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GOG has much smaller catalog and very few newest games when compared to Steam. GOG offers better services when it comes to game ownerships, Customer Service (Steam's garbage and retarded), refund policy and good community.

But let's face it, those factors alone won't beat Steam's popularity. The recent surges of Steam bundles - even Humble also is supporting Steam bundles - won't help DRM Free world.

GOG needs to push their 'keys' into bundles to compete with Steam and popularize GOG service. It's just an unknown name in front of Steam folks.

Newest games in catalog will definitely help also. Many many customers want to play DRM free newest games. Being non existent in this aspect.... doesn't do anything good.

Nothing to do with it. U just want to pay $1 for games. Cheapasses of the world.

You summoned me, mortal? o_O

I'm not sure if I would call Kickstarter a fad. I see more and more game companies using Kickstarter to fund more PC Games that major distributors wouldn't consider cost acceptable. The reason we have an updated Wasteland 1 (although it would probably had come to GOG eventually) is because of the successful Wasteland 2 Kickstarter project. And Wastleland 1 was worked on by many that worked on the original Wasteland. How amazing is that? Take a look at this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_crowdfunding_projects

All of the games with the green color were funded and most were funded using Kickstarter. Many successors to our beloved games here at GOG are getting sequels or spiritual successors because of Kickstarter. This is a good thing.

I never meant for GOG to be connected to a game or a direct sponsor, I only meant GOG reaching out to Kickstarter projects in advance to get developers more interest in using GOG. I like when Kickstarters have a GOG pledge tier. But that would be funny to see something like GOG present Wasteland 2. But I don't think this would be a good idea.

I don't see why not. I don't know about everyone else, but Steam has exclusive (some stubborn dev's/publishers wont offer drm-free unless hell froze over) games all the time. Having said that GOG would have to become a mini publisher (others have suggested GOG look to actually buy IP's) for that to happen. Steam fans would be up in arms over a GOG tier :D (i dont see how tiers mentioning Steam key supplied in some KS as a reward is any different). Did you notice several projects had OUYA plastered allover them? ( trying for exclusivity for OUYA - admittedly mobiles games only but it has happened).

And GOG also has the better name! I mean, "steam"... And what is that? Steam is mostly hot and then it flies away and you have nothing left... It's nothing personal dear steamstaff, its only a matter of business. And I don't like your business.

and I'm applauding to hickszzz' post! It'll going to have it's entries in the history books of gaming and internet culture as the highly praised ...

*tadaaaa*

"Hickszzz Manifesto"... ;D

while gOg is.... umm..... a name name for Babylon? a prince who turned against god? It has an unholy ring to it.

Yeah, that's exactly the sort of bait & switch bullshit that I've grown to expect from a lot of kickstarted indie games. Thanks for posting this particularly bad example (the rampant ignorant white-knighting from Steam apologists in the comment section is equally sickening). I had high hopes for games funded in this fashion, but now I'm waaaaay out of there! The recent news of Kickstarter's user files getting hacked is just the final nail in the coffin.

" JasonZ 5 days ago

@Chris J Capel: I agree with @Martin O. It really is a good thing to put this game on STEAM. I believe getting this game on STEAM will actually open other avenues in the future for other distributors like GOG which will bring in more business. STEAM has a lot of benefits but also has a lot of things that concern me too. Typically most gamers have no issues with STEAM like you said.

I think the reason you see these anti-STEAM crowds come out is because when a game developer typically creates a Kickstarter campaign, they have not been greenlit from STEAM and there is no guarantee that they will be. So they typically promote the game as DRM-free. But when the game is greenlit, the game developers sometimes want to shift in that direction of promoting and finishing development on STEAM. Sometimes the game developers can become aggressive about this towards its backers and make the DRM-free version feel like its less important all of a sudden. Of course this is not an issue if you prefer STEAM and enjoy using it. But if you prefer a DRM-free version of the game, this can become scary as you don’t know if the developer, after delivering the DRM-free version, will continue to support that version or wait long periods between updates compare to STEAM users. I think if more Kickstarters projects start addressing this on day 1, you will see less of these STEAM vs DRM-free debates start up months later.

My problem is I don’t want the DRM-free version to be neglected in favor of the STEAM version. I know I would feel better if I knew Doublebear Productions was also looking into other distributors like GOG because I get worried that the DLC will only be STEAM."

