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General discussionRequesting a GoG-Staff response on DRM(21 posts)(21 posts)
(21 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
This topic is not meant to flame or spread hate towards you all, but I wanted to reach out to the GoG staff on what are the reasons for the increasing use of DRM that many users on this platform are complaining about lately?

Most people here usually come here to get away from that since STEAM is the biggest user of DRM and has caused a lot of problems whether ethical, technical or both.

From my personal observation (whether I'm accurate or not depending on the answer) is it because of the need to bring in more games into the platform DRM or not depending that on Studio's request?

From what I understand from the beginnings of GoG that you all were not for DRM, what changed course on this matter?

- Appreciate a response if possible, but I will understand if there is reasons that cannot be publicly talked about because I know how cut-throat the video game market is whether we like it or not.
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
*grimace*

Deaf ears, I'm afraid. No, I'm not being an ass, it's just honesty. So many people over the years have beseeched GOG to respond officially regarding DRM encroaching into their catalogue. Whether it be a specific game or just the whole catalogue in general, GOG doesn't interact directly with the community over most things and when on the rarest occasion we get a response it's copy-pasted generic statements which mean nothing specific and promise nothing concrete.

The best we get is contact with support, or a chat with a blue regarding a specific game complaint. If you're looking for official responses here you might be lucky and score a carefully-worded sweet nothing.

I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong. Maybe THIS time we'll get something honest, official, deep and concrete.
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
tl;dr
Have you read CDPR manifesto on red two point oh? They are about to move toward being beeg kompanee (triple eh), who values only profitsss and cares little about those folks who allowed them to become who they are now. They are not longer "good guys". ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Posted March 08, 2022
I doubt your question is genuine, but if it is... GOG is still a DRM free store. Their insistence on offline installers for every game is why the vast majority of AAA new releases don't come here until years and years later, if at all.

The stuff most people complain about is:

1. Pushing the Galaxy client - This is not DRM, as Galaxy proves clients do not mean DRM. You can still download offline installers through the client, and the client is not required to run anything singleplayer. Some multiplayer aspects require the client, but multiplayer without a client service just isn't gonna happen for newer games 99 times out of 100.

2. Some promotional items and such like dumb GOG t-shirts in Cyberpunk requiring a login - 99 times out of 100 these are stupid promotional things no one should care about. Hitman became the big scary exception, but GOG quickly apologized and removed it from sale, reaffirming their commitment. Instead of praise this got them more hate, because welcome to the internet.

If neither of things bother you then you're good to go. If they do bother you then you're still good to go in 99% of circumstances. Also no other store offers anything close to GOG's DRM free commitment, so it's not like you can take your business elsewhere.
Post edited March 08, 2022 by StingingVelvet
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
avatar
StingingVelvet: I doubt your question is genuine, but if it is... GOG is still a DRM free store. Their insistence on offline installers for every game is why the vast majority of AAA new releases don't come here until years and years later, if at all.

The stuff most people complain about is:

1. Pushing the Galaxy client - This is not DRM, as Galaxy proves clients do not mean DRM. You can still download offline installers through the client, and the client is not required to run anything singleplayer. Some multiplayer aspects require the client, but multiplayer without a client service just isn't gonna happen for newer games 99 times out of 100.

2. Some promotional items and such like dumb GOG t-shirts in Cyberpunk requiring a login - 99 times out of 100 these are stupid promotional things no one should care about. Hitman became the big scary exception, but GOG quickly apologized and removed it from sale, reaffirming their commitment. Instead of praise this got them more hate, because welcome to the internet.

If neither of things bother you then you're good to go. If they do bother you then you're still good to go in 99% of circumstances. Also no other store offers anything close to GOG's DRM free commitment, so it's not like you can take your business elsewhere.
I really do appreciate this response, I should have mentioned that I'm not too familiar with GOG overall (I barely come to the forums) but I always kept reading and hearing about DRM complaints elsewhere outside of GOG and sometimes here.


So from the sound of things that everything got blown out of proportion.
Post edited March 08, 2022 by Kaliesto
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
avatar
Kaliesto: I really do appreciate this response, I should have mentioned that I'm not too familiar with GOG overall (I barely come to the forums) but I always kept reading and hearing about DRM complaints elsewhere outside of GOG and sometimes here.
Cool, no problem. GOG is flawed like every company, but they get it right the vast, vast majority of the time and no other store is even trying.
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
Are we talking about a specific game, or is this more doom and gloom?

I've yet to find a game, in over 500 purchases, that had any real online requirement.

Also, as mentioned by StingingVelvet, you're never going to get online multiplayer that doesn't have some authorization. The only alternative is to ship games here that have the multiplayer stripped out, and sometimes we still get that anyway because of the whole DRM-Free thing.
Post edited March 08, 2022 by RawSteelUT
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
Slightly off-topic, but I should be worried with that negative rep. that is appearing now on my profile? I haven't done anything wrong I don't think.

