I kinda see a distinction there. Even though it's getting quite close to the kind of analogy/metaphor I'm looking for (I was searching in the direction of "imagine they repair cars, but then add an obligatory uh, er.. uh... thingy of theirs that you're not forced to use but, erm"), DOSBox and the GOGWrapper are precisely not the game. And I'd prefer the galaxy thing to function a bit the same way.

I'm open for this because for long I've been complaining about the update process. As long as it's optional, I'm all for it.

Ive had a steam account for a good number of years, there was never an option to disable all the updates in one hit til recently (not sure when this was implemented) - and i couldnt find an option to do it either.was told there wasnt one at that point.

Wait, there's now an option to disable autoupdates on Steam? Like, permanently?

On the one hand, that's pretty cool. On the other, it's taken them, what, 10 years? 11?

I'm not sure when you last checked but I know for a fact that if you right click a game in your library and select properties, then click the updates tab, you can change the pulldown to 'do not update this game automatically'. It's been there for some time now.

Yeah, it was shear frustration when I installed my one Steam game (from disc) back in September 2010

while I understand GOG wanting to set up a system to be familiar to others used to how another company works that's not the problem for me, it's that I feel like I have no choice but use a style I don't care for to support a company that I do.

this is unless there is a basic "GOG Downloader" mode included

Just to be clear, i know about that, what im am talking about though, is a global option to disable ALL updates for ALL the games, not just one at a time...

Because devs themselves never ever release buggy messes, right? ;-P

I'm all for it. I've seen enough people here get confused by not actually knowing how a stand alone installer works. Maybe people are spoiled, but most people don't manage their content with Explorer, they use specifically designed software to see what they have, sort it, uses it, and do other common functions. It's practical, and useful, and if done right, should be good for gamers.

I would like to see options default to the most conservative, private scenarios. I don't ever need to know so and so is playing such and such. That's creepy, if not useless information. That, and no dancing privacy settings like trying to keep Facebook from randomly blowing privacy doors open. I also don't need it downloading 5GB to update something with out asking.

I'm not personally concerned with DRM being some unavoidable byproduct. I don't think a client is inherently drm, just because everyone else that has made one is a control freak, and used it to that end.

There are a few things I worry about. We haven't actually seen anything. Mostly a lot of big talk without any real ideas of how they are going to get done. When it comes to the crossplay or whatever, I'm tempted to call BS. It sounds like the kind of thing someone says because it sounds great, but really has no idea what kind of sticky mess it is to actually accomplish. I assume they have done their homework, and have something sorted out, but it definitely has the "too good to be true" vibe.

I would imagine it would require the participation of other players, like Steam, and Origin, or at the very least, coded for by developers. None of these parties are reliable partners for GoG, and I feel like if we flash forward 2-3 years, we will be reading stories about how it was supposed to be game changing tech, that ended up being buggy and ignored by developers. I would be happy to be wrong about it.

Anything about cloud saving getting worked in at some point?

Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing in in action.

"Automatic updates" can be turned off, yes, but that doesn't (in this case) quite mean what you may think it means or what you want it to mean. It means the games will only be updated when you ask Steam to or when you launch the game, with autoupdates on, the update gets applied whenever Steam feels like it.

Yup, today they're asking for a client, tomorrow for a console.

OH NOES! the first steps to abandoning the PC! =P

Issue
Updating Skyrim breaking many mods even with no updates selected also Half Life 1, 2 and Source and any other moddable game out there. It was a huge issue last year when source was radically changed with no warning given.
Issue
Stean Workshop Skyrim Mods Auto Update, No choice Given even now, again can break other mods without warning

I don't know about unmodded games but it is a real issue for modded games when updates are forced onto them.
I don't use Steam Workshop because of it.

Another related Issue
Every Damn Game and/or update automatically installs Visual C++ Redistributable Packages taking no account of the fact you may/will already have them installed, DirectX also done this way

On the other hand, the installers for both DirectX and VisualC++ will detect whether you already have the same version or higher installed (that is, a higher update of, say, VisualC++ 2005) and in that case quit the installer without making any changes. (An application built for VisualC++ 2005 won't work with 2008.)