Gudadantza: Fine or not fine the problem here is that some people would prefer to boycott the store itself instead, if that walkng simulator is NOT availabe here, based in conspiracy theories and overreactions. And that only to mention the Devotion case.

Gudadantza: Another demential fact is that It is being pushed the demand to retire some games under subjective visions. Why should not be valid the same for those games? If you dislike the state of those games then boycott them, do not purchase them.
But some of you prefer to boycot the interests of rest of users here.

Gudadantza: And do not worry. If some day GOG has DRM FOR REAL I will be the first guy to be critical with it, with my wallet specifically. Silently.

The_Puppet94: What does this mean for me as a gamer now in practise. I can download the game files. I can copy the game files but I need always an Internet connection and the steam client on the device I want to play on.

The_Puppet94: The Galaxy 2.0 client is first of all still optional. You don't need it to download any games from GOG at all. You can still download it all from their gog.com website (no problems).

The_Puppet94: Is DRM the restriction that you can't get some cosmetic (non game essential items) without multiplayer mode for example but otherwise can play the whole game just fine (and back it up and launch it in flight mode) - just not with this fancy virtual sword or hat or whatever? I dont think thats the case.

The_Puppet94: I got an honest question for you all: What is DRM for you?

Is DRM the restriction that you can't get some cosmetic (non game essential items) without multiplayer mode for example but otherwise can play the whole game just fine (and back it up and launch it in flight mode) - just not with this fancy virtual sword or hat or whatever? I dont think thats the case.

Time4Tea: I would like to announce that I have decided to boycott GOG for 2021. This is in response to several decisions the site has made over the past year that I believe have been deeply misguided:

Firstly, the continued slippage of GOG's DRM-free values. The promise of 100% DRM-free is what the site was originally founded on and yet GOG seem to be allowing this principle to be increasingly eroded. The games No Man's Sky and Absolver are two examples of games that include single-player DRM, which GOG is aware of and has failed to address. CDPR also seem to continue to believe the rules on GOG don't apply to their own games, firstly with Gwent and more recently the DRMed single-player rewards built into Cyberpunk. In addition, GOG's recent deal with Epic appears to be a cover for GOG to start selling DRMed games.

Next, the continued heavy pushing of Galaxy and the lack of maintenance of the offline installers. Several times in recent months, GOG has given incentives only to Galaxy users in the form of bonus content or free games. This has the effect of making non-Galaxy users feel like second-class customers. Also, there many well documented cases of GOG neglecting to update offline installers, even though they are updating the Galaxy versions, so they clearly have the updated files. This is not acceptable - offline installers are the core of the DRM-free concept. All of this points to a worrying trend which may ultimately lead to GOG abandoning offline installers entirely and making Galaxy mandatory.

Lastly, the recent debacle with Devotion. I won't repeat everything that has been said about this in other threads, but GOG's decision to be complicit in imposing Chinese censorship on non-Chinese users is simply unacceptable. The game needs to be released on GOG immediately.

Actions I would like to see GOG taking:

1) Release Devotion immediately.
2) Remove Gwent, No Man's Sky, Absolver (and any other DRMed games) from the store.
3) Remove DRM from the bonus cosmetics in Cyberpunk.
4) Cancel the deal with Epic.
5) Stop providing free games/incentives only to Galaxy users.
6) Assign adequate resources to maintenance of the offline installers.

For me to make any purchases on GOG this year, #1 needs to happen and at least a couple of the others. I.e. I want to see clear signs of a change in trajectory of the site, away from it's current misguided direction towards being a weak Steam competitor and back towards the principles it was founded on. I had been planning to spend $150-200 on GOG this year, but instead I will be spending that at Zoom Platform, to help build up a viable DRM-free alternative store.

Is anyone else intending to boycott GOG? Who is with me?

