for example requem:avenging angel have a broken link to the store page of wind commander privateer. when i try to click it i get a 404 error. that is a problem with other installers, though i do not have an example at the moment. if you find anything, you should post it here, so that we can compile a list of installers with broken links.

Which link?

each offline installer have ads for different games with links to the store pages of those games. click on the ad to go straight to the store page. in some cases, those links is broken and returns 404 errors.

Book of Hours wallpaper currently has a broken link as well.

It still happens from time to time.

I recommend doing what I do for broken links: Wait about 24 hours to see if the problem resolves itself and if it doesn't file a support request.

Last couple of times, the problem self-resolved within a day, but not sure if that will always be the case though. Hopefully, they've finally taken to properly monitoring the status of their downloadable files, but I'm not certain.

my hope is that they see this topic and fix the installers mentioned. you will know that they are fixed by a blue dot on the title. that means that it have been updated.

I used to be able to get those things fixed in the forum a while back, but whenever the people in blue have responded to such threads in the recent past, it was to ask that I open a support ticket and report it so I would recommend that you do that if you don't want to wait to see if the issue will self-resolve.

As previously mentioned elsewhere repeatedly, I'm of the opinion that gog should proactively detect and remedy those issues in their file distribution network without the need for user involvement (that would save time both to their users and support agents), accross several regions if they have to, and perhaps they have (I did not have to report an issue the last 2-3 times that happened to me, but it could be that someone else reported it), but I guess we'll see.

sure, that would be optimal. the issue is that they would need more staff to look through the installers. the cheapest solution is that users report the issues. that is why i created this topic.

Actually, the cheapest solution would be to run an automaton from various locations that polled the file downloads (for most categories of file errors, you don't even need to download the actual file if you want to save on bandwidth... you'll notice it right away just fetching the file's xml metadata or doing a head request on the download link) from various regions at certain intervals and reported bad downloads to the gog staff so that they can act on it, hopefully before even receiving a single support ticket.

That would disrupt their users far less and also their support agents who still need to reply to the support tickets the bad download links have created even after the issue has been resolved.

But as is often the case when it comes to technical decisions around the gog platform, the flagellatious way has been historically preferred here.

it is not about bad downloads. it is about outdated ads. ads for removed or updated games. each offline installer advertise various games hosted on gog. some times however, those games is no longer sold on gog. games that no longer have store pages or whose store pages have moved.

Trust me, when you have a large collection and you keep it backed up with all the updates, you'll bump your head on bad downloads plenty of times.

Ironically, it is a problem more likely to aggravate their biggest customers.

Trust me, the links are broken.

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/_game_title_here_ URLs do not work and that's what I got within X2: The Threat installer I just downloaded. I suspect the installer OP downloaded has the same issue.


Edit:
And Jpolgesek already fixed it. ;)

I see. I should have read the title more carefully. We are talking about different problems.

He was talking about advertisements in the installers (I'm so used to ignoring them I often forget that they are there). I was talking about bad installer downloads on the website (ie, you try to download the game in your browser and you cannot).

Edit: Thinking about it (never gave it any thought before honestly), it is kind of tacky that they put advertisements in the installers though. Kind of like when you purchase a movie and have to watch previews before the film. If they are gonna put something, maybe they should put footage and art for the game you are about to install and play instead.

you have a valid point. the ads have certainly encouraged me to install additional games. the issue is the ads whose links no longer works, because thet are outdated.