Hello there,

I am considering registering at gamersgate since some games are cheaper and occasional sales are interesting.

Excluding the internet connection required at the installation and steam, I am concerned about the other drm (tages, securom...) and the overall quality of the installer.

To those who have had purchased games at GG, have the other drm bothered you in some ways? Have you had any problems with the files downloaded from GG? Or any other issues?

Thanks

short answer - no, I have never had a problem with buying or gifting any game on GG :)

Had only one problem with one game which took a couple of days to download, but that never happened before or since.

I've bought over 100 games there. Gifting is easy too.

My only complaint with them is their customer service is slow to respond to problems. They are excellent and very helpful when they do respond, but it can take 2-4 days before you hear from them.

Overall, though, I'm happy with my GG experience. I shop there every week :)

Never had a problem with them. Well, except that when I bought Mass Effect 3, I downloaded the stupid thing, taking forever to do so (slow internet), and when I'd finally finished, I had to download it again from Origin. But I'm not sure whose fault that was, GG or Origin, and there was no harm done in the end.

It's a antipathic website, it's also lying about no-DRM games, but for now its own DRM system can still be bypassed if you act carefully, so it's still worthy at a practical level. I've bought a few things there. I won't anymore, though.

I wouldn't buy old games (pre XP) from there, but the new ones I've bought work fine.

I don't have many GG games, but no problems so far. They're okay, but man what a fucking ugly ass website.

I have used gamersgate find them a good service.
I found their customer support helpfull (had problem with gifting 2 games but they sorted them out quickly)

I would recommend gamersgate for newer games especially.

Their downloader is a POS and they lie about their DRM free status (if that is a concern for you). It is a very small team. No quality control what-so-ever and slow customer support. I only buy games that can be activated on some other service there anymore.

GamersGate is fine, I don't have near the library there like I do on GOG though.

I bought Bastion, Braid, Titan Quest, Dungeon Defenders, and a few other titles that are/were difficult to come by DRM-free.

An internet connection is only required when downloading the titles there the first time, that is, as long as you grab the installer out of the temp file the bootstrap downloader creates. Run the downloader from your Windows desktop and you'll see a temp file pop into existence (on your desktop). When the program is done installing, before you exit the game installation, go into the temp file and grab yourself a copy of the actual game installer, and back it up.

Boom! DRM-free title that requires no internet to install or get running and you can back-up as you wish. This works with almost any title that lists its DRM as "DRM-free."

Forgot to add, their Tutor section is excellent too.

If you have any problems with games not installing correctly etc., you can post a question on the Tutor section and one of GamersGate cutomer's will respond (GG gives 500 blue coins to the customer who comes up with the most helpful answer, which they can put towards free games).

I've had a couple of minor installation problems, just like you would anywhere. But someone in GG's Tutor section has been able to help me within just a few minutes (the same person, both times actually :)

So, you usually don't have to rely on GG's customer service for many things.

Personally, I stay away from Gamersgate offers with SecuRom, after both games I bought with this DRM had some kind of issues. Of course two games is far from being representative, but it was annoying enough for me not to take any risks anymore.

In the first case, Puzzle Agent, the issues weren't directly connected to the DRM, but to the lack of a patch. Telltale had patched the Steam version and the version from their own website, but not the Gamersgate version. I let both Gamersgate and Telltale know about it, but they didn't have any quick fix for it at that time. And I suspect it could have been due to the Gamersgate version being different than the others, because it was using GAmersgate's own SecuRom DRM. Not sure if they managed to patch the game in the meantime, a year later, or if they just closed the case after supplying me with a working version from Telltale.

Anyway, in the second case, Avadon: The Black Fortress, the SecuRom DRM from Gamersgate caused known issues and made the game laggy in teh first outdoor area. When I had these issues myself, I went to Spiderweb Software's forum and found out I was not the only one. Luckily Jeff Vogel kindly provided all affected players with a perfectly working DRM-free copy of the game from his own website.

I also heard complaints from the creators of The Journey Down, who had agreed to Gamersgate wrapping their SecuRom DRM around their originally DRM-free game because they thought they didn't have any choice, only to find out that the DRM slowed their game down. Now they offer it DRM-free.

Make of that what you want, but I have no confidence in Gamersgate adding SecuRom to DRM-free games anymore.


I never downloaded games from Amazon, but if what you say it's true, well, then Amazon's downloader is DRM, too. :P

Funny how tastes differ :)

I like the way GG's site looks. I think GOG's, with all the grey, is the ugliest website I've ever been on. But.....I don't buy games because the website is pretty :)

It actually is, Amazon's downloader explicitly aids the user in keeping downloaded install files of DRM free games. GG's downloader does NOT do this, nor will the files it downloads install (unless you grab the temp files) without an internet connection.