Edit:

People who are boycotting, to whatever degree they're comfortable with:
1) Time4Tea
2) Lifthrasil
3) mrkgnao
4) joppo
5) kdgog
6) Ancient-Red-Dragon
7) ReynardFox
8) Seceroth
9) TencentInvestor
10) pearnon
11) Leevi
12) gloombandit
13) fronzelneekburm
14) MajicMan
15) Chaossaturn
16) john_hatcher
17) Grahor
18) Orkhepaj
19) rjbuffchix
20) B1tF1ghter
21) _Auster_
22) HappyPunkPotato
23) llamas
24) rtcvb32
25) Setilla
26) fr33kSh0w2012
27) Hexchild
28) GreasyDogMeat
29) GlorFindel
30) Vendor-Lazarus
31) DevotedTitan
32) Zegpi
33) gargus
34) DrearierSpider
35) WeirdoGeek
36) Zorzy
37) Kohleran
38) plagren
39) Lesser Blight Elemental
40) Captainchicken84
41) dycaite
42) Amiko Novich
43) gloombandit
44) Agent-94
45) evilprotoss
46) TrueBlueGamer
47) faldofas
48) kaileena
49) ShadowXOR
50) Adoru
51) g00dbye
52) LordJF
53) nevasith
54) TormentFan
55) ApeKing
56) Dalswyn
57) aiMute
58) lazydog
59) Shendue
60) classic-gamer
61) nevasith
62) ResidentLeever
63) nightcraw1er.488

People who are sympathetic to the concept:
1) Breja
2) TerriblePurpose
3) morolf
4) DukeNukemForever
5) McMicroDonalds
6) WinterSnowfall
7) flanner
8) Dogmaus
9) GamezRanker
10) PirroEpirote
11) Paliper
12) W3irdN3rd
13) FiatLux
14) MasterW
15) InSaintMonoxide
16) Jorev
17) TheDcoder

(current as of post #745)

AB2012: ...there is literally nothing whatsoever to stop publishers from including those pre-order bonuses, etc, with the game as part of the regular installer for GOG releases.

The_Puppet94: I got an honest question for you all:
What is DRM for you?

mrkgnao: That is incorrect. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of DRM-free games on Steam that you can play without the steam client and without an internet connection, once you have downloaded them. Here is a link to some lists: https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games (click on the first [Expand]).

mrkgnao: That is also incorrect. Assuming you want your games to be up to date, which most people do. There are, at this moment, tens of games on GOG that are up to date on Galaxy, but are not up to date in the offline installers, and some of these have been in this state for weeks, if not months. If you want all your games to be up to date, Galaxy is no longer optional. Here is a list: https://airtable.com/shrldLsErlUf3eHqS/tbltXjS8fxEGG11eD (some of the items on the list, especially towards the end, are false positive, but there are more than enough that are not).

mrkgnao: I respect that you "dont think thats the case". Other people do think that's the case. And I don't see in your argument anything that makes your opinion more convincing than theirs. Nobody claims that No Man's Sky or Absolver or CP2077 are fully DRMed, but for some people even if 0.00001% of the game is DRMed that's enough, for that still insists on calling itself DRM-free. You may see it differently and that's ok, but it doesn't make their opinion less valid.

D.Keys: I wont scream at you haha. As people said before, that is also DRM for me.

There's also one more thing, though.
DRM is an excuse for a failed attempt agaisn't Internet Piracy, through which they get what they want: Control over what you "buy"; imho

We may understand the "You are not buying this game, but a license to play it." but, ultimately, as it worked in the past, you're buying the "game", which means, in the end, people are buying the game to play it whenever and anyway they want.

Here's a post I've made in Steam Skyrim (Oldrim) forums a while ago about this:

"It would be nice to be able to use Steam without it's DRM's, but oh well. Probably they will never do this - because we are in the "Digital Era"..
With PS5 and Xbox X coming with Digital only options of console, well, yeah.

Only company I know that is doing this fairly with DRM free games is GOG.
You can even download a installer of each of GOG games for backup after you bought it...
Why Steam won't allow us do this?

"Piracy etc etc" Well... Piracy will keep going with or without DRM games. With DRM games, ONLY the consumers that actually buy the games suffer.

Anyways, this is just my humble opinion."

toxicTom: The pre-order bonus ship of NMS also has its own little offline installer. That's simply the way it should be. That GOG/CDPR of all people would lock bonus content behind a Galaxy requirement is indeed a worrying decision, and IMO completely pointless.