...

That's cute: people who prefer the GOG service do it for "loyalty", while you prefer Steam for valid reasons, right?

I don't have any "loyalty" for GOG. I buy most of my games from GOG because I like their service and how they treat me as a customer (yes having DRM-free installers is a big part of it). If GOG would suddenly e.g. add DRM to all games etc., I'd change back to Steam in a heartbeat, as then I wouldn't see much reason anymore to buy from GOG (over e.g. Steam).

I also like the fact that on GOG I've been able to download all my GOG game installers (and extras) in one swoop, by using a third-party tool (gogrepo.py). Not sure if that is possible on Steam? For me having my games already downloaded on an external hard drive is currently the most convenient way, it is very easy to just install a new game if I suddenly get an urge to try it out (no separate downloading needed, which can take a damn sweet time for the bigger games on my 10Mbps cable modem, or worse).

It is scary that anyone would choose to purchase a game thru Steam when it can be purchased DRM-free. It's mind boggling.

You should check out some of their forums. They talk about 'why' a lot in there and you don't know scary! ;P

...

Of course, they're both pretty crumby console ports that didn't run that great on windows. Adding an emulation layer can't be a good thing for performance.

I haven't tried the VP Linux ports because I own both on GOG, which doesn't have the Linux versions.

Well, for instance I've bought GalCiv3 because it was discounted on GoG,
(I would have probably bought it on Steam, but the price would have had to be *much* lower),
but now I'm annoyed because not only I won't get both versions if I don't *also* buy the Steam one,
but especially because Stardock treats Steam and Galaxy as consoles, with no cross-platform multiplayer :
http://forums.ashesofthesingularity.com/474958/get;3616881
(IMHO GoG shouldn't have allowed non-Full Internet Protocol games on their Store.) But that wouldn't be two-way!

What would be *really* two-way is for CDPR to provide a "GoG Web API" so that Valve (and others) could check what games you own on GoG, and to ask the publishers if they're willing to give Valve's Steam users those games for free.

(Alternatively, for CDPR to provide "GoG keys" so that Valve can sell those on Steam...)

I tried. The darn thing is either complicated, ior very poorly explained. Didn't understand how the friggin' thing worked when I needed it, and thus couldn't use it to transfer a game. Which would have allowed me to download at my parent's house and would have saved me a 42h download at home (250 kB/s is a bitch for big 40GB games)

For me, intallers are handy because they allow the transfer and installation of a game to a computer without net access, or with a very crummy connexion. Before I had these connexion problems, I bought 70% of my games on Steam. Nowadays, it's the opposite. I guess if you have never experienced a 'net cutoff, the incentive to use GOG is much weaker.

I' m not sure that the Steam backup feature ever worked properly...

It's much easier to just copy-paste the relevant folders anyway.
And you can even use the games on another computer as long as they aren't crippled by Custom Executable Generation or Denuvo :
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/how_to_run_steam_games_offline_forever_tutorial/page1

Yes, I've done it for some games. But pretty often, unless the game is DRM free, it will whine during the activation process and start downloading the whole game anyway. Seems pretty random, too.

If anything that would make matter much worse as devs will have even less incentive to update the Gog version of their games if they know all Gog buyers have access to the Steam version.

I see what you're talking about, but I'm not talking a bout the same thing :
in this case we're specifically talking about *not even having* an activation process, by having the games pre-installed before copying the Steam folders.

Because DRM in the case of Steam being Steam doesn't hurt anybody.
All the while Steam has a working client that offers a ton of great things (Workshop, Community Guides, specific forums for every single game not "let's lump 10 games into one forum, who cares if it's a cluttered mess?") as well as Multiplayer (the fact that SR3 on gog doesn't have multiplayer is baffling and retarded) and a working chat. While Galaxy, after one year has...what exactly to offer, outside of bugs and some games still unavailable for download?

Gog only has 2 positive things: Older games on offer and region-specific prices, not 1€ is 1$ is 1 Pound and so on. Otherwise, Steam is a 100 times better than gog because of all the mentioned things above.

DRM gets constantly blown out of proportion. It's not like the games here on gog aren't subject ot be changed at will by the publishers and developers and the dreaded "early access, might never be finished" is also slowly creeping into here and will be common soon.

Come on, don't tell me that the new Steam Community "forums" don't suck!
Any phpBB forum is much better, aside for the fact that developers don't have to set them up and deal with spammers... (because of the very strict access to posting in the Steam Community).

Also, you might be confusing Matchmaking with Multiplayer?

And the convenience of the installers for people with sub-par internet, and the convenience of a catalog where I have a fair chance to find decent games, old games that actually work out of the box, the assurance that I won't have to create yet another Kalypso or SEGA account...

I'm not here because of the prices, and not even really because of DRM. I'm a GOG customer because the service here is convenient for my use. :)

But I agree that Steam's services has some pretty good points, too, like easy modding, updates, a very expansive catalog, multiplayer... (and a client that actually works, especially when you compare it with the peace of crap that is Galaxy ^^)