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Welcome to our jolly dystopia.

We Happy Few, the stylish action/adventure about escaping a city of oppressive happiness, is now available, DRM-free on GOG.com, 15% off until August 13th, 7:00am UTC.

Did you take your happiness pill today? Please try not to skip on your regular doses, otherwise you might start hallucinating and seeing things that shouldn't be there. Like derelict houses dressed in colourful banners. People jumping off London Bridge with a smile painted on their faces. Violent acts against those who refuse to always look on the bright side of life.
You are not seeing any of that, are you? Because if so, you better run, hide, or quickly take your Joy with a nice cup of tea.
Fast.
Before we find you and feed it to you.

Note: Owners of the In Development version do not need to purchase the game again.
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paladin181: But yay. I did get my Jolly Brolly!!
Does it work? ;p
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richlind33: In general you're right, but when you take it to *this* level, and the game isn't even polished, you're going to offend people and/or become a laughing stock. And it kind of suggests that indy crowdfunding is more of a stopgap than a genuine alternative.
That's a bit too generalized. There were many crowdfunding projects that treated their backers well and also didn't go over board with the pricing for non-backers later.

But in this case I agree. Compulsion just seems to be after quick money and probably they saw Crowdfunding just as another way of making people give them even more money.

It's really disappointing. When they first announced the game it seemed promising. But what they made out of it is severely disappointing.
Sad thing is Compulsion's previous game Contrast was actually a very atmospheric, extremely well optimised "shadow puzzler" with Very Positive Steam reviews that I wouldn't mind seeing here on GOG. Of course that's now unlikely post MS acquisition...
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AB2012: Sad thing is Compulsion's previous game Contrast was actually a very atmospheric, extremely well optimised "shadow puzzler" with Very Positive Steam reviews that I wouldn't mind seeing here on GOG. Of course that's now unlikely post MS acquisition...
I doubt that matters as I'm pretty sure Compulsion mentioned that they have no control over it so it likely remains as unlikely to show as it was prior to the devs change of ownership. I'd guess Focus Home Interactive are the folks to ask.
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rjbuffchix: If the incompleteness offends you, you can buy base game and not support DLC.
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Lifthrasil: Or you can wait for the game to be completed in a few years. If the dev doesn't go bankrupt.

Option 1: buy an overpriced, buggy game now and pay again for any additional DLC

Option 2: wait and get the game and all DLCs at a much lower price, after the biggest bugs have been fixed.

And the dev are getting so much flak because they are asking the price of an AAA game for a procedurally generated, unfinished indie title. It's one thing to make a game expensive when you have invested millions out of your own pocket and have to re-gain that investment. But for a game that has been pre-financed via Kickstarter and is an indie title, this kind of price-tag is unreasonable.
Fair points.

I feel I may just be ultra-wary of games disappearing after Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. I really regret not buying that at release since now it's impossible.
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CharlesGrey: That said, I don't approve of their questionable business shenanigans, either. When you develop a game with the aid of crowd-funding, and rely on the trust of your supporters, you don't do a 180 and sign a deal with a traditional AAA publisher halfway through the development process. I doubt many would have donated to the campaign, knowing that it's a Gearbox or Microsoft production.
no offense meant (not to you, inf act..) but.. .are you new on this planet ?

i mean, within the last 2 years, there had been MANY crowdfunded projects that went exactly that way. I happen tobe the unhappy (but finally refunded through legal threats) backer of such a not that uncommon disaster:

