StingingVelvet: I think the fear they will ditch offline installers altogether is paranoia, but I could see them making the offline installers only available through Galaxy someday. This is not DRM that violates any promise

Lifthrasil: Well, they tried to smuggle a Galaxy installer as bloatware into every offline installer. That move didn't exactly go over well. I don't want to have anything unnecessary in my offline installers. Especially nothing related to Galaxy.

WinterSnowfall: I've read the original post in this thread twice, yet it still makes little sense to me. I don't see why anyone would want to change the current way of doing things. Offline installers should just be offline installers, as the name says. Is Galaxy offline? No.

I'll try again tomorrow, I guess...

BrianSim: As "paranoid" as the "fear" of GOG ditching regional pricing?...

Lifthrasil: Yes. It's exactly the same kind of paranoia as the fear that GOG might introduce regional pricing. Or ditch their 'only complete editions' principle. Or might ditch the store credit compensation for regional pricing. Or might allow DRM, as long as only parts of the games are affected. Or might stop communicating openly with their customers...

kbnrylaec: Some people above already said what I want to say, so I will keep it short:
I have over 1500 GOG games, and I do not want to backup 1500 Galaxy stubs.

Lifthrasil: It's exactly the same kind of paranoia as the fear that GOG might introduce regional pricing.

Timboli: The installer, while not including the Galaxy App, could additionally include the files that Galaxy would use for a Galaxy game install. These files should be small in number and size, so not add much to the installer file size.

kbnrylaec: Some people above already said what I want to say, so I will keep it short:
I have over 1500 GOG games, and I do not want to backup 1500 Galaxy stubs.

BrianSim: As "paranoid" as the "fear" of GOG ditching regional pricing?...

AB2012: What would be the point of that?

Timboli: I have spent some time recently, pondering why GOG have done what they have with the game installer.

It now seems quite dumb to me, that they have gone the way they have, and it does kind of lend some credence to those who air the conspiracy that GOG are ultimately aiming at getting rid of the Offline Installers.

I elaborate further.

Why did GOG make two types of installers out of one, when they produced Galaxy?
Surely they could have just adapted the original to support both types of GOG gamers, in one file. They just ended up creating more work for themselves.

Instead, they created a Galaxy version of the installer, which originally contained Galaxy in every game download. Something that many gamers at GOG complained about, because of the huge wasted archival space and increased download size.

GOG at that point, removed Galaxy from the Galaxy installer, and just made it a stub with no game content, that requires a web connection to both download Galaxy (if missing or in need of updating) plus instructions of which game to download with Galaxy. In essence they half solved the situation, because archiving was no longer possible, unless you downloaded the Offline Installer instead.

The logical thing to have done in my opinion, would have been to just add a stub element to the Offline Installer, that was user query based and contained all game content, but not the Galaxy App, but would download Galaxy if the user desired it.

I say this, because when you look at what is installed on the user's PC, the game folder contents are roughly 99% the same files. I fail to see where there needs to be two separate installer types. It could be somewhat like some games or apps contain a 32 bit and 64 version or a Linux installer etc.

To better explain this, look at the following.

The two current installer types for a game.

(1) Offline Installer - Contains all the game files, either in a single EXE file or with additional companion BIN files.

(2) Online Galaxy Installer - This is just a stub, that is a single small file that contains no game files, but has code to check if Galaxy exists on your PC and whether it needs updating if it does, plus it contains instructions to tell Galaxy which game you want downloaded and installed.

Consider instead, a combination of the two installer types in one file.

This kind of installer, contains all the same files as the Offline Installer, plus it contains code to check if Galaxy exists on your PC and whether it needs updating if it does. The Galaxy element would be optional, and could be disabled simply by deselecting a checkbox on the installer when first executed ... or maybe a query prompt could be presented instead.

The installer, while not including the Galaxy App, could additionally include the files that Galaxy would use for a Galaxy game install. These files should be small in number and size, so not add much to the installer file size.

So how would this installer work?

(1) Offline Installer User - They run the installer, deselect the Galaxy checkbox (or answer NO to any prompt), and then install the game as they always have.

(2) Online Galaxy Installer User - They run the installer, leave the Galaxy checkbox selected (or answer YES to any prompt) and then let the installer do its thing - Check for Galaxy and download if needed, then install using the game files in the installer, but where needed the Galaxy variant ones.

Why do all this, and not just leave things as they are?
I have four reasons for this.
(1) GOG are sending a clear message that the Offline Installer aspect is going to continually be supported.
(2) Perhaps more importantly, there is only one type of installer to update, and as we know there have been update issues with Offline Installers now for a while.
(3) Archiving is future proofed.
(4) GOG have less work to do when updating. That means more time available for other things.

Ask yourself the following.
(1) If you are an Offline Installer User, is it much of an imposition, to have to deselect that checkbox (or respond to a query)? Is it much of an issue to have a slightly larger Installer? Look at the update benefit. Surely it outweighs the slight inconveniences if updates are no longer an issue?

(2) If you are an Online Galaxy Installer User, what has really changed? You have the added ability to archive the installer. Sure, you have to respond to a prompt when you first execute the installer, but that is no biggie, and if you want to avoid that, just install the game from within Galaxy itself, and not use the web page option. So nothing in reality has really changed for you, except the benefit of having an installer to archive if you want.

Me, I want less hassles and better guarantees with my game installer, and this seems the perfect solution to me.

teceem: So you haven't downloaded those 1500 games yet (for backup)?

kbnrylaec: I have three copies of offline installers for each game I owned here.
I always download them immediately after I bought the game.

Lord_Kane: They DID do that, but it caused major controversy so eventually
there were two sets of installers, one bundled with galaxy and one without, eventually GOG just went back to normal offline installers because no one was using the galaxy bundled ones.