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General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted June 06, 2014
Freedom of choice. Optional client. Cross-play. Coming soon to all gamers!

Earlier today (or was it yesterday for you?), during the [url=http://www.gog.com/news/cd_projekt_red_gogcom_summer_conference]CD Projekt RED and GOG.com’s Summer Conference we dropped the news about our next big step forward! GOG.com has always been home to more and more of the the best games in history (for Windows and Mac), both classic and new. Differing in shapes, flavors, and sizes they had one thing in common: they were mostly single-player, and our focus was mainly on the experience of a singular gamer. If that's your thing, nothing really will change. You can always enjoy your favorite games 100% DRM-free on GOG.com, with no need to activate your game online or remain connected to play your single-player title. Just like GOG.com has always been about.. But what if you want to play with your friends?

Today we are excited to announce GOG Galaxy, a truly gamer-friendly, 100% DRM-free online gaming platform that will finally provide the GOG.com community with the easy option to play together online. GOG Galaxy will allow you to share your achievements, stay in touch with your pals and get the updates for your games automatically. We've developed this technology to improve your GOG.com experience. We think GOG Galaxy really deserves your attention and we hope many of you will give it a try! But, here's the great thing: it is totally optional, so it's all up to you! If you do not want to play online, or use our optional client to access these features, then no worries, you will always be able to play the single-player mode 100% DRM-free, and download manually the latest updated version of your favorite title from our website. Now, for one more feature we call cross-play. We always believed in an open world for gamers, with no obligation to be tied to a specific platform or client; and this is why GOG Galaxy will allow gamers to play with their buddies who use Steam, without any need to use any 3rd party client or account, nothing, nada. We’re taking care of connecting GOG.com and Steam players, so just sit back, relax and give it a try.

See the outtake from the CD Projekt RED & GOG.com Summer Conference

Talking of which, we are proud to announce the soon-to-come launch of the beta phase for The Witcher Adventure Game, a faithful adaptation of the board game of the same title. It allows up to 4 players to play together, whether they use Steam or GOG.com. Cross-play at its finest! If you wanna get the chance to try it out, please visit and sign up to get in the queue for your beta access key. You can also simply take advantage of our amazing [url=http://www.gog.com/tw3]pre-order offer for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which includes 2 beta access keys for he Witcher Aventure Game, delivered to you as soon as we start handing them out to public.

We believe GOG Galaxy has the power to provide the best of both worlds. Playing the single player mode of your favorite game, 100% DRM-free, while still having the OPTION to use our soon-to-come client for an enhanced experience (auto-patching, achievements, and much more) or play online with other GOG.com (and Steam) players if you so wish.

There will be more GOG Galaxy titles coming up this year, so stay tuned for more news and get the word around!
Post edited June 06, 2014 by G-Doc
Posted June 06, 2014
A very forbidding deity, this god.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Melhelix
Posted June 06, 2014
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Erundil: God forbid you let others have opinions about your opinions ;)
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Smannesman: God forbid I don't have the common courtesy to make a douchey reply to someone's douchey replied opinion to my opinion.
Gents, please, can we get any more childish. :P

Let's thing as they are announced: you want a gog client, you'll get one, you don't want a gog client, noone forces you to use the client.

What's there not to like?
Posted June 06, 2014
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Matruchus:
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Pheace: Regional pricing was never taken off the board. In fact, that statement changed nothing in that regard, since the original already said they would try to get fair pricing where they can. But in the end, it's like they said as well "It's in the hands of the publishers". That's where it is now.
Yeah well it all depends on several things. First they said using Namco as a Publisher for Witcher 2 is a one time thing which this certainly isn't and all the confusion about regional pricing is bad. The prices at the moment for non discounted price for Witcher 3 range from 20$ to 90$ depending on where you live. Not to forget that this is their own game. Check the regional pricing thread.
Eitherway its not really good.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Matruchus
Posted June 06, 2014
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Gandos: Granted, a lot of the more recent classic releases haven't exactly been high profile stuff (Sim City 4 was arguably the first big classic game since System Shock 2)
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Erich_Zann: Wizardry 6-8, goddamnit.
Oh, right....damn. Sorry about that. =P

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Gandos: ...But they are releasing old games constantly. ...
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Trilarion: The really good ones, the ones we're all waiting for, they don't release them constantly. If you are more interested in the Top 100 of the wishlist, then there haven't been many from there lately?
You know, if you had read the second paragraph of my post, you would have noticed that I already addressed this. XD
Posted June 06, 2014
My main concern with this currently would be piracy.

