Meh,

Get to the weekend sale already.

I disagree, I thought it was pretty funny and they apologized to everyone who was offended by the "shutdown".

Glad to see you're back, guys. Just don't ever do something like this again. :-)

I can take a joke, so I forgive you gog, though I didn't find the prank to be particularly funny.

To your credit though, I will say that no other digital distribution site could have gotten away with this. I knew that I had all of my games backed up and ready to reinstall on an external drive. If this were a different kind of service where my games had DRM that required the online store I bought them from to remain in business in order for me to play my games, I would be really upset.

This was totally lame, but a minor bump in the road considering how awesome you are when doing what you're good at and not trying out crazy publicity stunts. I forgive GoG.
Congrats on the anniversary and the jump out of beta. :)

Here was my perspective on this whole thing:

I purchased four games last Friday but didn't download them right away due to a scheduling thing on my end. Hit up the site Sunday to find it basically shut down, with promises of being able to get the paid-for games later in the week. Well, I was thinking that it sucked that the GOG idea failed and was hoping that I wouldn't be out the $20+ I just spent. Patiently waited for the promised download site (which could have been up and running the whole time, by the way) while still lamenting the loss of this service.

So when I learned, like everyone else, that it was just the transition to version 1.0 and a publicity move / stunt to boot, I found myself annoyed. After all GOG had my money for those games and could have chosen to allow access to them during the transition. Instead, I was left wondering if I was eventually going to have to file disputes with Paypal and my CC company to get the money back for undelivered software.

Anyway, they're just video games, but it is real money being spent on something completely optional. Two years of beta have created a mostly-loyal group of customers and this is a really dumb move that threatens the loyalty of some customers. Being a self-employed person I understand how fickle customers can be at times, and retaining them is sometimes a tightrope walk over a flaming pit filled with barracudas and ebola.

So here it is: I, and I'll assume many others, come here and stay here because you offer a DRM-free and drama-free source for the classics that we love or never tried the first time around. It's great that GOG will remain DRM-free, and that alone will give you a loyal fanbase. However, please keep it drama-free, as well. We get enough of that in our lives as it is, and if we want more we'd like that drama to come from the plots of the games themselves, not from the buying experience.

Glad to see you're back, but please don't forget the long-time customers who helped grow this service in the first place. Some of us old farts (with a fair amount of discretionary game-buying money) don't like being unnecessarily screwed with, even if it IS just old computer games.

Hey, while I'm here... can version 1.1 come with a real forum instead of this quote-unfriendly version?

Lamest. PR Stunt. Ever.

I love computer's old games and can't stand away from playing them, but really, all this should be handled in a better way. It was a total dick move upon your established customer base, and I can't think of any other digital distributor who would have done this in a similar manner (hence why lamest, haven't seen anything like this at this market segment). I hope you do act as a serious and respectful company if and when there will be a next time, GOG.com.

I recognize I did had a few (only a few) good laughs with the conference, but the only things I can say I did appreciated are the YouTube videos and the overview page, but all these parts should be an optional part of the "out of beta experience", open to the users who wanted to follow this presentation of yours. And who cares about hints on Sunday's posts, really? Remember that not everyone is online during every Sunday.

Summarizing it, the beta transition "experience" should be open to who wanted to be part of it, so not forced upon everyone. You shouldn't have blocked access to what customers had paid real money for just for the sake of a PR stunt/prank.

And I wonder what's the big deal about Facebook integration and GOGmixes, personally, these are not useful for me. The only handy features for me are a better overall description of OSes, emulators, languages, patch versions, etc at the gamecards; recommendations/series lists in each page; a better forum and better search functions for it; etc. At least, you will remain true to the DRM-free movement and free of regional restrictions.

To be clear: I am not boycotting this store, even if that wasn't a correct or respectful way to do all this. Welcome back and please, "Don't be evil", GOG.com.

Changing the front page for a publicity stunt = OK
Blocking access to the games that I purchased without any warning for a publicity stunt = NO

THAT WAS MEAN.

And on top of that, where's the RSS feed for news now?

Oh, come on guys. Yes, they screwed up with that misguided publicity stunt. But they've apologized for that. Besides, all of us have made stupid mistakes at some point in our lives. I for one am glad they're back and even happier we'll be seeing the Baldurs Gate series available here. Welcome back. gog:)

In regards to your PR stunt, which only served to piss off THE SPECIFIC PEOPLE WHO CARE ABOUT YOUR SITE, I say fuck you guys. Fuck you from the bottom of my heart. If you care so little about your fans, I shan't waste another breath recommending your site to anyone I know.

Having said that, apology accepted. Happy to have you back, GOG.

I agree wholeheartedly with almost everything bcshelton72 said. The only difference being that I know I'll continue to buy games from you, simply because no one else does what you do!

Which, for me, was the biggest problem with your so-called joke.

I wasn't upset that I couldn't download my games (and there ARE several that I've yet to download). What upset me (hugely) was that the single shining beacon of DRM-free games distribution may have just gone out, and if you were gone (or had caved to the pressure to start using some kind of DRM -- your 'hints' could easily be interpreted to mean such a thing), there may be next to no chance of anyone else ever attempting such a thing again in the future.

After watching you get through the uncertainty of your first months, then onwards to a year and beyond, seeing your catalogue grow faster than I would have imagined, and feeling that GOG.com was well-established and here to stay, that was a massive and unexpected kick in the teeth.

Your comments were open to interpretation, but MOST of the possible interpretations were upsetting. The possibility that it was all a hoax occurred to me, but it was one of the LEAST likely possibilities (because what you just did was too stupid to seriously consider).

For various different reasons, your stunt will have (whether temporarily or longer-term) upset the majority of your fans and customers. You should have realised that in advance, and you are out of your minds for even considering doing such a thing, let alone actually going ahead with it.

downloading my games and then I'm outta here!

surprises me what a fuss people make about these old games they probably won't be playing anymore anyway...

Had us scared there, y'know. A most egregious sin. That will be 25 Ave Fallout for penance.

I think I was maybe worried for like ten minutes -and indeed those were a dark ten minutes- but the language made it sound like it wasn't a permanent thing and like a joke. I wish I would have downloaded Perimeter a little bit faster, but no harm done.

Like I was telling a friend of mine, the whole purpose of the DRM-free model is to allow us to still play our games as we want, even if the host site goes down; the actual playing of our games that we had already downloaded was not affected. Had this happened to steam, you would actually see some angry customers as they would not have been able to play any of their games. An even better example is the Ubisoft/Assassin's Creed fiasco some months back.

Welcome back gog, and welcome back new-comers. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to Perimeter.

P.S.- System Shock 2 would be a fantastic Christmas present.

Welcome back GOG!

Great addition with Baldur's Gate, you guys almost gave me a heart attack with the site closure but this more than makes up for it. Great new website too!