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timppu: So what kind of game is it? A puzzle game?
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Sulibor: There is a free online game on Zachtronics website that can be considered a "technical demo" of Opus Magnum:
http://www.zachtronics.com/the-codex-of-alchemical-engineering/
Thanks, trying it out now. :) Intro piano music playing...
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CymTyr: If anything, they need to expand beyond their comfort zone of action/rts/strategy/rpg core games a bit. The place is starting to smell a bit musty because they only accept the same types of games anymore, it feels like.
+1
War for the Overworld was originally rejected. I wouldn't mind hearing from gog more about their curation. On one hand, shmuck shooter 5 would be really old, but, hey, we already have how many shooters? And point-and-clicks. Seriously, isn't it about time we stop getting more point-and-clicks? I bought alot of games on gog, and there are only a few games i'm willing to buy in the future, since i already have about 10 copies under a different wrapper. If this is about keeping their portfolio diverse, they're doing a terrible job. I don't know this game, and i probably wouldn't buy it, but when GOG is the primary source for DRM-FREE games, it gets old to me that the whole DRM free movement could be held back by it's greatest advocate.
Wow, I just saw the trailer for Opus Magnum and I can't believe GOG rejected the game! GOG really needs to reconsider. Everyone should vote for this!

https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/opus_magnum
Post edited December 13, 2017 by IronArcturus
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OldFatGuy: Since you won't be selling Opus Magnum because "it looks too much like a mobile game", I purchased it DRM free from Humble.

GoG is ALWAYS my first choice, but when you make dumb decisions, then I have to adjust my decisions.

Srsly, wtf wr u thkng?
I agree with the OP: GOG should release Opus Magnum! It's especially surprising and disappointing because I've heard such great things about Opus Magnum from writers whose opinions I trust.
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Sabin_Stargem: I will almost always advocate the presence of media that other people enjoy, on the grounds that they in turn will reciprocate and want my own preferences to be fulfilled. If customers are denied their desires, then the odds are that I will also be ignored.
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joppo: I agree with this, but with the warning that stretching that argument past what is reasonable would give us GOG's version of Greenlight.

I'd really like not to have wade through a sea of shovelware to get whatever decent games there are only because JimBob (and nobody else) decided he would pay to have CrappyShooter7™ in his GOG library.
The thing is, popular and well made games tend to get recurring word of mouth to support their visibility. Be it GOGMixes, reviews, tags, forums, or other things, they receive support decades after. Think back to the 90's catalog of media - you can probably list dozens of great things from back then. But the mediocre stuff? You probably don't. That applies to society as well.

GOG was created upon the very basis that people will remember and pay for the things that have left good memories. By locking out 98% of games, GOG is going to end up mostly selling 2% of the decent to excellent games that will ever exist.

Sturgeon's Law is as follows: 90% of everything is crud.

But the remaining 10% is going to be at least okay. GOG is limiting the potential of their catalogue by a huge amount, before they even have established themselves as the other 800lb gorilla in the room. To say the least, this current course may very well end badly.

Further, add in the Theorem of Narrow Interests: As you add requirements, the fewer examples of good material will decrease. A fan of strategy games, but dislike real-time? Suddenly you have less options. Feel that a game is only good if over 50% of commercial reviewers give it a 90%? Even less choices. So on and so forth.

That is why I prefer to peruse all the world's oceans for treasures, instead of being restricted to a puddle of ideal possibilities: More likely than not, whatever other people find good won't be to my tastes, therefore I wouldn't be able to appreciate a quality game. My preferences is also likely to not appeal to you, essentially locking you into a prison of things that you won't enjoy.
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HereForTheBeer: I'ma +1 you on that. 'Voting with your wallet' tells nobody anything when that vote is "no". There are any number of reasons - some of which have nothing to do with the title in question - why someone does not buy a game. I haven't bought most of the games available on gOg, but does that mean I've voted against them with my wallet? No.
....
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muttly13: Of course it does. Any self respecting sales organization is aware in a general sense where the consumer money is going and expected volumes. If Humbles numbers go up for the quarter (or whatever they track in games) message received. I have no problem with this post, as vocal consumers usually can manifest some kind of change. But dont kid yourself that there is no way to tell other than post in a forum. In fact, I would argue thats the least effective based on its relative ease and GOGs trackable indifference to posts here (justified by the way in my mind). In your example of 2k people complaining, there is no quantifiable method to validate that in a forum. Its simply not reasonable to assume someone would count up the compliant posts. You would have better results using the wishlist thingy as designed to express interest.
Unless I mentioned in some form or another why I did or did not buy a particular title, gOg doesn't know why I picked up, for instance, Pillars of Eternity but passed on Tyranny. They can guess all day long. Hell, their data would probably say that I'm a shoo-in for Tyranny since my library has a goodly number of RPGs. They can look at it on a macro level, or overall sales, maybe trying to suss out "Players who bought game XYZ also bought game JKL.." Look for patterns, sure. But maybe the customer himself or herself isn't exactly sure why one game was purchased and another was passed over.

In a case where there is a definite reason for not getting a title or any other customer decision that could have multiple reasons, customer feedback removes the guesswork for at least that one customer. As this thread shows, it's clearly more than just one customer feeling the same way about this particular issue.

