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Good Old Games
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Good Old Games is dead

PorkaMorka

Arcane
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
5,090
I find it really hard to believe they would do this for a end of beta announcement.

It sends exactly the sort of message that they'd want to avoid sending, making the service seem fly by night and less reliable.

If it's a marketing stunt it's one of the dumber ones.

A more likely scenario is implied by this post from their twitter:
" Sometimes it's really hard being DRM-free... hard to keep things the way they are and keep management and publishers happy :( 9:25 AM Sep 17th via web "

Corporations love to protect their IP even if they don't have much in the way of plans for it at the moment.

Perhaps it was something like that one time when Wizards of the Coast randomly decided to end all PDF sales and just sit on their old IP.[1]

Something like that with old game IPs would hardly be shocking, dumb yes, but dumb in a predictable kind of way.

[1]http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/14693.html

P.S. For the record, I just thought I'd better get in the obligatory "fuck GOG scum, keep abandonware illegal and free"
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Read how they word it -- it's a marketing stunt. And, yes, a horrible one.
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
Azrael the cat said:
Well, on the upside, soon we'll have a precedent one way or the other for whether electronic distributors (or DRM for that matter, though GoG isn't DRM) will provide a server for download/activation after they go under.

Of course they wouldn't who would pay for it?
 

DarkUnderlord

Professional Throne Sitter
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Messages
28,343
Metro said:
Read how they word it -- it's a marketing stunt. And, yes, a horrible one.
Yeah, there's quite a bit of double-talk in it:

GOG.com said:
We have recently had to give serious thought to whether we could really keep GOG.com the way it is.
[...]
We've debated on it for quite some time and, unfortunately, we've decided that GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form.
[...]
This doesn't mean the idea behind GOG.com is gone forever. We're closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await.
They're very carefully saying GOG can't survive in "its current form". They're "closing off the old era" and "moving into new challenges". Dead companies don't talk about new challenges. Note that the "idea behind GOG" is exactly that: good, old games - not DRM-free.

GOG.com said:
On a technical note, this week we'll put in place a solution to allow everyone to re-download their games.
The solution will be their new service.

However, will that solution be some type of DRM system they've been working on... or is this really just the lamest stunt in the history of online digital distribution ever? I have a strong suspicion the DRM-free aspect will be hit - and this is their way of acknowledging it's a pretty serious change (something has to change - otherwise this is just super-lame).
 

thesheeep

Arcane
Patron
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Tampere, Finland
Codex 2012 Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Best PR stunt ever. Seriously.


All those wild reactions, news in online magazines, forums, etc.
And all of that by taking the service offline for some days with a fake goodbye message. Very cheap and very effective. Brilliant!

Now you're hating, but you'll come back and use it, anyway.
At least those of you who used it in the past. You know it, and I know it ;)
 

deus101

Never LET ME into a tattoo parlor!
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
2,059
Project: Eternity Wasteland 2
BASTARDS FUCKING BASTARDS!!!!!!


i still love them to death though....also...here's hoping the new website wont be to *blingy*
 

Antagonist

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 6, 2004
Messages
484
Location
Glorious Vaterland
If this is a marketing stunt then whoever came up with this needs to be kicked in the nuts repeatedly. If they should be gone for good then whoever decided to shut down the servers without prior warning should be kicked in the nuts as well. In case of them introducing DRM they can just die, being DRM free is the sole reason I don't torrent all the stuff.

Serious nerdrage.
 

Forest Dweller

Smoking Dicks
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
12,196
DarkUnderlord said:
So, are you glad you paid for digital downloads rather than hard-copies?
Well, even if I felt bad about piracy, I certainly wouldn't feel bad about pirating a game that I had already bought simply because I couldn't legally download it again. And anyone who would is a complete tard. Bottom line is: there's always a backup; it's just a matter of the moral high ground.
 

ecliptic

Liturgist
Joined
Feb 11, 2003
Messages
915
I liked GOG. I hope they don't become unusable if they do come back.

At least now I don't have to feel bad about pirating their releases that I don't have... Though I was perfectly happy buying them legitimately before.
 

Konjad

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Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
gog is pretty good so far, ive bought many games there and im gonna do that in future, except if they have got any retarded ideas. I buy games on gog for drm free english versions, because i prefer to play in original language (if its english/polish)
 

m_s0

Arcane
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
1,289
They're not dead, they already did this in the past with their line of cheap games. Bought an ad showing a funeral in magazines, basically everywhere they fucking could, then announced a month or so later that OMG, ITZ BACK.

Anyone who fell for that is a retard.
 

Noceur

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
199
Location
Tar Pits
GOG Tweet said:
Sometimes it's really hard being DRM-free... hard to keep things the way they are and keep management and publishers happy :(

edit: Sorry, I just saw that this has already been posted.

I wonder if they'll move towards a Steam-like DRM/Software client based structure.
 

m_s0

Arcane
Joined
Jun 18, 2009
Messages
1,289
thesheeep said:
Mine, too.
Let us celebrate this with some Rat Cola :smug:

Wasn't gram.pl affiliated with CDP? I seem to recall them trying to pretend they're not from some point but I didn't buy it. So how is it in reality?
 

Micmu

Magister
Joined
Aug 20, 2005
Messages
6,163
Location
ALIEN BASE-3
Ahahaha, now they're going to re-sell old games by developers long gone and bundle it with malware as well. :lol:
 

Ausir

Arcane
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
2,388
Location
Poland
Azrael the cat said:
Well, on the upside, soon we'll have a precedent one way or the other for whether electronic distributors (or DRM for that matter, though GoG isn't DRM) will provide a server for download/activation after they go under.

GOG games don't require activation.

Tails said:
Elwro said:
Latest rumour: Steam is going to buy them.

http://www.gram.pl/news_8QjrH,m6_GOG_wy ... encje.html (English version, too)
I wonder if that means GoG will have to use Steam Client. Btw. didn't gram.pl belong to CDProjekt? it yes, it a bit wierd they put rumour as a news, unless it is another marketing gimmick.

m_s0 said:
Wasn't gram.pl affiliated with CDP? I seem to recall them trying to pretend they're not from some point but I didn't buy it. So how is it in reality?

Gram.pl used to belong to CD Projekt, but they sold it a few years back. They are not affiliated in any way anymore.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
I joked on their forums the other day how hilarious it would be if they were bought out by Valve... maybe that actually happened.
 

Malachi

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
423
Location
US
Update posted on the GOG website:

UPDATE 20.09.2010
First of all, we apologize everyone for the whole situation and closing GOG.com. We do understand the timing for taking down the site caused confusion and many users didn't manage to download all their games. Unfortunately we had to close the service due to business and technical reasons.

At the same time we guarantee that every user who bought any game on GOG.com will be able to download all their games with bonus materials, DRM-free and as many times as they need starting this Thursday.

The official statement from GOG.com's management concerning the ongoing events is planned on Wednesday. If you want to receive further information about GOG.com, please send an email to update_media@gog.com if you're a media representative or to update_users@gog.com if you're a user without a GOG account.
 

Malachi

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
423
Location
US
Darth Roxor said:
starting this Thursday.

this Thursday.

Yes. What's interesting about the update is that the "DRM-free" promise refers to people who have "bought" (past tense) games from them in the past. No explicit promise that future purchases will be likewise without DRM.
 

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