DRM-free doesn't mean piracy. GOGs whole business model is built around selling games DRM free. I don't pirate but I do use GOG where possible as I hate DRM - it punishes and inconveniences legitimate users for piracy and doesn't even solve the problem. DRM is just an expensive waste of money for everyone involved.
The drm-free marketing that gog does has been successful, but it is just marketing. While It's true that games sold on gog are drm-free, every game sold on gog that I've looked into is also drm-free on steam. The only real benefit is that the gog installers are more convenient for backups than using a steam back up tool.
Not saying you're wrong, but there's a lot of peace of mind in knowing everything on the platform is drm free, rather than having to do some research. So it is marketing, but it's also a promise of curation so to speak.
GOG is also a filter too. Everything in the whole store you know is DRM free when with other stores you have to check each game individually.
Steam is also a form of DRM in most cases though either way.
How would you play a DRM-free game bought through steam without steam? (Genuine question)
So it's possible to download the installer through steam, store it somewhere and ten years later I can just start the installer without having steam on my system?
Asking out of curiosity, I don't use steam, I never thought that would be possible?
You can copy the entire game folder and run it that way, as long as the game is actually DRM free it should work just fine.
You would use Steam as the installer, or you can buy it on GoG and they will give you an installer for the game. Entirely depends on what game you're trying to copy.
I don't think it is because even Steam games without DRM are still modified to work with Steam for things like achievements. There may be games without DRM and without achievements but if a game has either of them it will not work without it.
Steam isn't DRM. They offer a (very weak and basic) DRM for free for developers to use but they don't have too.
For a lot of games you can just install them using steam and then uninstall steam and the games will continue to work.
You mustn't have looked at many games then. As someone who 95% only buys games from GOG, and has a wishlist of 190+ games, the vast majority of the games on the wishlist have DRM in their Steam versions.
it's a weird case where it only uses steam API and does not hard check it. It attempts to check if the currently associated steam account is allowed to play it and shuts down if you don't, but does not do anything else if it can't detect an account (such as if you have no steam) and launch normally.
it punishes and inconveniences legitimate users for piracy and doesn't even solve the problem.
IDK about that, the only person who can crack denuvo is empress and she doesn't crack all games, so I guess it atleast reduces piracy for a while. I agree however that DRM shouldn't exist.
Enshitification of DRM with denuvo going subscription model has become an unexpected ally in DRM getting removed even if it doesn't get cracked.
Yeah, from the leaked Crytek contract it revealed that devs have to pay again every year or remove it, which means Sega is extremely hostile since they still pay for denuvo on years old games like Persona 5 Royal.
AFAIK there are devs who remove Denuvo as soon as their game gets cracked, and tbh I don't have too many complaints about that system. That being said, I don't own any games with Denuvo, so I don't know why it's hated so much.
Because it reduces performance. There is no benefit to the consumer. Your game experience is measurably worse because of it.
I like to use steam deck when I travel. Denuvo can refuse to launch without internet connection to reactivate a license. Also if you exceed 5 activations in a day you can't play the game for 24 hours. This includes switching which proton version you use to launch the game, which is sometimes necessary if something like the audio doesn't work properly on the default.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/wymoi9/psa_for_denuvo/
Yeah, it's something you shouldn't notice if you always have internet connection, but if you start playing where you won't always have internet connection that's when problems pop up. That's when you appreciate the DRM free games.
No, and it runs denuvo games fine. It's things like EAC or EA Anti-Cheat that break on Deck/Linux.
I think most people understand that DRM and Anti Cheat are done for 2 completely different reasons.
Yeah, anytime someone mentions just punishes users, I'm reminded of the time this was really driven home for me.
I was working for a company that did developed tools that worked adjacent to other software and needed to install one piece of software to test my component intended for that program. After using that software at work, I decided to also use it to generate data for a personal project I was doing for fun at home and pirated it.
At work, we obviously used a legit copy and had a business partnership with the company. Their DRM required a dongle and running server software on the machine with the dongle that would issue licenses to clients. I forget the specifics, but we had some problems and it took a few weeks of emailing back and forth with someone from support before I was actually able to get the software running.
At home, I just ran a crack and had it running the same day I decided to use it.
All their fancy DRM just turned into a pain in the ass for the legitimate use and a complete non-issue for those doing what it was intended to prevent in the first place.
To me, the meme acknowledges that GOG installers are shared in groups, which is piracy since the other people didn't pay for it. (That doesn't mean it's bad btw.)
How is the meme acknowledging that GOG installers are shared in groups? This doesn't say anything about sharing anything in a group, other than "My game has no DRM, and yours does"
I guess they don't realize GOG is DRM free as part of their business model?
Probably because they think DRM=anti pirate and not "You don't actually own this"
Selling only DRM-free games has always be GOG's whole thing (well, that and selling oldies compatible with modern OS), it's weird that this meme specifically would be considered "aknowledging piracy"
Like, maybe if the final bit was saying the friends without accounts did like it there might be something there, but simply acknowledging DRM free I'm not seeing it
Everything nowadays that attempts to give back a little autonomy or freedom to the user is called piracy.
As long as an app could theoretically be used for piracy, even if it was made to circumvent toxic behavior of users' bought and paid for products, then it must be properly labelled as piracy and taken down.
I'll better stop before this becomes a rant.
It's because the original image macro that this is based on was about piracy, saying something along the lines of "I bring a certain 'just torrent it' vibe to the conversion that the riaa just doesn't like."
