I have no desire to "antagonize" you or pick a fight with you, I don't read or acknowledge your post as a rule. It is neither one or the other, it's really quite simple.
You post personal opinion disguised as fact, laced with nonsense quotes and analogy's that detract from the discussion while also dribbling industry rhetoric in a patronizing tone . . which becomes VERY annoying in a discussion. A liberal amount of "we" and "us" distributed in the posts to give the uninitiated the impression that you speak for the community.
"Having said that", you seem to believe that you have access to knowledge and understanding that none of us "idiots" and "morons" can comprehend. You also seem to have a genuine belief that you are the wittiest individual in the universe by adding ;P every time you think you have said something cute. "See what I did there" was addressed in another post by DarkPheonix quite well so that needs no comment.
Anyone who disagrees with your sophomoric dribble is branded a anti-DRM militant or pirate with implications they have issues that hinder them from comprehending your deep,nonsensical recitals. Your posts are, "we" think, the most useless and misleading on the forum which is why "we" don't respond to your gibberish.
Actually, StoneBro said it best ;P

No Gundato, the discussion didn't ended that way and neither did the majority of the people who posted on that thread agreed with your opinion on the subject, so it was yet another spin attempt all right.
If you are looking for a pree pass for every spin and untruth you feel like posting you won't get one from me. Not everytime anyway, although i do try my best to ignore your constant baiting :p

Heh, I was wondering when other folks would start adopting this policy. I must say that since I started just skipping over Gundato's posts reading these forums has been a much more pleasant experience.

Stuff, you sir are fucking awesomeness on toast. +1111

Not to mention it does wonders for the heart and blood pressure too.

Was mostly referring to Namor. You tend to at least stick to the topic at hand, rather than looking for random opportunities to bring up other crap. And for that, I thank you.
And would it make you feel better if I make it a point to write "This is my opinion" in every post I make? Nobody else does that, so why should I? Or are you saying that I radiate an air of respectability and intelligence, and that my posts are easily interpreted as factual. If so, thank you :p
As for "dribbling industry rhetoric in a patronizing tone": I could say the exact same thing about many of the posts I respond to. We have people who claim that DRM is inherently evil because of the name. People who drop the generic "It is malware!" argument every five seconds. There are pretty standardized comments on all sides of the argument.
And apologies, but usually when I drop a "we" it is because I actually consider myself part of the group I am talking about. When I discuss the idiocy regarding the inherent hatred of XCOM simply because there is no hyphen (an exaggeration, but probably not TOO far off the mark :p), I say "we" because I am an X-COM fan. I say "we" because I am a PC gamer. I say "we" because I am a part of this community.
If I misinterpreted the result of the previous thread where we discussed whether or not GoG counts as DRM, apologies. All I can base my observation off of is the end of the thread, which, to my recollection, was basically a case of "Yes, it is technically DRM. So shut the hell up, nobody cares" from pretty much all sides. I guess I don't speak for the community, whereas people like Namor and the like do :p
As for my "knowledge and understanding": Wow, harsh. I don't have any more knowledge and understanding than anyone else here (okay, maybe a FEW people. But there ARE some idiots :p). All I try to do is provide another perspective, where possible. If that is not acceptable (I understand that certain people may prefer we only have a single opinion and no discussion), please remind me in no uncertain words that I am not allowed to have a differing opinion every time I make a point. That will help remind me.
As for the ":P", I actually do that because people have complained that my posts tend to be too dry or ambiguous. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
As for "see what I did there": Would it be more appropriate if I just go on a tirade of f-bombs and coarse language? And it is a statement used to emphasize the incredibly ambiguous and opinionated point that I am responding to. Because sometimes, people who disagree with me seem to have a genuine belief that they are the wittiest person in the universe (okay, that one was intentional. But usually I have a point :p)
And for the last point: Honestly, I don't really think there are any people who truly deserve the moniker "militantly anti-DRM". Everyone accepts DRM to some degree (even if they don't call it DRM), and nobody seems to be particularly anarchistic about it. Now, if you think that applies to you, clearly it doesn't and you should never have thought it did in the first place.
Also: OH MAH GAWDZ!!! YOU DARED TO USE THE WORD "WE"!!! HOW DARE YOU CLAIM TO UNDERSTAND 100% OF THE COMMUNITY!!!
Honestly, if you don't want to respond to me, don't. SImple as that. There are certain posters who I refuse to respond to (admittedly, it is more because I would go on a political tirade if I were to ever respond to their blatant bigotry). Other than that, I just have conversations. I don't bring up crap from other threads unless it has gotten to the point where I am sick of it.
But, clearly, I am not allowed to have an opinion in this thread. And we have successfully derailed it. So whatever. But I will leave with one note: I am apparently a "troll" because I have opinions and people don't like the way I express them. Fine.
But what do you call people who bring baggage from every single previous conversation in an attempt to repeatedly say how much they dislike someone and have problems with them? Work them into the topic at hand (you Stuff, are actually VERY good at that. Kudos. And I am 100% non-facetious there. Seriously. Even though this sounds VERY facetious, it isn't), don't just bring them up to detract from discussions.
Attack people on the points they make, not who they are.

