In my opinion, it was worth the hype.

Why should they have to learn their lesson, as you say? Maybe they think most users will laugh it off and not get so upset like Gog has slapped them in the face or something, but that's just my two cents.

Yeah, I agree if you want to do something then give your customers good service not lame marketing tactics. GOG needs to realise that there were some very pee'd off people tonight and that it may cost them customers. Hey, even I was like "DAMNIT" so it's not LA, and was wishing that Steam was DRM free so I could go buy it there. You should want to win your customers not push them away. Yes I agree everything that they announced was good, but I would expect a business to announce positive things, it's not like they were gonna stand up there and tell everybody how bad it's going.

Just curious, how specifically did they mislead us? What in particular did they say that did not happen? Sure they let the hype build, but that really is not uncommon for a lot of gaming companies.

Point is, many people HAVE been upset. Read some of the other topics in the forums. This hasn't been good for GOG IMO. I mean it's not gonna break them or anything, but I'm just saying folks were mad. However you try to defend that, the fact remains that many people felt that way and that makes a statement.

I agree that some will be upset....I just don't think they should be THAT upset by it. Or at least most should be used to this sort of thing by now so there's no reason for it to surprise and upset them as much.

I think the misleading refers to the fact that the clues were worded in such a way that it was easy to assume that the games could be EA or LA. eg:

...Stars could have referred to Star Wars, Wing Commander
... Outlaws - Outlaws
... Underground - Grim Fandango etc etc etc.

Also I think many felt that the news itself was not equal to the hype that preceded and thus feel they were cheated into tuning in or getting excited about the announcement. Obviously a lot of folks won't see it this way and that is the problem with any kind of debate of this kind. Everybody has their own opinions.

They probably did think that, which is exactly what they thought would happen with the fake shutdown, but they were dead wrong. They pissed off a large number of longtime GOG supporters, a good number of whom have never returned here after the shutdown. The lesson still not learned: piss off your customers, they don't come back to buy things anymore. Its basic retail sense, which GOG does lack in some ways. They seem more interested in using stunts like the shutdown and the "mystery games" thing to bring in new customers with no thought whatsoever to keeping their current ones. There's nothing inherently wrong with using gimmicks to draw in the newbies, but they still need to respect the existing customers who do just as much to bring new business their way as the gimmicks do.

It's because once you've put alot of time and effort into a site you begin to feel self entitled and/or expecting things to happen a certain way all the time, and also you become less forgiving of even minor mistakes. I know...i've been that way myself in the past.
Being a longtimer doesn't mean you should expect to be entitled to anything more than the new customers. To think that way is being oblivious to the truth of how businesses work, i'm afraid.

Also, maybe(again) they expect people to enjoy the stunts and figure if a few Gog "fans" get upset and leave over a believed insult then to them is ok. It's not them being rude or mean.....they just know they can't please everyone and it'd be stupid to try.
It's ok to have opinions as long as they don't involve(like some cogadh mentioned) whining about it and saying one will never buy from them again and then running away in a hissy fit.

Actually, yes, loyal repeat customers should expect at least a modicum of respect and honesty from the companies they choose to do business with. That is how businesses work, especially small and growing businesses like GOG

GOG has already proven to themselves that many people, not just a few, don't enjoy these stunts so if they expected anything different this time as compared to the last time, they are only deceiving themselves and digging a deeper hole for them to get out of. This is my big problem with today's event: not that we were lied to in any way or that the news was disappointing (although I did find a very anti-climactic), it's that GOG should know better by now than to allow, intentionally or through inaction, the hype to get out of their control like they did.

They should expect a REASONABLE amount of respect, and only as long as they act respectful in turn....not go stomping off about it....note i'm talking only about those that did so & and in an over the top way, not all that did so.

As for allowing the hype to grow....well as others have said many sites do this and on each of those sites some small group always leave and never return and/or whine about it out of those who have legitimate complaints about the things in question. If some leave and they acted like nasty folk beforehand then good riddance. If they're just voicing their concern and trying to get it resolved than that's ok I guess.

There's a big difference between simply allowing hype to grow and allowing it to grow out of control. Sure a lot of people do use hype-generating gimmicks, but at the same time, they don't allow the hype to generate false rumors that set people's expectations way too high. Like I said in my first post, all GOG had to do was pop into one of the speculation threads and simply say, "this is not a new publisher". It wouldn't have diminished the hype or the speculation ( in fact, it probably would have concentrated and increased it), but it also would not have led anyone to expect too much from today's announcement.

There are always going to be some people unhappy with the way things are done here, there's nothing anyone can do about that (to be honest, who really cares if those people never come back, they probably weren't all that much fun to have around anyway) but this is one time where GOG could have done something and should have known better in the first place than to do what they did. Those old-timers that did "survive" the shutdown explained this much to GOG clearly and concisely back then (much like bazilisek tried to do with this thread) and at the time, they seemed like they got it, but it's obvious they really didn't.

Maybe they couldn't tell us it wasn't a new publisher for some reason? Or maybe they were planning in announcing one today but couldn't for some reason?

Again, whether GOG "got" it or not.....it's still their site as others have told me and it's up to them to decide how to run it.....to our detriment or not.

Uh, no, its quite clear now they never intended the "What game...?" hints to be a publisher announcement of any kind, they flat out told us in the press conference that they were all Atari games.

Sure it's GOG's site to do with as they please, but that doesn't mean that we can't express our concerns and make suggestions on what should be done differently. In fact, in the past they encouraged it. It's still their choice whether or not to take our advice, but when the same problems keep coming up (not just the hype thing, there are plenty of other lingering issues here) and GOG seems to not be listening, that can only lead to a loss of business for them in the long run.

I confess disappointment.

New PM system: Cool. Is it going online today? Oh, we get to *wait* for it?

New download app: Very cool. Is it available today? Oh, we get to *wait* for it?

New Atari games: Isn't that just expected... whatever, cool. What are they? Oh, we get to *wait* for it?

New Publisher: Great to have confirmation. Who is it? Oh, we get to *wait* for it?

Witcher on GOG: Fantastic! I've been waiting. Can we buy it now? Oh, we get to *wait* for it? It'll be available on May 10... Witcher 2 will be released on May 17... Well, I have a life and doubt I'll be able to finish the first game in seven days... Guess I'll have to play the disc version if I want to replay the first game before playing the second. Nice deal, tho. Too bad the timing kills any sense of excitement.

Witcher 2 predownload: ...ok. Is that worth all this hype?

Alone in the Dark: Cool. Can we buy it now? Yes? Well, that's something, at least.

In short, we have a game announcement (which could have been a standard front page article) and confirmation of cool things that aren't here yet. Good to know that they're on the way, but was it worth the hype? Was it worth going out of our way (getting up early, altering our normal routine, whatever) to watch the live feed?

No.