I did this with Pillars of Eternity. I bought the Royal edition after upgrade options were promised and not delivered, but only at a REALLY steep discount. That I had to buy the game again (and not get a gift copy for the base game, or a second copy or anything, the extras and DLC were just added to my existing version) is pretty low and stupid. I won't do that again.

Knowing is half the battle. Thanks.

The new items are not a separate DLC or a separate installer--they are part of the latest patch to the game. Run the game and you'll see them. You'll get the two new items in game (a piece of armor and a spear I think), and there are two new portraits available when you create a new character.

Surprised that you don't have to fill in three online soul-stealing documents or make way for the building of a shrine to our swedish friends in your bedroom to get this super duper magnanimous once- in- a- lifetime (that you sold to them) Paradox deal + DLC Immersion pack DLC DLC dystentery.

Y'know, like you are forced to do with City Skylines, of late.

Poor Colossal Order...

What the actual fuck?!

The original announcement, which apparently has been modified since, advertised FREE "Portrait Pack and a Sword and Armor DLC"

Not "All versions just received a FREE update which adds two portraits and some cool pieces of gear!"

Bait and switch at its finest. Instead of the promised 20 new portraits (according to Portait Pack's page https://www.gog.com/game/tyranny_portrait_pack ) we get 2.

When you make a mistake of this caliber, you don't quietly modify your announcement and not acknowledge the change, GOG. The official announcement doesn't even show it has been edited, either, which usually is not the case.

This is outright illegal, and not something I expected from a "pro-customer" company like GOG. That would explain the official silence on the boards, too, I guess.

IDGAF about some easy-to-customize .jpgs, but it's pretty hilarious that GOG puts more attention to placating manufactured controversy from people who probably won't even use their store than being straight with customers, much less supporters.

Nice.

tl;dr: Official announcement promised two free DLCs, after report of the content being missing GOG retroactively and quietly changed the announcement to laughable two .jpgs and whatever the in-game "cool pieces of gear" means.

False advertisement at its "best."

Forgive me if I am wrong but the portrait pack link you posted is not the "free portraits" they were talking about in the anniversary update. The two are completely separate and the portrait packs DLC has been a round for a year or more.

What we get for free in the anniversary update is 2 new usable items and 2 new character portraits.

Dont get me wrong. I think some of Paradox's DLC practices need to be scrutinized. Extra character portraits for sale and the tales from the tiers DLC. I always felt those should have been included in the base game. "shrug"

I made a review of the Tales from the Tiers DLC that stated as much. Though, in hind site I would change the star rating I gave if GOG allowed me to 2 or 3 stars from the 1 I initially gave. . Though I would not change much of the written review. However, I digress.

I think some of your complaints may be do some misinformation. Did the anniversary update ever state that the 20 picture portrait pack would be included for free?

At the time of the announcement there was only one "Portrait Pack" in existence - the 20 item paid version.

Also, the exact (conveniently archived in the first post in this thread) words were: So you have an already existing DLC mentioned in the same breath as "Portrait Pack" with an actual "Portrait Pack" being a paid DLC version with 20 portraits in them. Grammatically speaking, it's a common practice to put shared part of a term, in this case the "DLC" after "Sword and Armor," at the end of the listing. Meaning reading this sentence as "Portrait Pack DLC" and "Sword and Armor DLC" is natural in English.

Mistake or not, this is what was advertised. Without any foreknowledge, it would take some special mental gymnastics to arrive at the conclusion that the "Portrait Pack" in question is actually NOT the "Portrait Pack" that's being sold.

Thanks for the clarification. I think this was a case of not thinking it through enough when they wrote the announcement.

I think they should just make the portrait pack DLC free anyway and incorporate it into the main game. Now would be a good time to do it.

Hell, I would have settled on a "sorry, we made a mistake."

For me, the issue is lack of communication, which seems to be the staple behavior of GOG. For a "pro-customer" company, they sure like to pull a "they won't ever notice" moves.

Instead, I get to enjoy all the downvotes in my "dedicated to the issue" thread from people who thing GOG somehow gets a pass on Federal and State customer protection laws because they are GOG.

I dont know if it is exactly lack of communication or just a group of community managers and PR people can only reply to so many posts. They see some criticism, are not sure how to respond in a way that will best address it, may mean to get back to it, but it ends up just getting left by the way side. This can happen for criticisms that get commonly repeated in some form or another. Which, either, alludes to a greater issue or criticisms which may not always be practical ones. However, they should try to be addressed when ever possible. So you may be right. I honestly dont know.

