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Dear Santa,

The year has turned again, and it's that time: a time when everyone runs through their mental lists to see if they've been nicer than naughty and wonders what you'll bring them on the morrow. It's time for us to reflect on what we've done in the last year, what we wanted to do, and what we hope you'll bring us to help succeed next year as well.

The year has been pretty good to us, Santa, and we'd like to think that's part of you fulfilling our wish for last year--we've added over 250 Mac games to the catalog, more than 120 Indie games are now on GOG since we launched our "Bigger, Fresher, Newer" campaign last year, and we celebrated a 500 games in our catalog in January of this year. We've since gone on to a total catalog of [url=http://www.gog.com/games]674 games at the end of 2013--that's a long way since 2012!

We added some top games to our catalog this year, classics like Leisure Suit Larry, Neverwinter Nights 2, , [url=http://www.gog.com/game/system_shock_2]System Shock 2, Wizardry 6 & 7, and Wizardry 8, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, and we even finished off the Wing Commander series. We've seen some fantastic indies showing up on GOG.com as well, from Divinity: Dragon Commander and Expeditions: Conquistador to Papers, Please and , we've been adding new games to the catalog that we're sure will be looked at as future gems in the years to come. We've asked questions about what our users think GOG.com should be, we've produced--and ended--a regular episodic show about what GOG.com has released each week, we've fulfilled [url=http://www.gog.com/wishlist]hundreds of thousands of wishlist votes, gone to tradeshows in [url=http://www.gog.com/news/gogcom_e3_the_photodocumentary]and the US, launched a new program to help indies get on GOG.com, had [url=http://games.on.net/2013/07/we-see-pirates-as-our-competition-we-dont-see-steam-as-our-competition-gog-com-on-hatemail-torrents-and-sharing-games-legally/]of [url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/GOG-com-Is-Not-Ready-to-Support-Linux-Just-Yet-299948.shtml]all [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzPPcxp_uUQ]the , [url=http://www.gog.com/news/super_5_five_new_indies_up_to_80_off]celebrated our fifth birthday for a whole month, and generally had a grand old time.

Recently, we've experimented with some new things for GOG.com: we ran a charity fundraiser which (spoiler alert!) has raised tons of money for children, the poor, and wildlife all around the world; we teamed up with PC Gamer and Larian and gave away 3d-printed statues of dragons from Dragon Commander; we ran a pixel-art competition and were blown away by the great entries we received; we ran an Insomnia promo whereby we discovered the Internet's love for Jack Keane; we launched a guarantee where we promise that any game you buy from us will work; and we gave away all three of the original Fallout games to say goodbye to one of the greatest franchises in the history of gaming as it leaves our catalog. We also discovered that apparently the entire Internet wanted free copies of Fallout, because man did our servers ever struggle for the first few hours of that giveaway! We've welcomed back old friends and made uncountable scores of new ones over the last year here, and the craziest thing is that--for the fifth year running--this is the best year yet for GOG.com. With 63 employees from all over the world, millions and millions of customers and visitors each month, hundreds of new games, and limitless potential for the next year, Santa, we believe that trend will continue in 2014 with your help.

Which brings us to what we'd like to see in our Yule stocking. Last year we wished for LucasArts or Take Two to join GOG.com, and we really thought that we'd have enough good luck to make it happen. The business world can be slower than we'd like, but we still hope and dream of adding great games from one of those classic companies--or others!--to our classic games catalog in 2014. The rest of our wishes, we worked hard and succeeded at this year, but they're also still something that we want to continue to work on in 2014. Of course we want to release more great games--games like Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Carmageddon: Reincarnation--and others that we haven't even heard of yet. We want to see our indie program grow and expand well beyond its current scope because we've seen so many good games come our way through there but we know we're missing out on others that haven't found us yet. We want to launch audacious new features on GOG.com that will make us bigger, better, and more fun for our gamers. We want to look beyond the obvious and grow in new and unexpected ways to bring the DRM-Free Revolution to gamers who've never heard of us or who don't know about DRM. We defined our goal as a company for 2014 year simply: to help make the world's best games available DRM-Free.

So help us with that, Santa, and we're confident that we will continue to surprise, delight, amaze, astound, and impress gamers all around the globe; we'll continue to grow; and we'll continue to do everything that makes GOG.com a different (and dare we say "better"?) place for gamers. We never ask you for easy things, Santa, because we don't ask ourselves for easy things. We want to drive ourselves to make big changes, and we hope we'll be able to do so in 2014.

