I agree, excellent game series. With the unofficial patches you still have those issues? It's been too long since I've played them so I've forgotten some/most of things like that.

Let's just hope the remaster(s) gets a proper overhaul. :D

EDIT: That was "The first decade".

I meant as the disc comes there are timer issues in some games. I never tried the patches yet.

it seems these threads really were needed. we'll see if he follows through.

ooooh marko an' i was with you until that point :P

Well, I guess it does not matter anymore if you agreee or disagree since at the moment it seems as if we will get our games updated and tinyBuild stay. So just be happy :)

Frankly I've encountered countless games on GOG which have up to date version on steam often sell for slightly less money and on GOG some haven't had updates in a year, have big bugs still present or haven't been touched for years.

It isn't just the little guys either Nordic left darksiders 2 with broken controller prompts for almost a year after a bodged update meaning QTEs were impossible.

Despite being told about this by countless customers and without any informed resolution period GOG continued to put the game on sale and promote it in sales. To this day there are more bugfixes for the game that were never introduced into the GOG version that are available on steam AND the save files are incompatible on steam with the GOG version

GOG need to change what they do, right now you only see when a game was updated & its changelog AFTER you buy the game. This should be on the store page BEFORE you buy.

GOG should also not be putting on sale games THEY know are broken until the major issues are fixed it is dishonest & unfair of both GOG & the publisher.

I'm all for DRM free, and I've supported it with my wallet but I do expect the publisher/developer & GOG to be up front and honest as I am being upfront and entering into things in good faith not matched by them collectively!

Sure? Maybe you should add it to the list then.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_that_treat_gog_customers_as_second_class_citizens_v2/post1

Hadn't noticed the thread, thanks for pointing it out.

Its existence reminds me how annoyed I am that GOG removed user lists pinned to games. There was a live version of that list maintained by someone and countless other lists with info about games and GOG then vanished it from the store pages & relegated everything to be hidden away in forums (something a lot of casual buyers won't bother to check be buying).

Amen, although a good chunk of them were, frankly, completely retarded.
But on the other hand a good chunk of them were both handy and convenient., including those naming and shaming publishers for poor customer service for the GoG releases, or those with gimped multi-platform support.

Should've weeded out the dumbest one with publicly well presented and thought-out reasons for doing that in order to raise the lowest common denominator for the lists instead.

I had been working on one which listed games that supported LAN play or other equivalent offline co-op/multiplayer.

Forum threads mentioned highlighted are important as it lets people know what "they aren't" getting when they buy from GOG. A pretty common thing left out by devs are things like level editors I know neocore didn't bother with it for Deathtrap which is just disappointing.

GOG have also been letting it slip as to what 'they' considered DRM free these days. DRM now means DRM free but only for single player, many MP/Co-OP games do things like dial-home, require a third party account which TBH fundamentally means there is DRM there which is why I started my list.

So you would prefer that everyone with an .exe file would have access to MP content? Imagine the anarchy in the games compared to now.

In a word YES!!!!!

in many words see below:-
Are you asking would I prefer the option of them providing the option to run private servers & direct LAN connections as many older titles have and some modern titles do YES I WOULD.

Case in point Neocore games have offline CoOp and Online CoOp on ranked servers which you need to register for. They keep them both separate and you can't share character between them. Tron 2.0 Lets you run local LAN servers, HOMM 3 lets you use direct connections to play.

Frankly I don't see the point you are trying to make. There has been a distiction made by most developers between online with official servers & offline multiplayer

The point is for a multiplayer game they already have the technology developed to support multiplayer.

What a number of developer are doing is choosing to NOT make that part DRM free to let people run private servers,

It is a conscious choice, to not provide this. As I made the case of official servers are regulated by the developers & whom so ever they appoint. Private server will not be.

Case in point the developers of Age of wonders III use an online check for multiplayer, they are using it as DRM.

When the game first launched on GOG it even wanted to do online checking for single player. Many developers are not entering into DRM free in good faith. They want in many cases a higher mark-up for their game but still want to use DRM free for half of it.

If GOG were to label 'THIS IS ONLY DRM FREE FOR SINGLE PLAYER' perhaps you could say GOG were not responsible even if them spouting the sins of DRM but still selling games without it is hypocritical.

Calling needing an internet connection DRM would be a false equivalency of things it by definition requires no digital rights management only mutual consent of the parties wishing to play together.

The argument does however tie into the tinybuild issue of developers pretending to support DRM free but not actually doing so and duping those who buy from GOG with exaggerated promises & claims as to what they are buying.

In their case you are buying an old outdated version of a game that isn't going to be updated it should be a fraction of the price of the steam version that is as by their own words you are buying an older inferior product.

DRM Free works on the honesty system, it works only when developers enter into it fully, not doing so means customers feel short changed and cease to buy DRM free games and instead seek 'alternate' methods to acquire them. In those cases the developers have turned would be paying customers into non-payers.

First off, thanks for making a clear/civil and well written reply...kudos for that. Now onto your reply bit by bit:

1. If they have the tech is not the issue but whether they want to implement/allow it.

2. Not having the ability to make a private server is not DRM, imo. n One can easily sign up to such sites/games and play them if they own the game.

3. They have to regulate official servers so they can keep "bad/illegal" content and behavior off of their servers.

4. How is checking to make sure yourn internet is ok/active to allow MP DRM?

5. They likely meant only SP DRM free games, which is what most people(sad to say) care about usually.

6. It's still similar(imo) to calling anything(even an account) needed to play online as DRM.

7. The link above(iirc) lists a rebuttal from Tinybuild disavowing that employee's claims.

8. To be fair some would say not all updates are good things....some can break things for some as easily as improve them, so for some an older build can be a superior product.

9. This may be true for some, but with the dev's short game list and small userbase how many they lost is in quesiton...though it is likely not too many given their game's list.