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Join the guys in charge of GOG.com for a chat!

EDIT: The video has ended, but you can check out the recorded stream here (http://www.twitch.tv/gogcom/c/4113792), or just watch the highlights below. Thanks for participating, and be sure to leave us any comments you have on the topics we discussed below! :)

GOG.com is going live on Twitch <span class="bold">today</span> and we'd like to heartily invite all of you to join us. Our founder, Marcin Iwiński (known in the forums as <i>iWi</i>), Piotr Karwowski (<i>Destro</i>), the VP of Online Technologies, and Trevor Longino (<i>TheEnigmaticT</i>), the Head of Marketing and PR, will do their best to answer your questions while remaining at least a bit entertaining, on Tuesday April 22, 6:00PM GMT (that's 2:00 PM EDT and 11:00 AM PDT) in the [url=http://www.twitch.tv/gogcom]<span class="bold">GOG.com Official Twitch.tv Channel</span>.

This wouldn't be--of course--much of a Q&A if they didn't have any questions to answer. We count on you, dear GOGgers, to provide many interesting ones! There has been many interesting things happening around GOG.com, recently, so we're sure many of you have thing you'd like to ask us. There's a few ways to do that. You can ask your questions right here, in the forum thread below. You can sign in to the <span class="bold">Twitch live chat</span> as soon as the livestream starts, and post your thoughts and questions in there. Finally, you can tweet your question to our <span class="bold">@GOGcom Twitter account</span>, with the #GOGtwitch hashtag.

We'll be with you for at least an hour (we may end up going longer!), but that's probably still not enough time to answer all questions. We'll select just the ones we think are most common to the community as a whole, and the most interesting ones as well. After the livestream is done, we'll post a montage of its highlights with just a slight delay needed to put the thing together.

Again, we invite you to <span class="bold">GOG.com Official Twitch.tv Channel</span> today, 6:00PM GMT (that's 2:00 PM EDT and 11:00 AM PDT), and we hope you'll find time to join us. In fact, drop half an hour early to catch our Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure gameplay stream!
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Matruchus: You can see the highlights here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcEticbArIk
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tfishell: D'oh, how didn't the Humongous discussion make it in? :P
Somebody actually asked about those kids games on twitch during the stream. I never heard about them before. But they do look kinda cute :) Although I don't believe those are games for gog.
Post edited April 23, 2014 by Matruchus
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Mivas: I haven't seen much because Twitch was working normally like 10 minutes out of whole session and offline version is buffering like crazy but I managed to watch the part you replied to my question. Thanks, Marcin & Co.
I didn't understand why you prefer to release 10 platfomers in row instead of more diverse offering. Now I do, so times of wonder are over :).
If you want the whole thing locally, grab (the link named "youtube-dl.exe" for Windows, and the one called simply "youtube-dl" for OS X, Linux, and any other Unix-like with Python support). Then open a terminal (or cmd.exe on Windows), and enter "youtube-dl [url=http://www.twitch.tv/gogcom/b/522130323]http://www.twitch.tv/gogcom/b/522130323" without the quotation marks.

Yes, it's a command-line application, but simple to use (the "difficult" part is putting it somewhere in the path so it's always available without having to type its path every time, say C:\Windows\ or /usr/local/bin/), and don't be fooled by the name, it supports quite a few sites (I've used it for Youtube, Vimeo, Escapist, and now Twitch).
Post edited April 23, 2014 by Maighstir
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JudasIscariot: Nah, because who's going to play my Blood Bowl matches? :)

Besides, I think GamesCom is more of a business thing for us so our BizDev guys will be there :)
So you'll miss out on night life in Cologne and German beer? That's not good.
If E_A and I make it to GamesCom we'll give Arek some beer for you.
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Melhelix: Here is the transcript from 15:15 to 25:08. Only a ten minute chunck so far, as I am a bit out of practice, and work keeps interfering. :P

Transcription over yonder.

So there's Part One, from 15:15 to 25:08. I'll probably keep transcribing until someone from the official GOG team takes over. Also, this is a fun learning day for myself as I've never actually needed to use GoogleDocs before, so I hope folk can actually see it.

