Vendor-Lazarus: A shrug is a sign of apathy. Apathy means you don't care.
GameN16bit: Honestly, I'm just really tired of the doom and gloom the users of this forum revel in. Anytime GOG does something users complain and moan and say GOG is abandoning DRM free and installers and is going to make Galaxy mandatory, etc etc. It gets old, no matter how many times GOG says that is not happening or that Galaxy is optional or that the GOG.com store will always be a DRM Free store. It's doesn't matter, users here only believe what they want to believe... and say there are going to leave GOG, etc, and yet most of them are still here complaining.
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I hope you can understand that those users who frequent GOG because of the DRM-free aspect sometimes get worried when they see GOG decisions that seem to contradict this feature. As a relatively new user I haven't seen as many changes as others, but I agree with some of the especially worried users that there is a clear trend away from the emphasis on DRM free content. GOG Galaxy, while not in itself DRM, is a launcher that very much reminds one of the Steam launcher that is badly associated with its DRM aspect. I got locked out of already installed pure single player games myself on Steam because of connectivity issues, which makes DRM-free an important factor for me. Several users have already described phenomena that shake the image of GOG Galaxy as an entirely optional and DRM-free launcher. Games that only receive updates for GOG Galaxy, be it bug-fixing or content-adding ones, but not for the separate offline installers, does leave more than a bit of a bitter taste. If I need GOG Galaxy for important and desired game updates it becomes mandatory rather than optional, which is a move away from the GOG Galaxy as an optional client sentiment. With GOG Galaxy's prominence on the GOG website and the presentation of the GOG Galaxy download links compared with the almost hidden offline installer download links it's pretty clear that GOG Galaxy is very important for the people in responsible positions and judging from the trends we see, its importance is ever growing.
We've seen other promises GOG made eventually fall, such as the refusal to apply regional pricing. While many users (just like myself) can see and accept the reasons behind this decision, we also see and remember that a promise made by GOG is a promise they might eventually be willing to break. GOG Galaxy is now also associated with (but still not in itself) DRM, so if it becomes less and less optional, we're getting ever closer to games affected by DRM.
Selling games that are affected by DRM through GOG Galaxy, an important part of GOG, increases the fear that DRM-free may be the next (and last) big promise to be abandoned, or at least increasingly neglected. Users don't pull such ideas out of their magic hats, a lot (albeit by far not all) of these concerns stem from GOG's decisions and GOG's seeming ignorance towards their userbase, such as the claim that selling games affected by DRM was a very prominent feature in the userbase, for which we don't see any sign.
I like GOG for the DRM-free offline installers, like quite a bunch of other people here. We all hope that we will keep the ability to buy games with up-to-date (!) offline installers here. But we can't unsee the risk that this feature of GOG may be abandoned eventually. You may not share this view, but I hope that you can afford a bit more understanding and tolerance for this position.
