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serpantino: You're still missing the core issues. Galaxy is advertised as completely optional and a big deal is made of that. However galaxy is required for online multiplayer on some games & it does use a form of DRM to ensure the user owns it.

I am actually ok with having a simple username/password check as DRM as I find it non-intrusive but it shouldn't need an external program too and gog should be more honest about it when they push DRM free so hard. A simple entry on a game page stating that the game uses a basic account check to verify ownership for online isn't unreasonable.
At the moment some pages just state that a game requires galaxy for online but again this withholds information and goes back to the fallacy of galaxy being an optional program.
So you are basically asking for galaxy framework included in every game, just no seperate UI, just to make you feel you are not using a different program, just the game itself?
Don`t forget Galaxy is not just the client, but the libraries that support the developers to make efficient, easy and cheap multiplayer and much more.
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Venom: It's not the case that the online multiplayer artificially requires GOG Galaxy. The online multiplayer, achievements etc. in many new games are built using GOG Galaxy. Those features also require a consistent user account. Online multiplayer of course also requires you to be online.

For each of those games, the single player part of the game can be played offline and without GOG Galaxy.
I'd also like to a response to what jamyskis said below to, if possible. (I assume you guys are currently too busy with the current "full" Galaxy, though, for a "lite" version.)

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jamyskis: Just out of curiosity, how feasible would a "Galaxy-lite" client be for games with Galaxy features, where it simply starts the Galaxy service when the game launches, pops up a simple login window with a CLEAR offline mode button and closes it when the game terminates? This would keep the Galaxy service completely in the background. Surely it would be possible to transpose many of the client-based features like achievements and friends to a browser page for Galaxy refuseniks?

If you're dependent on having the same installation packages for both in-Galaxy and non-Galaxy installations, have the lite client perform a check to see if the Galaxy service and client are running.
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hohiro: So you are basically asking for galaxy framework included in every game, just no seperate UI, just to make you feel you are not using a different program, just the game itself?
Don`t forget Galaxy is not just the client, but the libraries that support the developers to make efficient, easy and cheap multiplayer and much more.
It's not just to make me feel like I'm not. There's a big difference between a full blown program and a stripped back, lite & silent version incorporated into the game with just the online account check and multiplayer handshaking.

Why should I have to use an optional program?
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NovHak: NVN = Neverwinter Nights ?

This game has been on GOG for a long time now. I don't have it but I suppose it hasn't been updated since the good old times where GOG wasn't tampering with the security parameters. Now try with something that has come/been updated on GOG not too long ago, I would say in the last two years at the very least...

I don't have any problem with GOG installing security short-circuits as long as one has the possibility to opt-out. I know many people don't give a thing about it so let's give them satisfaction, but please don't forget me :-)
Sorry my mistake (assuming it would be obvious *blush* ), yes

Can you give an example though, I checked with quite a few of my games and didn't see it, so MAYBE you have just a bad one were the responsible made a mistake?

If you have more than one example please post ;)

One reason why, if it was a mistake me thinks, they will correct it. But (again ;) ) from what I have seen they even do not enable by default run as admin, quite often relying on the subforums to tell user to user what to do to get it running (port royal 2 for example, smahelessly point in my direction ;) )
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serpantino: I was also very disappointed by how outdated and primitive galaxy is. It lacks most of the now standard features that its rivals have such as voice chat and even ingame invites (you appear to have to tab out.). It really didn't feel suitable as a modern day online social gaming platform.
I am disappointed about the technical aspect of Galaxy too. The GOG Downloader for Mac is a tiny (about 7 MB in total), well-made application that looks and feels completely native to the platform. I actually like using it and believe that they should have used this as the basis for Galaxy.

