And relevant to general topic: Actual design document (pdf).

I'm still shaking my head at the worst PR stunt of 2010 that they pulled last week. Doubly so now I know that they could have just relied on the buzz from gaining two of the most acclaimed PC RPGs of all time (Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment). What were you thinking, GOG?

Having P:T is good news, but it's going to take a while for my respect to be regained. Plus I already have Planescape: Torment and am too busy backing up the copies of the stuff I already have on GOG in case they go AWOL again.

Quote:Original post by TalrothLike so many things that look so bad in hindsight, it likely seemed like a good idea at the time.

I guess it originally seemed a good idea, but the idea was so bad I can't see how it did. Heck, a major part of the reason I bought into GOG's original ambiguous shutdown message was the trust I had in them as a company; I didn't think they would be so stupid as to deliberately mislead their own customers by faking their own death. And their "apologies" made things even worse. Two weeks ago I'd have praised GOG as a service that respected their customers, but they honestly don't seem to think there's a problem with deliberately deceiving me for short term gain - and that troubles me.

Still, Planescape:Torment is awesome. If you don't already own it it is worth picking up. But if you buy it from GOG I'd recommend downloading and archiving it immediately.

Yeah, I was considering looking at GOG but I've been put off by that PR stunt...

Honestly, it would be like logging into Steam one day and them going 'sorry guys, its over, we'll let you know about your stuff later' only for them to later post another message saying 'lulz, just kidding! come give us more cash!'.

No way to run a business and one which has put me off them.

Quote:Original post by Koobazaur
...and yet, they will probably boost their profits by 30%.

Although if they did it be hard to quantify how much of that was due to the stunt and how much is due to Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment.

I'm curious to see how the after-effects of the marketing stunt play out at GOG. I know their servers have been hammered over the last week, but I'm not so sure if that is from an influx of new customers or from people downloading their game collection to personally archive (I'm in the latter category). From the responses I've read on other forums the people who are most annoyed tend to be core customers with large archives who feel betrayed. And that's understandable. A lot of the marketing clout behind offering DRM-free games is the bonds of trust and goodwill; to have GOG then treat their customers as just another commodity to be exploited completely negates that. However it's those core customers that have been the heart of driving new people to GOG via word of mouth; drying that up will be ultimately harmful. Skimming through the GOG forum immediately after their reboot suggests that their community was bitterly divided.

The after effects? Like pretty much any bad publicity, it will be forgotten in a month or two. Heck, too often bad publicity is good publicity, just because for every one person you lose, three new people now know about your site.

Personally, I feel that they owe more than just an apology. More like they need to give their customers a free game to make up for their pathetic stunt. As Trapper Zoid said, it was such a bad idea to begin with, how could anyone possibly think it would be a good idea?

I'll also admit to backing up my archive. I have about 100 games purchased from them, and although I actually own most of those before GoG came into existance, it's still nice having a centralized place where I can get them all patched and DRM free, etc. Although had it not been a publicity stunt, this is exactly the reason I am not a fan of digital downloads.