Steam was designed from scratch to act like DRM as a policy to assert it's dominance in the PC game space to enable it to make more money.

GOG, using it's individual download installers is the exact opposite of that in terms of DRM (and fingers crossed long way it remain that way).

I was involved very briefly with trying Steam out in the early launch (might even have been pre-launch?) stages and chatting with a few devs about it. From those conversations i decided Steam was not going to be for me.

Gabe worked at MS for many years and that likely had an effect on how he viewed 'open' software vs proprietary software and the way MS has monopolized computer OS usage is very similar to how Steam has gone about controlling the PC game market.

Steam offers convenience for many users and this has persuaded/tricked many gamers to want to use it's platform to the point it became the dominant force in PC games distribution.

Keep in mind it is totally possible to have 100% DRM free games on Steam, but that is the exception to the norm as it basically undermines it's whole business ethic (which is about controlling software and revenue).

When a game requires Steam to be running, that is Steam acting as DRM, and for those games if Steam was ever to go offline/go bankrupt etc you would lose access to those games. Gabe has assured Steam users that if this was ever to happen they would remove the DRM aspect of Steam from their games. With Steam you are more like 'renting' your games as lifetime access to them is not guaranteed because of it's DRM aspect.

GOG (not Galaxy specifically) is 100% DRM free when you use the separate download installers. These games can be played without any internet connection at all (or that should be the case!) once downloaded and installed, and for all intents and purposes you actually 'own' these games, as in no third party can stop you from playing them, even if to the letter of the law we never actually own software ourselves, unless it is stated specifically we do (which is not the norm for games).

A games exclusivity is not related to DRM (digital rights management). That is more about the politics of pushing a particular platforms popularity/uptake (Epic vs Steam or PS4 vs Xbone etc).

Sadly "The Gabe Promise (tm)" is very much an urban myth:-

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/has_gog_said_what_would_happen_to_our_games_if_it_shuts_down/post32

Tbh that user shutting you down so fast was being a bit quick and crude, but you yourself are sometimes hard to debate as you seem to "shut down" any praise of steam/epic/etc quickly and also have a hardline anti-drm stance. Tjose alone make you hard to debate(imo) as you seem reluctant to compromise or change your stance much.

(Just my two cents and not meant to seem overly mean)

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Hypothetical: If ALL game stores online only sold "drm'd" games what would you do? Not play ever again(or live on what you have) or what?
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If the devs/rights holders said no and went elsewhere they couldn't have done so even if they wanted(gog).

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To be fair here, one can(if morally flexible) buy on steam, DL a few cracks for when/if steam fails(not likely but still...), and then it's not renting games anymore.

Here is my recent experience of GOG verses Steam.

1) I wanted to buy the game Dungeon Siege II
2) Check on Gog, not available.
3) Check on Steam, available, i purchase.
4) Game wont run (i checked system requirements) - ripped off by Steam
5) On the Steam game forum it is a known issue, Steam ignores the issue.
6) There is a player work around on the forum, which would be useful if i could understand WTF they are talking about!

Actually, unless something has yet again been changed with later updates, you both are wrong. Subnautica's executable seeks out the client on its own and the users have to add a parameter "-epicportal" to the shortcut to bypass that, but with the parameter the game works just fine on computers that not only have never been logged in to EGS, but also never have had the client installed on them.

1) Keep in mind that you will be able to refund the game if you haven't played longer than 2 hours.
2) Why don't you understand what they describe in the workaround? Is it a different language or are the instructions too complicated? If it is the latter somebody might be able to help ypu understanding them.

Use cracks like crazy without having a bad conscience at all. I PAID money and so it SHOULD be MY decision when and where I want to play my games.

Of course it does - and so does every GOG game. You will need that account to be able to download the game in the first place. After the download (and with the parameter added) you can deactivate your internet though.

However - even though Subnautical and several of those freebies as well can be played without tha launcher being installed this goes not for every game EGS sells (like I said - the recent Quantic Dream releases all have Denuvo in it - even the demo versions).