That comment problably sums it up for me.

Me either. To clarify, I said "kickstarts", not "Kickstater". :) Kickstarter itself may not be a fad.

It's the idea of throwing a "project" up on Kickstarter that seems to be a growing fad. I believe there will be more and more "junk" projects among the good ones. That's the fad. That nearly anyone can "toss something up on kickstarter" and see "what sticks". Time will tell on a lot of these.

Of course there will be nice projects on it as well (you named one). Although even the "good ones" haven't yet tempted me. I'm not into the whole pre-ordering thing; and that's generally what kickstarts feel like (to me). I prefer waiting for the deliverables so I can (more or less) see what I am getting before I spend my money. Obviously many folks are into pre-ordering; so it's good for them to have an outlet for them to show their support (or to put in today's lingo - a way for them to connect and engage with the project :).

I believe that the 99% figure is probably accurate in itself, but it certainly isn't an objective measure of how much steam is preferred as it is presented. For those unfamiliar with it, the pernicious thing about how Dead State was handled was that having it tied to steam was entirely opt out, you had to send Brian a message- only on KS, only over 4 days, only via the contact me form- in order to do that opt out and get an actual DRM free option, albeit deferred. It's like claiming that a majority of people love being sent spam from websites because said majority fail to uncheck the "please send me lots of fascinating information on your products!" check box when signing up. It may be true, but you can guarantee many will just miss it instead.

As such that 99% includes such things as anyone who didn't read this specific update, from an oft delayed game with infrequent updates, or anyone who forgot, or anyone who had a 'helpful' person say it was only for an early access version and not the full game and various other scenarios. Doesn't help that the update was confusingly written, and it does smack of laziness as well as legalist sophistry, back dooring steam in as the preferred version while technically retaining a DRM free option to avoid people demanding refunds.

There are plenty of better approaches possible, using the KS survey, getting the keys handled by Humble or GOG, giving a steam and a drm free key, having expiring early access keys like Div: OS.

Of course gog is evil. why else do they bring so many games back from the dead as undead versions of their self?

Interesting. I don't object to GOG signing an exclusive deal with a developer as it fit with my philosophy of DRM-free and preservation of PC Games. I suspect at this time it doesn't makes good business sense until GOG becomes closer to 35 to 45% of the share for game distribution.

Regarding Steam users getting upset over a GOG tier. Actually, one Kickstarter project did it. Carmageddon: Reincarnation. That's how I got my free copy of Carmageddon on GOG.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmageddon-reincarnation

I checked a few of the PC Games I'm backing although it's a small sample size. All do a good job of saying they directly promote GOG in the FAQ

Torment: Tides of Numenera
Project Eternity
Wasteland 2

I wouldn't give up on Dead State just yet. The idea behind the game has a Walking Dead vibe to it where you have to survive day-to-day and work with people who may have there own agenda with RPG elements. My reason is when the Beta testing is in good shape, they may come around and realize that GOG is a good idea. We have one success story for GOG regarding this: Shadowrun Returns.

I don't know if you know the history of the Shadowrun Return Kickstarter but they did the whole promote DRM-free at the beginning but half-way thorugh they decided to try to get everyone to use Steam and backers went nuts. There was over 1000 posts in the DRM-free vs Steam debate there. Its actually a good read if you have the time. The other issue was a deal was made with Microsoft that required all future DLC to be DRM. Backers felt betrayed because this was never mention upfront. Here is the link. Scroll down to the "How will I download the game when it’s released?" part.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns/posts/449984

But then this link came out:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns/posts/690801

And the company fixed everything by adding GOG and getting Microsoft to back down. Everyone was finally happy. If we didn't complain, it's possible that Shadowrun Returns would have never been on GOG.

So it can happen. But they can also keep making it difficult too for DRM-free. It's too early to tell.

EDIT: Oh, you looked at some of my posts on Dead State. That was nice of you. I tried to be diplomatic regarding Steam (and I do use it only for games I can't get here or retail copies that are not STEAM activated) but I really try to promote GOG and support the DRM-free crowd there as some of the Steam backers sometimes tend to not understand why DRM-free people are complaining. i.e. They are getting what they want.