I am just wondering if anyone knows. 1. Does a GOG Galaxy made shortcut run the game using Galaxy and track playtime? 2. If you forget to tick the create shortcut option do you have to reinstall to be able to use a desktop shortcut that uses Galaxy to track your playtime? I ask because I just installed 40gb of games while i was sleeping, and apparently I forgot to tick the create shortcut box for Two Worlds 2. And im wondering if shortcuts are even needed if we want Galaxy to track our playtime.

If anyone knows it would be helpful. Ty.

In all seriousness, you can't even trust Steam to track play time and it's been doing it (badly) for about a decade longer than Galaxy's been around. Trying to get Galaxy to track play time in its unfinished state is like trying to herd jet pack wearing cats.

If it involves wasting even a moment more of your time then don't do it. Never mind redownloading a whole game.

Don't know if the shortcuts will make Galaxy track the playtime but I wonder why you don't just launch the games from the Galaxy client.

I like having shorcuts on my desktop reminding me that I have the games installed. Alot are old school games, and I want the shortcuts for that old school feel of it. I could launch from galaxy, but I guess neither of you have the answers I need. :(

Ok so I just tested if Galaxy tracks from shortcuts, and it does not. Strange Galaxy would give you the option of making a shortcut that does not launch it from Galaxy to take advantage of any functions it has "i know its not alot atm". I guess Having shortcuts is just a no go :(

The only way to track your play time is run the game through Galaxy.
Shortcut to Two Worlds II should look like "%PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\GalaxyClient\GalaxyClient.exe " /gameId=1207661833 /command=launch but please, keep in mind it will open Galaxy on TW II library site without starting the game..

I know what the shortcuts look like. And how to make them. I was just hoping the shortcuts were a shortcut to run it through galaxy and not outside of it. :(

No, Galaxy's shortcut it's not connected to Galaxy client. When you run the game through the desktop shortcut, your play time does not get registered, you need to run the game from the Galaxy client in order to record your playing time.
So, you can create shortcut from game files, it's exactly the same thing. I guess that, in the future, they will offer the possibility to link the shortcut with the client, like Steam is doing. In case of GOG, it's kinda in contradiction with their "DRM free" policy to do so, as the client can't be viewed as DRM in order to run your installed game from shortcut, probably they don't want to induce people in error.

Ha, old school feeling. You mean the tried and tested over many decades process of simple browser download, user install and management which happened before clientware rubbish was invented? If you have a *need* to track you game time, and I have no idea why you would want to, then buy a stopwatch. Really, I mean "achievements", "ingame time" etc. Is life that utterly pointless that these things matter? Although it is better than watching someone else play games on ulube.

Fun fact! Game Achievements were used years before google was founded. So if you want to truly go old school, achievements are the way to do so.

Yeah, I'm fairly sure a lot of my old games tracked playtime too.
I know a lot of old RPGs certainly gave you a time played with your save file.
So that's pretty old school too!

Do you have like nothing better to do than complain about clients and client features? Seriously this is the crap that is rather stupid...is life so utterly pointless we have to complain about such things?

The crap you complain about has been in gaming for a long time, it's just re-made in a modern way for today's gamers. Stop living in the past, old school isn't as great as rose colored glasses make it out to be.

Old school meaning. The days before digital downloads. You should really think before you speak dude. I mean the whole point of GOG is Good Old Games. And dosbox games never came as digital downloads in aol 2.0. Cause yeah. lol

It used to be Good Old Games, now its just GOG, they don't focus on just old titles and haven't for a long time. And yes, games were available via download for a long time, at least since the mid-late 90s. So no, no lol or anything.

I have been on pcs since the 286, and on the internet since before aol. Sure you COULD get downloads. But 99.9% of games were bought at a store and came in a box, installed and had an option for a desktop icon for them. GOG stands for Good Old Games. They continue to release old games as well as new indie titles, and even some AAA titles as they expand into the newer game market.

Your argument is pretty invalid here. In 1999 You would not download Baldurs gate, or Fallout 1 from the internet. It was not a thing, unless it was pirated. And even if you could do it, nobody was doing it then and it was such a small share of the market that it was unknown to me. So that in itself nullifies your argument there. in 1999, which is beyond the "mid 90s you claimed" about 90% of people were on modems ranging fro m28.8k-56k. And downloading a game that is 1gb or more then, is pretty out of the question considering it would tie up the phone line. Think things through before posting them please.