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GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

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Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#261

Post by phatfish »

eatsyourtacos wrote: post #237
Fiveplus wrote: post #23

> Can I still download offline installers? Yes. This is the only line I was looking for. I stopped buying on Steam sometime ago because I realized I was just renting licenses. GOG is the only major storefront where I feel like I actually own the product. As long as offline installers remain a core tenet, I don't care who owns the company. That said, it helps that it's someone returning to their roots rather than a pr…

Literally the last thing on the internet you can complain about is Steam. PC gaming would be the biggest cluster fuck in the world- if not fairly dead / super niche. You would need to install 12 front-ends like Steam that would be hot trash and have a handful of games and be the most miserable shit ever. You wouldn't have sales, reasonable game prices, or family library sharing (this would be absurd to any other comp…

Well, you don't "stop using Steam" unless you don't care about playing most games released in the last 10-15 years. But the premise is solid, given that GOG has no DRM. Steam did get DRM "right" though.

My problem with Steam are the casino tactics Valve inject into their own games and the platform. That is an entire gaming industry problem however. At least Valve do some good things with the dirty money.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#262

Post by this_user »

benoau wrote: post #93
dangus wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is basically never. They have no incentive to do that except for extreme circumstances, and they have all the leverage in the world over game publishers. Delisted games tend to stay in your library for redownload. I never understood the cynicism for digital media, it’s been multiple decades now and the model clearly works. Obviously I prefer zero DRM but it’s also not a hard line requirement for me personally.

All of this is based on the assumption that the way it was done is the way it will be done. Who will own and run Steam 30 years from now? Gabe Newell will be long-gone, his nepobaby next-CEO will be closing in on retirement if they don't check-out early to enjoy their vast wealth like Gabe has done. What does Steam look like 60 years from now? Adults using it today are mostly dead and all of their licenses revoked fo…

> What does Steam look like 60 years from now?

Does it matter? You are treating this like these games are some valuable collector's items, when they really are just toys you play once and then never touch again for the most part.

But let's assume you had physical copies of all of these games you own on Steam. Once you are gone, there is a > 90% chance that whoever inherits it, will throw it away, just like Millenials now are throwing away all this junk they are inheriting that Boomers used to collect.

The point is, Steam is good enough for all practical purposes, which is to acquire and play games in the now.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#263

Post by djtango »

dmantis wrote: post #190
cogogo wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up playing pirated games on the Apple II 35 years ago. The fact that many people pirate is not an opinion.

It doesn't prove that DRM free is not a viable business. I also grew up pirating, but I haven't been pirating games for more than 10 years now. A few bucks costs much less to me these days than a headache with finding a cracked version and installing potential malware on my computer. Not even talking about supporting the artists and developers. Gabe is right that piracy is a service problem. If you have proper easy i…

Yeah this - people who grew up gaming in the 80s and 90s now have significant disposable income and are time poor. A game that offers tens or hundreds of hours of entertainment is seriously cost effective when a movie ticket costs half a videogame or a round of drinks.

Malware is potentially very expensive if you have any capital (tradfi or defi) that is anywhere near your gaming rig. Even a brokerage of 5 figures isn't worth touching something that could have malware.

Most the games young players play are all service oriented games anyway

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#264

Post by dundarious »

dundarious wrote: post #254
izacus wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's simply not true at all, Heroic Launcher supports both cloud saves and achievements. I've been using them for a long time on Deck now. Please don't lie :/

I was mixing up the fact that "Linux native games do not support GOG's Cloud Saves feature" (direct quote from the app itself), with a general lack of support. Given it says "Use the Windows version instead", I am quite wrong, it clearly does support them for Windows games. If you think that's a "lie", consult a dictionary. As for whether my general point stands, I think it's a reasonable inference that if GOG Galaxy…

I just installed a GOG Windows game in Heroic, and the Settings state "This game does not support Cloud Saves" even though my account has cloud saves clearly visible for that same game on the GOG website.

