The market has shown they don't give two moldy nickels about DRM free, so GOG can never really compete as long as their library is so limited by that aspect the vast majority don't care about. Of course if they ditch DRM free, then they are no different than Steam, and probably wouldn't grow much anyway. True rock and a hard place situation.

With EA running back to Steam and Epic's numbers outside of exclusives being so poor according to reports, it's really just a fact of life that Steam conquered the PC market a long time ago. I don't know what could possibly challenge it at this point.

That's the least of your concerns. I have pictures with you and the GOGBear, meeting in private and him handing you a suitcase full of money :P.

Galaxy (and clients in general, I guess) is just one of those things that can polarize people beyond reason. Don't get me wrong, I am firmly in the "I'll never use a client" camp, but I can see why someone would use one. The sad part is that most people don't care about the shady side of the deal they are getting...

Do not say the dark one's name in this holy place!

I told fluffy he wasn't careful enough ... dang.

Well, unlike you I don't have a direct line to GOG's decisionmaker's minds so I can only rely on what I see and not on what I you know to be a fact about their intentions. And ever since they tried to force Galaxy into offline installers I find it really hard indeed to believe that Galaxy "was never meant to be a replacement". Even harder since they decided DRM-ing some of the content in games here is ok and "just use Galaxy" is acceptable solution to give users.

But hey, obviously I'm the irrational one here, relying on actual facts of the matter rather than clairvoyance :D

You are perfectly correct with what you said and yes, I pointed out my own opinion to be a fact which of course is wrong. I don't know, if I am correct or not, it is just what I believe in. Sorry for misspelling here, I don't think you (or athers who are thinking the same) are irrational but in my opinion I still simply don't believe that this will happen. If they do drop the offline installers what would make them different from Steam? And does anybody - including GOG - really think they would EVER be able to compete with Steam?

However in my opinion this simply is GOG being GOG. Trying to do good things the wrong way (when it comes to the Galaxy integrations into offline installers). When it comes to the very few things that require Galaxy I critizised those as well but I still don't think that this is their way of getting more and more rid of the offline installers. It's just stupid GOG trying to attract new Galaxy users as well - in my opinion.

So as someone already spilled the beans that I'm in fact paid by CD Projekt to defend Cyberpunk... what are you doing with the millions you make?

Thanks, dude, you seem alright. A little rational thinking in this sea of hate :)

Thanks for the kind words but I don't think that this is a sea of hate ... some people just are scared or disappointed when they compare GOG to what it was earlier and expressing this might often sound similar to hate. If those you mean would hate GOG they would not be here anymore I guess. They just don't want to lose what they actually like or liked in my opinion.

OP, as per other channels, staff have reassured some of us that Galaxy devteam is currently working on a big update and to be patient. So I'll have to give them my benefit of the doubt.

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As for other issues, doesn't take a business genius to know the best solution here to please everyone:

1. Always ensure Galaxy always remains optional.

2. Ensure offline installers and Linux installers are the same versions as Galaxy like AB2012 said.

3. Continue development on Galaxy if client-based customer revenues exceed offline installer-based customer revenues from data analytics. If Galaxy is abandoned, revert to the better version between 1.2 or the upcoming 2.1? update.

4. As a completionist, I'm OK with removing Galaxy achievements so Linux players can get their builds and to lower the barriers so GOG can carry more high-quality games. The best compromise here would be in-game achievements like in Kingdom Rush or programming Galaxy to accept Steam's code template for achievements so they can just copy and paste (not sure how it actually works, though).

5. Website and forums should be prioritized over Galaxy considering that's likely where most people complete their purchases based on data analytics.

6. Increase moderation efforts in ways to encourage forum activity, specifically in GD. There's are good reasons why people avoid it like the plague and would rather talk about their activities elsewhere like /r/GOG or not even bother.

Forum contests are ineffective because only a very small percentage of people who submit entries actually stick around. This can be measured by retention stats through more data analytics on all contestants.

what do you mean galaxified? can you elaborate?

All (there may be stragglers) installers have now been changed. Rather than just an installer, all are now specially created using streams or some such. There is a thread specifically on this which I will try to find. You can’t just unpack them. Then there is additional files like galaxy.dll. Which is used to integrate games to galaxy in such terms as achievements, cloud saves etc. Some games will not work without galaxy (like a null call), others break old OS compatability. Also included in these “upgrades” have been some games which no longer work for some (wizardry 8) and lose content. Without the ability to download specific versions/patches, and without a decent changelog you can’t really see. If you want to see, look in changelogs for something like win internal update only. Also, you can look here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/provide_a_full_and_complete_changelogged_download_system

You know, if I were in a situation like this, and my parent company had released a gong show of a product and then slashed all funding?

I'd go open a git type repository, point people to it and say, "You know community, why don't you see if you can do better with this?"

I am an open source advocate, sure. Lutris has done a hell of a lot more for me than Galaxy ever has.

(I would also suggest the same for the forum, and some webUX.)

Providing free slave labour for a company that already makes $91M USD revenue and > $5.4M USD profit last year isn't a good idea PR-ly, logistically, and legally. They have more than enough funds to hire another website design and forums software firm(s) to revamp the entire website and forums and hire more Galaxy dev staff when you correct for Poland's lower cost of living.

<< some people should be banned based on their rep points .... i swear !!

There's been some comparison with steam but really! it took about 13 years before digital backgrounds and spinning avatars arrived to the picture