GOG attempt to bring customers back with a revival of Good Old Games

[quote=Sputnik_tr_02]

Quoting: Guest

Quoting: damarrinIf they wanted to stay relevant with the Linux crowd. Which they don't.

Regional pricing,

Interesting, because GOG has regional pricing, Epic has regional pricing, but Steam does not. So, it benefits me to buy from GOG than Steam.

After loki left the building, and no others were to take their place, GOG came and promised to relieve the biggest hurdle on playing licensed windows titles on linux: that fucking DRM that everyone hated.
As such I bought a lot on GOG.
Then Valve got a steam client that worked on linux.
And then they got games working on linux.
And then they threw everything they had on linux.
So yeah, Valve first, GOG next.
Valve is doing good, GOG is doing good. From the 2 Valve is doing better good than GOG.
But if the gog installers embedded in chimeraos lists more games on green (about all games I have on gog are not supported in the chimeraos GOG installer), I would start accidentally buying on GOG again.
Because throwing money on GOG is not bad. Throwing money on Valve however is currently better for the near future of gaming.
I actually have original linux games that I can't play anymore because the DRM requires me to mount the original CD (Shogo MAD ported by hyperion).
Both Valve and GOG prevent that from ever happening again.

The problem is the same as with the cyberpunk game - they kind of ruined their reputation over the last years.
- newer games that did not receive the same updates/dlc avaliable in other stores (this should never happen!)
- galaxy client exclusive features(multiplayer) and promotions while not offering a client for part of their customers
- making Linux feel users like third rate customers(no client, no native versions of games that have one in other stores) even though that is exactly the crowd that would have loudly sung their praises till kingdom come for a little support and the DRM free model alone.

Since only "old games" is a limited market and they can not reasonably compete with the Epic-giveaway-shop and Steam's features and vast catalogue, reputation and consumer friendliness could make them keep and expand their niche - but they would need to put in the extra effort.

I really enjoyed GOG for many years even before they supported Linux because I just wanted the files to use with engines and source port. When Linux support came it was great. At the time the only Linux binaries in DD stores was on Desura and then Steam then GOG which was a great time, IMO.

For me, GOG made a mistake making a client at all. I really feel they should have went to the browser based format similar to how XFire was or how Stadia is where ppl have friends and chat and see each other's libraries at the very least.

They could have, leveraging the DRM banner, ask the community for help or just go into the forums and thrown their hat in with users that were working on scripts, open source clients as an aside. Like no promises but we really like these projects...in the mean time our games are DRM FREE and offline - with the ones that do have online play being noted that you're on your own to get those up and running because getting them online is not our thing...

I don't know how well that message would have went but I feel like it would have cemented their ID better than what they are today.

In the end, I found it very difficult to use their store to find a linux native game to play that was not borked for a feature or what not. That amount of research needed to play a game kills my desire to purchase anything.

Been on itch.io since. I'm not comfortable with Steam. I'm OK with Stadia for online only games.

I hope GOG makes it but right now it's too much of a mess for me to sift through.


Last edited by Mezron on 7 April 2022 at 1:30 am UTC

Quoting: GuestI quite enjoyed Wheel of Time, and was reminded of it recently from the "tv" series adaptation (which I also enjoyed). Not yet read any of the books. Safe to say that I'll be snagging that one. I know it doesn't have a native version, but for games that old I'm not exactly expecting it. That's what I use wine for.

Had you read the books (it's the most epic saga I've ever read), you probably wouldn't have enjoyed the series. It's a horrible adaption, yet it seems like it might not come of as horrible without the reference. :D
So, don't read the books until you finished the series or just switch completely. But be aware it's a long saga (~20000 pages iirc) with very detailed descriptions.

Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: damarrinWhen I click on "The Wheel of Time" link FF warns me of a potential security threat listing a adtraction domain. Not cool.

Sounds like a plugin doing that? Get no issues here.

If you have Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin this happens. In my phone all the links does that.

