i already bought physical copies when they came out, on GoG a few months ago, and I have preordered the BGEE edition. I am pretty sure this board is full of people in my position.
@DavidW: You're not alone in that. I've always felt that DA2's issues were mechanical rather than story-related (ie: repetitive environments) and ME3... well, while I still grind my teeth when the Catalyst sequence starts (the Extended Cut went a long way towards making the ending palatable, but didn't fix any of the real problems with that whole scenario) the rest of the game is fantastic.
The gauntlet? This will only become BG:EE good. Now there's a 10 pages+ forum post about BG and modded content, there's a front page header catching everyones attention, when people sort for most sold games, guess what pops up?
This is about reaching as many people as possible with the game, and imo GoG is doing an excellent job.
If you close read the forum posts, you'll get all the remarks that points towards the very fact that all these people will buy BG:EE.
1. "I've set my resolution too high, everything seems so tiny and small, is there a zoom option?"
2. "The game became unstable when I did X and Y, is there a combined install to avoid glitches?"
3. "Game is suddenly experiencing several lag issues and framerate drops after I installed all the mods, any fix to this"
I could go on, this is all good I tell you.
One thing I learned about the competitive market of selling products, is that if you got the best in it's field, The advertising and focus the competition brings, benefits your product more in the end.
If someone asked me: "should I buy BG1 + BG2 from GOG right now, or wait for BG:EE until the end of November?" I'd say: "do both." I don't see what the problem is. GOG is just trying to market their (otherwise excellent and currently completely unique) product. That they merely mentioned BG:EE in their modding guide post is no reason to flip out, in fact they are giving BG:EE some attention by doing so. I'm pretty sure they would be very eager to sell BG:EE on their website if Beamdog was not monopolizing PC sales.
They have another news item which is a copy+paste from another forum about how to mod Planescape: Torment with the sale they had last weekend so it's not a Baldurs Gate only thing.
Suggesting how to mod Baldurs Gate 1+2 on the website is actually a good thing for poeple fresh to IE games, the "enhanced" references are abit lame though.
I don't think it'll affect BG:EE much though, anyone who knows anything about Baldurs Gate won't get confused between the two.
not that there is anything wrong with informing people and putting up a guide how to make a great modded experience of bg, closer to today standards, BUT they are being dicks i think.
a bit misleading dicks at that, because bg:ee and modded bg should not be the same "enhanced edition", as they seem to be insinuating, while capitalizing on impatient people disappointed with delay.
not that there is anything wrong with informing people and putting up a guide how to make a great modded experience of bg, closer to today standards, BUT they are being dicks i think.
a bit misleading dicks at that, because bg:ee and modded bg should not be the same "enhanced edition", as they seem to be insinuating, while capitalizing on impatient people disappointed with delay.
Exactly, they could have just as easily promoted the mods as just that, popular and well developed mods to increase/improve/augment/heighten/strengthen/boost/blah blah blah your Baldurs Gate expirience.
Tossing around "enhance" and "enhanced" constantly was abit obvious.
not that there is anything wrong with informing people and putting up a guide how to make a great modded experience of bg, closer to today standards, BUT they are being dicks i think.
a bit misleading dicks at that, because bg:ee and modded bg should not be the same "enhanced edition", as they seem to be insinuating, while capitalizing on impatient people disappointed with delay.
That's why I brought it up. When I saw "enhanced" I thought, WHOA! Beamdog made a deal with gog and I didn't hear about it? And then I clicked. Pretty lame that they did that.
indeed. so glad that "Good Old Games" supports the attempts to bring the said games to wider, fresh audience, as well as the return of old fashioned rpg's in general, which could benefit them in the long run. and not being an asshole about it at all. :sarcasm:
Already experienced a Tutu-ized BG1. I'm not getting EE for that. I'm getting it for improved compatibility and multiplayer functionality. Also, the DLC party members are going to be better than 99% of the NPC mods out there. Overhaul has also displayed a great deal of COMMON SENSE in promising an evil Thief of some sort for BG2.
