I was always hoping they would avoid that. I mean this one was easy to foresee. You throw out the red line saying that Galaxy is optional and then you include an opt-out Galaxy installation option. That looks so sneaky, noone should be able to keep a straight face while doing so. They really could have easily anticipated the reaction and the lot of bad will this creates. There must have been other solutions instead. I was hoping they would go for one of them but alas...

The more disappointed I'm now.

Exactly my feeling. My impression is that GOG has become one of these nameless companies not giving a shit for its customers. They used to care much more for its customers.

If at least Galaxy would be really good, ... but it isn't.

Wrong is wrong, regardless of Galaxy's quality. It can be the best, finest, most polished client ever made for all I care. I still don't want it, and the way GOG is going about it is all kinds of wrong.

May I suggest postponing the implementation of this particular plan until it can be implemented better?

Having the ability to save the opt-out on Galaxy should be there from the get-go. Just to be clear I would rather not have Galaxy at all but I can live with this - as long as the full Galaxy download isn't included with each installer.

I agree, when i stumbled over GOG in late 2012 they seemed to "care" more about their customers or at least listen to some valid complaints.
But that has already changed with their infamous original "good news" announcement in early 2014 - when they introduced regional pricing etc.
From that point on GOG became less customer friendly IMO.

I still bought most of the old games i wanted here because i like DRM-free installers although i have no problem with using Steam either.

I suspected that things would get worse once Galaxy is out of beta and unfortunately i was right. GOG were even faster with trying to force Galaxy on every user than i expected. :/

IMO a Galaxy installer within an offline installer is an absolute no go. With this i'm not sure if i still wanna buy the few old games i want here...

I can't just live with it. I DON'T WANT GALAXY, OR ANY OTHER BLOATWARE, IN MY GAMES INSTALLERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fables, I feel bad for you, as you''re in an unenviable position of being the bearer of bad news and taking the brunt if the outrage.

But I have to ask: is this statement something that was basically given to you from higher up or do you really believe what you're saying here? As noted by others, the insinuation that a person isn't 'tech-savvy' enough to opt-in to software they might want, yet they can navigate the account creation, purchase, library page, and links to DL the game files... this beggars belief.

(not to mention beat a videogame, which often involves pointing and clicking on some new interface)

"They can figure out our website, create an account, buy games, download the installers from the library page & install them, but we still think they're too dumb to notice all the Galaxy links that are all over our site or understand a checkbox..."

my decision was to use GOG now only for old games. So my GOG wishlist dropped from 40+ games to 21, whereby my steam wishlist is full of games now after many many years, including games that I missed due to the expectation one day they would show up on GOG. If I am gonna choose an evil store for the majority of my purchases, I prefer the honesty of Steam with all its extra perks. But that's just me, I hate being lied or treated like a child which imho is what GOG did.

I am also not fond of using many clients (never installed Origin or Uplay). I was using Galaxy in addition to Steam for GOG's sake, but will also uninstall it after I finish the game I am currently playing.

That said, GOG is still the store for me to buy older games (such as pre 2005), simply because in the majority of cases, they work better than Steam versions.

All you need to do to be happy is to clean yourself from the emotional attachment to GOG you have formed over the years. That's what GOG unilaterally did anyway.

I could write a looong post how things changed on GOG starting from its birth. GOG didn't attract dinosaurs like me only with "DRM-free" to begin with. DRM-free was the only thing remained from many other stuff that made GOG special, which in all honestly is also about to be lost now (unless you wanna keep fooling yourself).

Believe me, it is a different store now. Too bad I spent thousands of dollars here (and caused my friends to spend) over the years. The idea of all my installers will have to become tied with Galaxy installer is sickening, but let's see if GOG's new target user base "who can't figure out how to turn the feature on" will really stay here for long, with the dinosaurs leaving.

So instead we'll bloat all our installers with it in hopes that a small % who didn't want Galaxy will accidentally install it and like it"

Again, I use Galaxy gladly.

You cannot seriously expect an honest reply to that question. You don't publically badmouth your employer at your place of work in your capacity as officially designated spokesperson for said employer. You simply don't.

Well. I'll continue to shop here as long as GOG continues to offer me products I want at terms I find acceptable. I don't do Steam, and Blizzard has managed to get themselves written off. This mess with the installers is looking like a strong step in the unacceptable direction.

Honestly, this is what it looks like. Because their explanation as to why it's going to be ticked 'yes, install Galaxy' by default is mindbogglingly ridiculous, and beyond belief.
I don't. It was more rhetoric than anything, with the latter part of the statement designed to highlight the ludicrousness of GOG's reasoning why they need to have 'Install Galaxy' checked 'yes' by default. Of course, I know he's not going to answer. Still, I needed to ask before my brain exploded.

The kind of user they're targeting is the kind of user that will come here expecting a Steam key and then leave as soon as they discover they can't get one.