Fair enough. You sir, are a hero among men. But next time, try and actually work it into the conversation. It just reflects poorly upon you to seemingly only post in a thread to pick a fight.

@Gundato
I have no history with you other than asking a few questions about game releases that i think you may have kindly answered. I have read quite a few of your posts though and you do come across as a guy who turns into an asshole when having an argument.
Don't believe me? Go re-read your reply to Gersen, who responded to your first DRM analogy. You won't need to read far, just the first two sentences. You start by giving him a verbal slap; accusing him of over analysing..he was responding to your post is all and he effectively picked apart what was a pretty lame analogy. Then you happily continue and patronize him by offering an 'even simpler' analogy. Nice.
Why do you have to needle people and insult them? At least be honest about it, you don't 'just have conversations' and it certainly isn't about you not being allowed to have an opinion. Time and time again you start in with the same old passive aggressive bullshit when dealing with another poster who has a different opinion to yourself.
Which is a real shame, because it derails your own credibility and arguments. You do make valid points Gundato but the patronizing way you have of dealing with others effectively ruins your contributions to the GOG forums.

Yes! It would better move things along if you mixed some cursing in with " ;P "

Applying some analytical philosophy to the subject at hand: the answers to the questions we ask largely depend on (our understanding of) the terms used in the questions. This is most likely why a lot of speeches/papers nowadays start with statements such as "For the purpose of this X, we shall define Y as Z".
Therefore, we need a consensus about:
* what is "DRM"
* what scale would be considered "large"
* how would we define it "working" as opposed to "not working"
While I think most of us relate to the same phenomena using the same words, it takes just one person bending the scope of a single term to derail the discussion and sow confusion.

Since when pointing that your analogy was flawed because it was comparing apple and orange on the pretext that they were both fruits, is over-analyzing ?
To be able to compare two thing they first have to have more than a vague thing in common.
It's neither a metaphor nor an analogy and it even has nothing to do with the thread.
It's not about whenever developer have the right to protect their work, and I won't even argue that DRM might reassure some clueless stockholders. No the question was whenever DRM where an efficient anti-piracy method.
Well there is a little something called "anti-virus", I would guess peoples downloading crack probably use one.
Maybe it's my memory but from my recollection is was basically : "Stop confusing the technical means used to sell a game (not DRM) with the technical mean used by the right owners to protect/control it once you have bought it(DRM)"
You are free to have you own personal opinion... but not to reinvent words meanings every times you feel like it.

