Reject DRM embrace GOG
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With some tool that uses a hack. Just plopping doesn’t work anymore.
RAM eating we browser? What, you playing games on 256 MB?
What, you only play games on a powerful rig? Waay more Casual games in the store than Flagships. And if your notebook has 4 GB and Steam uses 1 GB and you want to lookup a tutorial online it gets close.
Let’s not normalize wasting resources just because some AAA studios are used to it.
I’m not normalising wasted resources, but 8 GB of RAM was a basic minimum standard to do anything on a computer 10 years ago… Perhaps even more.
Unless you’re running a very, and I mean a VERY, cut-down operation system for none-intensive tasks, there is no way 4 GB of RAM is useful for anything.
Are you still on a dual core CPU too?
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They were Good Old Games for about 4 years until 2012, when they started selling modern games and rebranded to just GOG, dropping the whole “old games” moniker.
(Yeah, I’m also old. I was there when they rebranded, but I thought it was recently, around 2020!)
Well GOG is just the acronym for Good Old Games no ?
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Ok I had to read that twice to understand the angle I think you’re coming from, but uh, basically yeah, agree.
If you want a game, that works if the net goes down… yeah, sometimes just 100% relying on vanilla Steam, that’ll fuck you.
But, Steam does have ways to set up local backup, freeze potentially breaking updates, work in offline mode…
But but, yeah, in many cases, for many people, it makes sense to just either make and keep your own isolated backup of some kind, or yeah, just grab a rip from somewhere and keep it in emergency storage.
My own experience of problems with the “Steam way” is wanting to install and run a new game whilst offline (for example, when I moved houses and was waiting to get landline Internet running, whilst mobile Interned was too slow or expensive to download anything but the tinyiest of games, all the while my external HD with a collection of GOG offline installers gave me plenty of options) and installing games in machines with older versions of Windows because the Steam Application doesn’t support those old OS versions anymore (plus, in all honesty, you definitelly don’t want to to connect such machines to the Internet for security reasons).
Further, as I said in a different post, I can run my GOG games through Lutris by default sandboxed with networking disabled, but I can’t do that in Steam.
More in general, as a Techie since the 90s I’ve long been very aware (and averse) to the dangers of having software or data which is supposedly yours yet is de facto under direct control of an external 3rd party for whom you’re nothing (i.e. not a mate you lent a CD to, but a big company with a massive Legal budget controlling your access to it using phone-home validation), so out of principle I heavilly favor sellers who do not try and retain control of what I bought from them. Same reason I didn’t like “phone home” or “dependent on external servers” hardware or DRM-wrapped books or music, well before the recent wave of enshittification and increase in problems like digital books taken away from people because of some licensing dispute (or even their accounts just being terminated) or hardware bricked because the servers were switched off.
Whilst it might seem like an old-fashioned sense of ownership, that posture has saved me from pretty much all the effects of the enshittification wave.
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Did you just compare copying and pasting files to running Quake on a smart fridge?
From all that I wrote, somebody having that take is the equivalent for metaphors of being a Grammar Nazi.
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I think these days, “costumers” are called “cosplayers”
If they do it for others, like in film, tv, or theater, they’re also called costume designers.
Always seemed like a neat career!
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What was the purpose of you writting as the very first sentence of your post:
Steam doesn’t enforce the use of its DRM (which is super easy to bypass anyway but that’s a side note).
If not to tell us that Steam also sells DRM-free games?
If Steam also sells DRM-free games (even if alongside games with DRM) then de facto Steam is a seller of DRM-free games.
Being a “seller of” doesn’t mean just selling that and nothing else.
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I’d love to play DRM games but I also love DRM free operating systems and apparently both at once is too much for the transphobes at CDPR to handle
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If they do it for others, like in film, tv, or theater, they’re also called costume designers.
Always seemed like a neat career!
It’s like halloween all year round, and I am here. For. It!
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From all that I wrote, somebody having that take is the equivalent for metaphors of being a Grammar Nazi.
Well no, your metaphor is based on the premise that copy and paste is difficult. You can compare it to something ridiculous, but it doesn’t change that copying and pasting something is something actual children master.
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What was the purpose of you writting as the very first sentence of your post:
Steam doesn’t enforce the use of its DRM (which is super easy to bypass anyway but that’s a side note).
If not to tell us that Steam also sells DRM-free games?
If Steam also sells DRM-free games (even if alongside games with DRM) then de facto Steam is a seller of DRM-free games.
