Slick wrote on Oct 13, 2024, 10:55:

MyRealName wrote on Oct 12, 2024, 06:41:
I remember way back when we were all up in arms about this new Steam thing and its newfangled ways. No way, we said! Since then, "we've" (you've) all gotten in bed and boiled the frog, to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of rented (and restricted) titles each.

Said it back then and I'll say it again: Fuck renting. Fuck control. Fuck Steam.

Nice to see a post with a sense of proper historical context that everyone has since forgot. You know cause it's from 20 years ago, in the long long ago.

Pepperidge farm remembers.

We're all guilty of this. I hated Steam too, it sucked, but then slowly it became not-so-bad, now it is quite-good. FWIW I once backed up most of my GOG installers to an external HDD, I actually spent the time it took downloading/copying all those installers... then the HDD crashed and was unrecoverable, so in the end it was all just a waste of bandwidth. In that time I have had zero wish that I had sudden quick LOCAL access to my game installers. So it's all a bit... yes, a nice service, and commendable, but it's not a feature I end up making any use of.

MyRealName wrote on Oct 12, 2024, 06:41:
I remember way back when we were all up in arms about this new Steam thing and its newfangled ways. No way, we said! Since then, "we've" (you've) all gotten in bed and boiled the frog, to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of rented (and restricted) titles each.

Said it back then and I'll say it again: Fuck renting. Fuck control. Fuck Steam.

Nice to see a post with a sense of proper historical context that everyone has since forgot. You know cause it's from 20 years ago, in the long long ago.

Pepperidge farm remembers.

WannaLogAlready wrote on Oct 12, 2024, 16:35:
Thanks Prez, the staggering amount of games you own makes your comment the most relevant

I would just advise people that they be aware that no matter what you do, there are some games that you will never own no matter what steps you take. If a game is online only with no private server options, or a live service, there is nothing that you or anyone can do to archive it once the central server is shut off by the company that owns it. People who bought the physical copy of "The Crew" were still left with a disc that was worth nothing - the game cannot be played ever again because Ubisoft shut it down with no option for you to run any part of it yourself. Any live service that isn't patched at end of life to run locally (which is extremely rare but does happen, as it did with Redfall recently) is dead and gone forever. In those cases you do indeed own nothing because of the company's arbitrary decision to deprive you of ownership.

GOG Rocks! I'd say i own 96.4% of my games on GOG and steam is the other 3.6%. I only use Steam when i have no other choice.

Funny for GoG to highlight a feature they've relegated to the back room like the XXX section of a video store.
Not a big deal (just a few extra menu clicks). So long as I can still grab them I'm happy.

But I see what you're doing GoG and this feels slightly opportunistic.

Thanks Prez, the staggering amount of games you own makes your comment the most relevant

WannaLogAlready wrote on Oct 12, 2024, 13:33:
As a service to fellow gamers:

There are many games on Steam that can be run directly from the game. exe without Steam running.
No need to have Steam on, just make sure which games by doing the above.
Zip the install, you can unzip them and run them in any folder you want.

In others cases (example Risen 2) where the game wont run with Steam:

Overwrite files with a gamecopyworld exe fix, winrar the game install, and again you can reinstall and play the game unraring the .rar file in any folder.

Wont work always but if you love that game so much you can try to secure a copy this way, if no others ways available (Gog, etc).

Dear Bluesnews, this is no piracy, you are using your bought Steam copy + the obtained fix.
Thanks !

I can verify that this works a lot of the time. I would estimate at least 50 to 60% of the time by my estimation. And I agree, this is not piracy. You have to have already bought the game for this to work.

As a service to fellow gamers:

There are many games on Steam that can be run directly from the game. exe without Steam running.
No need to have Steam on, just make sure which games by doing the above.
Zip the install, you can unzip them and run them in any folder you want.

In others cases (example Risen 2) where the game wont run without Steam:

Overwrite files with a gamecopyworld exe fix, winrar the game install, and again you can reinstall and play the game unraring the .rar file in any folder.

Wont work always but if you love that game so much you can try to secure a copy this way, if no others ways available (Gog, etc).

Dear Bluesnews, this is no piracy, you are using your bought Steam copy + the obtained fix.
Thanks !

This comment was edited on Oct 12, 2024, 19:38.

I mean the obvious downside to GOG is that the odds of them having the game you want is incredibly low, and that particularly "benefit" is the main reason their selection is so tiny.

Xeth Nyrrow wrote on Oct 12, 2024, 10:52:
GoG doesn't really have room to talk. With the wording of their post, just because you have access to their offline installers doesn't mean those installer wouldn't have some way of blocking you otherwise. Such as you go to install a game and it says you can't because your license was revoked.

