Good Old Games - Offline, Closed?

ikbenrichard said:
You like to provocate, dont you ;)
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Sure, but that wasn't really what I was trying to do.

I honestly don't get how this is a big deal. In fact, it seems like a complete and total overreaction from people who're just waiting to jump on a target.

I can sympathise with the irritation, but I'd personally choose another target, like something which is actually hurting the industry. GOG.com, though I have no doubt they're motivated by money like most - seems to be supporting the old-school games that we all know and love.

A misstep like this, I can only shrug off - and maybe I'm weird.
 
Elwro said:
Well, I always make backups of my games the second I buy them (and download them), but seriously, I can't believe this is a marketing stunt. All it says is "Hey guys, we can cut off access to your games anytime we want, we are not a reliable on-line platform; BTW, did you know you can buy e.g. Master of Magic for $6 at Impulse? Be sure to visit our competitors while we sort out our mess."

My bet is they are covering some sort of legal fiasco resulting from the recent Optimus share sale mess.
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But they're NOT cutting off access.

Anyone truly believing technology is 100% fail-safe is already kidding themselves. Servers are not free to maintain - and as such, you need money to have them running.

Businesses can end at any time, and that includes Steam and Impulse.

How's that news?
 
DArtagnan said:
But they're NOT cutting off access.
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My point is that they purposefully show they CAN do it. Well, they did it right now. If someone bought some games on Sunday but decided to download them on Monday, they can't do it. If it's not "cutting access" (they had access to them on Sunday, they do not have access now), I don't know what is.
Anyone truly believing technology is 100% fail-safe is already kidding themselves. Servers are not free to maintain - and as such, you need money to have them running.
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Sure thing, you would have to be a complete idiot to believe in free bandwidth and other server costs. I don't see people saying anything like that here though.

My point was how bad a message this is marketing-wise, since people can just go to the competition right now (this is e.g. my case since I wanted to buy Master of Magic yesterday). I can't see how Gog can earn anything from this, apart from earning the reputation of an unreliable service. This has to be cover-up for something.
 
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Elwro said:
My point is that they purposefully show they CAN do it. Well, they did it right now. If someone bought some games on Sunday but decided to download them on Monday, they can't do it. If it's not "cutting access" (they had access to them on Sunday, they do not have access now), I don't know what is.
Sure thing, you would have to be a complete idiot to believe in free bandwidth and other server costs. I don't see people saying anything like that here though.
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Can do it? Of course they can, why wouldn't they be able to?

I don't get it :)

There are no guarentees here, and there never will be.

Even if there's a law against it, it will never mean the servers are up 24/7. The law has nothing to do with reality.

My point was how bad a message this is marketing-wise, since people can just go to the competition right now (this is e.g. my case since I wanted to buy Master of Magic yesterday). I can't see how Gog can earn anything from this, apart from earning the reputation of an unreliable service. This has to be cover-up for something.
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Haha, yeah, for a few days they can - and if it's a marketing stunt - they'll be able to do it at gog.com again, should they wish.

What's the problem? How has it got anything to do with reliability? They're obviously not interested in being unreliable.

They might have made a silly move, and it's backfiring now - but honestly, I think the overreaction is the real issue here.

Servers can go down - and there's nothing to guarentee otherwise.
 
DArtagnan said:
Even if there's a law against it, it will never mean the servers are up 24/7.
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Again, only an idiot would claim otherwise; no one claimed anything like that in this thread. The legal fiasco I alluded to is, I believe, connected with a big number of their shares switching their owners. Maybe someone bought them.

What's the problem? How has it got anything to do with reliability?
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If you consider a service which can go down without ANY notice whatsoever "reliable", then we have different concepts of reliability. For me, a reliable service would warn me "be sure to make your purchases and all downloads you wish to make before Sunday". Banks do stuff like that (informing that their online service will be down) precisely to give the impression of reliability. Behaviour such as what actually happened sends a clear message to the customers: "We don't give a damn that you gave us your money, but K, maybe we'll let you download your stuff some time in the future". This is not the proper way to handle things.

