They do care. See archive.org for example.
Conflating care with the bottom line of your corporation is disingenuous.
"Game preservation only works if people care" As GOG doubles down on its commitment to saving old games, it's asking players "who give a s**t" to support its crusade
Submitted 2 weeks ago by iamthetot@piefed.ca to games@lemmy.world
https://www.eurogamer.net/gog-asks-for-support-regarding-game-preservation-efforts
Comments
chunes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
KiwiTB@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Seems the new GOG owner doesn’t care as they push AI use in the company
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Something tells me the “double down” is to distract from that fallout
KiwiTB@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I suspect so… But not everyone knows so it’s still worth mentioning.
vogi@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Was there another incident besides the 2026 sales promo image? I was a bit disappointing of their “response” if you can could call it that. But I don’t really see this as “pushing AI”, as far as I can tell this might just be an intern who was given the task to make a promo image and did not care at all.
KiwiTB@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They are hiring someone to advocate for us use
Ilixtze@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Push slop and lose your business there will aways be other services that are more ethical.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
I care. Enough to abandon my qualms about AI usage? Yes, but it means GOG is not the answer.
Goatboy@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
If there’s someone else doing the same work, by all means give to them instead.
ICastFist@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
archive.org and their collections to the rescue!
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Do you not but games anymore then, or do you think steam is better?
Though if you only play FOSS or self published games, that would be kinda based.
circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
I’m guessing by your wording that you’re aching to bash Steam, so I’ll preface this with: no corporation is ever going to get this 100% right; the world is drawn in greys, and only a Sith deals in absolutes.
“Better” is not very useful without context. In the context of AI usage, Steam is better. In the context of GOG, their main claim about game preservation is “no DRM”, but there is an important point often missed: lots of games on Steam also do not have DRM.
I have no issues “buying” games on Steam which have no DRM. For others, I factor the DRM into the price I’m willing to pay for access. These tend to be larger titles anyway, so I’m not terribly worried about it long term.
Long term game preservation? More about unofficial channels than relying on yet another corporation. GOG wasn’t changing that before, and they definitely aren’t now.
Wilco@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
GOG needs to copy Steam a bit more.
Give us game based discussion boards, a mod workshop, and most importantly a friends notification system. Steer into the social experience of old games.
ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
v0rld@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Apart from the fact that all things you listed exist in one form or another on GOG, have you considered that there are people that prefer not having all those random bullshit social features in their game store? Stream may be more popular, but getting out of their niche and copying steam will alienate their fans without attracting steam users.
Also fuck the workshop, it’s the worst thing that ever happened to modding. It’s a total pain in the ass to download and apply a mod that is only available there to any non-steam version. Additionally it produced a generation of gamers that is unable to trouble-shoot even the tiniest problem with the mods they applied.
TalkingFlower@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
GOG forums are mostly technical topics. Different builds for different storefronts can cause different problems, and good luck getting help from devs and mod authors on Steam if you have a GOG problem.
TalkingFlower@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s very sluggish compared to Steam; everything is slower in GOG client. I wonder if it is a server problem or my region.
tackleberry@thelemmy.club 2 weeks ago
Old games rock. I recently played Prince of Persia; Warrior Within and there was no console update, game patch to download, daily login reward, update centre telling me updates I may have missed. None of that crap. Power-on, loading scree, game time, done!
Modern games are designed like a full-time job that you pay to work for the company.
iamthetot@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
I recently replayed Warrior Within as well.
I should say, there’s still plenty of modern games that don’t involve those kinds of things.
flexicon@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Hollow Knight, both the original as well as Silksong play exactly like that.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Bg3, resident evil village, oblivion remake, elden ring, cyberpunk, and I’m sure there are more those are just the ones I’ve played recently that don’t have any of those mechanics.
flameleaf@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I love old games
New games, not so much
chunes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And no social media graffiti on the title screen.
I’m still weirded out by that, all these years later.
how_we_burned@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Check out Titanium Court
It’s very old school. Very impressive
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
They have the opportunity to right their wrong of bailing on the StopKillingGames campaign, but they’re likely more worried about appeasing the corpo publisher more than they are defending their supposed core mission.
dukemirage@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t think they have even one game in their catalogue that StopKillingGames is about.
radiouser@crazypeople.online 2 weeks ago
Not sure that was their point. It’s about the principal of it.
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
StopKillingGames is also about keeping games with always online DRM (even present in many singleplayer games today) from rendering it completely unplayable, which would also determine if it could even be sold on GoG in the future.