One of the main benefits for publishers in having online components/multiplayer is the simple fact that pirated copies a lot of the time have no way to participate in those.

Given that A) A game's matchmaking (according to a blue) needs to be designed for Galaxy. and B) GOG Galaxy must mean the game has to have a DRM-free variant and C) DRM-free means there's no actual ownership check.

Does that mean if a game has Galaxy matchmaking that pirates will be able to freely download the game and get to participate in the social/multiplayer features as well? And as a result, cheating could potentially be a massive issue in those games, ruining the online portion of that game without any possible repercussions.

If the above is the case, I would imagine that to be a major hurdle in convincing publisher/devs to participate in GOG Galaxy matchmaking.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Pheace
Posted June 06, 2014
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Smannesman: Well I disagree about 'constantly', but also it should be GOGs responsibility to add more games.
Instead they use resources on things like this.
They pretty much have to, pressure from the competition. If you want to complain, complain to the Steam generation of PC gamers who are used to using a client that auto-updates and does everything for them. If, for example, you are happily using Steam, then you are part of the problem. :)

It has become apparent that for many new users (who are more accustomed to Steam, AppStore, GooglePlay etc.) there is a barrier for buying games from GOG, as they are expecting a similar simpler experience as they had on those other services. It seems the most confusing part is that even though you use the current downloader client, you still have to initiate the download itself from the GOG web page, and log in into two different places at the same time (both the downloader client, and the web page account).

The good news for you is that you can install and play also the old GOG games with the client.

I personally endorse the new client, as long as they don't fck it up, and it remains optional. And frankly I don't believe it affects their (in)ability to get older games here at all. If anything, being able to lure more new users with the client here might also make Microsoft, DisneyLucasArts, Eidos etc. a bit more interested in publishing more of their older games here, and not only Steam.
Posted June 06, 2014
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Zoidberg: Let's thing as they are announced: you want a gog client, you'll get one, you don't want a gog client, noone forces you to use the client.

What's there not to like?
GOG's cursed amicable nature! How dare they offer choice and thus deny me my personal right to rage against injustice! How shall I feel validated? *sniff* I'll never be a superhero, now! My life is meaninglessssss! *sob*

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Pheace: My main concern with this currently would be piracy.

One of the main benefits for publishers in having online components/multiplayer is the simple fact that pirated copies a lot of the time have no way to participate in those.

Given that A) A game's matchmaking (according to a blue) needs to be designed for Galaxy. and B) GOG Galaxy must mean the game has to have a DRM-free variant and C) DRM-free means there's no actual ownership check.

Does that mean if a game has Galaxy matchmaking that pirates will be able to freely download the game and get to participate in the social/multiplayer features as well? And as a result, cheating could potentially be a massive issue in those games, ruining the online portion of that game without any possible repercussions.

If the above is the case, I would imagine that to be a major hurdle in convincing publisher/devs to participate in GOG Galaxy matchmaking.
I'd imagine that it would be a similar check to the user-account game shelf already in play. You can't download from GOG what isn't already tied to your account. So probably, you log in to the client, you choose to play from what you've previously purchased. Other things simply wouldn't be selectable choices? By routing the check through the individual account name there is no need for DRM on the games themselves, unless I'm missing something.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Melhelix
Posted June 06, 2014
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Smannesman: Well I disagree about 'constantly', but also it should be GOGs responsibility to add more games.
Instead they use resources on things like this.
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timppu: They pretty much have to, pressure from the competition. If you want to complain, complain to the Steam generation of PC gamers who are used to using a client that auto-updates and does everything for them. If, for example, you are happily using Steam, then you are part of the problem. :)
Hmm. I do use steam happily but also buy a lot from GOG. Even sometimes (gasp) without waiting for a discount. As I said, can we perhaps try to just accepts that different people want different things from gaming without needing to brand arbitrary groups as 'the problem'? :)
Posted June 06, 2014
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Erich_Zann: Wizardry 6-8, goddamnit.
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Gandos: Oh, right....damn. Sorry about that. =P
Your contrition has been duly noted.
Posted June 06, 2014
Most of my concerns/questions were already addressed by CTLance and triple_I and unfortunately neither of those posts have been answered by the team.
My biggest questions are will there be modularity and openness? And will I be forced into Galaxy if I want to play multiplayer?
Posted June 06, 2014
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Melhelix: I'd imagine that it would be a similar check to the user-account game shelf already in play. You can't download from GOG what isn't already tied to your account. So probably, you log in to the client, you choose to play from what you've previously purchased. Other things simply wouldn't be selectable choices? By routing the check through the individual account name there is no need for DRM on the games themselves, unless I'm missing something.
This can't be the case because the whole point behind Cross-Play is that it allows you to play with people no matter where you bought it, Steam, GOG, etc. It can't simply check your GOG shelf.

