Cav's Place

Since the plan for today is to catch up on lost sleep and finish reading Heiress of Healing, all you’re getting are updated results for this test. Stumbled into the previous time I posted this, during the summer of 2010, while checking things after my hosting provider announced completing a server upgrade, so thought it was as good a time as any to take it again.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	3
Mind:	2
Body:	6.1
Spirit:	3.3
Friends/Family:	0.9
Love:	0
Finance:	3
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Body and spirit scores slightly higher, and at least in case of the spirit one I have no idea why that is, but everything else is, and is going, about as you’d expect…

My previous personal post was supposed to be a quick update but ended up long enough to make anyone reading the title wonder about my definition of the term, so this one will be different. After all, it’s once again Friday and this is the first thing I post here this week, so I just want to get it out of the way and then see what I’ll manage to write over the weekend. That should normally be the next “protest update”, but I’m not sure I’ll manage that.
Actually, since I mentioned the blog, I should probably let you know that a recent comment reminded me that I had removed Comic Sans from the list of fonts used by the rest of the site years ago, but apparently it was still the second one here, so fixed that now since it still seems to be such a fad to hate that font and what I see is the blog’s main one, Segoe Print, so don’t exactly care what the second choice is. And I definitely don’t care about the complaints about the background, while the fact that my blog looks like a site from the ’90s minus animated GIFs I’ll take as a compliment, so don’t expect that to change.

Moving on to the backlogs mentioned in that previous personal post, I can say that reply was submitted, so I hope there will be nothing else to do until the end of May, when the court date is set. In addition, at one point I was up to date with proofreading the new edition of Darkness Rising and I don’t plan to fall so far behind again, so I hope I’ll manage to go over this latest chapter I received later today as well. I also started reading Heiress of Healing and I should finish it by the end of the week, especially since it’s definitely better than I expected, although I’m beginning to have some concerns now that I moved past what I guess should be considered the first part.
On the other hand, I’m falling behind even more when it comes to my own story, as I’m adding less and less to it and that final section of part three is still waiting for me to go over it again, as are the three others finished since then, though these are at least short. And the second “death” scenario in Age of Wonders II is making me feel stupid, since the AI keeps pushing me back and, after over 100 turns, I’m far less concerned about finding a winning strategy as I am about somehow avoiding defeat. At least I won the scenario I was mentioning in that previous post, so I’m one step closer to finishing the game, but there’s a very real possibility of losing this one and needing to start it again, which hasn’t happened so late so far, my defeats only coming very early, when my wizard was either wandering the map or standing alone, or with very few defenders, in the only city with a tower.

It’s rather odd to start this update with an ending, but an announcement posted that very morning stated that the anti-fracking “resistance camp” maintained by the series of hunger strikers in front of the Bucharest National Theater since December 21 will close on March 4, people being asked to gather there to mark the event at 7 PM, before once again commemorating the child who was found dead in Aricestii Rahtivani, after inhaling gas from a conventional oil well owned by OMV Petrom and not protected by as much as a fence despite being very close to houses, an hour later.
You may recall that I found this hunger strike idea pointless at best, and likely detrimental, not to mention that it rather devalued the entire concept after dozens of people began taking turns being on strike, most of them for a single day. You may also recall that, for that reason, I largely ignored the hunger strikers all this time, but said several times that I will attend an event meant to mark the closure of the “camp”, if only as a way to express my relief and the hope that it will be replaced by actions that will actually have a point. Unfortunately, I only noticed the announcement during the afternoon and it caught me at a time when it would have been difficult to simply change clothes and walk out the door on such short notice, so all I know comes from a very brief report I read, which mentioned that about 25 people attended and little else.

