Bye GOG

[solops]

Frustrated with GoG. Wish someone would delete this thread. Sorry I started it.

Goodbye GoG. I wanted to be a good customer.

Later in time---see below...

[-budd-]

Do tell, I've never had an issue yet with GOG, what happened.

[Anguille]

Wondering as well...

[Rayfer]

Yes, enquiring minds want to know?

[Grim.Reaper]

Add me to the list....I don't use GOG much, but when I have, experienced no issues....so curious.

[ghostryder]

I have never used their client Galaxy--that might be the culprit as I see frequent posts about it-especially with updates. Or it could be some titles just are crash prone dispite the claim it runs on certain versions of Windows.

[solops]

Background: I bought MOO4 from GoG and a day later tried to return it when I found that I would have to re-load the ENTIRE game every time it updated. They refused to give me a refund, but offered a credit, which I rejected since the same update problem would probably exist for anything they sold. This is an issue for me, as I explained to them, since I have satellite internet which limits me to 15 GB/month, combined upload and download. I have no other internet options. Yesterday, I tried to buy the MOO4 DLC several times and tried to pay several different ways. Each time their site choked, just sat there. My request for help got two replies (did I use Galaxy -no-  and that my bank/Paypal refused the sale - unlikely). My response is below and explains the rest of things:

I bought from your Web Store. The ENTIRE reason I ever bought anything from GoG was to get away from Steam's intrusive and overbearing interface and DRM. Why the heck would I use Galaxy, which is the same thing? I want to MANUALLY download and control my games and updates. Matrix has the perfect sales store for their limited selection of games and updates.

Your site never sent me to Paypal to login and approve the transaction, so of course Paypal rejected it. I did try to pay directly with VISA, but that suffered the same fate on your site....endless waiting for a response. Your website it messed up. How do I know this for sure? Because I just went to Steam and, with NO problems bought MOO4 (for the second time) and the DLC and paid painlessly with Paypal. The game is now in my Steam library and I have purchase confirmation from both Steam and PayPal. Now I do not have to put up with GoG forcing me to download the whole 2.7 gig game every time there is an update. I HATE STEAM and its automatic total control of my games, but GoG's messed up store, update-by-re-downloading-the-entire-game and inadequate return policy are intolerable. You exist as an alternative to Steam for those who value control and privacy. You are failing to provide that and have lost me as a customer until you can once again provide it. If I want a Steam-type model to buy games from, I'll buy from Steam. I realize that you are not personally responsible for any of this, so please pass this along to those who are.

[-budd-]

Nicely written reply. I have never noticed that you have to redownload the whole game each time a game is updated, this true? All games? Have to check on that. I forgot I had the galaxy client installed until recently they advertised getting a free game through it, I've only opened it 4 or 5 times and purchased once through it, it's basically steam lite it seems.

[Grim.Reaper]

I never knew GOG offered refunds and/or store credits for returned games...at least that part seems nice.  Although I wouldn't be a big fan of downloading entire games for patches.  I'll largely stick with Steam as I have in the past anyway.

[Nefaro]

I've had to re-download the occasional GOG game, after an update. 

They're usually the smaller older ones, which rarely get updates anyway. 

Although the rare newer title may eventually get a new installer version, I've only seen it happen after many patches.  A good example of that was their Age Of Wonders 3, which I purchased shortly after release.  It received approximately 17 patches and two DLCs afterward, so they eventually repackaged most of it into a newer base version with two later updates.  This kind of thing hasn't happened to me all that much, however, and I own quite a few GOG games.


I know how frustrating rural high-speed internet is.  I've used both satellite and cellular 'dongle' wireless.  Both were latency-ridden and unreliable disappointments that came with the added insult of monthly download limits.  So glad I don't have to give money to those jackholes for internet anymore.

[Greybriar]

I didn't know GOG.com offered refunds either. The fact that you were offered a credit says something about GOG's desire to keep its customers happy, I'd say.

I should think re-downloading an entire game in order to update it would be something that rarely happened.

GOG Galaxy is entirely optional. It's up to you whether to use it or not. I am satisfied with most things about Galaxy but I dislike a few others. But bear in mind that GOG Galaxy hasn't been around nearly as long as Steam and it will take a good long while before it evolves to its finished state.

I missed out on purchasing Dominions 4 while it was on sale at GamersGate for $7 because of my No Script settings, which was entirely my fault. At other times my credit card's site was down for maintenance and a time or two my financial institution blocked all charges to countries overseas. I don't know why your order didn't go through but I wouldn't blame GOG as being the sole possible culprit.

My sympathies for your limited internet experience. I think back to the time I spent with only a dial-up modem and am very thankful to have a high speed internet connection with no download limits (so far).

[Toonces]

GOG Galaxy has been pretty painless IMO.  Solops, if you decide to give GOG another chance I recommend giving it a try.  I get that you don't want another intrusive interface to go through, but in this case it's really a downloader and manager.  You don't have to use it to play games, it doesn't have to run in order to play. 

[jamus34]

It sounds like it's GOG's SOP on game updates is the issue.

I can easily understand if you are on a fixed data plan that might cause issues. Heck, I've pull 10-15 gig over a weekend and wasn't the original Titanfall somewhere around 70-80 gigs to download?

I hope your issues are resolved one way or the other Solops.

[ghostryder]

I'm not sure if the whole update thing can be laid on as GOG's fault. Many devs will only update to one client like steam and refuse to for others like Galaxy. You'd think they could provide an extra patch for outside a client but again that's not always the case-as i seem to remember when Paradox shifted to steam their support for patches outside of it dried up. As for the accepting a purchase through the store-I've always been a bit dissapointed in it. For a while i had no bank account and relied on pre-paid debit cards---which none worked on GOG because they aren't based in the US. The only way I had to buy a game was buy a Greencard for $5 and transfer those funds to Paypal. So there I was spending $3 on the debit card, $5 on the greencard to but a $5.99 game. Mostly I just didn't buy--until i managed to finally open a checking account and got a bank issued debit card that's accepted out of the US. But yeah the whole update thing is a common complaint as I mentioned above--though most of my games outside of CDproject games (Witcher) were the old games that hardly ever get updated. And the witcher titles do have updates outside of their client.

[Boggit]

I've generally found GoG helpful on support save for when I bought Total Annihilation to play on the Kid's Mac. It had a corrupted screen, and as I never got a reply to my support tickets (2 or 3 IIRC), so basically gave up on it. It was a cheap game anyway, and I have too much going on elsewhere in my life to chase tickets that are not responded to. It did shake my confidence a bit in GoG though, although I've bought a few games from them since.