Quoting: GuestWish someone would sell me James Bond 007: Nightfire and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

I still have my Battle for Middle Earth collection that has the two of them. I think the last time I tried them in Wine, they failed, and I believe that in Win10 they are broken.

Quoting: const

Quoting: GuestI quite enjoyed Wheel of Time, and was reminded of it recently from the "tv" series adaptation (which I also enjoyed). Not yet read any of the books. Safe to say that I'll be snagging that one. I know it doesn't have a native version, but for games that old I'm not exactly expecting it. That's what I use wine for.

Had you read the books (it's the most epic saga I've ever read), you probably wouldn't have enjoyed the series. It's a horrible adaption, yet it seems like it might not come of as horrible without the reference. :D
So, don't read the books until you finished the series or just switch completely. But be aware it's a long saga (~20000 pages iirc) with very detailed descriptions.

Ha, I read the first book, asked my friends how many books there were (at the time 7 was the answer) and I responded with "He is going to die before he finishes the story..."

Clearing up about trackers and privacy following some comments earlier on this article:

The article's link to "The Wheel of Time" looks like this:

https://af.gog.com/game/the_wheel_of_time?as=1636858786

My understanding is that this is an affiliate link, i.e. It is a way for the GOL website to gain favour and/or financial support from the seller website.

Once a person clicks on that link, then it redirects instantly to a advert tracker link, which looks like this:

https://track.adtraction.com/t/t?a=1578845458&as=1636858786&t=2&tk=1&url=http://www.gog.com/game/the_wheel_of_time

With uBlock Origin as the blocking technology, it pops up a page offering choices - Do you wish to go through the tracking link, do you wish to block adtraction website permanently, or other options?

The eventual end-point, where the link ends up is here:

http://www.gog.com/game/the_wheel_of_time

Privacy advocates would prefer to go straight to the end-point, and not through the tracking bit in the middle.

It's the usual thing with stuff like this:

- Do you not visit the link at all?
- Do you purposefully jump to the end-point avoiding the tracking bit? (i.e. Cutting and Pasting the url to manually dodge the tracker)
- Do you grit your teeth and accept the tracking "this time" because it possibly helps out GOL?
- Noting that you could always "clear your cookies" afterwards so that this tracker cannot follow you around the internet (A good idea, methinks!)
- Most normies aren't even aware that the tracker stage is there.

I'd add that GOL does a good job of not putting Adverts all over the GOL website. In my opinion it is worth considering supporting GOL over Patreon, to help fund the site. If you do not support GOL with contributions, then accepting affiliate links (and then deleting the cookies afterwards) is a helpful alternative.


Last edited by g000h on 7 April 2022 at 5:22 am UTC

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: GuestWish someone would sell me James Bond 007: Nightfire and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

I still have my Battle for Middle Earth collection that has the two of them. I think the last time I tried them in Wine, they failed, and I believe that in Win10 they are broken.

Well , not sure i won't get a ban from Liam , but i know for a fact there are torrents with whole collection working fine on Win 10.

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: const

Quoting: GuestI quite enjoyed Wheel of Time, and was reminded of it recently from the "tv" series adaptation (which I also enjoyed). Not yet read any of the books. Safe to say that I'll be snagging that one. I know it doesn't have a native version, but for games that old I'm not exactly expecting it. That's what I use wine for.

Had you read the books (it's the most epic saga I've ever read), you probably wouldn't have enjoyed the series. It's a horrible adaption, yet it seems like it might not come of as horrible without the reference. :D
So, don't read the books until you finished the series or just switch completely. But be aware it's a long saga (~20000 pages iirc) with very detailed descriptions.

Ha, I read the first book, asked my friends how many books there were (at the time 7 was the answer) and I responded with "He is going to die before he finishes the story..."

Did he finish it ?
I'd like to buy the books but i don't want anything incomplete.

Quoting: razing32

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: const

Quoting: GuestI quite enjoyed Wheel of Time, and was reminded of it recently from the "tv" series adaptation (which I also enjoyed). Not yet read any of the books. Safe to say that I'll be snagging that one. I know it doesn't have a native version, but for games that old I'm not exactly expecting it. That's what I use wine for.

