Dragon Age: Origin has been broken since it joined the preservation program. What they should have done is rollback the game to the last version before the preservation program release with a note that they're still working on it. If the most recent build of a game is that broken, you scrap it and go back to the prior one. You don't double-down and act like the broken version is somehow better when it isn't.

Stuff like this made me glad that I always download the offline installers after I purchase games.

Isn't it obvious?
"GOG Preservation Program" is much more presentable than just G(ood) O(ld) G(ames), especially when approaching and trying to convince owners of classic IPs to re-release on GOG.

There's also crucial information to be gleaned from it in an instant, in particular "preservation". Without knowing or recognising "GOG" you know or at least may assume that this "preservation program" shares similar goals and purposes with an archive or a library, just in this case for games.

It's marketing 101 with the sole purpose of attracting/courting the aforementioned IP owners.

Also explains why the average GOG user looks at it, shrug's their shoulders and carries on.

That's a good point. My view is that they are not approaching this from an angle of "common sense" but, instead, short-term appearances. So, while you are right to ponder the effectiveness of an approach that funnels users to a client that then just ends up frustrating them (in turn risking less users and less "Ecosystem"-interaction), I do not feel that depth of thought was considered on the corporate end. They (in my theory/opinion) just have to present the Galaxy numbers looking as good as possible. That's why to me it is not unlike how the Preservation Program itself looks and sounds good, until you dig deeper and users are having issues with some updates of games that previously worked.

The "get them on Galaxy no matter what" approach may indeed lose some numbers due to what you have pointed out, but presumably GOG could make up for those numbers in other ways, so I doubt it becomes a big concern in the short term. There are so many vectors in which users might access Galaxy (even to download their offline installers) and thus (regardless of accuracy otherwise) such users could presumably count in a corporate context as a "Galaxy user". Over the years I have seen some forum threads where users complain they downloaded the Galaxy version by accident...too late, +1 to the Galaxy user numbers for the corporate presentation/meeting.

I have said it for years: everything on this store makes so much more sense when viewing it with the belief that the goal is to get everyone on Galaxy.

While of course I do not believe the following was intentional on their part, even the borked updates of Dragon Age: Origins and F.E.A.R. serve as "happy accidents" for the purposes of my theory, because there are now presumably some users who might install Galaxy just to take advantage of the rollback feature to get the previous versions of the games. Just to briefly clarify too, and further discussion of this point would have to be a different thread, the "get everyone on Galaxy" isn't imo just arbitrary or for funsies. The corporate benefit would be to have a DRMed (or effectively-DRMed) walled garden. The consumer benefit in that instance would of course be, nil.

Edit: typo

And it once again will make some people think that GOG is only for classic games - which has not been the case anymore since a long time and ... considering the fact that available classics are rare to have due to legal issues ... probably never will be again. But yes, it's pure marketing obviously. Thanks for pointing this out again. I was just wondering since some people seem to be extremely happy when another game joins this "program" and I was always asking myself "why?" and if I missed something this "program" offers alongside what GOG always was supposed to be about.

Testing stages for the purpose of Win11.

So instead of buying an 11 machine. Buy a 10 machine and hope 11 will eventually get better. Though it wont. Because unlike older Windows variants that only required bug fixing. 11+ is intentially stripping user freedom of both function and rights over personal ownership. Leaving gog with a major logistics problem of how to keep products they sell, in the same form....in a os that no longer supports the core idea, that gog had.

One or two games are broken and now the whole preservation program is a failure and it even needs to be stopped. It is an exaggeration. It is not helpful for anyone here. Neither GOG nor other GOG customers are benefiting from this hysteria.

GOG's inability to properly communicate and in a somewhat timely fashion at that is the actual problem, as far as I'm concerned.

This very thread wouldn't even exist if there was an official announcement that the current issues with some games have been acknowledged and fixes for these issues are being worked on, release TBD.

Face it, GOG doesn't have the talent, the manpower or the resources to be a part of any legitimate 'preservation' efforts, in fact given how much has been broken by them in short order, GOG's tweaks feels more akin to a child who downloaded cheat engine and got a code to work and thinks of himself as a hacker. They're clueless and out of their depth.

Just sell the games and let actual, talented community members fix broken games. But, if you insist on doing your own revisionist, anti-preservation tweaking, at the very least leave the original game files as bonus content... that would make the whole thing infinitely more tolerable.