Moving on to an entirely different topic, the purpose of the next day’s event was to show solidarity with Ukraine and protest against Russia’s actions. For this reason, people were asked to gather in front of the Ukrainian embassy at 6:30 PM, and from there we marched to the nearby Russian embassy. Since this time I did attend, and took a few pictures as well, I can say the march started too early, as our numbers were likely to have grown further if we’d have waited a while longer, but the person who posted the call didn’t have experience in such matters and none of the most notable activists were there either, so there was nobody to keep the more restless ones in check.
As such, about 60 of us left at 6:55 PM, arrived in the little square across the road from the entrance to the Russian embassy, since we weren’t allowed to gather right in front of it, some ten minutes later, and more or less sat around for about 15 minutes, until the person who can be said to have organized the event suddenly and unexpectedly announced that it was over. This surprised nearly everyone else so much that almost another ten minutes passed before most actually decided to leave, some spending that time wondering whether there was anything else we could do that evening so it won’t be wasted in such a manner.
A message posted the next day mentioned another protest taking place in front of the Russian embassy on March 7, between 2 PM and 4 PM. This protest was organized by an NGO and apparently properly authorized, but that message was the only one I saw about it, so I have absolutely no idea what actually happened. The same can be said about the protests organized here by the Tatar community, in support of the Crimean Tatars. More notable such protests took place in Constanta, where the number of Tatars is more significant, but I also saw announcements mentioning events in Bucharest, also in front of the Russian embassy, on March 14, from 5 PM, and March 16, from 1 PM.

Returning to March 7, a protest that was supported, even if obviously not attended, by the known activists and groups took place inside the National Library of Romania, due to the fact that the Ministry of Culture plans to take over a third of the space, including 65% of the public areas. All employees began wearing white armbands and staged something of a flash mob at noon in the Atrium, where they gathered to read in silence for ten minutes.

March 8 can be said to have started with a protest to save a small park where a gas station is to be built, one activist mentioning that those who live in the area are asking supporters to join them there at 2 PM, but I don’t know what actually happened and the day’s main event was definitely the protest against the fact that, after the law stating that stray dogs captured and not adopted within 14 days are to be killed was passed some time ago, the killings actually started here. Similar events took place in dozens of cities around the world, apparently most of them in Germany, and in Bucharest people were asked to gather in Victoriei Square from 4 PM, though some were expected to be there at 3 PM because that seems to have been the time that was initially announced, before those who were able to come earlier were asked to gather at University Square at that time instead, in order to march to Victoriei Square together.
If it’d have been a protest strictly against killing, I definitely would have attended, but instead I had to keep well away from it for the same reason I avoided all other similar events that were organized here since the talks about this law began, and by this I’m referring to the fact that, as it is pretty much anywhere in the world, the vast majority of those who are part of this movement strongly promote spaying and neutering, most supporting the laws that make it mandatory as well. I see no reason why that makes them in any way better than those who promote killing and oppose that practice just as vehemently as I oppose declawing, devocalizing, ear cropping or tail docking, and for the exact same reasons, so I’ll have nothing whatsoever to do with that crowd. Surgical sterilization is one thing and I’d recommend it for most pets as well as for most humans, but only as long as the same methods will be used, without removing functional body parts when this is not absolutely required for medical reasons.
Still, what I know is that perhaps around 1000 people, according to one estimate I saw, gathered in the square itself and protested for a few hours, before some marched back to University Square and continued the protest there for a while longer. I also know that a group staged a counter-protest, one car and a few tricycles circling the area while pulling large signs with messages describing the threat of stray dogs, supporting this law that led to the killings and asking people to notify the authorities about any dogs that need to be captured, while a similar message “greeted” the protesters from a large billboard. A small group also spread fliers, which were more focused on the child whose death started this whole mess and included a graphic picture of his body. Obviously, there was no mention of the fact that he was killed by dogs that were, at least on paper, adopted, after his grandmother had left him and his older brother out of sight and they wandered onto a private property that the dogs seemed to be guarding, which property wasn’t properly surrounded by a fence.

Moving on to the following week, while an open letter regarding Rosia Montana was sent to the new Minister of Environment on March 10, the first event that actually took place in Bucharest, as far as I’m aware, was a small authorized protest in front of the Ministry of Economy, on March 13, starting at 3 PM. A handful of people, maybe around 20, gathered there due to the fact that the new Minister Delegate for Energy is a former director of OMV Petrom, who resigned from his position within the company just before being appointed in this new position, and a message was also read.