Had you read the books (it's the most epic saga I've ever read), you probably wouldn't have enjoyed the series. It's a horrible adaption, yet it seems like it might not come of as horrible without the reference. :D
So, don't read the books until you finished the series or just switch completely. But be aware it's a long saga (~20000 pages iirc) with very detailed descriptions.

Ha, I read the first book, asked my friends how many books there were (at the time 7 was the answer) and I responded with "He is going to die before he finishes the story..."

Did he finish it ?
I'd like to buy the books but i don't want anything incomplete.

The story is finished but the last few books were written by Brandon Sanderson after Robert Jordan died. Luckily, his wife was very involved and Brandon Sanderson became my favorite fantasy author because of his work on this. He managed to catch the spirit and the characters but luckily didn't follow Robert Jordan in writing whole chapters about clothing and jewelry :)
Finishing this series makes for one of the most memorable times in my life. Reading the last books had become addictive, nothing else could grasp my interest and it may have been kind of unhealthy. After I finished, I fell into a hole. I suddenly had so much free time to fill and had to reorganize my life. Yet damn did it feel good, because luckily the ending was damn fulfilling, epic and left me in a good mood, so I took it as a chance to reorder my priorities, reconnect to some people and look into healthy habits I'd enjoy.
Anyone who watched GoT to the end probably knows it could have gone damn wrong :D
I'm still glad about that chance to reorder my priorities, but be aware reading this is a big endeavor and might become really unhealthy. :)


Last edited by const on 7 April 2022 at 9:49 am UTC

A few years back, I had a period where I bought most of my games from GoG.
Only single player games with Linux support, which where the less likely to cause problems.
I probably about 50 of them now, but I haven't bought anything in years now.

All my "recent" purchase have been on Steam, but even there I don't buy much games. I am trying to clear my backlog (which is not very large) before buying new games, but it takes times as I don't play that much anymore.
My Steam purchases have been mostly games with Linux support (Tomb Raider, Total Wars, …) and occasionally a non-Linux game (AoE2, AoE4).

But I am still considering buying some games from GoG. It is really convenient to install the game offline, and just focus on playing (no achievements or notifications).
The only thing I am worried about is the long-term support of these games on GoG.
Will it still run in 10 years and what if the store close down?

Quoting: razing32Did he finish it ?
I'd like to buy the books but i don't want anything incomplete.

I'll give you my take on this:

Robert Jordan knew that he was terminally ill and added extra notes to his outline so that someone whom his wife would choose could finish the story for him. That someone turned out to be a young Brandon Sanderson, who has since established himself as a great fantasy writer in his own right (some of his other books are very, very good, among the best fantasy I've read).

Some people make the claim that Robert Jordan went into tremendous detail about scenes and people like Charles Dickens, while others will point to the prologue and epilogue of one of the books and say that he had a verbose style.

As far as I am concerned he did neither of these things. The details he gives are important to the story, and he only uses the style of writing in the prologues and epilogues in those places. I've never seen a whole chapter devoted to clothing and jewelry.

In fact, some of the early books are among the best in the series, like the first volume, The Eye of the World, the second volume, The Great Hunt and the fifth volume The Fires of Heaven.

However, what Robert Jordan did do was get bogged down in story details (not description details) during the middle volumes. He created so many story threads and extra characters that it was hard to keep track of them all. One volume in the middle has no climax (I don't remember which one offhand, and I don't want to wade through them to remind myself). In the end of course, many of the curious extra characters and story threads are just left without resolution, but don't let that deter you; they are minor characters.

What Brandon Sanderson did was bring the story back into full focus and restore what was great about the beginning of the series back to the end.

As far as I'm concerned the very end of the series was OK, not fantastic, but satisfying enough. Of course the characters in the series were extremely well done throughout.

