Account Linking: GOG + Why is GOG always left behind?

[eryngo]

I'd appreciate the option for linking my GOG account.

That said, when it comes to Game platforms, GOG is always the black sheep. All games, incl beta's are released to Steam followed by Epic. And after some 10+ years (with luck) the games comes to GOG... What is Paradox reason for this...?

 

[AndrewT]

I don't know for sure but I suspect it is that GoG simply don't offer that option for their accounts. Have you contacted them to ask?

The clue to why it only offers older games is in the name- Good OLD Games!

 

[eryngo]

I don't know for sure but I suspect it is that GoG simply don't offer that option for their accounts. Have you contacted them to ask?

It is Paradox who is offering the account linking (with: Steam, PSN, XBOX, Epic and Twitch). My request is to add GOG. So I have my on GOG purchased games on my Paradox account. (which isn't that weird of a question)?

You can't expect from me as (end)users to negotiate with GOG (or other game-platforms) for account linking with Paradox...

The clue to why it only offers older games is in the name- Good OLD Games!

Oh ... Thanks for explaining. It was unclear to me that Paradox should only offer/release older and dated games to GOG because it is in the platform's name.
It is still a serious question tho.

 

[AndrewT]

It is Paradox who is offering the account linking (with: Steam, PSN, XBOX, Epic and Twitch).

Yes, but it needs cooperation from the other end.

 

[eryngo]

Yes, but it needs cooperation from the other end.

So..., Can I conclude that Paradox already reached out to GOG to discus this topic; or is it your opinion that GOG should cooperate (because yes obvious they need to).

 

[AndrewT]

It is my understanding that is the case, yes - their infrastructure would need to support it (their user logging into their servers from an external site, us).

 

[eryngo]

Well allright, I've opend a ticket at GOG (495063).

 

[user0x41414141]

Well allright, I've opend a ticket at GOG (495063).

Any update on this? I'm trying to figure out how to add my GOG purchase to my account as well. Aggravating that as a customer I'm the one who needs to solve this while none of the companies explain this issue at the time of purchasing the product.

 

[AndrewT]

It is still the case that only Steam offer the facility to sync game ownership to external accounts. GoG, Epic, MS/Gamepass, Origin - none of those do this.

What are you hoping to achieve by doing that though? it would make no difference to your gameplay, nor to your forum access or anything like that.

 

[user0x41414141]

It is still the case that only Steam offer the facility to sync game ownership to external accounts. GoG, Epic, MS/Gamepass, Origin - none of those do this.

What's the point of https://beta-accounts.paradoxinteractive.com/redeem then?

edit: for context this is what the pages says above a form field to ender a redemption code:

You will receive redeem codes if you buy our games outside Steam or our own store. You might also receive them as part of our marketing promotions. In those cases, the redeem codes unlock product-specific icons and avatars on our forums or in game assets.

What are you hoping to achieve by doing that though? it would make no difference to your gameplay, nor to your forum access or anything like that.

I'm hoping to launch AoW4 from my Steam copy, using the launcher the game forces us to use, and have that launcher recognize I also own the DLCS that were bought with the premium version of the game on GOG.

 

[AndrewT]

All those codes do for you is give you extra forum icons. They do not give you free access to the game or DLCs on Steam - you've bought non-Steam versions of them, after all!

I'm afraid if you want those DLCs in your Steam account you'll have to buy Steam versions of them; whether from Steam, our store, or one of our authorised resellers.

 

[user0x41414141]

All those codes do for you is give you extra forum icons.

Poorly communicated information on the website.

They do not give you free access to the game or DLCs on Steam - you've bought non-Steam versions of them, after all!"

Absolutelly ridiculous. Same price. Same product. In fact Paradox's cut on GOG is larger than on Steam so technically they received more money from me with the GOG Premium sale than if I had bought on Steam.

This turns Paradox's "launcher" into nothing but a data collection box; useful for the company but trash for the user since it adds absolutelly no value to them.

We really do live in the clown world timeline, sadly.

Edit: By the way you contradicted your previous statements saying that the issue was basically a technical one and the responsibility of GOG

It is my understanding that is the case, yes - their infrastructure would need to support it (their user logging into their servers from an external site, us).

 

[elektrizikekswerk]

By the way you contradicted your previous statements saying that the issue was basically a technical one and the responsibility of GOG

No he didn't. It is GOG's responsibility to provide an API for the synching to work. As long as this is not the case Paradox can't do anything about it.

 

[AndrewT]

Absolutelly ridiculous. Same price. Same product. In fact Paradox's cut on GOG is larger than on Steam so technically they received more money from me with the GOG Premium sale than if I had bought on Steam.

Steam got none of your money from that sale. Why would they provide you with access to it on their systems?

This turns Paradox's "launcher" into nothing but a data collection box; useful for the company but trash for the user since it adds absolutelly no value to them.

For PDS games it is where you can enable/disable DLCs and mods, and some game settings that you'd otherwise have to do in-game then restart.

It is true most PI games do not use it that way; we have no control over how they want to use the launcher.

 

[eryngo]

Any update on this? I'm trying to figure out how to add my GOG purchase to my account as well. Aggravating that as a customer I'm the one who needs to solve this while none of the companies explain this issue at the time of purchasing the product.

Sorry for my late response; long story short: I gave up about this matter: GOG points to Paradox, and Paradox to GOG, and for some reason it is "us" the customers who need to negotiate everything.

All my (support) tickets got closed almost immediately, with little to no explenation on how or what.