Happy Holidays to all of you who read this, and we hope that all of your wishes come true for 2014.
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rtcvb32: Besides if you can't see what games someone else owns, then what does it matter? :)
Here are some ways that it could matter (ie, you would still see the porn games):
-- on the front page, the "top sellers" list (which defaults to "all genres")
-- while browsing the catalog, the "Customers who bought this game also bought" list
-- the news announcements with new games/sales

Also, to me it seems like it would lead to bad PR. The first time some parent comes to the site and sees porn stuff, screenshots would be all over Facebook and GOG would become "that place with the porn". If GOG wants to make money doing this, I'd suggest a whole separate site.
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cendare: Here are some ways that it could matter (ie, you would still see the porn games):
-- on the front page, the "top sellers" list (which defaults to "all genres")
-- while browsing the catalog, the "Customers who bought this game also bought" list
-- the news announcements with new games/sales

Also, to me it seems like it would lead to bad PR. The first time some parent comes to the site and sees porn stuff, screenshots would be all over Facebook and GOG would become "that place with the porn". If GOG wants to make money doing this, I'd suggest a whole separate site.
Maybe. Or more than likely they would do something like FurAffinity (and other sites), where they have a NSFW (Not Safe For Work) switch which would add/remove those entries from being viewable (and it's off by default unless you're logged in and have said you'd like stuff NSFW). GOG could hardly become 'That place with porn', afterall you don't go to the convenience store and call it 'that place that sells PlayBoy' do you? Other stores might carry Playboy's and porn too but it's tastefully accessible only at certain locations where they have to verify your ID, I know a surplus store that is like that (Porn was cheap and iffy...).

Besides with games where you can behead and kill people hardly seems equal or fair to compare against a game which may have girls who are topless and/or a few adult scenes of sexuality.

How about Surgeon simulator 2013? I've seen examples of someone trying to play it where they are using a drill in someone's chest trying to swap out a heart. Geez...
Post edited December 30, 2013 by rtcvb32
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rtcvb32: *quote*
Yeah, filters would be pretty straightforward to implement. Just put it in the back of the store with a bead curtain in the doorway. =]

I do think, though, that people are oversimplifying the distinction between games with sex/nudity and porn games. We've already got the Witcher and LSL series for example, but there's a big difference between those and, say, a tentacle rape dating simulator, much less an entire section devoted to them!

I agree with your point on over-the-top-gory games. I would prefer that some games not be here, and it does rankle to see them. It's not the same to bemoan something already here, versus opposing the addition of something that's not. It is all a matter of opinion, of course, but there are so many other games that would be a better use of time and resources to acquire and distribute. It's funny you bring up Surgeon Simulator: When it was released, my thoughts were "This is the dumbest-looking thing I've seen in a long time. I can't believe they wasted time and effort on this!"
Post edited December 30, 2013 by mkell_226
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mkell_226: Yeah, filters would be pretty straightforward to implement. Just put it in the back of the store with a bead curtain in the doorway. =]

I do think, though, that people are oversimplifying the distinction between games with sex/nudity and porn games. We've already got the Witcher and LSL series, but there's a big difference between those and, say, a tentacle rape dating simulator, much less an entire section devoted to them!
Definitely over-simplifying. Keep in mind the US although created where everyone was equal and could have their own religion was heavily influenced towards certain directions and views, and those views are slow to change. It somehow seems a lot like what they do with radio and music, how in order to play it over the radio they have to censor out not just words but sometimes whole lines of lyrics, and you have to ask 'why?' it doesn't take much to figure out what words they are saying, and more than that it tends to make it crappy trying to paste a 'publicly friendly' coating on it. Maybe I'm getting off topic.

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mkell_226: I agree with your point on over-the-top-gory games. I would prefer that some games not be here, and it does rankle to see them. It's not the same to bemoan something already here, versus opposing the addition of something that's not. It is all a matter of opinion, of course, but there are so many other games that would be a better use of time and resources to acquire and distribute. It's funny you bring up Surgeon Simulator: When it was released, my thoughts were "This is the dumbest-looking thing I've seen in a long time. I can't believe they wasted time and effort on this!"
True... Seems gory goes over the top sometimes, although it's annoying when they over-censor stuff that doesn't need to be more so than leaving it alone. How many games on NES had to get heavily censored in order to get the 'seal of approval' from Nintendo? It was clear for Mortal Kombat that blue sweat and non-killing fatalities where in the sega version you'd rip someone's spine out just wasn't going to cut it, it was just stupid. Or better yet: 'The pokemon Fainted!' and I ask 'why can't I shove him into a pokeball then?'..... ugg..

I haven't played Surgeon simulator myself, but it shows the huge gap of what's socially acceptable is violence is allowed before nudity, and when in doubt, cover everything over and give it different names to hide the truth so they can sell it on platforms that might sell....

I think I'm off topic again, but I don't know if I can fix that.
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rtcvb32: I think I'm off topic again, but I don't know if I can fix that.
I can!

"Dear Santa,

GOG.com ROCKS! Please give them exclusive access to publishing rights for all of the best games, both old and new, and especially those rare, hard-to-find gem games that got totally ignored when they first came out, and REALLY need to be played and enjoyed by everyone from now until the sun expands and incinerates the planet!

