I love GOG! I joined this week and have purchased several games. It's a great alternative to Steam for gamers like myself who boycott online authentication/activation and other forms of DRM.

However, there is one simple feature that I'd like to request: patch/version notations for all games in the GOG catalogue.

Each game I bought this week seems to be patched to the most recent official patch. This is good, but I'd prefer to know what version of the game GOG hosts *before* I download.

Also, determining the best patch can be somewhat more complex than expected. For example, which version of BG2 is offered for download:
- the last stable official patch (version 26498)? (the recommended patch for most users)
- the last beta official patch (version 26499)? (NOT recommended for most users)

And does GOG have a policy regarding unofficial patches or fixpacks (such as Baldurdash or G3's BG2 Fixpack, which are widely accepted but remain a matter of individual user preference)?

What about unofficial patches released by the developers of the game in question (such as with VtM:Bloodlines)?
EDIT: It seems patch 1.2 *is* an official patch. My mistake; the confusion stemmed from Troika's closing shortly after the release of Bloodlines. Not that it matters until GOG gets Bloodlines... hint, hint. ;-)

Again, I love GOG. Don't mistake my intent for anything other than what it is: a desire to see a great service get even better!

Edit: spelling

No worries - we've asked them for this before. Hopefully they come out with a new version of the GOG downloader, it will check for versions and updates and the main website will be clearer with what version you are using. Often they'll do a forum announcement when a new official version gets put out.

As for Unofficial updates, patches, or mods, sometimes GOG will provide links or highlight them in the forum through stickies (like with Freespace, Il-2, etc...), but in general they don't officially support them - i.e. they won't do tech support for the unofficial patch.

P.S. Welcome to GOG! :)

@crazy_dave: Cool. I'd be happy with a simple notation in the catalogue. Currently, I use the Firefox add-on DownThemAll as my download manager, so a feature built into the GOG Downloader wouldn't be of much use to me (tho it would still be cool, of course). I prefer that unofficial fixes (even major bugfixes) remain optional (tho a link in the game's description is a fine idea).

Thanks for the welcome!

Btw, does GOG send an e-mail to users when it updates a game in the catalogue (either to a new patch/version or to a new installer/operating system)?

Ah yes, unofficial stuff as far as I am aware is always optional and never installed automatically, but they will occasionally provide links to get unofficial, user-driven mods and assets. Freespace 2 is a good case in point: they point to the Freespace Source Code project and mods, but if you want them, you download them yourself. I believe they also hosted a Neverwinter Nights 2 mod competition to do GOG-inspired adventures, but again, everything made there was an optional download. They will patch the games themselves in order to make some games compatible with modern systems where they otherwise wouldn't be, but beyond that user-made or otherwise "unofficial" stuff is optional.

Sometimes if you check the game forums, they'll say a particular patch number for the game - Il-2 Sturmovik as an example of this which has received patch updates since its release on GOG. However, a more formal system for doing this would not be amiss. Sadly they do not send out notifications or e-mails if a game has been patched. Unfortunately, as much as I do like GOG, I have to admit support and communication of support issues is a bit spotty.* They had at one point a message system with your account, but got rid of it after coming out of beta (before my time I never saw it). There are plans afoot however to bring some of the functionality back with a full private messaging system and more complete personal accounts.

*Apparently they used to have great support and the problem is not with the people, but the lack of them. The number of GOG users has grown much faster than the GOG staff has grown, especially the support staff, that I suspect that they are having trouble keeping up. They're too successful for their own good. :) There are also some things that need to be modernized/automized (for instance, multiplayer-keys for multiplayer in some games), which would alleviate some of the workload off the support team and speed those simple things up.

Yeah, possibly even before hell freezes over.