Still, I bought many things from Gog, and if they come back, I still might - I'll just be doubly sure to download my stuff immediately after purchasing it :D
 
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Elwro said:
Again, only an idiot would claim otherwise; no one claimed anything like that in this thread. The legal fiasco I alluded to is, I believe, connected with a big number of their shares switching their owners.

If you consider a service which can go down without ANY notice whatsoever "reliable", then we have different concepts of reliability. For me, a reliable service would warn me "be sure to make your purchases and all downloads you wish to make before Sunday". Behaviour such as what actually happened sends a clear message to the customers: "We don't give a damn that you gave us your money, but K, maybe we'll let you download your stuff some time in the future". This is not the proper way to handle things.

Still, I bought many things from Gog, and if they come back, I still might - I'll just be doubly sure to download my stuff immediately after purchasing it :D
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There's no discussion that they could have handled this better.

The issue is whether, if this is indeed a marketing stunt, it REALLY means: "We don't give a damn you gave us your money…:" - or it simply means: "We're playing a little joke, because we think we're funny…"

But whatever.

If people really get so pissed off because of something like this, I won't stand in your way ;)

I just had trouble believing such a thing could be so big a deal, but now I see that it can indeed be a big deal.
 
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DArtagnan said:
They might have made a silly move, and it's backfiring now - but honestly, I think the overreaction is the real issue here.
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I have to quote this for truth.

In this particular case they have a major company behind them so regardless of it being a stunt or not purchased games will be made available again... what's the big deal?
 
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If this "major company" is Steam, well, OK, but maybe it's too early to tell.

But CDP cannot really be called a "major company", with all the financial trouble we've been reading about.
 
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If they release PS:T when they're back I'm willing to forget about it.

And I don't like those Steam rumors at all.
 
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Steam rumors true = Just another step in the american dream of selling out to the highest bidder ;)
 
If they sell their catalog, along with your rights to whatever games you bought from them to Steam (or Impulse), I have no problems with that. In fact, I'd prefer that. I have a bunch of games in a bunch of services, I probably don't even remember what games I have anymore.
 
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It reads "in its current form". My guess is they have to change their DRM rules, either by having a client or activation codes. Basically, I don't consider this a "stunt", I consider it an actual change, most likely not for the better.

A shame, gog.com has so far been the best place out there to buy old games.
 
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Rumors are rumors, but the Steam thing smells all too true, doesn't it.

If so, it's probably a bit technical to transfer the database and get them keyed to new accounts, or get the process in place.

But I think speculating too much is meaningless.

We'll see....

But I think I'll stick to being grumpy over the state of the industry, rather than not having access to re-downloading a few old classics for a few days.
 
If Steam is really buing it, then I'm very, VERY shocked.

Reminds me of EA buying Origin et. al. and exploiting them, and in the end shutting them down.

To put it rather cynically :

Europe = last defenders of innovation -> becomes bought by uninnovative US companies -> is being exploited -> is being shut down

Is there a real life tendency that bigger companies tend to act like vampires, or like ticks ? Buying up smaller, more innovative companies, sucking them out of innovation, then shutting them down, and moving on to the next victim.

Sounds like a natural law to me.
 
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Thaurin said:
Haha, here's where I come in and comment snarkily: but what's so bad about the state of the industry? ;)
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The issue is that it has gotten sufficiently big, and greed driven people have corrupted it.

But, I can deal with it - as long as I get to bitch about it.

Eventually, gaming will be so common (like movies) - that even the greed driven people will have to evolve games on the side to maximise profit, and the market will be versatile enough to support larger and more creative productions. Eventually, there will be room for financially backed artists again.

Just like Hollywood :)

So, I'll just sweat out the next ~5-10 years, and I'll get my System Shock 3 eventually.

Then I'll buy everyone a cake!
 
I'm with DArtagnan here. I don't get what the fuss is about. If GOG is really closing down, then this will be a sad day for us all. If it's a marketing ploy, then it's a silly joke at best and a poor case of judgement at worst.
 
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