Edit: Alright, up to 27:50. I'll hit it again tomorrow.
Thanks for this... I can't really watch video on the connection I'm on which is why I was looking for a text transcript. Can anyone share if they said anything about a GOG client, steam like features (ie multiplayer servers, achievements...ect), or where they plan to take GOG in the future?
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Melhelix: Here is the transcript from 15:15 to 25:08. Only a ten minute chunck so far, as I am a bit out of practice, and work keeps interfering. :P

Transcription over yonder.

So there's Part One, from 15:15 to 25:08. I'll probably keep transcribing until someone from the official GOG team takes over. Also, this is a fun learning day for myself as I've never actually needed to use GoogleDocs before, so I hope folk can actually see it.

Edit: Alright, up to 27:50. I'll hit it again tomorrow.
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BKGaming: Thanks for this... I can't really watch video on the connection I'm on which is why I was looking for a text transcript. Can anyone share if they said anything about a GOG client, steam like features (ie multiplayer servers, achievements...ect), or where they plan to take GOG in the future?
Here gog highlights on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcEticbArIk Its about 12 minutes long.
And yes they spoke about gog client - its in the highlights. As much as I remember they said that they won't change the site at the moment although we are welcome to make recommendations.
Post edited April 23, 2014 by Matruchus
Ok, so let's just put my thoughts here real quick:

- About the regional pricing: It's fine. I mean if you can appeal to the Russian market by offering lower prices that's totally acceptable. You are a business afterall not a charity organiztion. However for Europe and the USA I think regional pricing is only accaptable if we pay the exact same value in euroes that Americans pay in dollars. Which I know we do, so just keep making that possible :)

- I'd welcome more frequent Q&A. That's a really good way to keep in contact with the community besides the forums. I mean it's live. And we get to hear the EnifmaticT's voice. Which is always a plus.

- Ideas: I don't know how much this is possible but it would probably be nice to implement a service that would run multiplayer servers for GOG games through a GOG client. For example you could play Empire Earth online through a GOG server. I know this requires a lot of hardware and workforce, but it sure would be nice to see. A client is a good idea as well. And pobably a site feature to see and rate GOGMixes. You know some kind of social/community thing.
Post edited April 24, 2014 by Geri11
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tfishell: D'oh, how didn't the Humongous discussion make it in? :P
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Matruchus: Although I don't believe those are games for gog.
I counter your belief with my thread: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/humongous_entertainment_support_thread

Hi-ya!

(BTW, I don't know if you're aware or not, but Ron Gilbert worked on these games.)
Post edited April 23, 2014 by tfishell
or... http://www.twitchtools.com/video-download.php

(copy http://www.twitch.tv/gogcom/b/522130323 for the link)
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Matruchus: Here gog highlights on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcEticbArIk Its about 12 minutes long.
And yes they spoke about gog client - its in the highlights. As much as I remember they said that they won't change the site at the moment although we are welcome to make recommendations.
The cynical in me would suggest that this decision is linked to the related positions at GOG still being available.
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JudasIscariot: Nah, because who's going to play my Blood Bowl matches? :)

Besides, I think GamesCom is more of a business thing for us so our BizDev guys will be there :)
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Piranjade: So you'll miss out on night life in Cologne and German beer? That's not good.
If E_A and I make it to GamesCom we'll give Arek some beer for you.
Mmmmm German beer...

Thank you both :) I'll see if I can't save a bottle to display on my desk, if this goes through :D
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JudasIscariot: Nah, because who's going to play my Blood Bowl matches? :)

Besides, I think GamesCom is more of a business thing for us so our BizDev guys will be there :)
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Piranjade: So you'll miss out on night life in Cologne and German beer? That's not good.
If E_A and I make it to GamesCom we'll give Arek some beer for you.
Sorry but the German beer is wasted on me, I live only on sugar! I do hope to see you there though :)
Not much of an opinion on pricing. You set the price and I'll buy if I can afford and its reasonable to me. If you start adding more layers than a basic level of commerce, you will only hurt your own bottom line. (i.e. don't let all the complaints get to you too much ;) )

I used to be against a client. As I'm getting older I'm caring less and less about things like that. I imagine it would be very difficult to create a true Steam client alternative (which is what many people want when they ask for this). For starters, I'm guessing GOG games would have to have their own GOG exclusive achievements built in? I do like the stats that Steam offers and think they could be greatly expounded on. I like hearing that it would remain optional, IMHO, that is the most crucial factor in what GOG does... keep choice in the hands of the customer! ;) Speaking of options... it needs options. For one example, I need to control what my client does and when. with a 150GB data cap, I have no bandwidth after netflix. I can't have things downloading without my direct approval. (just one example).