As for March 16, while barely worth mentioning in terms of visibility or impact, the day’s most notable event from the point of view of this movement was probably the protest supposed to take place in front of the British embassy, starting at 3 PM. I’m saying it was supposed to take place there because the amount of security made that impossible, and the low number of people who attended made the whole thing rather embarrassing for all concerned. When you mean to show solidarity with the Community Fracking Blockade in Barton Moss and protest against the brutal methods employed by police against those people, yet only have 13 people show up, 15 if you also count the one who only arrived as we were getting ready to leave and the one who can be said to be more of an independent reporter firmly on the protesters’ side than an actual protester, it may be better to get back to the drawing board.
Still, somebody certainly thought we were dangerous, because the road in front of the embassy was blocked, about 20 gendarmes were visibly patrolling the area, many others were waiting in four or five vans and the actual entrance was guarded by a few people in uniforms identifying them as members of an antiterrorist unit, which a rather nervous negotiator informed us were fully armed, right before mentioning that intelligence agents were around as well. In addition, a woman appeared as soon as we started gathering right outside the area that was closed off and never shut up, accusing us of everything and its opposite, seeming to have a retort for everything, talking in Romanian, Russian, English and French, and shouting even more loudly when the manifesto was being read. We were later told she used to be an university professor but now has mental problems and can’t be reasoned with, which is of course possible, but under the circumstances many of us were wondering whether she wasn’t in fact an extremely skilled agent tasked with sabotaging our protest.
Under these circumstances, after the few who tended to react more vehemently to that woman’s behavior managed to calm down as well, we amused ourselves because of it and tried to make the best of the situation. Since we were not allowed to even walk past the embassy, on the opposite sidewalk, while displaying any signs or banners, we had to stay where we were and hold them while some pictures were taken and the manifesto was read, in both Romanian and English. We were not allowed to use a loudspeaker for that, so Erwin Albu’s loud voice had to suffice, but when Maria called someone who was at Barton Moss and asked her to describe what had happened that restriction was ignored, since there’d have been no other way for all of us to hear what was being said.
As we were getting ready to leave, the negotiator kindly informed us that we were to be carded and to consider ourselves warned, but that we will not be fined. To prevent any later surprises, this was filmed by someone, but I still had a moment of panic when the other gendarmes moved in and I suddenly realized that I didn’t have my card with me. Thankfully, I managed to recall my code and if you tell them that and your name and they match when they verify them, you don’t need to show the card, so there was no problem and we were even allowed to walk past the embassy on our way back to the boulevard. The gendarmes were extremely nervous as we did that, however, particularly when someone remarked that we’re being treated like terrorists and a couple of others started chanting against the British Government and Prime Minister. You could see their relief as soon as we left the area that was closed off, and one even wished us a good day and wanted to shake hands.

