I'd been spreading the word since I heard about this site. Being able to replay the old classics was a fantastic opportunity.

But, in the aftermath of your "PR stunt", I won't waste another breath. It'll take a long, long time to win back the trust of your longtime fans, so good luck with that.

I do my best, but my friends today is all thinking about "graphics" and you know. "mmo's" but atleast i support

"At the expense of"? What have you lost? What has anyone else lost? Oh, that's right. Nothing. Well, actually, you may have lost a good few hours conveying your nerd rage through text, but that was of your own volition and in no way is GOG.com responsible for your loss. They really should update their TOS with that or something.

Thank you for not dismissing my comment outright, but I don't consider this to be trolling. There's some very strong language being thrown at GOG across this forum, and if those at fault can't take the heat, they should stay out of the kitchen.

I'm expressing my side of this ongoing argument (an argument with one side is hardly an argument, despite what the internet would have you believe), which is that there's an obvious, childish flaw in their case that GOG has somehow harmed them (them being those unable to tolerate a sense of humor other than theirs). The only thing anyone has been or would have been deprived of (had GOG really been shutting down) was the ability to download their purchased titles for a period of several days.

The core of the nerd rage going around is that GOG (somehow unlawfully or dishonestly in their eyes) deprived users of the ability to download their titles for some period of time. If GOG had made an announcement about shutting down soon, or hadn't kept the re-launch a secret at all, this same period of unavailability would have occurred. If we go by the standard currently being held against GOG's actions (depriving users of access to their servers is an absolute no-no), then they still would have been committing a deplorable act in both of the aforementioned cases.

Also by this standard, scheduled or unscheduled server down-time on any digital distribution service, let alone GOG, is a deplorable act worthy of boycotting. Sounds ridiculous, right? It is. Anyone holding this opinion should start making it a normal practice to read every Terms of Service Agreement they come across in its entirety.

Now, I admit that if GOG had really gone through with what the "shut-down" announcement seemed to be saying (that if you didn't happen to look at the home page at a certain time you would have missed that magical Thursday on which you could re-download your titles), I would have been a little perturbed. I did manage to catch the announcement, and was bummed out, but was grateful that I'd be able to back up some of my purchases on the next day. While I knew that they had every right to do so with their service, I did think it a bit odd that no announcement email had been sent out. I thought about how bummed out I'd be if I hadn't caught the announcement, and then I started wondering if I did see it in time. If GOG really did something like that to their customers, I would probably be wary of doing business with them in the future (or at least back up my purchases more thoroughly).

But guess what? They didn't. They never had any intention of doing anything of the kind. It was a joke, and it was a joke that drummed up a boatload of visits to their previously relatively unknown service. Nobody lost access to any of their titles. GOG is about to get way more business. Everyone wins.

Possibly the only thing that anyone could have lost was the knowledge that GOG was still online and that they never lost access to their purchases, but that's a really far-fetched suggestion.

You are awesome.

Since you appear to responding to my post somewhat, allow me to respond right back.

First of all, you completely misunderstand the reason I'm angry. It's not because I lost access to "my precious games" for four days. It's because GOG, which I care very deeply about, fooled me into thinking they were going out of business, then jumped up and said "Ha, fooled you! What an idiot!" The whole thing was made worse by the fact that I was convinced they had more respect for their customers than to ever do anything as disrespectful as that. You haven't been here very long, and you obviously haven't used the community much, so I don't expect you to understand. But, knowing that you do not have the foundation for understanding the reaction of the regulars, should really keep you from patronizing them. Think "I know I don't have all the facts, maybe I shouldn't jump in and act as a self-righteous jerk towards those who do".

Secondly, some people seem to be focusing on my posts a lot at the moment. Maybe they draw attention because I actually think about what I write, and explain which things I have a problem with, rather than just saying "you suck" and leave it at that. As such, it annoys me greatly that people seem to lump my opinion in with the ones who do just that. When did you see me talk about boycotting GOG? That's right, you didn't, because I never have.

For someone who's accusing me of taking your post out of context, it's funny that you should shove words like that into GOG's mouth.

Aside from that, only my first post addressed you directly, and even then only a specific part of your complaint: one that seems to be shared by all in the "GOG has betrayed me!" phenomenon. My second post was addressing the complaints as a whole, most of which that I've wasted the time to read are along the lines of "GOG stole precious downloading time from me! I am now emotionally scarred! I will boycott them somehow!"

I've "been here" ever since the front page was merely an announcement of what was to come. Just because I only recently decided to take advantage of the service, or only have a few forum posts, does not mean that I haven't been a fan since the very beginning. Assuming naivety of others, on the web, of all places, is rather naive in itself.