Their reuse of the macro is indirectly an answer or a continuation of it that can be seen as acknowledging the original message.
To me, the meme acknowledges that GOG installers are shared in groups, which is piracy since the other people didn't pay for it. (That doesn't mean it's bad btw.)
Yeah that seems like a bit of a stretch. That meme read to me like "Oh, you're having problems with the DRM? I don't have that problem," not "Hey guys, here's the GOG installer for X game."
Otherwise, why would the other people in the group chat not like the vibe?
OP doesn't understand the difference between piracy and drm-free.
But hey, looks like the advertising is working on you to promote GOG so good on them for a successful tweet.
DRM punishes paying customers. DRM free is the best choice for anyone who enjoys games, and supporting the devs is the best way to get more games you enjoy.
DRM free isn't pro-piracy it is pro-consumer.
I couldn't give a shit what pirates are doing. I pay for my games and I don't want DRM ruining my experience.
Aggressive DRM mostly punishes paying customers. The game will probably be cracked anyways.
Couldn't be more right. I went 100% on GoG after not being able to play the Steam games I wanted to play during an internet outage because of dumb always online requirement.
Just type any game title to the torrent tracker and you'll find you this is only for the first crack. After game is cracked by just one person, everybody can pirate it just like if there was no DRM.
DRM-free is exactly the reason I buy on GOG and would never pirate a game that exists on GOG.
No. Only a few people in the world are capable/dedicated to breaking copy protection. Everyone else just downloads already pirated software, no matter how hard it was to break. It's just as easy.
If I wanted to play GTA V (which I acquired legally twice) I would just look for a pirated copy. The legal one keeps updating every few days with huge downloads, requires you to download some crappy launcher, the launcher also needs to update, you need to login you need internet connection, etc, etc. It's a terrible hassle and made me abandon the game mid-story.
Then why do their ToS say they only give you a revocable license when you """"buy"""" a game?
I saw a really cool concept for "Anti piracy" some time ago. It works by having a lot of little achievements which represent you progress. So each time you start the game it checks for which achievements you have and the loads your progress according to your achievements.
So, basically cloud saves with extra steps, except you only get a single save and can't replay the game? Sounds even worse than current solutions, honestly
It doesn't affect the performance. It may increase the loading time a bit, but it doesn't affect anything else.
Performance isn't the only issue. This system would also not let you play offline, without being logged in and you couldn't have mutliple saves or replay the game.
I own and buy games from GOG. Especially if its a game i like. That way its actually mine. I hope they never change.
Same as every other store with DRM: they won't. Still doesn't mean you own your games.
Right, but a store with DRM can effectively prevent me from playing the games, that's where my ownership effectively ends.
With GOG, there's no DRM. So in all senses except some weird philosophical context, I do own the game. I paid money and received a file(s) that I can relocate, make backups of, burn to disc, archive, etc.
You could argue that if they revoke the license and I continue using the file that I have on my computer, that I'm now committing piracy, but that's getting into a big technicality
does it matter if that license is only needed to download the game? once you have it downloaded, it doesn't matter if the license gets revoked (it only grants you the ability to download the game, and use galaxy online/social features such as achievements and multiplayer)
But DRM-free means there's no mechanism to revoke that license. Which is really how it should be because entities shouldn't be able to benefit from a sale and then retract their side of the deal and keep the money just because they made up some terms that say they can do that.
To me, the meme acknowledges that GOG installers are shared in groups, which is piracy since the other people didn't pay for it. (That doesn't mean it's bad btw.)
Wtf is your problem copy and pasting your comment everywhere? No one keeps asking for your opinion on each comment.
Might be a federation glitch
Seen it happen before where someone replies the same comment to a bunch of seemingly unrelated parent comments
Or man is tweaking, who knows
Wouldn't the last part need to say "really do like" instead if that's what it was about?
Isn’t it great how twenty six people in a community about privacy downvoted your reasonable comment. Can’t wait or them to downvote this one too. We’re not in this group to jeer piracy and villainize it.
We’re here to celebrate it!
They're disagreeing with his interpretation of the meme. It's really not a big deal!
The down arrow here is nakedly a "I disagree" button, you really don't have to take it as an indictment.
Have you seen LessWrong.com ‘s voting? They have, essentially, “good/bad comment” & “I agree/disagree” buttons.
GOG is always my first choice to buy games.
It's a bit frustrating that you have to dive into the forum and check whether the developers actually maintain their GOG release properly before buying though.
The way I see it, if you've bought a game from GOG you've already paid, so no one can truthfully say in good faith that subsequently grabbing a cracked version of the Steam release is a lost sale.
I love GOG for not having DRM.
It makes pirating shit I want to check out before I buy way easier and safer because I just need to find the GOG installer instead of some dubious crack.
Thanks, GOG, for giving me the ability to demo games to see if they are actually worth the price. 👍
if i own a piece of software i should have the right to put that software on a usb and lend it to a friend for the weekend or someshit
iirc the COTL issue was caused by a miscommunication between the dev team, publisher and gog itself
pretty sure it has long been fixed
I like GoG because I can download an executable and load it into wine, which is less easy with steam for Mac. Though they make that harder these days than they used to.
I know the Mac isn’t ideal for gaming but I don’t want to buy a whole other computer and have to deal with KVM and monitor switching just to play games that were released in 2004.
GOG doesn't really have pirated games or any of that gray market nonsense. It is on the same level as steam in terms of it being a first party seller
if there is one thing I love, it's corporations trying to 'meme'. Nothing makes me unfollow or block an account faster.
