Funny that they were so terrified of sending it in Germany because it would have broken Germany laws about Nazi signs, so they excluded Germany from the email while sending it everywhere else.
We can't ignore the preservation efforts GOG has done including spending resources themselves on updating and improving games like Alpha Protocol and Dino Crisis
I’m willing to bet that email was helped out by AI.
What I suspect happened was they had AI write the email, AI is notoriously emoji happy, and the AI saw Slavic mysticism stuff and entered into a nazi rhetoric informed mode and added those Unicode characters.
LLMs are trained on the internet, that includes the racist nazi parts.
Maybe because AI said it was safer to remove them? It's not a great defense but basically every company has gone ape shit over AI now. I actually am being actively pushed to use it at work even though I don't want to.
10 years ago they intended to, then dropped it. Starting this year, they looked at it with renewed interest, hired a senior dev for it, and have actually been working on it.
Before, it used to be the pages were really slow. Couldn't get past one page of results. Now the main screen doesn't load at all. Endless loading spinners.
Bizarre! Any extensions installed which might block script loading? Try in a private window, and if that works, clearing cookies. I haven't seen anyone on the GOG forums report anything like this, while at least half the people there use Firefox, so it should be fixable on your side somehow.
You’re still buying a license through GOG. It’s just that their delivery process makes it almost impossible to later take away the ability to install the software completely.
This isn't a know against small devs, but I do get it a bit becsuse there is a LOT of questionable nonsense on the indie dev circuit. Like, I have played a lot of them too. But Steam is kind of bad with letting too much garbage in and frankly, I stopped using Steam as much over the years for it.
Source: a friend has a couple (not-slop) games , and if you reach out to them, they basically tell you that they will contact you, if they want you in their store
I mean, Becoming a DIK is kind of a complete game though. Steam has some stuff that feels like someone stuck stickman art in a GODOT tutorial and called it good.
Market share is one thing but to call them niche is another. Yeah, there are a fair number of games I would like to get that are only on DRM laden platforms, but I still have a solid library well beyond what's needed to keep entertained.
Small market share is literally what niche means here. According to various sources online, GOG currently has a 2-3% market share. It’s smaller than Epic, and smaller even than the Microsoft Store. That is niche, whichever way you slice it.
GOG is not a system meant specifically for people looking for some specific thing, it's a general purpose market with a wide variety of offerings that happens to have a smaller user base.
Their main customers might be called a niche market in that they're largely a specific group looking for DRM free games, but the platform isn't limited to them.
They market it roughly like that, but without explicitly saying that you buy any more ownership than you would elsewhere. That's because you buy the exact same license rights, the difference is that they deliberately forgo an enforcement mechanism.
I think it's the best they can do, because otherwise the publishers wouldn't play ball. But still this licensing deal is not really what we want when we ask to own our copies.
Disappointing lack of devs putting their games on GOG these days. I feel like it used to be way more common, and that devs used to care more about computing history and culture.
56 Comments
flamingos@feddit.uk · 59 pts · 55d
gog make it pretty hard to like them, like putting AI slop on storefront and the recent email controversy they didn't really apologise for.
BewareOfIdiot@nord.pub · 8 pts · 55d
Wait what? I've not heard about this
flamingos@feddit.uk · 16 pts · 55d
They sent out an email with Nazi symbols: see https://lemmyverse.link/feddit.uk/post/50278677
ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 54d
I thought they did apologize for it?
Nalivai@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 54d
The apology was "I'm sorry you such a stupid babies you don't know that SS rune is used by slavics actually (not true btw, who cares)"
gamesieve@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 53d
That tone-deaf non-apology was only on reddit, by a new-on-the-job "community specialist". They did a (slightly) better apology an hour later on twitter and the GOG forum: https://www.gog.com/upload/forum/2026/06/c1cdf9fda39aaa5532ee375b38abb04376c7505d.png
Nalivai@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 52d
Ok, that's at least better
VitoRobles@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 54d
Funny that they were so terrified of sending it in Germany because it would have broken Germany laws about Nazi signs, so they excluded Germany from the email while sending it everywhere else.
Taleya@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 51d
Yeah that's the part that turned it from an unfortunate accident to a deliberate act.
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 54d
Don't let perfect become the enemy of good
We can't ignore the preservation efforts GOG has done including spending resources themselves on updating and improving games like Alpha Protocol and Dino Crisis
VitoRobles@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 54d
If "the good" is dog whistles for fascism, I rather not.
Their casual dismissal of this is one of their many red flags over the years.
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 54d
Yeaaaah that's definitely a red flag though.
Fuck man
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 55d
I’m willing to bet that email was helped out by AI.
What I suspect happened was they had AI write the email, AI is notoriously emoji happy, and the AI saw Slavic mysticism stuff and entered into a nazi rhetoric informed mode and added those Unicode characters.
LLMs are trained on the internet, that includes the racist nazi parts.
And of course nobody bothered looking it over.
flamingos@feddit.uk · 37 pts · 55d
The problem with this defence is that they did notice it because they removed it from the German version of the email, they said as such.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 55d
I didn’t say it was a defence.
It’s sheer incompetence. Just speculating into how the fuck this happened at all.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 54d
Maybe because AI said it was safer to remove them? It's not a great defense but basically every company has gone ape shit over AI now. I actually am being actively pushed to use it at work even though I don't want to.
VitoRobles@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 54d
It's not the first time they used AI for their marketing either. They've been caught before.
kboos1@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 55d
GOG needs a Linux app. Hero launcher is ok but I don't like needing another app to get to another app, it's like needing a car to get to my other car.
ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com · 20 pts · 55d
https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/gog-moves-toward-native-linux-support-major-shift-drm-free-gaming
It's stated to be a thing in the works
JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl · 12 pts · 55d
They have stated that for like 10 years lol
gamesieve@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 53d
10 years ago they intended to, then dropped it. Starting this year, they looked at it with renewed interest, hired a senior dev for it, and have actually been working on it.
RedIce25@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 55d
If I could launch Gog just as easly as Steam games in big picture/game mode on Bazzite that would be so good
zewm@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 55d
What do you mean needing an app to get to another app?
Heroic literally just downloads the game installer and installs the game. Heroic is the single app.
kboos1@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
So what you're saying is I don't need Heroic to get to GoG?
zewm@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 55d
You use heroic to login to your gog account directly. It manages your library from the launcher.
It is a single application. I don’t understand why you think you need two applications to install and launch gog games.
Katana314@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 29d
You use Steam to get to the Steam backend servers. Same logic.
Adulated_Aspersion@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 54d
Do you need Steam to get to Steam?
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 55d
Why? I like not needing an app and just downloading an installer that is mine to keep.
Armand1@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 55d
The problem with GOG is that most developers don't release on there. They are afraid of letting people buy their games without DRM.
Another problem with GOG is that their site is super broken on Firefox for some reason.
That said, whenever I'm looking to buy a game, I look on GOG first.
Taleya@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 51d
? Works find for me on several machines, even with heavily scripted addons
gamesieve@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 53d
GOG works absolutely fine on Firefox for me. You might have some broken script stored in cache or somesuch. Try a hard reload (ctrl-shift-R).
Armand1@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 53d
Nope. Still broken.
Before, it used to be the pages were really slow. Couldn't get past one page of results. Now the main screen doesn't load at all. Endless loading spinners.
gamesieve@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 52d
Bizarre! Any extensions installed which might block script loading? Try in a private window, and if that works, clearing cookies. I haven't seen anyone on the GOG forums report anything like this, while at least half the people there use Firefox, so it should be fixable on your side somehow.
Telodzrum@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 55d
You’re still buying a license through GOG. It’s just that their delivery process makes it almost impossible to later take away the ability to install the software completely.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 13 pts · 55d
Should also be noted that it's basically impossible to get into gog as a small indie dev
It is essentially a "don't call us, we call you" situation
AmyAye@nord.pub · 6 pts · 55d
You get Itch.io for that.
This isn't a know against small devs, but I do get it a bit becsuse there is a LOT of questionable nonsense on the indie dev circuit. Like, I have played a lot of them too. But Steam is kind of bad with letting too much garbage in and frankly, I stopped using Steam as much over the years for it.
marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 55d
This was the case a decade ago, but it's absolutely not the case anymore. If the "Becoming a DIK" creator can do it, anyone can do it.
SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 14 pts · 55d
Nope, still is.
Source: a friend has a couple (not-slop) games , and if you reach out to them, they basically tell you that they will contact you, if they want you in their store
marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · 14 pts · 55d
That's hilarious that there's basically an employee addicted to trash hentai games at GOG.
Soggy@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 54d
Probably reliable revenue.
AmyAye@nord.pub · 6 pts · 55d
I mean, Becoming a DIK is kind of a complete game though. Steam has some stuff that feels like someone stuck stickman art in a GODOT tutorial and called it good.
ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com · 7 pts · 55d
Are they? I'm at about 300 owned on GOG vs about 2 dozen on steam that where mostly via humble bundle.
njm1314@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 55d
Yes. Their market share is not even remotely close to Steam. You are not representative.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 55d
But the people complaining are also a minority, most are just bending over for DRM
ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com · 2 pts · 55d
Market share is one thing but to call them niche is another. Yeah, there are a fair number of games I would like to get that are only on DRM laden platforms, but I still have a solid library well beyond what's needed to keep entertained.
MurrayL@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 55d
Small market share is literally what niche means here. According to various sources online, GOG currently has a 2-3% market share. It’s smaller than Epic, and smaller even than the Microsoft Store. That is niche, whichever way you slice it.
ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com · 0 pts · 55d
More broadly it's a term used for to denote something fitting a very specific purpose or suitable to a small subset of people, animals or things.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/simple/niche
GOG is not a system meant specifically for people looking for some specific thing, it's a general purpose market with a wide variety of offerings that happens to have a smaller user base.
Their main customers might be called a niche market in that they're largely a specific group looking for DRM free games, but the platform isn't limited to them.
Anyhow, enough pedantics for one morning...
rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social · 3 pts · 54d
Yes. You are part of the niche.
jerkface@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 55d
i like how its dogs
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de · 6 pts · 53d
They market it roughly like that, but without explicitly saying that you buy any more ownership than you would elsewhere. That's because you buy the exact same license rights, the difference is that they deliberately forgo an enforcement mechanism.
I think it's the best they can do, because otherwise the publishers wouldn't play ball. But still this licensing deal is not really what we want when we ask to own our copies.
Zephorah@discuss.online · 4 pts · 55d
Part of the issue is GoG still doesn’t do gift cards. You can easily send people there if they allow gift cards.
Another year of Steam for the nieces and nephews…I’ll inquire again next year.
Soggy@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 54d
Bad news, Steam is dropping gift cards as a measure against scammers.
Zephorah@discuss.online · 1 pts · 54d
I thought they were still doing ecards.
chunes@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 54d
Disappointing lack of devs putting their games on GOG these days. I feel like it used to be way more common, and that devs used to care more about computing history and culture.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 55d
My 4 most recently bought games are from gog.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 53d
I love GoG. It's my go to after Steam.