Whether it was necessary in a strict sense is questionable.
The reason I could imagine is, as mentioned earlier, to dismiss any concerns that certain critical voices have been excluded.
I, if I was somebody participating in such an event, might want to know that, especially if there were plans to publicize this visit later on. Agenda and stuff.
Still, even then, if it would be really necessary to give me that information... I'd say that can be debated.
BTW Did anybody wonder that only dudes participated? :D

As I haven't seen that (which doesn't mean that it isn't so) I can't really form an opinion on whether it is true or not.

If such gossip was shared, and from my experience with GOG I very highly doubt that, it would indeed reflect badly on GOG. But so far none of the 6 have claimed to have gotten such information. Which could either mean: It didn't happen (which is what I believe). OR The 6 are indeed taking their NDA serious and don't talk about it.
The first wouldn't be a problem, the second would reflect badly on GOG but not on the 6. So being angry at the 6 over it (if it had happened) seems misplaced to me.
But there haven't been any hints on that happening at all.

Edit: It could happen that I disappear now. We still have some vomiting going on here. Like I said, family is sick.

Don't be lazy, link the .jpeg properly. I know you can do it!

You are correct. It didn't happen. No such information about other users was shared.

Maybe only dudes happened to get an invite. It is not like gender of members is common knowledge to make that a factor ;-)

Given that said users actually posted themselves in this thread saying they were invited and even saying why they weren't able to come, you didn't really needed super detective skills to have a "decent idea" about other users were invited.

Like what for example ? what confidential information was disclosed ? that others users were also invited ?

Just to be clear here, and to note that I don't appreciate being painted with a wide brush, I was not dismissive of HSL's concerns, and specifically noted that I agree with his concern on the issue. If I seemed dismissive, then that's either poor communication on my part or misinterpretation on yours - or a little of both.

Again, I'd ask you to narrow that brush you're painting with. I went through all my posts in this thread and there are none that I saw where I mentioned any user-name that could not make it to Warsaw (feel free to correct me if I missed any). Nor did I even hint at or make vague descriptions. The only thing I personally mentioned was that GOG revealed a couple names and I noted some of the reasons people gave to GOG as to why they couldn't attend - but I was very clear on the fact that GOG did not attach specific reasons to specific names.

Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive here, but we're a small group, so statements like your last sentence in the above quoted section seem to indicate you believe this of all of us. I take exception to that.

None. We were privy to no 'gossip' or other user information.

Hey, they changed my gender on my plane tickets! Maybe that was an attempt at inclusion...? :P

Yep, that should count :D
Thanks for the laugh.

It's rather sad to see that this thread derailed into a cesspool of conspiracy theories, "the big evil corporation is repressing us" nonsense and other useless toxicity rather quickly. Does it really always have to be this way? Can there not be even a single discourse occur in the forums where people can act genuinely civil even when in disagreement?

I had come here to share some positive useful information and instead I find myself feeling the motivation to participate in the forums shrinking from the constant barrage of negativity and toxicity that continues to permeate the air waves on just about every topic.

No, nobody did that, it's was just peoples trying to explain you that technically NDAs could (depending how they are written, limitation they have, etc...) allows Gog or any company making one, to share all sort of information with their partners, IF they decide it's relevant to do so. And yes it can, sometime, include very personal and very confidential information, that's kind of the purpose of NDAs, have external partners have access to sensitive information normally not available outside the company.

But again, like I said earlier in this thread, the NDA between us and Gog was so that Gog could talk more freely with us about community related questions and concerns not to share with us all sort of crazy trade secrets or any ultra confidential information and especially not any private information concerning other users.

So...

Let me get this straight. Instead of talking to people here, instead of communicating at all, instead of focusing on changing things for the better, instead of considering the customers in general, GOG decides that the best move is to pay for the presence of a handful of arbitrarily selected people to engage with. Then, they muzzle said people with non-disclosure agreements so they can barely mention anything they were told.

Yeah, that's it for me and GOG, I think. I've had about as much sheer ineptitude as I can stomach. I've been a moron and played along for far too long as it is, using the rationalization of "well, I'd rather have DRM-free games, as if I don't have ten plus years worth already, even if the company selling them is incompetent" as a way to justify supporting a company I haven't believed in for quite some time.

Let this serve as my public reminder to my sale whoring, low impulse control having self that it's infinitely more important to not feel stupid while supporting something than it is to have the self-gratification of "Ooooooohhhh, another shiny bit of crap to sit on the pile that I might get around to by 2037. That's TOTALLY worth feeling like an idiot for."

Long time no see.

I think you are kind of missing the point. Sure GOG could have just put a thread up here asking what users felt and wanted, but we all know it would get hijacked and derailed and filled with shit in a matter of days and nothing important would get done. Just like the thread asking about moderation was, though I'm not sure how around you've been and whether you saw that or not.

So instead they invited a subset of users who they saw as being respected and representative of the community to have a proper full and frank meeting, with figures and details that they wouldn't be able to discuss openly in any situation. They didn't do it as a PR stunt, you don't offer to spend £1000s (if not £10000 depending on how many people were invited) to bring a few random people on a tour of your HQ just for a little good PR.
They wanted to explain to people exactly why they have done certain things, with the full weight of business information to back it up, and see how the community felt.
Yes, it would have been better if more of us could have gone and they had a wider subset of users and opinions, and that is slightly GOGs fault for not giving more notice with the invitations. But all in all I trust the people who went that if they say GOG are doing the best they can and have seen the data to back that up then I am happy.

This is GOG trying to do better, trying to improve. And it's a hell of a lot more then most companies would do.

thank god for discord

Like ... discord or Discord?

Discord

Discord?