/mod-edit: profanity removed

What? @elektrizikekswerk: it was an expression and not meant as a direct insult. My Apologies for violating the rules, but this feels a bit overreacted to me?

 

[user0x41414141]

Sorry for my late response; long story short: I gave up about this matter: GOG points to Paradox, and Paradox to GOG, and for some reason it is "us" the customers who need to negotiate everything.

All my (support) tickets got closed almost immediately, with little to no explenation on how or what.

I'm done with both GOG and Paradox.

GOG's "no DRM" is a sham and they don't care about the quality of the games that are sold there. While Steam's version has cloud saves working perfectly, Paradox/Developers just didn't implement the feature for GOG cloud and when questioned they just sais "LOL won't fix". GOG shouldn't allow games in an inferior state to be sold there.

Thankfully Paradox's games are getting worse and worse so I won't be missing anything looking forward.

/mod-edit: profanity removed from quote (yes, this counts, too)

 

[eryngo]

I'm done with both GOG and Paradox.

GOG's "no DRM" is a sham and they don't care about the quality of the games that are sold there. While Steam's version has cloud saves working perfectly, Paradox/Developers just didn't implement the feature for GOG cloud and when questioned they just sais "LOL won't fix". GOG shouldn't allow games in an inferior state to be sold there.

Thankfully Paradox's games are getting worse and worse so I won't be missing anything looking forward.

Offtopic but...

The main problem is that publishers and developers are focused on steam releases first, and GOG second. Some of GOG released games are "crippled" (dumbed down) to comply to GOG's DRM "free" policy, and because it is (to) difficult for publishers to maintain different versions (DRM and DRM free) of the same game they ditch GOG completely.

GOG vs Steam/ Epic/ EA-play/ Uplay/ etc. is a different topic, but all are equal: money, money, money... ;-)

Anyway, yes: Paradox has a reputation to keep in being disgusting.

P.S.: I still prefer GOG over other platforms. The DMR free policy has a bad reputation, but this is due the developers, not GOG perse. Granted: GOG needs to improve their quality control policy.

P.P.S.: Everyone has their own opinion about DRM, and since this is really a whole other topic in itself, I won't go into details about it, but the majority of game I own on GOG have no DRM what so ever. A few (like Paradox games) have 3th party EULA's because they are not using Galaxy for online play, or use game-launcher/w external accounts to facilitate crossplay. (This is not really an issue for me to be honest).

Where other platforms don't care about publishers happily install denuvo, arxan or any other software that operates at kernel-level, capable of collecting/sending all your personal data to remote servers for the sake of anti-tamper or anti-cheat "survilance"...

 

[AndrewT]

You can link Steam, Epic, PSN and MS accounts to your Paradox account. So clearly the failure to be able to link GoG accounts is not - cannot be - on Paradox's end. To the best of my knowledge GoG simply provide no facility for anyone to do that.

And of those, only Steam have a facility to sync game ownership to your Paradox account - again, that is not on Paradox but those other vendors. Were they to implement an API to do that, I see no reason why Paradox would not take advantage of that so those games would appear as icons in your Forum name here.

GoG are supposed to give you forum registration codes with each purchase of our games from them. If they are now refusing to do that, we can register games here manually for you. BUT again, all that will do is give you that icon here, nothing else. And in fact icons have not been made for many recent games; I'm not sure why.

But, we come back to what you expect to achieve by such a link. From what you said above you expect that linkage to give you free access to those products on Steam. But it will not; and does not do so for purchases from any of those other vendors. There is no syncing of game ownership from Paradox accounts to Steam or any of those vendors; in the case of Steam it is one way Steam->Paradox. And again, Steam received none of the money you paid to GoG, so have no reason to give you access to those items on their systems. If you want these items in your Steam account you must buy from them, our store, or any of other authorised resellers.

I hope that clarifies everything.

 

[eryngo]

You can link Steam, Epic, PSN and MS accounts to your Paradox account. So clearly the failure to be able to link GoG accounts is not - cannot be - on Paradox's end.

Yes, and again we go back and forth on who's to blame for not implementing or why it is not possible.

It is already clear to me that this account synchronization will never be available, so lets leave it there shall we?

But, we come back to what you expect to achieve by such a link. From what you said above you expect that linkage to give you free access to those products on Steam. But it will not [...]

Now; to be clear why I created this thread and asked about the account-linking (I've explained this already in all support tickets but heck, nobody cares to read those).

I own paradox games on both Steam and GOG, I have DLC on both Steam and GOG. I have the the "mega pack" (or w/e it was called) on GOG, and only the core and 2 DLC on Steam.

The Paradox launcher shows all games I own on Steam, but not on GOG, since there is no account link possible with GOG I don't have all DLC "available" within the Paradox launcher, and therefore I am not able to install certain MODS I'd like to try.

---

That said: I am highly disappointed in how "support" is handling this very simple question/ request. (on both GOG and Paradox side).

The clue to why it only offers older games is in the name- Good OLD Games!

... How would you like me to respond to that!?
GOG originated in selling older games, true. But they are a game-platform for developers and publishers like any other.

[...] GoG simply don't offer that option for their accounts. Have you contacted them to ask?
YES! I've contacted Paradox and GOG, in case this wasn't clear already; but we are going back and forth ain't we?



EDIT:

Nevermind, please close this thread.

 

[eryngo]

@ any moderator, please close this thread; It is going nowhere anyway.

It is clear to me that account linking is not going to work for/with GOG any time soon, or ever.