Well into the next month now and still no sign of any blues, they really do just want to let this thread disappear so they don't have to address it don't they?

Do you mean after this post? Even addressing it I don't think many here will find the answers acceptable.

Maybe they are all in home office and it takes them longer to reply? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Or they try to hide under the table till the furor died down? _/¯(ツ)¯\_
;-)

Yes, I mean after that post that didn't actually address anything. Even if we get answers we don't want (which I expect because there's no way to spin the Epic deal positively or ethically without being a blind, short-sighted shill) at least it would be something concrete.

This silence is deafening.

...That was unambiguously the context and subject of my points in those posts, as it regards PC game distribution (but heck all optical disc use on PC has been on a downward trend). Anyone can read the posts. Even the immediate sentence prior the ship comment states this ('If those who actually cared about physical for PC...', in a reply to a quote regarding game distribution).

Yet I didn't. Could we please differentiate a discussion on the market behavior from the tech itself. I was _advocating_ for use of the format for physical releases on PC in _both_ the posts you originally responded to and wished more who desired PC physical releases had done so earlier when it may have made more of a difference (to give some examples: before other distribution methods almost entirely dominated, before PC case makers stopped even including optical drive bays in popular designs, before the market for optical discs in other areas saw more of a decline, when OS and hardware makers dictated changes that introduced more barriers to users).

I mean, your posts are written so aggressively emphatic yet I'm not sure who you're really arguing with given I'm someone who actually _shares_ some views on the use of optical discs and their usefulness :p

I'm not basing it solely on US pricing, I've seen similar pricing elsewhere. If some countries in the EU such as Poland don't see fairer pricing I completely sympathize though it also shows how attractive the internet has become as a more a democratic medium for distribution. From what I recall CDPR saying Poland has struggled with overpriced media for decades, one of the reasons piracy was so prevalent and CDPR wanted to introduce more value with their games.

Even the first Apple Macintosh was advertised as a 'personal computer' and such consumer systems were frequently referred to as such during that era. Was really in the last 20 years Apple began to push more for a distinction for marketing purposes. Practically speaking they are PCs and have always been.

I did blame them, in the very post you quote :p Apple used to support DVDs both in hardware and software out of the box. Also from reading some results and wiki pages Linux doesn't support BD playback natively either, relying on similar (even less streamlined) workarounds. Nothing changes what I said about PC users having more barrier to entry than other devices, however putting film playback aside for data only access an external BD drive is pretty affordable and straightforward (hence why I've wished for it as a distribution method... but now my posts have become cyclical).

To be fair it could be general laziness or just plain incompetence, I mean I cannot see how those options can be ruled out entirely. Is it better to be viewed as a lazy asshole or an incompetent fool than to do something due to pure maliciousness?

There also is the coward angle, why address issues when you are afraid of being called out or yelled at? That could potentially damage their fragile little feelings and we couldn't have that, could we?

There just has been an air of ethical professionalism with how this has been handled. I don't see how they ever intended on addressing this properly, or any other long standing issue for that matter. This is the same old drag your feet, time wasting methods that we have all seen before. Something turns to shit just ignore it by looking the other way, no answers and no accountability on GOG's behalf.

Instead of having a good relationship with the community, once again they would rather piss around ignoring the issues at hand, instead of working on fixing them.

becuase:
a) this is still very new, and noone really know much yet how it will pan out, so on any parts (even gOg) it will be only guess work
b) no matter what they do, apart from caving in 100%, they will just be called an 'epic shill' anyway, so what's the point, it is crystal clear what they are doing now, and the epic-store-in-galaxy has been up and running for a little while

Well... I don't know why my 2 post in-depth response got downvoted so much... Now that that's out of the way...

Thank you for making your intensions clearer. Because earlier the problem was that your wording was too vague ("that ship has sailed") and you left too much room for speculation as to what is the exact range of your statement.

If you share some opinions then that's cool, but I hate when people use language that is not 100% clear to leave just 1 meaning and nothing more.
In such cases I often pry to make things more clear for less knowledgable bystanders.

And if you really mean it with the "aggressively emphatic"... well...
I apologize if it's a problem. It's just that quite a lot of people tend to never listen to me no matter how competent I may be on some subject.
Many people really hate me for aiming for absolute precision (many deem me "too precise"... like how can one even be too precise?)

The case of prices of ANYTHING in Poland is a curiousity. I really don't want to discuss that as it would bring up lots of vial in me.
And the internet isn't actually good in that country. Houses in towns can get horrifyingly slow (like below 6 Mbps) internet while some a** creek 100 people village would get a fiber connection.
That's how it is there.