Galaxy, however, is a pig. It is huge in size (the app bundle, comparable to an .exe on Windows, is ~181 MB) noticeably slower to launch and react and it feels like a browser. It literally is a browser, it embeds the engine of Google Chrome. It uses weird tricks that are uncommon to OS X and just does not leave a good impression. I don’t find it more appealing than Steam (and Steam set the bar really low). I can be persuaded to use a client, but just not this one.
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Emob78: Notice how nothing goes GOLD any more? \
I still am!
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Eitot: You do know that you are not allowed to share a game copy even with family members?
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Pheace: In the past they've specifically stated they're fine with doing so in a home environment, even playing the same game with multiple people. They might be changing that stance now given that they now are adding more multiplayer games considering limiting multiplayer access to non owners is a particularly desired feature for developers/publishers, but they used to be fine with it.
Some GOG staff members confirmed this a couple of months ago in the German forum. I cannot find the thread right now. In any case, it is in their terms of use.
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serpantino: It's not just to make me feel like I'm not. There's a big difference between a full blown program and a stripped back, lite & silent version incorporated into the game with just the online account check and multiplayer handshaking.

Why should I have to use an optional program?
to a certain degree you have a valid point, a while back you were able to get the full blown program of something or a fully PAID program. (assuming this is what you have in mind?)

BUT, Galaxy is a free program, you do not pay for it. And on the other hand do not forget that they try to build something here to counter the really forced way of other real DRM programs out there.

This discussion reminds me a bit off the regional pricing thing, a lot of their (GOG) business decisions is based on publishers wishes, if they do not fulfill those, no games. They do come up with a solution off their own (sometimes only after a huge outcry though), BUT if we all be happy with it is STILL another thing ;)

Could they make a lite version, yes for sure, but especially in the MOMENT it would be plain stupid ;) As even Galaxy is not yet finished, how shall they come up with a lite version? ;)
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Eitot: I am disappointed about the technical aspect of Galaxy too. The GOG Downloader for Mac is a tiny (about 7 MB in total), well-made application that looks and feels completely native to the platform. I actually like using it and believe that they should have used this as the basis for Galaxy.

Galaxy, however, is a pig. It is huge in size (the app bundle, comparable to an .exe on Windows, is ~181 MB) noticeably slower to launch and react and it feels like a browser. It literally is a browser, it embeds the engine of Google Chrome. It uses weird tricks that are uncommon to OS X and just does not leave a good impression. I don’t find it more appealing than Steam (and Steam set the bar really low). I can be persuaded to use a client, but just not this one.
Gog downloader for Mac? isn't it a custom one made by goggers? (please correct me if I am wrong, have no mac ;) )
Post edited October 18, 2016 by Goodaltgamer
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tfishell: I'd also like to a response to what jamyskis said below to, if possible. (I assume you guys are currently too busy with the current "full" Galaxy, though, for a "lite" version.)
To be clear, I do use Galaxy, I do like Galaxy, I find it incredibly useful and haven't had any problems with it. I just want the "Galaxy ate my hamster" threads to stop as far as possible (of course, you'll always get the whingers who, as skeletonbow correctly said, want to buy one copy for several people).
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jamyskis: To be clear, I do use Galaxy, I do like Galaxy, I find it incredibly useful and haven't had any problems with it. I just want the "Galaxy ate my hamster" threads to stop as far as possible (of course, you'll always get the whingers who, as skeletonbow correctly said, want to buy one copy for several people).
You've made some great posts on here but this one is disappointing. It just looks like you've gone for the fanboy angle of anyone who doesn't like what I like must be unsavoury. I have never shared or torrented a gog game, I've always bought games as gifts for friends if I wanted to play with them and they couldn't afford it or sent them the money via paypal to purchase it themselves.
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Goodaltgamer: Gog downloader for Mac? isn't it a custom one made by goggers? (please correct me if I am wrong, have no mac ;) )
The downloader, which existed before Galaxy, and for both OS X and Windows, is made by GOG, yes.
Post edited October 18, 2016 by Maighstir
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serpantino: You've made some great posts on here but this one is disappointing. It just looks like you've gone for the fanboy angle of anyone who doesn't like what I like must be unsavoury. I have never shared or torrented a gog game, I've always bought games as gifts for friends if I wanted to play with them and they couldn't afford it or sent them the money via paypal to purchase it themselves.
Oh, I'm no fanboy. I was one of the first to go off on one when CDPR introduced the release date DRM for Witcher 3 with the claim that it "wasn't DRM". But there's a difference between opposing DRM and being unreasonable.

