Im new on GOG after having deleted my 20+ yr old account on Steam because that platform is so censured and corrupted by now, its full of porn that kids can see via loopholes in their policy, and ofc review scams on mass scales.

I had always heard GOG was supposed to be the opposite and stands for something right.
I love the platform here so far, apart from the bugs left and right when posting etc.
I have way more good to mention about GOG than bad, I will make a post about that too once I have used it more.

So Im very shocked and saddened to see u allow Whale Rock Games on ur platform here.
A company known by now by many on Steam for releaseing fake games, prototype games, 'demo' games, and games that often just simply dont even work. With 0 support from them and nothing getting fixed.
Games remaining in early acces for yrrsss without any improvements, stuck in first room without being able to progress.
They are known on Steam to be on the same lvl as Hede publisher, another company known for scamming custumors for outragious prices for games worth only 1% at most of what they set them too.
More on Hede at the end.

So, why are they here???
They have sale right now, and I strongly urge ppl to not fall for it, pls dont support them.
I have done several reviews b4 on Steam with facts and warnings about their practice, and having tested some of their games myself to be sure.
Whale Rock Games release fake prototype games and sell them as complete games or remain unfinished in EA, to leech money.
They also, in my opinion and many others, clearly giving fake positive reviews, which is very easy to spot and track down.
I saw many of those here on GOG also alr for their games. Same person giving something like 3-8 of their games a positive review, and no other reviews than those. I checked this, on all their games here, and noted their names. So im not just saying this.

I have often caught them directly lying in their reviews too, saying things that just arent true and often dont even exist in the game, to bump them up.
While this is common tactic on Steam and part of what makes that platform so bad and untrustworthy now, it also clearly happen here on GOG :(

I see there is no option to report games/devs here like u can on Steam. So I will make this post, and a ticket, hoping u take ur integrity seriously and remove this publisher/dev from ur site.
Pls dont fall. Stand on ur own 2 proud feet and do what u can to remove fake reviews and game exploits.

If u dont believe me, its just a matter of checking them out urself, go to Steams reviews and forum on their games, and verify if they match ur own xperience. And use good sense.

Why would u let ur buyers here on GOG be scammed by this, Im really wondering why u dont take them down?

Before u say 'ah bah bla u just dont like their games' or have bad pc, or some of their own ppl say here that 'oh I loved them, it worked fine for me', no thats not it.
Ive been fooled b4 and bought whole package from them, I checked out several and caught on to what they were doing right away. I then went on a whole mission on Steam bk then to bring awareness to them and their malpractice business plan.

I want to love them, but the only thing TO love about their games, is the clickbait thumbnail pic of the game, which is highly misleading too, and the IDEA of the game. which sdly is exactly what ppl fall for.

Ps they wait b4 releasing new games here vs on Steam.
I have alr checked many of their latest and they do NOT match the positive reviews, its just an outright lie what they are doing.

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In the case of Hede publisher, well I sure hope GOG will be aware of those and block them from their platform b4 they arive here too. They are well known as a fake dev/pub team using review farms for easy financial gain.
Its well thought/known by now that what they are doing is selling their games at those insanely high prices so no one buys them, so they can insert their own positive reviews and bumb them up.

Then their games are used and sold to be delivered within those key packages that ppl buy elsewhere, which only works if the review to the game has enough positive ratings, else they wont include them in their key bundles.
They can only do that by giving their own game fake positive reviews, which they then need to increase price to ridiculous prices so no real users can review them, because they will then surely be negative.
We are talking 200 euro for a game worth 1.
It appears a lot of their games have now been removed over on Steam when I checked for this post, but they have had hundreds or close to that.

There is no doubt for any seasoned gamer what Hede is doing, and while it might not quiete the same style Whale Rock Games use, its scam by selling a false product that often dont even work, or in no way is worth the price, on sale or not. With pletora of what to me looks like obvious fake reviews.

