It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionDo you *really* feel like you own your GOG games?(86 posts)(86 posts)
(86 posts)
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
This is my favourite topic
Posted June 18, 2022
avatar
LordCephy: What previous reply? This is the first time you replied to me in this thread.
avatar
TheNamelessOne_PL: Hey. I believe I had a reply written, but it didn't send. I am sorry. This is a genuine mistake.

I believe I wanted to ask you if you agreed with me? You said just what I had said. Ownership is not really a well-defined concept. As such, I am not sure I can say with 100% of certainty that I "own" any games.
I'm going to start by repeating myself --> People need to stop acting like GOG libraries are magically the absolute most vulnerable thing in existence. You are allowed to download the offline installers and back them up. You can install the game through Galaxy and copy the game folder to back the game up that way too. This isn't Steam, where you're technically violating an EULA for backing up games you buy.

I'm sure that someone will say but USB hard drives will fail!

It's a fact that some rando replying to a post saying "but USB drives will fail" will not cast Internet voodoo on whatever USB hard drives you own and make them all fail. There's no law saying that you can only have one USB drive if you are concerned that a single USB drive is not sufficient. You can have as many backup USB drives as you need to feel secure about the safety of your game library.

But look, I see that you own 229 games on GOG, so you cannot be seriously all that concerned and thinking that you really don't own all those games.
Posted June 18, 2022
low rated
avatar
ConsulCaesar: As long as you back them up, the games are yours and no one can take them back, so yes, I own them.
Just like pirates, right? lol
Posted June 18, 2022
high rated
avatar
zeroxxx: I treat GoG like other digital companies, they lease me license to play the game. Whether there's DRM or DRM free makes no difference to me.
It makes quite a difference to me when DRM-Free GOG games will continue to work whilst other platforms won't (and Games For Windows Live / SecuROM PA, etc, ones already don't) for very obvious reasons...

avatar
ConsulCaesar: As long as you back them up, the games are yours and no one can take them back, so yes, I own them.
avatar
zeroxxx: Just like pirates, right? lol
Then save a PDF of your receipt and store it with the game. Your "how can I prove that I legitimately own the game" problem is then solved...
Posted June 18, 2022
low rated
No not really i can't resale them that do not really make them that i own them right.
that leaves us kind of in limbo

I own planescape torment: i got the CD's next to me i can resale it if i like
anything digital you can't really never own like some people claim.
Posted June 18, 2022
I know that I don't own them, but if kinda feels like I do, since I have all offline installers on my backups server.

Since I own a BD Burner, I might take the oldest ones which don't receive updates anymore and create some collections on disc.
Posted June 18, 2022
avatar
Abishia: No not really i can't resale them that do not really make them that i own them right.
that leaves us kind of in limbo

I own planescape torment: i got the CD's next to me i can resale it if i like
anything digital you can't really never own like some people claim.
That may change. Give Ross Scott's Dead Game News: France vs. Valve + maybe the rest of the world a watch.

To quote Wikipedia's Steam (service) page on the topic:

In December 2015, the French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir initiated a lawsuit against Valve for several of their Steam policies that conflict or run afoul of French law, including the restriction against reselling of purchased games, which is legal in the European Union.[434] In September 2019, the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris found that Valve's practice of preventing resales violated the European Union's Information Society Directive of 2001 and the Computer Programs Directive of 2009, and required them to allow it in the future. The decision is primarily based on the court's findings that Steam sells licenses to software titles, despite Valve's claim that they were selling subscriptions, which are not covered by the Directives. The company stated that it would appeal the decision.[435][436] The Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) issued a statement that the French court ruling goes against established EU case law related to digital copies and threatened to upend much of the digital distribution systems in Europe should it be upheld.[437]
avatar
neumi5694: I know that I don't own them, but if kinda feels like I do, since I have all offline installers on my backups server.

Since I own a BD Burner, I might take the oldest ones which don't receive updates anymore and create some collections on disc.
I recommend making ISOs and then adding a minimum of 20% dvdisaster ECC before burning (you'll have to use WSL to run it if you're on Windows).