Supporting the DRM free revolution? I think that starts with you guys. I know your hands are tied with what you can disclose, but when users have absolutely NO idea what you are going to release and when, its asking an awful lot of your fan base to NEVER buy games from other companies when we don't know what you are working on. Just browse the game series not completed on GOG. How long should I not buy Serious Sam 3 because it may or may not come to GOG? I'll always buy from GOG first, even if priced higher, but I finally gave up on Vampire Bloodlines coming to GOG and picked up a Steam copy (after 10 years and seeing it on Steam and DotEmu). From the wisdom of Jerry Maguire, "help me help you!".

More Twitch? whatever the format, the more we know about GOG's direction, the more we can make buying decisions.

Some topics I'd like to see discussed (but didn't have time to ask this session):

More about the Linux support and time-frame.

GOG.com gift cards? (can't use prepaids from the U.S, and every-time I use my debit card, the bank locks my account for suspicious Polish purchases... seriously :/ )

Time-frame on website features that we can expect. (some won't be known yet, but the ones we do know about).

Any chance for a Steamgifts spinoff on GOG?

Seems like I saw alot of shelf discussion a year or two ago and nothing resulted from it.... (mark games as played, better sorting, stats, add game cards if owned in other formats, etc.).


Back pats:

Great job on the unique sales (battles, votes, themes, etc.)

Great job on keeping everything DRM-free as a top priority.

Great job on keeping the site functional under heavy load, massive sales, free game days, etc.

Thanks for the free games!
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hucklebarry: I used to be against a client. As I'm getting older I'm caring less and less about things like that. I imagine it would be very difficult to create a true Steam client alternative (which is what many people want when they ask for this). For starters, I'm guessing GOG games would have to have their own GOG exclusive achievements built in? I do like the stats that Steam offers and think they could be greatly expounded on. I like hearing that it would remain optional, IMHO, that is the most crucial factor in what GOG does... keep choice in the hands of the customer! ;) Speaking of options... it needs options. For one example, I need to control what my client does and when. with a 150GB data cap, I have no bandwidth after netflix. I can't have things downloading without my direct approval. (just one example).
This really shouldn't be all the difficult honestly. They should be able to provide a client and keep our game DRM free and pretty much keep them like we have them now. I don't see why they couldn't make a client and have the client be able to detect standalone GOG installers and basically take over the work of installing/ displaying/updating these games... things like achievements or multiplayer servers may be more difficult but just having a standard client were we can install our game, click play or update or shop for new games. This shouldn't be that difficult, so I really don't understand why were not seeing it yet. If they ever really want to compete with Steam... there going to need it.
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BKGaming: This really shouldn't be all the difficult honestly. They should be able to provide a client and keep our game DRM free and pretty much keep them like we have them now. I don't see why they couldn't make a client and have the client be able to detect standalone GOG installers and basically take over the work of installing/ displaying/updating these games... things like achievements or multiplayer servers may be more difficult but just having a standard client were we can install our game, click play or update or shop for new games. This shouldn't be that difficult, so I really don't understand why were not seeing it yet. If they ever really want to compete with Steam... there going to need it.
Well, I for one wouldn't be using it. It'd be something other than what I actually want to install (as in, the games) poking through my system (searching for said games) and actively doing stuff (as opposed to, say, libraries which are just there to be used when called by installed software). But sure, if it'd be optional, they may as well do it for those too used to being spoon-fed and giving away control of their systems, as long as it won't take away resources from supporting the games and site and so on.
What I would want (also if it won't take away resources - very much used to looking up stuff on my own, as long as it'd be available separately and not require reinstall to patch, otherwise) would be individual game patchers, make sure the games that have built-in patchers will have them work properly with their version and add such patchers to the rest. Could likely be the same executable distributed with all, with a different instruction set for each; you run it when you want and it checks whether anything updated in the GOG version of that particular game compared to what you have.
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Maighstir: If you want the whole thing locally...
Thanks! I didn't know about the app, quite handy. Command line isn't a barrier for me :).

Cool, very accessible. Thanks.