Here's a curious one, the survival adventure The Long Dark from Hinterland Studio is going to be leaving GOG.
What's even stranger, is that GOG have an agreement with the developer that anyone who currently owns it or purchases it up until it leaves will still get updates to it. This only usually happens when developers are unhappy with GOG in terms of features, service or the "hassle" of supporting more than one store.
Here's what GOG said on their forum:
We'd like to give you a heads-up that on November 7th, 2pm UTC, The Long Dark will be removed from our catalog.
If you were not sure whether you wish to have this exploration-survival game or not, now is a good time to decide :)
Those who already own the games, or will purchase them before this Wednesday, will of course still be able to access them through their library. All owners will also have access to updates even after the game’s removal.
They also clarified here the agreement on updates.
No reason, however, has been given by either party on why this is happening, so I have reached out to Hinterland to see if they can let us know why and I will update this article if they reply. I don't want to speculate on it too much, but perhaps it's as a result of GOG's recent dumb tweet.
So after November 7th (tomorrow) you will have either Humble Store or Steam. If you decide you want it on GOG, find it here for now.
Hat tip to Doomguy in our Discord.
Quoting: PatolaIt is a positive message, a message of resistence from opression.
You're missing the point.
Quoting: PatolaYour pretend-joke is nothing like the case.
That was no joke. That was basically what you said.
Quoting: PatolaWhy can't you see that?
Why can't you see that the use of this slogan makes light of situation? People fight for their rights. They jumped on the bandwagon to promote themselves. It was an idiotic move.
Quoting: 14We all, at least in the U.S., say we like free speech, right? Isn't using an arbitrary hashtag the wild-wild West style of free speech that people say they want?
What does one thing have to do with the other? You're free to speak. You can say what you want, but don't expect everybody to be happy with what you said. That's exactly what's happening here.
Quoting: liamdaweYou think a gaming site, writing about what a games store did isn't on topic? I don't agree, I think people were right to highlight it no matter what. It's not promoting outrage, it's highlighting something they did. It was a very poor decision by the person running the GOG account.
You can still support GOG, I do. I don't let a single person at a company who made a dumb decision affect everything I do. As long as they learn from it and stick to what they're good at.
But why highlighting it publicly by people that are very biased against GOG is a good thing? They already apologized. Nothing more needs to be said. The only purpose this articles serves is to create division, and that is not gaming-related. The gaming theme is a false backdrop.
I don't let a single person's dumb decision affect everything I do. My opinion on GOG will just be kept private. That is what I mean. I just don't wade into any opinion-like talk online anymore. The reason is simple. It's the reason why GOG is apologizing trying to get out of the political fight. Once you are marked by activists, you will forever be haunted by their presence. I don't make any money in the open source community. I only loose time and money by supporting people in the community. I do it because I enjoy it, and because I can. I don't have the resource to fight activists, and my work on open source will end if I have to.
When someone gets marked, and I've seen this happen to people lately, even ones that keep their opinion completely private, don't share at work or on online, but get doxxed privately. They are incessantly targeted to be deplatformed in any way possible. Their character will be destroyed. Lies will be said. They will not stop until the person that is marked is removed. GOG will continue to be attacked until the targetted people are replaced by avowed activists that support the accepted political agenda. It won't matter any apology. It's a power grab by these people to use media to promote the attacks and gain control in more sectors to keep pushing for their agenda. That is why I am very against any speculation on my part. Stick to the facts. Be more gracious to people that make mistakes. Keep attack pieces out of the community.
Quoting: the3dfxdudeBut why highlighting it publicly by people that are very biased against GOG is a good thing? They already apologized. Nothing more needs to be said. The only purpose this articles serves is to create division, and that is not gaming-related. The gaming theme is a false backdrop.
Did you miss the fact that Liam brought this only up to offer an explanation for why Hinterland dropped GOG? That's what the article is about.
So, bye Hinterland! You know where the door is.
Quoting: PatolaThis is illogical.
It's perfectly logical. It's exactly what happened. You really don't seem to grasp that.
Quoting: PatolaSorry, but you clearly still just don't get it from your reply there. You repeatedly claim it's all about games, showing how you just don't have a basic understanding of the issue at hand.Quoting: liamdaweThe point is how they used it. They used it for nothing more than jumping in the timeline of everyone following a very toxic and sensitive hashtag, to promote their game store. It was a poor decision. It was not a positive message, GOG had literally nothing to do with it and no reason to do it other than get sales. It's a watering down of the meaning, for free advertising.
This is illogical. It's a (bland) joke, so in a sense it's a "watered-down" of the meaning of the slogan, but... For games! Not for people! You can not infer anything else, and you can not expect an impactful slogan to be mentioned and quoted. Marketing guys are specially prone to getting pop culture references and that's nice too. Now you mention ANOTHER hashtag (a negative one) which they did not use, why even mention it then? It's not relevant to that merit! You can't just go around getting the very worst imaginable interpretation of anything and ask for retribution - it destroys debate, dialogue, free speech and many other values dear to society as a whole.
Quoting: liamdaweI'm shocked some people really don't understand this
Liam, I perfectly understood your/their point. No need to diminish my argumentation saying it's a problem of understanding, ok?
There's nothing illogical about it, I have already explained literally why what GOG did was dumb.
The only hashtag I mentioned is the one they used. I have no idea what other tag you're talking about, the article linked to what we're all talking about. Again, you're confusing things.
Quoting: PatolaQuoting: liamdawebut if you don't use Twitter - you're except from that since you probably wouldn't understand how any of it works.
Anyway, totally my own fault for even mentioning it. Will be much warier of speculating on such a thing next time. Very hot topic, never fun to be around.
The problem was not so much mentioning it as so openly choosing a side - which one commenter promptly exposed, like with the "dumb" adjective to refer to the tweet.
I didn't actually pick a side. Saying something is dumb, is not picking a side.
Quoting: liamdaweThe point is how they used it. They used it for nothing more than jumping in the timeline of everyone following a very toxic and sensitive hashtag, to promote their game store. It was a poor decision. It was not a positive message, GOG had literally nothing to do with it and no reason to do it other than get sales. It's a watering down of the meaning, for free advertising.
People have been using puns (which their usage of pun is exactly correct) to promote business for a long time before twitter and hashtags existed. I'd dare say that GOG has a precedent over the recent movement for having no-DRM, because as you know, DRM technologies really have erased people's legal access to works, and GOG has been a no-DRM front for a decade. In a twitter world, what are they going to say now that a more vocal, angry group, is telling GOG you can't say use a slogan that is very generic?
Lame alternatives
* Can't Disappear -- sounds too similar to the movement
* Stop the Delete -- still thinking there is a political bogeyman behind it
* No Locking Us Out -- now we are starting to hit some irony and still not too different
If anything the media-monopoly (a form of DRM itself) is locking out GOG from enjoying a potential presence online not because what just happened, but because someone already made the mistake in the past of delving into something sensitive.
If anything, it's the hashtags and twitter that is simply watering down the meaning of well, everything.
Quoting: the3dfxdudeLame alternatives
* Can't Disappear -- sounds too similar to the movement
* Stop the Delete -- still thinking there is a political bogeyman behind it
* No Locking Us Out -- now we are starting to hit some irony and still not too different
https://fckdrm.com/
GOG should have had more sense than to post that. The level of uproar and backlash however, is just ludicrous.
See more from me