From the embassy, nearly everyone walked to Carturesti, where a meeting with Erwin Albu, Willy Schuster and Nicusor Dan was scheduled to start at 5 PM, though it was somewhat delayed because, while the first two had also participated in the protest and were obviously there along with the rest of us, the latter was late. There had apparently been a similar meeting, in a different place, the day before as well, but I have no idea how that turned out, so I can only focus on this one and say that more people trickled in as time passed and a total of 31 attended in the end, if you also count the three of them and the one who was largely there to film the meeting. Many were activists or otherwise involved in Erwin’s effort to gather the required number of signatures to run for a seat in the European Parliament at the upcoming elections, but once he stated how many had been gathered until then, making it obvious that there was no way he could meet the requirement before the deadline, I did find it odd that they seemed unable to accept the otherwise entirely expected failure and start discussing how else any structure formed with this occasion may be used, preferably aiming for goals that the other activists would support as well, such as changing the electoral law.
Worse, although Willy and Nicusor were there as strong backers of Erwin and the latter proved that he was aware of it by saying few words and choosing them carefully, attempting to defuse the situation until it became obvious that it was pointless to even try, Willy took center stage and did so in a particularly harmful manner. The fact that he advertised his organic farm was fine, after all it’s a success story, but listening to him tell his life story and talk about his convictions and beliefs, including religious ones, was at the very least boring, and at least for me increasingly annoying. However, when he moved on to attacking the United We Save and Save Rosia Montana movements for firmly refusing to have anything to do with people who want to run for office under the current electoral laws and cutting ties with him and Erwin as a result, I went from being annoyed to becoming increasingly furious and, as the crowd seemed to be starting to drop the misguided focus on still trying to gather as many signatures as possible before the deadline only to help him in piling on the shit, I took it as my cue to get ready to leave and did so shortly afterwards, at 7 PM, along with several others.
While this was going on, two protests against the way in which Antena 3, which is the most watched news television station, attacked Andrei Plesu were scheduled to take place in University Square, one starting at 5 PM and the other at 6:30 PM, this latter one being political. However, while some regular protesters did attend and the “Romania Is Protesting” page expressed support, the movement’s “official” page and the known activists largely ignored the matter, and a few even expressed opposition. Some days later, an announcement posted and shared explained the stance by reminding people that Andrei Plesu had remained silent regarding the Rosia Montana issue all this time, and when he finally decided to mention it, last year, it was in order to criticize the protesters and the “United We Save” movement. As such, the evening’s other event, namely another viewing of Vlad’s “Ich Bin Dubist (Memories from the Van)” film, which was scheduled to start at 8:30 PM, can be said to have been more notable.

Otherwise, it is spring, so the “traditional” protests organized by unions have already started, while the fact that elections are approaching means that opposition parties are organizing as many as they can as well. These events usually gather thousands of people, at times the numbers even reaching into the low tens of thousands, but they definitely have nothing to do with this movement and will not be mentioned here unless perhaps clear messages of support will be posted by the known activists or groups and I’ll happen to agree as well.

Since I should be getting ready to leave for the first, and only until June, screening of Where Are You Bucharest? in Romania, hoping I’ll still find a ticket and a seat when I get there, yet I haven’t posted anything on here this week, I’m just going to quickly mention what other things I should be doing, and in many cases should have already done. As always, still can’t figure out how can people actually get things done, or in most cases even manage to get themselves to start trying.

Perhaps most urgently, I have the option of submitting a reply to the Gendarmerie’s reply to my complaint against the fine I received for taking part in the November 7 protest, and I definitely need to write that. This seems to be something added recently, as part of the new regulations, and it is listed as an obligation for the plaintiff, but there are no penalties in case it’s not submitted, so in effect it’s an opportunity to combat any arguments mentioned in the reply to the original complaint before the trial itself, therefore making it a chance I absolutely must make full use of.
Thankfully, I quickly received a generic model from one of the lawyers helping the protesters, so I was able to start thinking of what to add to it very soon and actually wrote a draft after waking up today. I’m unhappy with it at the moment and will definitely need to ask said lawyer about it as well, especially since what I added is several times longer than the main body of the model in question, but considering the fact that I had found it too difficult to even look at the file until today, writing it even in this form definitely counts as a huge step forward, and probably not a moment too soon, considering the deadline.

Moving on, I actually won a giveaway on Goodreads and received the book on Saturday, so I definitely should be reading it in order to be able to write a review once I’m done. However, I’m yet to even start, which is obviously making me feel increasingly worse. Will clearly need to find some way to at least make myself read it next week, even if writing the review may take slightly longer.
And while I’m at books, there’s also the fact that I’m currently proofreading a new edition of another, and at the moment I’m two chapters behind on that as well. Or at least I was two chapters behind last night, since I haven’t checked my e-mail today and therefore it’s not impossible to think that I may have received yet another by now. And seeing as, regardless of my opinion about the first one in the series and the frustration caused by this second one as well, I promised to do this, I definitely have to. Sure, I didn’t promise to stick to any deadlines and none were mentioned, but that doesn’t mean I get to delay indefinitely.

