Not a troll question.

It seems that every single time anything happens here, at all, 50,000 threads of doom and gloom show up on this forum. While it's certainly gone up to 11 with the whole Russia/Belarus thing, it seems that nearly everything that happens here is hate. Not thoughtful criticism, not trying to make things better. Pure, unadulterated venom. Hell, people kept complaining after GoG took down the Hitman game that shouldn't have been on here in the first place. It's a wonder GoG listens to us at all. Lord knows I have trouble holding willing myself to come here sometimes. You'd think a DRM-Free store with the single most lenient refund policy for a shop of its type would have people giving SOME benefit of the doubt.

Not that GoG is perfect, mind. Only one example of perfection has ever existed upon the earth, and He died on the cross for us. However, there just seems to be constant doom and gloom on this site, and it makes it really hard to sort out the thoughtful debate from the boycott threads and Putin sympathizers.

So, I ask again; does anyone actually LIKE GoG? Like, not begrudgingly?

It is a shop, just like Tesco. When all works well you do not give it another thought but when things are not to satisfaction...

Yeah, even though the store isn't perfect by any means, I still like GOG a lot. There's a number of things I wish would get changed / fixed, and I wish they had a better selection of games from major studios. Still, GOG is the best place to buy games, and the staff is very friendly and helpful. I know GOG does their best with the resources they have available to them, and I appreciate that.

The worst part of GOG is actually these forums. There's a lot of wonderful people here, but for a smaller community the bad always sticks out more, and there's a lot of bad here. It's a very unwelcoming place for people to come and visit, and it wouldn't shock me at all if you had new potential customers come to GOG visit these forums and decide to turn around and never come back.

GOG is still my favorite online gaming store (I'd actually say that the only one where I buy often; the others are mainly for self-published developer stores, like Devotion and Creeper World games). So yeah, I guess I like GOG.

It is no surprise to me that those with strong negative feelings (towards GOG) also show their emotions more publicly. After all, it isn't like we see that much big demonstrations supporting something, the biggest and loudest demonstrations are against something. Those who are fine with something, don't feel the need to publicly raise their voice and show their opinions.

It is like when my wife makes dinner, and it is quite good, I don't go like "Mmmm, you've really outdone yourself this time! Good as always! Keep up the good work!".

No, I just silently eat the food, belch and fart loudly, and leave the table.

However, if I am not happy with the dinner, I will certainly go "What is this shit? I wouldn't give this even to our dog. Where is our dog anyway? Is this him?!? You monster!!!".

I'm not going to get into "recent event" politics as I actively avoid all political stuff. For me though, GOG is at its best when it keeps things simple and at its worst when it regularly over-complicates everything. Eg, 5 years ago, GOG forced Galaxy installers into offline installers ( here's a reminder of the huge backlash in this thread). Today, 5 years on, we now have Galaxy that lets you download the last 4 versions of a game ("rollback") whilst offline installers like Divinity Original Sin and Saints Row 3 remain in an unfixed bugged state with no "good" version to download even 10-29 months after GOG have been made aware of it.

tl:dr - I like GOG when GOG likes fixing / updating their own offline installers, and less so when they abandon them via getting distracted by over-pushing every other Galaxy Exclusive (tm) gimmick under the sun...

Now that all major storefronts have suspended sales to Russian accounts
https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/5/22963195/activision-blizzard-halts-new-game-sales-russia-ukraine-invasion
I don't think they will receive the same hatred as we have seen here. GOG forums are a "special place". There is a lot of disillusioned people, who like me really loved GOG, and had to realize that in the end is just a shop. Sometime your best fans can become your strongest haters.
And there is a large portion of people indoctrinated by extreme rightwing internet content, expressing their hatred here like any other social network. Not surprisingly, considered that the original target audience of GOG is older nostalgic men.

I LIKE GOG enough to stick around and still care to have that overpriced subpar GOG installer version instead of the updated Steam version key with Steam Workshop coolness for 50 cents in a bundle. Why? Yes, I still care for drm-free, but also, I have invested in this account, I am used to it, there is this sunk cost fallacy in effect as well I believe.