Im basing all Im saying here on the fact that I have been personally testing and playing many of their games on Steam over the yrs, made several reviews and forum posts and contacting Steam to get them removed, because they do NOT sell legit products and their intentions are not honorable.

So pls GOG, remove them from ur platform, dont let that filth infect u too :(
We have battled with this for yrs over on Steam, Hede too, because its obvious what they are doing and no one stopping it?
So would GOG pls reconsider allowing them on ur platform?
Buyers who dont in any way get what they buy?

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Im new on GOG, and unsure if this type of post is allowed here? I have tried to keep it as civil and objective as I can.
I am however not lying about my observations and I think its important to voice ur oppinion on such matters, lest it become the norm and infect this site too.

And like I mentioned, I dont just repeat what others say or say this because I didnt like 1 game that had a bug in it.
I have experience with their sketchy team and have personally played several of their games and I compared reviews to the actual game + have payed close attention to what other users have to say about the ones I didnt, tho once u know how this works and is seasoned enough, u can tell right away.

Anyway long rant sry for those tht dont care about this, but I had to get this off my chest cause I was shocked to see them on this platform, when its supposed to care about DRM free and all those gd ideals ;(
I have done my duty here for now with this post, and by bumping up the reviews here on their games that bring awareness to this, and downvoting the ones that look like obvious payed positive ones.

Pls hear our calls @GOG and look into this?

ps- Looking for likeminded friends here on GOG who are also aware of what some of these devs and pubs do, and maybe also isnt a huge fan of the woke insertion in our games.

I can tell you right now that people will stop reading after the second paragraph and just assume you are trolling.

I just ignore them, i guess are here because of war but there are other Ukrainian developers better to support, Frogwares, Stalker's...

I began to read your post but, wow what a long post! ;-)

They came here with a strong support wave of devs and publishers from Ukraine, because GoG (as Poland) is very supportive to Ukraine and their cause.

It is kinda turning a blind eye because of believes and standpoints.

There are a few other games some would call shovelware (like Chicken Strike), while those most of the time got an idea and in theory could be a few min of mindless fun.


But if you don't see RPG-Maker "erotic" game or random erotic VN from Kagura as a similar type of shovelware (hey, some seem to be decent games), shovelware is rare on GoG.
The floodgates are not open.

Welcome aboard, me hearty! I'm sure that you'll fit right in. Uh-oh. Here we go again. (Nothing personal, there have been a few posts going back and forth on at length on this matter). Don't get too accustomed to it, you may run out of positive things to say! Assuming that DRM is the only care GOG have (some would argue GOG don't care about being DRM-free enough; or that they don't curate well enough, but enough of that!), bad and incomplete games can be DRM-free too!

Can't wait do discover your follow up threads.../s

I say don't waste your breath on the Whale Rock game matter as Gog has ignored such matters and even had at different points deleted threads,reviews and comments that was talking about the same things you bring up and more about Whale Rock Games

They have ignored other worse cases to sense then that in my mind is worse given as far as I can tell atleast Whale Rock games give every store equal bad treatment where as other cases its worse where other publishers/studio's just dump the base game on here then maybe one update and not bring DLC here sighting ''issues do to tech can't update the game and can't add the DLC on the Gog platform'' or ''not enough money made on Gog to be worth it '' and other stuff like that ..

So ya while Whale Rock is not a good one atleast they given equal treatment to everyone and not give weak excuses like others that just don't want to support a Drm-free release and make excuses why they dropped support

My guess? Partly because 'must support current thing'. The above, and also this. To survive the chaos of the net with one's sanity intact, learning the art of skimmery is a must :)

For your posts, I never skim.

The games by Whale Rock Games would be the perfect candidate for an ignore function. Just saying...

Welcome to GOG, OP. If you weren't aware, there are several titles (not just demos) available to be claimed for free, and GOG occasionally gives away other titles on a time-limited basis (as do generous users of these forums). I mention this because it's a good way to start building up a GOG library for yourself. I would also recommend downloading the "backup offline installers" of the games, rather than using the Galaxy client, but your mileage may vary.