As for my own writing, I recently managed to finish part three of that rough draft, but the last section is the longest one in a long time and I’m yet to even try to go over it again, for the first necessary changes and corrections. Seeing as, for a number of reasons, that particular section has also been even more difficult and embarrassing to write than most others, it’s certain to be at least equally as difficult and embarrassing to read, so I’m still struggling to figure out a way to make myself do that.
And as you can see, the blog is going no better either. Admittedly, the previous post was a lengthy and detailed piece, but what you may not know is that I meant to write that on Wednesday, instead of the shorter one I posted then, yet couldn’t even start until Friday and then it took me three days to write enough to be able to post it and yet another to go over it again and make the necessary corrections and additions, one of them particularly notable. As such, I’m once again a good two and a half weeks behind on the “protest reports” and should definitely find some way to write another by the end of this week. My goal would be to get all the way up to the end of last week, so up to March 16, but at the very worst I’ll at least need to cover March 4 to 8, which should be relatively easy as long as I’ll somehow manage to get myself started.

On a different note, since I did end my boycott of GOG.com as a result of their recent announcement, I also ended up adding Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition to my backlog of games, seeing as it was one of the three remaining on my “main” wishlist that was also in their catalog and it was on sale earlier this week. What I’m actually playing is still Age of Wonders II, however, and a couple of weeks ago I definitely hoped to be able to finish it by the end of the month, but I’m still at the scenario I had started at the time, so I still have a few before the end, and then I’ll have a review to write as well before being able to completely move on to something else.

This post will be split into three sections, so you can jump straight to the one you’re most interested in if you’d rather not go through it all at once. Since reading all of this, as well as the previous post, will provide more background and explanations, I don’t recommend that, but the option’s there for those who want it.

I. Speculation: Why this new change of plans?

Other companies would have required far more before agreeing to change their course yet again in such a manner, and some probably wouldn’t have done so except under the most extreme circumstances, holding firm largely out of stubbornness and spite, to prove the power remains in their hands and they make the rules their customers must follow. As such, by the recent announcement, GOG.com proved yet again that they’re different, that they truly care about us, their customers and community. However, while we’d like to believe that these changes are solely a result of that fact, of their genuine desire to avoid disappointing us and losing our respect, I highly doubt that this was the only reason behind their recent decision, and I’m not even sure it was the main one.

All of this is mere speculation and I sincerely apologize if I’m wrong, but I do believe that those of us who vehemently protested against their previous plans forced them to back down, or at least forced them to do so far sooner and to a greater extent than they would have done if the reaction would have been even slightly more moderate. In addition, I believe this wasn’t necessarily due to the fact that we were strong enough, but because GOG.com were already finding themselves in a weakened position, since otherwise I can’t explain why they even considered abandoning one of their two clear, specific core values, and attempted to make the most of it by taking a big risk with a deadline.
I’m referring to the fact that, with Game Developers Conference just around the corner, GOG.com needed a big enough success story to counter the defeat that needing to once again accept any sort of regional pricing obviously represents. They needed a way to justify such a retreat without making it obvious for everyone that they were pressed into waving the white flag, and three games that they should be selling anyway, released independently by developers whose other games are already in their catalog, were definitely not enough. As plenty of others pointed out as well, if they’d have built their presentation around that, they’d have been a laughing stock, so they needed something else and they needed it quickly.

The obvious conclusion is that they were looking to obtain the rights to sell some major titles, from major publishers, which are not available DRM free anywhere else, and they needed to obtain those rights before GDC, in order to be able to announce the deal there. However, this required both an understanding community, proving that GOG.com users would be willing to accept regional pricing, and strong sales for Age of Wonders III, yet instead the result was outrage, users complaining and announcing that they will boycott them from now on, probably terrible sales for that game and likely a drop in sales for the site as a whole. Perhaps worst of all, word got out that the companies behind the games in question, and perhaps the one behind Age of Wonders III in particular, were receiving complaints and being boycotted as well.
The actual effects of the protests and the boycott didn’t have to be that significant. Their proposal would have needed to be based on hard data proving an increase in sales, and likely also on the improved image the publisher will benefit from thanks to GOG.com’s community. However, any major publisher they’d approach was likely to look at the situation as being asked to to give up on something they firmly believe in, namely DRM, on very short notice, for a distributor obviously in the middle of a war with its own customers, and knowing that their image will be tarnished and their sales may actually drop as a result. The extent of the potential damage wasn’t relevant, what mattered was simply that significant immediate benefits were unlikely.