(dvdisaster is a tool to augment ISOs with ECC that protects not just the files themselves, but the filesystem structures, allowing you to recover from sectors going bad in your backups. Unlike something like putting par2 files on the disc, dvdisaster's "augment the ISO" modes can recover from bad sectors in the ECC data and also protect against bad sectors in the ISO filesystem structures so long as they don't go bad in a way that prevents your drive from even recognizing the disc.)

dvdisaster will warn you if padding your ISO out to the next-highest standard disc size would result in less than 20% ECC.
Post edited June 18, 2022 by ssokolow
Posted June 18, 2022
low rated
avatar
zeroxxx: I treat GoG like other digital companies, they lease me license to play the game. Whether there's DRM or DRM free makes no difference to me.
avatar
AB2012: It makes quite a difference to me when DRM-Free GOG games will continue to work whilst other platforms won't (and Games For Windows Live / SecuROM PA, etc, ones already don't) for very obvious reasons...

avatar
zeroxxx: Just like pirates, right? lol
avatar
AB2012: Then save a PDF of your receipt and store it with the game. Your "how can I prove that I legitimately own the game" problem is then solved...
Weird example. If GoG is gone, pirates and GoG users are the same, receipt or not.
Posted June 18, 2022
high rated
avatar
zeroxxx: Weird example. If GoG is gone, pirates and GoG users are the same, receipt or not.
It sounds like you're either trying too hard to troll people, or are still struggling to grasp the whole point of DRM-Free, plus the fact if you buy something and have a receipt to prove it, that's obviously not remotely the same as piracy without paying. Either way, it doesn't come across as having any genuine desire for an intelligent conversation when it comes from someone who's bought nearly 300 games on a 10 year old account to still "not understand" the point of the store...
Posted June 18, 2022
avatar
zeroxxx: Weird example. If GoG is gone, pirates and GoG users are the same, receipt or not.
"Keeping a receipt of proof of purchase is a 'weird example' of proof of purchase" - zeroxxx

No, that's just dumb trolling. I think I'll go create an account at a store that specializes in selling lossless music albums, then 10 years and hundreds of album purchases later, I'll start sh*T-posting on their forum with "Buying FLAC albums here is no different to torrenting MP3's so you're all thieves. Right guys? Guys?". That's basically what you're doing here and it looks and sounds ridiculous.
Post edited June 18, 2022 by BrianSim
Posted June 19, 2022
low rated
avatar
zeroxxx: Weird example. If GoG is gone, pirates and GoG users are the same, receipt or not.
avatar
BrianSim: "Keeping a receipt of proof of purchase is a 'weird example' of proof of purchase" - zeroxxx

No, that's just dumb trolling. I think I'll go create an account at a store that specializes in selling lossless music albums, then 10 years and hundreds of album purchases later, I'll start sh*T-posting on their forum with "Buying FLAC albums here is no different to torrenting MP3's so you're all thieves. Right guys? Guys?". That's basically what you're doing here and it looks and sounds ridiculous.
No, it's just your kind don't know how digital license work. Ignorance isn't a bliss, so try to educate yourself.

avatar
zeroxxx: Weird example. If GoG is gone, pirates and GoG users are the same, receipt or not.
avatar
AB2012: It sounds like you're either trying too hard to troll people, or are still struggling to grasp the whole point of DRM-Free, plus the fact if you buy something and have a receipt to prove it, that's obviously not remotely the same as piracy without paying. Either way, it doesn't come across as having any genuine desire for an intelligent conversation when it comes from someone who's bought nearly 300 games on a 10 year old account to still "not understand" the point of the store...
Point of GoG?

just another digital store with DRM free feature. That's all there is to it.

Too bad you're so bad at understanding that.

Since you brought up my profile, let me tell you I have 4k games on Steam and many others on various digital stores. Don't ever tell me the meaning of DRM because it looks like you try to teach fish how to swim. That's if you understand the metaphor since you seem to lack the requisite education.
Post edited June 19, 2022 by zeroxxx
Posted June 19, 2022
1. I mean what GOG is selling you is the game, not storage space. Back in the day we went to the store and got both a hard copy (floppy disk or CD, etc.) with the game on it. But then again, games tended to be more expensive, so I don’t have a problem with providing my own media.

Gigabytes are much cheaper now than back then. Also, to use another analogy: You might buy a product at the store, but you have to have the space to store it at home (or where ever you want to store). Truth be told, some times I’ve passed on cool things to buy because I know I simply don’t have enough physical space to store them or to store them without my house looking like a hoarder.