Quoting: razing32

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: const

Quoting: GuestI quite enjoyed Wheel of Time, and was reminded of it recently from the "tv" series adaptation (which I also enjoyed). Not yet read any of the books. Safe to say that I'll be snagging that one. I know it doesn't have a native version, but for games that old I'm not exactly expecting it. That's what I use wine for.

Had you read the books (it's the most epic saga I've ever read), you probably wouldn't have enjoyed the series. It's a horrible adaption, yet it seems like it might not come of as horrible without the reference. :D
So, don't read the books until you finished the series or just switch completely. But be aware it's a long saga (~20000 pages iirc) with very detailed descriptions.

Ha, I read the first book, asked my friends how many books there were (at the time 7 was the answer) and I responded with "He is going to die before he finishes the story..."

Did he finish it ?
I'd like to buy the books but i don't want anything incomplete.

He did the exact same thing GRRM is doing with Game of Thrones. He completed up to a certain number of books... then started to do prequels.

Robert Jordan passed away before the last books were finished, and the last three books were finished by Brandon Sanderson.

Quoting: razing32

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: GuestWish someone would sell me James Bond 007: Nightfire and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

I still have my Battle for Middle Earth collection that has the two of them. I think the last time I tried them in Wine, they failed, and I believe that in Win10 they are broken.

Well , not sure i won't get a ban from Liam , but i know for a fact there are torrents with whole collection working fine on Win 10.

Ha, it is one thing to say 'you can find pirated shit that is patched!' And a totally different thing to say 'and here's how!'

The thing I find hilarious is all the talk of Abandonware. Some say that it isn't a real thing, and people who pirate shit (which mind you is copyright infringement, not theft, as theft means you no longer have a thing. While it may be argued that you are stealing revenue, those arguments assume the software would be purchased in the first place. And even if not, it is depriving someone of revenue, as again stealing means you had possession of it in the first place) are terrible individuals!

But, in my opinion; if you can no longer purchase something, and you aren't going after those who distribute it. It is indeed Abandoned. Whether that gives the right for people to freely copy it or not is certainty up for debate. But I want to ask the question..

If no one is able to get some game and play it in the future, is there any reason to acknowledge its existence? How many games did MS instakill by removing SafeDisc support? Made it so people had to pirate or cd-crack the game, even if they had previously bought it!

Quoting: razing32

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: GuestWish someone would sell me James Bond 007: Nightfire and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

I still have my Battle for Middle Earth collection that has the two of them. I think the last time I tried them in Wine, they failed, and I believe that in Win10 they are broken.

Well , not sure i won't get a ban from Liam , but i know for a fact there are torrents with whole collection working fine on Win 10.

Ha, it is one thing to say 'you can find pirated shit that is patched!' And a totally different thing to say 'and here's how!'

The thing I find hilarious is all the talk of Abandonware. Some say that it isn't a real thing, and people who pirate shit (which mind you is copyright infringement, not theft, as theft means you no longer have a thing. While it may be argued that you are stealing revenue, those arguments assume the software would be purchased in the first place. And even if not, it is depriving someone of revenue, as again stealing means you had possession of it in the first place) are terrible individuals!

But, in my opinion; if you can no longer purchase something, and you aren't going after those who distribute it. It is indeed Abandoned. Whether that gives the right for people to freely copy it or not is certainty up for debate. But I want to ask the question..

If no one is able to get some game and play it in the future, is there any reason to acknowledge its existence? How many games did MS instakill by removing SafeDisc support? Made it so people had to pirate or cd-crack the game, even if they had previously bought it!

Quoting: CFWhitman

Quoting: razing32Did he finish it ?
I'd like to buy the books but i don't want anything incomplete.

I'll give you my take on this:

Robert Jordan knew that he was terminally ill and added extra notes to his outline so that someone whom his wife would choose could finish the story for him. That someone turned out to be a young Brandon Sanderson, who has since established himself as a great fantasy writer in his own right (some of his other books are very, very good, among the best fantasy I've read).