As such, their risk hadn’t paid off and the deadline was quickly approaching, so they needed another story, something else to cling on to, and what better way to find it than by returning to the community and enforcing its strength? By backing down in front of us so quickly, they send the message that we, the customers, may be stronger than the publishers when enough of us stand united, and the support we’ll once again offer them thanks to this new change of plans will make it clear that we’re once again marching together.
So they finally got their story, and likely a better, more relevant and possibly more accurate one than what they were initially aiming for: They’re still spearheading a revolution, still battling to make a rotten industry accept fair practices, and they truly have a strong “army” behind them, an “army” which has just proven itself to be even more powerful than they are alone. Those who scoffed at them so far will need to think again.

II. Analysis: What actually changed and what does it imply?

To get this out of the way first, their plans to introduce “local pricing” have been turned into an actual improvement by adding choice. The way the announcement was worded meant that there was a significant amount of doubt about this at first, but the matter was later clarified and we now know that the users who’d have had different fixed prices forced upon them for all games under the old plans will be given the option of paying either those new fixed prices or the standard ones, in US dollars. Of course, this still makes it likely that only a relatively small number of users will actually benefit from the change, the best option having been for GOG to accurately convert the USD prices into all the currencies they’ll be able to accept at least daily and allow all users to choose the one they want to pay in, but at least it now seems certain that nobody will end up paying more.
It should be noted that many of those who reacted vehemently likely perceived these “local pricing” plans as a far worse slap in the face than allowing regional pricing for a certain number of games, this being a good part of the reason why the letter meant to clarify matters only made things worse. It was a situation that absolutely needed to be addressed, because otherwise it’d have triggered renewed reactions the moment people would have seen the initial plan become reality, so GOG didn’t exactly have the option to simply try to wait out the storm. Based on some messages posted during this time, it’s also possible that they never even meant to, the fact that they didn’t intend to allow this choice from the beginning being perhaps no more than an error of judgment, albeit a major one.

What’s interesting to realize is that making “local pricing” optional may have defused the situation enough to allow them to wait it out, if they wanted and could afford to do so. The most determined protesters, such as myself, would have taken this and thrown it right in their faces as another attempt to take us for fools, and each new release that would have been regionally priced, so each success according to the strategy they had set for themselves at the time of the initial announcement, would have carried a risk of renewed complaints and protests, yet I think enough would have fallen for this old and frequently used trick of announcing something terrible before taking a step back in order to make people believe that something still clearly worse than the previous situation is actually an improvement to allow the situation to become manageable for GOG. However, and thankfully, they did not stop here.

To explain what will happen regarding regional pricing, in case somebody somehow ended up here without reading or without understanding the recent announcement and the clarifications posted after it, GOG.com will not actually return to enforcing their flat price principle, but they will cover the entire difference for the users who will end up paying more than the standard price due to their location. At the moment, they will do this by offering said users $5.99 and $9.99 gift codes to roughly make up for the difference, even exceeding it slightly, but later this year, as soon as they will implement the system, they will offer the exact amount back as store credit, which will obviously be far more useful and valuable than the codes. This ensures that users will not actually pay more for such a game, as the additional amount will count as being paid for the other games they will redeem or buy with the codes or credit, but at the same time it leaves the door open for publishers who so far refused to sign digital distribution deals with GOG because they rejected regional pricing.
Of course, precisely why they chose this route is up for debate and I have speculated about this issue above, but what’s obvious is that they picked the option that will cause them the most financial losses in order to appease both the publishers and the users as much as possible. Unfortunately, this means that publishers will have no reason to try to move away from the rotten regional pricing model, because GOG is not currently forcing them to cover any of the loss, and I would have definitely felt much better if they’d have promised to never accept any other game that uses this model after these three that they had already signed contracts for. At the same time, at least if the promised store credit will be usable to purchase any other games, including during sales, I do believe that users will no longer have a real reason to boycott or protest against GOG, as they make me feel that they took it upon themselves to continuously apologize, through deeds instead of mere words, for their ongoing betrayal of the flat price principle. If we’re to ever get rid of this rotten practice, however, the games that will be regionally priced, as well as their publishers, ought to be boycotted individually.