Thank you for this answer. Unfortunately it took some time before I came around to reading here again and answering. I think I might have not made clear, what I really wanted to say.
So we both agree that piracy should be prosecuted. I think thats good, since it also implys that something can be done against piracy. Its not that "piracy is inevitable" kind of simple argument that is often used.
The issue I really wanted to say is: Whenever I buy something where I know (or see) that somebody else can have the same thing for free (lets call it stealing) and only with marginal risk of actually being hindered, I feel like this person is cheating on all other normal people. Its not a good feeling. Basically I think this person is getting an unfair advantage by not observing the the rules. Money is important, you might need a lot someday (health problems, ...) and you spent it and the other person saved it.
So, since not every piracy is a not-lost sale, some of the pirates could/would buy some of the games they would normally pirate. I am sure: because pirates don't pay for their games, the paying customer have to some extent pay for them. In a simple sentence: if there would be no piracy, people who buy games now, could have even more games for the same price.
So, should I also go pirating in order to get the same advantages? You said no and I agree. Its wrong and its not worth the danger of getting caught.
However should pirates be prosecuted? Yes, proactively (this word is overused but fitting here).
And here is the dilemma with DRM free content. I appreciate it for that it brings the best possible experience to the customer but I dislike it for that it eases piracy.
And thats also why I think that DRM free would not work on the large scale.

If the DRM applied is light I would also probably not object.
With online auth, my problem is that I don't want to depend on others after buying and a service like Steam also collects usage data, monopolize updates, ... a lot more that goes beyond a simple online auth.
Although I am also not a fan of disc checks, lately I praise them as the best alternative.

Or... maybe just the real Detroit.

I just found it, the references are here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO1SF8SDcEE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOVpQLATPc8&feature=channel
Its from a spring conference in march 2010 presented in polish but with english subtitles.
The two guys are IMO good presenters and nice guys. There is not much news, they just explain what GOG is and how GOG works and give a number of >1Million units sold in 2009 and being profitable. Thats in general a good sign. I am optimistic that the business of GOG will be profitable also this year and GOG will grow. Good! :)
And I learned that the polish word for game is gier.
Just some thoughts on the talk. I understand its a show and some things are explained in simple terms but the reason for GOG being DRM free is simply given by the statement: "gamers don't like DRM". Wow, that struck me. Is it really so simple? You just don't like it and then industry removes it? Actually the gamers using the Steam service seem to have no problem with DRM. Also it was said that GOG doesn't cannibalize retailers because they don't sell the same products. Again this is only true for the current games catalogue of GOG, not of Steam. Steam is directly competing with retailers, sometimes even (ETW, Mafia 2) excluding retailers from competition. The weakest argument in my eyes was the need of DRM to have internet connection, so you can't play everytime when in an airplane or whereever. I don't think this is that much important, many people have almost always internet connection and the connection is for many schemes not always needed (Ubisoft is an example there). Windows 7 support was announced in this conference but obviously is still not here. And the official end of beta stage was announced for the second half of the year... lets see.
Anyway, the Alexa.com comparison of digital distributors was a nice idea, I also played around with it. If you visualize GOGs (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/gog.com) and display traffic rank and max time period you can see in the logarithmic plot an increase in 2009 and kind of stable development in 2010. This means, that I am sure they will sell many more units this year (maybe 2-3 millions) and the numbers of employees is kind of stable (http://www.gog.com/en/about_us/team) GOG will remain profitable (even more so). Maybe the money goes into the development of Witcher 2. I'm already waiting for it.
My guess is, that they are laying low now in order to prepare everything for the official 1.0 end of beta somewhere between now and christmas.
GOG seems do be doing well and will be here too next year. I will stay with GOG and if there are more interesting games coming I will buy them. If not, then not. But so far I am very happy with GOG and the games I bought from here.
Coming back to the threads first post. However I am convinced that GOG is only for the niche. Its model only works if piracy is reasonably low. That means they have to focus on games that have a low price anyway and offer services like testing, .... So, they are either old or unpopular or low quality or... It won't work with blockbusters, at least I don't see a way.