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Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

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Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#31

Post by smolder »

llmthrow102 wrote: post #14

They've also now launched the Warcraft 3 "remaster" twice, and it's still in a worse state than it was 20 years ago. First they did less than half the job, cut budget, and launched missing major features from the original project, with only some terrible new models to show that look decent up close, but bad from the overhead RTS view. Then they did a relaunch where they did lazy AI upscaling of old models and icons t…

Blizzard started down the path to failure when they merged with Activision, though I'm not sure they would have lasted much longer outside of that. It's apparent to me the only way "make quality stuff" survives as a strategy long term is to stay private like Valve. Public ownership ruins companies. They grow into inefficient messes and lose any edge they had while alienating their customers in the interest of short term gain.

Maybe companies should consider limiting their growth to stay nimble enough to provide value and stay viable. Maybe they do more good by being good at what they do than by chasing peak profit and diminishing their brands. Either way, Bobby Kotick was a bad CEO.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#32

Post by propoganda »

Still have the original war2bne disk. The change from war2 to war3 was, back then anyway, monumental. We couldn’t wait. All sorts of rumours but more than that - realities. Great things have come out of war3 of course, but damn did we jump on it with the gleam in our eye. Blizzard is no longer the company that we once knew, and what was once clear is now a distant shadow.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#33

Post by thaumasiotes »

danielskogly wrote: post #24
thaumasiotes wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Going forward, even if a game is no longer available for sale on GOG, as part of the GOG Preservation Program, it will continue to be maintained and updated by us, ensuring it remains compatible with modern and future systems. That's not worth much. They don't even maintain the games that are still for sale on GOG. Try playing Tales of Monkey Island; most of the cutscenes won't run.

Tales of Monkey Island is not part of the GOG Preservation Program as far as I can tell[0]. This policy update is for games part of the program. https://www.gog.com/en/game/tales_of_monkey_island

They have another policy specifying that they maintain the games they sell. They don't sell as-is, they warrant that the game will run appropriately.

But we know they don't honor that policy.

What would you conclude?

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#34

Post by 9x39 »

On one hand, companies sometimes add value with rereleases of older catalogs: resolution updates, new multiplayer infrastructure, new content, etc.

On the other, huge companies that could do better throw out an AI upscale, more or less, and that seems to be what this turned out to be: https://youtu.be/KZ9Ac4WVW6Q?si=9Wzjxl0Mkh4t3nMG

Too bad from a company that was once one of THE names in game development and often delaying shipping until the product was ‘right’.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#35

Post by propoganda »

cocacola1 wrote: post #28
maeil wrote: post #9

Interesting how GOG is willing to take such a hard stand of this and fight Blizzard on it, when they immediately pulled the Taiwanese horror game Devotion for political reasons [1]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/dec/17/taiwanese-horr...

> But shortly after release, Chinese players found a poster hanging in the apartment that serves as the games’ setting that said “Xi Jinping Winnie-the-Pooh moron”. > Almost 10,000 negative reviews soon flooded the game’s review page. The developer, Red Candle Games, posted an apology saying it was “purely an accident” that the poster was left in the game. 10,000 negative reviews is wild for something so banal. I can…

That’s because politicians here have lost your respect to such a degree that it’s unfathomable that you’d have any loyalty to them. It’s understandable of course, but it’s not the case everywhere.

Old Russian joke about insulting Reagan in front of the kremlin etc.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#36

Post by brobdingnagians »

It used to be exciting when a Blizzard release was coming out. Now it's just scary and a bit depressing when they announce something. I was excited all the way up through Overwatch 1, then the WC3 remaster and Overwatch 2 were awful. If they only messed up new releases it wouldnt be so bad; it's the incessant fiddling and worsening of what was good. Even of games that weren't meant to be "live service" games.

I already have WC2 on GoG and this preservation program commitment makes me think I should start ramping up buying other games from my childhood with GoG.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#37

Post by GoblinSlayer »

waveBidder wrote: post #15
3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #11

If you only read the headline, GOG is still selling both games until December 13th. Now, I have to weigh the calculus: do I buy the games just because, knowing there is basically zero chance I boot them up? What if that was Blizzard's end game -to drive scarcity?

like other game companies (cough Nintendo) their old library is viewed as direct competition with their current set of games/subscription products. also wotmrth remembering that Blizzard is now a Microsoft property.

They aren't wrong, modern games have no chance against good old Bomberman.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#38

Post by gambiting »

propoganda wrote: post #35
cocacola1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But shortly after release, Chinese players found a poster hanging in the apartment that serves as the games’ setting that said “Xi Jinping Winnie-the-Pooh moron”. > Almost 10,000 negative reviews soon flooded the game’s review page. The developer, Red Candle Games, posted an apology saying it was “purely an accident” that the poster was left in the game. 10,000 negative reviews is wild for something so banal. I can…

That’s because politicians here have lost your respect to such a degree that it’s unfathomable that you’d have any loyalty to them. It’s understandable of course, but it’s not the case everywhere. Old Russian joke about insulting Reagan in front of the kremlin etc.

>> that it’s unfathomable that you’d have any loyalty to them.

It's unfathomable that anyone anywhere has "loyalty" to any politician. They are just doing a job - what do they need loyalty for? Especially from the electorate.

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#39

Post by hackernewds »

propoganda wrote: post #35
cocacola1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But shortly after release, Chinese players found a poster hanging in the apartment that serves as the games’ setting that said “Xi Jinping Winnie-the-Pooh moron”. > Almost 10,000 negative reviews soon flooded the game’s review page. The developer, Red Candle Games, posted an apology saying it was “purely an accident” that the poster was left in the game. 10,000 negative reviews is wild for something so banal. I can…

That’s because politicians here have lost your respect to such a degree that it’s unfathomable that you’d have any loyalty to them. It’s understandable of course, but it’s not the case everywhere. Old Russian joke about insulting Reagan in front of the kremlin etc.

Great propaganda you have sold here, propaganda :)

Re: Blizzard's pulling of Warcraft I and II tests GOG's new Preservation Program

#40

Post by Jare »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #23
danielskogly wrote: post #10

Link to GOG’s announcement: https://www.gog.com/en/news/warcraft_12_will_be_delisted_fro... . Worth noting that even if it will no longer be available for sale, they will still keep it updated for people who already bought it.

> Going forward, even if a game is no longer available for sale on GOG, as part of the GOG Preservation Program, it will continue to be maintained and updated by us, ensuring it remains compatible with modern and future systems. That's not worth much. They don't even maintain the games that are still for sale on GOG. Try playing Tales of Monkey Island; most of the cutscenes won't run.

I can't put much faith in any technical promise from GOG.

My GOG account broke somehow almost 10 years ago, and over the years and several attempts they have been unable to recover it. They can't even establish why it's broken or what games I owned or if the whole thing has been irrecoverably lost.

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