Topic: Interesting GOG survey

[idolminds]

Hmmmm....

Survey link

GOG wants to know what to do with DLC. As pretty much all new games have DLC now and GOG wants to carry newer titles (and even as those titles turn "old"), they need to figure out how they should handle it. I figured I'd copy the questions here so we can talk about them because they are kinda tricky to answer. They are all yes/no options.

Increasingly, new games contain things such as DLC, Season Passes to DLC, or episodic content. GOG.com doesn't have many games with any of these features currently. Do you believe that GOG should:
1. Offer DLC so we can offer you more, newer games on the site
2. Offer Season Passes for DLC so we can offer you more, newer games on the site
3. Offer episodic content for uncompleted "seasons" of games so we can offer you more, newer games on the site
4. Offer Season Passes of episodic content for uncompleted "seasons" of games so we can offer you more, newer games on the site

DLC I'm cool with. They said it would still be DRM-free. Offering seasons of episodic games seems ok too. I don't know how to feel about the season pass stuff, though. It's mostly harmless but I don't know if I like it overall.

Some developers offer early access to the alpha or beta versions of their game. Do you believe that GOG.com should:
5. Offer early access to unfinished builds of actively-developed games that will contain bugs?
6. Allow fans to "buy in" early on a game's alpha or beta--for a little more money--to support the developer and help make the game better?

Alpha funding on GOG. This I would be OK with since it should be well marked and no one will force you to be buying early versions. If you'd rather wait for the final game then just wait.

There are tons of great games out there that have strong multiplayer elements and a multiplayer focus to the game (in addition to the singleplayer mode). Do you think that GOG.com should:
7. Sell games that are primarily multiplayer focused (*not MMOs*), but which require unique serial keys to play online?
8. Sell games that are primarily multiplayer focused (*not MMOs*), but which have persistent online features which are tracked on the developer's end (matchmaking, statistics, achievements, etc) and which require 3rd party accounts (i.e. a login for the developer's online service)?

Multiplayer games with a key for online seems OK. Unique identifiers to be able to police servers. Now the one about having to log in to the developers servers with a 3rd party account? That one is much much harder. Would this open them up to things like UPlay and Origin? Where does the line get drawn here between DRM-free and not? On the other hand you have a MP game like Froze Synapse that you create an account and log into their servers but is otherwise DRM-free. So...shit, I don't know.

[scottws]

I'll think about adding more later bit absolutely no on paying for alpha or beta. I think that just encourages the practice of releasing unfinished games.

In some cases, we already pay for stuff that should be beta. Now we are going to pay for stuff that is actually beta? No thanks.

[MysterD]

New GOG survey about selling Planetary Annihilation (and games like it):
http://www.gog.com/news/new_gaming_options_followup_survey

New Gaming Options: Follow-up Survey

We (still) want to hear from you!

We recently asked you guys for feedback based on some potential games that we may be able to sign in the future. The results were pretty clear--and we will be sharing them with you all soon--but we did want to ask you a single follow-up question with an actual real-world game example. One of the games that we would like to add to our catalog is Planetary Annihilation. This is an RTS with many modern gaming features, and we figured we'd use it as our test example.

Planetary Annihilation is distinctive for the following:

- Multiplayer and skirmish focused gameplay; there is no story-based single-player campaign, but AI skirmish matches provide a great single player experience.
- Optional persistent online features such as scoreboards, social features, achievements, and the online multiplayer campaign - a persistent galaxy-wide war; an account with the developer's online service is required in order to use these features.
- No activation, unique codes, or third-party accounts are required for single-player play or, LAN/direct connection multiplayer.
- A unique key is required for Internet multiplayer, and an account with the developer's service is only required for the persistent online features.