- Be me
- See ulule campaign for 2dark, the upcoming game of famous french game designer Frederic Reynal (1st alone in the dark, toy commander, etc) for PC
- Contact campaign manager to ask about non steam release of game
- Manager confirms me by written ways that campaign backers will receive a DRM Free build of final release of game
- Campaign ends, game funded, and basically game dev team go DARK and silent for a couple of year (barely any notification of progress or such)
- At release, game is published by some casual industry shark, is released on PC and consoles, is Steam only on PC but ALSO get denuvo added in
- Inquires about all that to some representative and get laughed at, claiming the abandon of promised drm free build and addition of infamous denuvo only raised marginal number of complains (like, a handful of angry people)
- Many non french articles on various websites and forum about this betrayal on internet rather prooves otherwise (aka: "it is not marginal small handful number of angry backers)
- Request refund and get answered that game key was delivered
- Be glad that game dev team is based in my country so i remind them a few things about CURRENT legislation regarding customer laws and contractual code...
- Finally get refunded
- Game gets its denuvo shit cracked in less than a month
- Gloat maniacally

And i wont even mention another case like the game Riot: Civil Unrest, it is a rather "cool" salty infuriating story as well....


But i admit that We happy few raised the ante quite high with the way gearbox simply messed up the whole thing... (collector edition of the game... without the actual game... priceless joke)

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Sarasa: Those of us that bought in the past the In-dev version, are we receiving only the basic version or will it be upgraded later ?
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i_hope_you_rot: If you Kickstarted the game then you get the Season Pass for free. If not you have to buy it .
Fact is, the question is valid and remain unanswered...

Purchasing the game as in its "indev" version on GOG is different from backing the game during KS campaign.

So, yes, question is: "do GOG customers who purchased the game while it was still in a In-Dev status will get treated as if they were kickstarter backers and thus would get season pass for free, OR will they just be second-class customers again ?"

(also, keep in mind such kind of decision is not in GOG's hands, publisher would decide how to treat such customers on GOG the same as if they were backers on KS, or not)

My spider senses are tingling and i could safely bet that... NO... we here wont get season pass for free... but hey, i could be proven wrong :)
Post edited August 14, 2018 by Djaron
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groze: The same with Ninja Theory (which Microsoft also bought) and Hellblade. There's nothing Microsoft can do about it, unless there's some sort of expiry date on the contracts Ninja Theory signed with all the stores Hellblade can be bought from.
aaaw :( so sad you reminded me of that too...
i mean, ninja theory sort of half opened a hopeful door for indie industry with hellblade, and the hope door was slammed shut by microsoft buying the studio :(

i mean, for those interested, just watch the whole playlist of developer diaries videos they made about hellblade, see the potential they had brought, and cry as i do when witnessing such interesting initiative slaughtered by MS buying the studio back...

it was one of the most depressing gaming event i saw lately, along with runic studio being destroyed for daring to avoid making scam mobile game out of their IP...

all because MS is desperate and litteraly sling piles of cash in every direction to force-promote their Win10 store exclusives and their new Xbox gaming pass subscription service (which is on top of another subscription based service - xbox live -required to use most of the games they seized with their claws). Feels like therapeutical stubborness at such rate...
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Djaron: So, yes, question is: "do GOG customers who purchased the game while it was still in a In-Dev status will get treated as if they were kickstarter backers and thus would get season pass for free, OR will they just be second-class customers again ?"

(also, keep in mind such kind of decision is not in GOG's hands, publisher would decide how to treat such customers on GOG the same as if they were backers on KS, or not)

My spider senses are tingling and i could safely bet that... NO... we here wont get season pass for free... but hey, i could be proven wrong :)
How does not getting a free season pass for buying inDev make GOG users second class citizens? Steam EA participants are also not getting it. No one but KS backers are getting it. It's a backer exclusive deal.
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richlind33: In general you're right, but when you take it to *this* level, and the game isn't even polished, you're going to offend people and/or become a laughing stock. And it kind of suggests that indy crowdfunding is more of a stopgap than a genuine alternative.
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Lifthrasil: That's a bit too generalized. There were many crowdfunding projects that treated their backers well and also didn't go over board with the pricing for non-backers later.
there even were crowdfunding project(s) that treated late customers way better than early backers (like, half backer price for final release to late customers, day one... yeah HALF PRICE !)
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Djaron: So, yes, question is: "do GOG customers who purchased the game while it was still in a In-Dev status will get treated as if they were kickstarter backers and thus would get season pass for free, OR will they just be second-class customers again ?"

