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General discussionAnyone disliking the 'new' GOG ?(1532 posts)(1532 posts)
(1532 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted October 24, 2018
high rated
I figured I'd drop by and add to my previous thoughts on the storefront redesign due to what I saw when I opened the site today.

I hadn't opened GOG in a few days, and I'm finding myself checking it far less frequently now as I said I probably would in my previous post, but today I was greeted with a full screen advertisement of Thronebreaker when opening the main page, and not the store as I had been directed to for the past few years... hmm... an advertisement for a game that I didn't really want to see before I'm even taken to your storefront... even if I don't have to see it more than once as you claim, I can see these kinds of full screen advertisements becoming more and more frequent because the system is now in place.

I'm really getting turned off by the recent updates, I'll be honest. You're making viewing games, discovering games and even buying games more hassle than it needs to be for a service like this. I'll probably be opening GOG even less frequently from now on, and be less inclined to fight with the website to buy anything.
Posted October 24, 2018
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nusatsum: This amazes me.
And we still have to see this horrible website.
You certainly were not around at time of the previous relaunch, so you would know that this revamp is more or less final.

... final until the next big revamp.
Post edited October 24, 2018 by coffeecup
Posted October 24, 2018
high rated
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EraztheRogue: I'm really getting turned off by the recent updates, I'll be honest. You're making viewing games, discovering games and even buying games more hassle than it needs to be for a service like this. I'll probably be opening GOG even less frequently from now on, and be less inclined to fight with the website to buy anything.
I believe they are turning into the Netflix kind of customer service: we don't care what your interests are, we don't care about our community, we want to control the flow of the information, buy this, whoever you are whoever you want.

It's really awful.
Posted October 25, 2018
high rated
As I had anticipated, I don't check the store as frequently as I used to, and I haven't purchased a game here since the site turned into this rubbish design. Unlike some other people, it's not because I'm actively boycotting GOG. No, it's a far simpler reason -- there's nothing to entice me or to encourage me to even look at anything.

I used to look at the News items every time I visited GOG. Now, those items are forced to the bottom of the page, each "News" item is a single thumbnail only (whereas it used to be a thumbnail with a short text description), and there are only 3 items on the first page and 4 items on subsequent pages (whereas it used to be 10 items, all on one page). This makes the News section completely useless. A few days ago, there were 6 news item, so the first 3 items posted were on the second page. How many people saw those 3 items? Not many, I would guess. In the past, I had purchased many games because I saw them in the News section and I liked what I read. No more text (and reduced number of displayed items) means that's not going to happen anymore.

The other big reason I won't be buying much (if anything) is that it's no longer easy to see what's on sale. I don't mean it's difficult because it's buried in the page. It's difficult because the "listing" is no longer available in list format, it's available in grid-only format. To make it worse, each game is identified by a single thumbnail only; they don't even show the name of the game as text, and for many games, it is either difficult or impossible to identify the game by the thumbnail.

So, what GOG has done with this new design is make it so that I'm no longer informed of any new or upcoming releases, and make it so that I cannot easily see what games are currently on sale. The end result of both of these changes is reduced, if not altogether eliminated, opportunities for me to find anything I might be interested in, thus reducing or eliminating any potential reason for me to purchase something.

A cynical person might question whether Green Man Gaming purchased GOG, as GOG's new design is probably the one thing that could make Green's website look good and usable. At least Green still uses a list style when listing games, and they still show you the name of the game.
Posted October 25, 2018
high rated
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cmclout: As I had anticipated, I don't check the store as frequently as I used to, and I haven't purchased a game here since the site turned into this rubbish design. Unlike some other people, it's not because I'm actively boycotting GOG. No, it's a far simpler reason -- there's nothing to entice me or to encourage me to even look at anything.

I used to look at the News items every time I visited GOG. Now, those items are forced to the bottom of the page, each "News" item is a single thumbnail only (whereas it used to be a thumbnail with a short text description), and there are only 3 items on the first page and 4 items on subsequent pages (whereas it used to be 10 items, all on one page). This makes the News section completely useless. A few days ago, there were 6 news item, so the first 3 items posted were on the second page. How many people saw those 3 items? Not many, I would guess. In the past, I had purchased many games because I saw them in the News section and I liked what I read. No more text (and reduced number of displayed items) means that's not going to happen anymore.

The other big reason I won't be buying much (if anything) is that it's no longer easy to see what's on sale. I don't mean it's difficult because it's buried in the page. It's difficult because the "listing" is no longer available in list format, it's available in grid-only format. To make it worse, each game is identified by a single thumbnail only; they don't even show the name of the game as text, and for many games, it is either difficult or impossible to identify the game by the thumbnail.

So, what GOG has done with this new design is make it so that I'm no longer informed of any new or upcoming releases, and make it so that I cannot easily see what games are currently on sale. The end result of both of these changes is reduced, if not altogether eliminated, opportunities for me to find anything I might be interested in, thus reducing or eliminating any potential reason for me to purchase something.

