Game store GOG.com has finally updated the browsing experience for those of you who prefer getting your games there.
When you go to search for a game now, much like Steam, there's plenty of new options to help sort through masses of games. It was a needed refresh too, since GOG has grown to have over 5,500 titles available across different platforms. When you go to the store pages you will now be able to filter across price range, genres, release date range, and a newly introduced tags system.
One bit that is now missing however, are the platform icons to see what supports Linux, macOS or just Windows. You now need to use the platform filters, which you can scroll down for on the left panel or go to individual game pages to see. It's a bit of a backwards step for an otherwise great upgrade for searching through GOG.
It's about time really, and perhaps it will help more people find what they want, after it was recently announced that owners CD Projekt have been losing money on GOG.com.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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17 comments
Hopefully more improvements will come.
Would be sad to see such a nice thing disappear.
Would be sad to see such a nice thing disappear.
2 Likes, Who?
Man, FINALLY some good news from GOG. They were screwing up pretty bad for a while there. First Devotion, then Cyberpunk, then HITMAN 2016. I was starting to question their ability to make rational decisions. Well, I still do, only less now.
0 Likes
I fail to see any renovations.
Well, maybe there are some (I honestly can not remember how things were before, mainly because I hardly ever used this store page), but one feature I want is absent.
The ability to filter-out all games lacking Linux support.
I do not want to see any release news of games not relevant to my OS. Not in the release "ribbon" at the bottom of main page, not in my e-mail spa^W "newsletters" and promo-offerings, not in the store library. As far as I know, it is so by default on Steam (do not know for sure due to lack of Steam account), yet GOG keeps feeding me with Windows-exclusive titles forcing myself to manually probe every new release for OS compatibility (a bit of information that is omitted in the release articles and only present on actual game pages). Very tedious.
Sorry GOG, no banana today.
Well, maybe there are some (I honestly can not remember how things were before, mainly because I hardly ever used this store page), but one feature I want is absent.
The ability to filter-out all games lacking Linux support.
I do not want to see any release news of games not relevant to my OS. Not in the release "ribbon" at the bottom of main page, not in my e-mail spa^W "newsletters" and promo-offerings, not in the store library. As far as I know, it is so by default on Steam (do not know for sure due to lack of Steam account), yet GOG keeps feeding me with Windows-exclusive titles forcing myself to manually probe every new release for OS compatibility (a bit of information that is omitted in the release articles and only present on actual game pages). Very tedious.
Sorry GOG, no banana today.
2 Likes, Who?
Jan 17, 2022
Finally, decent filters and sorting options! :D
Take another look. There's an "Operating Systems" filter where you can check Linux and only those entries will be shown.
By the way, Steam doesn't have an OS-focused newsletter either. If you add something in your wishlist, they will notify you when those get discounted.
I fail to see any renovations.
Well, maybe there are some (I honestly can not remember how things were before, mainly because I hardly ever used this store page), but one feature I want is absent.
The ability to filter-out all games lacking Linux support.
Take another look. There's an "Operating Systems" filter where you can check Linux and only those entries will be shown.
By the way, Steam doesn't have an OS-focused newsletter either. If you add something in your wishlist, they will notify you when those get discounted.
3 Likes, Who?
I fail to see any renovations.
Well, maybe there are some (I honestly can not remember how things were before, mainly because I hardly ever used this store page), but one feature I want is absent.
The ability to filter-out all games lacking Linux support.
I do not want to see any release news of games not relevant to my OS. Not in the release "ribbon" at the bottom of main page, not in my e-mail spa^W "newsletters" and promo-offerings, not in the store library. As far as I know, it is so by default on Steam (do not know for sure due to lack of Steam account), yet GOG keeps feeding me with Windows-exclusive titles forcing myself to manually probe every new release for OS compatibility (a bit of information that is omitted in the release articles and only present on actual game pages). Very tedious.
Sorry GOG, no banana today.
You can't expect them to provide this kind of user-oriented service when they can't even be bothered to provide an official Linux client. I hate to say it but when it comes to DRM and user freedom, GOG seem to be stuck in an anachronistic "Windows freeware" mentality and refuse to accept that this isn't 2010 anymore. They're so boneheaded that they don't even have the mettle to take advantage of their competitors' efforts (i.e. Proton) for their own benefit. And that's why they still remain a Valve wannabe (and are in serious danger of becoming a might-have-been) after all these years.
1 Likes, Who?
Take another look. There's an "Operating Systems" filter where you can check Linux and only those entries will be shown.AFAICR, this was available before. The selection is not persistent. Besides, Windows-titles will still be shown on the main page, along with promo-newsletters. There is no way to set the "show me Linux stuff exclusively" setting in your profile.
