LOL at that last sentence.

I would object to the original framing, as I don't think anyone is under the illusion that by buying on DRM-free stores it will somehow take down Scheme and then DRM-free will rule the day in the marketplace.

I fully agree that Scheme "won." That's why I left PC gaming for nearly a decade and a half, because I was so disgusted at this idea of having to, effectively, rent games and at the public being so blitheringly stupid about this.

The practical effect of buying on DRM-free stores is that it increases the chance the DRM-free stores, small as they may be, continue to survive. This does in fact "change something" that otherwise wouldn't be.

Yeah, that's just the server side part which takes almost no time at all to import. The client side takes another couple of minutes, if you have the steam version with achievements already implemented, by using the steam sdk wrapper on gog which is pretty much an interpreter between steam api and gog backend. Here you go, it will save you some time if you decide to go that route https://docs.gog.com/steam-sdk-wrapper/

Anyway, if you want to do it the oldschool way by editing out steam api calls and replacing them with galaxy calls, it will take a day maybe for one person, but more power to you. Nowadays there simply is no excuse to skimp on features since they can easily be backported from steam. Offline gog build is pretty much the same as galaxy build, since at launch the game checks if you are logged in or not (you linked the article yourself with "IsLoggedOn()" call), i.e. galaxy features enabled or ignored. You don't have to do everything manually. Rest of it is just testing if everything works and publishing cheevos to make em visible to public.

Don't bother, I've checked how well (or not) is ea and ubi doing for myself. Ea is too big to fail, but ubi seems to be sobering up a little. Maybe epic will buy it someday.
I guess it's true as some said already... when Valve is mentioned it kinda personifies into Gaben, whom I still see as a host advocating pc gaming, who fights for the users like tron, showers us with discounts with a kind smile on many an occasion. Mmm yeah, that's how I see him... portrayed in memes as Lord Gaben!

Though I agree with others that no corporation is our friend.

Btw you are the first dude I came across who didn't dislike bathesda's paid mods. There was a backlash to that on steam. Though I also remember times when we were users, not consumers who consume what is served, so ymmv.

AFAICS, that seems to be Windows-only, and still needs to connect to the server at least once after installation to download the localised achievements list. However, that's just from reading the code rather than trying to implement it - am I missing something?

Maybe because galaxy is windows-only too, at least officially anyway. If you don't use galaxy, then galaxy achievements are of no concern to you either.

Several times you've answered the first part, but not even the second part of the quoted text. AFAICS, it still needs to connect to the server at least once after installation. A developer either has to add the error-handling for that, or just disable the GUI for achievements in the Gog version.

A developer with a Linux or MacOS version on Steam is going to get criticised for either dropping platforms or dropping features when they port to Gog, unless they do the work that you're saying they don't need to do.

Either it goes without saying or I don't see a problem with being online on galaxy (at least once) for galaxy achievements to work, or you see a problem in something that isn't really a problem, like the galaxy on/off flag with gog build, etc. They are galaxy achievements, not offline-installer achievements (if you want ingame cheevos for the latter, build a nice trophy hall in game for that purpose and hook the apis to that). Maybe it's shocking, but at least I'm online when downloading / installing games on galaxy (yeah I'm using galaxy for that).

It's painfully obvious that Gog itself focuses on windows, though good on the dev who includes linux/mac builds, I salute them truly. Some are included as bonus goodies, unsupported extras. Unless gog changes their policy and broaden the support for them or requests them even, the situation won't change in this regard. Dev would certainly get blasted for missing content, game modes and extra features (i.e. devs treating gog customers as 2nd class citizens thread), less so for not providing max/linux build. Status quo on gog.

But hey, if this is just about finding excuses as to why not implement or "port" already implemented steam cheevos to galaxy, then you do you.

Absolutely. But in this as well as so many other steps they took to be more like Steam, I wonder whether they could have avoided eventually making that step.

Some people want and expect achievements. Some people are used to and would only buy at 90% discounts. Some people need a client to organise their game library. And you can't really blame these people. Their expectations of how PC gaming works has been shaped by Valve for 20 years.

I don't have a Steam account and I will never have one. But I have to come to terms with the fact that this might mean I'll eventually have to give up PC gaming altogether.

You've got caught lying, and now you're trying to paint me with ulterior motives to deflect from that. I'm not trying to find excuses, I'm just wanting to correct the false statement that "it's much simpler than you would think esp. when the work was already done on Steam version".

Can you guys give it a rest, or take it to PM? Not every topic here has discussion about DRM-free gaming. We don't need another one of the few that does, getting locked.

Sure, let me correct the statement for you: It's simpler to some, still hard to stomach for others. And with that, bon voyage.
Edit: I forgot - kudos to gog sdk dev team for making the steam wrapper! It does make a difference.

But of course dude, no worries... keep the drm-freedom real.

Valve is very evil. When you are near the headquarters of Valve you can hear GabeN and his workers laughing. Here is some secret footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7edeOEuXdMU

Next to headquarters of Epic Games you'll hear Chinese music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxzgwJ8tSE0

And next to GOG's headquarters you'll hear someone playing a piano sonata:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZY5DBmgC_A

FeelsBadMan

This. I can't even express how important it is that this message sinks in if people actually want any kind of change to happen.

Thanks for explaining!

Just about. People have to accept things for what they are. Hope for the best, sure, but accept that there's no way any one of us can change things. At least, despite the whinging of the digital-only media, there's not going to be any extinction of physical games any time soon.

Also, we have to give the devil his due. Valve saw a segment of the gaming industry in massive decline (we can't say that PC gaming was anywhere near thriving in the early to mid oughts) and saw the opportunity to recreate the whole thing in its image. Together with a bunch of hardware elitists who would rather give in to a monopoly than play on consoles, they remade PC gaming, while at the same time sealing it away forever as a high-end enthusiast's space. Valve letting go of all quality control is because they can, because being a glorified mobile storefront is what makes them the most money.

Honestly, I don't think anything short of government intervention is going to break the Steam monopoly, and I wonder if the PC as a platform for games is even big enough to get into government cross-hairs the way we're seeing with the Microsoft/Activision merger.

Put bluntly, PC gaming is both in its best and worst place in years. Had it not been for Valve, there might not even BE a PC gaming industry today, but with what it's become, I question whether it was worth saving.