A cynical person might question whether Green Man Gaming purchased GOG, as GOG's new design is probably the one thing that could make Green's website look good and usable. At least Green still uses a list style when listing games, and they still show you the name of the game.
Well said. That's exactly what happened to me. I stopped visiting the store page because of the reasons you mentioned... It's nothing personal; I simply have not time or patience to try to find information I need.
Posted October 25, 2018
I know I'm 42 pages late to this party, but...I've been pretty much only really using the top banner and its drop-down menus...what are the changes? I think I see a slight style change to store pages, but nothing hugely significant that I've noticed so far.
Posted October 25, 2018
Initially I did not really want to comment on the new frontpage of Gog. On the one hand I actually liked the look but on the other hand I found it less informative and putting the important things at the bottom and with too many advertisements.

But the recent full page thronebreaker ad actually is too much. What happened to Gog marketing people? Don't they know that too much advertisement and not enough information is actually detrimental to the attractiveness of a service?

I'm rather pissed of now and will try to avoid the front page and come directly to the community forum. New releases I can still find at https://www.gog.com/games?page=1&sort=date&tab=new fortunately.
Posted October 25, 2018
high rated
I think in the past month we've learned one thing about GOG strategy.

They have a meeting where they write down a list of all the things they should do to improve pricing, availability, public relations, and support... then they all agree and shake hands and promise to do the exact opposite of everything on the list.

Meeting. Adjourned.
Posted October 25, 2018
high rated
I really dislike it. One of the things I hate the most about the website changes is in the Store page. I loved browsing the games by their year of release, Pre-90's games, 90-99, early 2000's. They streamlined the search functions and completely removed the ability to do that anymore. I was slowly making my way through games from my childhood and making a purchase every week or two and now all I find in my browser is Newer games unless I search through 10+ pages with every new selection they have now. What happened to Good Old Games? It's becoming, New Trash Games, especially now that you can't even easily look for the 'Old' games anymore. :(

R.I.P. GOG.

Edit: It's nearly impossible for me to "stumble across" any old games when searching now either. Sorting it by, Date Added and going to the last page, or even, OLDEST FIRST, it puts up NEW games like Kingdom Come Deliverance, Legend of Heroes : Trails of Cold Steel and the like. GOG, what's wrong with that search? Hint: One of them was released THIS YEAR, and the other 5 years ago. I just want to browse the old stuff.

i.imgur.com/WeCiHfC.png - Screenshot showing the 'Sort by Oldest First' function at its finest. It wouldn't let me post a normal url link with the button on the elft.

R.I.P. GOG.
Post edited October 25, 2018 by Klied
Posted October 25, 2018
Oh... The big central banner shrinked a bit and the Throne breaker banner totally disappeared for me.

Slowly getting there, aren't we ?
Posted October 25, 2018
Nice! The Thronebreaker banner was finally taken down. Only one banner left now, which is switching between displaying the recent releases. Nice that GOG finally listens to the community feedback.

But the huge, screen-filling autoplay video shoving Thronebreaker in every new visitor's face is still there. Granted, every new visitor will only see that once before quickly clicking "Never show me this crap again", but still it gives off that 'desperate advertising' vibe.

Ah, what the hell. GOG is desperate to sell that game and decided to show their over-eagerness openly, so they may as well annoy new users once with the video. At least they have dialed down on the annoyances for regular customers. In that sense: thank you GOG for reducing the amount of clutter on your front page!
Posted October 25, 2018
If there is a list of people who want GOG mixes back, I'd like to be on it.
Posted October 25, 2018
Can you guys imagine trying to load up the new gog front page on a dialup modem? Dear God, the HORROR.
Posted October 25, 2018
high rated
I gave it a chance, you know just in case some hidden not-so-obvious-at-first-glance thing clicked and the re-design would make sense.

So it's been about 2 weeks since the change, and well i'm still finding it harder to get the info i need to make good purchase choices.

"A picture is worth a thousand words", except when it is not, and sadly while i 100% suspect that phrase was used a lot during the planning stages of this re-design, something just has not transitioned well.

Does perhaps the site work better than it did on a mobile platform (talking smart phone etc)? Maybe it is better on big screens (desktop 1920x1080 etc)?

On my smallish laptop screen (1280x800) i just have less info easily at hand to help me quickly make purchase choices.

I just know that on my device the experience is less useful, which is naturally going to mean less purchases, just by the nature of the extra difficulty involved, rather than any specific aim to buy less on my end. The missing news section in particular has just left me feeling out the loop on what is new or not, and thus less likely to look out for those titles to lead me into the site purchases in general.

Just a very curious re-design. I wonder what 'school of business' it comes from? Practicality is down, usability is down, ease of access to info is down, and it could be argued the aesthetics are also down. There has to be some 'positive' reason for it though right?
Post edited October 25, 2018 by ThorChild
Posted October 25, 2018
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f1e: Gog is leaving its niche(s) in pursuit of bigger financial opportunities. It has been for some time and it's a trend I suppose we should assume to continue. It makes all the business sense, it just leaves some aftertaste of broken (implied) promises.
Oh.

Just like Telltale games.

Hm.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnyone disliking the 'new' GOG ?(1532 posts)(1532 posts)
(1532 posts)