Yes, we own the games, but are responsible to find a place to store them, which I think is a reasonable compromise considering the price of storage space these days. I’d rather pay less $$ for a larger HDD or SSD than more $$ for a physical copy of each game. I can’t imagine so many games at only a few dollars if GOG had to ship them in the mail or rent a retail store!

So, we are not dependent on GOG servers beyond the initial download. But if we choose not to backup the games, frankly, that’s on us. Odds are GOG will one day fall. But that’s everything. Even countries.

2. Can’t you say the same thing about books? Can you own a string of text or blots on a page? It’s just information on an object. In the case of a physical book, the object is embedded with the information. In the case of a video game, the program is downloaded and run on a computer. And as another poster alluded out, even objects are just matter in some kind of pattern, like the pattern on an HDD or SSD that forms when you download a game.

3. You can say the same thing about vinyl, cassette tapes, VHS tapes or CDs. In the case of computers, they do change more often, but then again, we’ve got lots of emulators available too. So, if there’s any interest at all in old games in the future, and I think there will be, they’ll be playable.

4. As for the giveaway games, I believe that the terms are the same as any purchased games (please correct me if I’m wrong). So we own them just as much as any other games.

5. Yes, I do feel like I "own" GOG games as much as I can "own" any copyrighted program or artwork, especially given the lack of DRM, which would limit our options severely.

I also buy from Steam, but all things being equal (and I don’t care about "achievements", so put that aside), I prefer to buy from GOG because I know that I’ll be able to run the games even if GOG collapsed, as long as I’ve cared enough to download and backup my games, even though GOG doesn’t give us a Linux version of Galaxy and Steam has no problem supporting a Linux version of Steam.
Posted June 19, 2022
low rated
avatar
RetroLinuxGamer: 1. I mean what GOG is selling you is the game, not storage space. Back in the day we went to the store and got both a hard copy (floppy disk or CD, etc.) with the game on it. But then again, games tended to be more expensive, so I don’t have a problem with providing my own media.

Gigabytes are much cheaper now than back then. Also, to use another analogy: You might buy a product at the store, but you have to have the space to store it at home (or where ever you want to store). Truth be told, some times I’ve passed on cool things to buy because I know I simply don’t have enough physical space to store them or to store them without my house looking like a hoarder.

Yes, we own the games, but are responsible to find a place to store them, which I think is a reasonable compromise considering the price of storage space these days. I’d rather pay less $$ for a larger HDD or SSD than more $$ for a physical copy of each game. I can’t imagine so many games at only a few dollars if GOG had to ship them in the mail or rent a retail store!

So, we are not dependent on GOG servers beyond the initial download. But if we choose not to backup the games, frankly, that’s on us. Odds are GOG will one day fall. But that’s everything. Even countries.

2. Can’t you say the same thing about books? Can you own a string of text or blots on a page? It’s just information on an object. In the case of a physical book, the object is embedded with the information. In the case of a video game, the program is downloaded and run on a computer. And as another poster alluded out, even objects are just matter in some kind of pattern, like the pattern on an HDD or SSD that forms when you download a game.

3. You can say the same thing about vinyl, cassette tapes, VHS tapes or CDs. In the case of computers, they do change more often, but then again, we’ve got lots of emulators available too. So, if there’s any interest at all in old games in the future, and I think there will be, they’ll be playable.

4. As for the giveaway games, I believe that the terms are the same as any purchased games (please correct me if I’m wrong). So we own them just as much as any other games.

5. Yes, I do feel like I "own" GOG games as much as I can "own" any copyrighted program or artwork, especially given the lack of DRM, which would limit our options severely.

I also buy from Steam, but all things being equal (and I don’t care about "achievements", so put that aside), I prefer to buy from GOG because I know that I’ll be able to run the games even if GOG collapsed, as long as I’ve cared enough to download and backup my games, even though GOG doesn’t give us a Linux version of Galaxy and Steam has no problem supporting a Linux version of Steam.
ah no GOG/Steam or any other digital vendor is selling you a single use license (steam try to say they selling you a subscription) yea those (*&#^kers

anything digital is follow one single rule steal or be stolen this go's both way's for consumer and developer
it is long overdue that a more fair and realistic law comes for this but yea the world have a lot pressing issues and this not have the highest of priority's.