I was about to post about that special example of Subnautica for games that needs Epic client to run, as I experienced it myself when it was given away by Epic.
But I did not know that parameter... Very interresting !
Does it works also for other games ? or is it only the Subnautica EXE file wich was recompiled for the Epic Store ?

Well, I play video games since my first PC: 1993. But I came to steam relatively recently (20 years later), it already dominated but I did not knew, as I bought my games in boxes in standard physical stores ...
And I came to Steam because one day I bought a game, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action to not name it, that REQUIRED me to create a Steam account to play my game. To receive the entertainment that my money had promised me to have ...
It is not a question of "convenience", but rather of the business model of the CAPTIVE CLIENT that has been the driving force behind their dominating status. (As you say earlier recalling the MS model) In this model, there was the hype "free online multiplayer".
I was not "tricked" or "persuaded", I was just forced to do it.

I do hope that steam will be faithful to the promises of Gabe that you recall, but, as in politics, the promises are only valid for those who believe them.
And the liberal capitalist society, which has been spreading for two centuries, is not based on veracity and loyalty other than by speeches. Rather the opposite.

No offense taken! I personally believe there may be other ulterior motives to dismiss my post, but I do not really wish to go making further accusations on those lines. I am not some gatekeeper or anything; I value discussion hence why I participate on this forum and try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. That said, I do ask others to engage honestly, as that is part of a productive discussion, after all. This is not the first topic where someone has bowed out of discussion early. It probably won't be the last. But I never meant to offend, provoke response sure, but not offend. I think stuff like this is a good illustration of my principle of focusing on ideas over people. The delivery of a message should have no bearing on whether it is/isn't reasonable. If you were posting an idea, and used a "politically incorrect" analogy to make your point, your idea would stand or fall on its own merits...NOT on whether (or not) someone was offended by your analogy. Hope that makes sense.

Good question; I wouldn't buy from DRMed stores. I think I would live with what I have. Or perhaps/also branch into other similar activities, like boardgaming, which from what I see has kept singleplayer and local multiplayer modes alive way better than the videogame industry has done.

I have often said that in a terrible hypothetical future if GOG goes out of business, DRM-free gaming would be on a death knell. But fortunately there are still a few other (smaller, but definitely quality) DRM-free stores. Say GOG made Galaxy mandatory; I would try to support the other DRM-free stores more.

At this point, there is no compromise on DRM for me when it comes to PC gaming. It's what drove me away for darn near a decade and a half. It is the line in the sand. I know there can be better and so as a consumer I demand better. I also enjoy engaging on the forum with cats like you even if you're not as hardcore against it.

1st bit: Well that's a relief(I often carefully word what I write to avoid offending as many as I can while still being able to criticize those I feel who need to be), and that bit you said makes sense 100%. I also try to engage others as politley as possible while being blunt about some things.

Sadly not all get that, and some ignore me or downrate and move on without giving me the time of day(Heck, I get more respect on STEAM FORUMS.....how's that for a shocker?). Thanks for being civil and willing to hold discourse with me, btw....it is appreciated.

2nd bit: I admire you but could never be that hardline/staunch on my stance......I guess it's a combination of being a bit more lenient and a bit more weak. Either way I am glad I am or i'd likely go mad from lack of new gaming goodness.

No. GOG games do not require a GOG account to run. Subnautica on EGS does. This has nothing to do with the initial download.

As you could read, after downloading Subnautica it DOESN'T need any account either. I was able to play the game offline so it was unable to check if I ever created an account or not. Please tell me why you think it does need an account after download.

Edit: I attached a screenshot as proof. As you can see, I renamed the Epic folder, Epic launcher is not running and my network is deactivated.

The initial release was DRM-free, apparently accidentally. (After all, if they were interested in DRM-free, I expect they'd have it on GOG.) If you buy it now, it has DRM.