If there's going to be a check, then GOG Galaxy is the new 3rd party DRM for people who don't buy on GOG.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Pheace
Posted June 06, 2014
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Pheace: Given that A) A game's matchmaking (according to a blue) needs to be designed for Galaxy. and B) GOG Galaxy must mean the game has to have a DRM-free variant and C) DRM-free means there's no actual ownership check.

Does that mean if a game has Galaxy matchmaking that pirates will be able to freely download the game and get to participate in the social/multiplayer features as well? And as a result, cheating could potentially be a massive issue in those games, ruining the online portion of that game without any possible repercussions.
You seem to be assuming that there is no online account check even for the multiplayer part. I think there is already now such account check for many of the GOG games with functional multiplayer component, e.g. Race the Sun (I don't recall if it has multiplayer, or if it is mainly just some kind of social leaderboard thing).

It is obvious to me that the client and account login is needed if you want to play online, similarly like on e.g. Steam:

But, here's the great thing: it is totally optional, so it's all up to you! If you do not want to play online, or use our optional client to access these features, then no worries, you will always be able to play the single-player mode 100% DRM-free, and download manually the latest updated version of your favorite title from our website.
You could nitpick that then the game is not 100% DRM-free, if there is a validity check for online gaming. But they are referring to the single-player mode being 100% DRM-free.

There is a catch though, as some newer games don't make a clear distinction between single- and multiplayer. Diablo 3 for starters, or the newest Simcity game. So if PC gaming keeps progressing more and more to "social games" where there isn't even any offline part, then that's bad news for those who'd like to play their games offline. That would affect also Steam offline mode.

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timppu: They pretty much have to, pressure from the competition. If you want to complain, complain to the Steam generation of PC gamers who are used to using a client that auto-updates and does everything for them. If, for example, you are happily using Steam, then you are part of the problem. :)
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Erundil: Hmm. I do use steam happily but also buy a lot from GOG. Even sometimes (gasp) without waiting for a discount. As I said, can we perhaps try to just accepts that different people want different things from gaming without needing to brand arbitrary groups as 'the problem'? :)
Well, that depends if you think it is a problem in the first place that GOG sees fit to come up with an optional Steam-like client. I don't.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by timppu
Posted June 06, 2014
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timppu: You seem to be assuming that there is no online account check even for the multiplayer part. I think there is already now such account check for many of the GOG games with functional multiplayer component, e.g. Race the Sun (I don't recall if it has multiplayer, or if it is mainly just some kind of social leaderboard thing).

It is obvious to me that the client and account login is needed if you want to play online, similarly like on e.g. Steam:
How would this account check work if you didn't buy it on GOG, or even if you did? So you'll get a multiplayer key for your GOG games now then for the Galaxy Client?

I can possibly see an ownership check for Steam games, if your Steam account is linked to Galaxy, since it can check your games list then, but what about the DRM-free variants?

Not to mention this effectively makes the Galaxy client DRM. It seems unlikely somehow.
Post edited June 06, 2014 by Pheace
Posted June 06, 2014
I think GOG Galaxy is a fantastic idea, as many publishers and devs claimed that they can't have a GOG release for their games because they 'need' Steam's API for achievements and multi-player. I hope we start seeing big games we missed out on because of those excuses.
Posted June 06, 2014
We just need a release date, and I'm sold. :)
Post edited June 06, 2014 by BKGaming
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionIntroducing: GOG Galaxy, the DRM-Free online gaming platform(917 posts)(917 posts)
(917 posts)