This is a slippery slope GOG.

edit : If the SP portion of Gwent is a pay once, complete offline experience, then I retract that statement.

Nice.

Thanks for the close and now this open beta.

This game looks like it will have and be a DRM free game, because in it's trailer, there was some sort of mission quest in which you where traveling and searching for stuff? The single player experience. Perhaps with it, you will not need a internet connection.

Rmemeber this is a try out/beta for online service. More is yet to come, and with it the perhaps ofline service of that campain. Besides, games like this, being card games, all of them are online services that requiers it to play with firends and people.

P.s. So Long.

Danke sehr Marko.

Here is a definition of DRM. As expected, online play for multi-player games is not strictly considered DRM.

On the other hand many of us (myself included) consider multi-player only games as containing DRM by design.

In the past, before GOG was making a move like this with Gwent (and Gremlins Inc. by the way - the single-player game is offered as a side product) was asking the community through surveys. Since new users don't know, the community here has rejected multi-player only games, as well as any form of in-game purchases. The main reason for these rejections (among others) is that we believe these things cross the DRM-free boundary.

Gwent is currently in beta and we may overlook that multi-player only part. But even more disappointing is the entry of in-game purchases on GOG. I don't believe GOG will listen, but I don't think Gwent could have any place here.

I'm currently redefining me stance towards GOG. I'm thinking switching from neutral stance to boycott new releases, even leaving entirely. It's a bit weird. Since I, as many others, have been patiently waiting for games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 to be released here, and now that it seems they're coming I'm considering not to buy them.

Life is full of surprises (even bad ones), I guess!

I think these two wishlist entries have a place here:
1. do_not_ever_allow_microtransactions_and_video_games_with_in_game_stores_to_be_sold_on_gogcom
2. continue_to_reject_microtransactions_and_in_game_stores

Go to page six, read reply no.110 regarding DRM, I am well aware what it is. It's dumb to self-quote. :)

If the community wants offline GWENT completely without multiplayer components, maybe the offline SP will be released when the full game is complete and cards you obtain will not be available in MP and vice verse. But community here started talking about death of DRM-free GOG because of game being online with microtransactions, so I wanted to point out about DRM, but many don't listen/read. Reading some answers from some community members, it's like "my daddy is stronger than yours". I bet many of them have accounts on all those support-DRM services, or maybe they do live on ATARI or '90s playing in DOS. Go Team Pong, Q*bert, Paperboy and Lotus :)
The future is here, with or without us... GOG is still DRM-free. When I'm gonna need scene release fix for GOG game, then the revolution is dead.

Cheers!

EDIT: People are now hating my posts. So much for mature community ^^

Downloaded installer.
Started it.
Install galaxy.
No f... way,didn't you pledge it's optional?
Deleted that crap.
:(

No, you're not listening / reading about what people are saying.

The argument is while online requirement is not the technical definition of DRM, it may as well come under that banner since it works in much the same way. If it cannot authenticate / connect - then the game won't play - which is the same function as DRM.

What I hope, is that Gwent SP will be offline, one time purchase.

However, as is GOGs way, they don't always get the communication out of the gates right, but it is better to err on the side of caution, and as a community make sure GOG is held to the high standards that they were originally founded on.

...and if even if this was solely online, with micro transactions and that doesn't bother you, then you don't have a dog in this fight and won't affect you anyway.

Ok GOG, I can see why GWENT is online only, and why it will probably die without GOG servers any way, as normally you would want to play against many different players, not LAN-like MP.

But why do you put huge "play" button into my face, if you actually don't support my OS? AFAIK my browser is not hiding in any way, that I'm using linux, and you are able to detect it correctly on the check-out page, warning me about win-only games I'm buying.

So why can't you also filter out these huge statements about "play gwent" and "download galaxy"?

I find it actually quite insulting (I mean emotionally, as a programmer I can understand that some SW is not for all platforms, but that emotion when visiting GOG.com is there), I was thinking about giving GWENT a test, so I clicked on that button and *bang*, some .exe file wanted to download. If you would put this extra advertisement only to win users, I would just see the ordinary banners and do "meh, galaxy still not for linux, moving on", not giving it much thought.