Some people make the claim that Robert Jordan went into tremendous detail about scenes and people like Charles Dickens, while others will point to the prologue and epilogue of one of the books and say that he had a verbose style.

As far as I am concerned he did neither of these things. The details he gives are important to the story, and he only uses the style of writing in the prologues and epilogues in those places. I've never seen a whole chapter devoted to clothing and jewelry.

In fact, some of the early books are among the best in the series, like the first volume, The Eye of the World, the second volume, The Great Hunt and the fifth volume The Fires of Heaven.

However, what Robert Jordan did do was get bogged down in story details (not description details) during the middle volumes. He created so many story threads and extra characters that it was hard to keep track of them all. One volume in the middle has no climax (I don't remember which one offhand, and I don't want to wade through them to remind myself). In the end of course, many of the curious extra characters and story threads are just left without resolution, but don't let that deter you; they are minor characters.

What Brandon Sanderson did was bring the story back into full focus and restore what was great about the beginning of the series back to the end.

As far as I'm concerned the very end of the series was OK, not fantastic, but satisfying enough. Of course the characters in the series were extremely well done throughout.

I read the first book. I honestly couldn't tell you a single thing about it except that he described the flora and fauna extremely well! I think I remember something about a farm boy being forced to leave by monsters, and that us about it. Granted playing RPGs, I had similar backgrounds on a character before I read the book, as it is a pretty common theme in history, or old fiction where a young nobody can grow to greatness. Hell it is the plot to Fable as well.
But after I read the 800 pages is when I asked my friends that told me I MUST read them.... and they said what he was up to... well, I gave up. I think at the time I had gotten tired of Fantasy novels and started reading non-fiction and science fiction.

But now I think it is time to read the Lankhmar books!

Quoting: slaapliedje...

I stumbled upon this yesterday, because I thought Simpsons: Hit and Run might be fun on my SteamDeck. Couldn't find it in Steam, so I googled and was directly transported to a bunch of Abandonware sites.
I read the reasoning why it's considered Abandonware and might agree, yet I had no issues finding used copies on ebay...
For me, it's mostly ok to download games I already own, be it physical or in a walled garden. As I can't find my physical copy of Simpsons: H&R any more, I nearly bought it on ebay, only to find that I already kind of lost interest in it and wouldn't want to spend money on it. That kind of was the moralic question to myself: Am I semi-pirating it because it's free or do I legitimately download it from third-party because it's abandoned. So I just moved on without this game. Maybe I'll come back to this decision in a while :D

Anyway, I'd vote for a generous abandonware exclusion from copyright law any time. Having it official would make it so much fairer.


Last edited by const on 8 April 2022 at 8:12 am UTC

Quoting: GuestI quite enjoyed Wheel of Time, and was reminded of it recently from the "tv" series adaptation (which I also enjoyed). Not yet read any of the books.

I'm opinionated about fantasy books, and Wheel of Time is no exception.
IMO, the first one is really very good, although it should be noted that the plot is very much Lord of the Rings reheated. In the second, it starts to bring you into the wider Wheel of Time universe, which has tons of interesting stuff. It's also very good. In the third, you get more of that, lots of cool weird magic stuff, lots of plot complication, lots of local colour of various sorts.
But some of the series' problems start to become noticeable around the third book; I started noticing that most of the characters were jerks, and some of the jerky things they did, the author didn't seem to notice they were being jerks. This was sort of even more so with the female characters. As complications piled on top of complication, the action started to slow down. As power levels stacked up, Jordan kept having to come up with ways to top that. Somewhere in there a new group of antagonists showed up whose defining cultural feature was indulging in squicky mind-control torture porn using these pain-conditioning leash things.
By the fifth or sixth book, I realized pretty much nothing was happening over the course of a many-hundred-page novel and I gave up. I feel like Jordan was a victim of his own success--the first couple of books sold like crazy, so someone, whether he himself or the publisher, decided he could do no wrong and didn't edit him.

Won't use their service anymore. No linux = no me.