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General discussionGetting back to our roots(1418 posts)(1418 posts)
(1418 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 11, 2014
Hey, GOGgers,

We're not perfect, we're exploring new frontiers, and we make mistakes. We thought DRM-Free was so important that you'd prefer we bring you more DRM-Free games and Fair Price was less critical and that it could be sacrificed in some cases. The last two week's worth of comments in our forums (nearly 10k!), show that's not the case. We didn’t listen and we let you down. We shouldn't sacrifice one of our core values in an attempt to advance another. We feel bad about that, and we're sorry. Us being sorry is not of much use to you, so let’s talk about how we will fix it.

One: DRM-free forever. Abandoning fixed regional pricing means it will probably take longer to get some games, but you've made it clear that sacrificing fair pricing for more DRM-free games isn't acceptable.

Two: We will adamantly continue to fight for games with flat worldwide pricing. If that fails and we are required to have regional prices, we will make up the difference for you out of our own pockets. For now it will be with $5.99 and $9.99 game codes. In a couple of months, once we have such functionality implemented, we will give you store credit instead, which then you will be able to use towards any purchase and cover the price of it in full or partially. Effectively gamers from all around the world will be able to benefit from the US prices.

This will apply to every single game where we do not have flat pricing, such as Age of Wonders 3 (full details here), Divinity: Original Sin, and The Witcher 3. If you remember the Fair Price Package for The Witcher 2, this will be exactly the same.

Three: We still intend to introduce the pricing in local currencies. Let us explain why we want to do it and how we want to make it fair for everyone. From the very beginning our intention was to make things easier for users whose credit cards/payment systems are not natively in USD. The advantages are simple because the price is more understandable and easier to relate to. There would be no exchange rates involved, no transaction fees, and no other hidden charges. However after reading your comments, we realized we have taken an important element away: the choice. In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD. This way, how you pay is always your choice.

Four: You are what matters, and we will be sure to involve you all more in what we're doing and why we're doing it. Let's start by meeting you at GDC - we’d like to invite you to meet us face-to-face Monday the 17th at GDC. Obviously, not all of you can come to San Francisco, so we want to invite all of you to an online event with us early in April to ask us whatever you would like. More details soon.

The bottom line is simple: there may be companies that won't work with us (although we will work hard to convince the most stubborn ones ;). Yes, it means we might miss out on some games, but at the same time GOG.com will remain true to its values and will keep on offering you the best of DRM-free gaming with Fair Prices.

Once again thank you for caring so much about GOG.com. We will work hard not to disappoint you again.

--Marcin "iWi" Iwinski & Guillaume "TheFrenchMonk" Rambourg
Posted June 07, 2014
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Warrior57: Did I miss something? Where are they "going back to their roots"? As far as I can see, they still charge me the overpriced amount and keep my exchange as profit. Granting me some codes for their games which I probaly never intended to buy doesn´t fix this.
Erm... isn't it store credit they give you as part of the fair price thing? Are there really no other games on GOG that interest you?
Posted June 08, 2014
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Warrior57: Did I miss something? Where are they "going back to their roots"? As far as I can see, they still charge me the overpriced amount and keep my exchange as profit. Granting me some codes for their games which I probaly never intended to buy doesn´t fix this.
I'm afraid that you did.

First off, The Witcher 3 was one of the three announced games (the other two being Age of Wonders 3 and Divinity: Original Sin) that introduced regional pricing as necessary for them to be released DRM-free on GOG.com.

Secondly, please re-read point #2 of this announcement - it clearly states that they will try hard to bring games under the flat worldwide pricing model, but if their attempts fail, the games will still be released but with regional pricing; those charged more than the (US) base price will be compensated with game codes at first and with store credit later on, when this option will be made available.

GOG never stated that they won't release any regionally priced games ever again after Age of Wonders 3.
Posted June 08, 2014
@Pidgeot from the last thread about:

In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD.
How are you reading this? Because this does not mean you don't get a regional price. I'll still get the regional price of 5 Euro (magically drummed up random number). It simply means I can pay the regional price with Euro's or Dollars or whatever type of currency I may have on hand (as long as the converted end result is the equivalent of 5 Euro). This was a big complaint that was brought up when they announced they were going to change to regional pricing.
Post edited June 08, 2014 by Pheace
Posted June 08, 2014
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Pheace: @Pidgeot from the last thread about:

In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD.
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Pheace: How are you reading this? Because this does not mean you don't get a regional price. I'll still get the regional price of 5 Euro (magically drummed up random number). It simply means I can pay the regional price with Euro's or Dollars or whatever type of currency I may have on hand (as long as the converted end result is the equivalent of 5 Euro). This was a big complaint that was brought up when they announced they were going to change to regional pricing.
I am reading this that you can choose to pay $5.99 or €X (where X is not necessarily determined by a live currency conversion, but is still close to $5.99).

That sentence is the primary point of that paragraph. While it does not explicitly state that your choice is $5.99 or €X, I see no way to interpret that differently without making the statement completely pointless - choosing to pay in $ would, for the majority of Europeans (for whom € is the standard currency), likely be slightly more expensive due to conversion fees (compared with paying in their local currency).
Posted June 08, 2014
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Pheace: @Pidgeot from the last thread about: How are you reading this? Because this does not mean you don't get a regional price. I'll still get the regional price of 5 Euro (magically drummed up random number). It simply means I can pay the regional price with Euro's or Dollars or whatever type of currency I may have on hand (as long as the converted end result is the equivalent of 5 Euro). This was a big complaint that was brought up when they announced they were going to change to regional pricing.
I'm glad you posted here as Judas (finally) locked the "Letter from the M.D." thread before I had a chance to reply to you.

