But what does that GOG stand for?

Really? How do you some of the examples you mentioned then like these? I'm not talking about 'back when, back then', I'm talking about now. I'm probably biased in some way because I've had good internet for decades now already but I'm not going to fault the industry for looking forward, not back. Internet is more and more becoming a basic human right and that's only going to continue going forward. I realize not everyone's there yet though. That said, there's plenty of people who have no issues with their games then anyway, even on Steam this is *not* supposed to be an issue and for many isn't. Pleasr not this again. I realize, by your own words, that you never used Steam much but it has *never* been the case that you needed to set Steam to offline mode so you would be able to use it if you didn't have internet. It was only ever needed to do it *once*, ever, not every time before you go offline/lose internet. You did need to have finished installing/updated your games (which includes starting the game at least once after you've downloaded it.

I'm guessing you're not that familiar with GNU, then.

Exactly what I was hinting at! =D

Hello! I'm here, I don't connect to steam at all and I don't have a 'throwaway' attitude, I'm not one of the many.

Note to self: Why are you never one of the many?
EDIT: Why don't italics work GOG?

Yeah, that was the joke. Word of God (word of GOG?) is that it actually doesn't stand for anything anymore, leaving us to invent whatever acronyms we wish.

Welcome to the madhouse, by the way.

Is that fair though?
Was it fair years ago, when most in my country still only used 56k modem connections, to have to use Steam to play games? Especially in my case, where I bought the physical boxsets, and was not wise on what Steam was.

It is one thing to be advanced and push the boundaries. I applaud that and yes, and as you say, also believe a good Internet connection is a basic right. However reality is not so friendly in many countries, even my own.

So in the end, you still need to be fair to everyone ... one foot in the past along with one foot in the future. If only that were so.
I put it in offline mode and never took it off, but it appears that when I want to start the console to get to a game, it must first connect and do some updates to itself. But then hangs because it can't connect or the connection is slow or somesuch.

Spare a thought for those not so lucky as yourself ... and there are plenty of them.
Pleased to meet you. :)

P.S. Not that I am not pleased to meet the other ilk either, but they do get very Steam Fanboyish.

I know Steam offers some great benefits, but when since is DRM a good idea for anyone? All the arguments in its favor are false.
Thanks! I am pleased to be here. :)

Personally, I think GoG should make a slight name change ... only one additional letter, and sure to bring many more customers to their shore ... I mean store.

GroG

;)

There's plenty of us older gamers who have different sentiments. Personally I went into digital gaming the first chance I got and was more than happy to have an online library, finally being rid of all the clutter I used to have around the house (not to mention the noise from CD/DVD drives). Heck, some of my early internet memories was playing UT Facing worlds, which was indeed an 'online fragfest', but that's still playing a game to play a game.. (and no, generally I'm not much of a competitive player, I play some Battlefield now and then lately, that's about it) I'd be quite curious to learn what had 'much improved' in your eyes. Beyond a growing library I'm struggling to think of many changes that would superficially have improved a lot, unless you mean Galaxy? Probably many of us long time GOG-users are more likely to see GOG in a devolving state in many ways, at least when it comes to their initial 'philosophies'

Btw, that "reward" for treating customers with respect, GOG got that long ago, they're not sitting around waiting for that. No meaning, it's just GOG.com now.

Anyone who thinks an *effective* DRM would not lead to more initial sales is fooling themselves. Yes, there have been plenty of false thoughts. It's nonsense to think every pirated game = lost sale for instance but it's nonsense to say there's no sales lost due to piracy either. I've seen countless times statements that people ended up buying it because it had Denuvo, either on release or because they got tired of waiting. Even *when* it gets cracked, it's still often only a single version with no followup patches/dlc, if you're lucky a later version. That alone grinds some people down to get the release versions anyway.

(granted, Rime was horrid. Not only did it have countless more checks than previous games, as a result affecting performance, but it got cracked soon anyway)

Never said there wasn't. I don't deny the benefits, but each to their own, and no need to force a particular choice down anyone's throat. Back then it was Good Old Games, and really I can recall being very suspicious about the place. With the advent of Steam, I could not believe there was also a legit non DRM game store, and prices weren't too bad. Then of course, they closed for a short period and came back with a whole new website ... but I only read about that recently. Once again, I have never claimed that there are not lost sales. There would be, but like you say, not every pirated copy is a lost sale. How do you work out the difference?

My belief, is that most people are decent people, and so you shouldn't penalize them for what the few bad ones do. Nothing is perfect, that's life ... you win a few, you lose a few.

There would be many sales generated for instance, by some of those pirated games, so what often goes around comes around.

I look at GoG's or Steam's list of games, and while I would love to purchase a huge number of them, reality says I can't and shouldn't. But often it is not easy to decide what to buy and what not.

At the end of the day, I buy what I can afford and like the most. If I also happen to download a stack of others elsewhere for free, sure I have got stuff for free, but who has missed out on recompense, as I was never gonna buy them anyway? However, I can try some games that way first, that I might indeed eventually buy one day. So there is a benefit then to the seller. My copies might also influence others to purchase too, kind of like free advertising.

But never forget, there is only so many hours in a day, and days in a lifetime ... let alone time you can dedicate to game play.

Time and time again, I see in reviews of games here at GoG, that users have bought the same game more than once, and I am not any different, having bought quite a few games twice, some even three times. I have a huge number of legitimate games I bought, and that's beside the 131 I have bought at GoG in the last two months ... some of those being freebies. So the gaming industry has never lost out due to me.

When DRM gets too annoying, I simply avoid the game altogether, and the only one that benefits is me. There are plenty of other things to spend my money on, to give myself a distraction. I used to bother with Virtual Drives and cracked EXE's, but haven't for years now ... and that was mostly for games I owned ... the others belonged to friends, and like good friends, we shared ... a nice trait for people to have ... and in this all too selfish world, that should be encouraged.

Yep, they're pretty good at not getting defensive. Though, it seems people at GOG have a lot of work and are likely busy enough as it is without trying to make everyone think the same. With all the different languages and resulting perspectives and culture, that doesn't seem possible anyway.

The way some people in the forum cry out as they are bleeding to death and need someone from GOG to say something, it's ludicrous attention seeking. I'm pretty sure GOG is a company of people, not a company of GODs.

And that's why most of those posts from members that sound like complaints could just as easily be some form of humor, not meant to be taken seriously. So, I just figure the "complaints" are actually jokes for other people who happen to have the same taste in humor in that moment.

I mean, with all the tsunamis and hurricanes and buildings burning down and food shortages and cancer and strokes and such… To me all of that makes a game not working, or some game not enhanced properly, or too much Internet built into a game all seem rather fitting for the phrase "first-world problems". Though, back in the day I think it was called being a spoiled brat. I guess these days "first-world problems" is the civilized thing to say.

Yes, they really need to fix that. I mean, what kind of forum doesn't let you use italics?!

More to the point, why don't they always work?

Grumpy Old Gamers as confirmed by JudasIscariot at some point.