GOG is cool and I doubt their intentions are to hurt any BGEE sales for real. But yeah, draw your clubs and start lynching the devil who supports many oldschool games. Next time you try to buy a cool game from back then be at least true to yourself and dont crawl back to them and use their service....
GOG, nice try. Too bad that you can offer users only 1 language version of the game, in spite the fact that it was originally released in at least few different languages, including Polish. Hastily trying to "enhance" your GOG version of the game will never make me buy it. Even if it is cheap.
I like GOG. It's the digital distribution I use the most. I certainly like it way more than Steam. Games that I buy from GOG are mine (and I've bought almost fifty games from them since I joined about a year ago.) GOG games have no DRM. They do not require activation. They do not require a client to work. So when I buy from GOG, I know I am not merely "renting" or "leasing" the games. I buy to own them. If I quit GOG, or if GOG bans or kicks me off their service, I will still be able to use the products I have already paid for at GOG, as long as I have downloaded them.
Not so with Steam When I pay for anything on Steam, I do not actually own whatever I "buy". Steam is really just a "renting" or "leasing" service. If I decide to quit Steam or uninstall the Steam client from my computers, the games will stop working. If Steam decides to cut me off from the games I bought for whatever reason, they can stop me from using the games/products I have already paid for. And Steam has the power to do it. As a consumer, I have absolutely no guarantee or protection from Steam. I still "buy" from Steam, but I will never pay full price for anything on Steam -- because of Steam's business model that is essentially a rental service. The only way Steam got me to "buy" from them was when they when offering 75% off something I wanted, and I could not get it from GOG. I try not to "buy" from Steam even when a game I want is 50% off.
I have no idea how Beamdog works. I may buy Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition from Beamdog, but most likely nothing else if the service is anything remotely like Steam. if you want to be a fanboy and whine about boycotting GOG over Baldur's Gate, it's your loss. I personally value GOG more than Beamdog or Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, because as a consumer GOG provides more value to me than Beamdog or Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition does. And as a consumer, I especially value the guaranteed protection I get when I buy from GOG.
GOG, nice try. Too bad that you can offer users only 1 language version of the game, in spite the fact that it was originally released in at least few different languages, including Polish. Hastily trying to "enhance" your GOG version of the game will never make me buy it. Even if it is cheap.
The GOG version of BG1 doesn't have Polish? I'm actually surprised.
I'm surprised by how negatively people are taking this. It's good timing by GOG and there's nothing malicious about it. I bought BG1 + SoA from them and I still plan to get the EE as well.
Those who are angry and plan to boycott GOG: do you realize how much they have done to the whole gaming community? They're a boon. They promote quality, content over graphics and DRM-free games, they keep old games and gaming communities alive and try to make everything as easy as possible for the customer, with no strings attached. Getting worked up over a single marketing campaign that may or may not have been a bad decision is just foolish, and ultimately you're shooting yourself in the foot.
I don't see Overhaul/Beamdong and GOG as competitors at all, there's too much potential for synergy and cooperation. Having both the originals (including other IE games) and the EE available is a good thing.
I was a little annoyed at their timing (as it does look a little malicious) but I'm certainly not going to boycott them. They have a lot of games that I've been looking for, and haven't been able to find anywhere else. I'm just having a hard time not seeing this as a subtle attack.
Anyone who has ever spent any time reading the posts or promotional write-ups from the Gog guys will know they are very tongue in cheek. No harm was intended.
One way you can look at is both companies are exploiting a game created 15 years ago. Of course it is something us die hards benefit from...
i do not think it is a coincidence and i do not believe their intent is purely philanthropic.
yes, their service is great, drm free stuff is as good as it gets. yes, they contribute(d) to gaming community by providing all the classics. yes, they are a blessing, compared to steam, IMO. yes i intend to use their service regardless of this offer.