For context:

Three: We still intend to introduce the pricing in local currencies. Let us explain why we want to do it and how we want to make it fair for everyone. From the very beginning our intention was to make things easier for users whose credit cards/payment systems are not natively in USD. The advantages are simple because the price is more understandable and easier to relate to. There would be no exchange rates involved, no transaction fees, and no other hidden charges. However after reading your comments, we realized we have taken an important element away: the choice. In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD. This way, how you pay is always your choice.
I don't see what's confusing. They're still going to put the classic catalogue up in Dollars, Pounds, Euro's and I think Rubles it was. Ie, regional pricing. Same as they're still allowing devs to pick whether to go with flat pricing or regional pricing.

The point is, nothing changed from the first statement to the Back to our Roots statement when it came to regional pricing. (Maybe you're assuming I mean Regional pricing = always unfair pricing? I don't)
I don't have to assume anything, you insist in representing it as such all by yourself, by leaving out the rest of that point and not taking into account the additional clarification that was provided.
The use of local currencies does not translate into what you replied to Pidgeot. Allow me to refresh your memory with this post by iWi.

I admit that the initial wording in the part that Pidgeot quoted was ambiguous and many of us asked for clarification which was provided by Marcin Iwiński in the post I linked to.


EDIT: typos, typos everywhere! ;-P
Post edited June 09, 2014 by HypersomniacLive
Posted June 09, 2014
Thank you Judas for finally locking that old thread. And thanks to my pal HypersomniacLive for continuing the good fight against misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
Posted June 09, 2014
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IAmSinistar: Thank you Judas for finally locking that old thread. And thanks to my pal HypersomniacLive for continuing the good fight against misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
With little success, I'm afraid. ;-P
Posted June 09, 2014
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IAmSinistar: Thank you Judas for finally locking that old thread. And thanks to my pal HypersomniacLive for continuing the good fight against misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
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HypersomniacLive: With little success, I'm afraid. ;-P
One will always encounter those whose minds are set, and which are prone to confirmation bias and other fallacious tools of information gathering. But your service is valuable in keeping other from adopting that same erroneous perspective. The fewer the people who think incorrectly, the better the community. :)
Posted June 09, 2014
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HypersomniacLive: With little success, I'm afraid. ;-P
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IAmSinistar: One will always encounter those whose minds are set, and which are prone to confirmation bias and other fallacious tools of information gathering. But your service is valuable in keeping other from adopting that same erroneous perspective. The fewer the people who think incorrectly, the better the community. :)
I'm pretty sure that lines in the Big brother handbook... O____o
Posted June 09, 2014
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IAmSinistar: The fewer the people who think incorrectly, the better the community. :)
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Sachys: I'm pretty sure that lines in the Big brother handbook... O____o
I thought about revising it as soon as I posted it, because I realised the phraseology was poor. The intended message should be along the lines of "The fewer people who are operating on incorrect information, the better off the community is."
Posted June 09, 2014
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Sachys: I'm pretty sure that lines in the Big brother handbook... O____o
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IAmSinistar: I thought about revising it as soon as I posted it, because I realised the phraseology was poor. The intended message should be along the lines of "The fewer people who are operating on incorrect information, the better off the community is."
Double plus good. The sooner the language is destroyed, the sooner the revolution will be complete, brother.
Have you seen the thrid edition of the newspeak dictionary?
Posted June 09, 2014
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IAmSinistar: Thank you Judas for finally locking that old thread. And thanks to my pal HypersomniacLive for continuing the good fight against misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
^^^ This, hands down! :D
Posted June 09, 2014
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IAmSinistar: I thought about revising it as soon as I posted it, because I realised the phraseology was poor. The intended message should be along the lines of "The fewer people who are operating on incorrect information, the better off the community is."
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Sachys: Double plus good. The sooner the language is destroyed, the sooner the revolution will be complete, brother.
Have you seen the thrid edition of the newspeak dictionary?
I intended to get tucked into it once I process my joy at choco-rations going up to 20 grams.
Posted June 09, 2014
One of my favorite t-shirts says "We have always been at war with Eastasia" in big white letters on a black background. I'm frequently distressed at how few people know the reference, but it's great when people do get it.
Posted June 19, 2014
high rated
Coming pretty late to this discussion, but I am (well, was, starting this post erased the post I was writing..) officially putting my giveaway on hiatus and one of the reasons is demonstrated by this whole thing.

Please forgive me if these points have already been made in the ~1400 posts before (which it very likely has).

---------------

GOG are being congratulated for reversing their decision. They shouldn't be.

They blatantly attempted to violate one of their three "core values".
Don’t worry, no matter how new we’re getting, GOG.com will always stick to our three core values: No DRM, Fair Pricing, and Love for our GOG-ers.
Clearly, they aren't core values of the business if it requires the community to uphold them.

GOG need to enforce this internally, otherwise, they will simply abandon these values as soon as it is feasible to and the bigger they get, the more feasible it becomes (see any big company who screws their customers constantly, but still reaps in the money).

And while looking around for information about other things, I've read that GOG removed old videos where they discussed the single fair price policy. Really?

tl;dr

The fact that this was attempted is worrying and anything they have said since this episode about upholding their values is worth exactly as much as when they said they would uphold them before it: nothing.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGetting back to our roots(1418 posts)(1418 posts)
(1418 posts)