What should they tell everyone here when one side is freaking out over literally everything? If they say something 'wrong' it will be repeated to oblivion. I just have to mention 'many gamers' here. The person who wrote this doesn't work for GOG anymore. The successor of that person doesn't work for GOG anymore too. The successor of the successor is now just posting delisting news. For a communication you need two sides. One side is regularly freaking out here as you can see with this thread. This is not the basis for communication.

If I recall correctly, Dragon Age: Origins is an even more egregious example than is typical, as the old offline installer itself was not the most recent version and there was a separate offline installer with a patch to update it. I know that there are offline installers of some patches for games in our libraries but with Dragon Age it was a very rare instance in which the main game offline installer was actually behind the most recent patch offline installer.

It goes to show that these patches can be separate from installers, and that in at least this one instance it was "acceptable" to GOG that the main game offline installer could remain "outdated" since users could just download the patch, so it makes me wonder why that can't be the approach writ large rather than a rare exception. Of course, I wish we could access all old patches/installers, but one step at a time here I suppose.

Would anyone be complaining about the Preservation Program if it was instead done by adding optional patch installers to our libraries, while keeping the "old" version of the main game offline installers? That way, we could choose to just not update, and someone who buys Dragon Age: Origins an hour from now would be buying an "old" offline installer they could access regardless of whether they then downloaded the hypothetical "Preservation Patch" or not.

Failure exists in both a "yes/no" context and on a spectrum, dependent on a person's perspective.

If we take the Preservation Program rhetoric at face value, I can see where someone with the "yes/no" approach would conclude it is already a failure, as users point out objective reasons why various updates aren't the best/best-working versions of the respective games. So if the Program promised something and didn't deliver, it would be considered failure. For me, it makes more sense to adopt the spectrum view with the Preservation Program. I also believe not enough time has passed to make a conclusion of broad failure, or success, for that matter. There have been hits and misses. Releases like Dino Crisis 1 and 2, new update to Silent Hill 4 making it the best version anywhere? Mega-hit successes! Update to Dragon Age: Origins and F.E.A.R....ah, not getting a success vibe from what I'm seeing.

One reasonable observation though, is that the micro-level "failures" we have seen with the Preservation Program, gives cause for concern at a macro level for GOG as a storefront going forward. From what we outsiders know, GOG has limited resources and very minimal profit. The Preservation Program is looking like it may be another instance of GOG "biting off more than it can chew". That said, I think it is a good gamble in this particular instance, because so much of GOG's identity is intertwined with "old games." I would much rather they pour resources into this than, for example, Galaxy. I would just hope the resources poured into it give us more Silent Hill 4 type updates and less Dragon Age: Origins type updates. Over time I think that could rebuild confidence and be beneficial for GOG.

Edit: typo

I have an idea, inspired by this post:

Why not just go ahead and do that? Gather all the talented people you can find and do better than GOG does. Nobody's stopping you, for real.

Very seriously speaking, start another preservation program you will be satisfied with. Not only are you allowed to, everyone will likely actively encourage you to.

I mean, why leave it in the hands of "a child who downloaded cheat engine and got a code to work and thinks of himself as a hacker. They're clueless and out of their depth", who will undoubtedly make mistakes again and again? Just make a different one who will be run by talented people from the start. No sweat.

I mean these threads are pointless if the goal is better preservation program. GOG will never understand. So just leave it behind and make your own. You can do it.

I second that. Let’s show them what it means to really care about game preservation.

If you can find the money (loans) and talented individuals who can work the magic that I know nothing of… let’s do it!

I own tons of mods for classic games that have never seen the light of day, other than on my systems.

Let’s start a business and let’s crush this Preservation Program. Either that or we’re all stuck.

Seriously though, anyone’s got the talent: I’m in! I’m tired of supporting this company.

And which is your original account here?

I saw your posts in the news threads. You are obviously using an alt account to spread your fairy tales. Of course, you have unreleased mods on your systems. LOL. You are not interested in the preservation program or any community efforts. You are just shitposting. Your post here is the proof. Could it be that you are coming from a certain Discord server?

Did my last post finally rattled the cages? I wonder why...

I care more about preservation than you can understand. That is a fact you can verify from the fairy tales I’ve been spreading. Go ahead, start digging.