Given I'm using Heroic from AUR on a supported OS, and installed with default settings, I consider this cloud save support to be less than stellar, but that's a separate matter, I'm not trying to turn this thread into a support issue.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#265

Post by benoau »

this_user wrote: post #262
benoau wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of this is based on the assumption that the way it was done is the way it will be done. Who will own and run Steam 30 years from now? Gabe Newell will be long-gone, his nepobaby next-CEO will be closing in on retirement if they don't check-out early to enjoy their vast wealth like Gabe has done. What does Steam look like 60 years from now? Adults using it today are mostly dead and all of their licenses revoked fo…

> What does Steam look like 60 years from now? Does it matter? You are treating this like these games are some valuable collector's items, when they really are just toys you play once and then never touch again for the most part. But let's assume you had physical copies of all of these games you own on Steam. Once you are gone, there is a > 90% chance that whoever inherits it, will throw it away, just like Millenials…

My library includes games I played with my father and games I played with my own children. Given the option my children would certainly revisit their favourite titles with their own children one day, or for their own nostalgic memories.

One thing you are missing with your logic is that "throw it out" is probably more like "give to charity", the unwanted goods are not necessarily being destroyed and may be redistributed to people who do value them. If my kids didn't want my Steam account I'm sure there's others who would, and preservation groups and museums that would probably take it.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#266

Post by phatfish »

kgwxd wrote: post #236
Gormo wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what you're trying to say here. The distinction is pretty clear: GOG distributes standalone installers without any DRM, and Steam does not.

What does the installer matter for DRM-free software? For software with other forms of DRM built-in anyway, who cares if the installer has it?

The whole reason for GOG existing was they strip dead DRM from old games so the work again without "warez scene" cracks; and fix all the OS/driver incompatibilities along the way.

As far as I know all the games you can buy on GOG will be completely DRM free.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#267

Post by hsjdndvvbv »

afiori wrote: post #232
eviks wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think this contradicts anything? Heavy users hit a budget limit and continue consuming more via pirating. You really need something way better than some shoddy survey to counter the obvious fact that price matters

Yeah but if a pirate would have not paid the full price why care? It is by definition not a lost sale, the most likely outcome is just an increase by one the player count

There is more to this RE: perceived value of respective sides.

Edit: missed a word

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#268

Post by pipes »

citrusybread wrote: post #122
pipes wrote: post #112

Gog is great and I've been a member since probably 2010. The one feature that would encourage me to buy more of their games is a "install into steam" script with each game. It's a massive pain in the ass making my gog games run on my steam deck. I keep meaning to write a script to do this to ease that pain.

Have you tried using Heroic? I don't use it on the Steam Deck so maybe I'm missing something, but I use it on desktop linux all the time and it's been seamless for me.

Lutris and when that fails, manually doing it myself.

One big annoyance is that to browse community controller configs you need to change the name of the game to it's steam numeric id (which can be found in the URL for the equivalent game on steam website).

I'll try heroic.

I try to buy gog versions but sometimes I just think "when will I get time to configure this, I could just buy the steam version"

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#269

Post by transcriptase »

kaoD wrote: post #208
transcriptase wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People said the same thing when Steam launched, yet my profile sits there with a badge saying 20+ years and I can’t recall a time I’ve encountered an issue that was the fault of Valve versus a developer or publisher. At this point the games I “own” on physical media like CDs have theoretically started to degrade before the threat of Valve revoking my ability to install or play has come to pass.

The problem is what will happen when Gabe Newell passes away. My GOG installers will never degrade though.

I’ll be very surprised if during all the time he spends doing nothing and winning, he hasn’t planned ahead for his company not becoming the very thing he hates and sets it apart.

I’d put a controlling interest in a trust with ironclad instructions to have Valve do the opposite of Ubisoft/EA. That would buy it another half-century at least.

Re: GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder

#270

Post by gs17 »

prmoustache wrote: post #177
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same but I strangely miss the social aspect of achievements on Steam. I prefer GOG but wish the achievements synced.

You are the first person I hear that seems to care about that.

I care about it a little, not comparing with friends, but I do like the "X% of players" stats.
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