Posted June 23, 2013
low rated
I love GOG and prefer to buy all my games here. However, I've been extremely disappointed with all the bundles in this year's summer sale. There are several games I wanted from GOG during this sale, but because of the way the bundles and sales are set up, it would cost me several times the prices I could get them elsewhere. Therefore, unless something changes, I won't be buying any of them from GOG and will just be waiting for the Steam sale, which is very disappointing to me.
In my opinion, the biggest problem with the GOG bundles is that it doesn't allow you to denote games that you already have on another service. There are tons of games out there, and they have different sales at different times. Plus, like many others, I buy lots of game bundles (for example, the Humble Bundle, Indie Royale, IndieGameStand, Groupees, Bundle Stars, Indie Gala, and Bundle In A Box, etc.). Almost always, bundles only include Steam and/or Desura keys. Only twice have I received GOG keys, which I have immediately used (Pid from IndieGameStand and the Groupees Topware Interactive Bundle). You shouldn't be forced to buy games you already own just to get a better price.
The other problem is that often the bundle discount price offered at GOG is the same as the individual daily and summer sale deals offered from other services. Therefore, to get the exact same price on GOG, you need to buy a bunch of games you don't necessarily want.
GOG has always been fervent about DRM-free games and their trust in their users. I believe this trust should extend to games already owned elsewhere. If GOG puts trust in us to not pirate their games, they should also trust us to denote which games we already own.
I like the idea of GOG bundles, especially since they spotlight similar games that you might not have heard of before. However, I don't like the way it's being implemented and I think it will hurt GOG in the long run.
The other issue with the current implementation is that it encourages insecure payments to others who already own the whole bundle and can gift individual games for the discount price. This practice shouldn't be encouraged.
I believe there are several ways these issues could be resolved:
1) Allow games to be marked as owned on other services. You would not need to allow people to download these games from GOG, but it should be a third ownership state (in addition to the current two: "owned on GOG" and "not owned") that affects bundles and shows up when you go to the game page. This way, if you have every game but one in a bundle, just not all on GOG, you can still complete your collection at the lowest price. While this would require the most work, it would be a great feature that I and others would use since it would save me time looking up if I already own a game on another service when a sale is on (or when trying to track down different games in the same series).
2) Trust the user to denote which games in a bundle they already own on another service without making a feature for it. The method for doing this could be non-intuitive, but still possible. For example, if you add a bundle to your cart, then manually delete the games you already own, it shouldn't recalculate the price for all of them when you delete one. This would require minimal changes to GOG, and wouldn't even have to be documented well. However, it would allow GOG to continue trustings its users like it does with all DRM-free games and prevent scams.
3) I firmly believe that the bundle price should only be slightly higher than the individual prices. For example, 80% for buying the whole bundle, 75% individually for that day, and 50% off for all other days of the summer sale. The bundle price should be better than, not equal to, the individual prices offered by other services. This still gives an incentive to buy the whole bundle, but the games aren't double the price than when bought individually. Also, there should still be a difference in price when a game is part of the daily deal, instead of being the same as every other day unless you buy the whole bundle (especially when you already own all but one of the bundle on other services). I believe this point should be implemented in addition to either (1) or (2) above, since it makes more sense regardless.
To illustrate my points, here are some examples of my own frustrations with the bundles this year:
1) With the RPG Rarities Bundle, the only game I want is Evoland. I have everything else in the bundle, just not on GOG. I have 3 on Steam; 2 of those were acquired through bundles. I would much rather have Evoland on GOG, but I guess I'll be waiting until it goes 75% off in the upcoming Steam sale:
RPG Rarities Bundle
- Anodyne (Retro Groupees Bundle -> only given Steam key)
! Evoland
- Sword of the Stars: The Pit (Steam New Release Sale - weeks before it came out on GOG)
* The Real Texas (GOG daily sale)
- Costume Quest (Double Fine's Humble Bundle -> only given Steam key)
2) Same thing with the Indie Adventure Awesomeness bundle. I only want The Cat Lady, and I own every other game in the bundle. However, only one is on GOG; the other 4 are on Steam (all bought from indie bundles).
Indie Adventure Awesomeness
- Botanicula (Botanicula's Humble Bundle -> only given Steam key)
- Machinarium: Collector's Edition (also in Botanicula's Humble Bundle -> only given Steam key)
! The Cat Lady
- Stacking (Double Fine's Humble Bundle (with Costume Quest above) -> only given Steam key)
- Lucius ($3 from Bundle Stars, still ongoing -> only given Steam key)
* To The Moon (GOG daily sale)
3) I have been wanting Deponia 2 for a while now to continue the first which I have on GOG. It went on sale for 75% off ($5) on Steam and GamersGate last week, but I waited to buy it on GOG instead. However, it's only 50% on sale at GOG. To get the same price as the other services from weeks ago, I would have to buy other games in the bundle, which I don't want. I guess I'll just wait until Steam's summer sale and pick it up there, although I'd rather just buy it at the same price on GOG.
