They need to fix their launchers on all systems before the do anything else. I’m happy to support them in their mission of game preservation, but they really don’t do a good job at providing a high quality service.
Also, I’ve purchased things from them that were never provided, and they refused a refund (warcraft 2 battle net key). I know it was likely Blizzard’s fault, but they could have at least responded to my emails with more than “no refunds, we are working on it”.
I got the impression they’re aiming more for a “fan club” kind of thing where you get access to articles/videos/Q&A/voting rights, etc. So more a kind of Patreon like many creators have. I didn’t get the impression that this would in any way change the business model of the store.
I also got this survey and I had the same feeling. It felt more like a patron for their game preservation program with possible features like a members-only-community, interviews or documentation about the preserved games, their publishers/studios and the efforts to keep them running or some kind of loyalty rewards/discount coupons. Maybe even ‘special builds’ like ‘experience the OG version 1.0 of $game’.
There was one option, that I interpreted like ‘maybe we will put future compatibility updates after purchase (e.g. supporting Windows 12 or whatever) behind the membership’ - but that’s purely my interpretation of a single bullet point style line in that whole several page long survey
Yeah I’m not at all against the idea of throwing a few bucks at them per month for something, but I just don’t see anything that fits in the context of why I use GOG in the first place. Voting rights doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Ideas like earlier versions of games, tools that help with backup, etc should be offered for free or sold for a one-time cost IMO.
Ironically, I feel the community that is most apt to fall in line with their project goals, and want to support this change, is also the community they are currently outcasting. Personally I stopped using GOG when it stopped working easily on my Debian system. I shouldn’t need to use a third party program to get it to work, and I swear it feels like they intentionally made it so WINE no longer works for it.
For a project that is supposedly for open use and game preservation, they don’t make it easy to actually do so.
I saw a Lemmy post about Super Metroid Redux being a great way to play Super Metroid nowadays, seems like it brings a lot of your desired bells and whistles
Archiwalny post o anarchistach z Serbii i policyjnych represjach:
Uwolnić serbskich anarchosyndykalistów!
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06/09/2009
3 września serbskie władze aresztowały piątkę aktywistów anarchosyndykalistycznych z organizacji Anarho-sindikalistička inicijativa (ASI), w tym obecnego sekretarza międzynarodówki związkowej IWA-AIT. Policja stawia im zarzut „międzynarodowego terroryzmu”.
Cała sprawa ma swoje bezpośrednie źródło w wydarzeniach zeszłego tygodnia, gdy ktoś rzucił butelką z benzyną oraz namalował symbol „A” na greckiej ambasadzie w Belgradzie. Cała akcja spowodowała nieznaczne zniszczenia fasady. W oświadczeniu napisano, że akcji dokonała, nieznana bliżej, grupa „Czarna Ilja”, jako wyraz solidarności z Thodorosem Iliopoulosem – aktywistą greckim, który prowadzi głodówkę w więzieniu.
Ratibor Trivunac, aktywista ASI oraz sekretarz IWA-AIT, pytany przez media jeszcze przed aresztowaniem, czy jego organizacja ma coś wspólnego z atakiem, odpowiedział, że to nie jest w ich stylu. ASI zajmuje się organizacją masowego ruchu pracowniczego. Niedługo później został aresztowany. Wszystkie aresztowane osoby działy dotąd jawnie, Trivunac występował niejednokrotnie w mediach, krytykując rząd, kapitalistów i sprzedajne związki zawodowe, przez co naraził się wielu wpływowym osobom.
Związek Syndykalistów Polski, którego siostrzaną organizacją jest ASI, rozpoczął międzynarodową kampanię solidarnościową. Prosi o wysyłanie listów do serbskich władz z żądaniem uwolnienia zatrzymanych. Adres strony: asi.zsp.net.pl (aby wysłać list należy kliknąć przycisk „Send protest”, a następnie wypełnić formularz z nazwiskiem oraz e-mailem).
The only one that sounds good to me, perhaps, are the voting rights. I’d pay for that. Patreon artists and creators do this sort of thing, and if this is something GOG needs to do to get by, then fine by me.
Downloading offline installers/backups, however… That would be locking away a feature that exists now to everyone that has bought a game. That means locking away a feature from customers who have spent money on a product already… Likely for the explicit point of being able to get installers that don’t need an online connection. If they choose to do this, they’d be desfeting their own purpose.
For context; I bought most of my games on GOG. I don’t really buy games anymore, and my Steam library is low absolutely massive, however. Both of those reasons are because I’ve been subbed to Humble Monthly for a few years. But ultimately when I go looking to buy a game, my preference is to buy from GOG specifically because it’s offline and DRM free.
The previous versions of a game thing is something they took away, IIRC. They only keep the latest version and a patch to get up to it available for download, and you can only roll back to previous versions that you had already installed over time, or something like that. This is them seeing if you want to pay money to get a feature back that they used to offer, which is kinda lousy.
I’m not sure, but years ago, at least. Likely to save on server hosting fees. If you go to download the installer now, you only see the latest version, but you used to see every version.
The previews are mostly positive but some opinions are mixed. It sounds like Eternal where some people love it while others aren’t thrilled about the new changes.
I think the only way they can introduce a subscription without backlash is if they make it a purely community thing with a few bonuses. Give people access to special insights into their preservation efforts, special interviews, voting rights, Q&A, occasional free game, etc. If they lock features behind this like more cloud storage, or other stuff that customers simply expect with their game purchase, the press will be all negative.
I’d pay for native linux support. They should provide direct support to Heroic if they don’t want to take on the cost themselves full bore. I remember some AMA they did where the cost of Linux wasn’t worth their already thin margins and they were happy with Heroic. If they were ever going to grow, I’d believe that they would need to address the handheld market and getting their storefront more visible
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