Well, GOG seems unable or unwilling to give us an official response, and I expect the same from EA in response to the letter that I'm writing. However, we do in fact know that the games are here without expansions and without explanation for their lack. Seemed most likely to be a publisher decision to me, tho I had a wait-and-see attitude for a while. Can't see any other possibility with SMAX tho. Saying "not buying this without the expansion or an explanation" doesn't seem like an unreasonable way to demand an official answer to me.

I realize that I might *seem* to be demanding a lot, but understand that I buy a lot of games here *only* to support GOG's philosophy (out of the 50-60 GOGs that I've purchased here in the last three months, I've only played three, two of which I had on disc, the other being TW2). If EA or any other publisher isn't on-board with GOG's model, then they don't get my money.

That being said, I do admit being a bit riled that day (SMAC/SMAX is one of my three fav games). Perhaps I moved too fast. We'll see what happens: As I said, I wouldn't mind being wrong.

They gave an aswer...they're working on it. Now please stfu and play some games. :)

There you are! I've been wondering where you were all night. ;-)

(Reads GameRager's post, then goes and sits in the corner to play SMAX).

SMAX?

Which game is that?

And I truly want everyone to think about what they've done to the poor people here who just want to buy their games in peace and the punishment is playing all your gogs right nao. :)

I'm not sure if it will satisfy you but they did give a response.

SMAC is Alpha Centauri, and SMAX is Alien Crossfire.

Made me smile, so it's all good. :-)

That's the response that I referenced earlier in this thread. By "response" above I meant "answer" or "explanation". But thanks for the link anyway.

EDIT: One more thing: If anyone is considering replying to any of my posts, be aware that it might not be worth the effort if you'd want me to respond: I'll be on vacation starting at 6am (about 45 min from now). It'll be sunshine instead of the glow of the monitor for most of this week. :-)

Yay one less person bashing a DRM free release /jk

EA isn't one publisher in the same way that Sony isn't one corporation, they're both entities which are subdivided and largely independent of each other. Sort of like how Canon and Nintendo have organizations specifically for the US, which sometimes have different opinions of how best to serve their market.

One of the challenges was always that EA doesn't assign rights to games on a world wide basis, divisions will own just the rights to a given region. And none of them have the ability to sign distribution deals that cover the world.

Which is the most likely reason why we don't have the expansions yet. There's no reason to be certain that anybody at EA has global rights to any of the expansions.

Saying they are 'working on it' tells us nothing. It doesn't explain why so far none of these EA games include their expansions.

I've noticed you sure like telling others to 'stfu and play some games'. Wish you would take your own advice.

You do realize that they can't say anything more than that, right? These negotiations are done behind closed doors and publishers tend not to like having their dirty laundry aired.

I'm personally getting sick of all the self entitled brats complaining because Mr. Gog isn't revealing all the secret stuff that goes into the negotiations. If they could release more information, I'm confident that they would, but nobody negotiates deals like this in public. It's just not done.

What make you think there are actually negotions going on? All GOG has said is that 'they are doing what they can". That could mean anything from signing a deal to release these expansion to simply sitting on their rear ends.

They don't have to because:

1. It'd probably violate their contract with EA and no more games for us.

2. We don't really need top know why as long as we know they're working on them....from this one can base whether to buy them or not.

3. It's their site, and business, and if you don't like it or I don't then those who don't like it can take their business elsewhere.


Guy gives reasonable answer, that many longtimers here have also stated....a staffer has also stated they're working on it....it isn't good enough, you're still suspicious......*tinfoilhatmodeon*

If you want to buy then buy, if not then don't...but stop with these threads and posts as it's not going to solve anything as Gog has given us their answer and that's all we're going to get....adding more similar replies won't achieve anything after this besides what's been told already and repeated by others here.

Ever hear the old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again(asking for info/etc) and expecting different results each time?

(Also before replying note that I and others keep trying to help people like you with doubts out calmly over & over again & we're met with the same response.....need more info, still don't buy the explanation, etc....can you see why we'd respond less civilly after awhile with all the "whining" going on?)

Never said GOG isn't free to run their business they way they see fit. Just as their customers are free to make it known what they don't like about GOG's business practices.

If people are happy to buy these games as is, I have no wish to discourage them from doing so. I'm not going to buy them.

Honestly, we have all the information that they can give. The various employees of Gog have been refreshingly honest up until this point, they're not going to chuck their reputation in the garbage after signing such a significant deal.

Enigmatic really impressed me in the lead up to the Witcher 2 release admitting that he wasn't happy with the answer he was given about the patching situation with that game. Sure, I couldn't independently verify that he really was pushing for us to get what we wanted, but it would be completely out of character for him as well as the site to lie about something like that.

At the end of the day, it's your money and your game play experience. If you don't think the present offer is good enough to justify the outlay, then don't buy it. There's no guarantees even with Mr. Gog working on it that he'll succeed in getting it added to the pack. Although I'd be shocked if it were added as a separate purchase, just because of the logistical problems of ensuring that people don't end up buying something that they can't use without a further purchase.

That's the one thing that has annoyed me about all these stupid threads. Don't like the deal then don't buy it, simples. There is no need to make multiple threads about whine and certainly no reason to try and force others not to buy.