Before moving on to my suggestions, I’d like to also address some frequent concerns some users have expressed after this new change of plans, starting with those referring to the games we won’t see on GOG.com solely because of this. My one clear answer whenever that issue is brought up is that the only games we won’t see as a result of this are those that shouldn’t be purchased legally, which also goes for those we’re not getting due to GOG rejecting DRM. In fact, since they did not even shut that door by completely rejecting regional pricing once again, some of the games we will see will be in that category as well, so there is absolutely no reason for concern about what GOG.com won’t be able to obtain because of this. There are ways to obtain DRM free digital copies of games without paying for them and those methods should be used if you are simply interested in playing such a game, because the publishers and developers that enforce unfair practices shouldn’t be encouraged.
As for the fact that GOG.com may actually end up losing money for each sale of a regionally priced game to customers living in regions where the price is higher, possibly to the point of endangering their very survival, it should be noted that they wouldn’t have made it this far if their business sense would have been that poor. Yes, Trevor Longino initially calculated that they currently lose $2 for each copy of Age of Wonders III sold to a client living in the European Union even without considering transaction fees, but he later admitted that his numbers were wrong and they’re in fact very close to breaking even. That more or less matches my own calculations, which I don’t claim to be perfectly accurate but are definitely more so than his, and which result in something between a $1 profit and a $2 loss in that scenario, depending on the exact taxes and fees that apply, since that result does take transaction fees into account as well. However, even if they do take the worst loss, $2 per copy sold in the EU, they still earn far more than that per copy sold elsewhere, so they still make a profit out of having such games in their catalog and nobody should worry about them going bankrupt as a result. Though, of course, if such worries help convince some to avoid buying such a game, that’s even better.

III. Suggestions: How do we make the best of this?

Of course, I personally continue to firmly believe that games with regional pricing should not be on GOG, regardless of the compensation offered to those who’ll need to pay more, and maintain my initial proposal of at least creating a separate site for them instead, in case CD Projekt is so desperate to distribute them anyway. However, since the decision has been made to accept them under terms that for the moment I find tolerable, the first suggestions I want to make deal with choosing which such games ought to be selected and under what terms and conditions. After all, the offer they’re making, despite any calls to boycott such games, is likely to ensure a greater number of units sold without lowering the publisher’s profit per unit, so GOG.com will likely be in a position to refuse distribution deals offered to them by publishers who advocate this pricing model instead of needing to seek them out.
First, it’s probably safe to say that, as an exception to any other rules, games with at least ten thousand votes on the wishlist may be added as soon as possible if the stumbling block has somehow been regional pricing so far. Considering the titles on that list, I find this prospect unlikely, but I’m adding this here just in case there are any in this situation, because it’s clear that enough people want to purchase them legally and then it’ll be up to them to decide whether the terms are acceptable or they’ll choose to boycott them and wait for the publishers to give up on this pricing model instead. Once again, I strongly advocate the latter choice, however, because otherwise the situation will never change.
Otherwise, I think adding any game that uses regional pricing and has less than ten thousand votes on the wishlist should be subject to a community vote. These polls may run for a significant length of time or they may be very brief, even running for a single day, depending on the circumstances, but there shouldn’t be more than one running at any one moment. In addition, and regardless of the number of votes it has on the wishlist, whenever the contract for such a game comes up for renegotiation and the publisher refuses to eliminate regional pricing, the community should be able to vote yet again, deciding whether the new deal, whether or not it is in any way different from the old one, is acceptable or they’d rather see the game removed until the publisher will make a better offer, at which point there should be another vote, though these repeated votes probably shouldn’t count against the limit for simultaneous polls.
Games more than two years old which will have to use regional pricing if added should only be considered if they have at least one thousand votes on the wishlist, while for newer games I’m suggesting implementing a variation of the terms mentioned in my original proposal, referring to creating another site for games with regional pricing: If those games will be allowed on GOG instead and they’ll still use regional pricing two years after they were added to the catalog or three years after they were originally launched, whichever comes first, there should be a vote deciding whether the community finds it acceptable or they should be removed instead, regardless of how much time passed since the last poll caused by a renegotiation. Any game removed as a result of a poll but which would otherwise meet the requirements can of course be added again as a result of another, if the publisher will make an offer that’ll be better than the previous one.
Of course, there is a risk that all polls will have a positive outcome due to all the people who aren’t affected by regional pricing and simply don’t care about the principle itself, so I would also suggest a higher threshold for new additions, such as two thirds being in favor, with a simple majority being sufficient only to keep existing games. Some restriction as to who’ll be able to vote should most probably be implemented as well, such as only giving this right to users who have an account for at least three months, have posted at least one message on the general forum and have a positive reputation, though the time requirement may be reduced to a single month if they have made at least one purchase. In addition, it’s clear that votes should be weighed according to how the users will be affected by the pricing model, and I’d suggest a weight of one for those who’d end up paying less, two for those who’d be paying the base price, and three or four for those who’d be paying more, possibly having these two values as separate tiers reflecting the actual prices, in case there would be significant differences between the regions that would need to pay more.
All of this should obviously allow GOG to add any games they are willing and able to add, regardless of pricing model, as long as the community will actually desire said games. However, the polls and the limits ensure that such games will not be added too quickly, but instead perhaps trickle into the catalog, and also that adding them will not necessarily cater to publishers’ demands indefinitely, but only offer them a gradual path towards fairer pricing practices.

