Good Old Games - Will Be Back!!!

Looks like it's back to MahJongg..

Such absurd drama. It's like they picked your pocket or something.

I was pretty pissed (since I was one of those foolish enough to buy 30+ games from them and not download/backup most of them) and saddened (because if they were to fail I doubt anyone would try DRM-free digital distribution again). Then with today's news my anger was rekindled at first, but now that I've cooled down I just remember that they've always been a good bunch and they made a mistake (at least towards me). I forgive them and hope others will as well. They still offer a unique and valuable service and do so in a usually customer-friendly manner. I even feel sad for them because this should have been a big, happy moment for them and they took a pretty gutsy gamble and came out the other side with a lot of unhappiness.

So, I too am very glad they are still with us and will continue to support them.

People who still pretend to be pissed about this, are whiny little children.

Have a nice day.

For a long time here in Denmark, whenever a train was delayed it was announced over the speakers on the platform as "experiencing technical problems", no matter what the reason was. Over time the passengers got thoroughly fed up with the incompetence of DSB (national train services) and only then did they (the PR department at DSB) realize that not informing the passengers WHAT the nature of the problem actually was, was terrible PR.

Now, whenever some moron jumps in front of the train resulting in hours of irregular schedules and countless cancellations they tell the passengers what happened and instead of being pissed off at DSB they're pissed of at the selfish bastard that didn't have the decency to hang himself in the basement. Information is key. If GOG had said: "We're going to be down for a week due to whatever", then it would have been no big deal.

So yeah, the marketing stunt from GOG is utterly moronic. I haven't actually purchased anything from the site yet since I already have most of the games I might find interesting, but after this blatant display of amateurism I'm not going to either, even if I find something worth buying. Instead I'll get from another source that I have more confidence in. I know I only speak for myself, but they lost me as a potential customer due to this silliness.

azarhal said:

They:

• demonstrated how online services can be ambiguous in term of "what do I own?".

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I do agree on that point.

"Owning" a downloadable game is different to me than having a CD or DVD in my rack.

fatBastard() said:

For a long time here in Denmark, whenever a train was delayed it was announced over the speakers on the platform as "experiencing technical problems", no matter what the reason was. Over time the passengers got thoroughly fed up with the incompetence of DSB (national train services) and only then did they (the PR department at DSB) realize that not informing the passengers WHAT the nature of the problem actually was, was terrible PR.

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Similar thing here.

The worst PR have Banksters. And industry heads. They just can't.

There was once an incident with a … fraudster leaving millions of debts. A few banks were serioisly getting a few millions from him, which he couldn't pay because they just weren't there.

And THEN the head of the German "Deutsche Bank" referred to unpayed bills (as another result of this fraud) of crafting professions (like carpentry, masonry etc.) as "peanuts".

@fedesvin

Oh, a single marketing mistake WITH an apology from an otherwise reputable and extremely reliable CHEAP source - and you will never ever buy anything from there - regardless of whether the deal is good or not?

That sounds "utterly moronic" to me.

Fuck, I must be tired - but I really feel like doing something not-very-kind to people, to make them see how pathetic they're being in response to this.

All they took away was the ability to redownload your games for a few days, and that was as a result of having to take the site down to upgrade to the new version. As soon as they took it down, they told you when you will be able to redownload your games again.

The only thing they may have done wrong was not give notice in advance of the site going down. It's more like a shop closing for a few days without notice. You can still play all the games you've bought previously, you just can't take them back for a refund or to trade them in for a few days.

I mean, really, GoG allow you to keep your own backups and have no DRM. The never promised that you will have the ability to redownload all your games at any time, forever. If you care about it that much, you should have backups of your own.

I do feel sorry for the folks who had just purchased a new game and not downloaded it yet when the site abruptly went down, though.

I already have Baldur's Gate (both) in several versions, but I lost my Planescape: Torment discs years ago. If they actually release PS, I'll buy it without hesitation.

Brother None said:

Sure. But I get the people who are upset over this. A reputation of reliability is your most important asset in digital download, and as such this is just ugly.

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Reputation. Reliability. Asset. This right here. That's what they're talking about. You sound like a manager type guy trying to win over some big investor. I understand that this is a business, but apparently they wanted to step away from that imago. Look at us! We're just gamers (good old gamers!) like you! It is true, of course, that back in the old days, companies used to pull more stunts like this. So it fits, I guess.