By the way, Steam doesn't have an OS-focused newsletter either. If you add something in your wishlist, they will notify you when those get discounted.Again, AFAICR some time ago people complained they can not see Windows titles in their (Linux-native) Steam-clients unless they checked the "Show Me Unsupported Titles" checkbox (and apparently this setting was hidden well enough to mandate several Reddit HOW_TO-s). This was before Proton™ though, so I do not know how it is now.
0 Likes
Take another look. There's an "Operating Systems" filter where you can check Linux and only those entries will be shown.AFAICR, this was available before. The selection is not persistent. Besides, Windows-titles will still be shown on the main page, along with promo-newsletters. There is no way to set the "show me Linux stuff exclusively" setting in your profile.
By the way, Steam doesn't have an OS-focused newsletter either. If you add something in your wishlist, they will notify you when those get discounted.Again, AFAICR some time ago people complained they can not see Windows titles in their (Linux-native) Steam-clients unless they checked the "Show Me Unsupported Titles" checkbox (and apparently this setting was hidden well enough to mandate several Reddit HOW_TO-s). This was before Proton™ though, so I do not know how it is now.
Almost sure that there was an option in the library list filter. But I may be wrong, I can't even recall how Steam was before Proton at this point (thanks to you German MD!)
Last edited by x_wing on 17 January 2022 at 9:38 pm UTC
0 Likes
Let me know when my money has the same value as the one from Windows and Mac users. I have a couple of hundred games bought on GOG but I refuse to keep buying more from them until the services that they offer me are the same as everyone else on their platform, if I have to do all the managing of the library manually, or with a third party client without any support from GOG, then my money goes elsewhere, thank you.
I'm not asking for them to go full Steam and put Proton/Wine/Whatever on their client, but at least the same features as if I'm using Windows or Mac for Linux supporting titles should be there. While they don´t do that they can join Google and their promise of a Google Drive client for Linux.
I'm not asking for them to go full Steam and put Proton/Wine/Whatever on their client, but at least the same features as if I'm using Windows or Mac for Linux supporting titles should be there. While they don´t do that they can join Google and their promise of a Google Drive client for Linux.
2 Likes, Who?
Wow, finally added sorting by discount! Welcome to modern times, GOG! 
3 Likes, Who?
TheRiddick Jan 18, 2022
Wish they push out a GOG Galaxy 2 for Linux. Its actually pretty useful launcher under Windows.
0 Likes
Wish they push out a GOG Galaxy 2 for Linux. Its actually pretty useful launcher under Windows.Wish they published an api for their website and shop so that others can interact with their backend directly . We have so many cool front ends out there in addition to galaxy
1 Likes, Who?
I've never liked the GoG website, it's always felt like a chore to browse. Perhaps it's because I'm lazy, but having to open a new webpage in my browser every time I want to see anything about a game beyond it's price and a bit of artwork is less like browsing and more like a chore. It's like getting the phone numbers for all the merchants in a village by running to each one of them individually and asking for it.
Steam and itch.io all let me scan game info without leaving the page. That's why I shop there for 99% of my games. The other 1% I get at GoG.
Last edited by Nanobang on 19 January 2022 at 6:07 pm UTC
Steam and itch.io all let me scan game info without leaving the page. That's why I shop there for 99% of my games. The other 1% I get at GoG.
Last edited by Nanobang on 19 January 2022 at 6:07 pm UTC
1 Likes, Who?
Steam, itch.io, and Humble all let me scan game info without leaving the page. That's why I shop there for 99% of my games. The other 1% I get at GoG.
I have my issues with the design of the galaxy client on occasion as it tends to waste space but I don't have a problem with he website apart from not rendering HTML correctly on the wishlist page.
Especially not in a way that stops me from buying games.
It is more likely that that a certain just doesn't exist on gog, that is love to have it as a pre release I can still influence and got to steam instead or that there is no alternative to steam workshop.
What would you change? One page per game is what is common and I don't see where the design issue is that you mention
0 Likes
AFAICR, this was available before. The selection is not persistent. Besides, Windows-titles will still be shown on the main page, along with promo-newsletters. There is no way to set the "show me Linux stuff exclusively" setting in your profile.
That would require serious design changes for any gaming website. Realistically, if you only expect to see Linux stuff on GOG, the website would look quite terrible. Imagine not seeing many (or any) news on the main page - it would be extremely weird. And their flash deals and other special offers would look really weird as well.
Think about seeing the flash deals sections with no game displayed. They would have to disable the whole section, and re-enable it when they have Linux games. If they did do that, you wouldn't be aware that they even have flash deals that you might want to monitor if you happen to load the page when they don't have Linux-compatible games in their deals.
