it gives you an option to use or disable a p2p option to download (and share) the game you are downloading from them.
Post edited September 19, 2012 by timppu
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Nirth: And how is the abandonware thread justified? That's silly. They ask publishers for the rights to sell...
Running joke in the GOG forums, especially with the older members. I've somehow managed to stumble on a few references of it, and I think SimonG also appreciates that joke ;)
As for the PR reasons, I'll point you to timppu's post, which unfortunately does show quite a bit of what the torrent mentality is, even though torrents are used for 10+ years for legitimate purposes.
The word torrent does have really bad vibes, so companies tend to stay away from them, even if they do use them (MS and Blizzard are two I know of that do use torrents to distribute large files, there are probably more).
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JMich: As for the PR reasons, I'll point you to timppu's post, which unfortunately does show quite a bit of what the torrent mentality is, even though torrents are used for 10+ years for legitimate purposes.
It is not just the bad vibes or PR. p2p protocols can clog the network down due to lots of simultaneous connections, uploading all the time (not only downloading) etc. So they may just use more ot the resources, which is enough for especially corporation networks try to stay away from them.

I know I shouldn't tell this, but I know a pretty recent case where people in a certain company were fighting with some critical and persistent network problem, which jeopardized their important release. They weren't sure what was causing the problems, their product or something else.

After analysis, it turned out it was some employer running a bittorrent client in the same network at full speed. Wow... (to other Finns, this was not related to the recent Elisa/Saunalahti case either where some employer(s) of the ISP/telco company were running a pirate server of their own, at their workplace.)
Post edited September 19, 2012 by timppu
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timppu: snip
Which is something any shoddy implementation can do, be it a javascript, a flash movie, or even Bobby Tables.
On the other hand, looking at Blizzard's downloader (though not sure if it does have a verification method to see if you are allowed to download the file) or MS' method (used it to download the Win7 Beta way back), those didn't seem to clog the network that much.
A client that is clogging the network usually means it has too many connections open at once, or that it tries to open them all at the same time. That means that either the client has to be able to automatically detect and set the correct settings for your line, or you'll have to have at least one person to support it.
Again, I've nothing against the torrent protocol, nothing against you, but torrents for most people equal piracy, thus why most companies don't want to say they are using/endorsing them.
Thank god both my ISP and my workplace have no problems with them.
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JMich: As for the PR reasons, I'll point you to timppu's post, which unfortunately does show quite a bit of what the torrent mentality is, even though torrents are used for 10+ years for legitimate purposes.
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timppu: It is not just the bad vibes or PR. p2p protocols can clog the network down due to lots of simultaneous connections, uploading all the time (not only downloading) etc. So they may just use more ot the resources, which is enough for especially corporation networks try to stay away from them.

I know I shouldn't tell this, but I know a pretty recent case where people in a certain company were fighting with some critical and persistent network problem, which jeopardized their important release. They weren't sure what was causing the problems, their product or something else.

After analysis, it turned out it was some employer running a bittorrent client in the same network at full speed. Wow... (to other Finns, this was not related to the recent Elisa/Saunalahti case either where some employer(s) of the ISP/telco company were running a pirate server of their own, at their workplace.)
To avoid that to happen they can always put limits on the total amount of connections coming in to their tracker. Even better, use PublicBT and OpenBittorrent. Completely free and legal. However, there will be no control (other than IP reports) of what GOG's users might share with others but that has nothing to do with torrent protocol anyway.

Besides, your example is classic mishandle of resources and control in a company. I'm mean, that it took them a while to figure out that some employer used bitorrent just goes to show their incompetence to not hire a decent head technician to keep track of things like that.
Post edited September 19, 2012 by Nirth
2 questions about Humble Bundles and downloadable games (non steam)

- do they provide for the last version of the game when they release bundles?
- do they update games? If in 2 months Game Y is updated, will the HB installer be updated as well?
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Gilou: 2 questions about Humble Bundles and downloadable games (non steam)

- do they provide for the last version of the game when they release bundles?
- do they update games? If in 2 months Game Y is updated, will the HB installer be updated as well?
Seem so, at least some of the older bundles have a "Last Updated" date for specific games. Can't really say if it is the newest one, or what delay it may have, but so far HB seems to be updating the installers.
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Nirth: Besides, your example is classic mishandle of resources and control in a company. I'm mean, that it took them a while to figure out that some employer used bitorrent just goes to show their incompetence to not hire a decent head technician to keep track of things like that.
I think it was mainly that the culprit was something they were not expecting to be the reason.
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timppu: I think it was mainly that the culprit was something they were not expecting to be the reason.
What kind of product or service does that company offer? If it's anything related to hardware or software I say incompetent, otherwise you're probably right but still.
Post edited September 19, 2012 by Nirth
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Gilou: 2 questions about Humble Bundles and downloadable games (non steam)

- do they provide for the last version of the game when they release bundles?
I asked about the updates too, but at least the Amnesia game that HumbleBundle offered was a bit newer version than the version I had already bought/downloaded somewhat earlier from the developer site (which I presume has been updated after that date too).

Then there's also the question (that was already discussed for GOG too), how do they handle possible future DLC, or do they handle it at all, and think people buy them from e.g. Steam?
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Gilou: 2 questions about Humble Bundles and downloadable games (non steam)

- do they provide for the last version of the game when they release bundles?
- do they update games? If in 2 months Game Y is updated, will the HB installer be updated as well?
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JMich: Seem so, at least some of the older bundles have a "Last Updated" date for specific games. Can't really say if it is the newest one, or what delay it may have, but so far HB seems to be updating the installers.
It seems that updates are announced via twitter. Very handy when you have no twitter account
True, a pain to see when/if something is updated.
Attached is part of my HIB5 page, with the last updated date showing for 3 games. But again, how are you supposed to know that something has been updated? If twitter is the only way, it does suck...
Attachments:
hib5.jpg (45 Kb)
Same here. I think last time I checked about this I deleted everything, re-downloaded everything and wrote in a text file the dates that were mentioned on the webpage. Not very practical if you ask me...
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sebarnolds: Same here. I think last time I checked about this I deleted everything, re-downloaded everything and wrote in a text file the dates that were mentioned on the webpage. Not very practical if you ask me...
Or you could just compare with the file creation date...

I really hope with the new humble store and the new personal account they establish also a news system what files were updated since the last login.