I wasn't worried for one second that I would lose my games.

Santos said:

Agreed. They can go screw themselves with an eggplant. I have no patience for this kind of crap. Then again, I'm the kind of person who will stop buying a product because the commercials piss me off.

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Well, suit yourself I guess. To me, it just says: what are you getting all worked up about? Take it easy, there's lots of really important stuff in life that is demanding your attention. Hint: it's not games.

This whole stunt pretty much demonstrates that the people running that company are unprofessional and somewhat clueless. For many, that could be a very good reason to do business elsewhere.

To me that is a good reason to do business with them.

SveNitoR said:

To me that is a good reason to do business with them.

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Exactly.

I'd rather have normal people trying their best, than greedy corporate suits paying their PR department to lure sheep into buying their crap.

Ok, they made a mistake. Every single person in the entire world makes mistakes each and every day. Some people are better at dodging them, and some are better at hiding them.

GOG made a public apology, and they acknowledge they're not marketing experts.

I find it truly sad to see people reacting so strongly, because of such a tiny mistake.

DArtagnan said:

Fuck, I must be tired - but I really feel like doing something not-very-kind to people, to make them see how pathetic they're being in response to this.

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They're just making purchasing decisions. That's their call. You are aiming personal attacks at people because you disagree with their personal purchasing decisions. I don't think we need to get into who looks unreasonable in that scenario.

Thaurin said:

Reputation. Reliability. Asset. This right here. That's what they're talking about. You sound like a manager type guy trying to win over some big investor. I understand that this is a business, but apparently they wanted to step away from that imago. Look at us! We're just gamers (good old gamers!) like you! It is true, of course, that back in the old days, companies used to pull more stunts like this. So it fits, I guess.

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Yip, and in an ideal world I'd agree with you. But this is the real world, people care about their money. Their games were pulled temporarily for a marketing stunt. What bugs me about it is that rather than being fully contrite, GOG's attitude is "it was an opportunity we couldn't miss" and "stop being so serious". So where's the guarantee it won't happen again? That's what I mean when I say their reputation of reliability is their primary asset.

Running a company properly and intelligently doesn't necessarily equate to greed, etc. Usually companies that are going to be around for a long time need to be run by people who have some idea what they're doing...or, failing that, at least some common sense.

Brother None said:

They're just making purchasing decisions. That's their call. You are aiming personal attacks at people because you disagree with their personal purchasing decisions. I don't think we need to get into who looks unreasonable in that scenario.

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They're not just making purchasing decisions, they're stating their opinion and I am stating my opinion about their opinion.

If you think my opinion is unreasonable, great, but let's not try to make it into some kind of universal truth - shall we.

At least you'd have to present something meaningful, that makes my opinion "unreasonable."

Yip, and in an ideal world I'd agree with you. But this is the real world, people care about their money. Their games were pulled temporarily for a marketing stunt. What bugs me about it is that rather than being fully contrite, GOG's attitude is "it was an opportunity we couldn't miss" and "stop being so serious". So where's the guarantee it won't happen again? That's what I mean when I say their reputation of reliability is their primary asset.

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Boohoo, the world is crumbling

Is that an unreasonable "personal attack"?

If what they did is so bad, then I guess it's almost an attempted murder, right?

So, what I'm about to say should be genocide - more or less:

You're a bunch of whiny babies, and you're focusing your negative energy on one of the least consequential marketing mistakes in the history of mankind.

And yet you're whining about us whining.

Stingray said:

Running a company properly and intelligently doesn't necessarily equate to greed, etc. Usually companies that are going to be around for a long time need to be run by people who have some idea what they're doing…or, failing that, at least some common sense.

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From my perspective, they're running their business in one of the most appealing ways I'm familiar with.

The fact that they don't have effective marketing to cover up the mistakes that everyone makes, just makes them more human to me.

If what they did had a real consequence, I might have been annoyed - but seeing as what happened corresponds to a completely run-of-the-mill server outage, I find it incredibly hard to sympathise with the whiners.

Dwagginz said:

And yet you're whining about us whining.

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Haha, yeah you seem to be good at that DArt...

Dwagginz said:

And yet you're whining about us whining.

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I prefer to call it bitching about adults being children.