Moving on, I also have some suggestions aimed at using public image to put some more pressure on publishers to move away from the regional pricing model. The voting and the other conditions may also help, but they’ll be far from enough, both because each publisher will only be affected by them every so often and because, as I have stated above, the number of people who simply don’t care may make it too easy for nearly anything to be approved without this necessarily implying genuine interest or a true acceptance of the terms of the deal. As such, I think a system of badges should be implemented for games that use regional pricing, and this system should probably also reward the publishers who have found ways to allow GOG.com to sell their games without this pricing model despite the fact that existing contracts would have forced them into it otherwise.
I’m sure this could be done in many different ways, but the simple idea that came to me would be to use some sort of “medals” to display the publisher’s efforts. It could perhaps start with various models of bronze medals for those who would cover a part, but not all, of the compensation offered to those who’d end up paying more than the base price, different designs and/or varying amounts of visible “silver plating” providing a rough visible representation of the percentage covered. In this case, a silver medal would indicate that the publisher is covering the compensation in full, but still insists on regional pricing, regardless of the reason why this is the case, while a gold medal with a certain special design would indicate the fact that the publisher made great efforts to exempt GOG from existing contracts that’d otherwise impose regional pricing. A game that is available on GOG.com at a flat price without this having required special efforts on the part of the publisher may optionally be indicated by a plain gold medal, though this should be the norm and not necessary. Last but most definitely not least, a gold medal of a different design, perhaps enhanced with some other visual elements, such as laurels, would indicate games that are actually fairly priced, no users being charged more than the base price but those from poor countries being charged less, possibly with additional variations indicating the number of countries that benefit from such lower prices.
This would serve to offer a permanent visual representation of the efforts made by publishers towards adopting a fair pricing model, ensuring that all potential customers are aware of this whenever they look at a game’s page, or perhaps even whenever they see the title anywhere on the site, since smaller versions of the images could be displayed in most, if not all, places. As such, it would offer users far more options to “vote with their wallet”, showing them how much each publisher is willing to compromise, which is information that’d be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to obtain otherwise. In effect, this would reward publishers who are willing to make an effort, offering them an incentive to even take gradual steps if they are currently unwilling or unable to go all the way, knowing that even those steps will be noticed and may translate into a better public image and possibly better sales.