Woah, GOG boycott? Well, I agree on that offline installer maintenance part (I rely a lot on that). But I am just going to be a spectator, just going to watch this and see how this progress.

I also am not boycotting for my own reasons.

That said, for many here (including myself) it is less about the fact GOG chose to not sell a game and more about WHY they made that decision.

In this case, it was very likely to appease one particular country with a very nasty track record of human rights violations and etc...all so GOG can make money from customers there.

As such, it is imo not comparable to...let's say a supermarket not carrying your favorite brand of soda or some other food or drink item because they lack the shelf space.

(when GOG refused to sell some other games, that choice seemed to cause less of an "uproar" on the forums than this one....likely in part because of the likely why behind this game's removal vs the likely reasons behind GOG's refusal to carrysell those other games)

Also beyond that, you have some who dislike the fact that GOG gave a pr style reason(many gamers complaints") for the removal instead of being more honest with the user base. If this was "Good Old Games" GOG, they likely would've made a video apology or some other form of apology by now....whereas these days they usually remain tight lipped unless their bottom line is affected enough. To me, that speaks volumes all by itself.

Lastly, it's also the fact that GOG did such a move. With companies like steam people are used to such treatment, but it is harder for some to stomach when it comes from a company that supposedly cares about and listens to it's customers more than the "big boys" in the industry like steam/epic/etc.

Some aren't using steam either.

The ones who are, I assume, probably would rather do business with a company that is more honest about it's intentions than GOG...who "puts on a nice face" yet still sometimes does some things similar to what steam and co choose to do.

Also most boycotts never work unless enough people join them.

As for alternatives....there are a few like zoom platform and itch.....of course they need more business to grow to become true competition to GOG. ;)

Zoom platform has said they might add it some day...but first they have other games to bring to the store and stuff to fix/add to the site itself.

Let's be honest, Zoom's catalog is not a serious alternative neither in quantity nor in quality. And in view of GOG's evolution, Zoom may be many years away from that.

Many companies make promises to win people's good will and then don't deliver. Now you are complaining that CDProject has done just that, and you are right. Once I see Devotion in Zoom's catalog, then I will believe it.

True, but GOG also had a limited selection and etc back when it started.

The only way it is going to get better is if they improve it over time. They already said they're going to improve on some things(more games, better site, more payment options, etc)....more sales and users will likely increase the chances of more of such happening and/or it happening faster.

(essentially if people want alternatives to spring up and/or grow then they need to help make that happen by supporting new alternatives if they can and want to)

I feel the same way....I will believe it when I see it.

I would say a good definition of boycot imo is "deciding to actively ignore doing something" (such as choosing not to make an act of purchases on a platform).
That is in contrast with "protest" which could be seen as "choosing to actively show that you chose to not agree to something".
Tho I may be describing it incorrectly.

In a way GOG is currently boycotting it's estabilished international community.

Don't confuse FORUM with social media site.
Steam has uncomparably more functionality than GOG and is somewhat close to being perceived as gaming social gathering place.
But it's still not social media, AKA website dedicated to social interactions as it's PRIMARY goal.
GOG is nowhere near that level and therefore nowhere near social media status.
Also, discussing it on GOG's own forums isn't exactly an attack.
And since we are talking about attacks I dare to say many could see GOG being radio silent as personal attack.

It doesn't have to be even public to make an impact.
Not purchasing anything has SOME financial impact on boycotted entity. Even if the impact is low it STILL exists.
So it IS relevant even if just one person does it.

"Not many people will buy that so let's not give them the choice eh?"

"I'm a huge fan of Z thing so I don't see it's flaws"

You actually got it backwards.
Galaxy was always an afterthought, it didn't exist for several years since platform creation.
And even TOS describes it as ALWAYS OPTIONAL.
And now it is revealed GOG has lied about it (including contradicting it's own TOS, thus misleading customers, thus act arguably seen as illegal in many countries).
You can choose to willfully ignore something and pretend to not see it but since you claim to be a fan you should at least pay attention to how company you allegedly love contradicts itself and lies openly to customers faces.

The fundamental difference is that Steam isn't shitting on it's core principles and is not lying to it's customers like GOG does.

Itch, Playism, plus a bilion of self-selling developer sites.
Do you care about true DRM-free OR "having everything in one shop"?

I disagree. IMO Playism treats customers far more fairly and truthfully than GOG.

There is a fundamental difference between announcing a release, creating a store page, making it live, then taking it down few hours later (GOG) and never making any intention on releasing it (other platforms except for Steam, which had it for around 6 days, after which DEVELOPERS THEMSELVES took it down for their own chosen reasons, ergo Valve didn't take it down [like GOG did], developers did and that's a HUGE difference).

I wont support Zoom. It doesnt look any better than gog. And supporting another store when it doesnt do anything better is pointless.

Which really serves as a quite nice illustration why I'm wary of Zoom. If they had half a brain, they'd seize the opportunity to swoop in, release the game and snatch up some of those disgruntled gog customers (plus all the Steam folks that are waiting for a rerelease). This is an opportunity to put your company on the map. Unfortunately, the fine folks at Zoom are fucktarded beyond repair. They have "other games" to release first... What "other games"? Unless Zoom was somehow able to secure the rights to NOLF, I sincerely doubt anyone cares about the old crap they supposedly have lined up. Gog is a has-been, Zoom is a never-was.

I can buy from four or five stores, but not directly from each developer. It would be impossible to keep track of patches or updates. Not to mention going around putting payment methods into dozens of websites.

By quality I mean an assorted catalog of games, not customer service. And though I play indies too, Playsim has very few that interest me.

I'm one of the people who probably wouldn't have purchased it. After this, if it becomes legally available DRM-free, I probably will. I might even make an exception here on GOG.

I wanted to let others know that, in my own country, Italy, the Videogame Archive of the Cineteca di Bologna foundation has acquired a copy of Devotion for historical preservation, making it available to the public:

https://www.facebook.com/AVideoludico/posts/2442830032488216

A copy was also acquired by the Harvard-Yenching Library from Harvard University.

They might have more than half a brain....and that might be why they want to add more payment options, make the site more user friendly, add more games than just one(albeit one that is a focal point for a lot of talk and controversy atm), etc BEFORE focusing on adding that one game here. Just a thought.

(because eventually the appeal of any site that releases the game will likely level off over time....unless said sites have things to keep people there as customers, that is)

Huh, I wonder where we would be today if that call for a boycott was successful. Tho I really see a major difference: when regional prices were added, it got worse for some users while it became better for others, so in essence part of the customer base had good reason to be against the boycott. This time however, no one benefits from Gog shitting on their principles and pathologically lying to their customers. So a bigger adoption is to be expected.

Also it was funny (in a sad way) to see one guy claim you were overreacting because the regional prices would affect 3 (three!!) games in the entire store!! :-)
Well I'm not the OP but I'd say you're really grossly oversimplifying things when you make this boycott all about Devotion. For one, the first post included 6 reasons why he decided to boycott and Devotion was only the first.

Second, Time4Tea only speaks for himself when it comes to how important each point is so other people give them different weight. For example see mrkgnao or this excerpt by me in post #296:
Third, where did you get that idea of embracing Steam? It certainly isn't from the OP, or even later posts by Time4Tea. In fact, someone made that poor argument a lot earlier, to which Time4Tea already answered:

It is not about Devotion. GOG used us as scapegoat to not loose out on the Chinese market. They insulted us.
They are spineless cowards.
As soon as i was made aware of what they did, i decided to boycott them. But, but, but... DRM free!!! Don't care, they crossed a line.