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General discussionWeekend Promo: Strategic Milestones(180 posts)(180 posts)
(180 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 06, 2015
Strategic Milestones: AI War, Capitalism, Jagged Alliance, Warlords Battlecry and more, up to 70% off!

Put on your thinking cap, slip on your business socks - it's business time. This weekend we're leveraging our core competencies with a compelling set of Strategic Milestones pending your review. That's 39 best-in-class products, at a customer-centric up to -70% discount.

Don't be a drone, fight the AI War. Outline your strategic plan in this state-of-the-art blend of galactic grand strategy, 4X, and planetary RTS gameplay. Colonize procedurally-generated galaxies of epic scale, and take on a bleeding edge network of artificial intelligence capable of cross-synergizing across entire star systems to take you down. Sick of drinking the corporate Kool-Aid? Make your own with Captialism Plus and Capitalism 2. Co-opete with laser-focus in the Jagged Alliance series, and... well you get the point.

Over 39 titles with a truly strategic soul are up to 70% off in this Strategic Milestones weekend promo, including Warlords Battlecry, Disciples, Anomaly series and so much more. Empower your thinking today! The promo will last until Tuesday, February 10 at 4:59 PM GMT.
Posted February 07, 2015
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bigsilverhotdog: I dislike the "new" interface that showed up at today's sale. It is not intuitive to mouseover and flashload each sidebar just to get a link to the game page. That's horribly inefficient design flow. Just horrible. Why can't I still just rapidly third-click-to-get-tabs for each game for which I want to see the store page? Why purposely make the buying experience more cumbersome?
Hear hear!

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bigsilverhotdog: Also showing only positive reviews on the sidebar is highly cynical.

http://i.imgur.com/z1FpXzB.jpg

[...]

edit: I also notice that the 5 most upvoted reviews for Restaurant Empire are (correcly) devastatingly critical and negative, but none of these are showed in the Promo page.
How strange... and that's not all (+1 Gabby2).

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dumbdumb: Usually I open every title that sounds interesting in a new tab and this really slows that approach down.
Ditto.
I wonder who the new approach is supposed to benefit as all the important information is sorely lacking from the new so-called 'basic product details' display on the promo page.

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Petrell: To avoid accidental link clicking on touch screens PC's and mobile devices is my guess...
According to Chamb, it 'has nothing to do with tablets and other devices'.
Post edited February 07, 2015 by Lemon_Curry
Posted February 07, 2015
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bigsilverhotdog: Also showing only positive reviews on the sidebar is highly cynical. […]

GOG this sort of shady "dark pattern" advertising is UNACCEPTABLE. I would be outraged of this even if I wasn't a customer with a huge account. I'm just... words almost fail me.
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Gabby2: I mean, I take Shattered Heaven (few reviews, easy one). On the promo page, I see three 5* and two 4*. On the game page, two 5*, one 4* and a bunch of lower notes. the names from the promo page aren't there.
GOG, you really do need to address this, and quickly. Downgrading your UI is bad but dishonesty is completely unacceptable. Your community and customer base grew because you were seen as one of the good guys. Your principles sure as heck informed my purchases, and your reputation is on the line here.

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Chamb: It's intentional change (that has nothing to to with tablets and other devices) - we thought that since you have the basic product details visible directly on the page, and there are two links to the product page (title and link to the reviews), taking away the ability to click directly on the list will not be a big deal. There are other factors also that dictated this.
It is a big deal. We want to be able to open the page link with one action per title, and not two actions per title. You’ve made it harder to preview the titles in the promo. If that isn’t your intention then you need to change it back. Your 'basic details' are just not sufficient to make purchasing decisions on!

