amok: I am not sure how I can break it to you... but.... GOG is a store. Everything it does is for the purpose of selling games to make a profit for the shareholders.
I think I have said these quite a few times now - GOG is not a museum nor is it an archive.
.Keys: Yes, I also completely agree with you.
Its easy for us to sit on our chairs and say what GOG should do to achieve profit or success on its market when they're facing the risk and the shareholders. Its what's implied in your quote I believe, if not, correct me, please.
I'd like to give you my reasoning on
this specific topic you bring[0], which it seems to me makes our point stronger:
- GOG's brand
[1] is based on DRM-Free games;
- DRM-Free games are, by definition, games packaged in a way that give users control
[2] over the product they buy;
- GOG's brand having acquired its market slice and user base through its DRM-Free propaganda would probably mean that users which actually buy here are not necessarily
[3] looking for better deals, exclusive game releases, giveaways, but about DRM-Free games and owning their games;
- If GOG ever stops doing what they exist for and what they keep existing through
[4], they have a competition
[5] that they will not be able to win against at this point in time;
- The reason for this is simple: GOG can't compete with them on their field
[6];
- The conclusion is obvious it seems to me: GOG can only win against the major ones when it fights where it does have reason to exist: DRM-Free Good Old Games.
[7] [0] =
'this specific topic you bring' - Which would be the implication that GOG don't care about any principle as far as there's profit to keep them surviving and continuing on market.
[1] =
'GOG's brand' - Some users that follow GOG since the Good Old Games days would say that they've abandoned their original marketing plan long ago, and they do have strong points to make about this, I agree with them in many parts, even though at the time I was not aware of GOG. It makes a lot of sense on how GOG's brand has been shifting from "F**k DRM" to "Here, Download our Launcher, Galaxy!".
[2] =
'control' - Not full control over the game software, which is, to take the code and make their own game 'stealing' assets or sections of the code, but full control over how to play the game they bought a license for. Be it on their notebook on a plane without internet connection, or on a full IoT house. They bought the DRM-Free license. It up to them on where and how to play it, without post-download and post-payment required activation of any kind.
[3] =
'not necessarily' - We don't have the fine data (if its public, I've never read it) of what gives them more profit. If its people that buy here through Galaxy just as another Steam-like launcher, I mean, with the mentality of "this is just another e-store where I can buy games like I do on Steam", or if the majority of people that buy here are actually only buying because of the DRM-Free games. My personal guess is that its a combination of both worlds. That is: People get in through Galaxy, deals, giveaways, Luna (yes, even Amazon Luna, although a small percentage) and later learn about Offline Installers and what it actually means to be DRM-Free and then just start recognizing that "lancherless/DRM-Free games are indeed better!". At least that's what happened to me 5 years ago.
[4] =
'what they exist for and what they keep existing through' - To offer DRM-Free games is the original GOG business and they exist through this market, supposedly.
[5] =
'a competition' - Obviously Steam, the "pinnacle of PC gaming" right now on PC market.
[6] =
'GOG can't compete with them on their field' - I guess this is obvious, not even the giant Epic made it "yet". Being owned by Tencent, doing all they're doing with Fortnite and so on, they are still "not winning".
[7] =
'GOG can only win against the major ones when it fights where it does have reason to exist: DRM-Free Good Old Games' - Where did GOG most had a significant user increase and social media attention, therefore, more clients coming in and buying? The answer: Resident Evil 1-2-3 and Dino Crisis 1-2 re-releases. I think this point is obvious. Its probably the reason they had a little percentage profit last year, still, it was one of their worst years, unfortunately. But you got my point: GOG profits not when they're trying to do "what Steam does to profit", but when GOG does what they were "called to do", their vocation job: Bring to existence again Good Old Games.
=============================
This was kind of a derail of the thread's main topic, but I think this contributes for us to understand, in my opinion, why this "they will do what profits more" is, it seems to me, a fallacy, because what they profit more doing is preserving Good Old Games DRM-Free, not infesting them with the current market mentality
[8]. That is, again, assuming you really implied that GOG would 'do anything to have profit', which would make them go bankrupt at this moment in time because the competition is just better and stronger on this field.
[8] =
'current market mentality' = Launcher/Galaxy, Cloud/Luna, yada yada... Again, refer to reference
[3]. I don't have the data to necessarily confirm this. Even with the data it would be hard enough to predict. I hope them the best though.
--- EDIT
One could argue that the Steam market is so big that GOG would take a small share of it "doing most of the things Steam does" and this would prevent it from going bankrupt. That makes sense. But it seems speculation to me.
Anyway... I hope for GOG team the best on this topic and that they find the best way to make actual profits to keep giving us Good old Games and preserving them.
--- EDIT
=============================
The point of this thread, though, is to maybe call their attention on the issues present on the Preservation Program, as noted on post 1, 2 and how many users agree that this program must be reviewed and we need better communication from their part on the issues present on it right now.
The last part "How many Users" agree though is the issue as this is being presented as a massive problem everyone is experiencing, however there are many people that have reported that they are not having any issues with these preservation builds.
So we have a problem more in how people are presenting things than anything else because we have a few people claiming that this is a massive problem yet providing no evidence to support the "massive" portion and enough people in this thread are showing that they are having no problems at all with the program. Also there socials there is no mention of this. It's just the same handful of people here in the forums which again don't represent the majority of users.
I'm not saying the program is perfect (as I'm sure some people have painted me as a fanboy in the first sentence) but if this was a major issue you would figure this would be popping up all over on the Internet and news sites........ but it's not. It's just a very small group here.
Also if a few people are having issues then yes they should receive help to fix the issues but again that doesn't mean it's a massive problem and the whole thing is broken. I downloaded and installed all the programs people are complaining about, which by the way seems to be 2 games in this thread, and they both ran fine for me so I can only go from my experience that the program is working fine. I also installed Tomb Raider Legacy with the preservation system and it seemed to be working much better than the last time I played it as I had some graphical and HUD issues a year ago but no it's running much better.
