B1tF1ghter: Actually it really doesn't matter how many PEOPLE do this.
What is important is how much potential spend is lost in the process.
Few high spenders can make the same impact as a whole plethora of casual spenders.
So number of PEOPLE doesn't matter BY ITSELF.
There is at least a bunch of people here in this thread alone that are loyal customers and had regular spend on GOG in past years.
Now that that's gone it punches a hole in GOG's revenue. How big is a question I cannot answer.
But it's not "non existent". It does make an impact.
If we would manage to collect here a whole lot of HVT's then GOG would get considerably financially impacted and would maybe "already" notice that the problems they produce will not go unnoticed.
But since boycott adoption rate is slow it's also slow to gain HVTs here.
That's why it's important to gain as much supporters as possible regardless of their spend size so that we EVENTUALLY punch big enough hole in GOG's finances for them to start noticing and doing something about it.
Saying "oh it's only ~100 people so I will not join
because the boycott is small" is basically admitting to refusing to take actions on a problem, refusing to get out of your comfort zone and use your will to change what's wrong with this world.
It's only adding to the general insult.
OFC the more "big spenders" (at which annual/monthly/weekly amount is someone considered a "big spender") really participate (not just on paper) is better. But I think really change is only achieved through masses of people stopping their purchases (small or big), because the majority of custumors arent prob "big spenders". Big income is always generated by many not few.
If the hole is not big enough the higher ups wont notice. In the Devotion whishlist thread a user is positing the revenue lost for GOG since he stopped buying games because of the issues he has with GOG handeling the Devotion case and other stuff. Maybe you guys could pull something like this here too.
Last, I never said I dont activley join the boycott because there are "not enough people". I don't join the boycott, because for me personally I am not at my point of dissatisfaction with GOG to go into boycott. But for all who are at this point already, I really hope it will be a success for you guys :)
coffee_darkness: is it "I can download an offline installer, run it and play the game totally offline?"
B1tF1ghter: That's what GOG advertises and as customers we shouldn't expect the company to lie in our faces.
But GOG does anyway.
All games I own can be played without galaxy. I dont play ONLINE MULTIPLAYER (for them you kinda need to connect to servers so its kinda mandatory to be ONLINE and connected I dont see this as DRM (but I dont play these games either I am a single player game nerd). For cosmetics locked behind MULTIPLAYER in some games... well I dont care for cosmetics and really dont get why optional cosmetics are important for games. The important question for me is: Can I play the game as it is intended offline without missing out on story relevant elements? If thats locked behind some online requirement for a SINGLEPLAYER game than yeah we are talking DRM imo.
Another small note on COSMETIC stuff. If you get cosmetic stuff for a game you can preorder (and you dont preorder) you dont get the cosmetic stuff. Is it DRM? No. Is preordering these days a questionable practice by itself? Yes. Do I have to preorder? No. Can I play the game without preordering and without the cosmetic goodies? Yes. For me thats the same as having an optional goodie behind an optional Multiplayer I wont touch.
coffee_darkness: but where do you draw the line I guess... expect every developer to post their game and all updates on a totally open website? or at least allow them an unobtrusive method of at least not allowing moochers to get the game for free?
B1tF1ghter: You are basically suggesting using some form of DRM in this day and age is justified for the sake of actual customers.
Which it is really not.
Agreed.
coffee_darkness: But I bet the OP thinks that GALAXY == DRM which it isn't
B1tF1ghter: You know, basically like every other page someone like you turns up who doesn't understand that:
A.GOG Galaxy is explicitly called
by GOG themselves as
ALWAYS OPTIONAL B.If some piece of in-game content is locked behind a launcher (which, mind you, is severely reducing game run capabilities since it has higher system requirements than many old games, therefore if you want to play an old game with Galaxy you either have to use new system or you just can't while if you would play without it you can play it on an older system) it
IS a DRM. And at that point Galaxy is no longer "optional" - it's not "Galaxy is optional to get this content" - it is "Galaxy is mandatory to obtain this optional content".
Why would I need to play n old game with the galaxy launcher, as far as I know there is NO tiny bit of content not even cosmetic shit of old games locked behind the Galaxy launcher. If there is any I would like to learn which games cause I dont seem to own them.
coffee_darkness: But as for pushing galaxy or not.. meh.. I personally don't mind it and kind of like the experience since I don't have to open my browser up for becoming a game maintenance platform
B1tF1ghter: "convenience over freedom"
Seems like alarmingly growing trend these days.
We can agree on "convenience over freedom" is not the trend the world should adapt to. However, imo as long as you have a personal choice, and you can choose to opt in a service knowing what the "price" aka data collection is and opt out and not pay the price and still get almost no drawback besides not getting optional COSMETIC content (when did we all start to care so much about cosmetic shit in games) i am ok with the freedom of choice.
The_Puppet94: As soon as it starts phoneing home weird shit it gets shredded into bits and bytes and good bye Galaxy.
B1tF1ghter: I hate to break it to you but it definitely does have telemetry.
At the very least it definitely scans and uploads info on your hardware/system config and I personally don't see how that is related to or could help
your gaming experience and
your personal life business.
Can you give me more info on that topic? I am really interested. What info does get collected and phoned home? Is it "just" my hardware settings, like which shitty CPU does the thinking in my PC and which shitty GPU does the pixel math? If it goes deeper my relationship with Galaxy gets terminated, if its "just" the above... well my Windows 10 Pro phones more infos home and I can't do shit about it ( I already did turn off what I possibly could).