I'm just irritated by people who oppose Galaxy simply by virtue of its similarities to the Steam client, and the fact that they need to post hyperbolic rubbish about it every five minutes.

The reason why Galaxy is required for the multiplayer modes of certain games is clear - and it was clear before Venom explained it - the choice is between having no multiplayer and having centralised multiplayer. We know this because many previous Steam exclusives on GOG simply cut out the MP modes from the game (Brütal Legend & Anomaly 2 among them). Centralised multiplayer is nothing new - it has existed since the days of GameSpy. It's not a Steam-exclusive phenomenon.

I can guarantee you that if Shadow Warrior 2 didn't use the Galaxy API for multiplayer, then it would have shipped on GOG without any multiplayer. They wouldn't have implemented a dedicated LAN mode just for GOG users. No developer in their right mind will put that kind of expense into developing GOG-exclusive features.

And you might be honest about licensing with GOG games, but it's a fair bet that the majority of the complainers are not.

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Eitot: GOG Downloader

well-made application
I can't speak for the Mac version, but having long used the Windows version on Windows 7, I honestly don't understand the obsession with the GOG Downloader. On Windows, it was an absolutely horrible piece of software. Sure, it was lightweight and easy enough to use, but I don't think I can remember a day when I didn't have problems with it crashing mid-download, or getting stuck in an infinite loop when trying to verify the integrity of the installer, or refusing to delete entries of games that had not completed downloading, preventing me from redownloading it without deleting everything manually from the temp folder.

I removed it from my hard disk and relied on the internal integrity checks of the installers themselves after downloading through the browser well before Galaxy became a thang.
Post edited October 18, 2016 by jamyskis
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Maighstir: The downloader, which existed before Galaxy, and for both OS X and Windows, is made by GOG, yes.
Thanks for pointing it out for me, too long ago that I went there. ;) And I was confusing it with maybe jgogdownloader.
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jamyskis: I can't speak for the Mac version, but having long used the Windows version on Windows 7, I honestly don't understand the obsession with the GOG Downloader. On Windows, it was an absolutely horrible piece of software. Sure, it was lightweight and easy enough to use, but I don't think I can remember a day when I didn't have problems with it crashing mid-download, or getting stuck in an infinite loop when trying to verify the integrity of the installer, or refusing to delete entries of games that had not completed downloading, preventing me from redownloading it without deleting everything manually from the temp folder.

I removed it from my hard disk and relied on the internal integrity checks of the installers themselves after downloading through the browser well before Galaxy became a thang.
I am not obsessed with the GOG Downloader at all. I barely use it, because I can handle manual downloads just fine and am currently not hoarding copies of installers. However, I have used it in the past and just appreciated the quality of the application itself. It seems to work just fine on OS X, I have not experienced any of these problems.

Galaxy just feels wrong and I am generally very reluctant to have applications download and install other applications on my system, especially when they are so stubborn with regard to installation options and don’t follow protocol and best practices on the system.

Installing applications on OS X is a non-issue anyway, it is as easy as dragging a single .app file to the Applications directory (you don’t even have to drag it there if you don’t want to). There are no integrity checks, because GOG does not seem to be distributing multi-file downloads for OS X (see pictures). Unfortunately, GOG decided to stop doing distributing single .app bundles a couple of months ago in favour of annoying installers instead. I suspect it has something to do with Galaxy as well.
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jamyskis: and the fact that they need to post hyperbolic rubbish about it every five minutes.

it was an absolutely horrible piece of software. Sure, it was lightweight and easy enough to use, but I don't think I can remember a day when I didn't have problems with it crashing mid-download, or getting stuck in an infinite loop when ........
Nice, really nice. First hitting somebody with the big pan, the MFBP, over the head and then doing the same ;) :P

Just for the sake of it, I used gogdownloader and hardly ever had any problem, maybe 5 times. And this even while using in between a mobile stick solution.

I just recently downloader ~600GByte with gogdownloader and had ONE error.

Shall I now use the same words as you did? ;)

PS: I do agree with your general stance as well (Galaxy being the lesser evil)
PPS: and that was what serpantino wanted to avoid, I pointed out the same mistake too him, (and I admit, I do make this mistake as well ;) )