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.
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Make the pay option less shitty than pirating. That’s all it takes.
Gaben taught you well
Half-Life Free confirmed!
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)
You just run the executable
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.
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.
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.
how is this acknowledging piracy ?
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.
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-free isn’t piracy
I own and buy games from GOG. Especially if its a game i like. That way its actually mine. I hope they never change.
No, it does not.
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.
What does good faith have to do with anything the big companies claim?
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. 👍
No.
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
Gog tries but its only drm free till its not.
Looking at you Cult of the lamb!
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.