Piracy? More like peoples mentality.
And even if someone would want to buy something legitimately it's a burden.
BD releases are overpriced. Let alone for example anime.
LET ALONE it's availability.
Let me give you a direct example:
My internet right now is an absolute a** connection (4 Mbps). Toaru (...) Accelerator got BD release from Funimation in US...
And no UK release so far (doesn't seem to be even planned)... So if I would want it I would have to import it. Since in the US finances are different, people have different wages than in EU, then high prices (Toaru (...) Accelerator costs like 30-40 usd for 12 ep series) fly there.
But importing it to EU would cost like 60 gbp. Which is just INSANELY overpriced for this length of a series. EVEN if it's new (something like 30 gbp would still be bearable but above that just NO).
In such case what somebody is even supposed to do?

I would argue they used "personal computer" term for marketing purposes in the first place:
1.To make them look "similar" (in terms of purpose) to non technical consumers
2.To mess with peoples perception of the market and look more like Microsoft (which used the term broadly)

I would say they have always been "computers for personal use" (as in non servers, non workstations, non mainframes, which would all be "non personal" computers by the definition of the term).
And the fact that it can be shortened to "personal computer" and most computers started being called universally like that some time ago is adding to the insult as that is TECHNICALLY still a marketing term used by IBM.
It's just better to call them mac. And if not then just computer.
That's how I look at it.

Well trash quality BD drives MAY MAYBE be cheap. Also external ones, or more specificly ANY 2,5 ones (except for real expensive ones that close to nobody buys, and most of them aren't even available outside of Japan) are generally trash in all sorts of ways.
I don't know what prices are for those in US. You have rebates and all sorts of shenanigans there so you may likely have a much more favorable prices there.
Still, if you want ACTUAL quality you would have to import Japan-domestic-market-only Pioneer drives (sadly I don't have one atm).

I don't know what is your level of expertise of Linux. And I don't know what you read. But it's not like that.
On Windows you are expected to use prioretary software for decoding AACS encrypted BD discs since AACS keys and drive permitted fingerprints / certificates are OFFICIALLY only distributed with prioretary software.
I guess Microsoft didn't make a deal with whatever-association responsible for DRMing BD discs and so Microsoft does not include those keys in their crappy OS shipped media players (that's why you cannot "JUST" watch BD on Microsoft system out of the box).
I don't really want to go into exact technical details but AACS decryption process involves ability to create a local AACS key without the need for "official" database distribution if you have a valid non revoked drive certificate / fingerprint - it then creates VUK file with decryption key (which can be exported to any other computer btw).
That all works through libbluray library. Vlc (among other software) uses it. Vlc is a project based on France and (due to French legal blah blah) nobody can stop it.

I really don't know what you read about Linux.
You get the libbluray from your distro repo. You get all dependencies (which in most package managers is done automatically).
You get vlc or another player supporting the library.
Now you may play encrypted BD.
You may want to get KEYDB.cfg file tho as it contains compilation of older user submitted VUK and so it saves time (and possible host key revocation trouble).
That's it.
You may want to read on that:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Blu-ray
(it's highly technical but generally it provides anything you may want to know)

And I'd like to thank you on behalf of the community at large for answering our questions with professionalism and urgency. It is a constant reminder of how much GOG cares.

Please do not strain your fingers answering the ignored questions and concerns of paying customers.

Come on, give them a break, they're too busy making the thing compatible with GeForceNOW. https://twitter.com/GOGGalaxy/status/1329430292747202568

I can think of two fingers that I can give them, but I don't think it would help.

Have a feeling that quite a few people in the community would be willing to give them the same fingers that you mean.

If only there was a real alternative. :/

Unfortunately there is none, really. Yet. Zoom-platform is strictly anti-DRM. But their selection is quite limited compared to GOG. Fireflowergames is DRM-free too, but they only have adventures, so, an even more limited selection that zoom-platform. itch is DRM-agnostic, just like GOG has become. gamejolt is DRM-free, as falr as I know, and they have some very nice games (very similar selection to itch), but mostly indie titles.

I hope that zoom-platform will grow. GOG started out small too and the DRM-free folks made it big. Maybe that can happen again.

Once GOG fails through it's own blinkered stupidity that'll be it, you can bet that no one will attempt a DRM free platform of this magnitude ever again, it's just too big a project to get traction with, especially in the face of the supposed titan's failure.

I really don't see how Zoom platform can make a real impact at this point either.