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The new owner of GOG discusses taking on Steam, the devil of DRM, and following in Nightdive's footsteps
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You don't legally own the games you purchase, just have the ability to use it(within legal terms and conditions) without the store.You don't legally own any software you purchase (bar true FOSS), even if that software is stored on a disc or cartridge. It's a meaningless distinction to make.
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Would be nice if a company would try to actually compete instead of "attacking" each other for market share.GOG isn't "attacking" steam for market share though? It has a legitimate niche in the market: being a storefront that bans all DRM and also doesn't require a launcher/account to buy and install games. GOG's main competitor is piracy (because DRM free means trivial to pirate), so its main features to compete with that are ease of use, trustworthy installers, and consistent + easy access to game patches that pirates don't often keep up with.
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It makes sense because GOG was never going to drive year over year growth for the publicly traded CDPR. Operating as a private company, it doesn't need to provide shareholder value and can be sustainable by simply "being profitable" forever, like Steam. Publicly traded CDPR holding GOG was a ticking time bomb but for once it seems to have been defused.
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Steam's DRM will still lock you out if you're logged out (not in "offline mode" that can only be entered by logging in online and *then* toggling it). Some games on Steam are truly drm-free and navigating to the executable will start the game without even running Steam at all. Note that native Steam *shortcuts* will never work without being logged into Steam (in normal or offline mode), because they're steam:\\\\ protocol links. To play DRM-free Steam games steamless you need to navigate to the actual file or make an OS shortcut to the executable.
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Steam's DRM will still lock you out if you're logged out (not in "offline mode" that can only be entered by logging in online and *then* toggling it). Some games on Steam are truly drm-free and navigating to the executable will start the game without even running Steam at all. Note that native Steam *shortcuts* will never work without being logged into Steam (in normal or offline mode), because they're steam:\\\\ protocol links. To play DRM-free Steam games steamless you need to navigate to the actual file or make an OS shortcut to the executable.
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HB was good when you could set the entirety of your purchase to go to developers. Now they greedily force you to divert a minimum to themselvesIf it were only that.... The default split is 30% to Humble, 65% to the PUBLISHERS (not devs) and whole 5% to charity. The sliders to change the split are hidden by default, so I doubt many people tweak the percentages. They're just a game bundle/steam key reseller site with a gimmick, nothing more. I wonder how much actually goes to charity once PayPal takes their cut.
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It makes sense because GOG was never going to drive year over year growth for the publicly traded CDPR. Operating as a private company, it doesn't need to provide shareholder value and can be sustainable by simply "being profitable" forever, like Steam. Publicly traded CDPR holding GOG was a ticking time bomb but for once it seems to have been defused.
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> I can’t understand the amount of energy people spend defending Valve. Valve uses my money to make the Linux FOSS stack better for everyone, including me. GOG doesn't. Buying on Steam instead of GOG serves my personal interests.
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I don't think the point was supposed to be that Valve is good. I think it was supposed to be that it is possible for a profit-motivated company to do something that legitimately benefits the rest of us even though the motivation was their profit goals. Maybe more of the credit for that should go to the original creators of the FOSS licenses than to Gabe Newell, but it's still nice that it happened either way.Oh the point always end up being that valve is good amongst gamers. Their asses must hurt from that much free kissing. No one never adresses the part about valve's gambling system, the fact that you don't own your games, the huge cut they take, etc. But in theses times, your personal convenience is the only thing that matters, fuck these kids.
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Stating facts is not defending. The fact is, if valve didn't invest into the linux ecosystem, gamers would be force to suck MS's dick. Which is far arguable amoung the worst corporation in world. I dont think there has been any cases where valve resorted to anti-competition practices. Yes, their fees are high. But thats the cost to be publish on their store. They know you aint going anywhere else because they dominate the market. And they didnt get there by manhandling the competition, just the first to provide a product people want, and did it so long that they became ubiquitous. So how about you get off your ass and make a storefront to compete with them?Funny you would critizise MS just to then describe steam as a monopoly. Looks like people are now sucking another billionaire's dick lol, just switched from Bill to Gabe lol. I also quite enjoy the "go ahead and build your own store if you're not happy". I known none ot you will do it but you shoulr watch the coffezilla videos if you want to know who valve really are. They will delete all these games (that you don't own remember) the day they believe they can make more money selling your mom anal plug, that's just how capitalism work.
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What profit? I can guarantee that Valve has spent far more in hiring hundreds of highly skilled full time contractors for 5+ years than they've made from the 3% of Steam's users on Linux. Obviously it's a long term strategy for them to eventually make money but we've only gained from their investment.
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The best thing about GOG is the ability to never use a client or launcher at all. The ability to just download the installers from the website and store them locally means that your GOG games will outlast the following: GOG as a company enshittifies, GOG as a company dies, your account gets banned from GOG, you lose access to your GOG account, your favorite game gets a game-ruining update from its developer, some song license expires and devs are forced to patch or pull the game...
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GOG should be more proactive in order to fulfill its mission. 1: Officially make a Linux client. 2: Pursue indie series. Project Moon, Touhou, and more. 3: Commission remastering projects. Thief 1 & 2, FreeSpace, King's Quest, Vampire Bloodlines, and so on. Optionally buy these properties to make sequels. The IP holders don't really do much with them, it would be relatively easy to buy them. 4: Get more serious with companies like SEGA and Kagura Games. Shin Megami Tensei V has been out on PC a long while, but Denuvo makes me unwilling to make a purchase. A DRM-free release would easily net my $40. Ditto goes for perverse games. 5: Create a joint project with Valve, the EU, and Japan, to create a payment system that doesn't require the likes of MasterVisa. They are enemies to culture, and if America descends into civil war, an outside transaction processor would be needed.
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Conveniently forgeting the part where valve creates a gambling system for kids, as usual. But I get it, the only things that mathers is you.> Conveniently forgeting the part where valve creates a gambling system for kids, as usual. Do you mean loot boxes in Counter-Strike? A) It's not a game for kids. B) And no, I'm not getting involved with parenting of other people's children, so I actually do not care. > But I get it, the only things that mathers is you. I matter to me, yes.
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> Conveniently forgeting the part where valve creates a gambling system for kids, as usual. Do you mean loot boxes in Counter-Strike? A) It's not a game for kids. B) And no, I'm not getting involved with parenting of other people's children, so I actually do not care. > But I get it, the only things that mathers is you. I matter to me, yes.
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Download them once from the website, store them on a resilient NAS, never worry about your shit getting patched or losing it again.
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Theres a reason steam is king... noone else bother putting games on linux, so valve brought linux to the games.I appreciate what they've done, but no, that isn't the reason they're king. They were king long before any of the Linux stuff.
