No problem. Maybe I should have written it differently. I've edited out the line about moderation to make sure it's clearer.

It wouldn't take them any time at all to set it so offline saves worked the same way as if we had used the save editor ourselves, if I understand correctly. That'd be enough to allow us to acquire everything, right?

Pretty much. I didn't care too much back then; I got on GOG before Galaxy was a thing, and I figured it's just a bunch of old games requiring CD keys that nobody's ever going to patch. So I might as well grab them. Then Galaxy beta became a thing, and it seemed like a potentially positive thing with their Alien Versus Predator multiplayer support. It seemed as if they were trying to liberate old games from their broken multiplayer implementations, thus allowing DRM-free multiplayer for titles for which that was previously not possible. Instead, they went in the exact opposite direction by requiring authentication and this is where we are now. By taking Galaxy in the direction they took it, they are positively encouraging DRM-restricted multiplayer. Since then, I've been trying to be careful about which games to buy..

I mean I'm already trying not to buy any new games that have DRM'd multiplayer, so it wouldn't matter to me much if those titles were just gone.

GOG could help it by allowing their Galaxy APIs to work without authentication. I thought that's exactly what they were going for when they released Galaxy beta with multiplayer support for Alien vs Predator. If GOG and devs can't make DRM-free multiplayer happen, then I don't want those games.

I don't think devs would be up for that and it's up to them. If you dont want the game then dont buy it.

◇ https://fckdrm.com/

◇ "Did you know that there's a killswitch in your games books music movies apps ?
It's called DRM, and it can block your access to the things you bought.
You can still take control by choosing DRM-free sources."

Yop! ^

◇ “Seize the Day, Then Set it on Fire”

All single-player style content where I don't need any help and I can just solo the experience should be able to work offline. This rule should always be a part of GOG period.

SP content that is forced online - yeah, that should not exist on a GOG version. That stuff should work offline.

It would be nice if any MP-based stuff - i.e. skirmish stuff/competitive modes - were able to be work offline with bots/AI/whatever so I can play those pieces offline.

Directly, certainly not. But indirectly I think it would matter a lot to you. Securing these games you would have otherwise cut meant a bigger catalogue, which led to more people coming here and more purchases per customer from those that were already here. Gog having more weight makes more developers and publishers willing to take the risk to bring their games here.

I have noticed you enjoy VNs and thankfully Gog has been releasing them for people who like them, like you. But would that be the case if Gog remained a small drop in the game stores ocean? Are these VNs available at Zoom or Fireflower?

Based on the same logic:
There are many developers who would not put up with DRM-free and it's up to them. So GOG can sell those developers' DRM-full games here, and those who don't want the games, won't buy them.

yea, i stand by what i said.

Meanwhile, at GOG HQ...

But then it's just Steam under a different name, really... what's the point?

That's a sensible approach. I think you're in the vast majority among GOG users.

I don't know, more isn't always merrier. It's possible that GOG would be a nicer place if they held on to their core values and the things that made me come here in the first place instead of trying to appeal to a wider crowd. I haven't made that many purchases this year and there's very little on my radar. GOG has dropped the ball a few too many times for my liking and that is genuinely discouraging me from purchasing things, even games that I'd probably like. This also explains why my wishlist is empty nowadays. It's not like I've entirely stopped caring about games, but I'm no longer feeling enthusiastic about buying games on GOG. I certainly no longer feel like supporting GOG just for the sake of supporting them, it's clear that their goals are not particularly well aligned with what I want. I mean GOG dropped a bunch of VNs on two or three occasions and apart from that, we've seen basically nothing except continuation to series that's already here (like Higurashi) and a couple odd ones. It's been a long time since we got VNs in any quantity and I get the vibe that GOG was testing the waters and subsequently more or less gave up. Kinda like how they released a bunch of movies and I guess that section is now dead, if it even exists anymore? (Yeah movies are still there but it's very dead)

At this point, I wouldn't recommend anyone to come over to GOG if VNs are what they're after, since there are much better stores for that. I still hope GOG would release more VNs (with Linux support) but I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, this is solely a design decision that needs to be changed.

That's good because frankly I don't think gaming in general is just going to keep getting more and more DRM'd, especially if the Internet keeps improving as time goes on.