Yeah, this is annoying. So I mostly agree with you, OP. But to be fair, mod related questions shouldn't be dealt with by GOG's support team.

Depends on the game.

For Bard's Tale 3, form a party containing only monsters, then D)rop every monster from your party. (Note that this won't work in the remaster, as the game won't let you leave the refugee camp with just monsters, and it doesn't let you leave behind monsters there for later use.)

My mistake, it seems I wasn't clear in what I was trying to ask/say: I meant games one can finish/play the majority of the game with zero party members(where a party of 1 is usually the minimum to complete them, and in genres with parties obv.), and without taking advantage of cheats/bugs/exploits in the code/game.

The example you gave(while interesting) would seem to indicate one cannot finish said game without adding more party members/monsters to said party...did I get that right?

If you disallow glitches, yes.

If you do allow glitches, then I suspect it might be possible to beat the DOS version of Bard's Tale 3 with an empty party. I've read that apparently the game crashes if the roster gets too large, so the idea would be to see if it's possible to craft the roster in such a way that, when it's loaded, it overwrites the return address with a value that triggers the ending, or that allows code stored in the roster to trigger the ending. Then again, if it's possible, it might be a pain to roll the exact stats that are required.

In any case, I do enjoy many glitches in games. There's a place for NMG (No Major Glitches) playthroughs of games, but sometimes it's fun to play around with glitches and see how much you can break the game.

Incidentally, in the Bard's Tale subforum, I recently made a post where I describe how to break the remaster of the first game, and my method doesn't use any glitches.

Agreed....I was just mainly trying to see if there are any party based games that truly can be finished/played mostly with no party members without glitches/exploits/etc.

Noice

I usually only reply to technical issues if the OP does an effort at describing his/her problem (like e.g. including hardware/OS specifications).
The ones that don't often think that we're some unpaid help desk here. I mean; what's up with MY GAME NOT WORKS HELP!!!!? (the solution to their problem might be even in the first Google search result).

Kindly head the users to the game-especific forums, even if you provide an answer.

Most likely, they will find solutions to their problems there, posted and solved by other users.

Like the one a few hours ago on Civ IV...

Cheers.

That's assuming they even KNOW how to use/get to google.....some of them don't seem like the sharpest tools in the shed sometimes.
==============================================

GOG should make it so that galaxy users are routed to the right forums(maybe a button next to each game on galaxy?) when having issues...it'd solve a bit of the frustration, I think.

Ok, but we're talking about humans here, not plants... right! right?
But seriously, every average idiot has a (smart) phone and knows how to use the internet search function.

I think that's up to fans to decide where they spend their time and be active. GOG is focused on bringing games, trying to ensure they run well, and assisting with support ... and of course making a profit so they can stay in business. Also these forums are like 12 years old, we'll need new modern ones to support user content similar to Steam like guides and screenshots and etc.

Once devs and pubs realized that they could make a lot of extra money bringing old games to Steam, I think GOG has had to negotiate differently - getting a timed exclusive in exchange for technical assistance. Steam is multitiudes bigger than GOG so inevitably many more people are going to keep those forums active.

There are probably third-party fan forums for Wizardry anyway, aren't there? Or a place like Reddit.

Yes, but without it can they find the search sites?

Heck, I have a relative who used to ask me how to get to google even though it is the default search tab that comes up on new tabs and one can also search via the address bar. I eventually had to make it one of the pages that comes up when the browser launches to stem the tide of "where's google?" questions.

================================================

I'll answer this in the form of a play, if I may:

Scrooge/Forum Goer: Are there no steam forums? Are there no sub-reddits?

Charity Worker 1/Other forum goer: There are, but many would rather take themselves offline(off the net) than go to such places.

Scrooge/Forum Goer: Then they had best do so and reduce the online idjit population.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Note to all: The above isn't a jab on anyone....just me making a little skit that came to mind)

I've heard that dropping infants on the head can cause those symptoms later in life. ;-)

Lol, maybe, but the relative in question is old and the fact they can even USE a pc/the net is astounding to me...considering how PC literate they were before then, that is.