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Chamb: Of course we are always listening to your feedback (thanks for that people!), and we are not ruling out bringing it back. We will be watching few future promos and them make the decision.
The feedback is abundantly clear already. It is overwhelmingly negative. There does not seem to be any need to wait for future promos.
Posted February 07, 2015
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eiii: Nice finding! Indeed, the top two "selected" reviews for Shattered Haven shown to me on the promo page are not listed on the game card (from ashout and orbithike). And coincidently they are positive reviews. ;)

Would be nice to hear some statement from GOG about this. It makes the current change of the promo page not only annoying but also worthless at best.
Not if you're on the selling end. (~_^)
Posted February 07, 2015
Others have said it already, but must add my voice too. Don't like the new promo page.
Posted February 07, 2015
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eiii: Nice finding! Indeed, the top two "selected" reviews for Shattered Haven shown to me on the promo page are not listed on the game card (from ashout and orbithike). And coincidently they are positive reviews. ;)

Would be nice to hear some statement from GOG about this. It makes the current change of the promo page not only annoying but also worthless at best.
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HypersomniacLive: Not if you're on the selling end. (~_^)
It makes me wonder: how could this improve GOG's sales of games? Less information means people are more likely to avoid seeing bad reviews?
Posted February 07, 2015
Man, what a flustercluck the promo page has turned into.
Extemely customer unfriendly changes and currently unusable.
Gotta be a sales killer.
Why GOG?
Posted February 07, 2015
Ghostmaster, what a fab game. Thanks GOG.

Would buy more but my credit card doesn't agree.
Posted February 07, 2015
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HypersomniacLive: Not if you're on the selling end. (~_^)
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tfishell: It makes me wonder: how could this improve GOG's sales of games? Less information means people are more likely to avoid seeing bad reviews?
Yeah it appears to be hiding all the reviews under 4 stars even if they're among the most useful, see http://www.gog.com/game/supreme_ruler_2010 and http://www.gog.com/game/tzar_the_burden_of_the_crown. I don't really have an issue with that. Nobody can expect them to put at a 2 star review up there, after all.

I don't see why people are so sensitive about change, though. This new promo page does show you more information. All we need is the option to open a new tab that links to the game like before, without having to move the mouse to that section on the side.
Post edited February 07, 2015 by Pardinuz
Posted February 07, 2015
Can anyone sell me on Supreme Ruler 2010? I could have sworn that when the game was first added here the reviews for it were very positive (at least in the release thread), and hence why I wish-listed it.

It would be very disappointing those two lone reviews are accurate and not just opinions.
Posted February 07, 2015
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tfishell: It makes me wonder: how could this improve GOG's sales of games? Less information means people are more likely to avoid seeing bad reviews?
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Pardinuz: Yeah it appears to be hiding all the reviews under 3 stars even if they're among the most useful, see http://www.gog.com/game/supreme_ruler_2010 and http://www.gog.com/game/tzar_the_burden_of_the_crown. I don't really have an issue with that. Nobody can expect them to put at a 2 star review up there, after all.

I don't see why people are so sensitive about change, though. This new promo page does show you more information. All we need is the option to open a new tab that links to the game like before, without having to move the mouse to that section on the side.
It should be the most helpful reviews which show up, may they be 1 star or 5 star reviews. Otherwise it is misleading for the customer.

Showing more information does not mean information which is necessary for a specific person to buy the game. When I see an interesting game in the promo i click on the game to open the game page or open it in a tab. Then I look at screenshots, read the game description, browse through reviews. I do not need the company to provide me with 1 sentence reviews and i can't even click on a review sentence to see the full review and leave me searching for a way to open the game page.

Perhaps the new strategy here is to get the customer to say "Oh hell, I just buy it. I have no idea how to open the game page and do not know what the game is about, but when 5 people say it is awesome it must be good."
Posted February 07, 2015
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MaGo72: It should be the most helpful reviews which show up, may they be 1 star or 5 star reviews. Otherwise it is misleading for the customer.

Showing more information does not mean information which is necessary for a specific person to buy the game. When I see an interesting game in the promo i click on the game to open the game page or open it in a tab. Then I look at screenshots, read the game description, browse through reviews. I do not need the company to provide me with 1 sentence reviews and i can't even click on a review sentence to see the full review and leave me searching for a way to open the game page.

Perhaps the new strategy here is to get the customer to say "Oh hell, I just buy it. I have no idea how to open the game page and do not know what the game is about, but when 5 people say it is awesome it must be good."
Funny thing is that it doesn't show any reviews at all, if there are no 4-star or 5-star reviews, as is evident by Supreme Ruler (which currently has 2 2-star reviews).
Posted February 07, 2015
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tfishell: It makes me wonder: how could this improve GOG's sales of games? Less information means people are more likely to avoid seeing bad reviews?
It's not necessarily about less information, it's more about presenting selective information. There's no info on the game itself, but they list the "free" extras (which weigh-in for a number of people). Emphasis appears to have been placed on user-ratings and user-reviews, which, as has been pointed out, in the case of Shattered Haven don't actually correspond to the actual reviews on the game page, while in the case of Supreme Ruler 2010 are completely absent, perhaps because none of them is favourable and 3-stars definitely look better than 2-stars.

