So I got the Hot or Not survey in my email a while ago, and decided I needed some long form responses to s9me of these questions. I know about the other topic, but it quickly devolved into a single issue argument, so I'm making a new topic.

Let me start with the fact that I've switched to using the Steam Deck as my only PC. It is a fantastic gaming device and great if you have the majority of your library on Steam. Unfortunately it's a major hassle if you have games anywhere other than Steam.

Something that you could do on the galaxy launcher is to download, install, and launch games from Steam from the galaxy launcher. It was a little awkward, as the Steam Launcher still opens and runs in the background, but it means that you can have all your games in one place. GOG needs to work with Valve to give this capability to their Steam deck ui. Valve has already acknowledged the difficulty of installing games outside of Steam on Steam deck.

Oddly enough, steam will recognize games that aren't from Steam. When I had my Non-Steam folder in the Steamapps folder, Steam was able to recognize my GOG installation of Arkham City, but it was very buggy.

Second, the talk about a subscription service. A while ago I got a subscription of Playstation Now by accident. I ended up using it to try out a few games that I later bought outright. This is probably my best case scenario for a GOG subscription service. Any games on their service can be played for a limited time for a small fee. This enables you not only to make sure the game runs on your setup, but also if you actually enjoy playing the game.

Finally, I asked that GOG try to maintain parity of game versions on their platform compared to others. If GOG is going to gave a game on its service that has a mac or linux version on another store, they need to have those versions as well.

I have little trouble installing and running games with Heroic Launcher. If you're not aware, you can easily add games as non-Steam games and they will work pretty well.

I personally prefer Lutris, as neither Gamehub or Heroic are quite there yet.

I'm not sure how that can be enforced without DRM. While I'm not as upset as some people about Galaxy-only rewards for Witcher 3 and 2077, I want try to encourage GOG away from this path.

I think more of a service like "spend $x/month, get a few extra games added to your account worth that amount or more" is better, especially if people somehow have the ability to choose from a couple different genres.

Ok can you share the features of that game which will be helps the users.

Linux support has certainly been made more interesting with the popularity of the Steam Deck and all of a sudden it's no longer just about a few people running Ubuntu or Arch. However, "This (Playstation Now) is probably my best case scenario for a GOG subscription service. Any games on their service can be played for a limited time for a small fee" simply can't be enforced without DRM, so you've accidentally highlighted exactly why "the other topic quickly devolved into a single issue argument". Cloud Gaming is also a very expensive way of providing playable demos.

I would welcome a multi-tier subscription service for two reasons.

① With games like Europa Universalis IV in the catalog it would help to be able to try them before spending money. Besides that, there are games which might not work, poor performance, technical issues or not running at all.

② I hate having to go through a sometimes lengthy troubleshooting process and having to ask for a refund because the game in question still doesn't work. That's a waste of time, energy and money. I would never go through all the trouble for rental games and would not buy to own them.

If there is going to be one, I hope for access to the full library for premium subscribers, a "DLC-only" option which becomes available if the base game has been purchased, and a rotation of 1-6 months before games are replaced.

You want GOG to add DRM to literally every game on the store just so you don't have to refund the (rare) problematic game you can't get to work? Seriously?...

They would not survive the storm if they were implementing DRM like DENUVO or Irdeto to all games. I suspect that the subscription service will be bound to the client, so the most they are going to do is to implement a function to remotely remove or deactivate games. Maybe there will be an option to buy the games to continue playing, while also adding offline installer files to the client and website library.

The "function to remotely remove or deactivate games" and "bind games to the client" would literally be having to recompile all games on the store with a "GOGStub" DRM (exactly like how Steam's DRM works), otherwise there would be nothing to stop people using Galaxy to download then keep and play them outside of Galaxy after the subscription ends. A game which uses DRM to lock games to a client then force an online authentication check on each start isn't DRM-Free just because 'it doesn't use Denuvo'. All Denuvo does is make other applied DRM harder to crack. You are actively proposing adding DRM to every game on the store seemingly without realising what you're asking for.

Funny how this survey was originally meant to be anonymous yet so many people simply wamt to express theit opinion rather in the foruim than in said survey :)

But what would interest me even more: is there a reason we now have three threads to discuss the same topic?

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_survey_1
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_hot_or_not_survey_extended

... and this one.

In any case I'd say GOG made a big mistakle by sending the survey out to everyone and some made an even bigger mistake by posting the link to the survey openly. Now everybody - even those who do not even use GOG or those who want to harm GOG will be able to influence their decision instead of those who really care about GOG and know GOG well enough to see what went wrong in the past. When I received this rather detailed survey I thought GOG really wanted to get closer to their customer base but now I guess it is just another PR campaign just like the one in which they invited some people in 2017 to Poland to talk with them ... they did not keep a single one of the things they promised to do back then and I guess they won't change much now as well. Maybe they will drop some additional bad things they had planned (remember the mictrotransactions question) but I don't have much hope that the survey will change GOG for the better.

They certainly did not send it to everyone. I never got it. Even checked my spam folder to make sure…

Well, the link was posted precisely because GOG did not send the survey to everyone.

Denuvo itself is not DRM. It only protects the already existing DRM mechanism from hacking - up to a certain point.
Some GOG games already have DRM mechanisms - even if so far none of them prevents you from starting the game.