Kurgan on 14/2/2013 at 23:10
Wow.
I just don't see how (or why) you turned 'phenominal, but not quite perfect' into "not good enough (rawr! gnash!)" The sentiment is completely different between the two phrases. The former makes perfect sense and is very polite, the latter comes across like Hitler speaking about Zion. Can't we at least hold our negative assumptions until all the facts are in? Doesn't it seem the least bit odd that the company that has said "we'd be pretty stupid to alienate the very people we're selling the game to" (paraphrased) would turn right around and knowingly do exactly that?
ZylonBane on 14/2/2013 at 23:16
They did in fact say that the available fan fixes weren't good enough, hence the "...so we took the game to our expert techninjas to analyse and swat the remaining bugs". This now appears to be a flat-out lie. Everything that is fixed in this release, is fixed by the community mods.
Stop being deliberately obtuse.
TheDorkProject on 15/2/2013 at 03:44
It does seem like Kurgan is bending over backwards to avoid drawing the obvious, and somewhat unflattering conclusions here.
Still, as others have said, I'm just really glad the game is available for sale again and can therefore reach a wider audience.
I've had a physical disc of the game since 2000, the box is in another state but I have the disc with me and will eventually get the box again (it's at a relative's) but I still bought the GoG version the instant it became available because I wanted to send a message to whatever powers there may be who own the rights to this series, that there is money to be made in MAKING SOMETHING HAPPEN WITH THIS IP AGAIN.
I wanted to reward GoG and whoever put a fire under whoever else's ass... and whoever allowed a fire under their ass to move them... and I'm glad I did so.
Allow me a moment to reflect on the story of when I Got SS2. Unfortunately I didn't play SS1 (other than a brief bit a few years ago to see it)
Back in 2000 I was visiting a friend's house, I was 20 at the time and his older brother was playing SS2. I remember seeing him walking around a corridor and looking at some worms on the ground. He had a laser-pistol and between that and the worms I couldn't help but think of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The laser-pistol reminded me of it, and the worms reminded me of the worms in the bowl they tried to get Picard to eat in Farpoint episode, or whatever. I may be misremembering the episode.
I asked him what the game was called, and then a few months later I was at Best Buy and saw a single, solitary copy of the game in the old school, large PC game box. I didn't buy it at that time. I think it was $20.
A couple of days or maybe it was weeks later, I call up Best Buy. I ask them if they still had the single copy of the game, which I remembered seeing. The guy looks, tells me no. I didn't trust them so I decided to drive over there and see for myself, only to find that the single copy of SS2 was in fact still there, and I grabbed it. It became one of my favorite games ever (though I took a long break after my first hybrid encounter, it freaked me out a lot, the whole atmosphere and the "I'm sorry!") and I can't imagine how lame it would be had I not gone back and found that game! 2000 was also when I played Thief 1 and 2, I got a copy of Thief with a video card or sound card or something. I loved it so much I bought the original boxed pyramid shaped Thief: The Dark Project box. Still have that too. I have Thief: Gold and Thief: TDS and the pyramid shaped Thief 2 box also.
Lusher on 15/2/2013 at 06:35
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
I think it would be safe to say that those of us who mod SS2 would have no problem donating our work to a GOG release free of charge. It's the credit-stealing that's annoying. Night Dive has an amazing accomplishment under their belt in finally getting the digital distribution rights to SS2. Why they feel the need to also lay claim to things they didn't do is utterly baffling.
One possible reason: to get the money from a System Shock 3 kickstarter.
If the buyers will believe their technical competence, they will donate.
Sneaksie on 15/2/2013 at 09:56
Quote Posted by Kurgan
Gog would not have knowingly added it or wanted to profit from someone else's unpaid work (you might not know it, but they're gamers and very cool folks who aren't in it for the money). Not their style at all.
I'm sorry, are you being serious? Fans who made the fixes didn't do this for the money - they distributed their hard work for free. NewDark authors didn't do this for the money - they distributed their very hard work for free. But a business that sells digital copies of the repackaged installer of a classic game including the hard work of all these people for $9.99 is definitely in it for the money.
All this 'we're gamers just like you' hype is so old, Interplay (RIP) used this slogan more than a decade ago, do you remember their 'By gamers, for gamers' logo? Everything a business does is for the money. Even if a company donates money to cure sick children (which I can only applaud to and support wholeheartedly) it means good PR and ultimately sales increase.
I haven't heard of any charity coming from this particular business. All their marketing could think of is repeatedly whine about being a small business and doing it not for the money. Of course. Now there is something new - publicly dismiss value of someone's other work while stealing it at the same moment.
sNeaksieGarrett on 15/2/2013 at 16:09
Well this is disheartening.:erg:
Though I doubt that A.) They intentionally lied about patching the game, and B.) I think that people are reading into the quotes too much. It's better to look at the actual release than to debate about what's been said. If what voodoo47 says is true, and those of you who have already bought and checked the folders of the game say about it, then that is troubling and says it better than some quoted text.
In any case, I think that the GOG staff should be contacted directly about this and see if we can't get some kind of resolution about this issue as Petike the Taffer suggested.
terrannova on 15/2/2013 at 16:20
Modders are mad that their stuff was used in the GOG version of System Shock 2?
Get over yourselves.
Your stuff was free and easily available to anyone on the Internet, were there any disclaimers in your mods that said "Do not sell without my permission?". No, I didn't think so. If there was or is, definitely let us know though, then GOG should write a nice compensation cheque for you...:D
In a perfect world.
sNeaksieGarrett on 15/2/2013 at 16:22
It's not that they are used in the release it is that they are used without mention of who made them.
Briareos H on 15/2/2013 at 16:25
Quote Posted by terrannova
Modders are mad that their stuff was used in the GOG version of System Shock 2?
Read the thread, would you kindly?
redrain85 on 15/2/2013 at 18:38
Quote Posted by terrannova
GOG should write a nice compensation cheque for you...:D
Are you dense? Nobody is calling for SS2 to be taken down, or to boycott it. Nobody is asking for money. Just a little common courtesy.
Night Dive/GOG claimed they did all the work in their i(
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/13/many-questions-system-shock-2-comes-to-gog/) nterview with RockPaperShotgun. That was a lie. The kicker is that they derided the work done by the fans. But, apparently, it was good enough for them to utilize anyway.
Besides, GOG has acknowledged that they've used fan-made fixes in the past and have even gone out of their way to get permission. They've given credit to Timeslip, for example. So this latest behavior is "surprising", to put it politely.
