https://www.gog.com/forum/sid_meiers_civilization_series/civ_iv_multiplayer_available

Direct IP in the main menu would be the way to go probably.

You can play some of them, depending on the graciousness of the publisher. But you can't install them. And you can only play the ones you've already played on this machine before. And from my experience with Steam during local Internet outages, it is not at all a reliable assumption that offline mode will work at all. It's hit and miss, and that's not good enough for software I pay money for.

What does that even mean -- is everything down? Game downloads, mandatory auto-patches etc.? Are people unable to play games they already downloaded and installed? And don't they have separate servers for their store, downloads etc. ?

Apparently, they're experiencing a massive DDoS attack that knocked everything out. Too big to fail? Think again! Heh.

I just tried to launch 10 random games I've installed and never played before. They all launched without a hassle. It only mentioned that synchronization failed, which means the cloud does not have the save file.

But maybe I was just lucky.

This(among other things) means that I can't unlock achievements in Steam games. I know, nothing serious, but now I wonder if I could unlock achievements on GOG Galaxy games if GOG goes offline?

Apparently a group calling themselves 'The Phantom Squad' is claiming it's their DDoS attack.

You mean pressure is low, right? More coals to the furnaces! Move those shovels men!

Tell that to the people who say that yes, they actually do want all of their eggs in one basket and want all of their games from Steam.

And to take your advice of diversification further, it's also worth getting DRM-free copies from Humble or direct from the developers themselves (esepcially if you want to give your favorite developers more support).

Any idea on why they're doing it, or is it just for the sake of being dicks?

Some games you can, but none of the multiplayer/co-op games/online only (even though single player games...).
Same goes for any that require online checks.

As for steamstats, they've even stuck an image on site too now hehe.

https://steamstat.us/

P.S. Even games like Elite Dangerous, that run on its own servers. If you bought it through steam & only play through steam, the only way to play the game now would be to download the standalone launcher, assuming steam users even get access to that.


P.P.S. https://i.redd.it/kstsegsf6c5y.jpg

No idea, but there is never a good reason for it IMO.
All I've seen is a couple of tweets.

I hope they fix it before de GMG sale ends. I really wanted to get me Castlevania.
I searched info about the group and came to this.
Looks to me like the typical "I can be a dick because your security sucks".

I guess I was lucky to be able to play GTA Online this afternoon. Anyway, if my memory serves me well, it happens frequently when they launch their semi-annual sales so their servers are gonna be back up tomorrow in the morning (West-Europe timezone)

Can't you buy it anyway and activate it after Steam is fixed? If GMG = Green Man Gaming, they just provide a Steam code, so doesn't matter whether Steam is up or not, you can activate it whenever you want.