-----
PART 2/?
-----
rjbuffchix: "[–]-chandra-Verified GOG Rep[S] 1 point 4 hours ago
No, the launcher is still necessary as these games have DRM. It means that, if you already have the Epic launcher installed, you can install the game without leaving the GOG GALAXY app. Otherwise when you were to install the game, it will ask you to install the launcher."
adamhm: So GOG dropping their last core value confirmed then :/ And with a store that's as dodgy as EGS!
GOG really have no principles left now.
You know... We live in a crazy times... When majority of the world is comprised of "stupid people" (I would use some more powerful words here but I don't want to upset somebody) and close to "any shit flies".
With stuff like this, just WHERE do we even go now? :/
It's like:
Steam: +huge selection of games AND SOFTWARE +industry standard +industry pioneer +they invest in Linux dev +a whole lot of DRM-free games are actually out there +ludicrous cloud save space for most games (1 GIG????) +app itself can be made to run offline indefinitely with some "not for end user" tricks +achievements +trading cards +MODERATED FORUMS +moderately fast support +GREAT forum software +groups +free storage for user generated content (potentially unlimited) +many other great features
-steamstub DRM (easy to break) -steamworks (easy to emulate) -"steam bad" (yeah whatever, most people who say that usually cannot see positive sides NOR 'ultimate' bigger picture) -"but steam gets bigger chunk of money blah blah" (people who say that must be blind or something. These servers don't run on thin air, there is only <4 h of maintenance a week [less than 30m should your account be "magic" or you getting lucky], they offer a TON of services and functionality. Do you people realise even just how much STORAGE they utilise? It costs MONEY)
/?/purchased content ownership rights in legal loophole limbo
Origin: +EA games (is this even a plus /s) -software is bad at best -telemetry is unknown extent -close to nothing apart from EA games -even EA games have things like SecuROM (still at this age?) and activation limits (greedy company I guess) -the "you can only get PL/RU languages if you buy from PL/RU geoip while rest of the world gets ALL languages INCLUDING these" BS
Uplay: +Ubisoft games -terrible software -intrusive telemetry -intrusive app overhead -some always online singleplayer games -basically nothing apart from Ubisoft games -their TOS is some crazy shit (yes I have read it. I have also read Steam, Origin, Battle.net, GOG, and some others, including PayPal [that was one crazy pain in the ass])
EGS: +Some games (????) +You are supporting the-great-yellow-red country /s (not a plus, satire obviously)
-don't even get me started. Where do I even start?
-the new definition of evil predatory corp
-brainwashes people into thinking "this is ok"
-does things to your computer / data mining with no consent / privacy breaches that are not only TREMENDOUS privacy violation but these deeds are literally seen as HACKING by the book by many countries' laws
-bribes game publishers
-divides consumers
-creates ACTUAL monopoly (BIGGER THAN STEAM EVER WAS actually) disguised as false freedom of choice (unfortunatelly some people do actually fall for that)
-creates yet another market division that nobody needs, nobody deserves, and actually nobody wants
-their software and storefront is just s**t, inexcusable lack of functionality is also a thing
-money grabbing (devs, consumers, other companies, basically everybody)
-a literal embodiment of "hacking, sending data to china, blah blah" video meme (it really is like that)
-large amount of financial funding is from a country violating human rights, breaching IT security of other countires, etc
-most basically Tencent outpost (it has to be said already), yet another stub for predatory expansion and hostile takeovers
GOG: +(still?) has DRM-free games +has some old games unobtainable on some other digital distribution conglomerates +great values
-execution of "great values" is getting sloppy
-DRM-free isn't certain in longterm
-close to no moderation of forums, basically community has to run errands and hunt down and manually report things if they want ANYTHING done
-crippled releases (no Linux / Mac ports, no achievements, cut game content, missing original language localisations, etc)
-it isn't entirely clear if purchased content is ACTUALLY owned by consumer (TOS gives maybe like 90% of confirmation, but it is written such that it gives SOME "margin of error" capabilities)
-no way on earth to directly report a post apart from "spam"
-game functionality is a "do as you please dear developer", so in reality most games lack feature X or Y (like cloud saves, achievements, etc)
-nobody really seems to know what the dev cut really is
-the API is TERRIBLE
-lack of PUBLIC (steam has that public) API documentation (so say I would like to consider releasing my game on GOG, I cannot even EVALUATE how much work it would take since the public documentation is missing!)
-forum software from dark ages
-staff ignoring community's requests for Linux support
-staff ignoring community's requests in general
-useless post voting system
-no dark theme on storefront (seriously, I don't feel like HAVING TO run Stylus all the time, or worse, doing it all myself by hand)
-not all historic builds are actually available to end consumers (some are hidden, visible with DB queries but undownloadable)
-inconsistent patch naming (sometimes 2 different versions have the EXACT same name)
-no access WHATSOEVER to "true" historic builds (useful for speedrunning) like "pre GOG release" (this problem is not existent on Steam or whatever was the original distribution platform)
-attempts to sneak in DRM with hoping consumers don't notice (and they sometimes don't for quite some time)
-insufficient QA in some places
-forum system doesn't actually tell you what max post length is and when you reached it (it either freezes or just stright out exits the form and reloads a page doing nothing)
Itch.io.:
+DRM-free by the book
+Often options to support dev more directly
-storefront is uninified and on some pages it looks like one-hundred-worldlines-away-where-things-didn't-progress-visually-in-15-years (which for me isn't a problem at all but some people could go "meh")
-small selection of games
-mostly indie games
-mostly unknown games of unknown quality
/?/as for the cut, I don't know (I have not researched yet. Gome nasai), so don't ask
It's like all of the sudden thing I was thinking about for YEARS surfaces:
that the best platform could be console emulators, because you get both physical media (assuming you actually own it) and get to play it offline FOREVER with NOBODY getting in your way :S
Yes, there is still DRM-free PC software / games... but the landscape is changing drastically and future is very uncertain...
People let shit fly... Corporations thus make more and more radical steps... Who knows where it may end.