6 ms·
I always search GOG before Steam. It’s slightly less user friendly in the most minor ways and sometimes a bit more expensive. But getting DRM free games is wort
by roxolotl 10mo ago
I always search GOG before Steam. It’s slightly less user friendly in the most minor ways and sometimes a bit more expensive. But getting DRM free games is worth every penny and extra few moments. Steam is really great for what it is but you’re not buying games you’re leasing them. Excited to hear GOG might get more focus and investment.
- SecretDreams 10mo ago> you’re leasing them For the duration of your life, to be fair.
- lotsofpulp 10mo agoFor the duration of the businesses’ life.
- Thegn 10mo agoFor the duration of gaben’s life, to be fair. Beyond that there be dragons.
- paxys 10mo agoNo, for the duration of whenever Steam decides to say "fuck you".
- mariusor 10mo agoWhich is the same as what can happen to GOG if you don't have the files backed up. And if you do happen to have them backed up, is there such a large difference between having the installer vs the full game installation stored?
- paxys 10mo agoYes there is a difference. Steam sells you a license that can be revoked at any time. The games have DRM, and rely on cloud servers to authenticate you. If you turn your internet off they will all stop working after a certain period, even if fully downloaded. And if Steam or the DRM owner goes out of business you will end up with nothing. If you buy and download something from GOG, it is yours. You can still play it in the next millenium as long as you have suitable hardware or an emulator.
- candiddevmike 10mo agoNot all steam games have DRM
- badsectoracula 10mo agoThis is true but you don't know ahead of time before you buy a game, you have to gamble on it being the case or not (i've found that while some lists exist in places like pcgamingwiki, they tend to be both very incomplete and often wrong). Usually indie games tend to be DRM-free though, so if an indie game isn't available on GOG or Zoom Platform (another DRM-free store), i end up buying on Steam.
- Jach 10mo agoSo long as it's easy to find out after buying, this isn't a real barrier, since you can just refund it if it doesn't meet your standards.
- mariusor 10mo ago> The games have DRM, and rely on cloud servers to authenticate you. That is not true as a global rule. Game developers can release fully independent versions of their games even on steam.
- yjftsjthsd-h 10mo agoThey can. Do they? Statistically?
- dangus 10mo agoWhich 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.
- paxys 10mo agoEver bought anything from MSN Music? Yahoo Music? Desura? Microsoft eBook Store? Walmart MP3s? Anything using Adobe Content Server? MusicNet? CinemaNow? UltraViolet? It is laughable to think that digital media "clearly works". Companies shut down and stores shutter all the time. In most cases there is no recourse for customers, because – surprise – you didn't actually own the rights to what you bought, just a revocable license. You have to be pretty young and/or naive to think that this can't eventually happen to Steam as well. And even if you fully trust Steam to stick around and keep its word, digital licensing means you can still get screwed. For example - if the publisher's license to in-game music expires, the game will automatically be updated to remove all the tracks (e.g. GTA Vice City and San Andreas). For larger issues and conflicts the game might be removed entirely (e.g. Spec Ops: The Line). Or the publisher might decide to just switch off the DRM servers, even for single player games (e.g. The Crew). Outside of gaming there are countless examples of publishers "upgrading" music tracks you own to different versions or censoring/altering content of books you own. The only recourse to all this is to buy and store DRM-free versions of your media.
- stodor89 10mo ago> "buy" Hozier's album > change countries > oh, you own this album for Bulgaria, but not for the US, so you can no longer play it
- tart-lemonade 10mo agoRegion-locked physical media (and before explicit region locking, PAL vs NTSC vs SECAM vs variants like PAL-M) also have this problem to some extent.
- Semaphor 10mo agoCompared to Steam directly, yeah, sometimes a bit more expensive. But as soon as you go to sites selling steam keys (proper ones, not resellers), it's "almost always, a lot", as steam itself rarely has good prices. Now that might still be worth it, but it's relevant
- dangus 10mo agoI’m just going to go ahead and plug is there any deal dot com. You can sync up your Steam wishlist (it’s a little weird to setup but once you figured it out it works). I almost never buy games directly from steam anymore, there’s almost always someone else with a discount on steam keys. And sometimes GOG has the best deal!
- Semaphor 10mo agoI love ITAD! If you use a search engine like kagi or duck duck go supporting bangs, you can use !itad to search there.
- embedding-shape 10mo ago> But as soon as you go to sites selling steam keys (proper ones, not resellers), What is a company/individual if not a reseller if they're selling Steam keys? You cannot sell Steam keys without being Steam or the developer itself, and not be called a "reseller". Or what sites are you referring to here, stuff like Humble Bundle where you get Steam keys with the bundles?
