Klumpen0815: Best reply to this is by HyperinsomniacLive...
BKGaming: To some extent I agree... but GOG has every right to package extra files, etc. with games if they so choose. If they didn't have that right then the publisher would not allow it. GOG made it clear what OS's are supported and the game was tested with these extra files on those systems and passed testing (as far as we know).
If these extra files broke compatibility on "advertised" supported OS's then users have every right to complain when running those supported systems. But trying to play on unsupported systems is still at the end of the day buyer beware.
It's not on GOG to fix or even tell you how to fix the problems caused by these extra files because they never sold it to you on the promise they would work or be supported on XP.
Whether or not those files "should" come packaged with the game is an entirely different argument...
I think we need to take into account as what GOG started: keep all your installers for the future, they belong to you. Heck, they did that awful stunt to show how important it is to keep the installers, just in case GOG is gone.
Please don't focus on WinXP here, don't just think that maybe some old grumpy guys can no more use their old OS anymore. See it more like there is something changed of the game that compatibilitywise it's not working in the original environment anymore and so fixing it in the future by yourself on newer operating systems makes it harder, in a time when gog and especially Galaxy with the servers are also gone.
I think no one would complain If they need to break the compatibility of a game to make it playable for newer systems. They did that btw with Fallout 1, which isn't working with Win98 anymore. That's fine. The problem here is that this is not necessary, as there would be another workaround to have all the online features but also better preservable installers: just let Galaxy patch the games after installation to add all the online features. If you want to use online services, why not just get them online afterwards? Doing so you can keep the integrity of the installers as close to the original as possible, which is good for future compatibility, but also can attract folks who just enjoy the easiness of a client.