You remind me of this guy

It may not be a mountain, but it's far from just a mole hill.

Which is funny, because I hate "always online" with a passion, and was the sole reason I skipped Diablo 3, SimCity, and the new Xbox. I simply don't complain over small stuff, not when 99% of it is within my control, sure the install may not be but if I use it or keep it installed is. I'm not going to complain over a few min of extra work uninstalling if I don't want it. You still have a choice. I said before I do agree you should have a choice during install, but its not the be all end all if there isn't.

Complaining about something being bundled with a game to make MP function is illogical seeing as nearly every game that has MP is bundled with something to make it work rather that be a client or an account type system, ect.

I also don't see it as a problem so long as the Galaxy client only runs whilst the multiplayer portion of the game is in operation.

EDIT:
Although I should just add that if I don't intend playing multiplayer or using the client, then the client software has no business installing itself on my computer at all. I wouldn't want to have to keep uninstalling it every single time I installed a new GOG game.

Yes, that is correct ;)

Surely selling a product and pleasing the customer are two sides of the same medal. If you don't please the customer you won't sell much too him. Customers are quite predictable in this regard. They definitely need to be pleased in order to buy something. I'm totally sure about that.

The misunderstanding here stems from that you mean that not every customer needs to be satisfied while Breja means that at least some/many customers need to be satisfied. It's more or less the same really.

Depends how tightly it is integrated and how big it is. On Windows many libraries are existing many times but each programm still installs them (or just brings them along and copies them to its own directory) so they are available when needed. Usually a game comes complete and you do not expect it to only install the portion of it that you intend to use. So why doing it here.

An option for leaving Galaxy it out at installation time however seems OK to me. Also I like that they try to install Galaxy only once. They could in principle install it along the game each time a game needing it is installed. That would be much worse.

So definitely support for asking. That would be nice.

I need to learn more about the client behaviour from those who've used it.

My own concerns about any client are as follows:
- DRM
- Security risk
- Data mining
- Resource hog

As GOG have said, it will be optional, so I'm not concerned about a DRM threat.

I'll be installing games on a permanently offline PC, so I'm not concerned about potential security risks or data mining either.

The only thing that does concern me therefore is resource usage. If games insist on Galaxy running unnecessarily in the background chewing up RAM and CPU cycles, then I definitely don't want it on my PC at all. However, if we're just talking about libraries being installed but remaining unused for the single-player experience, and thus all I'm losing is a little hard drive space, then I have no issues at all.

It's a pretty light weight client really, much better than Steam. There was some issue with CPU spikes but those were corrected in the last patch. For an alpha, my experience has been pretty good.

Steam never installed without telling me.

That's hardly surprising, it's not feature complete yet is it?

Besides, given what the client's going to be I'd imagine the most resource intensive part of it would be either the multiplayer or the ingame overlay. If they can nail those they're good.

Moot point since you need it for any steam game yes so you knew it from the get go. Now what did we accomplish here?
True its not feature complete, but so far so good.

Not quite, if you value customer choice.

Just a question for the people who are running Galaxy and who are now complaining about various aspects: You obviously know it is an Alpha build; and all of us running the Galaxy Alpha know we are supposed to respond on the issues website. As well as discussing / complaining here are you also capturing your concerns on the issue tracker (mantis)? That was in the requirements of running the Alpha on behalf of GOG and helping them track down problems.

Really, that is the best place for all real concerns about functionality and everything else.

Those people are not talking about the 'opt in' alpha of Galaxy. They're talking about the integrated Galaxy enhancements that came into the recent games they purchased.

Strictly speaking, if that part of it wasn't ready (alpha as you call it), they never should have bundled it with a piece of software they're selling. They know this, and they admitted it's a stopgap till Galaxy is done.

There are only three games where Galaxy is included as part of the installation, and two of them had plenty of info ahead of time stating that Galaxy would be there for MP. I didn't know about Double Dragon until coming onto this thread. Completing the product without Alpha and Beta testing is a difficult thing to do without having it included with a few specific games so I don't know how they would get it ready, as you put it, without wider support.

However, I agree that better disclosure should be provided about the inclusion and status of Galaxy, especially on the game cards, so that the user knows what they are getting into, as well as (if possible) an option to opt in on these games or at least information on how to avoid it after installation.

I see this less as a Galaxy thing, and more of a disclosure/PR thing. GOG is strong on games and software, but the PR could improve.

Yes, auto-installation is a problem. I don't care if it's necessary for multiplayer for this or that title. For one, it's not built into the game itself and is thus not wholly necessary to play it. Multiplayer, sure. Single player? Nope. "But lots of games have added software specifically for multiplayer access!" Sure, and they were engineered into the software that you bought - by the developers, not added on by the retailer.

Second, in a store that touts DRM-free (I'm NOT saying Galaxy is a form of DRM) and the benefits of "it's your game, so do with it what you want within reason", they have to expect that the clientele who embrace that message are also going to look at this auto-installation as a load of crap, especially when it comes without warning on the gamecard. We of that ilk buy games here for a reason: no shenanigans in the ownership of the games, and we control how they're used.

"And ohbytheway, we're just going to slip this extra bit of software - that may or may not be a mess that screws up your PC - without first asking you."

I don't want to be the Alpha / Beta Tester for Galaxy. I didn't sign up for it during the AvP giveaway or whatever title it was that first rolled it out, and I don't want to be a part of it now. Simple as that, so don't automatically put that crap in my hard drive and make registry entries for a bit of software that I absolutely KNOW that I do not want right now. I don't want it to install itself and dick around with the Registry (however minor). I don't want to have to uninstall the thing and hope that doing so doesn't screw things up as it plays around with the Registry again. Think that's a minor deal? http://www.gog.com/forum/general/steam_have_fun_wiping_linux_users_drives/page1 Mistakes happen.

Take the Alpha client out of the installer, make it an optional bit of software like the Downloader, and leave the Alpha Testing to those who want to actively participate. At the very least, before purchase tell the customer that the installer will automatically put this thing on your computer if you buy and install title XYZ. Or make it an option during installation of the game. You know, like when you click the little Options button it should ask if you want to install the Alpha version of Galaxy. Let the future owner decide.


You'd think a store focused on DRM-free - and owner control - would understand that.