----

About MP requiring connection vs DRM debate:

For me the border line (of DRM-like functionality) is requirement of the game servers being online to make the game MP functional. As all the game companies tend to die very quickly (most of them doesn't survive even 10 years from my life experience), and the game servers tend to get switched off even quicker, when this part of MP setup is mandatory (and not optional), the game is basically not worth of my buy, because I very rarely install+play the game at the time when I'm buying it, most of the games from backlog get my attention about 3-5 years later. If the game has the MP server code included, and I can start LAN-like MP game, then I can still ask some of my friends for a match or two, even if the game creators already went belly up. (offline mode without any need of connection is of course total must, to make me even consider buying it ... I don't want to download installer now, and figure out 15 years later, than I can't even install it and play single player).

But it is one game, still in development. How can you create F2P game without multiplayer and without game constantly being online? Free-to-play games are made to be competative, multiplayer, online (World of Tanks, LOL etc.). It's not like all games on GOG.com all of a sudden require online authentication in order to play. F2P and DRM are like - you are falling and you are flying. In both cases, you are in the air. The situation is completely different. F2P are games which can only be played online, and on one is forcing anyone to be online and play the game. And DRM is spying crap that wants your singleplayer only game to be online. Maybe the Gwent will have offline singleplay component, but to get there, first it needs to be F2P.

We all should give it a rest. There are those who like it and those who don't. Always will be. :)

The rest of my comment was speaking about those same things.

The discussion of what constitues DRM. Your discussion is the first time I've ever heard of Spyware being a criteria for DRM. Online requirement has to me and others always been a shifty way to have DRM without it being technically DRM.

Online only / F2P only. Does it have a place on GOG if it goes against the very things GOG was founded on.

Finally - if you like it - good for you. Again, you don't have a dog in this fight. You're happy, you're set. For those of us against the idea, even if GOG comes out now and says 'Galaxy optional, SP offline, one off purchase ofr SP' and we go YAY - it won't affect you at all. You'll still have the online , F2P portion, and GOG has held true to it's values.

So why would you enter debates with others to fight against that, when you're already happy, and this would make them happy.

I can understand the complaints about in-game purchases, but why complain about an online-only game if it was designed that way? Did forum-ites not want the public beta to release until the single-player content was available? (What if CDPR never promised single-player content, would there be less complaining?) Or did they want a LAN connection option or similar?

At this stage I take issue because I haven't come across a statement that the SP portion will be offline / not contain in game transactions.

As for the LAN option - I think every MP game should have LAN - but that fight from me has long since become a whimper.

I never said that you or anybody else would not know what DRM is. My point was that it does not really matter how you are naming the thing people don't like. Having to be online to be able to enjoy a game is sth. many people don't want - no matter if this is called DRM or not. And imo self quoting is not dumb (don't know why one should say that) it simply makes it easier for the reader to get your point.

Again - I did not say anything else. I just said that the fact that people don't like having to be online all the time leads to the hope that the single player mode would at least give them the opportunity as well to enjoy the game whenever they want. I also said that many people fear this won't be the last game needing to be online to play. According to your reg. date you are quite new here so maybe it's harder for you to understand this but some of us experienced how GOG dropped their once golden principles one by one and whenever GOG now goes in such a specific way many people do panic. Imo this is completely understandable. Imagine feeling yourself quite good with a gaming platform and over time it's getting worse and worse. There probably will be a point when you just want to stop this from progressing further. Pointing out your opinion (no matter if it's shared or not) simply is one way to do so.

Maybe they simply don't care? You explained to them what DRM is and what not - but this still did not change the fact that people atm would need to be online to play a game - something that was unthinkable on GOG (I won't even start with the ingame purchases here) before. As I said these people already have experienced the beginnigs and where the road has ended. This could be another beginning. Don't know if this is the case or not - in fact only GOG can say - but those pointing out their concerns about GOG's decision to offer such a kind of game are not few but many as you can clearly see. So maybe they are all dilusional or they simply have a reason to be afraid.

There is no reason for this conclusion just because you did not like their comments.

Until one day when it is not anymore. Better shout out too early then too late. The latest Galaxy vs. offline Installer debate has shown that sometimes it's necessary to say if sth. is not going in the right direction.

Again: people are just expressing their opinion here. This has nothing to do with "maturity" only with "I like what you said" and "I dislike what you said". If you get posts downrated it's mostly because MANY agree that they disliked what you said. Nothing more and nothing less. This is not a war it's a simple discussion about a topic which some people are seeing this way and some the other way.

Except for the fact it is

Why? Is it impossible to make a offline single player mode without the game being F2P before?

That maybe, but not in my case (you may check my other posts about clicking and browser redirecting). I was expecting something like: GOG Galaxy > GWENT [FREE] > INSTALL > PLAY (no external links and registration/authorization). Do you get my point now?