Further, gOg themselves seem to think that forum community feedback IS important. Enough so that they invited some dozen or more folks to come to gOg and have a sit-down:

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/6_community_members_went_to_gog_hq/page1

Just because they don't directly respond, and just because they don't do what we'd like them to do... doesn't mean they aren't reading this stuff. And now they know that Opus Magnum has a fair amount of support (there are many more posts saying "Yes, I would buy it" versus "No, I would not buy it."), as does the developer Zachtronics. Further, they're getting some feedback on curation, 'mobile-like', puzzle games, and more info that pure sales projections won't necessarily show.

Or the thread doesn't get started, the conversation doesn't happen, and it's just another wishlist entry buried among nearly 40,000 other wishlist entries.

Edit: that sounds kinda harsh, like I'm disagreeing. Er, it's more like agreeing with both, as in "There's room for both, and it would behoove a store to take note of constructive feedback in whatever form the customers give it." I still don't think a non-sale passes much of a message, since there are too many unanswered "why?" questions. That's where threads like this can be helpful.
Post edited December 13, 2017 by HereForTheBeer
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HereForTheBeer: ...
Harsh? Nonsense. Discourse. Only millennials cant handle discourse :).

By the by, I think it bleeds irony in the Alanis Morissette sense (you know, not actual irony) that this game i have watched for some time is now on sale...

https://www.gog.com/game/rogue_wizards

Could not more clearly be a mobile game. In game store, gems to buy and spend, essentially everything short of in game ads.
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muttly13: https://www.gog.com/game/rogue_wizards

Could not more clearly be a mobile game. In game store, gems to buy and spend, essentially everything short of in game ads.
That line between mobile and, um, not-mobile is only going to get blurrier with time. The more important line is good / not-good. I hope we're all wrong on this, and that there's some other reason that makes more sense than the 'mobile game' problem hinted at in the tweet.
Frankly, I have stumped myself with this one... I just now realized it s a free to play game mobile, with the gems and such I mentioned. But after reading a few reviews, I am at a loss as to why I would buy it here. Presumably fully playable as a "freemium" game, no timers, ads, energy and whatnot. Sorry to sidetrack, but this so fits right into how this is a lame excuse in general.

And now I am happily playing on my ipad.
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Jinxtah: I suppose that's good in its own right. However I don't like having assorted games everywhere. I like having them in one collected place (or, really, as it the case, 4 places (gog, steam, origin, uplay), and I'd rather not have to have games loosely laying around there, be it on humble bundle or rockstar, or telltale, or what have you.

Thanks for the heads up never the less.
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OldFatGuy: You also get a Steam code when you buy it at Humble Bundle (I can confirm this as I bought it there). You can download a DRM free copy from HB and you can also use the Steam code to activate it on your account. I went ahead and did that too since I do have Steam for a few games.
Ah ok. Truthfully though, I do have a bit of a problem using humble bundle after their sale to IGN due to our information being sold along with it. I think that was a dick move to pass it on to J2 media. I'm not comfortable with it, and I surely didn't agree to it. Whatever though, it's still on steam as well.
Post edited December 13, 2017 by Jinxtah
The facts are it does look like a glorified mobile game and quite similar to what's already on sale at gog.

We only have this guys word to go on why it isn't appearing on gog so we might not have the full story.
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Spectre: The facts are it does look like a glorified mobile game and quite similar to what's already on sale at gog.

We only have this guys word to go on why it isn't appearing on gog so we might not have the full story.
Only.... Not so much...

https://twitter.com/zachtronics/status/939194987291353088
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Spectre: The facts are it does look like a glorified mobile game and quite similar to what's already on sale at gog.
The stigma of "looking like a mobile game" is stupid beyond belief (plus I call bullshit on it in this case - it looks like a 2D puzzle game, not like a 2D puzzle game made for mobile). And if the game looks like something already in the catalogue it means that it fits the profile and should be welcome here, doesn't it. Also fact is that Zachtronics are a very reputable studio that creates unique high-quality titles, it's among those studios that bring out the best in the indie scene. That their titles don't look like AAA wannabes and don't spam the screen with details and effects that do not enhance the gameplay in any way is commendable, not something they should be punished for for frigg's sake.
The tweet itself in its entirety, on 2017 December 08:
Zachtronics: I have a quick question for our GOG enthusiasts: if GOG declined to sell Opus Magnum on their store, perhaps because it looks too much like a mobile game (?!), where would you rather purchase it instead? Humble Store? Itch? Steam?
To me the "if…perhaps because" merely sounds like a hypothetical suggestion. After a couple of responses to the tweet later, Zachtronics replies to someone else's suggestion about releasing it on "itchio" and reveals a concern about trying to limit the number of stores where the game is releases so as to minimize maintenance efforts.
Zachtronics: We've been thinking about it, but in general I try to keep our store count low so that there are fewer things to update from a long-term maintenance perspective.
Furthermore, it was released only three days before this thread. How about giving distribution a little more time before complaining something is not everywhere? I do realize a lot of people here were born during the microwave oven generation, but you all should still remember that even popcorn needs to sit for a little bit after being microwaved before removing it from the oven.

Besides, hasn't everyone already learned to not waste emotional energy on such short statements like tweets or even the news articles that fluff them? (And haven't I learned to not be so silly as posting a reprimand of everyone else not being as smart as me? *sigh* Someday…someday…)
Post edited December 15, 2017 by thomq