Good Old Games Not Really Gone

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Whew, good to know the rumors about it all being a publicity stunt were true, and from the looks of it a lot of people didn't know it existed in the first place - if it takes the furor from a misleading announcement about the site closing to reach that audience, it was probably worth it. I mean really - they mildly inconvenienced you a bit at best - if they'd just taken the site down for the re-launch with a non-misleading announcement, you still wouldn't have been able to download your purchases while the site re-launched, you just wouldn't be worried about it not coming back.

And what would have been the reaction to a simple message like that instead of the one we actually received? A brief "Oh, well that's cool" from the people who already knew about and used the site, a minor news blip at best from gaming sites, and not much else. Their marketing stunt produced wailing and gnashing of teeth, informing a slew of people about the existence of GOG.com via the news of its untimely demise, who now know that it was/is and are therefore more likely to use it once the new version is available then they were when they didn't know it was there at all.

In my estimation that's worth giving folks a brief scare - where else are you going to find DRM free digital downloads of great older games (through legal channels)?

 

[RikSharp]

am confused as to how "you cant get the shit you bought from us cos we are trying to generate publicity" is a good thing...

the primary concern with digital distrobution is that if the site goes, so do your purchaces.
this company appears to have done so (temporarily) for shits and giggles.

bad form.

 

[ggamer2]

I suspected as much, but I'm still relieved to hear this announcement. And I'll gladly come back to my shelf.

 

[dududf]

Bit of a dick movie. But effective.

I guess I'll give gog a bit of a peep.

"Dick movie"

Well.

Now aren't I blushing badly right now.

Fixed it.

 

[Jared]

At least they are still around - Old games can still be played!= D

 

[Mr.Petey]

am confused as to how "you cant get the shit you bought from us cos we are trying to generate publicity" is a good thing...

the primary concern with digital distrobution is that if the site goes, so do your purchaces.
this company appears to have done so (temporarily) for shits and giggles.

bad form.

Everything you bought on GOG.com was downloaded immediately and free of the need to uplink to the website whilst playing it. You bought it, downloaded it, save to hard drive and it'll play regardless of what would have happened with the website. A lot of people keep forgetting the latter as this isn't a service that you can really compare to the likes of Steam, in which a separate client program isn't required with GOG.

They were down for a few days and are due to be back up again. It's nothing for people to get angry about and I personally chuckle on how it looked pretty authentic for a couple of days. It's not worth fussing about the intricacies of businesses and their sometimes garbled PR speak to determine what they actually mean if you tend to forget about the matter-of-fact logic in the long run

Edit. Like this for instance. Thank you, least somebody else focusses on the reality instead of getting bitter about it! It really is good they are still around!

At least they are still around - Old games can still be played!= D

 

[ggamer2]

At least they are still around - Old games can still be played!= D

Damn straight!

 

[NLS]

Whereas if Steam dies, you be right screwed.

Valve has stated that in the event that Steam is going down permanently, they will release a tool that lets you play your games without Steam.

 

[poiuppx]

we don't have a huge marketing budget and this why we could not miss a chance to generate some buzz around an event as big as launching a brand new version of our website

Translated from marketroid to english:

"We are assholes who are perfectly fine with lying to people if it gets us money"


Seriously what is so hard about "we are re-launching the website with a new look, to celebrate we are having a 10% off everything sale".

Congrats on making sure I never buy anything from your site because it can no longer be trusted.

Guess we balance each other out, then; they got me interested this week with all the buzz, and I plan on hunting around on the site when it relaunches.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

am confused as to how "you cant get the shit you bought from us cos we are trying to generate publicity" is a good thing...

the primary concern with digital distrobution is that if the site goes, so do your purchaces.
this company appears to have done so (temporarily) for shits and giggles.

bad form.