I've not checked every other game on promo, so can't say if this is just another coding screw-up or intentional, but it sure raises questions about the selective information presented for each one.

As MaGo72 puts it - presenting the most helpful reviews serves to make an informed decision, presenting the most positive ones is just marketing.
Posted February 07, 2015
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MaGo72: It should be the most helpful reviews which show up, may they be 1 star or 5 star reviews. Otherwise it is misleading for the customer.

Showing more information does not mean information which is necessary for a specific person to buy the game. When I see an interesting game in the promo i click on the game to open the game page or open it in a tab. Then I look at screenshots, read the game description, browse through reviews. I do not need the company to provide me with 1 sentence reviews and i can't even click on a review sentence to see the full review and leave me searching for a way to open the game page.

Perhaps the new strategy here is to get the customer to say "Oh hell, I just buy it. I have no idea how to open the game page and do not know what the game is about, but when 5 people say it is awesome it must be good."
All those 5/4 star user reviews are nothing but marketing. That's why they're not showing us all of the most useful ones (3 and 2 stars) until you open the game page. I agree it's not useful information at all, but they figured they could use that empty space to do some marketing.

Honestly I don't think anyone is buying games without even opening the game page to know more about it so you can't really say they're trying to mislead the customers.

I believe they put the best reviews there for the same reasons every other game or movie trailer does; it's just a way to invite you to click the game page and find out more. It's not like that information was meant to replace the actual game page.
Posted February 07, 2015
What a pity the cherry-picking of reviews was added only after Jack Keane 2 was removed.
Posted February 08, 2015
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bigsilverhotdog: Also showing only positive reviews on the sidebar is highly cynical. […]

GOG this sort of shady "dark pattern" advertising is UNACCEPTABLE. I would be outraged of this even if I wasn't a customer with a huge account. I'm just... words almost fail me.
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VanillaBaron:
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Gabby2: I mean, I take Shattered Heaven (few reviews, easy one). On the promo page, I see three 5* and two 4*. On the game page, two 5*, one 4* and a bunch of lower notes. the names from the promo page aren't there.
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VanillaBaron: GOG, you really do need to address this, and quickly. Downgrading your UI is bad but dishonesty is completely unacceptable. Your community and customer base grew because you were seen as one of the good guys. Your principles sure as heck informed my purchases, and your reputation is on the line here.

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Chamb: It's intentional change (that has nothing to to with tablets and other devices) - we thought that since you have the basic product details visible directly on the page, and there are two links to the product page (title and link to the reviews), taking away the ability to click directly on the list will not be a big deal. There are other factors also that dictated this.
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VanillaBaron: It is a big deal. We want to be able to open the page link with one action per title, and not two actions per title. You’ve made it harder to preview the titles in the promo. If that isn’t your intention then you need to change it back. Your 'basic details' are just not sufficient to make purchasing decisions on!

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Chamb: Of course we are always listening to your feedback (thanks for that people!), and we are not ruling out bringing it back. We will be watching few future promos and them make the decision.
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VanillaBaron: The feedback is abundantly clear already. It is overwhelmingly negative. There does not seem to be any need to wait for future promos.
I agree with every word and could not have said it better myself.

For some time now I've been thinking that there used to be more reviews on the game page. It all started with the "Welcome to the fresher, better GOG.com." It was definitely NOT better. E.g., you used to be able to put the reviews in date order.

In the case of Shattered Haven, on the promo page ashout states "fun!" and orbithike states it is "A Classic." Where are the reviews? The game page doesn't have them. If reviews are missing from the game page, GOG should tell us why.

Please bring back the old way of clicking on the title to bring up the game page. I use tabs to bring up the game pages for all the games that interest me.

I love strategy games. I have seven on the promo page. I'll not be getting any on this sale. Voting with my wallet.

GOG has yet to learn: IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionWeekend Promo: Strategic Milestones(180 posts)(180 posts)
(180 posts)