The whole thing sucks honestly. I was so pissed off when I found out that I HAD to have Steam in order to play my physical copy of Skyrim that I almost returned the game. I was avoiding getting a Steam account for this very reason and now here we are.

They have all the room to talk. Download an offline installer from GOG, terminate your internet connection, install the downloaded game, and you will find out for yourself. You can install the game on ANY pc - no need to have Galaxy installed or even any GOG account linked to that certain computer. Great, right?

There is an easy way to solve the licensing problem customer-friendly: the license should be for the game, i.e. not limited to a certain digital shop. Then again, this would end any competition between the shops, so no more sales and the same prices everywhere. In the end selling offline installers would be the best solution for the consumers and would still allow competition. But the entertainment industry won't give up the right to take the "borrowed" game/license from you whenever they want to force you to "buy" a license for the remaster, remake, or sequel.

I fear for GOG, because the other shops will now shout "unfair competition" instead of using their power to make big companies accept the sale of offline installers on every platform. Or will you stand up and fight for the gamers, Gabe? Gabi-Wan, you are our only hope.

This comment was edited on Oct 12, 2024, 14:02.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Oct 12, 2024, 11:01:
Before I head out to be a lumberjack again this weekend, I'll say the only way to truly own your games is...

Sail the high seas and arrrquire a copy of the game you already own. Store it on a well provisioned NAS and you'll always have access.

You didn't even talk like a pirate. I am disappoint.

EDIT: Well okay... you did subtly say "🏴‍☠️arrrquire🏴‍☠️" so I will allow it. But I do expect more of an effort in the future sir.🏴‍☠️

They can't say those words because it's obviously not true. Just what do you think you might own when it comes to software?

The reality is, if you pay for the use of commercial software, you don't own anything other than a license. This is how it's always been. If you want to own more than just a license to use the software according to someone else's terms, you can make the software yourself and decide the licensing terms for yourself, or buy the full rights to the software from whoever owns them. It's going to cost you more than $60 though.

Why is this the reality? Digital goods are fundamentally different from physical goods. They're just a bunch of 1's and 0's stored in various places. They can be copied infinitely with no incremental cost. What does it mean to own a bunch of 1's and 0's stored on your hard drive or a disc or in a million different places? Practically speaking you've paid for the right to use those 1's and 0's that other people went through a lot of trouble to prepare for you and everyone else. And that's what licensing is.

Before I head out to be a lumberjack again this weekend, I'll say the only way to truly own your games is...

Sail the high seas and arrrquire a copy of the game you already own. Store it on a well provisioned NAS and you'll always have access.

GoG doesn't really have room to talk. With the wording of their post, just because you have access to their offline installers doesn't mean those installer wouldn't have some way of blocking you otherwise. Such as you go to install a game and it says you can't because your license was revoked.

The whole thing sucks honestly. I was so pissed off when I found out that I HAD to have Steam in order to play my physical copy of Skyrim that I almost returned the game. I was avoiding getting a Steam account for this very reason and now here we are.

"Cannot be taken away from you" sounds like ownership but they are not able to say those words for some reason.

Galaxy now works just like Steam. Developers can use it to upload game patches directly to their games. It works really well. I haven't manually With BG3, I got all the patches on the same day as the Gog release. I wish all devs would use Gog, but since Gog has an official stance against DRM, developers often stick with Steam. At any rate, Steam sort of shot itself in the foot with that announcement. Yes, games are licensed, but what they neglected to mention is that the license includes a copy that runs on your hardware...;) If it didn't, we'd get a license to nothing. Copyright law even allows for an archival copy! I prefer Gog not only because of their DRM stance, but because of the fact that Gog gives you your own installable copy, which Steam does not. I use Galaxy to update my games because it's so much faster and easier; but when the developer is through issuing patches, I download the manual Offline installer for my copy. Plus, every game Gog sells can be run from its own executable, bypassing Galaxy entirely.

I remember way back when we were all up in arms about this new Steam thing and its newfangled ways. No way, we said! Since then, "we've" (you've) all gotten in bed and boiled the frog, to the tune of hundreds and hundreds of rented (and restricted) titles each.

Said it back then and I'll say it again: Fuck renting. Fuck control. Fuck Steam.

I hope we can get the EU to move on clarifying digital ownership, because the US let that ship sail long ago.

I really need to move my butt over to GoG whenever possible.

This comment was edited on Oct 12, 2024, 03:12.

Both offer you licenses, but the offline installers are going to work even after a license has been revoked. And yes, this is a HUGE difference for the gamer. Unless Epic and Valve now enforce the swatting of GOG customers' homes after licenses have been revoked to delete/destroy the offline installers.

Just like movies/series on discs, offline game installers are a nightmare for the entertainment industry and censorship-happy groups and parties.

edit... not worth battling the semantics police...