Good day everyone, I recently got a great contempt for Steam and looking for better alternatives I hoped someone could clarify some GOG policies.

A little context on my doubts, in Steam, Paradox Interactive is currently applying a launcher to all its games, which requires internet to start. According to the news from Stellaris en Steam it is his intention to apply it also in GOG (if he hasn't already done so) with the excuse of the multiplayer (I'm not sure if he also needs to register in Paradox). In Steam has also been applied the launcher in single player games like Prison Architect, which originally was not owned by Paradox and also modified its EULA to make it more aggressive and unacceptable since the last time I accept it.

My doubts are, in GOG games can have an EULA and force you to accept the modifications to download or play new versions? Does GOG allow the inclusion of launchers or other potentially unwanted third party programs that require or do not require the internet? Are there any circumstances in which GOG allows the inclusion of third party DRMs? And one last, does GOG remove from the library and/or the right to download games already purchased by censorship, cessation of contracts or other reasons at the will of GOG or the seller?

Thank you for your time and excuse me for bad English.

I haven't been here for very long, but I did do some study of GOG and it's policies.

Gog does have third party developer EULAs on some games I believe, but they are forced to put such there by the ones who offer the games to Gog for sale. Depending on where you live they might not even be fully enforceable though.

Gog has a client but it is optional and not needed to play most games except if you want to play multiplayer in some games. Those game's multiplayer requires the client, unfortunately. This client which is needed to play some game's multiplayer portion might be seen by some as DRM and not as DRM by others. It is up to your own beliefs.

Gog does not take games from people's libraries as far as I can tell. Once you buy it you can download it as long as Gog is in business and online.

Hopefully this information helps.

First world problems eh...

EULA are meaningless and non-enforcable in many situations and countries. Especially EU members.

Galaxy will probably always push the latest version, but you should have complete control over offline installers simply by backing up the version you want to keep and not deleting it. I've done this for some games like This War of Mine where I have no interest in the newest DLC (that seems to add more bugs than the old one), so I've simply kept the old version. There's really nothing anyone can do to force you to upgrade offline backup installers that you have backed up, GOG or the publishers, and one main advantage over using those installers is you have complete "version control". EULA's can change but I'm fairly sure it's a requirement by GOG that single-player games (or the single-player aspect of games that have multi-player) must be allowed to run offline or get removed from the store. Publishers can't override GOG's own DRM-Free policy and still remain on the store as it's part of the contract they signed with GOG to provide a DRM-Free version (at least for single player). Some multi-player games may require an online account or Galaxy for the multi-player aspect, but I don't really play those so perhaps someone else can give more detail. If you mean suddenly adding launchers like Bethesda launcher to Elder Scrolls / Fallout games here, etc, that force the use of a client / the Internet, or add Denuvo, I don't think so. Games like GTA V that needs Rockstar Social Club end up not coming here, whilst existing games would get removed until they drop the DRM. Not that I've seen. I have a few games that were removed from the store still in my account. Whether it's a contract expiring or an old game that gets removed from sale due to being replaced by a newer remaster, once you buy them they stay in your account and you can re-download them any time. But again, the main advantage of offline installers is that once you have them backed up to a couple of backup drives, they're yours anyway even if GOG themselves ceased to exist.

I have "heard" that here in Germany EULAs shown only after buying something have no legal standing. (Note that although it is just 'hearsay' for me it is consistent with my understanding of consumer protection laws here. I am not a law professional or anything like that though.)

See for general EU consumer protection directive - note that the forum doesnt like this link so I cant make it clickable: [url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/bibliotheque/briefing/2013/130624/LDM_BRI(2013)130624_REV1_EN.pdf]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/bibliotheque/briefing/2013/130624/LDM_BRI(2013)130624_REV1_EN.pdf[/url] There is a known bug (which is supposedly being investigated now) which can make games simply disappear.
Also if GOG unrightfully added games to your library they can remove them. Example: They never had the right to sell them then they must (due to laws) remove these games. (But with 'offline installers' you are not reliant on your games being in GOGs library if you already have downloaded them.)

However, GOG shows the EULAs before buying. Of course you can opt to not look...

Anyway, eulas are full of crap, just ignore them.

Even that linked eula "allows mods" and yet at the same time disallows modifying or reverse engineering the game, disallows use & distribution of cheats, etc.

What the fuck do they want? "You may breathe. Transferring air into lungs is prohibited!"

GOG's user agreement also disallows mods, cheats, etc.

You can turn Automatic Updating off, and even 'roll back' to an older version.

That reminds me of an experiment a dev made a couple of years back. He added a line to his EULA that promised anyone contacting him within a certain perioid 10 bucks. No one contacted him.

GOG certainly does remove the ability to download uncensored games, as it only makes the most recent version of a game available for download, and no others. So if the game becomes censored, then you are stuck only being able to download the censored copy.

And for that same reason, because GOG only lets you download the latest version, if the game becomes bugged, then you are stuck only being able to download the bugged copy.

As for DRM for multiplayer parts of games: GOG is fine with that, and there are old games on GOG, not from Paradox that require third party account for multiplayer portions, i.e. Van Helsing, Victor Vran, Torchlight II (although this one also has LAN in addition to needing a third party account for one type of its mulitplayer), etc.

GOG offline installers come with some need-to-click-on-some-agree-button stuff. This is the kind of thing I was referring to.

Also context: "My doubts are, in GOG games can have an EULA and force you to accept the modifications to download or play new versions?" IMO this clearly refers to changes made after buying sth.

In this case there are two options. You can either use Galaxy which has a roll-back-feature (which lets you switch back to former versions of a game). Or you could contact support and they will give you access to the old version (at least they did it in the past).

I'm pretty sure Galaxy doesn't let you 'roll back' to just any previous version.
Buy maybe someone could share a specific experience with a censored game + Galaxy (and its roll back feature)?

AFAIK, I don't have any GOG game that existed as an uncensored version in the past (sold by GOG). Did GOG ever sell the uncensored version of Fallout 1?

You're right, and I consider buying games on GOG as "best case scenario" (ATM) - not game purchasing utopia.

It works for me though. I back up everything - but I often delete older versions. I don't think I have games here that have had 'superior' older versions.
I'm not defending GOG's removing of older offline installers though.