Steam=you bought a subscription
GOG=you bought a license from GOG (to download and use GOG service) basically it means you kind of illegal use the software *2.1*
Epic=you buy a license (but they kind of add a agreement that this is only used personal) and can't be settled in court.
*1*
as you can see the legality of all 3 stores are fuzzy and not really holding much ground in EU.
the problem is would a EU citizen go to court for a 20 Euro's game while it cost you like 4000 Euro's in court costs unlikely.
Posted June 19, 2022
high rated
avatar
zeroxxx: "Since you brought up my profile, let me tell you I have 4k games on Steam"
This you? 1,772 out of 4,060 games haven't been opened even once and don't have a single minute of playtime. Civ 4, Alien Isolation & Bioshock = less than 0.2hrs playtime. 4,341 hrs on DOTA2 complete with "11,481 Market transactions". Be careful with "judge me by what I own" arguments, as it can work both ways and "I filled up a Steam account with 95% cheap 'bundle filler' I won't even open and spent most of my time trading loot-boxes" is nowhere near as impressive as you seem to think, let alone being any measure of your knowledge or 'education' on other topics. Case in point:-

avatar
zeroxxx: No, it's just your kind don't know how digital license work. Ignorance isn't a bliss.
GOG's EULA : 17.3 "It seems very unlikely, but if we have to stop providing access to GOG services and GOG content permanently (not because of any breach by you), we will try to give you at least sixty (60) days advance notice by posting a note on www.GOG.COM and sending an email to every registered users – during that time you should be able to download any GOG content you purchased. (In the very unlikely situation that we have to stop running GOG we'll do our best to give you advance notice, so that you can download and safely store all your DRM-free content)."

If you can't figure out what that means, nor even what the basic concept of a "receipt" is, it's probably best to not humiliate yourself even further than you already have given your "if GOG goes out of business, every GOG customer has to delete their games" is openly debunked by GOG themselves in the same EULA that explicitly states "if GOG goes out of business, every GOG customer gets to continue to legally enjoy playing their downloaded games offline" that you agreed to when you signed up. The rest is just personal ego throwing around insults for the sake of wanting the last word, and I'm long done with feeding that childish cr*p. /thread.
Post edited June 19, 2022 by BrianSim
Posted June 19, 2022
high rated
avatar
zeroxxx: Point of GoG?
Yes the point of GOG in GOG's own words - "We don't believe in controlling you and your games. Here, you won't be locked out of titles you paid for, or constantly asked to prove you own them - this is DRM-free gaming."

I'm going to be charitable and put the rest of your utterly bizarre little rant including "a receipt with the words 'this email message serves as your receipt' isn't a receipt / proof of purchase because I zeroxxx say so despite the fact the hundreds of GOG receipts I've received in my Inbox literally have that printed on them" along with "If you buy a game from a store, that's the same as stealing it and this is true because I bought 4,000 games on Steam and know fish analogies" and the general belief that if an online store goes out of business, the police will come round to arrest you for 'stealing' everything you've ever bought from them prior to closure, down to some severe language barrier as I refuse to believe even trolls can be that intentionally divorced from reality...
Attachments:
greceipt.png (13 Kb)
Post edited June 19, 2022 by AB2012
Posted June 19, 2022
avatar
Abishia: No not really i can't resale them that do not really make them that i own them right.
that leaves us kind of in limbo

I own planescape torment: i got the CD's next to me i can resale it if i like
anything digital you can't really never own like some people claim.
avatar
ssokolow: That may change. Give Ross Scott's Dead Game News: France vs. Valve + maybe the rest of the world a watch.
It may change in as far as it would give you the right to re-sell a digital download (although until established in a court of law in the country that you're based in as national court rulings in the EU don't automatically extend to other countries in the EU, even when on a matter of EU directives as these are individually implemented by national governments) assuming it's not overturned by a higher court.

However, it's likely that reselling a digital item would also result in the termination of your user agreement with GoG for breach of terms - which would prevent you from downloading anything new from them.

-----

Mandatory part of post to ensure that OP cannot claim we're being off-topic:

I'll also answer OP's questions as:

1) Do I really own them - For all intents and purposes, yes
2) Can you really own strings or 0s and 1s - Yes
3) Will they still be playable on a computer in 2045? - Not relevant to the concept of ownership

I'd add a side of "the ownership concepts at play are somewhat similar to the complexities in the real property concept of a bundle of rights".
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionDo you *really* feel like you own your GOG games?(86 posts)(86 posts)
(86 posts)