IMO, i do not think any less of the value of GOG, but the way this offer is worded and it's implications are NOT COOL. minus points for GOG on a moral basis and no money spent on this offer. no change in other aspects.
It's called competition. I've really no opinion other than that. I'll still use GOG when I find something I want. I seriously doubt they'd hurt BG:EE that much with their sale. I think a lot of people may actually keep the original games along with the enhanced edition anyway.
Well, I personnally like GoG and CDPR and hope those guys and the overhaul guys can get on. Theyre both companies with love for old school RPGs and I think it would be good for them to stick together/respect each other and I hope messages like the one GOG posted doesnt cause any friction.
The general message to improve your vanilla game is good but yeah, I guess they shouldnt have implied you can essentially recreate exactly what trent and co are doing at overhaul. What seems to irk me the most though, is some of the comments of fans of BG/GOG about the article, such as:
"Oh, I love the not-so-subtle dissing of the BGEE in this article :P Two thumbs up GOG.com!"
It just gets to me for some reason that some people seem to be actively against the EE, and thus in a way they are acting against overhauls long term goals. Coincidently I remember the guy who made the above quote on posting these forums, getting his facts wrong about what the devs can/cant do with the game but still wasnt interested when he was corrected.
Now I feel bad that I bought BG from them before finding out about this project.
Also, BGEE is obviously doing things that -- with a great deal of respect to the hard-working modding community, it really is a labor of love -- a patchwork of mods just can't do. The widescreen mod with the UI tweaks alone is kind of a buggy hack, and never saw a version 1.0 release.
The general message to improve your vanilla game is good but yeah, I guess they shouldnt have implied you can essentially recreate exactly what trent and co are doing at overhaul. What seems to irk me the most though, is some of the comments of fans of BG/GOG about the article, such as:
"Oh, I love the not-so-subtle dissing of the BGEE in this article :P Two thumbs up GOG.com!"
It just gets to me for some reason that some people seem to be actively against the EE, and thus in a way they are acting against overhauls long term goals.
This kind of stuff drives me nuts too. There are so many games and companies to like, why waste your time hunting down the things you hate? I dunno, maybe there's something about the EE that they think is somehow wrong, but I can't figure out what that'd be.
It just gets to me for some reason that some people seem to be actively against the EE, and thus in a way they are acting against overhauls long term goals.
I don't understand why people are so actively against the BGEE as well. Here's a post from a mod on the Obsidian forums:
"BG1 and BG2 on GOG is a much better bet than the Enhanced Edition as things stand. They are perfectly playable and enjoyable 'vanilla', and mods can really enhance the game. In contrast, the Enhanced Edition's changes are less in the spirit of the game than the best mods, and really don't do a whole lot. It's only worthwhile if you want to play on tablets."
Comments
The gauntlet? This will only become BG:EE good. Now there's a 10 pages+ forum post about BG and modded content, there's a front page header catching everyones attention, when people sort for most sold games, guess what pops up?
This is about reaching as many people as possible with the game, and imo GoG is doing an excellent job.
If you close read the forum posts, you'll get all the remarks that points towards the very fact that all these people will buy BG:EE.
1. "I've set my resolution too high, everything seems so tiny and small, is there a zoom option?"
2. "The game became unstable when I did X and Y, is there a combined install to avoid glitches?"
3. "Game is suddenly experiencing several lag issues and framerate drops after I installed all the mods, any fix to this"
I could go on, this is all good I tell you.
One thing I learned about the competitive market of selling products, is that if you got the best in it's field, The advertising and focus the competition brings, benefits your product more in the end.
If someone asked me: "should I buy BG1 + BG2 from GOG right now, or wait for BG:EE until the end of November?" I'd say: "do both." I don't see what the problem is. GOG is just trying to market their (otherwise excellent and currently completely unique) product. That they merely mentioned BG:EE in their modding guide post is no reason to flip out, in fact they are giving BG:EE some attention by doing so. I'm pretty sure they would be very eager to sell BG:EE on their website if Beamdog was not monopolizing PC sales.
