Why GOG is so good

[allinwonder]

Which of the two options will you choose?

First option (GOG): $9.99/5.99 upfront and you get:
DRM-Free game
Unlimited re-download
Fast download speed
Tested to run on most OSes
Customer service

Second option (Piracy): 0 upfront and you get:
DRM-Free game
Uncertainty of future re-download
Uncertain download speed
Possibility getting malware/fake downloads
No customer service
Not sure if it will run on your computer/OS
Potential legal action

Anyone with normal cognitive ability I believe will choose the first one.

It's just that so many publishers don't get that.

 

[Weaver]

I guess I don't really understand the point of this thread, but I agree: GOG is awesome.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

GOG is selling primarily old games that are long past their best before date and are more or less otherwise completely out of circulation. Of course the prices are low.

Witcher 2 was full retail price off GOG.

It's not like publishers are going to offer their brand new AAA title they just spent 80 million dollars creating for $5.99 off GOG just so people aren't tempted to be dickweeds and pirate.

EDIT: And yeah, it doesn't really need to be said that GOG is awesome. We all love GOG.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

You're forgetting about the manuals, wallpapers, soundtracks, and other goodies that come standard with gog games. It's not much, but it goes a long way towards adding value to the game purchases.

But yeah, I have to agree, gog is amazing.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

My only real problem with GoG is that, thanks to the way copyright law works with games, they take money for the games and the people who actually made them get nothing. These old games usually aren't even owned by the original publisher anymore, let alone the developer, so whatever company profits off of them, frankly, doesn't deserve it. They give a nice service in the form of setting up dosbox/doing the work of finding an updated installer, if necessary, for you, as well as providing the manuals, soundtracks, and other goodies, but they're not quite as saintly as you might think.

 

[Andrew_C]

There is a lot of stuff on GoG I would love to buy, but I'm unwilling to further support EA and Activision, the companies that killed the studios that made them. Also, a lot of the recent additions (particularly the stuff from EA) are IMHO overpriced for old games.

A final aside they don't actually test very well and there is a lot of stuff up on GoG that is a real pain to get running on Win 7 64 bit, or with modern graphics cards, like Giants: Citizen Kabuko, NWN and Dungeon Keeper and they DONT mention this on the store pages.

 

[CAPTCHA]

I remember a time before GOG, when all you had to do was go on any abanonware site and download these games. Then GOG came along, took everybodys lunch money and monopolised the scene.

My only real problem with GoG is that, thanks to the way copyright law works with games, they take money for the games and the people who actually made them get nothing. These old games usually aren't even owned by the original publisher anymore, let alone the developer, so whatever company profits off of them, frankly, doesn't deserve it. They give a nice service in the form of setting up dosbox/doing the work of finding an updated installer, if necessary, for you, as well as providing the manuals, soundtracks, and other goodies, but they're not quite as saintly as you might think.

...also this.

 

[DoPo]

Tested to run on most OSes

Wasn't it mainly for XP/Vista/7 ?

My only real problem with GoG is that, thanks to the way copyright law works with games, they take money for the games and the people who actually made them get nothing.

I don't think that is the case with all games. Recently-ish they added Square Enix to the publishers whose games they offer, and they did that after negotiating with SE first as far as I'm aware. Now, whether the devs do get anything out of the purchases over GOG is an entire issue entirely. Same thing with whether or not they have agreements for all the games up there.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I remember a time before GOG, when all you had to do was go on any abanonware site and download these games. Then GOG came along, took everybodys lunch money and monopolised the scene.

Remember Home of the Underdogs?

Abandonware was fairly awesome but there were some issues getting a lot of that shit to run. I don't mind paying GOG a small stipend to clean the thing up and give me a manual.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

I don't care what anyone else thinks, they got Thief 1 and 2 working on my machine no problem. I was more than happy to toss GOG 10 bucks to save me hours of headaches and fruitless google searches, even though I already own disk copies of both of them. Steam doesn't do that, they just put it up for sale and that's that. I know for a fact VtM:B is literally unplayable the way Steam sold it, and I wouldn't be surprised if the versions of Thief just released on Steam don't work for shit.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

anc[is]I don't care what anyone else thinks, they got Thief 1 and 2 working on my machine no problem. I was more than happy to toss GOG 10 bucks to save me hours of headaches and fruitless google searches, even though I already own disk copies of both of them. Steam doesn't do that, they just put it up for sale and that's that. I know for a fact VtM:B is literally unplayable the way Steam sold it, and I wouldn't be surprised if the versions of Thief just released on Steam don't work for shit.

Steam does have some issues with classic games. Their version of Jagged Alliance 2 was flat out broken, prompting me to turn the house upside down looking for my old discs. Fortunately, I found them.

 

[CAPTCHA]

I remember a time before GOG, when all you had to do was go on any abanonware site and download these games. Then GOG came along, took everybodys lunch money and monopolised the scene.

Remember Home of the Underdogs?

Abandonware was fairly awesome but there were some issues getting a lot of that shit to run. I don't mind paying GOG a small stipend to clean the thing up and give me a manual.

I can't really remember having many problems getting abanodonware to run. A bit of DosBox know-how was all that was required. I've found I've had more problems with the the GOG stuff to be honest. They've cut out all the DosBox config, but not always done so correctly. Everything's a bit more hidden away and inaccessable. eg. Ultima Underworld through GOG is configured to run with a midi soundsystem so every sound is a piano note. Pre-GOG running setup and changing to SBpro was all that was required. Now thanks to their streamlining it requires editing the config file manually. The problem partially lies in the fact that GOG sell edited versions of the game that replace the exe file with a GOG launcher. This has caused source code remakes to suffer. Almost all of them are not compatible with the GOG versions, making some peoples dedication and hard work a waste.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I can't really remember having many problems getting abanodonware to run. A bit of DosBox know-how was all that was required. I've found I've had more problems with the the GOG stuff to be honest. They've cut out all the DosBox config, but not always done so correctly. Everything's a bit more hidden away and inaccessable. eg. Ultima Underworld through GOG is configured to run with a midi soundsystem so every sound is a piano note. Pre-GOG running setup and changing to SBpro was all that was required. Now thanks to their streamlining it requires editing the config file manually. The problem partially lies in the fact that GOG sell edited versions of the game that replace the exe file with a GOG launcher. This has caused source code remakes to suffer. Almost all of them are not compatible with the GOG versions, making some peoples dedication and hard work a waste.

Well that does sound bad. I've been fortunate with GOG I suppose.

My most recent attempt at running something via DosBox was Bard's Tale, and it was a bit of a pain in the ass. Then I started playing and realized that Bard's Tale had aged beyond the point where nostalgia was sufficient to keep me playing, and played Grimrock instead.