Support NeoGAF

[Copper]

I don't mind. I like having games into a client. Plus galaxy is nice looking anyways.

 

[Dambrosi]

I can't even get Galaxy to work on my PC (I'm getting the "Connection was lost" fatal error, no matter what I whitelist to try to fix it), so consider me one of Galaxy's detractors. It should work, but it just doesn't. Piece of garbage.

 

[CharlesSurge]

It matters because ideology is a massive part of GOG's value. Value lost through their current implementation, their proposed implementation where the only installer would include a full download of GOG Galaxy that would install itself by default, what they've done in the past, and what it all signifies for their future could easily make competitors like Steam a preferred platform for some customers.

 

[LordRaptor]

Honestly I wish Steam had a box in the features section for "DRM Free" so that developers could actually advertise the fact their game on Steam can be run without Steam. Lots of smaller scale developers don't bother crippling their game in any way and it is kind of annoying they can't promote it as a feature.

I think they probably do that because 'money men' are terrified of the concept.
I can't think of any other reason why people layer additional DRM on top of Steams already perfectly functional DRM for their releases.

For people - lets be honest, its mostly indies - who see no DRM as a feature, they're already selling it as "NO DRM!" as steamkeys on alternative storefronts like Humble anyway.

I'm fond of GoG, owning your games FOREVER, without online dependency on godknowswhatserver is fantastic.

At this point in time, I'd say its more likely that MS kill W32 compatibility in favour of UWA - nuking your entire catalogue without a fuck given what kind of drm it may or may not have once had - than Steam go down and nobody provides a working backup to handle that.

FOREVER is a long time.


e:

It matters because ideology is a massive part of GOG's value.

I'd argue that the ideological aspect of Good Old Games was lost when they started selling things that arent good, that arent old, and that arent games.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I'd say way more than that are DRM-free. Of course most of AAA releases do have.

Steam installers are just text files, so those can be manually applied too (and if steam went down, I'm sure someone would make solution for that).

Please go test the games in your library and then come back to me. I actually check this on pretty much every game I own via Steam. Even indie titles--heck, even titles that are available DRM Free on stores such as GOG--won't start up on a computer without Steam installed.

At this point in time, I'd say its more likely that MS kill W32 compatibility in favour of UWA - nuking your entire catalogue without a fuck given what kind of drm it may or may not have once had - than Steam go down and nobody provides a working backup to handle that.

If that happens, I will set up an offline Virtual Machine running legacy Windows, and will continue to play all of my DRM-Free games that way. It won't be able to connect it to the internet for the same reason you can't connect unpatched Windows XP to the internet today, but my DRM Free titles will still work.

Honestly I wish Steam had a box in the features section for "DRM Free" so that developers could actually advertise the fact their game on Steam can be run without Steam. Lots of smaller scale developers don't bother crippling their game in any way and it is kind of annoying they can't promote it as a feature.

Most of Valve's own games include Steam DRM--try launching Portal 2 without Steam installed. I don't think Valve particularly wants to encourage DRM Free titles. They want everyone to have to keep Steam on their computers.

And y'know what? That's generally okay by me. Sure, I try to avoid buying games on Steam whenever possible, but on the whole Valve's actions are at least honest and up front.

Gog Galaxy is so unobtrusive, I don't care.

It's just a game client, OP. Not really a big deal.

Okay, let's step back for a second and review the past couple of years:

Some Users: We don't like Steam. We want to play our games without any clients. How can we do that?
GOG: Come over to our store! We have no DRM and no clients, so you'll like us more!
Users: Yay, thanks GOG!
GOG: Hey, we've just released a client, because a lot of people actually like them. But don't worry, it will always be optional!
Users: Huh, okay, sounds cool as long as we never have to use it.
GOG: Hey, we're now going to bundle our client with most of our games, but don't worry, we'll warn you first by whispering so softly that most of our customers won't be able to hear. Oh, and you can still get the old type of installer, you just have to jump through a bunch of hoops every time you download a game.
Users: This sucks.
Other Users: But GOG's client is great, why wouldn't you want it?

GOG Galaxy could be the most refined piece of software in history, and I still wouldn't want to use it.The entire reason I come to GOG is because I didn't want to use a client. So why the heck is GOG pushing a client on me?

The fact that GOG is still better than Steam in this respect is neither relevant nor up for debate.

GOG needs to step back and reconsider what differentiates them from Steam. It certainly isn't their library, which is surprisingly good but still crap compared to what's available on Steam. DRM Free is wonderful, but that means different things to different people. To me, most of the appeal of DRM Free games is the ability to easily install that game, by itself, onto any computer without any extraneous BS.

 

[JaseC]

Registry entries? It isn't a given that just moving the files over will work, unless you have a clean VM set up to test with.

Even that's covered albeit inelegantly without the client around to assist. Any registry entries deemed necessary by the developer/publisher will be in an appid_install.vdf file in the root of the installation folder.

 

[jtb]

Can't you still play without the client? Or if it goes offline?

What's the big deal here? There's still no DRM. You can still download it and play it wherever you want... right?

 

[Durante]

Registry entries? It isn't a given that just moving the files over will work, unless you have a clean VM set up to test with.

Steam games mostly don't run a normal installer, so in general they also do not have any registry keys.

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

I would say that I wish GOG didn't do this. But I'm also going to say that they made it easy to avoid Galaxy still, for the people that care that much, so that's good. But they could do better.

I just wish Galaxy wasn't so buggy. It's been years and the damn interface still doesn't load completely. How long does this piece of software have to be in beta, and why is GOG pushing the software when it's so clearly unpolished?

I know the answer: it's so that their store is on your desktop. More clicks, more purchases. But they could incentivize rather than weasel their way onto your system. I like game download clients and happily use them in addition to DRM free installers but this still rubs me the wrong way. I'm not angry or feel betrayed, but it's lame.

 

[olaznoG]

Lol, currently playing Trails in the Sky SC and the lastest patch (the one with turbo and dx9) is only available through Galaxy.

 

[JaseC]

Lol, currently playing Trails in the Sky SC and the lastest patch (the one with turbo and dx9) is only available through Galaxy.

Yeah. Developers can now patch their games instantly much like on Steam, however this applies only to the data delivered via Galaxy. CDPR itself still handles the release of standalone patch installers and updated game installers, thus the delay.