Yes and no - if GOG.com goes down, what you lose is your ability to download/re-download the installer for the product you've purchased from them. If you'd already downloaded and installed the games you purchased, the site going down doesn't impact their functionality in the slightest - Good Old Games sells games DRM free; the only thing you need is the installer, which you could have backed up. The PR stunt didn't lock anyone out of the content they purchased, it simply prevented them from buying new content, or downloading/re-downloading the content they'd already purchased, and that's something an ordinary run of the mill truthful site redesign would have done while the site was down anyways.

All they're really guilty of here is giving us a misleading explanation for the shutdown so we'd generate an uproar - the initial announcement did say after all that you'd be able to regain access to your downloads again in the near future.

 

[dough]

I have no problems with what they did. They temporarily prevented existing users from downloading their purchased content, and caused a bit of temporary panic/anguish for anyone interested in their service.

Technically they didn't lie. They said they had to change, and that is basically them moving out of beta, is it not? They certainly didn't do anything so dickish as now-defunct Canadian airline Jetsgo, or even posting a notice of upcoming changes to cause a panicked rush of last-minute purchases from potential buyers.

 

[sulld1]

to be fair, I'd never even heard of GoG until this relaunch, so, worked for me, I guess.

-m

Yer same with me i guess if this is what they aimed to achieve then it worked... i'm actually going to go on there once it's up and running and have a little reccy around.

 

[incal11]

snip

At least they are still around - Old games can still be played!= D

Damn straight!

In my estimation that's worth giving folks a brief scare - where else are you going to find DRM free digital downloads of great older games (through legal channels)?

That stunts conforts me in my low opinion of Gog, and while it means that many more people will come to get willingly screwed it will at least help make great games be known.
If you want to know why I think that way you should read the arguments here :
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.233751-Defunct-GOG-com-Promises-Statement-and-Downloads-Within-Days?page=2#8266777

 

[maddog015]

At first, I thought it was "lost in translation." However, it's just a bad job at marketing. Talk about a huge backfire.

 

[Casimir_Effect]

Whereas if Steam dies, you be right screwed.

Valve has stated that in the event that Steam is going down permanently, they will release a tool that lets you play your games without Steam.

This is something I hope is true and planned for, but would never want to rely on. Don't get me wrong, I love Steam. I just prefer the GoG way of doing things with no DRM at all. Unfortunately that doesn't work for new games with mass appeal, as evidenced by the ease with which GoG installers can be found on torrent sites and the like.

 

[camazotz]

Urgh....never have I been so happy and irritated at the same time. Analogies fail me...

I think it mostly led me to realize how fragile the online purchasing of downloadable games can be. I will pick up another 1TB hard drive so I can get back ups on all my GOG games and Direct2Drive games. Interestingly, this has made me leary of buying from Impulse (I haven't, yet, but now I'm really not interested) and Steam. I have little doubt that Steam will be around for a loooooong time to come, and I also would be very surprised if they pulled a dick move like this.....BUT! I would have said the same of GOG.Com last week this time. Now I am suspicious of all.

Anyway, as long as they come back with the same DRM free format, I will continue to shop with them. And Direct2Drive, which lets you download the full game without worry (just make your own files of the activation codes). In the future, I will not be taken by surprise like this again....! (crossing fingers)

 

[camazotz]

Whereas if Steam dies, you be right screwed.

Valve has stated that in the event that Steam is going down permanently, they will release a tool that lets you play your games without Steam.

This is something I hope is true and planned for, but would never want to rely on. Don't get me wrong, I love Steam. I just prefer the GoG way of doing things with no DRM at all. Unfortunately that doesn't work for new games with mass appeal, as evidenced by the ease with which GoG installers can be found on torrent sites and the like.

If GOG is back up tomorrow and has DRM installed, then I am blaming the pirates.

I will begin carrying a tire iron for pirates I meet. It will be very satisfying, should I ever meet one (which I won't because I don't creep around the basements of their parent's houses).....

 

[Antari]

"First of all we would like to apologize everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by us closing down GOG.com without any warning and without giving access to your games. We apologize for that from the bottom of our hearts!"

You can say your sorry all you want. It still doesn't change what you did. I sure as hell won't be even looking at this site if this is the sort of "stunts" they pull.