Thoughts? I have an extensive library on Steam (imo) at 140+ games, 12 or so games on Origin and 2 games on Uplay. Slowly but surely, I've been building a library on GOG to be able to truly own my games, at least to an extent that makes me happy. (most games have a EULA that claims you don't own it... yea come take my exe's lol) I don't use these other services anymore, and I've even decided I won't buy a game if it won't be DRM free.

Bannerlord is a scary point of contention for me, as a huge fan of the company (they don't get enough credit imo) and Warband, it's SO DIFFICULT to not reinstall steam just to buy Bannerlord. I'm hoping Bannerlord will work like Warband, download a trial, activate with your code. I've sent them an email to find out. Thankfully I have all the other games and serials backed up.

It seems media is drifting further and further away from any type of ownership. Companies want you to never own something but continually pay them for it. TV has always been a dumpster fire when it comes to ownership, but games have really gotten worse over time. And as most of us probably know, DRM doesn't fucking protect anything, it's just annoying to actual consumers and a fun challenge for the pirates.

This is also kind of my "hello" waving to the community. I'm not very social, but figured from what I've read that most people here would probably agree with the anti-DRM idea. :P

u wont require steam i nthe future cos game devs will just make there own launchers like origin,rockstar,blizzard etc and take 100% of the profits fro mgames, why post games to steam when u can easily force your playerbase to download said game from the launcher, steam takes 30% cut fro mdevs to make money, most game companys prolly wont use steam anymore

If that happens I guess I just won't be playing games anymore. I have no launchers, I'm tired of all the drm and forced downloads for games. I want a game, not all your other bullshit, you know? :/

I mean I would love to just buy a game, download it, and play it wherever I want. It's sooo simple, yet almost no games do this.

Hello, welcome to GOG and have a +1 from one of many who agree with you on DRM. :-) Since you already own a lot of Steam games but are trying to move away from clients, I don't know if you're aware of this thread, but around 1,500 of the +30,000 (about 5%) of games on Steam don't use Steam's own DRM protection, will run without the Steam client and are even "portable" (meaning after you've downloaded them via the Steam client, it will not only start directly without the client, you can zip up the game's install folder then unzip it on another / future upgraded PC even of different hardware that has never had Steam installed, and it should still work fine starting directly via the game's .exe / Windows shortcut. It might be worth checking to see how many you have on there. It's not a complete list and many unlisted games are simply untested, so you could always try Bannerlord and your other games to see if they work without the client.

As for going DRM-Free only, it's entirely possible but depends on your taste in games. Many new AAA's aren't here (and some take several years to come here), "multi-player = DRM" in the eyes of many modern devs (due to wanting control over being able to ban people on a store account level for cheating or heavily pumping in-game MT's / lootboxes, etc, that are handled by the store / client), so if you're heavily into these two it can be hard. On the other hand, if you love older / Indie games, it can also be quite easy to do without Steam / uPlay / Origin, etc.

Thanks, I'm going to check that out and see if some games I care about can just be zipped up. :D

Yeah but in my mind, I'm tired of spending the money on games when they have microtransactions, aren't complete... the only "AAA" games I know I'll miss are GTA games, Halo and maybe 2 others I can't think of right now. Almost all the games I've bought recently are indie or older games. And I've grown to despise online games for many different reasons, so I guess it won't be too difficult for me. :)

Welcome.
I went DRM Free and left Steam about 6 years ago.

I won't lie, it can be hard specially with kids that want the games they see on youtube, but it can be done.

Get used to badgering devs asking gog releases

I'm ready for the plunge. I like money, I've done the math. It's more cost effective to buy things and more enjoyable to actually own them instead of being tied to an online store as drm.

I'm buying Bannerlord day one on Steam. No question about it.

Welcome to GOG! I actually gave my Steam account to a friend a long time ago. So far I only play light games here from GOG or on my Switch (I like Nintendo even though I hate some... most of the company policies).

A good way to keep in touch with the BIG releases would be to play mainly on PC with GOG and side of console with physical releases (and patches, and backing up those patches...).

If your worried about Bannerlord, don’t be. It’s at least 10 years away yet. Probably more.

Just play war and with some mods:
BannerPage
Perisno
Prophesy of Pendor
The Last Days
plus loads of others.

Its coming out March 31st this month on steam. Devs stated its as close to feature complete as it can get at this point.

Hello. o/

I've started doing the exact same thing. Origin, uPlay and Battle.net have all been uninstalled. And for various reasons.

Origin, years ago, removed my copy of Mass Effect 3 without notice and it took 12 months of hassling them, and a 'trip' to the ACCC before they reinstated my game. They even misspelt 'apologies' in their shitty follow up email after the end of it all. They falsely accused me of fraudulent transactions and removed the game, despite having a receipt and bank statements to prove it. The last purchase I ever made was a $1 sale on humble bundle and I gave everything to charity. I'd have paid full price for that game if the previous issue never happened. I still have all the transcripts for their abysmal support.

Steam pushed me once in the wrong direction when they refused to offer support for a game that stopped working. Apparently the onus is on the developer. When the developer refused/failed to provide customer support, Steam refused to refund. Eventually they offered a full refund after I kept arguing and a few months later, not as a result of this directly, they found themselves in court and LOST to Australian Consumer Affairs who fined them millions for their refund antics.

Blizzard recently did it by removing digital access to ~20 year old Warcraft 3. Suddenly those retail discs are more valuable than they should be because everyone has been forced on to a new client.

I only keep Steam because at least the law has evolved to better protect me, for now. There's a couple of games I play regularly such as ARMA 3 and the Total War games. I also own The Witcher 3 on Steam... :/

But there's too much reliance on it. Everyone uses Steam-works and I can't help but feel it'll be the next GameSpy in 10 years time when we can't play our games any more.

I'm sick of everyone forcing us to rent things. I have to rent Microsoft Office. I have to rent music on Spotify. Steam tries to use legal jargon to tell me my hundreds of games are a 'service' and they don't owe me any sort of ongoing support. I hate it all.

I have folders on my computer with legally purchased books, music and other forms of multimedia. Why can't I do the same for games?

And well, here we are.... at least my backlog has become more manageable since I prioritise true DRM free games, and preferably developed for PC first in mind.

I almost never buy stuff anymore on steam. Even if some games are DRM-free, backing them up is a hassle which I don't have time for.

Seems like we're in the exact same boat. I've had issues with games disappearing on steam, but mostly just other annoying things. I just buy cds or MP3 downloads on amazon (I still use spotify free, decent enough for being free and pretty good at helping me find new music). I'm also building up a library of my favorite tv shows/movies and shows I know I'll like but haven't seen yet. Subscriptions services add up to more $ each year than I would spend just outright buying the physical media. And of course for games I have GOG and itchio. It's not all doom I guess, at least there is some way to really own shit. I mean it's bad enough, as an american, you don't even own you damn property that's paid off. At least I can own my games, movies, tv shows and music?... :/
Yeah there are some games that are going to come out... it's going to hurt. But just like exercise and diet, pushing through this early faze of hating it will get me to a healthier life.
IT'S FINALLY HARVESTING SEASON! :p I'm hoping I can purchase directly from their site. All $50 directly to them, and like warband, you just download and activate.