(also, keep in mind such kind of decision is not in GOG's hands, publisher would decide how to treat such customers on GOG the same as if they were backers on KS, or not)

My spider senses are tingling and i could safely bet that... NO... we here wont get season pass for free... but hey, i could be proven wrong :)
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paladin181: How does not getting a free season pass for buying inDev make GOG users second class citizens? Steam EA participants are also not getting it. No one but KS backers are getting it. It's a backer exclusive deal.
oh, my bad, i somehow confused season pass and preorder thing...

anyway, an unfinished game like this one in its current "just released" state, asking twice its initial price AND asking additional season pass to non backers to ever get something close to a decent full product... it's exactly the kind of scam we saw the past 2 years for AAA titles: 90-100 bucks for somehow "regular"/normal edition of the product...

For an indie, though, it is a premiere... Even paradox never went THAT HIGH for base edition...
Post edited August 14, 2018 by Djaron
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Djaron: there even were crowdfunding project(s) that treated late customers way better than early backers (like, half backer price for final release to late customers, day one... yeah HALF PRICE !)
oh, my bad, i somehow confused season pass and preorder thing...

anyway, an unfinished game like this one in its current "just released" state, asking twice its initial price AND asking additional season pass to non backers to ever get something close to a decent full product... it's exactly the kind of scam we saw the past 2 years for AAA titles: 90-100 bucks for somehow "regular"/normal edition of the product...

For an indie, though, it is a premiere... Even paradox never went THAT HIGH for base edition...
Oh yeah, this release has been a big debacle for certain.
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Djaron: there even were crowdfunding project(s) that treated late customers way better than early backers (like, half backer price for final release to late customers, day one... yeah HALF PRICE !)
oh, my bad, i somehow confused season pass and preorder thing...

anyway, an unfinished game like this one in its current "just released" state, asking twice its initial price AND asking additional season pass to non backers to ever get something close to a decent full product... it's exactly the kind of scam we saw the past 2 years for AAA titles: 90-100 bucks for somehow "regular"/normal edition of the product...

For an indie, though, it is a premiere... Even paradox never went THAT HIGH for base edition...
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paladin181: Oh yeah, this release has been a big debacle for certain.
Which is why I actually hope that it will fail big time. If they succeed with this anti-customer scheme, others will follow.
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paladin181: Oh yeah, this release has been a big debacle for certain.
well, on Steam suddenly the "recent reviews" rating is hidden (because it plunged into negative) and only "all reviews" is displayed because that one is still at mostly positive thanks to all the old early access positive reviews
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gozer: well, on Steam suddenly the "recent reviews" rating is hidden (because it plunged into negative) and only "all reviews" is displayed because that one is still at mostly positive thanks to all the old early access positive reviews
Actually the dev/pub can't hide reviews. I think it is missing the recent reviews because it recently went live. After 2 weeks that will come back because that's the minimum time period for recent reviews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx3kPmd9hjI
You've been warned :P /s
Post edited August 14, 2018 by te_lanus
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te_lanus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx3kPmd9hjI
You've been warned :P /s
It should be noted that Jim Sterling is playing the PS4 version of the game, not the PC one. Having said that, considering Compulsion signed a deal with Gearbox so that they could release console versions of their game, the way the PS4 port is in makes me even sadder about the whole thing.

Plus: some things Sterling addresses are common to ALL versions of the game, like the piss-poor combat, the survival mechanics that feel outdated and go from frustrating to downright boring, the voice acting inconsistencies (having multiple different voice actors voice a single NPC) or the ridiculously bad NPC AI. Even if the game was a technical marvel and had no bugs and no technical issues, with all of those gameplay problems dragging the good parts down, it most definitely wouldn't be worth the $60, anyway.

Oh, and Steam is already getting a patch, so I hope it won't take long until GOG customers get it, as well.