- Semaphor 10mo agoResellers sell something they bought. Or that's the idea. The sites are marketplaces, sometimes having people sell keys from different countries, sometimes stolen credit card keys. There are several game devs saying they'd prefer people pirating over using those sites. Real stores sell steam keys because they are selling directly from the developers. Steam is actually nice (or preempting monopoly talk, depending on your view) in that it allows that (I think there are limits, but IIRC rather generous)
- kgwxd 10mo agoHow is GOG functionally different from Steam? They're still just a middle man. For actual DRM-free software, both GOG and Steam are nothing more than a convenience layer. If they're anything more than that, the software simply isn't DRM-free.
- Gormo 10mo agoNot sure what you're trying to say here. The distinction is pretty clear: GOG distributes standalone installers without any DRM, and Steam does not.
- kgwxd 10mo agoWhat 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?
- yeputons 10mo agoCorrect, but GOG provides games without _any_ DRM, both in the installer and in the game itself.
- phatfish 10mo agoThe 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.
- Gormo 9mo ago> What does the installer matter for DRM-free software? Requiring a network-connected proprietary client to install the software is itself a form of DRM. > For software with other forms of DRM built-in anyway, who cares if the installer has it? Again, GOG does not distribute games that include DRM, whether in the installer or in the game itself.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 10mo agoSame but I strangely miss the social aspect of achievements on Steam. I prefer GOG but wish the achievements synced.
- prmoustache 10mo agoYou are the first person I hear that seems to care about that.
- gs17 10mo agoI care about it a little, not comparing with friends, but I do like the "X% of players" stats.
- tymscar 10mo agoIts one of the main reasons why I buy on steam. Makes games much more engaging, especially for me because I prefer hard action games with little to no story.
- Shacklz 10mo agoI typically think of myself (and try to act like) a rather rational person. The amount of hours of my life that I've done silly, mindless and occasionally annoying things because some Steam achievement required it is something I can't quite square with that. There's something oddly satisfying about getting them. It's certainly not a primary purchase decision factor but I've not bought games because they did not come with steam achievements.
- rkomorn 10mo agoThis is yet another reminder for me that the world is full of different people. I view achievements as one of the most annoying developments in games (and unfortunately some productivity software these days, in the shape of "badges"). They're yet another gamified growth/engagement pattern to contend with in life.
- slfnflctd 10mo agoI can take them or leave them, but maybe because I don't care much I feel like I get net enjoyment from them. Especially the funny ones (e.g. dying in an unusual way).
- legitster 10mo ago> you’re not buying games you’re leasing them Counterpoint, the cost of "owning" offline games is not zero and their lifetime is not infinite. I have a stack of old games on CD (or older) and getting them to run on anything is a massive pain in the neck. (In fact, for nearly all that I care about I also have bought a Steam license in addition). Ultimately, everything comes down to user experience. We can pat ourselves on the back for buying something forever, but experiences and the media they are stored on are both transitory.
- roxolotl 10mo agoYea 100% it’s not as easy to use. But as far as I’m aware Steam doesn’t provide any guarantee games will keep working and GOG actually has it as a mission statement that, as least those selected as “Good Old Games”, will[0]. Now of course that requires GOG to survive so it’s sorta the same thing like you’re saying. But I’d argue there is a material difference between “if you try hard you can run an original copy of Doom” and “if business X decided so you can never access those things again”. 0: https://www.gog.com/en/gog-preservation-program https://www.gog.com/en/gog-preservation-program
- dleslie 10mo agoNot to disagree, but proton has made it quite easy to run games I've previously struggled with. The nice thing is that it works with any binary, not just those you've purchased. Yes, it's wine, but valve has done wonders for its performance and compatibility.
- encrypted_bird 10mo agoThis. And if it doesn't wanna work on Proton, GEProton might work. I've had a few games like that. (I usually default to the latter and use the former as a fallback.)
- krige 10mo agoGOG's mission statement is applied very selectively. For a long time they did not support windows 10, and even now it's really spotty. It's frequently on a per-game basis, and sometimes games that used to work, don't anymore.
- eleveriven 10mo agoSteam does an amazing job at convenience, but GOG scratches a completely different itch
- cubefox 10mo ago> Steam is really great for what it is but you’re not buying games you’re leasing them. And you are not paying the large Valve tax (30%), so the publisher gets significantly more money from your purchase.