While more eloquently stated (although it reads like it came straight out of the marketing department), this statement is still as nonsensical as the first attempt to explain it by saying that the average user would be confounded by a checkbox. That kind of person who just bought a game and expects it to "work" would be hard-pressed to miss the big blue "TRY GOG GALAXY" button if they were to purchase and download it from the account page. Nor do I think they would be unable to read a sentence or two about Galaxy during that installation process and decide whether or not they want to try it.

I get making a mention of Galaxy in the installer process. It makes sense for business to get as many customers into your ecosystem as possible. It makes sense to inform customers who managed to get that far in the process of installing a game on GOG while somehow missing any mention of Galaxy. It makes sense to coax people who got their hands on an installer through other means to give Galaxy a shot. It makes sense to want anyone who might have the slightest interest in Galaxy to know about it and its features so they have the best experience possible.

I understand all this, but you're tinkering with the one of the few features that makes GOG wholly unique and an enticing alternative to Steam. To inform some of your most loyal customers about this without being able to answer simple questions of:

"How will Galaxy be included in the installers? Is the full installer going to be included, or just a stub?
If it is the full installer, do you expect to be able to update the installers every single time it gets updated?"

while telling us the main reason for doing so boils down to the fact that you think the average user can't be trusted to decide what they want on their own, or to pin half the reasoning on Cloud saves when most of those games don't even offer them, is pretty damn insulting. With all this in mind, and the fact you're using the same tactics toolbars, McAfee, and the like use to insert themselves on peoples' computers, I'm inclined to think that this plan is half-baked at best and intentionally deceptive at worst.

Make a mention of Galaxy in the installers. Link or include an opt-in stub to install it. It makes sense to do so. But don't treat us or any of your other customers like idiots, and aspire to be better than companies that are considered to be some of worst in the software business.

Fucking ridiculous.

Sure, the devil's in the details here with always downloading the Galaxy installer and always having the box checked by default, but message received, GOG. Other people have covered this in more detail. This continues supporting the idea that I care more about GOG than GOG does.

This is worse than when you faked your own shutdown -- a move so universally recognized as garbage that you had to spend years apologizing. I don't know if in the end the PR generated for you from that was a net positive or not, but I can guarantee that will not be the case here. Well, consider myself as already reserving a ticket for your new apology tour. The apology script/studio cameras had better be prepared, cause if this shit goes live on Friday, this is going to drastically change the calculus of future purchases of even your most loyal supporters. Your move, Friday.

Not so long ago I would've laughed at the suggestion that GOG would stoop so low as to use such scumware tactics, but here we are. I keep wondering what the fuck is wrong with GOG recently :/

Anyway they're not planning on making the installers live until Friday, so they still have plenty of time to reconsider and reverse this decision. Hopefully they will...

^ I have to agree with this. If someone is too dumb to download GOG Galaxy then how do they manage to download the installer containing GOG Galaxy which is even less obvious from the home screen? It sounds like something "Great Idea (tm)" senior marketing managers are telling customer support / community forum staff what they want to hear rather than any serious consumer research survey...

I own several games on this list and will be comparing file sizes after Friday. If every single GOG game is going to start bloating out by +150MB (how much the current GOG Galaxy v1.2.6.25 download is I just checked), then I'll be keeping the old installers and removing all other games on that "bloat list" from my Wishlist.

Seriously, for every 100x GOG games someone owns, they've going to have like +15GB of pure wasted bloat consisting of 100x identical unwanted 150MB installers to backup. I'm pretty sure there are other ways of making an already simple download easier for your bottom 1% of dumbest customers to understand than intentionally p*ss off the other 99%...

In other words - you're catering to Steam users.

Who already use Steam, and have no need for another Steam. If they are already on Steam, which babies them as you describe, AND has a vastly larger game collection AND vastly more buying options AND much lower prices, how are you enticing them to come to a feature-identical but clearly inferior competitor?

Why would I buy your Big Mac, which costs twice as much, when I can just go to McDonald's?

GOG built itself on its key points of difference from Steam. I am here with 800+ games in my account because GOG isn't Steam.

But since I've joined we now have an "optional" client which is less optional every day. Online badges and clutter and crap. Micro-transactions for the love of God.

There is no competitive advantage to being "exactly like Steam" only with less selection, a worse client, and higher prices. There is no valid business model there.