Also, it's not always up to them to sell games with Linux support (through DOSBox or Wine), but the games could otherwise work just fine and it's nice to be able to see when they're discounted. So a site-wide "show me Linux stuff exclusively" setting is not necessarily an optimal way for someone interested in games. I ditched Windows over a decade ago, but I do like keeping an eye on discounts even for some non-Linux games. In my case, such a setting would not be useful.
Again, AFAICR some time ago people complained they can not see Windows titles in their (Linux-native) Steam-clients unless they checked the "Show Me Unsupported Titles" checkbox (and apparently this setting was hidden well enough to mandate several Reddit HOW_TO-s). This was before Proton™ though, so I do not know how it is now.
The Steam client made it easy to toggle the display of platform-supported games (in your library) some while ago, and the client remembers that setting. But of course this is different from browsing the store. Steam does allow you to only see games for the platform(s) you're interested in, but they have a different format - no news of their own, like GOG have. Besides, Steam has over 20K Linux-compatible titles (compared to 4095 titles as a whole on GOG), so not having news and having so many games for each platform makes it easy to only show certain stuff.
GOG would have to do some rather invasive changes on their website to allow for what you'd like. That's not to say it wouldn't be useful to some people, but at least at this point in time it feels unrealistic for them to tackle something this big.
Last edited by kneekoo on 19 January 2022 at 11:11 am UTC
0 Likes
…I do not understand why you are trying to persuade me "I don't want what I want ant want what I do not want".
Yes, I do not want to see any games not supporting Linux.
Yes, I am fine not seeing any news if the only "news" GOG shows do not concern me.
No, I do not want to know about Windows-exclusive game releases. Nor do I care about Windows-exclusive "flash deals".
No, I do not think GOG's site would look terrible without all Windows-exclusive stuff being shoved down my throat. GOG's site is terrible as is.
No, I do not care whether a game in question "Runs Great With Proton" or not (not that GOG has any intentions to start providing this kind of information in its "release news" any time soon). If, for some wicked reasons, I would start to wonder whether some particular Windows-exclusive game is available on GOG or not, I would use the search page. But no, GOG thinks I am experiencing delight in shoving aside tons of windows-exclusive "release news" in order not to miss the one in fifty Linux release news. No I am not! If things continue the way they are now, I'd rather stop paying any attention to GOG site at all and will visit it only to check for updates or if I've heard about a game elsewhere and want to inquire about its availability on GOG (but even then, I'd rather use the quick search field).
The Steam client made it easy to toggle the display of platform-supported games (in your library) some while ago, and the client remembers that setting. But of course this is different from browsing the store. Steam does allow you to only see games for the platform(s) you're interested in, but they have a different format - no news of their own, like GOG have. Besides, Steam has over 20K Linux-compatible titles (compared to 4095 titles as a whole on GOG), so not having news and having so many games for each platform makes it easy to only show certain stuff.
GOG would have to do some rather invasive changes on their website to allow for what you'd like. That's not to say it wouldn't be useful to some people, but at least at this point in time it feels unrealistic for them to tackle something this big.
Funny thing, GOG in fact does filter content by OS. If you try to browse the Galaxy promo page with your User-Agent string indicating anything Linux-related, you won't be able to even see download links there.
!No Galaxy
See? No download link. Yes, GOG can and will block content based on your OS of choice on its site. But user's wishes mean nothing to GOG.
Last edited by Alm888 on 19 January 2022 at 2:46 pm UTC
0 Likes
I do not understand why you are trying to persuade me "I don't want what I want ant want what I do not want".
I didn't try to persuade you of anything. I basically told you that what you want is next to impossible for GOG. They've moved way too slow with pretty much everything throughout the years, including community wishlists. It is what it is.
Funny thing, GOG in fact does filter content by OS. If you try to browse the Galaxy promo page with your User-Agent string indicating anything Linux-related, you won't be able to even see download links there.
!No Galaxy
See? No download link. Yes, GOG can and will block content based on your OS of choice on its site. But user's wishes mean nothing to GOG.
GOG GALAXY 2.0 Open Beta is available for Windows and Mac. Please download the installer on your PC.
This is a common idiotic thing many site owners do. It's a trend made up by stupid people, adopted by lazy people who don't care how things work. They either think that "PC = Windows", or don't care and pretend that's the case, for the sake of the many people who cannot tell the difference. But again, it is what it is. I gave a few site owners my feedback (politely, not as blunt as I put it here), and that's it. It's their choice to look like complete idiots after all.
1 Likes, Who?
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