As for the topic, Whale Rock have been discussed semi-extensively on this forum, and basically any time GOG has posted about them (e.g. to announce a sale), users have excoriated them/GOG in the comments. Apparently, it is a widespread belief that this company's products are "shovelware" or otherwise not worth supporting. So, at this point, someone buying a Whale Rock game either wants the game genuinely, or has been living under a (whale) rock.

GOG is a curated store but there have been many examples over the years where people feel a game is not "worthy" of being here or that a game someone feels is "worthy" gets passed on by GOG and never arrives here. Obviously there is a degree of subjectivity at play, though I don't think you're wrong questioning this set of games. However, in terms of "damaging to the integrity of GOG" there are far bigger examples (GWENT, Galaxy-required content).

It is my belief that DRM-free enthusiasts should be focusing on the bigger examples that impact GOG's future direction as a DRM-free store, rather than not liking Whale Rock games or complaining about GOG having adult games (not directed at you or any single person in particular, but it's a frequent discussion). Here's one example, online-only (paid, too!) content for flagship CDPR game Cyberpunk: https://www.gog.com/en/game/cyberpunk2077_piggyback_interactive_map

It is thus my belief that CDPR themselves are, ironically, much more of a concern for GOG's integrity than Whale Rock is. It's CDPR games that have content that's online-only and/or locked behind a client requirement (added retroactively, in Witcher 3's case). It's their Thronebreaker which, last I checked, still forces GWENT into users accounts as a "free" "bonus" (GWENT, "the game they REALLY want you to play" rather than Thronebreaker itself).

Edit: typo

Whale Rock….shit so bad that you can’t even give it away for free. Anything in the name of virtue signaling for good ol’ gog.

Plot twist……Whale Rock is the actual direct cause of all these niggling social strifes in Europe. I’d be pissed too if I had to play this shit..

Get rid of Whale Rock and all shall prosper. Lol

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Whale Rock is GOG themselves. I mean check out SNEG (so not entirely gog).

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Yeah, that sure falls apart when you look at the RPG Maker games. We don't even have Jimmy & The Pulsating Mass or Look Outside, but we sure do have a mass of absolute garbage!

Not sure why "Look Outside" has not been released on GOG because their other game
https://www.gog.com/en/game/carrion is actually on GOG and rated good. Perhaps not enough sales, i can only guess.

GOG generally got a pretty curated collection but even GOG got some trash, by pretty objective means, due to different reasons. On Whale Rock most likely because of "social reasons". I am surely not impressed at all and i actually only got one game "Cyberpunk SFX" from them, guess because i had some coins left, it was almost free, i found the graphic interesting and i would rather hand out the last few coins to a user or a weak studio than to a bank in interest rates.

I still think some people judge certain stuff way to hard or to harsh, although always nice if someone is putting a lot of mind into it. Not necessarily the most critical spot but nothing and nobody is perfect, i say.

Do not get me wrong, the accusations related to Whale Rock are to some extend probably true. There are a lot of weird things going on and even the most optimistic lover may be able to notice how "rough" and "incompetent" those stuff seems to behave. On the other hand, apparently there is a reason why GOG and some other locations are "turning a blind eye" to it; i may not be able to understand those reasons but i do not mind. I was throwing away several hundred times more coins already just because some "big developers" who are apparently supreme along with competent publishers who had in mind that i as well should pay up to 30% more than almost any other people... just because of the location of my pretty soft chair together with many other stuff i need for a good living; and without any clue how dirty rich or bloody poor i really am.

Some people simply want to survive, somehow... no matter the methods used and some other people at least will not become as fat as a oversized rat on a almost broken sofa... because they was handing out most money they had left for "bits" instead of bites. In any case... i want to be fair to everyone and as long as i do not know the exact background, just a lot of guessing... i always say "to live and let live". If someone is truly offended a lot by a certain game or its value... there is still the "reimbursement" possible in many cases.

In the end, in a lot of cases the mind could be foolish, so, many matters can only be seen by the heart.