.Keys: https://www.gog.com/forum/dragon_age_origins_ultimate_edition/current_plan_for_the_issues_with_dao/post55 .Keys:

AB2012: Eh? I can assure you, I don't dislike anyone here yourself included. :-) Not even sure why I'm talked about here as I haven't even posted in this thread. LOL.

I do get frustrated when GOG come up with a Great Idea (tm), ends up breaking something chasing "the Fad of the Day on a shoestring budget", but then rather than making at least an attempt to fix it, just dumps it and walks off. So I 100% agree with Brian (and know full well many other regulars do as well) that the first step in Game Preservation is for 3rd party stores (like GOG) to at least not add more of their own bugs (and fix them when they do).

When GOG slip up, they simply need to acknowledge it and fix it, not just let it be another abandoned problem left to rot. People get "tired of hearing" griping about problems, yet people will gripe harder the longer problems go unfixed and they feel like they aren't being listened to. GOG desperately, desperately need to fix these communication skills as the notorious endless silent treatment / 'radio silence' is by far the root cause of much discontent here vs "Hey guys, we're aware of this issue and are looking into it".

AB2012: I think it's 5, though all the high rated posts in this thread asking for GOG to fix what they broke is probably more indicative that a lot of people here just want broken games fixed than some social media thing. ;-)

I explained in this thread the Dragon Age Origin problem in technical detail so I won't repeat all that. The over-griping on DAO isn't just about that game, it's a healthy reminder that despite "Game Preservation" somehow being misinterpreted here as "I want every game to run out of the box for everyone with 1-click", at the end of they day PC's aren't consoles.

I've edited several hundred PCGamingWiki entries, and there's a lot of CPU-specific, GPU-specific, resolution-specific, OS-specific, etc, tweaks that need applying individually. Perfect example - the UI scaling fix for DAO comes in 3 versions : 4k, 1440p, Ultrawide. For Fallout 3, Intel iGPU's need this fix, but AMD / nVidia users don't. GOG cannot "preserve" one pre-applied fix for everyone and it's best to be honest about GOG's Preservation program limitations rather than engage in clumsy "over-tweaking".

Edit: For those interested, the definite fix for FEAR is EchoPatch. No idea if GOG have included that in their "preserved" version as I haven't had time to test, but if not then those serious about Game Preservation should download and back that up alongside their game. It's often minor Github projects like this, that's where all the real-world Game Preservation work is done beyond the PR pitch.

.Keys: After reading the FEAR and DA:O subforums for a bit I got my answer...

https://www.gog.com/forum/dragon_age_origins_ultimate_edition/current_plan_for_the_issues_with_dao/post55 .Keys: -
https://www.gog.com/forum/fear_series/intermittent_stuttering_persists_past_new_update_echo_patch/post1 .Keys: -
https://www.gog.com/forum/fear_series/the_new_update_broke_the_game/post1 .Keys: --

And just checked The Witcher subforums too because I remembered people had issues with it after it was added to the "marketing preservation program" - no surprise when I read new posts with problems:

https://www.gog.com/forum/the_witcher/heavy_frame_drop_and_stuttering_with_last_update_15_cs_gog_02 .Keys: ----

So yeah... basically my "FEAR" is true: Every single game GOG's touching with this freaking marketing program will be broken or have high risks of breaking. and apparently they will just ignore forum posts about the issue even on large games as Dragon Age Origins... that makes me wonder once again: What about the smaller games being added to the marketing "preservation" program? They will be "broken, on GOG, forever!"

Syphon72: As someone who tests a lot of games through the preservation program, I think it's an exaggeration to claim that every single game GOG touches with this marketing initiative will be broken or at a high risk of breaking. Most of the games have worked fine for me, and some that didn’t even start on Windows 11 are now functioning properly.

But then again maybe different users experience issues I don't.

I appreciate that you've created a thread for the games that are having issues. As I mentioned, there will be hiccups because of reasons lated to PC in genera. It's a good idea to let GOG know about these issues by submitting support cases and creating threads.

PaterAlf: Does that mean you finally removed the remnant Securom files from F.E.A.R.?

.Keys: To be completely honest with you, this saddens me a lot as GOG is my main gaming store nowadays. (Not that I buy that much games anyway.. but still..) and see this program being so badly planned hurts. What hurts more is the fact that we may have certainty that GOG has no resources, time and money to test the games they're adding to the program fully.

By that I mean that it seems impossible for GOG right now to test these games 100%, and I mean, indeed, 100%.
Change one byte of code on an exe and without the source code of that executable, it may change behaviours you didn't even know existed before.

We can clearly see this already happening with The Witcher, Dragon Age: Origins and F.E.A.R with the games apparently playing fine through the first hours, but in specific points supposedly some things break. Its as the saying goes: "Don't fix what isn't broken." These are only three examples of many games that could be being affected.

And don't get me wrong as I don't mean to be rude in no way as we are all adults here and we can all have a mature conversation on complex topics and still be civilized and human, but: I think calling this an exaggeration is not fair.

Why: Probably you guys have not played the games added to the program fully. There's no time yet for people that think this warning is exaggerated to test these games fully. First hours? Sure. Fully? I doubt it. Not even GOG could do it themselves as its clearly seem by some of the results.

Some users are clearly, also, thinking that the Preservation Program is some kind of remake of these games while, at the point of writing, its not true, but it creates an even greater marketing image.

Source: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/upgrade_to_preservation_program_editions/post6
-- And I quote: .Keys: So yeah, if forum users are thinking that, what are people outside of GOG's world thinking the "GOGs Preservation Program!" actually is?
Tell me if this is not a great marketing move. Maybe unintended, but still a marketing move.

Again: It hurts me because I respect GOG's work a lot. But I hope, I hope, really, that they hear us and review this program.
If they simply ignore our warnings and call it a profit because many are buying these games now for the pure marketing of it, as we can see by the recently added games to the program also being added to the 'best selling' list, then I will lose all my respect for GOG team.

Edit:
Some formatting fixes and english.

VanishedOne: Is this somehow related to the 'new' library entry for Ultima IV?

For some reason, as of eight hours ago I have a 'new' entry for Ultima IV in my games library, and a corresponding entry in my order history.

It seems to replace the previous entry from https://www.gog.com/en/game/ultima_456
rather than the one from https://www.gog.com/en/game/ultima_iv_quest_of_the_avatar

Syphon72: I found a new entry for Ultima IV, but the old one still appears. One is titled Ultima™ IV: Quest of the Avatar, while the new one is simply called Ultima™ IV.

Berzerk2k2: According to king_kunat that stuff seems to be hardcoded into the game and can't be removed. No idea if that's true or not as I'm not a expert in game coding etc. That's something people with more knowledge need to check.