SomeGuy8504: I would argue that if someone really hated GOG, they wouldn't want to actually come to the site and use it.
Generally, when you hate something you are disgusted to even look at it.
In this case, most of the users who are complaining have more of an ideological or intellectual problem with GOG, but that's not really enough to hate something. The service they deliver is still better than their competitors in many ways, so these users won't actually quit the store until that service actually becomes unusable.

EDIT: I guess to add to that, when you make threads like this it is mainly to incite some sort of rebellious response. These sorts of "forced" boycotts rarely work from my experience. The only boycotts that work are 'natural' ones that happen because people just don't want to buy a product anymore or use a service because it's bad or annoying.

EDIT2: Nothing against OP btw, I don't have a problem with this thread, I just think it'll ultimately be completely ineffective.

eando52: I'm not a gamer as I have no real experience. Is there a quick bit of advice anyone can offer to get started on a game, or is it a matter of patience and trial and error?

Time4Tea: It's disappointing. It seems the site these days is populated by people who are happy to turn a blind eye and sweep GOG's misdeeds under the carpet, rather than try to hold them accountable.

morolf: They're just addicts desperate to get their fix, so they're willing to excuse anything Gog does, lol.
I honestly don't get how anyone can defend Gog's stance about that Devotion game, their framing of it as a pro-consumer action (instead of bending to political pressure from a dictatorship) is inexcusable imo.

mrkgnao: I don't plan to buy games from GOG anymore until I feel they have --- as you've said --- changed trajectory. I don't really expect them to do so, though.

Time4Tea: Yeah, for me this is really the main problem. It's not so much what the store is now, but it seems to be on a very clear path towards embracing DRM that just feels wrong (from the PoV of someone who strongly supports DRM-free).

Magnitus: Anyways, I've never bought games here to **support** GOG (I never understood what that was about, GOG is a privately owned company, not a cause). I bought games here because I like games and GOG delivers them in a format that I like.

Ancient-Red-Dragon: "They can't" --- that statment is sheer BS. There is nothing whatsoever at all to stop GOG from releasing Devotion.

The only reason why they don't is because they shamefully cower in fear over potentially offending the CCP; and that is not a legitimate reason.

kohlrak: I have been thinking lately ,and i don't think this is the most effective way to go about it. Boycotts don't work against corporations, it seems. They seem to be more responsive to campaigns by MSM and social media. Remember, they are more beholden to stockholders than they are beholden to customers, and the stock holders don't read the forums.

Magnitus: Anyways, I've never bought games here to **support** GOG (I never understood what that was about, GOG is a privately owned company, not a cause). I bought games here because I like games and GOG delivers them in a format that I like.

Magnitus: For sure, if they abandon their DRM-free roots, then I'll see little reason to spend any more money here.

morolf: Total end of the line for me would be if Gog removed the offline installers/didn't offer them for new games. At that point I'd really hope for them to go bankrupt tbh, because that would be the ultimate betrayal of their supposed principles.

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?

morolf: And you're probably right that it was always naive to believe Gog was a sort of cause (instead of just another shop), but let's be honest, Gog encouraged exactly that attitude through its marketing for years. Their entire concept rested on "We're the good guys, we listen to consumers". And now it's become clear they don't listen to consumers all that much...except to those worshipping Xi Jinping apparently, lol.

Time4Tea: GOG might not be, but DRM-free is a cause. One that GOG used to believe in wholeheartedly and a cause powerful enough that it built this store in the first place, before it became to them merely a convenient marketing slogan.