Been polite as possible.
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
avatar
Kaliesto: Slightly off-topic, but I should be worried with that negative rep. that is appearing now on my profile? I haven't done anything wrong I don't think.

Been polite as possible.
We have a rep botting issues from both gog fanatic and anti-gog fanatics as well politically orientated botting issues (right vs left, left vs right etc.)
Post edited March 08, 2022 by Lord_Kane
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
avatar
Kaliesto: Slightly off-topic, but I should be worried with that negative rep. that is appearing now on my profile? I haven't done anything wrong I don't think.

Been polite as possible.
avatar
Lord_Kane: We have a rep botting issues from both gog fanatic and anti-gog fanatics as well politically orientated botting issues (right vs left, left vs right etc.)
Yep. The rating/rep system has LONG been a joke here. Best not to let it get to you.
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
avatar
Lord_Kane: We have a rep botting issues from both gog fanatic and anti-gog fanatics as well politically orientated botting issues (right vs left, left vs right etc.)
avatar
RawSteelUT: Yep. The rating/rep system has LONG been a joke here. Best not to let it get to you.
Oh I have been not a fan of it since 2009 I have ignored it since.
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
avatar
StingingVelvet: I doubt your question is genuine, but if it is... GOG is still a DRM free store. Their insistence on offline installers for every game is why the vast majority of AAA new releases don't come here until years and years later, if at all.

The stuff most people complain about is:

1. Pushing the Galaxy client - This is not DRM, as Galaxy proves clients do not mean DRM. You can still download offline installers through the client, and the client is not required to run anything singleplayer. Some multiplayer aspects require the client, but multiplayer without a client service just isn't gonna happen for newer games 99 times out of 100.

2. Some promotional items and such like dumb GOG t-shirts in Cyberpunk requiring a login - 99 times out of 100 these are stupid promotional things no one should care about. Hitman became the big scary exception, but GOG quickly apologized and removed it from sale, reaffirming their commitment. Instead of praise this got them more hate, because welcome to the internet.

If neither of things bother you then you're good to go. If they do bother you then you're still good to go in 99% of circumstances. Also no other store offers anything close to GOG's DRM free commitment, so it's not like you can take your business elsewhere.
Interestingly, some people think achievements are dumb things that people should not bother about, and yet other groups scream about them being missing and a part of the game. Funny how perspective is different, eg. Those control mechanisms are acceptable because I don’t care about them or because I don’t think they matter…
(Hitman, gwent, cyberpunk and piggyback, kenshi, goblins inc, just a few names I pull up from memory)

As for galaxy, it is in every offline installer, and a lot of games are linked to its dlls and will not run without it. Good whilst that still works. Some offline installers lag behind galaxy ones. Feature parity such as being able to download old versions is missing from offline installers. Not to mention selling epic games and locking multiplayer into further proprietary locks. DRM is not the be all and end all of control, online gating, client lock-in, can all be far worse than drm.

I don’t disagree that there isn’t a lot of choice, but “you have no better option” is not an argument for don’t raise any concerns.
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
avatar
Kaliesto: ...
You won't get any response from GOG on this topic. Many others have tried, but GOG doesn't reply to quesions about current and future DRM on their games. Neither here in the forum nor to support tickets concerning DRM nor even to private messages to mods.
The only possible conclusion is, that all GOG employees have been muzzled. Apparently, they have been ordered to keep utter silence about the DRM-topic and to ignore all questions regarding it.

... which really shows how much GOG, who used to be proud of being DRM-free and who used to have a good communication with their user base (long ago) has changed.

If you want to know more about the instances of DRM on GOG, you can read here: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/drm_on_gog_list_of_singleplayer_games_with_drm/page1

This only concerns DRM on single player games. In the case of multiplayer games, most of them are DRM-ed in the form of mandatory Galaxy use or third party registrations. So in the case of multiplayer, it was actually much easier and much shorter to make a list of games that DO have DRM-free multiplayer than listing all those games that don't: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/drmfree_multiplayer_list_of_games_that_actually_are_100_drmfree/page1
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
Many gamers asked for cloud, achievements and generic "innovations". Many gamers wanted the AAAs and the modern games here. Many gamers had other priorities to those of the old gamers. Even the people who run the place now, have different priorities to those who used to run the place, when there were core+unofficial policies beneficial to the buyer, the acronym of the company stood for a different meaning etc.

If you want an official response, 1-2 months usually is the new norm. In the old days, 1-3 days and an official would contact you.
Posted March 08, 2022
low rated
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: As for galaxy, it is in every offline installer, ...
Excuse me, but are you saying that I am downloading the Galaxy client every time that I download an offline installer? When I install games I never see any option to install the Galaxy client and it doesn't seem to be installed on my system as far as I know.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionRequesting a GoG-Staff response on DRM(21 posts)(21 posts)
(21 posts)