this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
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How is GOG?
Better than Steam I'd argue. Unlike Steam, games you buy on GOG are yours to keep forever. No DRM like steam that ~~forces you to log on after a few days offline~~. You also get better version control.
Edit: the offline limit was a bug. Offline restrictions would be dependent on the DRM solution for each individual game.
There are DRM free games on steam. If you can launch the game directly from the exe while steam is off, then the game is DRM free.
I'm aware, however it's not as transparent and Steam does not provide the same guarantees that GOG do.
I don't want to have to open the game page to figure that out. Also if there was a filter I could find and choose not to see DRM games at all, that would be very cool.
The DRM layers are added by game publishers, not by Steam, but yeah it is a little annoying that games on steam have to be launched through steam. There are some fake Steam overheads floating around to bypass that for use of running games on multiple local machines simultaneously.
How long is a few days and what happens if you don't?
There is no DRM on GOG. You can just download the offline installer, then install it even without an internet connection. It will never ask you to go online because it doesn't need to check anything.
I believe they meant what happens on the steam side, not the gog side.
After digging into it, it seems like the 2 week limit was a bug that has been fixed by steam. So there is no Steam enforced limit, it's up to each game's DRM to enforce restrictions. Steam can function as DRM with a simple command during upload, but it's rather basic and Valve recommends publishers to use additional DRM for more serious protection.
GOG on the other hand is DRM free as a core policy so you're guaranteed no restrictions.
I liked it until CD Project Red showed they care about the shareholders more than the users with Cyberpunk. It's clear that GOG will flip to be anti-consumer as soon as the shareholders change the company leadership. Enshittification comes for all companies because business majors don't understand people.
Steam is private and Gaben is benevolent so that worry is distant. I also have no illusions that should Steam ever go public or change hands then the inevitable end of good, customer needs focused storefronts. But for now, Gave has proven he knows how to make a place consumers like myself want to use.
Gave Newell is 60+ years old and haven't exactly taken the most care for his own health. We don't know what will happen once he is gone.
With GOG there is nothing a change of leadership can do to your existing game library.
He's lost a ton of weight so far recently - https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/09/new-photo-gabe-newell-fans-amazed-weight-loss-20612171/
Also, CD Project had one of the worst stores and biased "media" in Poland. They region locked my games and told me "no one from abroad buys games :)" when I wrote to them that I can no longer Access my account or games.
GoG might be good now, but that still hurts me when I was a teenager and moved abroad. It was the only thing I had and they took it away from me. Fuck their DRM of old. Funny how they had the worst drm known to mankind and now have drm free store...
If true, you should share your story on the GOG forums. But because the games are DRM-free, they cannot region lock your games. Only exclude people from buying certain games because of applicable countries' laws like Germany and Australia.
CDP management board owns like 33% of the shares and aren't as beholden to them compared to other companies with less shares. And GOG is a sister company to CDPR and > 99% of their their new releases are still DRM-free to this day.
I haven't had any issues with them. Their older games are fixed up to work on modern systems with few issues. The only thing I wish they'd improve on is to make a Linux launcher similar to how Steam's works.
Fantastic if you're a patient gamer. It's the only place I get my games from. The only bad thing is the selection of games (lack of AA/AAA games) and a bad client compared to Steam because they're not a multi-billion dollar company like Valve is. We had to wait 12 years for Skyrim to finally come out for example.