I apologize for the really long post, but this really frustrated me and I'm bothered by the direction that GOG is going. I want GOG to succeed and to buy all my games from them, not to be forced to go to other services because of the way they organize their sales and bundles.
If you agree, please show your support and keep this post alive. Thanks in advance.
In my opinion, the biggest problem with the GOG bundles is that it doesn't allow you to denote games that you already have on another service. There are tons of games out there, and they have different sales at different times. Plus, like many others, I buy lots of game bundles (for example, the Humble Bundle, Indie Royale, IndieGameStand, Groupees, Bundle Stars, Indie Gala, and Bundle In A Box, etc.). Almost always, bundles only include Steam and/or Desura keys. Only twice have I received GOG keys, which I have immediately used (Pid from IndieGameStand and the Groupees Topware Interactive Bundle). You shouldn't be forced to buy games you already own just to get a better price.
The other problem is that often the bundle discount price offered at GOG is the same as the individual daily and summer sale deals offered from other services. Therefore, to get the exact same price on GOG, you need to buy a bunch of games you don't necessarily want.
GOG has always been fervent about DRM-free games and their trust in their users. I believe this trust should extend to games already owned elsewhere. If GOG puts trust in us to not pirate their games, they should also trust us to denote which games we already own.
I like the idea of GOG bundles, especially since they spotlight similar games that you might not have heard of before. However, I don't like the way it's being implemented and I think it will hurt GOG in the long run.
The other issue with the current implementation is that it encourages insecure payments to others who already own the whole bundle and can gift individual games for the discount price. This practice shouldn't be encouraged.
I believe there are several ways these issues could be resolved:
1) Allow games to be marked as owned on other services. You would not need to allow people to download these games from GOG, but it should be a third ownership state (in addition to the current two: "owned on GOG" and "not owned") that affects bundles and shows up when you go to the game page. This way, if you have every game but one in a bundle, just not all on GOG, you can still complete your collection at the lowest price. While this would require the most work, it would be a great feature that I and others would use since it would save me time looking up if I already own a game on another service when a sale is on (or when trying to track down different games in the same series).
2) Trust the user to denote which games in a bundle they already own on another service without making a feature for it. The method for doing this could be non-intuitive, but still possible. For example, if you add a bundle to your cart, then manually delete the games you already own, it shouldn't recalculate the price for all of them when you delete one. This would require minimal changes to GOG, and wouldn't even have to be documented well. However, it would allow GOG to continue trustings its users like it does with all DRM-free games and prevent scams.
3) I firmly believe that the bundle price should only be slightly higher than the individual prices. For example, 80% for buying the whole bundle, 75% individually for that day, and 50% off for all other days of the summer sale. The bundle price should be better than, not equal to, the individual prices offered by other services. This still gives an incentive to buy the whole bundle, but the games aren't double the price than when bought individually. Also, there should still be a difference in price when a game is part of the daily deal, instead of being the same as every other day unless you buy the whole bundle (especially when you already own all but one of the bundle on other services). I believe this point should be implemented in addition to either (1) or (2) above, since it makes more sense regardless.
To illustrate my points, here are some examples of my own frustrations with the bundles this year:
1) With the RPG Rarities Bundle, the only game I want is Evoland. I have everything else in the bundle, just not on GOG. I have 3 on Steam; 2 of those were acquired through bundles. I would much rather have Evoland on GOG, but I guess I'll be waiting until it goes 75% off in the upcoming Steam sale:
RPG Rarities Bundle
- Anodyne (Retro Groupees Bundle -> only given Steam key)
! Evoland
- Sword of the Stars: The Pit (Steam New Release Sale - weeks before it came out on GOG)
* The Real Texas (GOG daily sale)
- Costume Quest (Double Fine's Humble Bundle -> only given Steam key)
2) Same thing with the Indie Adventure Awesomeness bundle. I only want The Cat Lady, and I own every other game in the bundle. However, only one is on GOG; the other 4 are on Steam (all bought from indie bundles).
Indie Adventure Awesomeness
- Botanicula (Botanicula's Humble Bundle -> only given Steam key)
- Machinarium: Collector's Edition (also in Botanicula's Humble Bundle -> only given Steam key)
! The Cat Lady
- Stacking (Double Fine's Humble Bundle (with Costume Quest above) -> only given Steam key)
- Lucius ($3 from Bundle Stars, still ongoing -> only given Steam key)
* To The Moon (GOG daily sale)
3) I have been wanting Deponia 2 for a while now to continue the first which I have on GOG. It went on sale for 75% off ($5) on Steam and GamersGate last week, but I waited to buy it on GOG instead. However, it's only 50% on sale at GOG. To get the same price as the other services from weeks ago, I would have to buy other games in the bundle, which I don't want. I guess I'll just wait until Steam's summer sale and pick it up there, although I'd rather just buy it at the same price on GOG.
I apologize for the really long post, but this really frustrated me and I'm bothered by the direction that GOG is going. I want GOG to succeed and to buy all my games from them, not to be forced to go to other services because of the way they organize their sales and bundles.
If you agree, please show your support and keep this post alive. Thanks in advance.
