How soon will this change? I want to put my main account back on the yearly subscription, but I have to wait until my next check which is in about a week.

You have until 3/16/09 to make any account changes, which is when we are starting our internal system migration.

Nevermind, you answered my questions about tier pricing :P

What is the deal with the store? If the games are included with my membership, what are the advantages of buying through your store? Different games, secret levels, a visit from the gaming gods?

Is Premium/Gold the very highest you are offering or if I hold out is there something better?

Could you tell us the increases in price if there are going to be any? In a crap economy, fair warning would be appreciated, though I think I will just buy an annual (as long as the Windows games aren't going demo for purchase).

Sell us on this idea Cthulu (Lovecraft was great, good to see the reference)

The difference in the store games is quite simple. You can still play them once your subscription runs out. :p

and they do sell some games that arr not part of the subscription service.

The detailed subscription and pricing info will be on the blog tomorrow, I'll let you know as soon as I put it up.

The Buy and Download store is going to be a BIG upgrade from what we have now, its an area of the upgrade I'm still learning about and should be able to tell you about next week. It will work similarly to other digital store fronts like GoG, Direct2Drive and Steam.

Sounds like we are getting the best of all worlds then! Thanks for the quick responses, this is starting to sound really cool!!

The only reason I asked is cos someone mentioned Steam and then I checked out what Steam was and got the stupid notion that GT was going to be exactly like that. Sometimes its not too good to listen to what everyone says I guess!

Thanks again, now I'm excited!!

Does Metaboli even have spyware in its plugin?

Neither the Metaboli or GameTap plug-ins contain any spy-ware. (<_<)

[b]+My concerns are: #1. Do we have to download firefox? I use interner explorer and do not want to change! #2. What about the games we have downloaded already, will we still have them downloaded or will we have to download them again? #3. What about our personal playlist? Will we still have them? I'd be sooooo lost without mine! #4. Does anyone know what date this change is expected to happen, I know you say 2 weeks but I just don't want to wake up one morning in shock! :-O. I do hope everything does workout for our benifit. I love gametap! But my knees are shaking! I loved the player, it was so awesome and personal.....waaaaaaaa...my playlisttttttt, please say I won't lose my playlist. If we do, please post it so i can makes notes of my playlist ahead of time so I can find my games kk.+[/b]

> {quote:title=TinaRenee wrote:}{quote}
> [b]+My concerns are: #1. Do we have to download firefox? I use interner explorer and do not want to change! #2. What about the games we have downloaded already, will we still have them downloaded or will we have to download them again? #3. What about our personal playlist? Will we still have them? I'd be sooooo lost without mine! #4. Does anyone know what date this change is expected to happen, I know you say 2 weeks but I just don't want to wake up one morning in shock! :-O. I do hope everything does workout for our benifit. I love gametap! But my knees are shaking! I loved the player, it was so awesome and personal.....waaaaaaaa...my playlisttttttt, please say I won't lose my playlist. If we do, please post it so i can makes notes of my playlist ahead of time so I can find my games kk.+[/b]
Based on the blog and earlier posts:
#1. FireFox and IE are supported, no word on Opera or Chrome.
#2. They'll stay downloaded, no need to redownload them.
#3. Playlists will stay.
#4. The 16th.

I think the problem with playlist is mostly going to be playlist sharing, rather than playlists themselves. (But I could be wrong.)

> {quote:title=TinaRenee wrote:}{quote}
> #3. What about our personal playlist? Will we still have them? I'd be sooooo lost without mine!

According to the blog, I think the playlist functionality is going away, but they'll be converting them into an email that gets sent to you as part of the migration process. Your Favorites playlist is going to stick around in some fashion though, I believe. I haven't heard yet whether the custom playlists is a feature that's intended to return or not. Nothing to stop us from sharing playlists on the forums though, since everything will be more web-based anyway.

[b]+Edit+[/b]: LittlestCthulu has posted that details the playlist changes a little more clearly than I may have.

Will there be refunds for removing the part of the service I use the most? Subscription refund, since you're gutting multiplayer.

Penquin covered most of this already, expect for playlists. Playlists will not be sticking around, you will receive all your playlists and subscribed playlists in an email that separates each playlist and contains links to each games. There will be a new forum section for playlists. I wouldn't expect Opera or Chrome to work, but haven't had a chance to test them, Firefox and IE will be supported for browser play.

mmmyeahright, I'd recommend you contact for any billing related issues.

Sorry, I interpreted "Favorites" as playlists while skimming the blog post, my mistake.

> {quote:title=mmmyeahright wrote:}{quote}
> Will there be refunds for removing the part of the service I use the most? Subscription refund, since you're gutting multiplayer.

Sorry, but this is really getting on my nerves. "some GameTap Player features will not be available at launch" != will be removed forever. It means temporary.