I think you mean "I don't have all the sentimentalism", but if we're talking facts, that's pretty straightforward: GOG.com, a revolutionary service two years into its beta stage, pretended to be shutting down unexpectedly. On the day that they said users could come by to download and backup their purchased goods (actually, the night before was the official announcement), they essentially yelled "Surprise!" and launched the full-fledged service. The service was never going down. It never went down. Only users who visited the site within the short period of required (though disguised) down-time ever knew there even was a practical joke (well, if it hadn't been for GOG being generous and apologizing all over the new site).

Man, I'm feeling traumatized and betrayed now.

forum replies is very convenient.

unfortunately there is a bug as threads are not shown read even though i did read them.


i used the new post button in beta version to check threads where i posted for new replies (to my posts but also just regular posts) now it does not show whether there is a new post or not.

it would be awesome if you guys fixed it as it makes reading the forum much easier.

Dear Gog.com


BALDURS GATE FOR THE GODDAMN FUCKING WIN!


I haven't played the original BG series in literally years.

Thank you gog.com, and take my 10 dollars. You earned so much more than that.

Nice job.

Gog you scared the hell out of me with your stunt, but you are forgiven. There was a period of 10 yrs or so when I didn't game at all, and you guys have given me the opportunity to discover those games I missed. As I've mentioned to my friends, Starcraft 2, Fallout 3, Street fighter 4 - all of my newer games are collecting dust on the shelf while I busy myself with the classics. I will continue to support your company as long as you hold the same principles.

Oh...and you can try another prank but I'll be ready this time ;)

You are wasting your breath, man. There are some totally clueless people here who just won't ever get it. It is useless to argue with them. Most of them just got here and many of them seem to be arrogant pricks. Hard to discuss anything with that sort.

I just hope the whole thing will die down, in time, and we can get back, somehow, to where we were. But I doubt it will ever really be the same.

Now, I've got 152 games to download and back up. That should keep me occupied for awhile. Maybe things will be better by the time I'm done.

The worst part to me, is that I don't think GOG gets it either. I could care less about the dumb jerks insulting anyone who was offended by the "PR" stunt. But it's a lot more worrisome to me if GOG is just as clueless.

I bought a lot of games mainly to support GOG and their DRM-free business model. If it was even slightly OK, I'd buy it thinking I'd download it later one day and give it a try. I'll be a lot more selective in the future. Now that it's clear that we're all just about "business" here as some have suggested.

Probably won't bother with the forums much, either. Will give me more time to play games, I guess. A silver lining in every cloud. ;)

I've been hearing about this site for awhile, but I wasn't sure what to think about it--I checked it out early on, and the selection was limited. I figured it'd be a flash in the pan. But I must say, you guys have really improved things; the selection and site are drastically better. I decided to try this thing--having already used, and been annoyed by, GameTap, Steam, and some DRM-plagued service--via the free Lure of the Temptress.

It started instantly, without a hitch, on Windows 7 64-bit. No screwed-up sound, no crash, and no need to boot up a third-party program like DOSBox or SCUMMVM. I'm really, really impressed. Having already previously jumped through hoops trying to get this game to run--using the aforementioned programs--it was incredible to have it start without any fuss. Now that I've seen that, I will definitely be returning for actual purchases. This service's level of polish and professionalism is basically unmatched in the field of online game downloads.

Obviously, the selection is incomplete--but glancing through the classics you've already amassed, it's clear that you know your stuff. And judging by the variety of developers and publishers you've won over, it's also clear that you're serious about this whole thing. I fully believe that you will continue to fill out your already-great list of games.

Bottom line: I'm extremely impressed. I'll be buying from you in the future, and I'll definitely be spreading the word. Thank you for creating this service.

This might be true for some, but certainly not all. If you care, I was upset because I felt GOG had done this in bad form. In my book, this type of thing falls under the general category of gutter PR. But in fairness to those who were worried about not being able to download their newly-purchased merchandise, GOG did not post the update about being able to have access to downloads for some time after their initial announcement. I can see how people might be confused and angry about that.

Also, I watched as GOG's crack PR staff seemed to systematically delete high-voted dissenting posts on their YouTube channel during the whole incident. I mean, that's just plain cheap.

This seems to be largely true, unfortunately. I can't really understand the concept of "brand loyalty". To me, real loyalty must be reciprocated. Being loyal to a company who treats you like crap is like being a dog with an abusive master. Does this metaphor fit GOG? I'm not really sure yet, but I do feel a bit disenchanted to say the least.

I guess on topic, it comes down to this. Was I pimping GOG before the PR debacle? Yes. Will I be pimping GOG after the PR debacle? No. Did I buy games before? 28. Will I after? TBD.

P.S. - GOG may have increased their traffic 20-fold after their spurious demise, but think about this. How much more traffic do you think BP started receiving on their webheads after the gulf rig disaster? Do you think that sudden increase in traffic reflects enthusiasm for their services, or otherwise? Perhaps worth considering.