Yeah, I know about the issue that motivated this thread. I was just replying to a point that I though was wrong.

I wasn't disagreeing with you, the fact that you can download the games you buy is amazing and a big selling point for me too (along with gamer-friendly and DRM free).

It is definitely a good idea to back up your games, and you've gotta assume GOG has a fairly decent content delivery system that can autoscale a bit to meet unexpected peaks in traffic.

https://github.com/eddie3/gogrepo looks great for this purpose

Not at all if you have been downloading and backing up the offline installers. That's why it was always good to download the offline installer the moment you purchase a game. Honestly I never understood the people who do not do so. Separately, people with a bad Internet connection are screwed in so many other ways in 2020 that the solution for them is just to get a better one. They promise at least 60-day notice period but it's noncommittal. This isn't about changing China but, as food for thought, why let China change us?

Broadly, there are at least two things to consider:

1. Companies can only get better when held to account. Being allowed a free pass is demoralizing. Case in point: Cyberpunk 2077 wouldn't have run into such issues post-release had the warning signs been given more attention during the development phase, and the outcome would have likely been better both for the company and the customers.

Similarly, this is a such a warning sign for GOG now. Hoping things will get better if only the customers would shut up is misreading the situation. Rather, it's because the customers have already been too complacent that the situation has become possible where GOG contradicts the principles that took it to success. Things are not going to get better when they've already been getting worse on their own. The solution is to deal with the body in the closet not to hold your nose.

2. It is possible that at some point GOG will have outlived its purpose and trying to turn back the tide would be futile. Since however it has demonstrated the existence of a viable market niche, it is fairly certain a better project would emerge in its place, possibly even with the help of a number disillusioned CD Projekt insiders quitting to create "GOG 2.0." This isn't of course my preferred scenario but GOG's demise (which is hopefully not forthcoming) would also create the space for something new to emerge from its ashes. It would not be the end of the world.

What is much more dangerous is complacency. Examples: "This isn't really DRM because the locked content is not necessary to complete the game." "Just log in online, which you already do elsewhere, what's the big deal?" "It's not required, there's just a special bonus if you use it." "The offline installer will be updated later, what's the rush?" "Why do you even want to run a game without a launcher?" And now also: "It's just a game nobody cares about anyway." "They had it coming and deserve what they got." "It doesn't affect me, I can still look the other way." "If you can't fix the whole world don't even dare trying to fix one thing." and so on.

But as long as such attitudes do not become prevalent, there is still hope. Which is why we have to remember what brought us here in the first place, and as long there is the demand, one way or another there will always be supply.

There's a bit of an odd noting going about.

I don't think users are running purely on the recent Devotion affair, but an accumulation of things. From DRM sneaking in bit by bit, Galaxy being shoved in at every spot, dealing with Epic, games not be updated, a sheer lack of communication (and respect/care) for its users outside of posting the same three gifs. I'm sure there are a few more things in there too, but the issues here aren't as cut and dry as people have put.

I'd hope GOG can use this as a means to see where their weakness are, that's why there's such a fire from users. Everyone has their 'last straw'


Boycotting won't fix much, but I feel a lot of people here are tired of their words falling on deaf ears (well, eyes...i guess?) and when that happens they seek other forms of conveying a message.

Same reason why review bombing is a popular tactic.

That's the thing about china; they export a lot of yellow box honey; but apparently they don't have a lot of bees...; so what even is it your licking?
;P

hypocrite!

Millions could have lost access to GoG and Cyberpunk had CDPR not pulled Devotion, do you lot really have zero empathy for these gamers?

oh no , drainoil probably:D

Corporate bootlickers akin to you always crawl out of the woodwork with any debacle. I'm sure GOG appreciates it. In fact, they most likely originally assumed both the Cyberpunk fiasco and kowtowing to Chinese government would be defended by people like you, free of charge, riding the waves of the previous goodwill they built up to this point.

Lets go down the memory lane for a moment, shall we?

