GOG.com's Awkward Apology

September 22, 2010 -

Good Old Games sure pulled a fast one on journalists and all of its members. While the publicity stunt - that they were shutting gog.com down because it couldn’t go on the way it was - was clever and generated a lot buzz, I wonder if there will be some ill feelings from subscribers who were saddened and scared at the prospect of losing all their games.. You can watch the awkward video the site's owners posted today.

The silver lining - if there is one here - is that when the site re-launches on Thursday it will be vastly improved, and Baldur's Gate will soon be available for sale DRM-free. That's something.

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Comments

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by Spartan on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 09:01.

I wish them the best. GoG is a great service. I still hope it is acquired by Amazon but otherwise it rocks!

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"The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The most difficult pain a man can suffer is to have knowledge of much and power over little" - Herodotus

you hope it is aquired by

Submitted by GrimCW on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 16:20.

you hope it is aquired by amazon? commercialized, hiked pricing, over populated, and eventually losing licenses faster than it'll gain'em?

tbh only used amazon once, and its so over commercialized i can't find anything i actually want from them, not to mention it took 6 months just to get my stuff shipped, forbid they even tell me theres a holdup without a chain of phone calls and e-mails.

tbh i'm more afraid they'd make it subscription based and allow DRM.

tis my experience anyways :)

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by MechaCrash on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 00:52.

This marketing stunt was inexcusably stupid. I'm only willing to overlook it this time because the service has been excellent, and they realized that, yes, what they did was colossaly ill-advised. Yes, you can joke with your fans and have fun with them, but faking your own death is not a joke. It's just a gigantic dick move.

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by killatia on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 00:05.

There new website design is better be worth it with the stunt they pulled.

http://www.magicinkgaming.com/

http://www.killatia.com/

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by GrimCW on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 16:17.

looks the same to me tbh..

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by GrimCW on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 23:16.

wasn't the old GoG openly referred to as "beta" anyways?

on one hand i was irked at the risk i'd lose my stuff, on the other things didn't add up to the story being right because of the beta bit and sales/newsletter info that was posted barely a day before the supposed death of the site.

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 20:50.

Eh, I admit I fell for it, but I have no ill will toward them.

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by Mattsworkname on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 20:09.

You know, might not have been the best way to handle this, but to be honest, Thats fine, Im not sore about it cause GOG gave me the change to get my hands on some classics that I still loved.

Any group that gave me the change to get Freespace 2 again, has my support.

Now if they could get Mechwarrior 2 and One must Fall 2097, I'd be a fan for life!

"My name is Lenerd Church, and you will fear my LASER FACE"

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by MaskedPixelante on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 18:35.

Well, they would have needed to take the site down for massive maintenance anyway, so they may as well be theatrical about it. Now, this was the STUPIDEST way be theatrical, and it's making people face the fact that digital distribution has a lifespan, but I can't blame them for trying.

---You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by nightwng2000 on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 16:59.

I'm confused by this whole thing because I went to gog.com yesterday, when the update was there and I would have sworn (and I wish someone had a screenshot of the page, with updates, from yesterday as proof) that they DID say that, at some point, gog.com WOULD be coming back, different, but coming back. I know they said a longer explaination would be coming on Wednesday, and that by Thursday you would have access to your games. But I'm sure the message also said that gog.com would change and come back different, though they didn't say when.

Anyone have the screenshot with the last update from yesterday?

Nightwng2000

NW2K Software

http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000

Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Nightwng2000 NW2K Software http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by Andrew Eisen on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 17:11.

First message: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/09/20/fate-good-old-games-balance

Twitter messages: http://twitter.com/GOGcom

Second message: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/09/21/gog-site-update-bears-bad-news

Andrew Eisen

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by nightwng2000 on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 00:06.

Yeah, the first message, the first paragraph:

"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. "

"... keep GOG.com the way it is." "... cannot remain in its current form."

To me, that wasn't saying they were closing and not returning but rather a change was coming.

Nightwng2000

NW2K Software

http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000

Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Nightwng2000 NW2K Software http://www.facebook.com/nightwing2000 Nightwng2000 is now admin to the group "Parents For Education, Not Legislation" on MySpace as http://groups.myspace.com/pfenl

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by mr_mlk on Fri, 09/24/2010 - 10:54.

To me it suggested a large change (not a minor one as happened) .The whole episode has put me off using GOGs removing services promised (the redownloading of games) as a marketing stunt just rubs me the wrong way. It does not matter how short the time was, or how big the hints were they still took away services to save a few pounds on marketing.

That is not to say I will never use them, but they would not be my first choice.

--
A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. Benjamin Franklin

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by Andrew Eisen on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 16:26.

To me, the video comes off as less of an apology and more of an admonition to users who didn't realize it was a joke. After all, there were "plenty of hints."

Classy, guys.

Andrew Eisen

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by Thad on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 18:17.

Yeah, kinda dumb. But not entirely unexpected, as I saw people in the comments section here say they thought it was a hoax.

Still -- kinda dumb.

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by allen85 on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 16:33.

Yeah there were plenty of hints, like the gog.com newsletters showing up in my inbox announcing new games available on their service during this whole stunt.

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by Andrew Eisen on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 16:39.

I didn't get one so I have to assume I'm not alone on that front. But it doesn't matter, whatever you think of this stunt in the first place, making fun of those that obviously have a lot of love for the service and care deeply about it continuing is not, by my estimation, a very wise choice. It just doesn't strike me as good business sense to patronize those that patronize you.

Andrew Eisen

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by allen85 on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 16:59.

Oh I didn't intend for my statement to be a shot at others at all and I apologize if it came across that way. I thought you meant you had gotten "plenty of hints" :P I remember seeing the message on gog.com on sunday then a newsletter popped into my inbox on monday advertising some games on sale.

Re: GOG.com's Awkward Apology

Submitted by Kajex on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 16:18.

...
I can forgive them. Fact is, I'm not sore about this at all. :D

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MechaTama31: I mean, of the groups being bullied here, which of the two would you refer to collectively as "nerds"?10/19/2014 - 11:30pm

MechaTama31: But that's the thing, it doesn't sound to me like he is advocating bullying, it sounds like he is accusing the SJWs of bullying the "nerds", who I can only assume refers to the GGers.10/19/2014 - 11:21pm

Andrew Eisen: Interesting read. Unfortunately, too vague to form an opinion on but at least now I know what faefrost was talking about in James' editorial.10/19/2014 - 10:39pm

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