All of GoG’s current catalog is only possible because the trend of always online DRM wasn’t a thing yet, but going forward, we’ll need SKG to ensure GoG is able to preserve newer games as they become old. If GoG cares about preserving games, then SKG couldn’t get more in their wheelhouse. Yet they ghosted the organizer for it.
doublah@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Offer a good service and people will buy from your store, most customers either don’t care about DRM or care somewhat but don’t want to inconvenience themselves with a worse product for it. GOG have to catch up to Steam with stuff like family sharing and controller support for me to consider buying stuff there.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Why do you need family sharing if the games are DRM free? If the kid wants to play a game from your account you just pass him the exe, what’s the issue
Controller support depends from the game, if you mean a controller remapper like steam, then you either use a third party remapper or you simply add the shortcut in steam. With heroic launcher you can add gog games in your steam list with a single click
doublah@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
You don’t just pass the exe though, modern games are huge with a lot of files required. With Steam it’s a 2 step process:
- I look in the tab in my library for games in my brother’s account I have access to with family sharing.
- I download a game from the list.
That’s despite the fact my brother lives in the other side of the country, and it offers me all the Steam features I make use of like cloud saves as if my account had bought the game.
With GOG it’s
- Find the right webpage for my brother’s games (you can’t see them from within the GOG client for some reason.
- Ask my brother to download the installer
- Get my brother to send me the installer file over discord
- The installer is too big
- Say nevermind just give me your login info
- I try to login to his account with the GOG client
- Ask my brother for his 2FA authenticator code
- Finally login, and can download the game
- Remember to turn off cloud saves so you don’t override your brother’s cloud saves.
Based on a true story btw.
There’s probably things we could’ve done that would’ve made it easier and less steps, but it still wouldn’t have been just as simple as what Steam does, and I’m missing cloud saves and I’d have to do several of those steps again if I wanted the game on say my Steam Deck as well as my PC.
then you either use a third party remapper or you simply add the shortcut in steam
If I’m just going to use Steam or extra software to compensate for Steam features, I might as well just use Steam.
Fizz@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
Family sharing? You down load the games they are installed for all users.
doublah@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Family sharing isn’t just for your local machine, I have family who live in the other side of the country.
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Its true, but also “please give the big business more money” isn’t exactly the thing anyone but business owners and shareholders want to hear.
tidderuuf@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“I care” … “Sorry let me check my latest game download from limewire.”
I_Jedi@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Only games I bought from these guys are the games I can’t get on Steam.
shane@feddit.nl 2 weeks ago
For me it’s the opposite.
My preference is itch.io, then GOG, then Steam.
I_Jedi@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
The way I specialize is:
- JAST USA for the rare occasion they have a game I want, and I don’t want to bother with getting a patch.
- DLSite for the robust catalog of R18 games that are outside of my government’s snooping.
- DMM (with some special browser cookies to even get in) if I want to be sure my government isn’t snooping when I buy games.
- itch io for free games or games made by small time creators
- GOG for games released around 1995 - 2005
- Steam for general purpose
- Patreon if there’s a particular paid early access game I’m looking for.
sonalder@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
DRM-free games is the main reason why I buy on GOG. Preservation is nice to have and donate to round up the price of purchase but I don’t have money to become a patron. This feels important enough for me to care but not enough for me to put money every month in it. I’m glad people are doing it and that GOG exist.
dukemirage@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
all this stupid publicity makes me feel dirty for buying there
Strider@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Oh man. I’ve supported gog from the beginning, always purchased there.
Even if it was more expensive or late or downsides (especially to steam).
Still, they didn’t always hold up to the drm free standard they set.
The they come up with this, which to me sounds like ‘give us subscription money for what we already did the whole time’.
No it’s not! I care for the games. I want a drm free packaged version. You name the price, but keep all original features.
I don’t give a flying shit about any online badges or whatever. How could I know where the additional money goes? By my estimate I’ll pay the subscription and your ceo gets more money but the games wont see any of it…
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Same here.
The whole things has a massive “grift” vibe, especially given that they’re double dipping since supporters of their “Game preservation efforts” still have to pay for those games.
Happy to keep on buying games from them in preference to from Steam, some even from the “Good old game” bucket, just not willing to assume a monthly monetary commitment to some black-box “trust us” which feels a lot like the “Charity as a business” shit from the most sleazy “charities” out there (you know the kind: the ones with CEOs paid massive salaries and were only a small fraction of contributions actually ends up in the charitable objective).
TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I see it as a tip. They made the game available, put in the work to make it playable on modern systems, and host it so I don’t need to store it myself. Here’s a buck.
I tip a buck or two and normally purchase during sales.