I agree, however, that a simple post here saying "Hey guys, when the original anniversary announcement was made we overlooked that there was a pre existing Portraits Pack and our choice of words was misleading. We apologize for the inconvenience." would have been good. They dont need to really go so far as to address every individual criticisms. Especially the repeated common ones. "my old potato wont run X game" those are not always valid reviews or criticisms. They fall more under customer support and are best left for help tickets to be addressed or for the person to realize that their computer may not run the game well based on its hardware specifications. Which, in that case would mean that Customer support cant really help to begin with. Anyway I digress once again. :)

The simple public apology I wrote above, as an example, would suffice. I personally think a lot of it has to do with a bit of a language barrier. I have had some discourse between various GOG help desk people...and while mostly very helpful you can see, in their writing and choice of words, that not all are native English speakers. Some of their cultural and linguistic inflections show up in their writing. It is important to take that in to account.

It's bonus content for a game you'd already bought, thus you have no loss no make a claim of false advertising against, plus see below. If you'd bought it on the basis of poor wording you could make a case for false advertising or whatever if denied a refund, otherwise you'd just be spinning your wheels even in far more consumer friendly places than the US.

Plus of course they promised "a", indefinite article, portrait pack not "the" definite article portrait pack and that's what we got. You'd probably get a refund if you'd bought recently and asked for one as there is potential confusion there, but as a prior owner you have got what they said you would.

I'd imagine you're being downvoted somewhat because americans insisting their laws apply to everyone else pisses other people off, but mostly because you're being overly precious and- inaccurately- nitpicky about free content added well after your initial purchase.

To be fair, this does put them at legal risk as an potential admission of guilt. Not everywhere - a few days ago, for instance, I learned that an apology does not constitute a legal admission of guilt in Canada, but I believe this to be exception rather than rule worldwide.

Legally speaking (at least from US perspective) anybody affected right now should get the 20-portrait pack free. Yes, it was a mistake. The law being what it is, though, it does not allow making such mistakes, intentional or not.

There is little point of having laws that are not enforced, and sooner or later such practice ends up having far more negative impact than somebody "missing out" on some .jpg files.

I would have to dig them out, but there are several precedents in US laws that make it clear offering something "free" and not delivering does constitute a "loss."

Based on my personal experience with customer protection laws, I do beg to differ.

Unfortunately for GOG, they did not make sufficient distinction between their "a portrait pack" and the rest of the announcement, including immediate listing of "the" paid DLC, for this to be an applicable legal defense.

Er... GOG does have to adhere to US law when it comes to US customers.

And if GOG decided to immediately own up and acknowledge the issue, I wouldn't even bother bringing it to anybody's attention.

Despite the illegality of it.

Look, don't get me wrong - I don't have any particular ill will toward GOG. But I am absolutely alarmed by their more recent business approach, and this indifference toward law and lack of communication is one part of it. They are still the best store out there for now, but it does not bode well at all for the future - at least from a gamer's perspective.

It could be very well as you say. Which could be why they are not saying anything. I dont even look at such apologies as an admission of guilt. The implication being that a mistake is something to feel guilty over. Especially smaller or honest ones. Keep in mind I am not talking some drastic mistake like a accidental fire arm discharge, an oil spill, or something that cost millions and lead to massive lay offs. Things that are, potentially, quite common. Show me one corporate entity that ever feels guilt over such an act. Though individuals may. However, they are often assuaged of that guilt by being part of the corporate hive mind or the conviction that it was not their fault...to varying degrees. But we are well beyond the current situation now. haha.

It was a small mistake, does not really have much of an impact at all. Well not more than people are willing to give it. So, I dont know. Personally I dont really care about the mistaken choice of wording or the 2 or 20 portrait packs.

Though I hope for simplicity, and to avoid these types of things GOG, or whom ever was in charge of writing the announcement, whether it be GOG or Paradox, will do their research and proof read it well before posting.

I think my major criticism is why the portrait pack has not always just been a free add on or considerably cheaper then the price of many games on gog.

My take on it is that no company has an incentive to "get better" at something (which usually does require some kind of investment) without a damn good reason to that can be presented to owners/shareholders. This has been evidenced time and again, especially in our dear "FREE MARKET WILL FIX IT!!!one!!1!" country.

As an example, a certain well-known communication entity in my state received literal billions of dollars from the taxpayers for infrastructure deployment. Rather than bother with it, they pocketed most of the money, and when the case finally went to court, got fined a low-six-figure amount.

They literally made a profit of (according to the last rough calculations I have seen) at least a billion USD on it.

If there is no direct financial damage as a result, don't expect a company to bother improving. Ironically, considering all the "downvote" defense of GOG going on against my posts, the end result is that customers get the shaft.

Also, why have laws if at least some parties don't have to worry about them? As you may imagine, this hits rather too close to home for a 'murrican watching our current government...