Valve tries paid modding with horrendously bad QA practices? Unpaid drones defend the bottom line, and it's obviously the entitled gamers at fault for wanting functional products. Blizzard kowtows to China? Unpaid drones defend the bottom line, and it's obviously the entitled gamers at fault trying to drum up a fake politically correct controversy. CDPR manipulates the review process by forcing a NDA on pre-release gameplay footage of Cyberpunk? Unpaid drones defend the bottom line, and it's obviously the entitled gamers at fault expecting the purchased game to function on the platforms it was advertised to run on. And now China interfering with GOG? Unpaid drones defend the bottom line, and it's obviously the entitled gamers at fault expecting a big successful company to not renege on every single one of their core values, the selfish attention seekers.

In all of these cases the message is always the same: "Think of the poor multi-million dollar company that is just trying to make ends meet, it's not REALLY their fault, and because they've done some nice things in the past it means they get to deceive and shit on their customers from here on out. Please shut up, keep consuming, and be content with the service you get."

But you see, boycotting actually WAS the answer to all of those issues: making a lot of noise actually got things changed for the better, if not ideal. Valve reneged on paid mods. Valve also had to reinstate Hatred and many other indie titles that were wrongfully removed from the store. Blizzard was forced to to do the right thing and give Blitzchung his prize money because of the PR nightmare. CDPR was forced to own up and offer refunds to their broken game. And it's the same here.

Plus, thankfully GOG (still) allows DRM-free downloads of their games, so I think all of us are pretty much in the safe in regard to retaining access to the content we purchased, now and in the future. Doesn't mean I'm going to give them any more of my shekels, lol. As for new games? GOG clearly prefers yuan to my dirty foreigner euros, so I don't think they will mind in the slightest.

No, it's not, because then I would have to boycott every Western producer or seller that sells products manufactured in China, wholly or partially, which requires more effort than the amount I care about this drama. The developers made a [unnecessary] choice to be controversial [this poster adds nothing of value to the game], whilst knowing fully that a ban could be one of the consequences. Also, this is a Taiwanese developer, so there are obvious background connections to be made, why PRC reacted so strongly. Poland (CDPR/GOG) and the EU don''t even recognize the independence of ROC, to my knowledge. Lastly, why are only Americans allowed to be nationalistic, proud of their political leaders ? When it's other countries the people there must be brainwashed. Contrary to US right-wing dogma, there are plenty of Chinese who are proud of their country and it's leaders, what they have achieved. The only thing we hear about are those who oppose it.

The difference is you can criticize any political leader in the West. There's a ridiculous number fiction that either alludes to real world politics or directly satirizes a known public figure. Imagine if Donald Trump, Sauli Niinnistö or Angela Merkel had the right to dictate not only what people in their own country are allowed to say about them, but what people in the whole world were allowed to say them? There would be a massive uproar about freedom of speech violations, and rightly so.

Perhaps freedom of speech is not a constitutional right in whatever regressive country you come from, but why should I care? It doesn't concern me whether your great leader gets offended and shits himself in a fit of rage, and neither do the relations between 西台灣 and its neighbors.

A Boycott will not cause GOG to go out of business right away. I'm sure they have a buffer of cash stored up. In fact, I doubt it would even put GOG on a path to going out of business. But if it did, I bet GOG would change its ways very quickly to avoid that!

I wholeheartedly agree, however I think the sad truth is that the management is the issue and they will do everything they can but blame themselves or take any blame and it will be hard to push them out. They only seem to care about rapid growth to increase their wealth and unfortunately greed is all that matters to investors too.

Gog is a real word.

[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gog_(trilobite]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gog_(trilobite[/url])

LOL. I'm surprised I didn't know that as I very nearly started collecting fossils of various trilobite species a few years back!

I don't like when corporations extend the ability of China to censor not just products inside their country, but to extend their censorship across the world. Any corporation succumbing to such pressure will not receive my money, if I can help it. So I'll be inconvenienced by that; so what? GOG made their choice, I've made mine; we all will have to live with it.