Sincerely,

rtcvb32


PS. and please give me a new dirt bike, one I can totally shred on and show up that jerk down the street!"
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rtcvb32: *quote*
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mkell_226: Yeah, filters would be pretty straightforward to implement. Just put it in the back of the store with a bead curtain in the doorway. =]

I do think, though, that people are oversimplifying the distinction between games with sex/nudity and porn games. We've already got the Witcher and LSL series for example, but there's a big difference between those and, say, a tentacle rape dating simulator, much less an entire section devoted to them!

I agree with your point on over-the-top-gory games. I would prefer that some games not be here, and it does rankle to see them. It's not the same to bemoan something already here, versus opposing the addition of something that's not. It is all a matter of opinion, of course, but there are so many other games that would be a better use of time and resources to acquire and distribute. It's funny you bring up Surgeon Simulator: When it was released, my thoughts were "This is the dumbest-looking thing I've seen in a long time. I can't believe they wasted time and effort on this!"
Well, let's face it. Most of us are nerds/geeks and nerds/geeks like girls, sex, and porn. Here's an end of game clip from an old game that I wish GOG would release sometime soon which sort of proves my point...

Summoner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zng5kRle4FA
Post edited December 30, 2013 by ThoRn
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ThoRn: Well, let's face it. Most of us are nerds/geeks and nerds/geeks like girls, sex, and porn. Here's an end of game clip from an old game that I wish GOG would release sometime soon which sort of proves my point...

Summoner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zng5kRle4FA
+1!

Where're the Cheetoooos??

Still though, every place or group has their own standards. The gaming store near where I live is very relaxed, but they'll still boot people out for being too immature, crass, or smelly.
Post edited December 30, 2013 by mkell_226
I'd much rather GOG focus on classic games and more mainstream titles rather than porn.
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tfishell: I'd much rather GOG focus on classic games and more mainstream titles rather than porn.
Yes, this 10000000x. Seriously, there is no need at all for GOG to try and get adult games here. It would impossible to enforce age checks and abide by porn-selling laws, it would attract people we frankly don't want around here, and it would be a major blow to GOG's business. GOG would get labeled as 'that place that sells hentai' and probably would never recover. No more major deals with mainstream publishers - nobody would want that kind of publicity. Not to mention, piracy of GOG games would suddenly go through the roof.
TBH I think I would sacrifice all the classics in the world, LucasArts included, for a "go to first unread post" button next to thread titles. :p
Post edited December 30, 2013 by mondo84
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tfishell: I'd much rather GOG focus on classic games and more mainstream titles rather than porn.
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HGiles: Yes, this 10000000x. Seriously, there is no need at all for GOG to try and get adult games here. It would impossible to enforce age checks and abide by porn-selling laws, it would attract people we frankly don't want around here, and it would be a major blow to GOG's business. GOG would get labeled as 'that place that sells hentai' and probably would never recover. No more major deals with mainstream publishers - nobody would want that kind of publicity. Not to mention, piracy of GOG games would suddenly go through the roof.
Exactly.
I have to say, this thread has taken a strange turn.

While I love the Summoner skit, I in now way consider myself like them, in many ways it was mocking the stereotype more than representing the gamer. Furthermore - It's 2013 (nearly 2014), is there really still an issue getting hold of porn?

I come here for the classic games, rare ones that you can't get anywhere else DRM free (I suppose that would make them unique ones). That's the focus I want from this site.

I have trouble believing I'm even entering this debate.
Post edited December 30, 2013 by wpegg
Considering the discussions that flared up when Long Live the Queen was released, I'd hate to see what would happen if Hentai games were released here. Farther allusions to the possibility of bringing a game like Rapelay would generate an unbelievable shitstorm all over the place. And technically speaking, those Japanese love their DRMs too much to bring a game here.
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wpegg: I come here for the classic games, rare ones that you can't get anywhere else DRM free (I suppose that would make them unique ones). That's the focus I want from this site.
Absolutely, but certainly not at the cost of being DRM-free as amok (I believe) suggested nor at being overly-priced. Assuming the $20 price of Vampire: Bloodlines is the thing holding it back, GOG has to tread a fine line - should they bring it at $20 and risk other publishers wanting to jack up their prices of new releases, or do they continue to reject it and miss out on all those sales while maintaining their principles?
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wpegg: I come here for the classic games, rare ones that you can't get anywhere else DRM free (I suppose that would make them unique ones). That's the focus I want from this site.
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tfishell: Absolutely, but certainly not at the cost of being DRM-free as amok (I believe) suggested nor at being overly-priced. Assuming the $20 price of Vampire: Bloodlines is the thing holding it back, GOG has to tread a fine line - should they bring it at $20 and risk other publishers wanting to jack up their prices of new releases, or do they continue to reject it and miss out on all those sales while maintaining their principles?
There was a GOG broadcast from a while back (perhaps before your time, maybe just when you joined). They stated their message was that when it came to gaming "They wanted it unprotected, and they wanted it cheap". They've sold out on the latter already, so I feel that they are now solely about DRM-Free. In that light, I'd like Bloodlines here at any price. There are already stupidly priced games here, I just don't buy them for that reason.

In the case of bloodlines I'm kind of biased though as I own a disc copy.