Hello. Hope everyone is fine.
(Edits: Formating, correction, TL;DR, sources...)

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After the situation with Dragon Age: Origins update breaking the performance for many users, breaking save compatibility because of 2 updates, many of us got worried that this program, instead of preserving old versions, had the chance to break fully working original versions of the games we own here. Specially us, Offline Installers users.

Although GOG already acknowledged that this happened with DA:O specifically, they've already updated many games with the TAG "Good Old Game", to indicate that they've already applied whatever they've done to those games.

Some of you, more technically knowledgeable, noticed even before the first update to any games you own that, depending on what GOG would do to preserve said games, they had the chance to actually break them.

Some commented and explained that you can't apply a "One Solution To Fix Them All" for games because many old games had their own specificities with different solutions to different systems with their own specifications.

I was already worried when I saw this program, too, because I'm skeptical of almost everything. But when I noticed that I had not backed up the Offline Installer of DA:O, I tested it and it also had broken my game. Then I really got worried - thankfully, managed to download the 2017 build using lgogdownloader's excellent "--galaxy-install game/build" options.

If you're keen to details, you noticed that I had to use a community tool to download a version of the game that is, now, technically, lost to time, in a way, because its 2017 offline installer version and update patch can't be downloaded anymore - except for those that had it downloaded before the update and rollback.

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The point of this thread comes below: ---

You may question for which game this changelog is.
Well, this changelog is for The Witcher - Enhanced Edition, another great RPG, as it is with DA:O.

The same kind of "solution to preserve old games" was applied here. That is, the "Set core affinity to the first 2 CPU cores, improving performance on modern systems". I hope you see the problem I'm pointing out here.

The point is not only that they're apparently applying the "One Fix To Rule Them All", but that they're doing that with SO MANY games resulting in many games possibly being broken and passing under the radar because they are not so well known or well played anymore.

DA:O is still being played a lot these days, with its modding community thriving for decades, so when an update breaks things, the community will not only notice, but try to find quick fixes to keep playing and to guarantee compatibility with their mods, thus, the community noise of a game as big as DA:O breaking is huge, therefore, GOG will notice it and try to fix it.

But...
What about games that are not being played that much anymore?
What about games in witch there's just one "random player" on the forum saying: "Guys, that last update broke my game.", with 1~2 replies?
Do you guys see my point and the risk we have right here?

I don't want to sound harsh or send a doomsday message with this, but I feel that there's a real risk of that program killing many well working Offline Installers.

To GOG itself:

Give us the option to download old Offline Installers, please, as you do with Galaxy Rollback feature, or I will think you guys are breaking things on purpose to push Galaxy use. :P (Just kidding.)

Please guys, take a look at this and rethink this project, seriously.

It might end up breaking old games instead of preserving them.
Do not use the "One Update to Rule Them All", as we know from history, it does not work in the long term because 'Society of Gamers' will get this "fix" to mount doom and burn it. :P

Thank you very much!
Hope you guys manage to rethink this and hear your community as you've done with Dragon Age: Origins.


Sources:
https://www.gogdb.org/product/1207658924/releasenotes
https://www.gog.com/forum/the_witcher/stopped_working_on_steam_deck
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/dragon_age_originin_gog_is_broken
https://www.gog.com/forum/dragon_age_origins_ultimate_edition/105_patch_disaster
https://www.gog.com/forum/dragon_age_origins_ultimate_edition/current_plan_for_the_issues_with_dao
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_preservation_program_1/post3
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/welcome_to_the_gog_preservation_program_making_games_live_forever_d1673/post17

So wait, are you implying that GOG slapped the same fix that broke the performance of DA:O across multiple games, and weren't rigorously testing this even slightly?

And people ask if I even like GOG.
I'd love to.
I'd love for GOG to surprise me in a positive way, such as "We painstakingly ported the code of Interstate 76 from Mechwarrior 2 to our own engine" or "We've been helping the OpenC2E engine come to fruition."

I must admit I don't understand. One game is broken... so they all are bad?

Gog have been tainting offline installers since the day Galaxy was announced, I don't see why it is suddenly news now.

More like "at least one game is broken so they are all at risk".

One game have a problem and suddenly all game must have a problem? Most game works fine with those fixes. DAO will be fixed, relax.

It really is fascinating what thought process makes someone read the OP clearly say and then has them state the OP said

Pure fearmongering based in nothing and one more excuse to confuse and mix two unrelated matters. A way to invent again another artificial problem just because GOG is trying to do what people has been demanding a lot of times, preservation of the old cataloge. Nothing too different than before except this time advised as a campaign for visibility and marketing.

If DAO is for now problematic that does not mean the other games are the same. Not every game needs the changes applied in DAO. Each game should have its own needed fix and revision, Common sense.
And the ones I have tested work better than before. Others just the same.

Offline Installers are in danger since the beggining of times. Just pure anti Galaxy paranoid. If DAO is problematic it is the same if the game was installed over Galaxy or under offline installer.
An unintended bug is not a conspiracy.



Welcome to GOG forums: The End of Times is always over us. Ockham's Razor is for the weak and for DRM lovers.

Short version:

Without the older versions of offline installers that could be compatible with some computers. There is a risk of new updates aimed at modern systems, breaking games.

He provided an example. Then suggests less popular games will be at risk of abandonment after an update breaks the less popular game and wont get a fix. Due to lack of interest.

Which he is correct. The resolution is to offer older versions of each game. As well as offering fully patched DOS game files. No emulator nor executable setup. Without stripping the original files.

This is plausible and also viable Especially moving into Win11 dumpster fire territory in the near future.

Regarding old games, GOG always was about installers, and games themselves, functional to run in new systems. If it is a problem, even the proper existence of GOG should be debatable. It is absurd.

It is not new. GOG has been constantly fixing games if needed and the installers modified over the years.

Humongous Artificial Debate.

Please don't use inside baseball like "Decentralized autonomous organization", unless that is literally what you meant by, "DAO".

Also, a lot of us feel justified in being against Galaxy, seeing it as making us users of offline installers seem like second class citizens, all the way up to being a massive WOMBAT.

Isn't it just "Dragon Age: Origins" but without the colon, rather than some esoteric acronym? That is to say, the term defined in the initial post?

*Also, thanks for teaching me a new term, "inside baseball." It was almost ironic that being unfamiliar with the term led it to be a self-descriptive one.

From what I can tell, this is not a new thing by GOG, but business as usual.

All that seems to have changed is they are now engaged in an awareness campaign, which appears to include doing updates that feature that new advertising and not much else if anything.

GOG's main bread & butter would come from making sure games work on latest (newer) versions of Windows. Making them backwards compatible would not likely be on their radar.

This is why we need some kind of archive for older versions, beyond the limits of Galaxy rollback. Galaxy rollback is certainly not Offline Installers supporting. And when you look at what Game Preservation truly means, GOG's insistence on the direct download and install process with Galaxy, is a huge contradiction. In other words, they are saying one thing, and mostly doing another.

Offline Installers should have supremacy if you are serious about Game Preservation.
As should access to an archive of older versions of Offline Installers.

However, how well are GOG really going?
With all the seeming cutbacks, are they struggling to afford things?

And I still don't understand why they waited until now to do a big Game Preservation awareness campaign, when you could quite legitimately claim they are sending mixed messages now, compared to say five years ago.

Much as the humble comma makes the difference between cannibalism and a dinner invitation, the colon helps make crap flow nicely.

Preparing a numble pie can be messy, so I'm sure always to wear a napron. Especially when the family comes over for dinner, for I never prepare al one pie but always a nother- it's the favourite of my nuncle and grandma!