Being a “seller of” doesn’t mean just selling that and nothing else.
The purpose was to tell you exactly what I stated - that Steam does not enforce the use of DRM and nothing more.
You’re the one that wants to extrapolate that statement to mean much more than it does.
The point you missed is that the use of DRM is on the publisher/developer and not Steam itself.
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GOG has DRM, they call it Galaxy.
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GOG has DRM, they call it Galaxy.
It’s not a DRM, it is just a launcher.
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Am I crazy to demand another store for PC gaming ?
But this time it should be a lovechild of steam & GOG but FOSS like Itch.io
Don’t you people think us gamers deserve better stores ?
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It’s ironic that a platform hell bent on providing DMR-free games and preserving them doesn’t seem interested in supporting the one OS in-line with their views.
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It’s ironic that a platform hell bent on providing DMR-free games and preserving them doesn’t seem interested in supporting the one OS in-line with their views.
Nor public movements to do with it either. They’re certainly an interesting company…
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Yes, but no. That’s the whole point of the rebranding. You will not find the words “Good Old Games” anywhere in their official materials when referring to themselves. They are now “just” GOG.
They still use “good old game” as a tag for some of the games they sell. But they will never utter those words when referring to themselves in any capacity.
Is it silly? Maybe. But it’s a valid marketing strategy. How effective is it? I don’t know. Maybe ask BP.
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The purpose was to tell you exactly what I stated - that Steam does not enforce the use of DRM and nothing more.
You’re the one that wants to extrapolate that statement to mean much more than it does.
The point you missed is that the use of DRM is on the publisher/developer and not Steam itself.
You pointed out that Steam sells games without DRM.
I pointed out that for the customer that’s just a side effect of Steam selling games, since the absence of DRM is not pitched as a feature or even listed by the Steam store.
It seems to me that my point just adds to your point to make a more complete picture that better informs readers.
Are not both our points true?
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Yes, but no. That’s the whole point of the rebranding. You will not find the words “Good Old Games” anywhere in their official materials when referring to themselves. They are now “just” GOG.
They still use “good old game” as a tag for some of the games they sell. But they will never utter those words when referring to themselves in any capacity.
Is it silly? Maybe. But it’s a valid marketing strategy. How effective is it? I don’t know. Maybe ask BP.
Yeah I searched on their website for a bit and did indeed not find any mention of the old name.
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My own experience of problems with the “Steam way” is wanting to install and run a new game whilst offline (for example, when I moved houses and was waiting to get landline Internet running, whilst mobile Interned was too slow or expensive to download anything but the tinyiest of games, all the while my external HD with a collection of GOG offline installers gave me plenty of options) and installing games in machines with older versions of Windows because the Steam Application doesn’t support those old OS versions anymore (plus, in all honesty, you definitelly don’t want to to connect such machines to the Internet for security reasons).
Further, as I said in a different post, I can run my GOG games through Lutris by default sandboxed with networking disabled, but I can’t do that in Steam.
More in general, as a Techie since the 90s I’ve long been very aware (and averse) to the dangers of having software or data which is supposedly yours yet is de facto under direct control of an external 3rd party for whom you’re nothing (i.e. not a mate you lent a CD to, but a big company with a massive Legal budget controlling your access to it using phone-home validation), so out of principle I heavilly favor sellers who do not try and retain control of what I bought from them. Same reason I didn’t like “phone home” or “dependent on external servers” hardware or DRM-wrapped books or music, well before the recent wave of enshittification and increase in problems like digital books taken away from people because of some licensing dispute (or even their accounts just being terminated) or hardware bricked because the servers were switched off.
Whilst it might seem like an old-fashioned sense of ownership, that posture has saved me from pretty much all the effects of the enshittification wave.
Got nothing really to add to that or challenge.
Yep, I am personally just a bit more comfortable with the convience of Steam, at the moment… but oh yes, when Gabe announces he’s retiring, I’m backing up everything.
I dunno, I mod (as in, make mods, as well as configure combos of other ones, hell I even mod mods lol) a lot, and I’ve just… got my own method, at this point, would be hard to fully describe lol.
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You pointed out that Steam sells games without DRM.
I pointed out that for the customer that’s just a side effect of Steam selling games, since the absence of DRM is not pitched as a feature or even listed by the Steam store.
It seems to me that my point just adds to your point to make a more complete picture that better informs readers.
Are not both our points true?
Edit: wrong place