Eh?
http://www.gog.com/game/age_of_wonders_3

That pretty explicitly says that it's not DRM-free?

So i bought the game some minutes ago, and i will prob. never ever play a multiplayergame. This is why i am not affected by the DRM this time. Which is why i will not return it this time.

But there a few things i wanted to say:

1. I only saw that this game has DRM after i bought it. The DRM Warning needs to be at the top of the page in fat red letters. Because i usualy inform myself about the games i buy here at other sources and really want to be sure i only buy DRM-Free games, without having to read the fine print. (DRM-Free is what brought me to gog in the first place else i could as well use steam)

2. Since this occurence, (me buying a not DRM-Free game on gog by mistake) i lost some of my enthusiasm i had for the gog site and team which is quite sad they were a light in these dark times.

Also about the people who say this is not drm. i read trough 4 pages of discussion if this is drm or not. And everyone can have his own opinion i guess. mine is that this is drm. Granted a decently lax one which i will prob. never limit me in my playing experience (because i am not a multiplayer). Even the gog staff seem to want to inform the costumer about the limitation of the DRM-Free part.
While i am against any form of drm on gog (if there is too many drm stuff here i will prob. stop buying games here and then prob. stop playing games altogether) at least indicate it in big bold red letters.

Thank you

There IS a big difference.
Last year, when I took my new appartment, I had no internet for a few month. I could still play GOG games : I downloaded them when I was at my parent's house for the weekend, copied the installer on a USB key, and installed it on my computer later.
SC2's DRM would simply prevent me from installing in this situation.

Let me tell you how Age of Wonders 3 crosses the line. I know the multiplayer requires some form of anti-cheat protection, but this is not hidden away in some multiplayer menu to be accessed when needed, its right in my face from the start.

Starting the game brings up a launcher and the very first thing you see (every time) is Triumph asking you to log in or create an account. To play offline I have to manually click ‘use guest account’ (every time) to which the game starts proper, the screen goes black, and you get the words ‘Signing in GUEST’. Then that pretty Age of Wonders 3 menu pops up, and in the right hand corner is ‘GUEST.’

Basically, I am very uncomfortable with this. It feels like a very lazy way of complying with GoG’s non-DRM standards by throwing in a backdoor account which is labelled as such and badgering the player for using it, not to mention it sets a worrying precedent for the future products on this store.

Well this was a bummer. Appears GOG.com is no longer the one-stop-shop to just buy a game, no additional bullshit attached.

Or you could look at it as GoG has become popular enough that developers are making exceptions-- spending additional time making the game available in a manner that gives GoG customers the core offline game without any of the usual validation schemes. It's a change that allows inclusion of a game rather than never being sold here at all.

And it makes me not consider GOG as number one anymore. I hope it serves them well, but they've just took a hit.

By the way, thank you to the reviewers who took the time to mention this garbage. I was almost buying this.
Agreed. A warning always goes a long way.
Hey, looks like there is one after all. Good.

Perfectly fine in my opinion. Some people have a misconception about what DRM actually is and what it means. A company making you get an account to play online on there servers that they pay for or to use features that connect to said server is not DRM. Multiplayer has always been a service and isn't guaranteed or implied to be around for ever.

This will likely not change for any new games released on GOG with multiplayer, get use to it... unless GOG ends up hosting there own multiplayer service for GOG games that developers can use. I actually see this happening at some point... it is the next logical step including a fully optional game client but for now this is what we got.

As long as the offline single player features work offline and and the game can be fully installed/played with no restrictions in offline then this game IS DRM free.

I would rather have the ability to make an offline account then play as a guest... but that is a bad design decision rather than DRM.

Can you confirm that the game will not play if disconnected from the internet? Is the game fooling itself into thinking its logged in as guest or is it actually logging in as guest and unable to work without phoning home.

Consequence of this DRM

If I want to to play a game of risk with 5 friends. I wold go and by one copy if risk, invite my friends and then we are ready to play.

When Diablo came out, same thing. One disk cold be used in a local setup for several players (LAN-Party).

same for the first couple of "Heroes of Might and Magic". Only one disk was needed in order to play a multi-player game. (different for single player that required the disk, every time)

Now for this game it is opposite. One can not install it on 2 or 3 computers and play a game with a few of friends.
One can't even buy some extra copies to do it. Because you can only by one copy of a game on GOG (not that I wold). Additional copies can only be gifted, so can not get several keys.

Now playing it with some friends wold promote the game, assuming they liked it.
Back when Heroes of Might and Magic came out i remember several friends end up buying it that way.

Now I assume AOW3 is something one wold like playing in multi-player sessions.

So for me buying it is a lot like getting 1/6 of a risk board, not even able to by the rest of the game.

So because of this. AOW3 is a nogo and I guess it is the same for a few others.

PS. I know that a lot of game (targeted for multi-player) Are created with DRM in this manner. But that does not make my above statement less valid.

That's generally not allowed anyway and never has been. Not every developer strongly enforces it however. Each person playing in a lan game is legally suppose to have there own/or separate copy of the game...not the same game installed on every computer.

Furthermore AOW3 doesn't really have lan yet as far as I am aware, and until it gets that feature (if it does) in the future this point is irrelevant to AOW3 anyway. Right now even you play with someone in the same area/house on 2 PC's, you would still need to connect to AOW3 servers meaning you need your own copy for each PC.

And perhaps one of the persons who try it with friends ends up liking it and buys it for himself or herself.

Erm, it may not have been enforced very much back in the day, but that has always been how it has been. Read those old TOS's.

However a chess board is designed for 2 players with one board, lan is designed for 2 players who own two copies of the game in the same house/area. Apples to oranges.

Again however, AOW3 doesn't really have lan yet... so until it gets that features really nobody can say how it will be done or what will be possible.

People in this thread don't have fair understanding of DRM... the product and the offline features of this product is DRM free. You're free to copy, install it, & play it all offline with no restrictions. Multiplayer is a service and is not a physical part of the product since your connecting to some distant server to access it & is not guaranteed to work forever, so developers are more free to restrict it's access with an account or CD keys.... ect.

From Judas: I can confirm the part about the guest account, because I only play offline. However, I can't confirm the second part, because I don't have a Triumph account, and I'm not going to get one just to test this.