The other major DRM free alternative though: Humble, unexisting forums, can't discuss the releases and ask questions to other users. Itch.io, very few quality titles in a sea of students projects.
Accidentally DRM free titles on Steam and Epic don't give you an installer and require extra work, and sometimes the publisher will put drm later on.

I have mixed feelings about some of the things they have done regarding their nonchalant support of ownership (which used to be heavily marketed and is the reason I'm here) in favor of their Galaxy lock-in, but no other even remotely mainstream store is doing better so I'm still here.

That being said, "like" is a strong word for me when talking about a corporation. I can like someone (which is actually a relationship term I prefer to "fan" or "worshipping", it is more healthy), but my relationship with a corporation will always be one of convenience.

When a DRM-free store did not keep their promise, and keep doing stupid things to make their customers angry, it is not a good sign.

GOG can do whatever they want, it is their freedom.
I can refuse to buy anything here.
It is that simple.

I always backup my offline installers, so if GOG die tomorrow, I won't cry for it.

That's the gist of it really.
I used to really like GOG, support them, promote them, advocate for them, when I believed what they were saying, that they were in it to change this industry, the store part, turning a profit, being in order to show that it can be done and fund that endeavor, seeing them more as an organization that uses a business to fund its activism than a store that claims some principles just as marketing. Then the utter betrayal from 2014 came, discarding their second clear, stated principle, one-world-one-price, on the altar of growth and profits, and the unending downward slope on that path since then, with Galaxy, microtransactions and more recently increasingly obvious "slips" on their one remaining principle, the DRM front for single player.
So, in my case, not at all. I dislike and distrust them as much as I dislike and distrust any business, but also feel utterly betrayed by them, which isn't the case for others, as those others didn't make such promises and didn't lead me on like GOG did.
I'm still here because sadly they also took this concept of a game store with values and ran away with it, and unless they'll return to being that, I don't see how any other could take their place, the whole force of the market using their example as ammunition against anyone who'd dare to try to take up the banner and rise past the level of a very minor, nearly unknown, player.

A long time ago, these forums were full of wit, insight, friendliness, and gamers. I had more fun troubleshooting and talking about games than anything else on the Internet.

Those days have long passed. The trolls (aka 14 year olds & those that act 14) slowly took over, which silences the 95% majority.

So you can't read the forums to gauge anything.

By the way, I see a bunch of the good folks here in this thread. How magnificent.

GOG is awesome. I am sure a lot of old-timers would say it was nicer back then. But I can understand the necessity for GOG to evolve and adapt due to ever-growing customer base around the world. I came here because me and friend were very into The Witcher game. And it was something wow that CDPR started their own game service. Joined forums out of curiosity, bought games here because I loved how they were handled here. Made a lot of friends back in the day, mostly through Forum Mafia games. I may be forgotten now, but it is nice to see a lot of same people.

I think GOG has a little bit of everything to everyone. Which is nice and I still like it.

People are much more likely to speak up when they are unhappy than when they are happy. Even if those posts regarding the Russia ban are actually genuine (and let's face it, this is far from a guarantee), they represent a VERY small minority of GOG's users.

DRM free, some Linux support and making old games work on new systems are the key reasons for me to like and support the GOG store.

I am mixed heavily on gog, some days I am doom and gloom and others I am not, their past decisions have made me cut back on spending here, but I still plan on shopping here for as long as the store is around.

Yes, I do like GOG. Everytime I have spoken to a blue, or requested help I was treated to a very good exchange and things got done. I also appreciate their stance on DRM, most interactions on the forum.
What I don’t like is CDPr and their products being pushed here with various issues or their need for a client. I also am sad that resources which could/should have been used to fix the numerous website and offline installers have been wasted on other things. And now resources are further being removed to support CDPrOnline, support has gone, website still has decades old issues, we still don’t have changelogs, different means of downloading, compressed archives, optional component downloads. Other than a few filters, nothing has changed in a long while. Hence why I stopped (until a slight support boost a day or two back) from buying anything, somehow something needs to change for the better and jettisoning CDPr would be one start.