Posted April 14, 2011
I'm perfectly prepared to catch some heavy flak for this, but I want to speak up as a user who cares and who wants his opinion to be heard, and make sure this voice doesn't get lost in the huge threads we already have on the subject. To put it simply, I don't think GOG handled this well. Let me explain.
1. So what did the hinting and the teasing mean in the end? That GOG will release a new game from an already signed publisher each week from now until May. That is not news, no matter how you look at it. That is what the site does. Standard operation.
By know GOG must know full well that once they start playing mysterious, the inevitable chain of guesses will start. And will lead to EA and LucasArts, because they know how much we all want these two to get on board. And that there is absolutely no way to get out of that spiral of anticipation without disappointing a lot of people if you don't actually have EA or LA to announce. It's not like this is the first time something like that happened.
Of course it's perfectly fine to tease what the new Atari games will be. But when you saw the way the speculation was headed, you should have ended it. The Alone in the Dark release is a really good one. The others might be just as strong, and well worth the teasing. But it should have been clear who the publisher was. Similarly to what you did with the rest of the Atari/Hasbro catalogue after BG. Less exciting, yes. But also less disappointing.
Yes, you can say the guesswork was all done by the community, and wash your hands clean of all that. But you stood by and watched the suspense mount without doing anything. And that was wrong.
2. The site update: great news, sure. But look at the official downloader thread. It's a very depressing read. But to make it shorter, let's go just a little back and start at this post. Read from there until the end. From what was said at the conference, I believe you already have a working alpha, perhaps a beta of the new downloader. That means you have been working on it for some time now, haven't you?
So why didn't you say anything? Even a simple "yeah, we know the downloader sucks, we'll do something about it soon" would have made a world of difference. Instead, you kept that a secret, and pulled it out as a nice surprise at the conference. But how many customers did you lose already because of that stupid old downloader you knew didn't quite work? And how many did you gain by unveiling the new one today? Can you honestly say the silence was good for your business?
3. The announcement of the announcement: actually, no criticism at all here. That was done very well. Exactly the right dose of mystery and anticipation, an exciting promise of something great for the coming months. This I applaud, as well as the good old "oh, and one last thing" stunt you pulled there.
In fact, knowing now that you had this ace up your sleeve makes the way you handled the Atari releases even more puzzling.
GOG, I was glad to see the graph showing you are doing well. Your business model absolutely deserves it, and I'm happy for you. But the two levers labelled "hype" and "mysterious silence"? Stop pulling them so hard, please.
1. So what did the hinting and the teasing mean in the end? That GOG will release a new game from an already signed publisher each week from now until May. That is not news, no matter how you look at it. That is what the site does. Standard operation.
By know GOG must know full well that once they start playing mysterious, the inevitable chain of guesses will start. And will lead to EA and LucasArts, because they know how much we all want these two to get on board. And that there is absolutely no way to get out of that spiral of anticipation without disappointing a lot of people if you don't actually have EA or LA to announce. It's not like this is the first time something like that happened.
Of course it's perfectly fine to tease what the new Atari games will be. But when you saw the way the speculation was headed, you should have ended it. The Alone in the Dark release is a really good one. The others might be just as strong, and well worth the teasing. But it should have been clear who the publisher was. Similarly to what you did with the rest of the Atari/Hasbro catalogue after BG. Less exciting, yes. But also less disappointing.
Yes, you can say the guesswork was all done by the community, and wash your hands clean of all that. But you stood by and watched the suspense mount without doing anything. And that was wrong.
2. The site update: great news, sure. But look at the official downloader thread. It's a very depressing read. But to make it shorter, let's go just a little back and start at this post. Read from there until the end. From what was said at the conference, I believe you already have a working alpha, perhaps a beta of the new downloader. That means you have been working on it for some time now, haven't you?
So why didn't you say anything? Even a simple "yeah, we know the downloader sucks, we'll do something about it soon" would have made a world of difference. Instead, you kept that a secret, and pulled it out as a nice surprise at the conference. But how many customers did you lose already because of that stupid old downloader you knew didn't quite work? And how many did you gain by unveiling the new one today? Can you honestly say the silence was good for your business?
3. The announcement of the announcement: actually, no criticism at all here. That was done very well. Exactly the right dose of mystery and anticipation, an exciting promise of something great for the coming months. This I applaud, as well as the good old "oh, and one last thing" stunt you pulled there.
In fact, knowing now that you had this ace up your sleeve makes the way you handled the Atari releases even more puzzling.
GOG, I was glad to see the graph showing you are doing well. Your business model absolutely deserves it, and I'm happy for you. But the two levers labelled "hype" and "mysterious silence"? Stop pulling them so hard, please.
