I wasn't analogizing OpenGL or DirectX to Steam, I was using them both as examples of premade library APIs that implement a particular type of functionality that a developer doesn't want to write from scratch themselves. Glide would fit that bill also back in its day (incidentally I have maintained Glide3D years ago in Linuxland and what a mess of shit code that hell was to maintain every time gcc got new features from one OS release to the next... another hell).

I see what you're saying though, you're comparing Glide3D as a proprietary API to Steam being one as well and you're absolutely correct about that. But then Direct3D is just as proprietary with respect to OS platform (rather than hardware) as well. Reading between the lines on that though I would agree with what I believe you're insinuating, which would be that open non-proprietary interfaces/libraries and more widely technologies are better for the ecosystem than proprietary ones are. I'd either agree with you on that if so, or imply that on my own either way. :) However... assuming GOG Galaxy platform itself is not made an open public standard (and I'm not suggesting it should be), then it would be just as proprietary in theory. Not that that's bad mind you. I certainly wouldn't be upset if they made the APIs open and public though and even more-so if they made the implementation open source software although I don't expect them to do so either. :)

On a parting note - never look at the Glide3D source code, the nightmares never truly go away afterword. :)

How long is this sale gonna last? Will it lasti till monday?

I got ya covered if you can't step in ;)

Cool. Thanks.

First, If you crack and patch your Steam games to remove steam, why do you buy there in the first place? To support the Publisher?
Second, I had no idea you COULD play Skyrim without Steam, but considering the effort involved, I don't see why you even bother manipulating online saves with risk of it being corrupted rather then use an offline saves variant with hacks to allow it run completely separate from the steam installed version so it won't mess it up.

Regarding your question, I thought they said so but when I asked about it I got no reply, so I might be mistaken.
Maybe people who are more "in the works" can clarify.

You don't have to buy a game from Steam to be forced to use Steam to play the game. I was surprised by this for a few titles that didn't say anything about needing Steam when I pre-ordered them, like Fallout: New Vegas (Huge shock since Fallout 3 didn't use it), Civilization 5, and Skyrim to name some examples. All of these I bought retail. It wasn't to support the publisher, it was to play games in series that have been beloved to me for many years. Daggerfall was my first Elder Scrolls game, I've been playing Civ since Civ2 first was released, and Fallout since it's inception.

As for the online saves, I already mentioned that Steam sometimes decides to ignore your settings when it updates, turning cloud-saving and auto-update back on. Sometimes, however, you need to apply an update to fix a big that is affecting your gameplay, and hacks are not always available right away for the updated version. Sometimes, hacks cannot be found simply or don't exist for a particular product, as well.

Is the Ultima bundle coming back around?

the calendar is here: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/2014_drmfree_summer_sale_tracker/post1045 (and also linked on the first post of this thread)

you may hope that there is a surprise repeat of all bundles on the final day, but as always there is no certainty that it will happen

I managed to avoid Steam until this year when I bought a game (Anna) from a local retailer and it installed Steam to download its content. I felt a bit cheated - I bought a CD with Steam files on it and a code to download the game rather than a CD containing the game advertised on the box!

I know, I know - I should have read the system requirements but as I have 8Gb RAM and a 2Gb graphics card, I don't tend to look at the specs on older games. It never occurred to me that I would buy a physical CD and still have to download the game to install it!

I did a test on my system, using Process Explorer.

Steam uses about 40-50 million CPU cycles per second when the main window is not active. Playing SpaceChem, the Steam overlay is at about 33 million cycles (while inactive), and the game is using about 15 billion.

My CPU (a Core i7-3770K running at 3.5GHz) delivers a total of about 60 billion cycles per second while this is happening.

The exact number seem to vary with the resolution and probably other things, but on a general scale, you're talking about 2-3% overhead even for low-end CPUs - and the only time those 2-3% will make a difference is for a game that's maxing all of your CPU cores.

Those few million cycles may very well be important enough to you, and that's totally okay - but it is absolutely not going to be the case for everyone.

Once again, everyone has different priorities, and that means Steam wins for some people precisely because of the features that Steam has and GOG don't have (yet). Neither service is perfect, and each one has different flaws. You find Steam's flaws to be far too great, and that's more than okay - but not everyone thinks that way.

I've gamed for almost all of my life as well (close to 25 years now), but I also know that going on a subjective rant against something isn't going to convince a whole lot of people - you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

If you want to convert people off of Steam, you need to look at why they're using it to begin with, and then give them something that is better from their perspective. The simplest way to do that is to provide some of the features people seem to like (ideally in a way that's even better than Steam) - and hopefully GOG Galaxy will go a long way in doing that.

This is, of course, unfortunate and definitely should be improved to explain people what they're buying. It is, however, not Steam's fault - it is the choice of the developer/publisher to only sell Steam keys, and possibly the store for not specifying this.

In many cases the game files should be on there in the form of a Steam backup - and if so, it is at least possible to use that as a "seed".

Of course, in many cases, the game will have received patches between pressing the discs and you downloading the game, and depending on how the game organizes its files, in some cases you're basically going to download the entire game anyway - but that's a discussion for another day...

That really is the crux of it right there boiled right down as plain and simple as it gets, and the most important part of it that really needs to be read 3-5 times on auto-repeat is the part you were nice enough to put in bold as _that_ is what matters the most ultimately and that is what companies ultimately stay in business for when one gets to the meat and potatoes of it.

It's not a straw man argument, it's a fact because sales numbers bear it out. 2 million users visit GoG per month vs. 7.66 million users being on the Steam platform today. So by that comparision, a majority of digital service buyers prefer convenience. And that's just not Steam but every other distributor where people buy games from but only if it provides Steam keys. Thus my original point stands and that's convenience trumps everything else. This isn't limited to digital games, it's everything. Even GoG recognizes this, why do you think they announced Galaxy?


Agree 100%. Saying simply DRM=BAD means nothing to the average Steam user. And it's not because they don't know what DRM is. It's just accepted when it comes to Steam because the Steam benefits vastly outweighs taking a stand against something which will deprive you of playing newer releases.

I haven't read all of this, but I will answer anyway. I would almost bet that more than half of the 7.66 million you say visit Steam a month do so because they HAVE TO. Just like myself, I bought two games, neither of which said a damn thing about Steam or Steam keys and when I went to install, guess where I end up?! STEAM! As far as I am concerned, I have been ripped off! I bought two CDs which should have contained games, instead what they contained was the install to the Steam client which up until THAT point I had avoided. THAT is not choice! THAT is being FORCED into a contract which I did NOT ask for. Steam and any game that forces you to install it via Steam is nothing more than FORCED ENSLAVEMENT to what THEY consider to be convenience but what I consider to be anything but convenient! Steam can suck a fart out of my a$$!