For "savvy" users or the simpering idiots you seem to think you should be catering to.

When the day comes that I truly can't get away from your client, it will be the day I buy my last game on GOG and simply join the evil empire and become a Steam user... because there will no longer be any logical alternative.

O.K. - yes, that I can accept :)

I have considered Steam, but trading cards are a dealbreaker. As long as GOG doesn't have them, they have me by the privates with regards to new "premium" games that won't show up on itch.io.

In a word, yes they are catering to Steam users. Perhaps catering is the wrong word, more like enticing. Understand that Galaxy's entire existence is to be on a more level playing field with the Steam experience. They are trying to grow their base and the only way to do that is to try to bring over the Steam user. That's is the main reason why Galaxy exists. It's why Connect exists.

Like I said yesterday, no matter how optional it may be, the ultimate goal is always to have a majority of it's users in Galaxy for numerous reasons (business/technical/support). You don't create something like Galaxy, with all of it's features and whatnot if you do not intend it to be the centerpiece of your storefront.

Yea I support Galaxy 100%, but even I know of probably 10 different ways off the top of my head you can accomplish this without being so "I know what is best for you" about it. Seems to me you would rather just use smoke and mirrors under the guise of "helping the newbs" and basically take the easy way of doing this rather than coming up with an elegant solution for everyone involved.

This is unnecessary drama, that could have been prevented with better communication and a more thought out execution. If you don't know at least the bare minimal of how something is going to be done, then this wasn't ready to be announced and surely wasn't ready to be implemented.

As as far as other ideas as how to do this, you could even offer a nice purple colorful button in the far left that says "Install GOG Galaxy & Game" & then a cancel button when the installer is opened. You can even put a nice colorful picture detailing what makes Galaxy useful to use. When users click it, check if Galaxy is already installed or not, if not use a web installer and grab the latest version from online. Do not bundle the the full Galaxy application.

Off to the far right though... put a boring uninteresting text link that says "Just install the game." Do non Galaxy users still feel a little shafted, sure... but at-least they get a straight forward way of avoiding all of that which is what they want to avoid. At-least it's not a small checkbox that can be easily missed and that they have to remember to uncheck.

Or you know just follow one of the other ideas here, plenty of good ones...

Mind you, some people are going to dislike any changes GOG does (especially if it involves Galaxy), you will not be able to please these people.

EDIT: And just to be clear "you" means GOG, not Fables.... I know she is just the messenger here.

Exactly like Steam... no. But like Steam with some noticeable differences... sure. Like it or not Galaxy is working for GOG and they are getting a lot of users because of it. Considering their growth and landing some major publishers, it's obviously a valid business model.

This.

Actually, if the assumption is that people are so clueless the option has to be chosen for them, isn't this in fact highly questionable morally, as GOG is, by their own admission!, taking advantage of people's lack of understanding to push their client?

Either people are not as stupid as GOG claims, and the whole reasoning is bullshit, or GOG is trying to spread their client by taking advantage of people lack of knowledge or attention. Which I think is pretty much the definition of how one spreads malware.

Yup, can mean the difference between being reputable and being scumware.

You better have good answers before Friday, because if you still go through and release the new installers with Galaxy included as threatened, I will stop buying from GOG.

The easiest solution would be to leave the installers as they are and make a big popup when somebody downloads an installer from the library through a browser, asking them if they want to use Galaxy instead and explaining all the advantages.
This also means, that you don't unnecessarily have to download a setup for Galaxy when downloading installers through Galaxy (just don't show the popup window when accessing installers from Galaxy).

An opt-in stub in the setup which downloads the latest Galaxy when selected is barely acceptable. Anything else (opt-out and/or bundled full-size Galaxy installer) is just insulting me as a long-time customer and will make me stop buying games here.

Just one question, how much bigger will the offline installers be in size because of the addition of Galaxy?

I checked earlier and Galaxy is a 150MB download. So if it's bundled into the installer, the bloat will probably be +150MB per game.

And if it is just a link to download (ie, if the installer acts as a Galaxy downloader), then that's going to cause more headaches to those who've got the Windows Firewall to block "outgoing connections by default unless whitelisted" (because it won't be a typical pre-whitelisted web-browser doing the downloading but the unique installer whose path, file size & CRC change each time). "Making things easier...". LOL.