This is kind of directed at the gog staff, I was looking into buying this game "Master of Orion" the new game, however after reading the reviews regarding the required software to play multiplayer I will most likely give this a skip.

My question is, why is this information not readly available at the same spot as the rest of the information about the requirements is, just below the price?

This text is just below the price :
$ 0.10 $ OFF ANY FUTURE PURCHASE. You get free Wallet funds (our Fair Price Package) to offset the regional pricing.
DRM-FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. 30 days coverage after purchase.

Then somewhere WAY below we get this text.
Multiplayer Notice: GOG Galaxy is required to play multiplayer.

But nowhere is it mentioned that you require a wargaming account to play multiplayer, why not show this information rather than sort of try to hide it.

These are points that are really important to many people when they buy games.

There is a Subforum for the new MOO: https://www.gog.com/forum/master_of_orion_conquer_the_stars#1480666426

And AFAIK youdon`t need a Wargaming Account tp play multiplayer, but you need Galaxy, as it has the Multiplayer components inside ;)

Thanks for the reply, are you sure about the wargaming account? I read in a review someone saying that you were forced to create one and connect to your gog account to play multiplayer (See quote below). Still it would be nice to get the information about the Galaxy client being required for multiplayer up there with the DRM Free text, since this is not really fully DRM free because you cannot access part of the game without being authenticated.

I can see where you're coming from, but for all intents and purposes, the current Gog policy is that only the singleplayer part of its games is 100% Drm-free, whereas multiplayer functions may come with additional restrictions (CD-keys, mandatory registaration to 3rd party services, GOG Galaxy, etc.).

They totally could and should make it clearer though, that's for sure...

I know this is an old topic by now, but as I just got the game as a free reward, I still have to ask - how exactly is Galaxy required to play multiplayer? Like, how does that even work, what does the existence or nonexistence of Galaxy change that allows the multiplayer to run?

Up until now, I thought of Galaxy as merely a superficial program with the convenient ability to manage your library, start a game, and display ingame GUI stuff much like Fraps or Xfire did, back in its day.

But, this game itself actively uses Galaxy to enable Multiplayer...? Really...?
If I were to download the Setups and install that way, I absolutely would be locked out of multiplayer?

Are there more games like this? Why isn't that made clear, still?

First, don't blame GOG, blame the devs......steam started it and GOG is just following, or better has to follow.

What both are doing, they offer the devs a platform providing the online-functionality to connect via the internet. So that the devs do not have to 'waste' (yeah a joke....) on development for it.

Further as some people do point out, this is also a kind of DRM as it binds this game to one account and you can not even have a different name for every game, as all goes through galaxy/steam......

So, no Galaxy, no multiplayer on those games (requiring Galaxy for it). Most games nowadays to NOT offer anymore direct IP/IPX connectivity (so also no LAN anymore)......Why? (to say it short DRM)

Are there more games? Yes.....kind of all the new ones with MP.....maybe there is a GOG-mix for this list, but I am not aware of one.....

First, I kinda am blaming GoG for allowing that kind of DRM onto this platform. Is it a grey area? Mayhaps. It still don't feel right to me.

I've tried to look into it a bit more, and it seems all of the 8-bit Army titles have the same Galaxy-Requirement for MP. But still, how does that work? Do they really depend on Galaxy to login and establish a connection to the multiplayer server for the game? Or is it just a check like "Hey Galaxy, you there? What's the players Account name?"

Do these games really not have any own net code?
That's... quite a surprise, honestly. A kinda dreary tasting one, at that.

A wee bit more detailed explanation ;)

The game is just asking galaxy for the the essential parts, like username and similar (might include a cross reference with the GOG-servers for DRM, not sure.....). Galaxy is actually providing the whole network layer. Depending on the game it will also provide the centralized server for information sharing (matchmaking and similar, unless done by the devs). So, yes Galaxy provides the whole network layer, see also cloud saves and similar. You could argue, that this would help the devs to minimize costs.....yeah sure......the main problem nowadays is, that the general market (did somebody say steam) does require this feature to stay aloft.....hence, can we blame GOG? me thinks, we need to blame those millions of steam users.....But to be fair, unlike some other certain launchers, steam isn't toooo bad and Galaxy is only needed for MP.
For us, GOG: Good old games players, this feels wrong on so many layers.....(like no LAN, or direct IP or or or ). Yes, for the devs it does save a bit of development, like not needing to bother about different netcodes for different OSs....( :D okay not yet the case for Galaxy :D )

I am not really defending GOG here, but without Galaxy a lot of games might have not arrived on here without Galaxy. And yes, single player you don't need Galaxy for all games, at least that I know of, again unless you 'really' need cloud save, which for me is a bad joke....if you have access to internet you could always just send yourself an email with the save....so again blame the lets call it friendly...... ill informed users....

And by default galaxy hence also works as a DRM-check....if you don't have this game in your library, I don't think you can fool/trick galaxy with a pirated copy.

PS: sorry for the long rambling ;)

EDIT: How: just by passing calls with parameters.....simple said: galaxy (username) (multiplayer-key) (whatever)....like with any call of another program...yes might have more interaction ;)

I would assume that galaxy has some api's that developers can call to simplify the code needed for multiplayer, so instead of writing all of the code from scratch they have already made libraries to make things easier, kind of like .net you could say and there is probably something server side that handles stuff (lobby, waiting, matching etc) that is already made by gog saving the devs the trouble of having their own servers etc when it comes to online play.

Personally I am ok with games needing something for multiplayer but I want to see it when I am buying the game, somewhere it is quite visible, not something hidden at the bottom in small letters. And I would like to see the DRM free text gone because this game is not completely DRM free with this stuff, I really do not like the launchers for these platforms (Steam, Origin and Galaxy), they are nothing but DRM and ad platforms that shove stuff advertisements into my face that I have no interest in seeing.