> {quote:title=PenquinDude wrote:}{quote}
> Sorry, I interpreted "Favorites" as playlists while skimming the blog post, my mistake.
>
> > {quote:title=mmmyeahright wrote:}{quote}
> > Will there be refunds for removing the part of the service I use the most? Subscription refund, since you're gutting multiplayer.
>
> Sorry, but this is really getting on my nerves. "some GameTap Player features will not be available at launch" != will be removed forever. It means temporary.

Am I supposed to apologize for not wanting to pay for half the GT as I was getting before? I do not want to play in my browser in a tiny window or play street fighter by myself. When they reinstantiate the same level of service as I was getting before, I'd be happy to pay for it. I was here when they ripped the player apart before and left it broken for half the year. Not really up for that crap again.

We can't all be fanboys, penguin. Some of us do see through spin.

I get what he's saying. Gametap is changing the product we have already paid for. If we are dissatisfied, we shouldn't have to pay for it.

LittlestCthulhu

Read any Clark Ashton Smith or Solomon Kane?

My contribution to this thread is that I am in the minority it seems and I actually would prefer a browser player. Hopefully that means some day in the future while Im at work I can schedule downloads on my home computer like DISH where you can schedule your programming. Is that on the road map some day soon?

PS Complaining about the old Gametap Player vs. the improved browser player is like complaining about Firefox because it doesn't have as many "features" as the old AOL browsers. I had that clunky thing and if you are telling me that everything will be based on something I can use on a phone or at a friends house, more power to you.

well the terms of use say that gametap makes no warranties that any features will go uninterrupted so legally the don't owe any of us a refund but if they want to keep people happy then they might try to work something out with those who want out.

Someone commented on general mod silence about the update. I've been having a long think about it and thought I'd chime in with my personal opinion.

The GameTap player has obviously been around for over 3 years now. It was originally designed to be a sort of "portal" for everything GameTap, which at the time was the games service and GameTap TV.

Ever since GameTap TV went away, the service has essentially been split between two applications.. the player, which housed the games, and the website, which had the community.

Now, I've seen several suggestions over the years to bring everything under one roof, and it would seem to me that this is probably the best way to do it. Incorporating a web browser into the existing GameTap client would be difficult at best. The only other option is to reverse that equation, and put the client into the web browser instead.

Would I be happier with the situation if all the features in the existing client, such as challenge play and playlists, were included with the plugin at launch? Sure. However, I also know that there are other forces at work. Let us not forget that GameTap is in the process of transitioning over to its new ownership with Metaboli. I'm sure if you look at the screenshots of the new GameTap interface, you'll see an awful lot in common with Metaboli's layout. I remain absolutely convinced that the Metaboli acquisition is a spectacular thing for GameTap in the long-term. (both from an "insider's" point of view, and from a consumer's point of view) In the short-term, however, there are going to be teething problems and growing pains, and I think that is to be expected. This is a new thing for both companies.

What really irks me is the prejudging of the new GameTap before it even gets here. Yeah, it sucks that not all the features will be there at launch, but that doesn't mean it's time to throw the baby out with the bathwater yet. I'm willing to give it the benefit of a doubt and actually [b]use[/b] it before I go deciding whether it's a good change or a bad one.

I've heard an awful lot of crazy rumors and speculation going along with this update. GameTap's cutting games, GameTap's inserting spyware, GameTap's going to eat everything in my fridge.. Look. I have known the staff behind GameTap for about 2 years now and they are some truly classy folks. They do care what people think and they do care about providing a quality product. I get accused sometimes of going all fanboy on them, (which isn't true.. when I don't care for something I generally express my negative opinions privately), but the truth is that I trust the people running the show not to screw it up.

Sometimes things haven't gone very well (2007 game removals, the 3.5 launch could've gone better), but I know that all of it has proven a learning experience for this young company and that they're constantly improving as a result. I think the fact that we're getting a full preview of the new client with migration information over 2 weeks prior to launch is a [b]huge[/b] improvement to the information given prior to the launch of previous versions.

So my two cents is just to sit tight guys. It's going to be quite a ride, and will likely have quite a few bumps along the way, but I think the trip's going to be worth it in the end.

I'm not too upset about the changes. I'm really curious to see how it all works out.

I just want to say I believe that GT staff needs to focus on getting the missing features implemented ASAP once the update occurs, it's obviously the biggest sticking point in everyone's minds, especially multiplayer, leaderboards and fullscreen. The faster we get these features back, the happier we'll be. :D

My two cents are give me a good reason with proof why GameTap would try to actively try to alienate their fan base and I'll believe you. You're suggesting that a company is TRYING to lose money, which makes no sense.

So you're asking for proof that the claim you're making is "good" so where's the proof for your claim?
I can count on one hand the number of people who have demanded a refund in this thread. Is there some other discussion or source of information that you have and we don't?