I'm wondering if the deals are curated by a human, or if it's just an algorithm going "lots of people have looked at these games' store pages recently, but no-one has bought. The problem must be the price."

Or mine.

I'm certain that I put several reviews on gog on the same day. I'm also certain that particularly people who would shovel their Steam reviews to gog.com would do that on the same day, it wouldn't make a lot of sense any other way.

Then I have huge problems with just putting these user names out there. There are people with over 100 games on that list, and apparently the wish for privacy is a source of much suspicion for the OP. Fuck, if people are now being called out on this forum just for reviewing a game in a positive way, the private profile setting is so damn justified in retrospect.

The accounts mentioned here usually own those games, which kind of entitles them to a review. I'm much more concerned about accounts that do not own a game and still get to write a, usually negative, review. On the face of it, the rule of mob and frequent review bombing is the norm on GOG. Developers usually don't even bother with manipulating their own review scores, they usually just stop selling on GOG.

The review system on GOG is broken as fuck, countless games are flooded with negative reviews for no sensible reason, and only a complete GOG noob would look at gog review scores when buying here. That is, in huge part, a wound that's self inflicted by the gog community, but it's up to GOG to fix it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty certain that the developer mentioned here has posted some positive reviews himself or has asked employees and friends to contribute. That's not a moral thing to do, really. But it's also not particularly intelligent, because GOG review scores mean nothing at all.

To turn this into a crusade is just pathetic and this accusing hit list is horrible. If the industry is changed, it's definitely not changed through a shitstorm that so carelessly risks affecting completely innocent people.

That is an absolute outrage! What's really terrifying is that anyone could buy a game based on these false reviews and not even know it.

The best only solution is to click on the "WRITTEN BY VERIFIED OWNERS" box. That will at least filter out anyone who hasn't bought the game.

That doesn't show much - some of the reviews that were copy&pasted between the stores were posted by accounts that bought the game in both stores too.

Ok. Let's play a game.

I will post the review text, and you guess what the rating was, 1 star, 2 stars, 3 stars, 4 stars, or 5 stars. Same game ( https://www.gog.com/en/game/space_accident ), different username, same review: Those are only the 5 star reviews where the text is incongruent with the rating. Many more suspicious 4 star reviews. And many other legitimate reviews averaging much less than that.

Plus all the reviews titled . or X/10 (usually unrelated to the actual rating)

I didn't write any actual usernames, although the OP may have. There's no need to write usernames, it's obvious to anyone who reads the reviews.

I think there is more than enough guesswork in this thread, guesswork with collateral damage even.

I also consider this kind of internet detectivery or culprit hunt to be a "game" not worth playing.

I don't feel a pressing need to reply to be honest because firstly, I didn't name any usernames and secondly I do think that for once I am in the majority in thinking that these games and the fake reviews devalue the storefront.

Even so I will just post a quote that I saw today: Regular GOG users are not paid for reviews. They write them to inform other people and try to share their experience as it might help people like them. In return they hope people might do the same so that they might be better informed on games they haven't bought yet or are less familiar with that game or those sorts of game.

This is a social contract. And Whale Rock Games is shitting on that contract. And GOG is letting it happen which means they are happy to shit on their customers.

This is why I am angry.

I know you didn't read the reviews because you missed the repeated one.

Maybe go away and reconsider. GOG should. Because I am furious about this being allowed to stand and maybe I am not the only one.

If I may add a note, I'm not saying you're right or wrong about this company, but I wanted to point out that in the past there have been users who have been caught copying reviews from other users and other sites, actual individual users trying to gain notoriety or whatever.

Deceptive trade practices involving fake, purchased, or misleading consumer reviews, whether positive or negative, are prohibited under the Better Enforcement and Modernisation Directive (EU), which has been in effect since May 2022. Article 49 of this directive specifically prohibits traders from submitting fake consumer reviews and endorsements, including social media "likes," or commissioning others to do so. They are also prohibited from manipulating consumer reviews and endorsements by publishing only positive reviews and deleting negative ones. Penalties will be imposed on reported individuals and companies.

As a provider of digital games, GOG has a responsibility to protect its customers from harmful and misleading reviews. The games industry is also subject to laws that protect consumers from practices such as failing to provide updates or abandoning products on one platform while fulfilling obligations to customers on another. Customers should not have to beg for updates; they have the right to demand enforcement and protection of their rights from the shop that sold them the product. By invoking their rights according to the law, customers can ensure that bad actors are removed or vanish from the marketplace.

It is important to know the law and fulfill obligations, and GOG is obligated to doing so.

Thats gambling. Minor quibble, but if talking about video games, its the GAMES Industry (apparently legally speaking too).

Thank you for bringing this typo to my attention. I have corrected it.

less a typo, more a misconception in many peoples minds it seems

Edit: not an attack on yourself - a general observance.

WhaleRockGames has 15 games on this store, with 5 in early access. None of the EA games have been updated since their first upload. Only 3 of all of their 15 games have been updated since their first upload. 5 updates combined. 6 if you count removing mac support.

You can confirm using gogdb.org, I hotlinked the links for each game below to make it easier. The "Last updated" is the last time gogdb checked and updated information.

Cybernetic Fault [EA] (0), Cyberpunk SFX [EA] (0), Dofamine (0), Euphoria: Supreme Mechanics (0), Hell Division (1), Inquisitor's Heart and Soul [EA] (0), Neuragun [EA] (0), NeverSynth (0), PolyClassic: Wild (0), SPACE ACCIDENT (2), Synthwave Burnout (0), The Divine Invasion (0), The Wraith of the Galaxy [EA] (0), Time Lock VR 2 (0), We are the Dwarves (2+1)

According to GOGDb, there are six that are In Dev: The Wraith of the Galaxy, Synthwave Burnout, NeuraGun, Inquisitor's Heart and Soul, Cyberpunk SFX and Cybernetic Fault.

But the mere fact that most of Whale Rock's games haven't been updated here since their release here isn't very helpful, considering that only one of the total fifteen titles (We Are the Dwarves, from 2016) has been here for even a year, and none of them were day-one releases here. Of the In Dev titles, all but one came here along with the bulk of the rest on the 30th of November last year, with The Wraith of the Galaxy arriving this March -- meaning that none of those has been here quite six months yet, and Wraith barely two. I don't knowingly buy games that are still actively being developed -- "fully released" or not -- but I'm pretty sure there are or have been good/legit "early access" games that don't always get updated more than once in any given 6-month period.
It would be more helpful to know whether and how often each game has been updated on Steam since their individual releases there, and (from a "second-class customer" perspective) whether there are any such updates which haven't come here. But I don't know how to parse the relevant info on SteamDB properly, and don't care to trawl the patch notes for each game, all just to "prove" that these games that I already assumed to be mostly low-effort shovelware have also been either poorly supported, or poorly supported here.

The moderators have returned after maybe 3 weeks without comment.

So can we have a comment about the fake reviews? Because fake reviews are worse than spam forum posts and at least the spam forum posts have finally been (mostly) removed.