Oh, I definitely get it. You buy your games; want to literally own them; and actually want to replay them. This is all definitely fair and all.

I wish other publisher and services thought like this, not lacing their games w/ DRM - but meh, most don't...unfortunately.

I'd even be happy if game companies, once their games got old and/or can be bought real dirt-cheap; and there's no longer major DLC's and/or no more game updates coming - that would be the time to remove said annoying DRM.

Heck, I'd even like for MP-based skirmish modes - i.e. think like COD's MP stuff; and other MP-based modes - had offline skirmish modes where I could fight bots and AI, so that actual art & content did not go to waste, once a MP-game gets...well, abandoned by players.

My problem is - well, I have an insane backlog & I keep buying games; it doesn't end. I blame most of Bundle sites (Fanatical, Humble, etc) and sales, for having sales and bundles that entice me to "Jump".

I must have over 2500 Steam games; another 300+ on GOG; and tons more on other services (Origin, UPlay, Battle.Net, Bethesda.Net, etc etc).

I think I've spent about >£5 in the past five years and still have legacy multiplayer games there.

If people are going to buy games on steam they can always get them from 3rd parties like gamersgate so they don't have to go through steam themselves.

But, I don't think Gamersgate really does as much DRM-FREE stuff as they used to.

Unless I'm not buying the "right titles" there - I mean, a lot more of their newer titles seem to be tied to some service like Steam, Uplay, etc.


But, that's more up to the publishers and/or dev's on stores like Steam and Epic, on where their games have DRM wrapped around them.

Larian's games & Gone Home don't have DRM wrapped around them on Steam.

And most of the big players in the AAA space - they are going to use junk like DRM-schemes like Steamworks; CEG; Denuvo; etc etc.

Another thing - I really wish when a game was not wrapped with DRM on Steam, it was noted somewhere on the game page. I feel like I have to look on PC Gaming Wiki and/or jump through hoops by looking on GOG Forums and some of their threads, just to see if XYZ games are DRM-FREE.

how can you buy a rental?

I think only a small number of those who say they boycott steam actually do so. Bitter fact if for many games, kf you wnat to play a specific game, Steam might be your only practical option.

Obviously, the fact that you don't actually own a DRM'd game effectively makes it a rental. Steam has no requirement to ensure you can still play your games after they shut down.

I don't know if I boycott as other see it but I did not use it for years but almost all of my children that game used it at one time or another. I just dislike launchers and how they interfere with securing the game binaries that I purchased. I did try it from 2019 to 2020 but I did not like it much and sold my account.

It's a good service for what it does but it does not serve my purposes of how I game.

I don't. As a consumer, I go where my dollars stretch the furthest, and GOG isn't the kind of hill that anyone should be dying on anymore, as they themselves aren't exactly frontliners for the type of mentality that proliferates threads like these. Furthermore, tying yourself into some imagined ideal against the "big, bad, company" narrative is stupid, because at the end of the day, no matter what store you buy from, they all want one thing: your money. Therefore, if I'm treated well, the staff are helpful, my issues are met and resolved, along with my conditions for what constitutes a fair deal to me are met, then I'm probably going to purchase there.

I don't understand why some people insist on creating stupid subdivisions in gamer communities to begin with. It's essentially a dick-waggling contest to prove that somehow, some self-righteous dork somewhere is so much hardcore than the rest of us plebs, because those of us that don't crook the knee to whatever ideals they dream up are "ruining the industry." It's also pretty hilarious how many of those same people champion Epic as a viable alternative, like they aren't backed by a far worse corporation than Valve. NONE of these companies, GOG included, care about anything other than profits.

Having said that, I don't prefer DRM'd games, and as such, if it's under any major ones outside of the coin toss of people who don't understand what Steamworks is and actually does, then I avoid it. I would also like the option of offline installers to serve as a kind of backup, just in case. I'm mainly here for the old games. It's why I came, and why I continue to shop here. I own hundreds of games here, and some purchased at full price, in order to show, with my dollars, why I shop here.
Money is money, and yours aren't somehow monetarily worth more, because you don't spend them elsewhere.

I can't do it because the humble bundle offers are too good to pass up. i really wish that there were gog keys in the humble choice program.

Please. You want to use Steam? No problem. Anyone can make that choice. But I simply can't stand this "I can't! I have to use it! I just have to play such and such game! I just have to take advantage of such and such deal!" No you don't. It's not life essentials. Don't act like there's any force majeure involved. Either you're fine with using Steam, in which case such apologetic rhetoric is unnecessary, or you're not really ok with Steam in which case you shouldn't use it, rather than find lame justifications because a game was too shiny.

I only buy multiplayer-focused games on steam, at heavily discounted price. Otherwise, drm-free all the way.

boycott is pointless , especially as we have to use Steam for some of the games

.

how is it rental when there is nor monthly nor yearly payment? it isnt