GOG posted that a few days after the BG:EE delay was announced.
Suggesting how to mod Baldurs Gate 1+2 on the website is actually a good thing for poeple fresh to IE games, the "enhanced" references are abit lame though.
I don't think it'll affect BG:EE much though, anyone who knows anything about Baldurs Gate won't get confused between the two.
a bit misleading dicks at that, because bg:ee and modded bg should not be the same "enhanced edition", as they seem to be insinuating, while capitalizing on impatient people disappointed with delay.
Tossing around "enhance" and "enhanced" constantly was abit obvious.
and not being an asshole about it at all. :sarcasm:
Also edited the title.
Not so with Steam When I pay for anything on Steam, I do not actually own whatever I "buy". Steam is really just a "renting" or "leasing" service. If I decide to quit Steam or uninstall the Steam client from my computers, the games will stop working. If Steam decides to cut me off from the games I bought for whatever reason, they can stop me from using the games/products I have already paid for. And Steam has the power to do it. As a consumer, I have absolutely no guarantee or protection from Steam. I still "buy" from Steam, but I will never pay full price for anything on Steam -- because of Steam's business model that is essentially a rental service. The only way Steam got me to "buy" from them was when they when offering 75% off something I wanted, and I could not get it from GOG. I try not to "buy" from Steam even when a game I want is 50% off.
I have no idea how Beamdog works. I may buy Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition from Beamdog, but most likely nothing else if the service is anything remotely like Steam. if you want to be a fanboy and whine about boycotting GOG over Baldur's Gate, it's your loss. I personally value GOG more than Beamdog or Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, because as a consumer GOG provides more value to me than Beamdog or Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition does. And as a consumer, I especially value the guaranteed protection I get when I buy from GOG.
Those who are angry and plan to boycott GOG: do you realize how much they have done to the whole gaming community? They're a boon. They promote quality, content over graphics and DRM-free games, they keep old games and gaming communities alive and try to make everything as easy as possible for the customer, with no strings attached. Getting worked up over a single marketing campaign that may or may not have been a bad decision is just foolish, and ultimately you're shooting yourself in the foot.
I don't see Overhaul/Beamdong and GOG as competitors at all, there's too much potential for synergy and cooperation. Having both the originals (including other IE games) and the EE available is a good thing.
One way you can look at is both companies are exploiting a game created 15 years ago. Of course it is something us die hards benefit from...
Move along, nothing to see here.
yes, their service is great, drm free stuff is as good as it gets. yes, they contribute(d) to gaming community by providing all the classics. yes, they are a blessing, compared to steam, IMO. yes i intend to use their service regardless of this offer.
IMO, i do not think any less of the value of GOG, but the way this offer is worded and it's implications are NOT COOL. minus points for GOG on a moral basis and no money spent on this offer. no change in other aspects.
The general message to improve your vanilla game is good but yeah, I guess they shouldnt have implied you can essentially recreate exactly what trent and co are doing at overhaul. What seems to irk me the most though, is some of the comments of fans of BG/GOG about the article, such as:
"Oh, I love the not-so-subtle dissing of the BGEE in this article :P Two thumbs up GOG.com!"
It just gets to me for some reason that some people seem to be actively against the EE, and thus in a way they are acting against overhauls long term goals. Coincidently I remember the guy who made the above quote on posting these forums, getting his facts wrong about what the devs can/cant do with the game but still wasnt interested when he was corrected.
Ah well, they can do what they like I guess.
Also, BGEE is obviously doing things that -- with a great deal of respect to the hard-working modding community, it really is a labor of love -- a patchwork of mods just can't do. The widescreen mod with the UI tweaks alone is kind of a buggy hack, and never saw a version 1.0 release.
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60421-which-rpg-games-to-buy-gog-sale/#entry1198928
That comment really surprises me.